Seven entirely different beings embark on the weirdest trip.
(This story is part of the shared Marvel/MLP universe created by this guy.)
Derpy was only trying to deliver a box of fireworks (that were due for transport days ago) to somepony by the last name of Lulamoon. As it happened, the pony turned out to be a really famous showmare and she didn't seem very happy when she arrived in the middle of the night, though the oddly emotionless mare beside her...well, she wasn't sure. Anywho, Ms. Lulamoon wasn't mad at Derpy; a really big metal bird thing demolished her home when it fell out of the sky, and she was really bent on finding the owner and giving them an earful. In her defense, Derpy didn't know she stepped on any buttons inside the blasted thing; nopony should leave stuff like that for a mailmare like her to step on. But then they were suddenly in this giant black space and Equestria had completely vanished. Then the showmare got angry at her. The other pony? She just kept staring blankly.
Lucky for them, these cool alien creatures came out of nowhere and offered to get her home once they finished a job they had to do. See, they're apparently Guardians of the Galaxy or something like that, and they help out folks in the galaxy. So, Derpy naturally assumed that they'd just tag along for now and they'd be home in no time at all, where she could finish her delivery andjust maybe keep her job!
Then the talking raccoon stole a few batteries from these golden people, and everything went downhill from there.
Like,way down. Like falling of a cliff into an endless void-down.
"And there's a girl~...in this harbor town! And she works~... layin' whiskey down!"
She felt happier than usual today. And why wouldn't she? She was with her Spaceman, after all.
Meredith smiled the more she recognized her gleeful feelings today, and those feelings flowed like water into her voice when she vocalized. The present company driving them down through the countryside of Missouri wasn't the only thing making her so giddy and light. One of her favorite songs by Looking Glass, blaring as loud as the car radio could make it; loud enough to be heard over her own voice and the sound of wind rushing past the red automobile. Her hand was clasped around an invisible microphone, singing as if she were actually apart of The famous band of five, and as if her Spaceman was her crowded audience. After all, like an audience, he was completely into the song and nodding his head as he smiled. She loved that smile of his.
"They say, Brandy~...fetch another round:" She attempts to vocalize at the same depth as the real singer and ends up sounding really off, so she tries to go back to her original pitch as if nothing ever happened to her voice. She playfully slaps his chest when he laughs at her, his voice drowned out by the constant rush of wind. It doesnt matter; she knows his laugh well enough for giggles to riddle her own singing. "She serves them whiskey and wi~ne!"
Her audience laughed again, but sang himself in a few seconds, pleasantly surprising her and making her grin all the wider. His voice was rich and dreamy just listening to it; it was the voice of someone any girl could fall hopelessly in love with."The sailors say: Brandy~! You're a fine gi~rl;What a goood wife you would be~ee..." He pointed at his own handsome eyes, hidden by dark sunglasses, with two fingers and used those fingers to point at her own eyes as well. " Yeeeah...your eeeyes...could steeal a sailooor... from the se~a!"
She bit her lower lip with a smile and turned her head to hide the flushing color in her cheeks. Meredith was treated to another fine view of the land around her; hundreds of acres spread out on either side of the road with no fences or other man-made elements to spoil the pretty sight. This wide canvas of land grew mid-height grass as far as the eye could see, which wasnt very far at all, and was painted a lively watermelon's green, a fantastic contrast to the mostly cloudless blue sky that sat above their heads. This was definitely a special day for her, and a special day for her Spaceman as well. She felt that she would remember days like this for years to come, for the rest of her good life; when it was just her and her Spaceman caught up in each other's eyes and embrace and love. When they cared only for each other, ignoring practically everything bad coming their way in life.
Ignoring.
The smile on her face fell ever so slightly at that word, but her postion didn't allow her Spaceman to see that. Ignoring was what she did to get past her parents and some of her friends and their hasty judgment of her lover. They didn't like him very much, for reasons she didn't want to think about or remember right now, when she was having such an excellent day. They didn't know any better anyways. They didn't know him like she did, so they immediately disliked his eccentric mannerisms and that was their loss. Anything negative they had to say about him would just be ignored from now on. No one could get between them; they were thick as thieves and then some.
She tossed her head back at a slow speed, letting the wind from the sun-roof sift through her lengthy blonde braids and locks like an invisible comb. Her hair floated upwards like a kite and provided a cool sensation for her scalp as the car never lost its current speed. She sighed, the sound lost to the wind and the slowly ending song. A look at the driver seat told her he looked just as content as she did, and she smirked at that thought. "...I thought you were a Spaceman, not one of the missing members for Looking Glass. " She mused when the song ended shortly.
He laughed a little at her quip. "I'd hate to brag, but I think I'm above Looking Glass. " Was his response. "And you? You're not so bad yourself. Missed a few octaves in the middle, but it's passable."
"Missed a few octaves? Passable?" She could barely stop giggling, so trying to imitate an offended voice was out of the question. "I'm better than you, ya jerk!"
"Maybe." His shoulders shrugged nonchalantly. "Juuuust maybe."
The conversation trailed for a few more minutes, and they both just took the time to appreciate the scenery and the pleasant feelings fluttering through them like butterflies. They often shared quiet moments like this, and they both knew better than to spoil those precious moments. Eventually, her gaze returned to him once again. "So...still not gonna tell me what this cool thing is, hmm?"
"That sounds just about right. " He said mischeviously, eyes discovering something in the nearing distance. "That's the point of a surprise, Meredith."
"Hmmph." She pouted and crossed her arms like a toddler. It was just like to be secretive about this the whole way."Can you at least tell me where this cool thing is?"
"...Riiiiight here, Sweetheart! Right here."
Meredith followed his line of sight to rest her gaze on a building that was fast approaching them, one that got more familiar as they approached it. Seeing the full title caused her to scoff in disbelief and roll her eyes. "If I'd have known the surprise was a Dairy Queen, that we go to all the time, I would've called you crazy." It was disappointing to her, to say the least, but there was still an opportunity for a memorable time by coming here. They made a lot of those at this restaurant after all. "Guess I can do that now, at least."
"Oh, it's not the restaurant." He explained as if he knew some kind of inside joke that she didn't. It was frustrating, but in a good way. "Just let me park, and I'll show ya, Meredith."
She still pouted, but silently agreed to wait while he pulled into the driveway. A few other couples walking in and out of the doors of the restaurant tugged at the corners of her lips, as the thought of joining them entered her mind. By the time that thought was finished, her Spaceman had finished parking and was opening the door for her like a billionaire gentleman would for their billionaire woman. Flattering, yet a common thing for him to do with her. "Alright. You ready for this?"
"Do you even need to ask?" Meredith grinned.
He led her by her hand to the back of the building, where a downwards slope rested, heavily clouded with foilage and panning out into a large forest that seemed to hold no pre-carved paths or any cut down trees. But her Spaceman didn't seem to care at all, given how he eagerly tugged her down the slope with him and had a bright grin on his face as if he wasn't occasionally tripping over roots. "Down here then!"
"Oh my gosh, are you serious?" Meredith's voice spilled over with giggles as she was carefully guided down. His strangeness today was amusing, even if it did make her wonder why the surprise was in some restaurant's backyard. "All the way down here, you silly--!"
"Yes, come on, River Lilly. You'll love it, I promise!" He leaped over a small creak at the base of the slope and then helped Meredith to cross over it as well. "It's not too far away now! Little further."
They traveled a longer length of the woods, smiling and laughing all the while until a clearing was visible just a few feet ahead of them. So this was the spot he intended to take her to; at first she thought he was just showing her a good spot for a picnic on sunny days like this. but then she saw what was in the very center of the clearing surrounded by other flourishing stems of plant life. A single egg-like plant around the size of a watermelon glowed a blue color. It held huge purple leaves around it with hollow spaces like a spider-web of some kind, but the bright colors it brandished made it seem much more peaceful than a spider-web. The very center glowed like a nice blue lightbulb in a world green, maybe even rivaling the sun's brilliance or the moon's too--when night fell. Meredith tucked a few strands of hair back behind an ear so that she could better see the plant, cooing in amazement as it pulsed more of it's beautiful light into existence. "Wow, It's gorgeous! How'd you make it like that?"
"Meh, I'm just good at what I do." He said nonchalantly, sounding rightly smug with a work of art like this. "You like it?"
"I love it." Meredith announced, her voice nothing but impressed with the plat. She looked back up to him as he wrapped an arm around her middle. "This is the kind of work you do as a Spaceman?"
"My only work. Feels like my...our sole purpose! It's been sent out to other places not far from earth, but I was worried that the roots wouldn't take to the soil here. But it does! It does!" He waved his hand skyward, eyes distant as if he were imagining an amazing future. "And soon, with a lot of work, I should be able to let other planets have a plant just like this to call their own!"
"Other planets?"
"Yes, other civilizations! Maybe the Kree, maybe the badoons, that place with the freaky horses...Oh!" He snapped his fingers at a sudden realization. "If I can enter peacefully, I'll get the Skrulls one of these too!"
"Well...I don't have a clue what you're talking about!" Meredith offered in the most supportive voice, wrapping her arms around him in a hug. Whatever he did and wherever he went, she would go with him. "But I like the way you say it."
There was sigh, one that sounded...no, it wasn't disappointment. it was lovestruck. Yes, that's what it was. "Ah, my heart is yours, Meredith Quill."
Smirking, she began to slowly lean in towards her lover and he did the same. "I can't believe I ever fell in love with a Spaceman."
Derpy wanted to be anywhere else in Equestria right now, and for good reason. As matter of fact, there were three reasons as to why she really wanted to be elsewhere: starting with no time to listen to customer complaints. It wasn't in her personality to ignore ponies who offered constructive criticism--it helped her to be a better deliverymare in the future. But she'd much rather take it later when she didn't have a bunch of other envelopes and packages to deliver to the rest of Ponyville. Some other ponies had to wait even longer to get their mail and she expected a horrid mouthful out of them when she knocked on their door.
The second reason was that this particular mare, something or whatever her name was, couldn't seem to understand that Derpy's entire mailing company had suffered a delay in business due to the whole...mechanical creature incident. It was just a precaution to make sure that no mailpony got caught up in the chaos and death down below by accident, something that Derpy was a little more than happy to take a vacation because of.
And third, she was starting to hate the mail business; she'd been delivering mail for the past eight days, and a majority of those days were spent helping mail companies in Canterlot and the Crystal Empire. Apparently the incident made everypony worried about every last family member they had, so they all tried to send out mail at the same time and everything began to get mixed in a giant pile in the breakroom. Derpy didn't know how much mail she delivered but her jaws hurt from having to hand everypony their mail, her wings were mere centimeters away from cramping due to all the flying and her poor back had to carry the weight of the mailbags for hours. She needed a good trip to the spa after this.
"...And are you daydreaming?! You haven't looked me in the eye once!" The angry mare impatiently tapped her Hoof on her concrete porch. "Did you listen to anything I just said?!"
Derpy's criss-crossed pupils dilated in worry and she tried to stammer through her teeth, still clenched weakly around the envelope in her mouth. Why won't she just shut up and take it? "Yes, Ma'am. I'm sorry it took so long. With the incident that happened and the--"
"Oh, if you're going to waste more of my time, don't use that excuse! Give me THAT!" Strawberry Sunrise snatched the envelope from her Derpy's mouth, leaving a painful sting at the corners of the grey pegasus' mouth. "And expect a complaint to your superiors, Miss Hooves! "
"H-Hope you have a nice da--"
SLAM!
She sighed through her nostrils, though it came out as more of a snort against the wooden door. That was yet another complaint threat to be made toward her boss; Thank Celestia and Luna that he was a lot more patient than these ponies. Since he had a hoof in the mail delivery, he would know exactly what Derpy was experiencing. Then again, if he heard about too many complaints from other co-workers, he may not be as patient as everypony will hope. That was just swell; an aching body and a boss who could potentially be steamed later.
Derpy began to limp away from the door with the intention of traveling further into the center of town and then making a right to deliver a few new utensils to the Cakes. As she created more and more distance between her and Sunrise's house, she noticed an energetic butterfly fluttering around her and demanding her attention. Despite herself, Derpy giggled softly and watched the insect flutter up higher as if daring the pony to chase her. The mare flapped her aching wings and began to float after the butterfly, when she suddenly paused and settled back down on the ground.
Not now, Derpy. Get your mind back in reality. She scolded herself with a sigh and wordlessly stared at her heavy mailbag, bulging with both boxes and envelopes alike. A lot of deliveries for a lot of houses, and that allowed no time for her to go back to her carefree, clumsy ways. Not when her job was her top priority.
Still, no amount of internal scolding could prepare her for her name being called with a masculine, intelligent accent. She instinctively recognized the voice and happily turned to see a familiar brown stallion sitting outside Hayburger Central, at one of the outdoor tables. "Doc!"
She limped over him as fast as she could manage, eager to speak with her good friend. Besides, she was sure that he had some mail in this giant bag. "Hi, Doc! How are you doing today?"
"Hmm. No offense Derpy, but I feel better than you look at the moment. " Doctor Whooves said in the most friendly way he could--pretty difficult considering how brutally honest he was about her. She weakly laughed as a way of agreeing with him. "Why don't you sit for a while, and have a shake with me?"
"Oh, really? I'd love t...I mean, I can't. " Derpy really did like the idea of sitting right about now, and enjoying a sundae wasn't a bad bonus either. But she didn't even have time to fully imagine getting a shake and eating it, let alone do the real thing. "I've got way too much mail to deliver. Including yours, I think. You ordered spare parts for something?"
Whooves looked disappointed with her answer, but his spirits were slightly lifted with her question. "Yes! It's for my Shake-making machine! I just need those pieces to finish it. I'm just here for...inspiration on what the main recipie should be."
"Cookies and Cream would my top choice." Derpy giggled as she presented his package and scooted it next to his sundae on the table. A thought that suddenly occured to her made her smile drop. "Um...how long have you been waiting for this box?"
"About...four days. Why do you...oh, it's nothing, Derpy! " Doctor Whooves patted her back firmly, and the movement at least relieved a bit of her stiff muscles. "I understand your dilemma, what with the...Incident and all. It doesn't matter if I had to wait. Worse things could have happened."
Nodding halfheartedly, her eyes fell on the box as she drifted into her thoughts, as brief as it was. It would have been nice if she had a hoof in stopping that weird alien creature, if only to help bring its defeat quicker and avoid all this chaos in the future. What a laugh that idea was; there was no way in Equestria she'd be able to do anything useful for anypony. Unless her clumsiness worked in her favor, which it hardly ever did. Best to just stick to being a mailpony, and just daydream about being help.
"Uh Doc? Before I go..." She positioned her body so that her back was facing Doctor Whooves, and her wings unfurled. He sat there with growing confusion, especially at her unfurling wings right in front of him. "...would you mind um...shoving my back?"
He blinked. "Er, what?"
"Nothing too hard. Just a firm hit. My back has really been killing me today."
"I...uh...I suppose I could." He looked around before returning his gaze to her; Derpy guessed he didn't want to be caught hitting a mare, even if she really really wanted it. He reared back a hoof shakily, but not too far. "Uh, is there a specific spot I should...?" She smiled halfheartedly and shook her head. "Um...okay."
POP!
"Oh, my."
"OH CELESTIA, THAT FEELS GOOOOOOD!" Derpy enjoyed the few waves of pleasure radiating from her spine before starting to head off to finish her deliveries. Thanks to his light hit against her back, she could move with a bit more pep in her step and her muscles recieved a much needed burst of energy. "Okay, Doc! I'll see you later!"
At first he blinked a few more times to register what he'd done, but an amused smile eventually spread across his features. "Indeed."
"....hmm...Yes, that size sounds good enough. And can you make it look like a turquoise kite?"
"A...Kite?"
She rolled her eyes at Mrs. Cake's confusion and waved a hoof dismissively. "Trixie thinks you should ask less questions from now on. It's quite irritating to Trixie. I just want it in the form of kite, specifically that color." The showmare produced a mental image of the kite to scrutinize and eyeball. The turquoise could work without a doubt, but it needed enough space for the title! If the title was all scrunched up in the middle, she would think that it was all rushed in. But with a larger size, she could fit in the title and a few choice words in the remaining space. But how much would cost her out of the fifteen bits she had? Oh! Since she was technically Pinkie Pie's friend and Pinkie worked here, she could get a discount!
"And on second thought, we'll make the cake an XXL. Starlight would love a larger cake."
Mrs. Cake nodded slowly and briefly glanced at her clock--seventeen minutes and she'd only begun to order her cake in the last two minutes. "Yes. You said that already. Along with many,many other things about your friend."
"Yes, Trixie supposes everypony should get a piece, even if it was meant just for Starlight. But between you and me," Trixie looked around and bared a nervous grin towards the older mare. "Trixie think she's had too many sweets as it is recently. A little chubby around the tummy, if you know what I mean? Not that it's super bad, but we don't want her to get too out of hoof, you know? Then again, somepony might be greedy if the cake is too big and then I'd--"
"Okay! XXL." Mrs. Cake said hurriedly. " And the words: 'Trixie's Welcome Back Starlight Cake (Oh and I guess you too, six other ponies and weird dragon)' written on it. Anything else, Miss Lulamoon? If not, that'll be eight bits."
Trixie's eyes blew wide in disbelief and moreso outrage at her ending price."EIGHT BITS?! IF TRIXIE'D KNOWN YOU WERE RUNNING SOME KIND OF...uh, Does Trixie get a discount since she's one of Pinkie's best friends?"
"...If it'll get you out of my bakery sooner," Mrs.Cake sighed and shrugged tiredly." Then you get a discount. It can be delivered whenever you wish, be it today or later. Please say today."
Trixie hummed to herself; she had been meaning to work out the details of when she wanted it earlier than now. The thought of having it too early made her cringe; what if she was gone longer than Trixie anticipated and the cake went bad? "Trixie shall return to retrieve the cake at a later time, preferably when her best friend Starlight gets back. I hope it's fresh when Trixie returns."
She worried that it would result in more talking from the mare, but Mrs.Cake decided to ask: "Do you normally speak about yourself in the first person, Dearie? Or is it just a habit you picked up from this...Starlight?"
"Oh, Trixie is sure that she picked up this amazing way of talking," The pony proudly grinned. " from her mother of course. Or at least she thinks so. Like mother, like daughter. That sort of thing."
"...You think so."
"Yep. Never met my mother. Or father, for that matter."
"Oh." The older mare rubbed her foreleg with a deep frown, despite her acquaintance's not-sad answer. "Erm...Sorry to hear that, Dear. "
Trixie blinked at her with confusion taking control of her face, unable to shrug off the strange feeling that came after the look of sympathy. She settled for ignoring it instead. "Trixie isn't sure what you're apologizing for, but...Apology accepted. Now what were we discussing before...? Ah yes. Payment! Two bits, coming right up."
Mrs.Cake's sympathy seemed to vanish in an instant. "Nice try. Your discount doesn't extend that much."
"Uh, heh heh. Four bits?"
"That's better."
Trixie left the bakery not long after paying the four bits, but no amount of distance seemed to ameliorate the uncomfortable mood that was born just moments earlier. The showmare decided to interpret the feeling as nothing more than confusion with Mrs.Cake's response; when Trixie nonchalantly explained having no acquaintance with her parents. To be honest, it was confusing to hear sympathy from somepony else when she was the last pony to need sympathy. Trixie wasn't the best or anything, but she saw herself as miles above some of the more common Equestrians. Even if Mrs.Cake was an Alicorn (or Starlight at least), The showmare knew she didn't need sympathy. She had no time for sympathy, or pity and other demeaning things. She was the Great and Powerful Trixie.
Not to mention she stopped feeling down over the lack of parents since she was a filly--back when she was able to get things by cuteness alone or by holding her breath until a grownup cracked. She didn't make up any story about being abandoned at an orphanage because really? Who could abandon such a charming little foal? They clearly saw how amazing she was going to become in the future and figured they'd let her have all the fame. Boy did that turn out great; Trixie had multiple shows across Equestria, she had a friend in an awesome reformed unicorn, and was... kinda friends with an Alicorn Princess. Thanks to her parents, the path ahead of her was dazzling and--
"OOF!"
"Ow."
...very short.
"Ow, my neck." Trixie rubbed the mentioned area and whined melodramatically at the slight ache in her neck. Who put that pony in front of her so randomly? She was in the middle of her very important thoughts, for Celestia's sake! "Hey! Why don't you watch you're going lady?! I am trying to walk here!"
The grey pony combed away the purple bangs from her disinterested eyes and fixed Trixie with a blank stare. " I'm pretty sure you ran into me. I was just standing here talking to...No, Boulder." The mare plucked a small rock up from the ground next to her and stared at it with the same emotionless face. "What did I say about growling at other ponies? She didn't hurt me.I'm fine."
Trixie stared at her, eyes wide and silently judging this clearly crazy mare. "I'm pretty sure you're the exact opposite of fine, lady."
"Did you come from Sugarcube Corner?" The mare asked boredly, ignoring the rude statement with a blink.
"What?" Trixie suddenly remembered the very place she left and her face lit up with understanding. "Oh. Yes, I did. On a non-busy day, lucky for me."
"Did you see Pinkie Pie inside? She's my sister. I was going to visit her to today."
"You're Pinkie Pie's sister...???" She curiously eyed the blank mare from head to hoof, then chest to tail. She'd have sooner guessed she was the evil opposite of Pinkie Pie than her own sister. Oh well. She wasn't one to judge family, even strange ones like this. "Oh, well, she's gone...I mean, she's back in Equestria, but she's still gone. She's with her other friends, readjusting to Equestria after their...diplomatic thingy. I didn't catch all the details on how that turned out. Anyway, Trixie was getting a cake prepared for their return. Sorta."
"I take it that's your name. I'm Maud Pie." The earth pony held out of hoof. Trixie reluctantly followed through with her end of the pleasantries as she continued. "I suppose I can at least check on Starlight. I haven't seen her in a while, due to the distances of our homes and such."
Trixie wasn't sure whether she should feel surprised at the fact that Maud, of all ponies, knew Starlight...or that Starlight actually knew Maud. Both sounded like a good compromise, at least. "She's actually with Pinkie and the others--um, how well do you Starlight?"
"That depends." Maud said. "Do you know about Starlight's mind control impulses and her desire to rid all ponies of cutie marks in the past?"
Hmm. So Maud was basically on the same level as Trixie, who should have been jealous but wasn't...as usual, of course. Getting her entire carriage ready to host a welcome home party wasn't entirely boring, but it was just enough to make Trixie feel lonesome without her best friend. She didn't think Maud would replace Starlight so easily...but maybe it would be amusing to see her try? With this notion in mind, Trixie mischievously nudged her new pal's side. "Say, Maud...would you like to help Trixie finish up on her Welcome Home party for Starlight...and those other ponies too?"
"Is limestone really made of lime?"
"Er...yes?"
"You answered thinking of the edible limes and not the soil component. Still correct." Maud shrugged and looked down at the tiny rock cradled in her hoof. "Boulder doesn't have any play dates today." After gently stuffing it inside the collar of her sweater, she shrugged. "And I don't have anything else to do. Not to mention that my sister would probably encourage me to make more friends, anyway."
"Uh, Great. Trixie could always use another hoof that knows our mutual friend! Now, I've already handled all the food preparations and the drink stuff too.They'll be ready when we need them. " Trixie used her horn to pull out the rather long list, angling it so that Maud could see it. "All we need to gather at the moment are balloons, colorful tablecloths, pinkish party harts, kazzoos and...a build your own kite kit: Pro Edition! Starlight will scream like a little filly when she sees it!"
"Those would be easy to obtain, but easier with my sister here." The grey pony remarked, as her eyes stopped on one particular section of the list. "What about turqoise and purple fireworks?"
Trixie flinched at the question, her eyes already narrowing at the unchecked item reading Maud's exact words. The unicorn growled when she remembered the reason behind it not being checked off; apparently ponyville was out of several kinds of fireworks including the colors she wanted, so she sent for them in the mail. Not a single delivery pony had come by to drop off the colorful explosives since early on last week and she knew it shouldn't take that long for a Pegasus to deliver something like that. If she didn't get her fireworks by the time the night was over, Trixie would have no choice but to use the destructive power of a customer complaint. For now, she nudged her new shopping buddy in a nonchalant way. "Meeeeh, I'll get around to it eventually. It's like Trixie always says; get what's closest to you first, and just maybe you won't be too lazy to get what's far away."
Maud blinked again. "...I guess that makes sense."
Derpy had never been happier to see the HoofEx Mail Company logo in her life, not to mention the building it was plastered on. Such was her place of work, the place she clocked into each day and the place she clocked out at. Now that she had completed all of her work, the mare would be doing the latter. And it was about time too-- she was due for bedrest days ago! She promised not to move her wings for a week after this was over. Well, not literally because she didn't know when she would soon be needed, but she could settle for a night or two. " Just a few more minutes,hooves..." The pegasi narrowed her crossed eyes in determination. "...and I'll be home in time to enjoy a muffin. Ooooh, that sounds like a good idea right about now."
After entering one of the West wing hallways, she made her way down to her boss's office with a skip in her step. But when she finally reached Mr. Pen's golden oak doors and opened them, she found his seat to be entirely empty. No sign of him anywhere in the small room. Derpy frowned as she closed the door behind her; great, he had one of those terrible supervisors filling in for him to today. Her chances of rest were disappearing into the hypothetical distance.
"Looking for Pen?" A light green pegasus stallion nodded his head down the hallways' left corridor, where soft sounds of talking could be heard. "He's down in front of the mail cubbies now, but if you don't hurry he'll pass them and move on."
"Oh, okay!"
Derpy hurried along down the stretch of boring pale tiles and boring pale walls, seeing a small group of ponies in the distance. Almost all of them were familiar coworkers that worked hard o deliver mail, but they looked a lot happier than they usual did today. Derpy still wasn't sure what everypony was smiling about as she slowed to halt and watched as her coworkers thanked Pen and galloped down the hall in a giddy rush. A laugh riddled her greeting. "Hey, Boss! Man, we had a pretty busy day today, huh?"
"You have no idea! I've been up since Monday! I'm running on nothing but pure caffeine!" She didn't notice it before, but she could see that Mr.Pen's pupils were more dilated than usual. And his grin was bigger too. "I've just been so happy lately that I finished all my work and only had my spine flare up with agony four times!"
Derpy cringed slightly, her lips caught between a smile and and a grimace. "Uh, that's great!"
"It is! It really is! Say, I've been given a few select people three days off for now! " Mr.Pen said truthfully, and tapped his hooves together. Say, when did he start twitching anyways? "Why don't you take a few days off too? Three days to be exact!"
"Three days!" Derpy's mixed up eyes widened in pure glee at hearing those words, barely focusing on him as she continued a giggle. "Really? Thank you sir...thank you soooooooooooo...."
Her left eye was the first to spot them in distance behind Mr.Pen, stacked on top of each other on her mail cubby. Three small, tightly packed boxes sitting on top of each other and collecting dust even as she gaped at them. With a gasp, she immediately rushed over to block them from her boss' sight. Her hooves shoved them into her bag, tightly crammed but being careful in case they were fragile. When Derpy turned around again, she was surprised to see Pen quite uncomfortably close to her face. "What ya got there, Miss Hooves...?"
"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuh--muffins, obviously!" She presented a grin that she practiced in case of a situation like this one, where she was under the caffeine-crazed stare of another pony. This one happened to be her boss, however. She'd have to be convincing in her words, or else he would learn about these mysterious packages. "You know how Paper Weight is! He's always trying to woo me with food!"
He nodded in understanding and moved back to her relief, looking a lot calmer than before...if that were even possible. "Oh, ha! Him and his excessive PDA! Or is it he and his excessive PDA? Anyways, you gonna eat those?"
Derpy was already slinking closer and closer towards the end of the hallway, still grinning as widely as she could. Her cheeks demanded that she leave quickly or suffer greatly for her deeds. "Huh? Oh yeah, totally. Soon as I get home!"
"Good! That's probably why you shake so much! Sugar deficiency and all. Eat up!"
Although she really wanted to, Derpy didn't bother to stop and explain that he was vibrating quite a lot due to his caffeine intake. She was too busy dividing her attention between bolting down the second hallway and scanning over the boxes. They were sitting in her cubby for almost a week, and she never noticed them at all; she was too engrossed in handling all the packages that she somehow lost track of the three. "Ugh, stupid,stupid,stupid,stupid!" Derpy stumbled when she tried to facehoof herself, but kept a good running pace all the same. "Okay. That wouldn't have done me any good, anyway. I just have to give a really, really, really good apology and hope they don't file a complaint...whoever they are. Hmm...
She read the postage and sighed with relief. These went to a Trixie Lulamoon, and Derpy had seen her carriage home from the skies once. From what others said, she wasn't exactly the nicest pony, but she was friends with the Princess of Friendship. Maybe Princess Twilight taught her about forgiving others and understanding their troubles?
" I am so doomed." Derpy concluded as she took flight.
"There's gotta be a breathable planet around here SOMEWHERE?!"
Howard's feathery fingers pressed frantically at every button imaginable, causing the ship to vibrate with alarms and just random noises made by opening compartments. Somewhere in his mind, the faint idea that he shouldn't have thrown away the manual came up. But another thought was reining supreme over his head and it was the main reason he was moving so frantically. He bit his lower beak and practically scratched the hologram image of the universe to bits, searching through the infinite miles and kilometers of specks. Not a single planet in sight worth stopping on and not a single moon either. He wanted to try the bathroom door, but he knew that it wouldn't open no matter how hard he tried to given that the stupid thing was jammed with a remote control. Not wanting to remember how that happened, the duck looked over the rest of his dashboard and his eyes happily fell upon the mother of all buttons. The one thing that could make a shortcut faster than the blink of an eye, and was sure to have him end up remotely close to a good planet.
Maud recalled the last of her memory and nodded fondly as she spoke. "And then we flew kites for three more hours. She really loves kites, perhaps nearly as much as magic practice. But I'm not sure."
Night was upon them by now, and Trixie was aching from all the shifting and pulling or pushing that her horn or body had to do to get everything in position. Her eardrums mostly ignored what Maud was telling her, while her hooves delicately carried the container of fragile glasses and placed them next to the lit candles. She was smart to place all the sparkling juice bottles away from the flames, their insides never once recieving a spark of heat. With all that she needed set up with the help of her...pal, there were only three other things that needed to be completed. Trixie turned to Maud and noticed the pony was about to talk about her sister's chances of really liking this party. "Hey, Mauddie! Why don't you open that box over there? The one with the banner inside?"
Maud blankly located a box nearby, and began to shuffle towards it.
" No, not that one. Not that one either. Hang on..." Trixie looked underneath herself and noticed her own flank seated on top of the box they needed. She looked up with a laugh and hopped off. "Ha! Trixie was sitting on it the whole time!"
Maud blinked. "Ha Ha Ha. Hysterical."
It wasn't long before the unicorn's aura surrounded the box and lifted the banner straight from within, unfurling itself due to the magic. Trixie noted that it was a lot larger than it looked on the magazine, but would save her final decision on it until she actually saw how it did against her mobile home. "Let's see...There!" Once the ropes found their appropriate grooves to fit into and tie around, she sat again and marveled her handiwork. " The perfect look, even the corners are so big that they disappear over the edges of my house."
"I think it's lovely." Maud's half lidded eyes appreciated the bedazzled banner and the exotic lettering using for writing the title. " It only says 'Welcome Back, Starlight Glimmer.' Where is everypony else's name?"
Trixie rolled her eyes. "It would be utterly impossible for Trixie to fit all those extremely long names in the banner! But, if you insist on criticising it..." She levitated a permanent marker up from the ground and used it to write: And everypony else, including Spike. in the corner of the banner.
"There! You happy now?!"
"I wasn't unhappy to begin with."
"Good. Then let's finish the rest of this, shall we? Grab me that napkin box there! And then the box of sparklers over..." Trixie trailed off when her ears twitched upwards, swiveling this way and that. Maud did the same after taking notice, and they both shared a look of confusion. Well, at least one of them did. "Do you hear that? It's like some kinda... distant humming sound."
Maud nodded slowly. "Yeah. I wonder where it's coming from."
"Come on, Derpy! The faster you move, the better!" The grey pegasus pushed herself internally, flapping her wings in powerful thrusts that caused wind to slice past like the gust of a hurricane. Her eyes watered because of the speed she was going at, but she was too far away from any high objects to worry about crashing into them. In the midst of her blurred vision, she could make out the shape of Ponyville even in the dark of night. The town was alight with candles hung from balcony railings, illuminating the streets and giving Derpy an idea of where to head next. Her body made a veering turn to the left and found itself high above the grassy plains that separated Ponyville from the Everfree forest, slicing right inbetween them to be exact. While there were no addresses on the boxes, it did give a description of where and what Trixie usually lived in so that anypony would at least have an idea of what to look for. Going to see Trixie's shows every once in a while also helped.
Thankfully, she managed to see the carriage in the far distance ahead of her brightened by what she guessed to be candles. Her flying slowed as she grinned toothily; that took less time than she thought it would. maybe slow and steady didn't always work out in the end. "Okay, let's see. How should I say it? Maybe I could...no. Can't use the Incident." Derpy murmured to herself. Even if that were true, the pony might brush it off. " Blame the delay on postage stamp mix-ups? Nah." Saying that could get others in trouble, and she wasn't one to shift blame. "Hmmm...I can tell her a joke and hope she laughs, so she'll be in a better mood?" That wasn't the best idea, but it was better than the other ideas. Plus, that increasing humming sound was keeping her from thinking up anything else.
"Could whoever's making that noise please quiet down?" She asked in confusion, only for the hum to turn into a vibrating roar behind her. She shrieked as a gigantic shape rushed at her from behind with unfathomable speed and her wings lost several beats in her shock. Her surprise didn't let up as she narrowly missed being hit by the screaming, house-side object and fell farther away from it. if anything, she smiled in relief and watched as it glided away. "Phew! that was close." She looked down. "Huh. The ground is rushing up to meet me."
Trixie gasped loudly, but it didn't drown out the sound of the alien spacecraft zooming towards them. "What is that?!"
"Who cares? Just run." Maud offered, before galloping forwards and helpfully pushing the showmare off to the side. Trixie gasped again, this time in protest, but she had no choice to move as fast her emotionless friend to avoid a very painful death. A painful death did not sound entirely bad to her once the thing got close enough for her to realize where it's destination lay. Her eyes widened fearfully as it got closer and closer to her carriage and the party she'd worked on all week, her hoof stretching out as if to try and stop it.
"NO--"
The belly of the metallic vulture smashed through the various party tables and completely flung everything on them into the air or into the ground. Wood and plastic splinters littered the sky like dull fireworks, but it was nothing compared to the climatic smash of the top half of her home. A piece of her heart broke as she washed the top half disappear in a loud blur and then reappear as many broken pieces scattered along the grassy Plains beneath them. The metallic object continued on as if nothing had happened, but the damage spoke volumes as it disappeared from her thoughts. Trixie sadly surveyed the damage, her lips forming a deep pout as her eyes watered.
"Well, that was close. " Maud took notice of trixie and her eyebrows just barely slanted upwards to make her look sympathetic. Her voice however, was basically the same. "...I'm sorry about your house...At least there's still pieces left to put back together. It could have been worse."
The candles strewn about on the ground suddenly ignited the sparkling juice that was freed from the shattered glass bottles. The bottom half of her house was almost instantly engulfed in flames, along with anything from the party that survived. Maud and Trixie blinked in unison.
"Okay. Now it can't get any worse."
"Duuuuuh--I'm a little muffin-pot, short n' stoot! Heeee~re is my tophat, an' here is my suit!"
Derpy shook her head to clear away the stars dancing around her head and ruffled her dull blonde hair more than it already was, her eyes briefly going straight afterwards. As she spat out a bit of dirt and grass, she slowly went back through the last two minutes to figure out how she fell from the sky. Yes, there had been that giant metal tjing...but why was she in the sky in the first place? Maybe it had had something to do with the delivery bag around her shoulders. Oh yeeeeeeeah. Man, that fall must've taken a lot out of her.
It seemed that the moment Derpy turned towards her original destination, the carriage she saw in the distance suddenly...blew up. Well, not so much 'blew up', as it just caught on fire for all of thirty seconds. She watched as somepony's magic aura created a giant bowl to cut off the oxygen to the fire, helping to put it out easier. As Derpy cautiously neared the smouldering area of charred debris, she saw a blue furred mare with beautiful silver hair shakily walk over to the black mounds and simply stare. With her back turned to Derpy it was impossible to tell what her expression was...but she knew it wasn't pleasant. The pegasus wasn't sure what to do about what was happening; the mare was clearly Trixie and the mountain of soot and decaying wood must've been her home. Once again, Derpy found herself unable to really help anypony, short of just giving them mail. And she wasn't even doing that right in recent times.
Her ears flattened themselves against her mane as Trixie halfheartedly sank to the ground, her shoulders shuddering with the quietest of sobs. In her growing sympathy, She barely noticed that another mare was making her way over to the forlorn showmare, only to notice Derpy instantly and tilt her head. "Who are you?" The pony asked blankly, yet quietly.
"Um, I'm Derpy." She said, ears still flat against her head. " Is...she hurt at all? I saw the fire and all, but nothing beforehand, Miss...?"
"Pie. Maud Pie. "The mare boredly offered as she stalked over to Trixie. She didn't move to comfort her, but mostly because of the brief look of uncertainty and worry that molded her features. "We're both fine...mostly, as you can see. I take it from the bag, you're a delivery pony?"
At the last two words, Trixie's sobbing slowed to whimpers and sniffles before she looked back at the approaching mailmare. Thick smears of mascara ran down her cheeks, matting her fur and making her look all the more pitiful. "W-what?"
"Um, hi, Miss. I'm sorry about the late fireworks delivery...There was a postage issue and..." Derpy shook her head before she even gestured to the bag that hung from her shoulders. "No, you know what? I messed up, and neglected to notice these boxes until just tonight. And I rushed over as soon as I could to give them to you."
To her slight surprise, Trixie didn't burst into a fit of rage and snobbish frustration. She just slowly gestured to the carriage with a hoof. "Doesn't really matter, does it? My home is gone, and so is the entire party I had set up to involve those fireworks...They're useless to me now."
Derpy followed her line of sight to the debris and then shared a glance with Maud, who looked down at Trixie. "I'm sorry about your house, er, carriage Trixie. I have enough room at my place if you want? Boulder can make room."
"Hmmmf. I don't think I want to stoop so low as to share a home with somepony who talks to rocks." Trixie sighed, completely against the idea and yet more concerned with the death of her living quarters. "Five years of hard work and magic practice for what? A carriage that ends up completely destroyed. And the party! I set everything up myself only for it to catch fire and get run over by...by..."
The two other mare's watched as Trixie's brow slowly furrowed. "...by that thing! No concern about hitting anypony or anything and just destroying two things I worked hard for! " She angrily shot up to her hooves, tears still fresh in her eyes but momentarily forgotten. Everypony's line of sight fell on the flying metal object that decided to land far off from them, going completely still soon after. "Weird metal monster or not, I'm going to give that thing a piece of my mind and DEMAND COMPENSATION!!!"
Trixie huffed and trotted at an angry pace, starting to close the long distance she had with the thing. The two forgotten mare's shared a glance and hurried to catch up with her. At Trixie's left, Derpy nervously tried talking to her. "So, you're really going to confront it?"
"Yes I am."
"I am not sure that's a good idea." Maud said.
"Well, gee. Guess I should turn back then!" Trixie offered sarcastically and only sped up. "My home is gone, Maud! What do you expect me to do?"
"I don't know. I just sense that this is all too similar to the incident." Maud brought up, but when her 'friend' didn't slow down, she spoke again. "If this happened to me, I'd probably move in with my sister for a while. Or maybe my parents."
"Well NEWS FLASH: I don't have any family to move to!"
Derpy cringed for the third time tonight. "No parents?"
"UGH!" Trixie abruptly halted and turned to fix Maud and Derpy with a glare. Not an entirely fierce glare, but one that could grow into it. "Looks I'd love to be talked out of this by you wimps, but I have to berate somepony after what just happened! So you can either join me, or just go AWAY!"
"...Uh, I'll join you."
Trixie nodded overdramatically at Derpy, but never smiled. "Thank you!" She turned to Maud expectantly.
"...I guess three of us is better than two."
"OPEN UP, OPENUPOPENUPOPENUP!" Howard almost shrieked when the bay doors opened slowly, legs constantly shuddering and shaking as he fought to contain himself. It had felt like hours since he last located the planet, and holding in his business had been a personal hell for him. Still, he had no time to go into deeper thinking over that-- the door finally opened enough for him to hop out.
In his rush to the giant forest in the horizon, he didn't notice three equine figures approaching his vehicle from the front until he had disappeared over a hill. Not seeing the giant Duck, the ponies curiously scanned the exterior of the giant vessel and mused over what it's purpose might be. Maud ran a hoof over the shiny hull in appreciation. "I've seen many metals in Equestria...but this is unlike anything I've ever glimpsed. Definitely alien."
"I barely care." Trixie truthfully said as she trotted towards the rear end of the thing and stopped as she noticed the open Bay doors. "What on Equus? Is this some kind of vehicle?"
Derpy was the first to go inside, given how curious she was and immediately disliked the feel of metal underneath her hooves as opposed to the soft grass she'd been on earlier. Since the ceiling was quite a ways above her, she settled for taking flight and hovering several hooves off the ground. "Seems like it." Derpy said warily. The vehicle had several compartments and doohickeys all over the walls, practically wallpaper for whatever this thing was. Some of them blinked, others made quiet chirping sounds and others looked really heavy.
Trixie impatiently trotted up onto the vessel, briefly enraptured in the sights Derpy saw but tearing away moments later. She had more important things to concern herself with. "Six all this stuff is here...but I don't see the pony...or thing that owns this piece of junk!"
Maud walked past her, eyes widening ever so slightly when she saw more metal. "The doors were open when we found this vessel. Maybe the owner left. I guess we'll just have to wait until they get back."
Derpy, meanwhile, had floated over to a hefty looking stair sitting behind a vast array of buttons. And switches and other mechanical doo-dads. Wow. Doc would love to see this... She mused with a soft giggle. The giggle fell away as she settled herself into the seat and peered closer at the buttons; some were labeled with a strange language that she doubted even Twilight Sparkle would understand. She felt the urge to push one of them come along, but she managed to refrain herself just as she had refrained herself from chasing the butterfly earlier. She couldn't afford to have her curiousity get herself into trouble.
"Hey, Ditsy!"
Derpy cringed at the bad name and tried to get the seat to turn, but it was clearly rooted in place. Placing a hoof on the dashboard, she leaned out to the side of the seat to see Trixie and Maud approaching. The former of the two spoke again. "See any pictures of the jerk up there? Must be something to go off of!"
"No!" Derpy responded, readjusting her hoof for more stability. "But this place is so big that there must be a room in it so--"
BLICK!
Everypony stared at the button Derpy accidentally pressed and then at the doors they'd walk past. They were slowly closing up, a few long seconds from sealing them inside the thing. Trixie, not turning to look at Derpy, quietly coughed. "Um, open the doors again. Like, now."
"Yeah. Sorry sorry."The apologetic pegasus looked to the dashboard and gulped after a long moment. Which button had she pressed? It wasn't that green one, or so she didn't think. Maybe it was that red one? Not that brown one. "Why are all these buttons multicolored and unlabeled?!"
"Ditsy! What's taking so long?!"
"Um, nothing! Found the button!" Another sound broke the silence, and the entire vessel suddenly hummed to life in seconds, the entire thing was starting to rise into the air and leave behind the soft soils of Ponyville. Derpy gasped as she stared out of the giant window before her. They were rising too fast. "Ah, BUCK! What did I press?!"
Trixie seemed more frusturated than her which wasn't surprising. "What are you doing?! Put us back down this instant!"
"Maybe you should get down from there, Derpy." Maud suggested warily and glanced out of the window. By now, she could see a few mountains in the distance. Pretty, but not a good sign. "Let me try it."
"No! I-I've got this!" Derpy frantically pressed at random buttons, causing lights to flicker off and on or horns to blare from no known area. The ship even vibrated and began to spin uncontrollably after she flipped one switch. The constantly shifting momentum made everypony fight to stay upright, let alone find a way to solve the problem. The pegasus suddenly noticed a button larger than all the others, painted black. Surely it couldn't do anymore damage than she'd already done, right? "I think I found it!"
Trixie and Maud gasped. "No, Don't./NO, DON'T!!!"
PIFF!
"HYPER-JUMP SEQUENCE INITIATED. TARGET: THIRD SECTOR FROM CURRENT LOCATION. PLEASE REMAIN SEATED DURING THE DURATION OF YOUR TRAVEL."
"...uh-oh."
Howard whistled as he walked away from the mildly spooky forest, quite pleased now that he'd relieved himself. Not to mention, aside from the place he'd just pissed in, this place wasn't so bad looking. He didn't know what the natives looked like though and he didn't intend to find out anytime soon. His only plan now was heading right back to his ship and venturing off to the next sector.
Then he saw his ship spinning uncontrollably in the air, making all kinds of noise and flashing lights everywhere it turned. Howard froze in mid-step, owlishly blinking at the sight. "What the fu--"
The ship suddenly disappeared straight up in a hyperjump, dissolving through the very fabric of their atmosphere. His jaw dropped as he registered that he'd just lost his prized vehicle. He sank to his knees with a growl and quackery loudly into the night.
"OH FER CHRISSAKE, I JUST PAID THE THING OOOOOFF!!!"
"It's because they're more of a basic civilization rather than super advanced like us."
Kraglin huffed through his nose, confusion painted clearly on his face. "Yeah, well. I still don't understand what's up with their chins. It's lahk some kind of sweater pattern, you know?"
"Yep. It makes 'em look all swollen and fat in a way. 'Specially with the green skin and purple suit and all." Tullk said, gesturing to his face thoughtfully. Of course, his chin was perfectly fine, but the point he was trying to get across went pretty well. " Reminds me of the one time I faced off with one of those...er..."
"You told me this two times before, how do you forget it just like that?" Kraglin leaned back in his chair and smirked a little. Not only did he hear about it twice, but he doubted that he'd survive a face-off that easily.
"Memory ain't what it used to be is all. But I tell ya, it was an Asgardian, clear as day and tall as hell. " Was the response, his face turning a bit soft at the memory. "Ol' captain was there when it happened, laughing a little."
Kraglin nodded fondly as well. "Yeah. Captain ain't laughed in a long time has he?"
"Well, these ain't been laughing times, have they? With our work getting less profitable, the lot of us having to scatter more often and...the occasional interruptions from Quill..." He shook his head with a sigh. "Even heard rumors of Thanos being up to something. Yeah, no time to be showing teeth. "
"I'm surprised Captain hasn't given us strict instructions about how to handle Quill and his...friends."
"Probably wants our first priority to be steering clear of them, seeing as how they're practically backed up by the Nova corps. "
"Yeah...but, lately it seems--eh?" Kraglin turned at the sound of a light beeping and noticed a specific shape on the flat screen of the monitor. After scrutinizing the details as best he could, the human-esque Ravager nodded in a interest. "Huh... Looks like an abandoned ship, just about two hundred yards over to the left of the hull...Brand new looking, too. Real shiny."
"Hmm."
"We gonna loot it?
"Of course we are."
"Okay, No pony panic."
Derpy had no idea what she was saying, let alone what she had done to get them in this situation. Her head was still reeling from the sudden stop and the momentum of her body caused her to barrel forward swiftly. She blamed this vehicle. Nopony should have such a weird set of buttons up and and running for a clumsy klutz like her to press. Who needs a button that can send you into the farthest reaches of infinite darkness anway? Aside from Nightmare Moon, that is--
"What did you say?" It was Trixie who spoke, blinking at Derpy with an indescribable expression.
"I, uh--"
"That was rhetorical." Trixie narrowed her eyes harshly, stomping right up to the pegasus until there was barely any space between them. "And who are you, of all ponies, to tell me to calm down? You're the one who pressed those stupid buttons in the first place. Now we're Celestia knows where!"
Derpy backed away slightly, swallowing from intimidation. "Um, I think we're in space. You know, where all the stars are? The ones ponies look at?"
"Oh GEE. Thank you. I never would've put two and two together like this." Trixie snorted coldly, giving Derpy an expression that the pegasus was all too familiar with. A look of scorn to be exact. "Ever since you showed up, things have constantly gone downhill! You couldn't even bring in my stupid fireworks on time and you choose now of all times to bring it?! What am I supposed to do with these way out here?!"
"I...I-I'm sorry, Miss L--"
"Sorry?!"
Maud's hoof gently yet firmly divided the hoof and guided Trixie back towards the window. "Let's all calm down for a second. You just lost your home and you're looking for somepony to take out your frustrations on. Just breathe for a second."
Trixie whirled on the grey earth pony, tears stinging her eyes at the mention of her destroyed carriage. "Don't tell me what do! I don't need--"
"I said:" Maud's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. "Just Breathe."
Blinking, Trixie shared a brief stare with her acquaintance before tiredly lowering her head. Almost as if most of the troubles she was experiencing were all weighing in on her too fast. "F-Fine. Whatever."
"Good. Now...this thing is apparently out of power, so there's no point in trying to retrace our steps with the buttons." Maud pointed out. "And this is a small vessel, with not that many helpful items here. We're limited in options."
Derpy and Trixie listened intend as she continued. "Option one is to look out the windows and see if we're floating any closer to Equestria or another place. The other depends on Trixie. How far can you teleport?"
Trixie's cheeks glowed slightly. "Unless you want to end up suffocating out there, or mixed into a giant mass of body parts...we'll stick with option one."
"And speaking of which, I think I see something!" Derpy pointed out the left hull window, where a tiny speck of metal grew as it approached at a comfortable speed. "It might be another metal thing like this."
"Hmmph! I guess those crossed eyes are good for something." Trixie sneered openly, peering closely to view the speck as well. "It's definitely got some speed on it. Good. A quick rescue is the best rescue."
Maud followed their gazes outwards and tilted her head. "So, neither of you are the least bit worried about that?"
Derpy blinked at her with a shrug, and held up a hoof as a matter o'factly. "It's like my dad used to say: It can't be any worse than this!" She paused to rub her chin. "Then again, that was during a drought and then it rained so much it flooded. And then we lost a lot of stuff in the lake and we had to fish out what survived...but hey! There's no water here."
"I'm talking about who might be commanding that thing. It could be that monster that attacked Equestria for all we know." Maud reasoned, only to receive a scoff from Trixie.
"Well, I don't know about you but i'd rather out there than in here with two lesser ponies."
"...But we're the only other..." Derpy pouted suddenly. "HEY! That's a hurtful thing to say!"
"Yes, the truth hurts." Trixie sympatheticaly pressed a hoof to her chest, but her attention was smoothly shifting back to the approaching vessel. The entire space they occupied lurched ever so slightly before a series of clicks and whirs sounded from the cieling. "Huh. Did anyone see that hatch before?"
It wasn't long before the hatch shoved itself open, swinging wide and revealing that it was not connected to the other ship and it's own hatch. Two blurs landed loudly on the ground in front of the ponies, and soon there was an intense staring contest between all five beings in the ship. The ponies had never seen anything bipedal and pale and heavily dressed like these creatures, built with inquisitive yet beady eyes. One was scrawny compared to the other, wearing a scraggly beard on his face and a similarly scraggly red leather outfit to go with it. The other seemed older, with slicker hair and a somewhat darker outfit to resent his age, and maybe his status. Derpy tilted her head with a blink. "This is gonna make a great story for everypony back home."
Maud agreed, but she was more concerned with speaking to the strange alien creatures to destroy any future hostility. "Hello. I'm Maud, and this is Derpy and Trixie. " She paused, looking at the weapons they had briefly and the re-scanning their scarlet garbs. "Was this your...ship?"
"Well, it is now." The skinny one grinned, and it was clear he didn't have a toothbrush. "How'd yall end up in this fine piece of machinery if it aint yours? Oh. Thieves huh?"
"Oh, puh-leeze! Does Trixie even look like the kind of pony who would could be a theif?!" You-know-Who exclaimed rather haughtily.
Say, Tulik, what do you suppose is the species of these things?"
Tulik nodded as well, staring enough for it to feel a bit uncomfortable. Like he was sizing them up, measuring heights and weights thoughtfully. "Dunno. But seeing as how we don't know, I figure no one else will either. And that makes these critters very expensive to the right buyer."
It didn't take very long for it to dawn on the three mares, and they all shared similar looks of disbelief tinged with the slightest bit of worry. Derpy swallowed a little. "You mean you're going to...?"
"Well it's not like you're gonna go anyplace else!" The skinny one rolled his eyes boredly. "You've been floatin' in this thing for who knows how long!"
Trixie tried keeping the nervousness out of her expression, and did surprisingly well with that." Well, yeah, but that doesn't mean we want to be sold off like common furniture instead! We are going straight home from your ship, Good sir! And that is final!"
The two bipedal organisms stared at Trixie for the longest time, and the exchanged a glance with each other. Snorting, Tulik unsheathed a hand held weapon of sort and closed the distance between them, pressing the nozzle to the mare's forehead in an instant. "We'd rather sell you alive, you know. Then again, some scientist type would probably like something dead to tinker on too..."
Maud coughed aloud to save Trixie the trouble of having to think of something to stammer out. "Excuse me, Tullik, was it?" She paused. "My friends and I would like to discuss something in private."
The other creature narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "Is that right?"
"We...We've been sold once before, but it was a small price in that area. I'd just like to collect all our thoughts about this area and how it may affect pricing. And then we'll relay the information to you. "
Tulik snorted again, his weapon still ready to do damage. After what felt like a full minute, he stood up again and motioned for the other. They blocked the entrance to their ship by standing underneath it. "You got half a minute then, critter."
"Thank you."
Maud bowed towards them, already guiding her friends a short distance away from the two. It wasn't too much longer before Trixie furiously whispered to them."Did you see that?! The absolute gall of that oaf! I--"
"When you teleport us, Trixie, I'll close the hatch down behind us." Was the small whisper. "Derpy, you get us out of here when that happens."
"You mean like, press their buttons?" Derpy said aloud, earning slight cringes from the ponies and even more suspicious stares from the bipedal creatures.
"Say, what are yall talking about over there?"
Maud ignored them and poked Trixie hard with a hoof. "You can teleport us now."
Trixie swallowed and nervously laughed at them. "Uh, I haven't really practiced teleportation all that well recently. Starlight's been training me, but--"
"That's enough talkin'!" The scrawny one started towards them.
"Now, Trixie."
It wasn't a yell, per se, but Trixie understood that it would have been had Maud been anypony else. Cringing, the blue unicorn ignited the tip of her horn and enveloped all the mares in her turqoise glow. Before the bipedal creatures could stop them, they vanished into thin air.
"Where'd they go?!" Tulik exclaimed, weapon already in hand again as Kraglin shrugged. "They was raght there!"
""Must be one'a them invisibility cloak thangs." Kraglin shrugged.
SLAM!
The hatch above was slammed shut by Maud, who just barely managed to keep it shut as they pounded against it. "Derpy have you started it, yet?"
"Yeah, you're taking a lot longer than last time!" Trixie complained.
"Almost! I think I'm getting the hang of it." That was half true in her case, and the other half slowly shrank down as time passed. The pegasus shoved and poked and rammed several buttons with her hooves until a beep was heard and the ship started to lurch forward at high speeds. "Oh, yeah! I just did that! Who did? Me!"
""Okay, No need to brag about it. I didn't brag when I teleported us in here, did I?"
A strange sound was heard, and then a hole was blow in the metal hatch door, right next to Maud's face. She blankly stared at the hole before turning to Derpy again. "Anyway to detach us from them?"
"No problem!" Derpy smugly declared and promptly pressed a big blue button.
"Self Destruct in thirty minutes!"
She hurriedly pressed it once more and then again.
"Self Destruct in ten --Self Destruct in five minutes!"
"Stop pressing stuff!"
Before Trixie could exclaim anything else about their situation, the ship lurched backwards as if something heavy had landed on the roof. Even the struggle with the hatch stopped as another object made softer landfall and then moved towards the hatch in the cieling. Derly, thinking it might someone like the two they were fighting against, gasped and shot up towards the cieling.
She came to a full stop as a raccoon (with a tiny figure on his shoulder) opened the cieling hatch and stared wide-eyed at her.
Derpy wasn't sure why the idea of a talking racoon surprised her so much, especially in a circumstance such as this. She grew up in a world where magic was an everyday occurence-- a being could change reality with the snap of his fingers, more than likely to conjure up cotton candy. But the sight of one in space, a fully dressed one at that just made her eyes widen all the more. And of course there was the fact that this racoon was bipedal, and heavily armed if the huge object in it's paws said anything. Where her feelings could described as surprised, the racoon was clearly not happy to see her.
"What was the point of leavin' if we're just gonna run into another one of them...?" It sighed between pointed teeth.
The plant being pointed a tiny figure. "I am groot!"
"I don't care, they're all bad news and big mouths." The beast's eyes took notice of Maud and Trixie, the latter which gasped at the sight of him. He holstered his object and peered inside. "Okay then, any more of you furry freaks in here? What are you even this far out here for?"
Derpy was just regaining control of her jaws when a much bigger bipedal creature ranked right next to the raccoon. She blinked up the oddly metallic mask of the thing, and the glowing red eyes that blazed down upon her. She gasped and fell back with a yelp, then a grunt as her back hit the floor. "I-I-It's the metal beast! The one that was in Equestria!"
"Metal Beast? That is actually a cool name now that I think about it." The figure asked with a tinge curiousity, much to the racoon's chagrin. "What? It is! I could name my blaster that! You know how people,like, name their weapons and then--"
"Self-Destruct in two minutes!"
"Self-Destruct? Why th' he'll is this thing in Self-Destruct mode?" The racoon didn't sound so concerned, as much as genuinely confused. "Who set it to Self-Destruct?"
Trixie pointed a hoof at Derpy, who shrank instantly. The metal faced thing counted each of the ponies and nodded up at their own ship's interior. "Eh, let's take 'em with us."
"Wait, how do we know you aren't bad like those guys?"
As Derpy finished, a series of shots were fired from underneath the metal floor, slicing upwards around Maud who still desperately kept the hatch door shut. She looked at the smoking holes around her and promptly raced towards the opening in the cieling, where the Racoon and the other creatures waited. "Well, for one, they aren't shooting at us." And she disappeared above just like that.
Derpy reached forward with a hoof and grasped at Trixie's, already flapping upwards towards the large hole. "Time to go!" She might have heard Trixie mutter something about being able to levitate herself, but she was too busy rushing through the small opening above. The hatch closed behind them and the large ship vanished with a smooth hyperjump.
Kraglin was the first to burst through the opening hatch and crawl onto the familiar floor of their ship. Three things appeared to be missing though. "Hey! Where'd them critters go?"
"Blast." Tulik growled as he too found his way from the bottom.
"Self-Destruct in one minute."
"AW,SH!T!!! DIVE, TULIK!" Kraglin hopped right back down into the second ship below them, but his partner sighed at his panicked state. Tulik stalked over to the dashboard and quickly disarmed the Self-Destruct so that the ship went back to normal. He turned in time to see Kraglin peeking from the hatch. "Oh. I knew you was gonna do that."
"Just get up here. We're lucky we survived that little run in with Gaurdians. I could hear their voices when you weren't blastin' like crazy." A vibration at his side led Tulik to remove his communication device and examine it's holographic surface while Kraglin sighed.
"Well now what?" He asked. "Try to follow them?"
Tulik shook his head. "Neh." He help up the screen for Kraglin to see and watched his expression turn serious. "Yondu is calling us all in for somethin' important."
Kraglin nodded. "Where?"
"Iron Lotus."
"That was close." Derpy exclaimed in an out-of-breath fashion as the hatch was locked behind her and the ship lurched forward in another hyperjump. It had been a while since she'd carried another pony by herself, and Trixie wasn't the heaviest pony...but she certainly wasn't lightweight either. "But at least we're not in danger, anymore."
The Racoon flashed her a dangerous grin and took a step closer. "Oh I wouldn't say that."
The plant being poked him roughly. "I am Groot!"
"I was just playing around with them, you have no sense of humor."
The taller creature removed his own face with a series of metallic whirs and clicks. His real face was surprisingly more fleshy and pale with hints of a beard growing in. He stared in the mirror carefully, patting his styled rusty colored hair back into place, smiling and winking in addition. "Thanks for the Jump, Gam. We needed it." He called to some unseen figure down the hall.
"I told you never to call me that, again." A disgruntled feminine voice answered. "And Drag did it without my permission."
A masculine voice spoke up sharply. "You never let me press it before!"
"For a reason."
"You never told me that reason either."
The tall, non-metal creature gave a dry laugh and began a path down the hall. "Alright, ladies. Let's go meet the other A-holes of this vessel."
Trixie and Derpy exchanged glances while Maud blinked, and the three ponies followed the three creatures down the hall warily. They entered a spacious area with several seats in front of several dashboards, all stationed underneath a giant glass shield. The infinite reaches of a star-filled blackness greeted them, as well as a very muscular and shirtless figure.
"Quill! I did not know you brought food for us!" The figure speaking was rather tall and entirely covered in dark green skin, though one would barely see that under all of the brown tattoo-like markings on his body. His face seemed to hold recognition, though the ponies were certain they'd never seen him before. "And Zvrathns at that! Come, and I shall you all how to prepare the meat!"
"They're not Zvrathns, you idiot." The Racoon deadpanned. "They're...'ponies'. Like the ones we saw when we visited that planet a few days back.
"Oh. Well, I'm sure they'd still taste very good."
"The point is that we're not eating them period. " A feminine figure strode away from her seat behind the shirtless being, dressed in darker clothing that somehow went nicely with her light green complexion. The straightened black hair from her scalp was tinged with a few locks of violet red, near her stone cold expression. "They were the ones piloting the Ravager ship?"
"Not exactly. More like captives in the process of escaping." The more pale out of the others gestured to her. "That's Gamora, our professional frowner and expert fighter! She could kill you as soon as look at you. And that's Drax, the big guy! Built like an Ox, but definitely nicer than one once you get to know him."
Drax blinked. "But I don't have shaggy fur or horns--"
"And thats Rocket, our weapons expert and bomb-maker...when he need him to be. The tiny dude--"
"I am Groot!"
"Yeah, what he said. And I..." He paused for some obvious dramatic effect, but all he got was a scoff from Gamora. "Am the Starlord. I'm sure your Princess Molestia has told you a lot about us."
"It's Celestia. And No." Maud answered.
"Really? Is that name ever gonna become famous?" He deflated slowly.
"Did the Ravagers abduct you from your world?" Gamora questioned. "It's unlike them to venture so far out of this Galaxy to enter yours."
"If you mean the two back there, then no. It's really her fault we got so far out here." Trixie shot a pointed expression at a frowning Derpy and pretended to inspect her own hoof. "Some random ship wrecked my home, so I went to investigate with the aid of these two. SOMEpony thought it would be a good idea to start pressing buttons, and that's how we eventually ended up with them. So it'd be appreciated if you could get us home, pronto."
"Geez, and I thought you were the prissy b!tch." Rocket blinked with faux amazement at Gamora, not noticing the way Trixie's pupils shrank down. "Its been like three seconds and I already hate her voice. 'So it'd be appreciated if you could us home, Pronto!' It's so nasally."
"What my friend means to say," Starlord wisely interrupted the beginnings of an arguement. "Is that we can get you home...but it'll be a while. See, where the Gaurdians of the Galaxy." He pondered for a moment, then spoke again. "It's like those six from your world, only we protect the universe itself instead of one singular world. And we just got through with a bunch of things on our to-do list, and a bunch of those were practically jokes."
Rocket snorted. "Yeah. Reports of some guy using a green stone to loop time and fight a giant face. Man, people will go into detail for the best laughs, I tell ya."
"And now we've just two more problems to handle before we're free until...some other apocalyptic issue springs up." He held up to fingers, already counting off the remaining items. "Let's see...now that we've got you, we have only a few more minutes before we're in the third Quadrant to handle the asteroid issue."
"Asteroids?" Despite her expression, her bored tone held the smallest bit of interest. "That could be interesting."
"Oh come on, don't you want to go home any faster?!" Trixie huffed at Maud. "I don't know about you two, but I have a house to replace and a best friend to welcome home! Who knows how much time will have passed when we get back?!"
"Well, you could always walk home. Horses are good at walking." The Racoon shrugged when she glared at him. "What? It's true isn't it?"
"I liked you better on my world," Trixie narrowed her eyes even more. "Where you talked less and ate my trash."
"I liked you better as glue,Sweetcheeks."
Drax scratched his head. "You have tasted her cheeks? And what cheeks are we talking about? The facial or--"
"Drax!" Rocket gagged, while the pony who's cheeks were mentioned more glowered more fiercely. "That's distugusting, man! No one thought that! I was making a joke off her fur color and her cheeks!"
"Yes, but which cheeks?"
Derpy watched the conversation with a sigh, then poked at the leader's leg. "Uh, Starlord?"
He glanced down casually, though he looked more interested in the arguing and the further conversation about pony flanks. He was honestly glad to have picked up these small things, if they provided this much in the way of entertainment. Gamora wouldn't approve, but she never did like entertainment. "Yeah?"
"Can anyone join this group, or...?"
"Well, it depends on physical or mental contributions to the group and then the ability to hold a--"He blinked owlishly. "Wait, are you--?"
Derpy shook her head quickly and even added a dismissive wave of her hoof. "No, I was just curious! I'm,uh, always curious about good guys like the ones back on our world, and was just wondering if...if..."
"Iiiiif...?"
"...if that giant rock has always been hurtling towards us?"
Starlord whirled around in time to shriek at the sight of a huge asteroid becoming larger and larger.
The whole ship lurched to the side, taking its many passengers on a one way trip down. Groot managed to dodge just as the much larger form of Rocket crashed on his back. Trixie and the other ponies managed to stabilize themselves with their already flat hooves, something that no one else appeared to have on this ship. From underneath Drax, Gamora sent a look in the direction of the driver's seat and narrowed her eyes.
"Quill," she said as calmly as one could, buried as she was. "Why did you do that?"
Quill leaned back, proudly standing back up to his full height and leaning on the chair's backrest. "Oh, just your average every day crisis aversion--nothing to worry about."
Maud suddenly focused past him. "Is that achrondite?"
"Sh!t!" He dove back into the seat in time to just barely skim a much larger boulder hurtling through nothingness in an attempt to crash into the fragile metal. But the boulder clearly changed course from the corner of their view, trailing them at frightening speeds alongside the other. Needless to say, Quill was worriedly puzzled. "Okay. Guess the reports were true."
Derpy leaned closer to the glass to get a better look. The coordination of the space rocks seemed too similar to be each rock having its own mind. Clearly somepony's idea of a good joke was at play here. "Maud, how do you suppose these big rocks are chasing us?"
"How is she supposed to know?!" Rocket barked.
"Asteroids like that could be attracted to some type of magnet on the ship, or controlled by a different type of magnet to do this. It makes sense, given that one of those Asteroids has a nickel core and the other an iron base." When the ship lurched again, she blinked. "Odd. Those new ones aren't magnetic at all. "
"Yeah, but they're starting to get good at their aim!" The leader of the Gaurdians yelped and sent a less than casual glance to the bow of the ship that was previously struck, spinning the ship before he could get the flight pattern back to normal. "Uh, serpentine maneuvers!"
"That sounds delicious!" Drax patted his back hard enough to pop his spine without trying. "We should prepare it with a cream sauce."
"He's not talking about food, he's talking about a way of losing the asteroids." Trixie paused to look at the leader's progress. "One that isn't working out too well. Any other way to lose them?"
"What about the rear weaponry?" Gamora lept to the back of the room,searching for the right seat against the wall, followed closely by Rocket. "You fixed it, right?
"You kidding? I fixed it three days ago."
Derpy trotted up to the two and noticed Gamora sitting before some type of light-produced imagery that actually had moving objects in it. They appeared to be the asteroids, and when Gamora pulled on a specific trigger, there weren't as many asteroids as before. "Wow! You're awesome at this! Look at you go!"
Gamora didn't smirk or smile, but she did acknowledge the praise. "I was trained for my entire existence to be the best fighter in close combat, and the best shot in long distance battle. Of course I'm awesome at this."
"This day just gets better and better." Quill chuckled a little at something fast approaching, and turned to the others. "Ah, there's the planet that sent in the complaints about this to begin with. A quick landing should wrap this whole thing up for us, asap!" He looked off to the side of the ship and his eyes widened. "...the fuuuuu€k?"
Just to the far right of the planet, massive shapes blocked the sight of space from view. They were Asteroids of all shapes and sizes and metal types, forming one large army. The army was silent and still in the black void, looking a huge audience awaiting something big. But one by one, each of those massive space rocks suddenly shot at them and joined the growing frenzy to destroy their ship. Quill's eyes zeroed in on something before he had to veer away from the assault. "Uh, there's a guy out there."
"A what?"
"There's a guy on --" The ship lurched upwards. "One of the asteroids. Doing some kind of hand motions, you know?"
Gamora listened intently, and managed a brief glimpse of what Quill had seen via her own holographic screen. Something of a tall, dark figure in red and brown garnments. From the distance, there were no discernable features to note, but he was doing some kind of attack motion with his hands. Grunting and grimacing, she gestured for Rocket to take her place before grabbing an O-pac and activating it. A thick film of invisible clothing appeared around her and supplied oxygen to her through an unseen mask. After attaching a temporary flight harness, she moved to a small hatch in the floor. "I'm going out to see if I can't subdue him. Keep him focused on you."
"Whaddaya think I'm doing??!" A frantic voice rang out in a worried bellow. "Playing chess?!"
"Chess can't be played with those, Quill."
" Shut up, Drax! "
Maud circled her curiously before her eyes fell on the hatch. "Can I follow you? It would give me an excellent look at the many rock types and--"
"No. You're not experienced and you'll get in the way, or be killed. " Before disappearing into the depths of space, she offered one piece of advice. "Close the door behind me and do something useful for Quill."
Maud blinked slowly, her eyes falling on one of the O-pacs sitting at a reachable height.
Gamora used her temporary flight sparingly, not certain if she could be stealthy enough with her suit making as much noise it did. Her focus fell on the figure as she calculated where his front is, before leaping amongst some of the Asteroids in an effort to get behind him. Quill's ship was thankfully weaving about in one general area, so she wouldn't risk her target noticing her soon. The closer she got, the more she details she could see in the figure's garnments. The clothing told of a familiar race of people, but she wasn't sure why he would attack such a distant planet from his own.
In anycase, she moved closer towards him from the back and made no sound except for the light skritches that came with landing on brittle surfaces. But just as she pounced at him, a ship sized boulder rushed up from underneath her. Not phased by the sudden movement, she crawled down its surface instantly and lunged for the figure once more...but he wasn't there anymore.
He was at her side, jabbing a hard fist into the spot where her ribs would be.
"Hey, you! With the eyes!" Quill snapped and pointed his fingers at a nervous Derpy, gesturing for her attention. "C'mere, I'm gonna teach you how to shoot stuff!"
Derpy fluttered over with a shy beat to her wings, but sat in the seat specified, just in front of Quill. "Uh, okay."
"Good now--YIPE!" Starlord practically tore the handles off of his module to regain control after a hit had them spinning. A streaking asteroid caused a crack in the window of his ship, and he whimpered at the sight. "Now, see that green button between the handles? No, the other one. Yes. That's auto-aim. Pressing it and then press on the red triggers on the handles. Fire like Crazy!"
Derpy sucked in a breath as her eyes fell on all sorts of green buttons. Okay, Hooves. You can do this. He said the one between the handles... She focused through all of the noise and rattling of metal, enough to press the green button between the handles. She grasped the handles in the crook of her ankles and grinned as she suddenly saw a few of the asteroids explode in a hail of light beams. "I did it, Starlord! I did it!"
"Awesome. Good work!" He grinned, but mostly because someone had actually referred to him by the right name.
Trixie noted the work that was being done by Derpy with a frown. When she stalked up to another seat, she found that it looked entirely different than what Derpy's controls were. "What about this orange button here?" She pressed it without quite listening to the frantic yelling of Quill. The ship lurched straight up as if pulled by a harpoon, and two asteroids crashed into each other below them. The unicorn blinked in surprise, but ultimately acted as if it were a normal deed. "Yep. I just did that."
"Yeah, but that coooulda killed us. I think I'll put your grey friend over there instead." Quill risked a look behind. "Where is she, anyway?"
Gamora wheezed; the breath knocked out of her at the same time that she tried to gasp in surprise. She whizzed into a flatter rock surface, almost cracking it with the force of her crash. A mechanical sputter told her that the flight harness was broken, and that her oxygen supply could have been next. She looked up in time to glare at the approaching, angered individual.
"I knew you and your allies would come." He grimly spoke, grey face hardened with a look of disgust and annoyance. "But to try and stop me was another thing entirely. Not to mention an attack from behind."
Gamora said nothing.
"Eventually you will all fall before my might, and I will soon be able to harness the destructive power of every asteroid in the galaxy. All of those rocks, floating with no purpose, can now be used to create something perfect. " He glanced to the planet behind. "And as soon as they whither into my grasp from the onslaught m, I will make sure that every other planet gets the same treatment...unless they bind themselves to my empire."
He looked down at her, gloved hands held behind his back. "Aren't you going to bow to me?"
Her eyes narrowed, lips drawing out of their angry grimace. "...Terrax the Tamer? I...remember you. You were trained under the eyes of Thanos, meant to become part of his Black order."
"Yes, Gamora. Meant to be. You know as well as I do that his Black Order is not set to unite until the time of The End." He sighed through his nostrils, clearly unhappy. "And I must constantly exercise my abilities to be ready for when brings upon The End. Subjugation of the entire galaxy will certainly please him."
"This madness I why left him for good. " Gamora shakily stood to her feet. "He is insane in his quest for the kiss of Death. And the rest of the order are insane to keep such a pact with him. Including you."
Terrax hummed. "I suppose your sister is insane as well."
Gamora didn't dignify that with a verbal response. Terrax was not quite expecting the kick to the head, but it phased him very little. His elbows managed to block the attacks of her fists until one of his giant hands caught one and then flung the rest of her body into the surface of Asteroid. "Maybe when I finish slaughtering the Gaurdians of the Galaxy..." The villain clasped a hand around her neck, squeezing tighter and tighter and hoping to hear a snap over the sound of her choking gasps. "All will cower at the very mention of my na--What?!"
The grip loosened and when she wasn't fighting to fill her lungs, Gamora stared in surprised awe as a thick hook slammed into the side of his skull. His body briefly floating off, Maud gazed at the glove she had ripped off his other hand, nestled between her teeth. She glanced at the fingers and then shoved a hoof into the glove. An enraged Terrax took notice of this, grinding his teeth together. "You colorless swine! Do you really think you can weild the power of a thousand asteroids?!"
Maud stared. "Yes."
Then a gigantic boulder smashed him into the side of another, before both crumbled into regular debris and revealed his unconscious, groaning form. Gamora opened her mouth several times only to close it in the next second, eyes taking in the sight of the unconscious pawn of Thanos. Had anyone managed to do such a thing, with no skillset like hers?
"Inconceivable!" Gamora exclaimed while approaching Maud. It was a relief to see that the other asteroids had stopped moving, and Quill's ship stopped flying spastically in the distance. "How did you know your hoof would be able to work in place of a hand?"
"I didn't. " Was the simple reply, before the glove was turned over to reveal a glowing green piece of diamond. "But I figured with this strange gem, it didn't matter. He used this to substitute a magnet, shifting and pushing asteroids in any way that he pleased."
Gamora looked at her foe again, noting that the other glove was now broken and torn. Oh well. At least they had someone to turn into the Nova Corps for acts of terrorism. She studied the glove Maud had with wariness. This reminded her of another glove she had seen, one that could be billions of times more dangerous than this one. "I thought I told you to stay on the ship." She tried sounding angry, but couldn't quite shake off the impressed feeling she had.
"I like rocks." Maud apparently had a knack for stating the obviously and saying simple things. "And you seemed to need a little help."
Gamora broke out of her glove trance and locked eyes with Maud. She was a strange equine, no doubt, but at least a slightly likeable one. And helpful, to boot. "Well,let's get back to the ship with him. I'll bet there's a jail cell on that planet with his name on it."
"I must admit," Gamora began, never risking a glance behind her at the bound Terrax, already being hauled away to some unknown prison. "you are lot more courageous and...serious than I give you credit for." She paused, a thoughtful look appearing. "Are you always like this? "
Maud blinked, the gesture making her question clear without the need for words. Gamora shrugged almost apologetically. "It's just...slightly odd to have serious aid after living with a bunch of morons for so long. If I'd gone up against Terrax with Rocket or Drax, or even Peter, it could've taken all day. They can be very distracting, though mostly to themselves. Do you relate to that at all?"
"Not in the slightest, but I can try to imagine things from your perspective." She offered. There was a brief moment of silence as she tried to put herself in the green biped's shoes, but she gave up with a bored sigh. "I thought you all were a team. Shouldn't you already be used to how they handle things?"
"Well, one can be used to something and still hate it. I'm used to jokes, but I hate smiling. I'm used to running, but I hate running away. The list goes on." They found themselves stalking down the front steps of the high temple, reaching the flat grey bottom in half a minute. The planet itself was almost devoid of color, taking on the same hues as the citizens dressed. Gamora eyed the dull surroundings halfheartedly. "And it's horrible."
"So you hate them."
"Yes. Not enough to kill or leave them, but they are infuriating." She paused a little a reluctantly added. "Peter was once the most childish being I'd ever met. Now...well, he's still childish. But he's still more mature than the others, as I mentioned."
Maud blinked as she thought over her words. "Quill isn't like you or the other teammates you have. I'm not sure if you learned much from your visit to Equestria, but we've had an incident not too long ago. Beings very much like Peter helped us, and stopped the threat. Does he know about them?'
She shrugged. "Never heard of them myself. Quill is a terran, but he hasn't been on his home world in years. hasn't even come near it's sector for that matter."
Maud slowed ever so slightly as she studied a pebble so far beneath her, but she trotted back into even pace. "That sounds lonesome. He never wanted to go back?"
"He has his reasons...I understand why he stayed away even more than he does, I think." Gamora didn't even try to explain herself, and quickly sought to change the subject before Maud asked anything. "Anyway...I hate how the leaders of every world we visited have quite a height on them. Even your princesses were...quite tall."
"It's an Alicorn trait. They grow taller with each century that they pass through." Maud explained. "If you had measuring tape and one of the princesses next to me, you could probably find out just how old they are yourself."
"So, does that mean the blue princess is younger than the other?"
The pony hummed, considering how best to paraphrase the explanation. " It's a long story, but to put it shortly...they should be the same age. Long before our current time, many centuries in the past, the blue princess...Luna, was briefly corrupted by something unknown and became a dark entity. Her sister had her banished to our moon for many centuries, and it stumped her growth during that time. Eventually Luna broke free of her prison and returned to Equus to plunge us into eternal night. " Maud sighed, and one of Gamora's stray thoughts pondered over how much the small horse actually spoke in one sitting." Luckily, my sister and a few friends of hers helped to release her from her dark impulses, and now she is what you saw."
"...That seems...wrong. I know you're not the most hard-hearted race but...Luna spread terror and threatened countless lives.' Gamora halted in place, surprised and just the slightest bit outraged. "And they just reformed her? What if she had been faking the whole time? And Celestia just forgot the things Luna did?"
Maud nodded immediately, her voice sounding content despite what her face looked like. "That's how family works som--"
"It oesn't sound like family. Celestia shouldn't trust Luna after seeing what she'd done. She was banished for a reason. " The woman criticized openly. Maud didn't attempt to interrupt her, so she didn't think she was striking any bad cords. " There's no reason for them to be getting along so well now."
"Even if they didn't get along, they'd still be sisters. " said Maud. "Nothing can change that.
Gamora looked at her sharply, wanting to say something but ultimately remaining silent as something played behind her eyes.
"Nothing can change that, Gamora!" she said, trying to look taller than her and failing. It would take some time for the girl's metallic, dull shin bone to adjust to her neural commands. "I can beat you the next time we are brought against one another. I've practiced for weeks!"
Eight year old Gamora barely batted an eye at the smaller girl and her strange appendage. "You've been taking out your anger on lifeless dolls. Father says that anger must only be released when a hit is made."
The girl narrowed her eyes. "W-Well...Father says I'm stronger anyways, when I practice enough."
"Right." Gamora spat wryly and pointed at the girl's leg. "Is that why you have that?"
The girl looked as if she'd taken a hit to the jaw, and Gamora winced for some reason. It was another weakness, one she hadn't accounted for. She tried not to notice the girl as she stood there and ironically tried not to look hurt herself. "...*sigh*..." Gamora finally faced her, trying to soften her expression. "You wanna know a secret?"
After uneasy silence, she continued. "I'm too used to striking above the torso, to disorient my oponent. I risk everything Below the abdomen as a result,so...maybe next time, you know where to hit."
The girl looked deeply surprised, and perhaps a ltitle confused. "I...Okay. Thank you, Gamora."
"Don't thank me yet." Gamora walked off. "I'm breaking out of my old habits."
"They really do eat people's trash? They can't be me! They're savages!"
Derpy frowned. It wasn't easy to explain to a talking raccoon how regular raccoons worked, especially given how easily offended Rocket could be. He gagged when she told him that they usually walked on all fours and he glowered when she said they made chittering noises to communicate rather than real words. Derpy was always the type of pony to put herself in other's shoes--she'd hate it too if someone told her she was apart of a race of dumb animals used for riding and herding cops or something outrageous like that.
"Well, if you think that's bad," Derpy tried to ease the slight tension by pointing at Groot, who had found a seat on her shoulders and was trying to braid a flower into her hair. "We actually some plant life like him. But nothing bipedal. Mostly these giant wolves made out of timber. Y'know, timberwolves."
"I am Groot!" Groot laughed.
Rocket nodded. "Yes, Groot! Her world is pretty screwed up isn't it? More than it already is, if you get free tattoos on yer' butts like you say." His own laughing slowed the more he thought about it. "Then again...giant wolves made out of trees does sound pretty bad@ss. You could make a buck or two if you turned it into a movie. Or a bomb."
"I don't think a movie about a mean donkey would be good." Derpy quickly reasoned, then mumbled. "Whatever a movie is..."
"Mean Donkey? ...Oh. Heh." The furry dude rolled his eyes, but the smirk on his muzzle told that she amused him for some reason. Raccoons were so weird. "You know Drax, I think you and Chicken Wings over here are gonna be good friends. You certainly think the same."
Drax huffed at the raccoon, sharpening his knife for the third time since they'd safely landed. In fact, he might have been sharpening his knife before they even picked up the ponies. Drax was clearly someone who took their belongings...personally, to say the least. "It's not nice to call someone a chicken, Rocket."
Groot nodded a little too excitedly and tugged on a strand of Derpy's hair a little too hard. "Ah!" He petted the mare's left ear softly, almost hugging it with it a pout. "I am Groot."
Rocket didn't care, as one might expect. "I don't mean anything bad by it. I always call people names. Drax--don't you call Quill pathetic and spineless and lilly-livered and other sh!t like that?"
The burly being agreed nonchalantly, but kept his voice low as whispered to Derpy. " But that is because he is."
"Drax, how many times have I told you--OW! My friggin' toe! Why is that even there?" Peter poked his head up from the square shaped opening in the middle of the floor, wearing grime,sweat and a highly annoyed look. "You are the worst whisperer ever, man. Really." The human looked back into the shadowed area he was attempting to travel through, and then at a toolbox on a desk. "Yo. Trix cereal. Can you hand me the flashlight in that box?"
Trixie, who was idly sitting underneath the desk and inspecting the grooves of her hooves, looked up at the nickname and narrowed her eyes. " Hmm?"
Out of the three new guests they'd had aboard the ship, she seemed like the most reluctant to interact...save for arguing with Rocket a bunch of times. Quill wasn't exactly the happy go lucky dude that tried to make friends with everyone, but this pony was like some kind of grumpy cat. "The flashlight." He explained more, matching her own frowning expression and pointing above her. "It's a kinda big, dark colored and cylindrical, yeah? On the end, there's a--"
"Ugh! Trixie knows what a flashlight is!" She huffed dismissively. "She wasn't born yesterday, you know."
"Good. Now get it, pretty please."
"Can't somepony else get it for you?"
"No, if there was, I'd ask that pony. But I'm stuck with you, so..." Quill impatiently tapped his foot as she just stared at him and didn't move a single muscle. "Come on. I don't feel like climbing out of this hole, only to get right back in it."
The unicorn finally gave an abrupt sigh and used her magic to envelop the box in an Aura. The human pretended to look impressed by the small feat in order to test her--her demeanor slowly melted into show-off mode, as he'd guessed. The toolbox flew around in the air for a moment before coming to a complete yet safe halt on the floor in front of Quill. He smirked widely as the pony reminded of him of a certain crook of a guy, one that could've passed for a unicorn if you just went by his big red fin. "Nice trick, Trix."
And just like that, the previous personality returned. "This thing's heavy. How many tools do you need?" Trixie rummaged through the box openly, until she pulled up something small and rectangular. "What's this doohickey?"
Quill reached forward and it snatched it up immediately. "Careful with that doohickey, little missy. It's my walkman. And no, it's not meant to walk--it's just a name."
"A stupid name. " Nevertheless, Trixie didn't make any move to go underneath the desk again. "What's it do?"
"It's a device that plays music. Prerecorded songs and stuff like that. " Quill held up to his eye-level with a fond smirk. Good memories always came with this thing. "I've had this bad boy since I was a little kid. Still holds up perfectly."
He rummaged around in the took box more until he found the object he desired at the moment. He groaned loudly and held up a pretty broken looking flashlight for a certain raccoon to see. "Rocket. This is the fifth flashlight, man! You placed it at the bottom of the toolbox?!"
"Piss off! Nobody has time to wait for all the tools to be put inside first, man! "
Quill sighed, his attention reluctantly going back to Trixie as he tossed it off to the side. "He broke every other one, I tell ya. Though he usually uses the parts to make lethal weapons or illegal stuff. " He smiled hopefully at the new guest on his ship. "But maybe--"
Trixie immediately cut him off with a shake of her head. "No, I don't think so. Trixie is not just a personal flashlight for someone to use!"
A bit desperate, he tried flattery again. "Well, you would be the best flashlight if you just--"
"Nope! Uh-uh. Sorry, but you'll just find to some other way to...eh?" The unicorn flinched a tiny body waddled towards her with arms outstretched, making her take a cautious step back. "Uh, what are you doing?"
"I am Groot!" The tiny plant pointed at her with one hand, and held out a purple flower with the other.
"You said that the first fifty times already." She impatiently rolled her eyes. "Why does he keep saying that?"
"Apparently it's the only thing he can say. Something to do with his species." Derpy shrugged, clearly more fascinated by the intricate braid the tiny being had made, entangled with a small, yellow flower. "He's pretty easy to understand once you get to know him! He's adorable too!"
"I am Groot!"
"Yeah, well tell him I don't want any weird hippie braids like yours!"
"You know..." Quill crossed his arms and leaned back against the rim of the shaft entrance. "You could always escape him by helping me out. I promise I won't braid your hair. Scout's honor."
Trixie glowered at him, and then at the persistent little guy trying to reach for her silver mane. It was short lived however, as she brushed past Groot and gestured for the smug human to move. "I can't get through the opening with you in the way, now can I?"
Quill gladly stepped aside and ducked to avoid hitting his head. When the pony's horn lit up with a perfect glow, he went back to his original work spot and reached inbetween the wall of wires to pull out the magnumcoolant. "Some offense, but uh...whats up the attitude?"
"Having one's home destroyed right before you're ripped off your own world doesn't put you in a happy mood." Trixie reasoned sarcastically. "Do you know what it's like to be taken so suddenly and things taken from you so suddenly?"
Quill blinked at the question, smirked and nodded. "Oh you better believe it. Why do you think I'm out here? I got abducted by pirates."
Trixie's expression softened into something unreadable as she peered at his face. After a bit of uncomfortable silence, she spoke up with mild interest. "Abducted by pirates? The crossbones kind?"
The entry doors closed behind them with a metallic slap, then sealed with whirs and clicks. Gamora stalked her way to the pilot seat of the ship as promptly as possible, so Maud decided to trot anywhere but that area for now. The bipedal alien wasn't mad per se, but she just didn't see eye to eye with pony on the subject of Ponyville's government. Not to mention her beliefs made her quite the stubborn partner, stubborn enough to refuse the slightest argument to her morals. She was still a rather enjoyable person, regardless of it.
Speaking of thoughts, her own were interrupted by a masculine cough meant to get her attention. Drax, with his personal dagger in one hand and a sharpener for it in the other, motioned for the mare to wander over. "Your combat skills are most impressive, small four-legged creature. I haven't seen such since the battle of G'Kaaza, where our warriors rode on valiant beasts much like yourself and trampled over the bodies of our victims." He began when she was close enough, nodding in respect. "Perhaps eating you wouldn't have been such a great idea after all. Where did you train?"
"A rock farm." Maud shrugged.
Drax furrowed his brow. "You grow rocks and harvest them?"
Maud sat down in a comfortable position, careful not to jostle Boulder. Poor little guy was all tuckered out, and snoozing against her chest. " We don't live near a volcano, so no: we don't grow them. Harvest? Maybe. Sometimes. I recently moved from the farm with a degree in the study of rocks and metals."
Drax openly laughed and shook his head, drawing a blink out of Maud. "Did I say something funny?"
"Drax just doesn't like people smarter than him."
"Bah! Degrees! They are merely perishable pieces of paper that make others feel stupid. Only thing they are good for is telling the temperature and keeping a fire going." The burly being rubbed his chin at that, dangerously close to stabbing himself with his own blade. Noticing this, he he held it up in front of her face with a childish grin. " Smart, four legged beast! Tell me what kind of metal this is?"
Maud didn't even bother to scrutinize the blade. "You're from another planet, and this probably is too. How would I know what kind of metal this is?"
Drax smirked proudly. " Ha! Shows what you and your degree knows! It's Omnium."
"That is not Omnium," Gamora piped up from the front with an annoyed sigh. "It's Murmasa. This whole ship is made of Omnium, Drax. "
"I am Groot." A particular creature laughed loudly.
"Oh, shut up."
Drax grumbled a bit more as he went back to sharpening his blade, and Maud went back to walking along. She spotted Derpy standing patient and still beside Rocket, who was busy tightening a strange vest around the pony's torso. Upon further inspection, she noticed several flowers were braided into the mare's blonde mane and Groot was admiring it as an artist would admire his own painting. She stopped to watch more closely, and Derpy offered her a nervous grin. "We're testing out this temporary flight pack designed specifically for us in case of emergencies. He's pretty good at his job." She flinched when the raccoon tightened something near the back, and he apologized promptly. "And I'm like his personal sidekick or something."
"Actually, you're more like a Guinea Pig, or a lab rat or somethin'. Groot's my sidekick." He corrected, reaching for a small remote and flipping it button-side up. He cleared his throat and took a few cautioussteps back. "Okay. Here's the first test. Cross your hooves and hope this doesn't blow us all up."
"Wait, what?"
The instant Rocket's clawed digit pressed the button, a brief flicker of energy erupted from Derpy's left side and exploded into a jet stream of fire. She didn't even have time to blink before she was tossed sideways, and then completely over on her back. The made, flipped over yet still in place, blinked as the fuel expired quickly. "...Hey. " She said with a start. "What are you guys doing on the ceiling?"
"I am Groot!" The tiny being squeaked, pulling himself out from under the grey pegasus. "I am Groot, I am Groot!"
"What? Pfft! I didn't do that on purpose! Must be faulty wiring." The raccoon fought hard to contain his snorts and chuckles, helping Derpy to her hooves with a giggle. "Let's just...snrrkt! Make the adjustments and forget about--hehehe-- the whole thing!"
Maud gestured to Derpy with a hoof. "She's a pegasus, you know. She can fly on her own just fine."
"Well, since you were off trying to be bad▪ss with greenie and your other friend is talking her lips off with Quill, I was limited on test subjects. "
"She's willingly talking with him?"Maud made the closest expression she could to a look of surprise.
"Yeah." Rocket nodded. "I'm scared too."
Almost as if on cue, a pair of mildly laughing beings crawled out of the shafts beneath the floor of the ship, the first being Quill. He was still trying to speak between chortles, and helping Trixie out by her hooves. "So there I am, caught up right in the middle of the arguement, and those big bruisers didn't even notice me walk out! Through the front door, Trix!"
Trixie gave an amused, yet surprised gasp and playfully shoved his shoulder."You're kidding! You had to have crawled out of there! You couldn't have just left like that!"
"I sh!t you not; I walked out with the molecular duplicator, and freaking waved goodbye to them! I flew away in this very ship and none of them them chased me!"
"That is just too hilarious!" The unicorn calmed her laughter for a moment, a surprising smile still on her face. She wasn't expecting to get along so well with someone like Quill, given his outward appearance and his personality right off the bat. But he was quite similar to her in respects such as having a thing for theatrics and maintaining a perfect facial structure, among smaller things. And boy did he have a lot of stories to tell, just like Trixie did. She wasn't even sure how long they'd been swapping tales about misadventures they'd had. The only other acquaintance that she actually enjoyed with as much was Starlight.
Starlight.
It almost made her frown thinking about her friend who was billions upon billions of miles away from her, but an approaching earth pony distracted her from thinking about it more. "Oh, HI Maud." She greeted plainly, as if she hadn't been laughing just a few seconds ago. "How long have you been back?"
"Three minutes."
"That's nice." Trixie turned back to the human eagerly. "And what about that elephant creature you mentioned? What's that story about?"
Gamora unfortunately cut off the man before he could begin to speak, never looking back at him. "Approaching the Anulax platforms. Should I land off to the side?"
"Yes please. I like this ship, and I don't want it getting messed up because we parked too close to the action. " Peter turned to the rest of his main crew, bolstering odd looking weapons at his side and putting on a red leather jacket. "Alright A-holes! We know what we're here to do! Let's get out there and surround them. Don't let it touch them and keep on your toes. It'll be really embarrassing if someone gets eaten alive."
"Ooh! Can I bring out the big bomb?!"
"No." Peter simply. "No you can not."
Trixie prodded the captain's leg and puffed out her chest proudly. "I think that you'll be needing a little pony power in this one! Namely me, and maybe Maud...for like, cheering support."
Derpy squinted at her. "You left me out on purpose, didn't you?"
"We're leaving you all out, actually." Gamora had finished landing the vessel a few seconds back, and was now putting on a vest of some sort for protection. Her sturdy eyes landed on Quill and only him. "We can't just bring them into a fight. They're untrained and they're basically citizens."
Quill shrugged. "That's not what it looked like with Maud."
"Maud...may have done well," The woman admitted reluctantly. "But this time could be different and worse. So they're staying here till we finish up and take them home."
A duo of disappointed groans filled the air, along with one extremely monotone sigh that somehow blended perfectly with the others. That, combined with Quill doing a horrible attempt at a puppy dog face, made Gamora facepalm as hard as he could. While ignoring the sting left on her skin from that, she sighed as well.
"This doesn't look like watching from the sidelines."
"Oh, but it is!" Trixie pointed out smugly. At least, as smug as one could look while a human tightened the straps of their flight vest. Trixie had argued that she was capable of levitating herself with the flight spell, but she would be lying if she said she didn't appreciate having this gear instead. A spell could only work for so long after all. Starlight and that one anger-bottling fiasco were proof of that.
Quill broke in after she began to sink into her own thoughts, patting the horse's back to let her know he was finished. "Yeah, they're not helping us at all. They're just getting close up looks flying alongside us. Nothing more. Ain't that right, Maudie girl?" He snickered at Trixie. "Get it, like 'naughty girl'?"
"You're so childish." The giggling showmare bumped her hoof with his fist all the same. Childish, but enjoyable.
Gamora rolled her eyes and looked around. Derpy flew overhead, carrying strangely rectangular boxes to and fro for Rocket, who seemed to want them in a very specific spot. Drax was holding one of his deadly daggers up in a defensive position and glancing down at an attentive Maud. The sight of the second dagger floating not far above the pony's head made the green woman blink. "Maud! How are you...?"
"Oh. I gave Rocket the glove that Terrax originally had. " Maud explained and sat on her haunches to lift one forehoof. A metallic, tube shaped glove sat perfectly and glinted in the light of their golden surroundings. When she swayed the hoof, the dagger followed it like an obedient pet. "When he re-designed it for me, I found that I could control rocks and metal elements to the point that I can direct their every movement. Or disperse them into their base atoms and recombine them to form a new metal."
"And I am teaching her to how to handle a blade in close combat. " Completely forgetting what she'd said, Drax added his part with a grin. "She insists that she would rather use a staff, though."
"With a staff, I'd have less chance of killing someone."
He nodded. "And there's no fun in that."
"Nope. Scoot it a little more that way." Gamora glanced behind herself at the sound of a certain Racoon, who appeared to be the reason that Derpy was flying around so much. The pegasus had completed the task of carrying three large speakers into the exact spots she'd been told. The dents in the side appeared as evidence that she'd dropped them, but Gamora wasn't sure how she didn't hear that before.
She was just about to turn back around when she noticed something about Drax that made her glower. "Drax. You aren't wearing Rocket's Aero-rig."
"Nope." He stated simply. "It's too painful to wear."
"Too painful?"
"Yes."Drax mumbled at her with a deep reluctance and crossed his arms."...I have sensitive nipples."
"You what?! Ah Ha Ha Ha HAAaaa! Oh man!"
That was probably not the best thing to say around Rocket, who nearly toppled over with roaring laughter and a crude, mocking act of Drax. The buy alien whirled on him with a fierce glare and pointed a sharp looking dagger right at him. "Funny, is it?! Well what are you doing that is so important?!"
"I'm not doing anything--she is!" Rocket pointed at an exasperated, tired Derpy as she all but threw the last speaker down. "Gonna have her set up the speakers so we have some tunes to listen to while we work!"
Maud paused her staff welding practice to stare blankly at Rocket, then at the speakers, and then at Rocket again. "Is that really necessary?
"I dunno! Ask him," The racoon gestured to his human team leader. "He's the one who's got this old...music fetish thingy going on all the time!"
"Actually, I'm just as stumped as Maud about this." Quill rubbed his chin thoughtfully and shook his head. "I mean...It just doesn't seem necessary at all."
Rocket slowly smirked and nodded at him. "Ooooh, yeah. Uh huh. Sure, Quill."
"...No, I'm serious! What you're doing is literally the definition of unnecessary!"
"Yeah, sure! I COMPLETELY understand, that's why I'm being entirely serious right now!" Rocket agreed in an odd tone and winked hard...and multiple times at that. Once the silence and the deadpan stares were thrown his way, he blinked away his grin and cursed aloud. "Riiiight. Use my right eye to wink. Right eye."
A small scuttling sound drew his attention down to the speakers, where a few of the planet's vermin seemed to be running away from something. That thing was apparently Groot, unreasonably swinging at their heads with his tiny fists and giving up when he skirted past Derpy's hoof. He blinked up at the pegasus with a huge pout, and stamped his foot like the little kid he was."I am Grooooot!"
"No they weren't, silly." She stooped down to his level with a small smile and patted his head."Trust me, you'll know if someone's looking at you funny."
Rocket blinked owlishly. "You understand him?!"
"Hmm? No. I was just guessing."
Gamora rolled her eyes a second time, incidentally taking in another view of their surroundings. They were on a giant grey platform made entirely of Z-xglon metal and framed with a golden exoskeleton. It floated in space like it's own sun, with other platforms surrounding it in constant orbit like planets. In the center of this manufactured sun was a single capsule that rose from some mechanical cavern and displayed a dozen smaller capsules of light. Leaving the anulax batteries in plain sight like this was probably the reason they needed protecting. She prepared her AmpRay for combat mode, watching it slide out of it's compartment and click into it's weaponized form. "How far off is it now?"
"Real close. Give or take half a minute. Hey! What happened to your..." Peter gestured to the heavy gun in her hands with a pout. "sword, thing? Does it need more sharpening or...?"
She didn't even try to roll her eyes. He could be so utterly stupid sometimes that it was often painful to he around him. "This thing can hop through dimensions, and you think I'm gonna try to fight it with a sword?"
Trixie stared at her skeptically and then shared that look with the other ponies, their faces the exact same. "Um, sorry but...Hop dimensions? Trixie finds that really impossible. Even for a talking racoon."
Interrupting anyone who would have responded to that comment was a thunderous boom from above, ripping through the cloudy atmosphere by its sound alone. Everyone looked up in time to spot odd lightning streaks of every color imaginable, seemingly tearing through the very fabric of space and opening a giant hole. A pink mass of a blur, writhing with more tentacles than an octopus, fell through the hole with a shrill roar and smashed down onto the metal platform. The impact rattled the very 'ground' they stood on, and for a moment everyone was battling to regain their balance.
"Well...That's intense." Rocket watched as the fifty foot tall creature reared itself up and bared a gaping maw full of teeth about as tall as Drax. He nodded slowly. "So, uh, what's our move, Star-munch?"
Quill glared at him. "You know I hate that name, man." He flicked his mechanical helmet on and soon began to float into the air with the help of his flight gear. "And what do we usually do?! We shoot stuff at it and see if it dies, come on!"
"HA HA HA HAAA!" Drax gave a whooping laugh and flipped his daggers into appropriate positions for combat. Before he rushed forward after Quill to engage in battle, he glanced back at those that remained. "Come, little Ponies! Let us bathe ourselves in the blood and intestine of this hideous beast!"
"Don't follow us. Stay here and watch us work."
After her harshly spoken command, Gamora and ran off alongside Rocket and fired her Ray at the agitated creature. Rocket flew higher to get it's intention higher, leaving more space for his comrades to shoot at. Tentacles lashed out at all of them, swiping and curling in vain attempts to catch them or simply swipe them aside. Quill ave a specific hand signal to Rocket, and the small creature hurled an array of tiny pellets at the right eye of the monster. It bellowed loudly at the explosion around the area, but it caused little more than a pink eye.
It gave Gamora an idea-- blinding it would lead to less worrying over it being able to grab anyone. If she could just shoot out it'seemed eyes, the others could handle the rest. Pripelling herself skyward briefly, she took a few shots at its unharmed eye, precisely hitting the corner at first and then finally it's actual eye. The monster grunted in response to the blasts from Gamora's weapon and managed to focus on slithering it's giant bulk towards her. She flinched at seeing it looming over her while inhaling a deep breath, it's multicolored fires churning in its dark throat...
An asteroid the size of it's head slammed into its fleshy sides and it's roar of pain sent the fires spitting out safely in the opposite direction. Gamora, confused, saw that smaller asteroids were coming from the same direction like bullets from a gun. Growling, she glared daggers at Maud, who's gloved hoof was raised high into the air. "What are doing?!"
"Staying where you told me to." Maud called back, and if Gamora were closer, she would confirm seeing the ghost of a smirk on the pony's face. "And you're welcome."
"Hmmph."
"You think we should do something too, Trixie?" Derpy asked as she held one end of an auxiliary cord in her teeth and watched Groot pick up another end. "Like, maybe I can help fly you up there and you can...cast a spell or something?"
Trixie laughed sarcastically, but nervously as well. "Yeah, no thanks. Trixie is a showmare, not someone like Starlight or that purple princess. I only do illusions and fireworks and...hey!" She perked up, slightly less worried than before. "I'm good at illusions and fireworks! I could help blind it, maybe!"
Maud looked back at her. "I'd be happy to cover you until--...Hey, is that music?"
A voice answered for her above the sound of a drum beating in the middle of a catchy beat.
Sun is shinin' in the sky~!
The three mare's flinched and looked to the source of the vocalized song, where they beheld Groot staring at the speakers with an expression of dawning glee. The tiny being suddenly leaped onto one foot, moving his arms and legs into a crude sort of dance. It moved him on an unpaved path away from the speakers, a bright smile on his face.
There Ain't a cloud in sight~!
Groot hopped over a cord and skidded, arms waving like an ocean. He snapped his tiny fingers and marched along to the drum's loud loud pattern, everything else about the battle apparently erased from his little mind.
It's stopped rainin' everybody's in a play~
Derpy grinned widely at him, her hoof tapping along as well."Aw, isn't he just the most adorable thing you ever saw?"
"Sure, whatever. Derpy, pay attention! This may be an opportunity for you to redeem yourself for getting us here in the first place!" The showmare spoke in her usual commanding tone, like a general about to command her army of one. " Acompany Trixie upwards, and help Maud distract it! I need as much space as possible for this to work!"
And don't you know,
Derpy saluted her with the most serious look she could muster, and took to the sky. Trixie remained on the ground, prodding at different parts of her suit and sighing in irritation. "How does this stupid vest work?"
Derpy pressed into her stomach. "Pat the belly twice!"
It's a beautiful new day, he~ey!
"What an odd way to fly." Trixie mused, but followed the instructions. Sure enough, she began to fly straight up, although at an alarming speed. When she managed to raise her head against the sudden burst of momentum, she zoomed downwards. She frantically found equilibrium in time to avoid hitting the platform, and for a moment she breathed heavily. Then she combed her hair back into place. "Ha! Easy. Let's go!"
Runnin' down the avenue~ See how the sun shines brightly in the city,
They flew into the chaotic mass of color, tentacles and guardians, managing to dodge underneath debris or the occasional body part. The ponies circled each other flying up above the head of the creature, and Trixie pointed at it's left. Derpy saluted her again and shot down towards the left of the beast, when a tentacle moved to swipe at Rocket. The pegasus veered to the right to avoid collision with the tentacle, and instantly gained it's attention. The beast snapped at Derpy, causing the pony to shriek loudly and fly back up towards Trixie. "ACK! Throw the smoke bombs! Throw the smoke bombs!"
On the streets where once was pity, Mister blue sky is living here today, he~ey
"NO! You're supposed to go the other--" Trixie rolled her eyes. "Ugh! Nevermind! This better work!"
She dived down in a straight path and pulled a decent hooful of smoke bombs fromantic her bag, tossing it down at the eyes of the beast as it just focused on her. They exploded on impact, closing both eyes with a giant stream of smoke and causing it to blink hard. The monster roared and voiced it's pain with thrashing tentacles and baring teeth. Trixie grinned widely at her feat. "Huh. That actually worked! Trixie expected to be eaten or something!"
Mister blue sky! Please tell us why!
One of the pained tentacles smashed into her side and slapped her out of the sky. It felt like her entire brain was bouncing around in her skull, uncertain of which way was up and which way was down. It seemed like she should have smashed painfully into the ground, but Trixie heard a metallic whir and someone's arm around her middle section. Then the fall slowed to a gradual halt, evidenced by the sound of a soft landing on metal.
You had to hide away for so long (so long)
Trixie shook head to clear the stars, and was surprised to see Quill setting her down on all fours again. She held a hoof to her muzzle as his mask slid away. "Quill...?" She glanced behind him at the height she'd fallen and her eyes widened. "You saved me!"
"Yep. It's what I do. Plus, you kinda saved us with that smoke trick!" He mused as she stood to his feet. He looked entirely different with his helmet on, somewhat disturbing with his glowing red lenses. It was scratched a little on one side, evidence of how much progress the Guardians had made against the beast. "So, you know. Returning the favor, and stuff. You should probably move now, though. Since it's still--"
Where did we go wrong?
He turned and looked back just in time to see the blinded creature thrashing it's whole body around...in their direction. The other gaurdians dodged the massive beast, but the speed that it moved at was too fast for Trixie or Quill to move. " OH SH--" He stumbled back, whatever he was going to say interrupted by Trixie's glass-shattering scream. Unknown by the two, Trixie's horntip glowed brighter the faster the beast's body approached them.
Mister blue sky! Please tell us why!
Time slowed down. Just when it seemed like they were going to be crushed to a pulp by the sheer weight of the beast, light exploded from the tip of Trixie's horn with a colossal sound. She screamed even louder than before as thick blue bolt of lightning lashed out and struck at the chest of the beast like a cobra strike, tearing a deep gash into it like it was nothing. It stumbled back from the attack, howling with more pain than before and scooting more distance between itself and the two below. Trixie's jaw fell open and when she finally looked towards Quill, his jaw was also limp.
"Hey!" She snapped out of her trance to look at Rocket, who hovered overhead with a wide grin. "That was frickin' awesome! Do it again!"
Quill broke out of his trance around the same time, nudging her with an elbow. "Yeah, that would be pretty helpful! Why didn't you do that earlier?!"
You had to hide away for so long~
The unicorn felt shaky, disoriented with surprise over what she did. Where did that come from? She'd never even been able to make an illusion of lightning that powerful and thick, let alone create the real deal. This was beyond impossible by her standards! "Um, I..." She reluctantly, yet curiously tried again. Nothing happened when she tried, but smoke noticeably trailed from her horn after the lightning bolt. Whatever she just did seemed to be a one time thing. "Uh, I can't! I-I've never really done that before!"
Where did we go wrong?
"Sh!t. We could've used that since this thing's like some kinda...octopus tank." Quill stood to his feet with a groan, popping his spine to relieve the slight discomfort. As he continued, Trixie kept trying her horn to no reward. "We're only making it itch when we try."
Hey you: with the pretty fa--
As if to emphasize his point, a blur was tossed overhead with blinding speed and stopped just as fast by crashing into something fragile and large. They winced as Drax groggily got up from the wreckage of the giant speakers, never noticing Groot's squeak of outrage or his punching and kicking afterwords. With only four others up and ready, the efforts grew somewhat weaker on Rocket and Gamora's part. The most they could by now was circle warily and cause it mild irritation. Maud stilled hurled meteors and asteroids and anything involving even a little stone--her collection of giant masses circled the creature like buzzards. She clapped her hooves together, and all of the rocks jutted their sharpest points into the hide of the thing. It bucked and writhed with fury, tossing the giant stones off it's body and back into space.
"Nothing seems to be working." Maud pointed out.
"Really? Never noticed." Trixie rolled her eyes at her pony compadre, her shock over her newfound power forgotten for now. "Don't you guys have something big and sharp to use?"
Before any other guardians could answer, Drax rose to his full height and grasped his daggers in his familiar combat position. "It won't work, horse of tricks." He spoke in a low, calculating tone while his eyes focused on the roaring jaws of the beast. He grinned dangerously as his last minute, heroic plan completed itself in his mind. "The beast's hide is too thick to be pierced from the outside," Drax prepared to make a run for it at just the right moment, for his timing would determine life and death. "so I must cut through from the inside!"
"What?" Maud turned towards him, a very small look of confusion written on her face. "That's a horrible idea. Don't--"
"Hold it off as best you can!"
Gamora waved to him frantically. "No, you idiot! Don't do it!"
Whooping deliriously above the suddenly frantic protests of his allies, he rushed forward. With a dangerous grin on his face, the burly alien closed the far distance between and his repulsive foe,then used one of the writhing tentacles to leap towards it. Laughs erupted from his chest as the stupid beast fell for his ploy with a lunge towards him, sealing the guardian inside it with a massive--
"He did not just do that! Tell me he did not just jump in its mouth!"
Maud pecked her chin with a hoof, staring at the gurgling beast in consideration. "Okay, but I don't like lying. He did not just jump in its mouth."
"What type of moron does something so stupid?!" Starlord asked rhetorically, for he already knew the answer to that question. He could just imagine the big doof repeatedly stabbing its insides while laughing at the top of his lungs. That idiot.
"Exactly!" Trixie was more than happy to agree with Quill, raising a hoof as if to massage her temple from the idiocy she'd witnessed. "Does he really think the inside won't be just as tough as the outside?! Even a foal would be able to grasp that concept, let alone know that jumping into it is completely foolhardy!"
Rocket wrinkled his snout at her in disgust. "Do you eat dictionaries for breakfast?"
The beast did not seem satisfied with the meal of Drax and soon it was back to its writhing and roaring maneuvers. Everyone scattered out of the way of incoming meteors from Maud's gloves, exploding on impact with the tough skin of the monster. The force of each blow kept it where it was and blinded it with clouds of rock dust It didn't quite have the effect that Trixie had on it, and there was little chance that Drax was making better progress from within its belly. Rocket and Quill's shooting attempts didn't even count.
Gamora pinched the bridge of her nose, but resolved not to dwell on Drax's foolhardy dilemma--she could save him if she found a way to kill it fast enough. Her face brightened; Trixie had managed to cut it. Even if she couldn't do it again, she still made a sizeable wound. Gamora would just have to open it some more. "I have a new plan, Quill." She raised her gun up towards the monster, noting that the cut was hidden by its gaping maw. "I'll need you all to get it to look up! I can kill it if I shoot at the hole Trixie made!"
"Oh yeah. Why didn't I think of that?" Quill pondered aloud. As soon as his mask slid and clicked back into place, the man rocketed upward alongside Rocket and Derpy. The pegasus blew raspberries at the howling beast while her comrades made their respective shots between the eyes. The tentacled thing reared up to snap at their ankles, but they were luckily out of reach all the time. The rainbow colored flames put Rocket's blaster out of commission (much to his horror), which was a sign that time was running out. Gamora aimed her blaster for a perfect bullseye shot of the bleeding wound.
"Yikes! Any time now, G! " Rocket snapped at her from high above. He was just barely keeping out of reach of the tentacles and the others weren't far behind.
Click!
Gamora blinked owlishly. Nothing came out of the muzzle of her blaster, even when she tried a few more times with the trigger. She briefly glanced at her airborne allies--fighting against the tentacles that caught up to them--and the glared at the useless weapon.Now was not the time for this thing to jam up--not with such a perfect hole to stab. "Sh!t." She tossed it aside and unholstered something a lot more personal and aged from her hip.
"So you did bring the sword." A voice droned from the left.
"Shut it, Maud."
Gamora took a running start at the monster and following a brief vocal signal, a small rock fluttered underneath the woman's boots. With the extra height, she launched herself up to the very level of the gushing wound. The sword easily plunged into the gory cut and buried its way into the dark pink flesh. Flicking her wrist at an angle gave the sharp edge the opportunity it needed to rip its way down the beast's front. With a wheezing roar of pain, the tentacles slid away from the bodies of those it once held captive and they safely glided to the metal platform below. Gamora landed with a thud, while the creature's wounded stumble was much less graceful.
The ponies flinched back at the vibrations from the dead thing and then flinched again when its innards splattered their way out of their gory prison. Alien blood seeped out along with it, staining the golden pieces of the platform with bubbling loads of mucus-like blood. Gamora didn't even look at it--instead choosing to flick her weapon and toss some of the gooey remains off the blade.
Derpy visibly jumped as some of the slimes landed on her hooves. Cheeks turning a vivid green, she took several steps back from it and turned her head away. "I've seen a five-month-old muffin before but...That's gotta be the most disgusting thing I've ever seen in my life."
Rocket shook his head behind her. "Nope. But this is."
A muffled sound exploded from within the ribcage of the creature. Followed closely by the sounds of squelching and seeping, the buffered noise turned out to be a victorious roar. That was just about the time that Drax poked his upper body out of the cut open hide, hooting and cheering almost obnoxiously.
"Well...You were right." Derpy gagged between eyeful of the bloodied, yet uninjured alien.
"YES! I HAVE SINGLEHANDEDLY SLAUGHTERED THE FOUL BEAST! I LAUGH IN THE REMAINS OF ITS PUTRID SLIME!" Drax wheeze between bouts of insane laughter, ignoring the icky mess around and on him. He thrust his fists skyward with a wild hoot, both tightly clenching his stained weapons. "BASK IN MY OUTRAGEOUSLY GREAT VICTORY!"
Groot cut him short by hurling a piece of the destroyed speakers at his head. Drax blankly stared at the small plant, and then shared the same look with everyone else.
"What? You guys helped."
To distance themselves the stench of the monster, everyone ambled over to a short, golden construct housing tiny pellets. After relaying news of their success to someone that called themselves the "Sovereign's elite Guard", Gamora declared that it would be a few minutes before a transport came to bring them to their employers. Trixie idly cleaned some of her fur with the aura of her horn, entranced by the glow of it as it scraped slime away. Her thoughts leaped back to those breathtaking moments when she was sure she was a goner...and that bolt of pure energy. She'd never done anything as intense as that before, and it just showed up randomly. She'd chalk it up to a life or death reflex, but Trixie had a list of near-death experiences before this one. The mare wished she could do it at least one more time. While it was just once, it...it felt good.
Trixie faded back into reality as Quill walked past and lightly tapped the dead monster with the side of his foot. She smirked at him with a sidelong glance. "So, is this what you guys do most of the time?"
"Nah, we usually chill and blow up stuff that won't get us arrested. " Quill shrugged as he leaned against the construct. " Too bad we didn't meet up before. We could've used that bad-ass lightning thing you did. "
Derpy fluttered overhead and perched on the construct. "If bad-ass means cool, then you're right! That was one of the coolest things I've seen in my life! She looked like one of those two-legged aliens in the incident, Maud! That Sore guy!"
"Thor." Maud corrected with a nod.
The show mare hummed with content and smoothed back a lock of her mane."Trixie supposes that she was indeed a little... bad-ass. But she is naturally this good. Nothing to be surprised about."
Maud blinked at her. "But all your other magical feats are usually weak in comparison."
"So, what are these things anyway?" Trixie pointed inside the construct at the tiny metal capsules. " Are they like, giant pills or something?"
Quill tapped the glass with a knuckle, and a know-it-all smirk. "Nope. They're Anulax Batteries."
"Harbulary Batteries." Cleaning himself with a towel, Drax regarded the small batteries.
"That is nothing like what he just said." Maud blinked.
"They're worth a thousand units a piece and pretty dang powerful too. They charge a lot of their city's functions and maintenance and stuff...And while I'm on the subject," The human gestured to a large floating vehicle in the far distance, but approaching fast. "Let's all be careful about what we say around these people. They're easily offended and the cost of a mistaken statement is death."
Derpy winced but floated down nevertheless. "Geez, that sounds harsh."
Gamora crossed her arms. "It'll be harsh if you say the wrong thing. I'd advise you three not to talk at all."
"...and the splendid mixture of Gold and Nickel compounds for your stairs makes for a nice sheen to your throne, your highness. Might I suggest a hint of brass at the heels for a unique fading effect, and bronze lining the armrests?"
Gamora sighed. This flattery had been droning on from Maud ever since they stopped before the chairs of the Sovereign and their amused faces. Gold skin set them apart from other races in the galaxy and made them all look unnaturally shiny. Even their clothes were either white or a bright gold hue--only subordinates wore any dark clothing, perhaps as some sort of uniform. The middle, clearly the leader, took the pony's words to her heart and smiled softly." Thank you, small creature. I would never have suspected such an odd species to have such a unique taste in the elements. You have my respect, Maud, was it?"
The earth pony bowed once, also gently smiling.
The High one smiled wider in approval. "I like your livestock, Guardians. They show promise."
Quill coughed a little. "Oh, they're not livestock, High Ayesha. They're only kind citizens of Equus that are lost and seek a way home again. We're lucky that they helped us to defeat the Abilisk."
"Indeed." The golden woman agreed and raised her voice to address them all. "We thank you Guardians and company for defeating the dreaded Abilisk. We could not risk the lives our own citizens to kill it, as we deem every created member of our society as important."
Trixie found the reasoning noble enough, though one word the gold woman mentioned stood out. She raised a hoof and carefully chose her words. "You said created?"
Ayesha nodded twice. "Yes. Our greatest minds, including my own, have perfected mechanical methods of producing our kind and filling our world with more of us. Everyone that you've seen so far has been bred from DNA manipulation and birthing pods to our specific design--to their...sovereign potential."
"Huh." Quill tried an expression of normalcy. "I guess I just prefer to make people the old-fashioned way. Just that kinda guy."
Gamora rolled her eyes again.
Ayesha exchanged a smirk with one of her subordinates in the lower thrones. "Really? Perhaps someday you could give me a history lesson in the archaic ways of your species..." She smirked wider. "For strictly educational purposes of course."
Even Trixie rolled her eyes.
"Hmm! Well, I think that's a grand idea. I would be honored to be a part in that. The experience would be mutually..." Feeling Gamora's intense glare on him, Quill quickly changed his direction. "Repulsive and shameful for me. I would never....just casually do...ykno--"
"Oh, enough of this." Gamora stepped forward and announced with a softer tone: "You said you had something for us in exchange for our services here. Give it to us and we shall gladly take our leave."
Ayesha turned to a darkly dressed guard, who nodded and entered a hidden doorway masked by a gigantic pillar. He returned with someone bound and masked, struggling against whatever was used to tie them up. Gamora eyed the unknown figure as they were led to the foot of Ayesha's high throne and tossed to their knees. This was the most unexpected thing for a reward, and oddly specific towards her. Ayesha seemed to be expecting Gamora, especially, to unmask this prisoner. But why? Who could it be?"
Filled with a tense mixture of caution and curiosity, Gamora reached down and pulled off the hood.
Gamora was sent flying back when her opponent launched from her kneeling position, striking a fist against her jaw. The young girl stumbled back from the hit, but was quick to return the favor with a kick aimed to the little girl's ribs. This wasn't going the way she'd planned--the new mechanic limb was proving to make up for the strength she lacked in the last battle, and Gamora was struggling to keep up with its speed. She couldn't lose a battle to her, not one. Father would be greatly disappointed by it and her opponent was the reason she wouldn't like his punishment for losing.
The two children stared each other down for a harsh moment. Gamora threw a punch forward, only for her fist to be caught in a metallic grip. Her sister bent forward, making her sibling's wrist bend at a painful angle. Just when it seemed that her wrist would snap, Gamora felt her legs being kicked out from under her.
The impact against the barren ground knocked the wind out of her, and her opponent wasn't looking to give her a chance to get it back. A fleshy hand and a robotic hand snaked around her neck and pressed tightly to cut off her air supply. They both struggled against each others strength; two young children locked in a ferocious scuffle to the death. The cold, intent eyes of their father watched from a golden throne hovering above the ground.
Gamora, struggling to peel the hands off of her, stared into her sister's eyes.
The icy gaze of Nebula looked back.
At first her look had been one of shock, but then it hardened into bloodthirsty hatred when she saw who towered over her. Her hands, bound as they were, tight and against the shackles. Her whole body looked ready to pounce and tear her new captor apart, price by piece. Gamora returned the same glare, fists clenching tightly at her sides.
Quill nervously grinned at them. "Oh, Family reunion--yaaaay."
"Family?" Maud have mumbled quietly, but no one could be certain. She stared at the two for any sign that they were related, but nothing pointed to it. The only thing they had common were their death stares.
"I understand this is your sister?" Ayesha questioned. "We caught Nebula attempting to steal from us shortly before you arrived."
Sister? Maud focused on the two of them again. The blue woman seemed younger than Gamora, like how Pinkie was younger than Maud herself. The mare could imagine the two bipeds being sisters, but something about their faces...they didn't show sisters at all. They showed enemies.
"...She is worth no more to me than the bounty for her head on Xandar."
With that statement, Gamora roughly hauled Nebula to her feet and shoved her towards the exit door. Maud followed them with her eyes, which her slightly narrowed in concern. How could sisters act this way towards one another? This wasn't right at all.
As the frowning pony and the other Guardians began to leave, Quill signaled a farewell to the thrones. "Thank you, High Ayesha! Until we mee--"
"What is your heritage, Mr.Quill?" Ayesha asked, pointing a finger at a specific pony as well. "And you, small creature?"
"Me?" Trixie blinked away some of her surprise and briefly glanced at Quill. "Well...uh, can't say I've ever met my parents. I assume they were ponies like me."
Peter shrugged, the smile still on his face. Trixie could see something was different about it though. It had faltered. "My mother's from Earth."
"And your father?"
There it was again--the drop in the smile. "Well...He's from Missouri. That's all I know."
Ayesha fixed the pony and human with a mirthless stare as if studying their insides as well as their facades. " I can see it in both of you...A base gene coupled with something highly unorthodox, warping you from your original design. This gene transformed everything...and has left you as reckless hybrids with unknown power."
Trixie swallowed quietly, reflecting on the golden woman's words. She knew that Quill's mystery was narrowed down for him if his mother really was normal. But that left her with nee, aching questions bout herself. If a single parent gave her this hidden power...then which one? She looked at Ayesha again and opened her mouth.
"Yknow, they told me you people were conceited douchebags," A certain voice piped up dom behind her. "But that isn't true at all."
A collective gasp filled the entire room, highlighted by the angry stares of Ayesha, the guardians and Trixie at a particular raccoon. Said raccoon stopped winking and frowned at them. "Shoot. I was using the wrong eye again, wasn't I?"
Quill sighed loudly and gestured towards the door. "Lets just go."
"Sorry! " Rocket called behind the Guardians at Ayesha, even as Drax snatched him up by the back of his suit. "You guys weren't supposed to see that!"
"You can shut up now." Drax snorted at him on their journey to the entrance.
"Rocket!" Derpy nervously exclaimed, wings gliding her next to them. "You're lucky they didn't kill you, let alone us!"
"You're tellin' me." Rocket snickered loudly into his paw and reached for his satchel. He zipped it open to reveal that it was full of familiar golden pellets, quietly mostly with each step. He nudged Drax with a laughing wheeze. "You wanna buy some batteries?"
Drax gave a whooping laugh at him, and Rocket contained his one laughter enough to shush him. Derpy nervously bit her hooves and followed, glancing back at the golden faces.
"Alright, let’s get baldy here to Xandar and collect that bounty!"
Nebula growled at the raccoon with all the anger she could muster, but it meant nothing under the glare of her sister, much to Maud’s slightly dolorous feelings.
Trixie followed her onto the ship, eyes blank as she thought about what Ayesha said. A hybrid--her exact words were so. She was not one hundred percent pony like she originally thought her whole life. The idea was saddening at first; she liked the idea of being a pony, or at least having parents from Equestria. But more time to think left her with an interested mind, full of new questions and possibilities. Her parents--or at least one of them--had to be really powerful, especially for their child to let off magic like that lightning bolt.
But who or what could it be? Trixie wanted to believe that one of her parents just so happened to be a really powerful alicorn, but she’d have wings in that case. Ew--what if one of her parents wasn’t even a pony? The thought of a pony falling in love with a bizarre creature like that annoying raccoon made her a little queasy. She shook it off and considered one final question: Why was she left alone on Equestria? All those years of her life with untouched, raw power when she could have been trained to use it. No more The Great and Powerful Trixie! More like, The Tremendous and Almighty Trixie! Yes, that name had quite the--
Her scrambling thoughts distracted her from noticing where she was walking, and she ended up trotting face-first into a wall of the ship--Hard. Rubbing her injured, sore snout, the mare heard a specific pair of shoes slowing to a halt beside her.
“Yeeeah, Let’s not put any dents in my ship, Trix.” Quill glanced down at her. From the look of his eyes, it was clear he was at least a little anxious about the identity of one of his parents. Or perhaps defensive--Trixie was still learning how to read his emotions. “I kinda need it.”
Huffing in amusement, she stroked back her hair with a hoof. “ You could do better than this rust bucket, Quill.” She smirked as an amusing thought sprung up. “Maybe if Trixie can get the hang of her newfound power, she’ll just make a new one for you.”
The human considered with surprising thoughtfulness. “A side vehicle does sound pretty good. But also costly.”
Trixie hummed as he walked over to a storage compartment and removed his transforming helmet with a few whirs and clicks. She trotted up to his side and looked up expectantly. “So, what are the chances of two hybrids running into each other! Ya wonder who our parents are?”
“Pftt. I know who my mom is and my father was like David Hasselhoff. So, no. I don’t wonder...Uh…”He gave her a wincing, apologetic look. “Sorry. That came out mean.”
She rolled her eyes. “Pfft. I've heard a lot of parent comments a hundred times before.”
“Uh...how does that happen?”
“Children can be cruel. Especially in Trixie’s childhood.” She shrugged off biting memories of little fillies teasing and insulting the foal with no parents. She could laugh in their faces now, every last one of them. “They were probably all jealous of Trixie’s potential lineage. And now look at me--us! Maybe your father, whoever he is, has really cool powers too and they're just inside of you!”
Quill scoffed and busied himself. “Yeah, sure.”
The reaction confirmed her earlier suspicions--he was definitely not eager. At least, not on her level. “Uh...that's good news. Like, cheering news. You know just a little bit more about your father now!”
If Quill was ever going to respond to that, Gamora beat him to it. “He doesn't share your eagerness.” She shoved Nebula into the middle of the ship, where a ceiling restraint lay in place for her. His father is a sensitive subject, Trixie. He doesn't like to talk about it.”
When a curious Trixie turned back for confirmation, Quill shook his head with a cross between a laugh and a scoff. “What? I'm not sensitive about it! I just don't like to think about him. That much. “
“Now that I think about it,” Trixie began. “You did seem a little sensitive.”
After shooting a glare at her, he winced towards Gamora. “Sorry if it looked like I was flirting with the high priestess by the way. I wasn't like, at all. Just chatting with weird vibes in the mix.”
“Who said I cared?” Gamora said before disappearing into the ship’s storage room.
“Ouch.” Trixie grinned.
“Shutup. And it looked like you did care! So that's why I was saying sorry just now!” Quill called after his green lady friend and tried not to look rebuffed. “Just in case you did.”
“Gamora is not the woman for you, Quill.”
Quill and Trixie flinched at seeing Drax suddenly next to them, completely still like a statue. The unicorn bristled in slight annoyance and surprise. “Wha--?! How long have you been standing there?!”
“I've been practicing being invisible. It's a work in progress.” Drax explained and looked at Quill again. “While you both are strange and downright repulsive at times, I feel that you two are not meant for one another.”
“Well, thanks for your opinion, Mr. Lovecritic,” The human rolled his eyes. “Ever heard of the phrase, Opposites attract?”
“Yes, and it is a horrible phrase.” Drax crossed his arms and leaned against the nearest wall he could. He appeared to think of something to add to his clearly profound words. “Hmm...There are two types of beings in the universe--”
“I used to think that before now.” Trixie offered.
“--The Dancers, and the Non-Dancers….or as I like to call them: The ones who do not dance whatsoever. I know, it's a wonderful moniker.” The alien brute nodded as a fond memory played behind his eyes and he explained it. “It reminds of the time I first met my beloved wife at a war rally.”
“Oh, God.”
“It was a glorious, deafening night of bright lights and loud music. Everyone in the village flailed and jerked about like brain-dead bilgesnipe, dancing...Except for one woman. My glorious Ovette.” He continued fondly. “ I knew immediately she was the one for me--My one who does not dance. The most melodic song in the world could be blasting around her...She wouldn’t even tap her foot. Wouldn’t move a single muscle, “ Drax raised his non-existent eyebrows. “ One might assume she was dead.”
A very fed up Quill strained to hold his smile. “Man, that does sound sexy.” He nudged Trixie with his ankle. “ Doesn't that sound hot, Trix?”
She nodded, wearing a bigger faux grin. “I hope I'm as lucky as you, Drax.”
“You’d be wise to hope for it. The thought would make my nether regions engorge.”
Starlord wisely cut that conversation off. “Okay! I get it. I'm a dancer. Gamora isn’t.”
“It’s perfectly fine, Quill. You just need to find someone who is pathetic...like you.”
“Right. Great advice.” Quill deadpanned.
“Do you need a hug?”
“No. Don’t touch me.”
As Quill entered a high stakes battle to keep Drax from hugging him, Nebula cast her stone cold stare down to Maud. Maud returned it with an odd look as if trying to stare inside of Nebula as opposed to the outside. The cybernetic woman snarled at the mare. “What are you looking at, Beast?”
Maud tilted her head. “Your face, I guess.”
Hmmph. A lot of sarcasm for such a strange beast. Nebula would have snapped its vulnerable neck if her hands were free. Instead,d she settled for jutting her nose at an object, not from them. “I am hungry, Beast. Hand me some of that Yaro root.”
“Don’t. It's not ripe.” Gamora returned with the lock in hand, hardened eyes focused solely on her. “And I hate you.”
Before Maud could so much as blink, Nebula snarled at her with an electronic whir narrowing her cybernetic eyelids. “You hate me? I took you for many things, but never a hypocrite. You abandoned me on that planet and stole that stone for yourself. You killed your way to victory and had no trouble fighting me to do it. And yet here you stand...a hero. “ Nebula stepped close despite the locked shackles, body itching to leap forward and strangle her. “...I will be free of these putrid shackles soon enough, and then I will snap your spine in half and tear off your head. I swear it.”
“No…” Gamora, a bold smirk on her face, leaned in close. “ You’re going rot...and rust the rest of your days in a prison on Xandar… wishing you could. “
With that, the green woman brushed past her pony friend and sat to sharpen her sword. A half minute into the task, she heard a set of hooves trot up to her and stop. “So...That’s your sister.”
“Yes.” Gamora huffed through her nose.
“Sisters don’t normally act that way with each other. “ Maud continued, glancing back at Nebula with the slightest expression of concern. “Or at least, my sister and I don’t. We’ve had our differences, but we got over it.”
She made a noisy scrape with the sharpener. “Good for you.”
Maud sat down, ignoring the obvious attempt to ignore her. “I’m just saying, maybe you shouldn't be like this. I know it can be tough sometimes.”
Gamora scraped to a halt and stared at the mare incredulously as if she’d said something particularly stupid. “Tough? Nebula is not tough. She’s murderous and conniving. Is your sister murderous and conniving?”
“That doesn’t matter--”
“Oh, I think it does.”
“It doesn’t. She’s still your family, isn’t she?” When the question wasn’t immediately answered, Maud followed that up with: “If I were you, I would try to right...whatever happened between you two. It could be good for you both.”
“Good idea! She’s only tried to kill me multiple times, so what the hell, right?”
“She said you did some things too. There’s room for room for correction on both sides but--”
“Listen, Maud. Normally I would shove you aside, threaten you or both. But, I just so happen to like you the slightest, so I’ll warn you instead.” The green woman gestured with the hilt of her sword to her, all signs of sarcasm her features. “Drop this, right now. I know you want to help, but I don’t care and neither will she. There’s nothing to fix between us, so don’t start trying.”
As usual, Maud´s face didn´t betray any signs of emotion. In fact, it seemed to be even more stoic and unreadable than before. “ There is. And I will.”
Gamora would have narrowed her eyes--would have come up with a threat of some sort to keep her out of things she had no business in. She would have if it wasn’t for an electronic beeping noise. Both Maud and Gamora turned to stare at the head of the ship, where Derpy sat in Rocket’s chair and watched the monitor with childish interest. “Wow, this game is pretty difficult. I don’t know how to work the controls on this thing.”
“That’s not a game,stupid,” Rocket rolled his eyes and shuffled over to his seat with his hand's busy tinkering with a small sphere. “That’s the motion sensors I installed for the back of the ship. Like eyes at the the back of yer head.”
“Oh.” Derpy turned back to the monitor and squinted at it curiously. “Then why do we have a bunch of orange dots behind us?”
“Orange Dots?”
Quill marched up to the monitor in swift strides to join her staring contest with the screen. Everyone else joined and sure enough, the sensors displayed several objects approaching them in a giant herd, like a school of fish led by a while. Starlord raised an eyebrow at this confusing news. “Odd. Those are Sovereign ships.”
Trixie shared a greater look of confusion. “That is odd. Are they chasing us? What for?”
Drax grinned broadly. “Perhaps they forgot another reward and are trying to give it to us!”
Derpy turned around in the seat and shook her head, tsking. “Nah, Drax. They would have one ship for that. We might have offended them somehow, you know? Maybe they’re mad at Rocket for stealing their batteries?”
The pegasus slapped a hoof over her mouth, and the eyes of the whole ship shifted slowly over to the raccoon. Said raccoon snarled at her under his breath. “Dude! Are you serious?”
“Sorry! I meant to say that I have no idea why they’re chasing us!” The pony nervously tapped her hooves together and gave her signature shrug. “What an mystery this is, am I right? Or am I right? Totally not Rocket’s fault whatsoever.”
Derpy Winked.
Rocket facepawed.
The ship lurched sideways as something bombarded the side. The guardians immediately lept into action, each one of them sitting in separate seats at the front of the ship. Starlord shared a particularly unhappy look with Rocket as he hopped into place in the captain's seat. "You're crazy, Rocket. You know that right?"
"I came. I saw. I took." The raccoon shrugged.
Gamora rolled her shoulders back, popping joints in her body engaging the targeting systems for the side weapons. The three passengers behind her popped up in her thoughts, and she sighed aloud. As much as she would like them to stay out of this for once...She turned the seat around 180° and raised an eyebrow skeptically. "Well? Are you three going to stand there, or are you going to help?"
The three mares exchanged separate glances but nodded in unison.
Ayesha narrowed her eyes, goring them into her subordinates beneath her. She watched all five hundred of them stationed in their holographic battle pods, closing in on their newfound enemy. She glared at the pinpoint that stood as a representation of a fleeing ship, with six weasely scoundrels aboard it. Her fingers tightened into fists at her sides the more she stared and she didn't notice anything else until her general suddenly spoke up beside her.
"We are locked on to the target." He said in a dutiful tone. "Awaiting your orders."
Ayesha relaxed her fists and drummed her fingers against her legs, her eyes still trained on the closet holographic image. "Despicable." She all but spat out. Her fingers drummed harder. "Every last one of them; despicable and nothing else."
"Indeed, Ma'am."
"Despicable wretches, all of them." She hissed like an angry animal under her breath. "I invite them to peace and friendship through their hired task. We pay them to handle our problem and they steal from us?!" She inhaled sharply, turning her nose upward in disgust. "This is a crime of the highest level. And they will be treated as criminals of such a level."
Ayesha sneered at her general. "Give the order. Fire when ready."
The general blinked worriedly. "Wait. Fire? The batteries are very costly and explosive! Are you sure you want to..."
Given the look she gave him, he figured that she was very sure. "Oh. Very well."
“Rocket, I know that...more than likely, you're usually a very stupid animal and all," Trixie sneered and levitated Quill's mask over to him before she aided Maud by handing her the asteroid gloves. "But didn't your brain say anything along the lines of Don't steal from the aliens you were hired by?!"
Quill fired a few rounds of the ship's weapons at their attackers and only hit a small percentage of them. He pulled up on a cylindrical piece and the ship lurched upwards with a sudden force. " Oh, don't waste your breath on him. Like you said, stupid animal."
"How am I stupid for stealing those batteries?!" Rocket jerked the ship left after pulling on a device similar to Quill's. When a trio of golden attackers hovered in their path, he shot them all into orange explosions. "Did you see them? No bodyguards, no laser cases--they didn't even have a password to get to them! I mean, come on! They deserved to be stolen, right?"
"I am Groot!"
"Groot's right. That's like saying," Maud paused to flick her front hooves together in a sudden clap, then directed them inwards towards her chest. A cluster of asteroids clashed together behind their ship on a group of gold pods and then rushed towards the rest of the swarm behind them. Job done for now, she continued. "That I can steal your tail just because you don't have a bodyguard for it. You're still stealing it, so its wrong."
Gamora stared at the back of Rocket's head with an incredulous glare. "Rocket, the ponies are making more sense than you. That’s a new low.”
“I make sense to me, screw you very much.” Rocket jammed a thumb down on a fresh blue button belonging to her panel, then leaned done to a recently installed mic. “ Activate Disco Ball!” He winked at Quill. “You'll love this.”
Plasma bolts in the form of sparkling zips of energy shot out from the back of the ship and clustered together to form a giant herd of sizzling light. The chaotic mass collided for only a split second, and they each reacted violently with each other in even less time. A series of blinding, colorful flashes erupted in the dark expanse of space and brightened everything as if the sun was right next to them. Blinking away the white spots in his vision, Quill smiled at the raccoon.
“ Wow! You installed a new system when I told you not to and came up with a crappy flash bomb! Thanks, dude!”
“Ya welcome!”
“I was being sarcastic!”
“What?! No, you weren't! You wink when you're being sarcastic! You're not playing by the rules, man! The RULES!”
Derpy fluttered to the very front of the ship and glanced around from the dome shape of the glass. She squinted downwards as best as she could and shot backward second later.“They’re coming from below, Mr.Lord!”
Starlord shifted the ship backward in a jarring lurch up and around, which narrowly dodged the gold pods as a result. He jammed forward on his control sticks and caused the ship to fly in a straight fall down towards a passing asteroid. He clicked his tongue and veered towards the right with a sharp yank; Maud pulled the asteroid up with a strained uplift of her arms at his command and the group of targets found themselves crushed by the heavy mass ramming into them.
Rocket reached under his seat and recovered a very mechanical vest, before calling for a certain Pegasi. Derpy swallowed nervously as she wandered over to the woodland alien and accepted the strange wear. The moment she started to put it on, the belt connected automatically over her back. She squeaked and tensed her wings as something clicked into shape on her shoulder. When she realized it was, she cringed. “I thought you were crazy to send me out there period...but this is ridiculous! This gun is way too small!”
“And it packs a big punch, so point it away from our ship, please.” Rocket punched a button that opened the bay doors of the ship and offered a polite gesture to it. “Off ya go, My little pony! Make me proud!”
Gamora glared daggers at her ally from behind, shaking her head in disbelief. “Rocket, you’re going to get her killed with that stupid thing on! We can't just send her out there!”
Derpy glanced between the two of them and swallowed a large lump. On one hoof, she could die by many things out there as opposed to remaining on the ship; suffocation or one of those laser bolt things for one. Of course, if she stayed there could also be the possibility of being in an exploding ship and that was never good. Probably worse than not breathing or having a huge hole in you, by Derpy’s strange standards. Before she could bring herself to think logically, she charged past Gamora. “I can do this! I can do this!”
She couldn't do this. Not at first, anyway.
At first, Derpy flailed about in the vacuum of space after leaping, her wings only doing so much to propel her forward. The gold pods zoomed at her after discovering the helpless pony very quickly, already firing a few shots at her. With a not-girlish shriek, she finally remembered to pat the vest and was instantly propelled between a few of the pods, who scraped against each other trying to turn back around. Her wings, for the first time in forever, worked like built-in rudders for a boat, helping to make swift changes in direction. She dipped this way and that in an increasingly fun way of tiring out the gold pods, and even invented new u-turn techniques.
Derpy still didn't know how to work the gun though, and she suddenly wished that she hadn't left so fast. What could be the trigger for a mounted weapon? It couldn't be a voice command-- not in the vacuum of space. That wouldn't make sense. Maybe she needed to nudge it with a hoof and then pat it to fire? She reached up to her shoulder--
A trio of golden pods floated up into her direct path suddenly, taking advantage of her distracted thoughts. She gasped, arms out in front of her in a reflexive attempt to stop herself. A purple, crackling blur zipped over her shoulder and seemed to phase into the metal of the middle pod. Seconds later, purple electricity struck the other pods from the middle one, and they all exploded into mild clouds of orange dust.
“Huh.” Testing it again, she held out her right arm after turning around to face another group. A hit landed on the pod closest to the right of them and like falling dominoes, they went out one by one. The debris left over from one of them even rocketed into a far away one. Derpy eyed the gun as best as she could and squealed to herself. “This is too Awesome!”
The vibrations from other explosions reached Derpy at that point, the product of the twists and turns of Quill’s ship as it came under heavy fire. She flew after them and pursed her lips when the number of gold pods grew to nearly a hundred. Neither of them would keep this up for long, even with Derpy’s...Domino Gun. Heh. She liked that name.
She zipped forward until she was side by side with the glass front of the ship, and that's when she noticed it above them. A close strip of migrating asteroids and meteors floated in a pack towards the right of outer space. A plan sprung to mind; it might not get rid of all of their pursuers, but it would cut them down to a manageable number.
Derpy face-hoofed. “I'm fighting aliens because my raccoon friend stole their batteries. This’ll be quite the story back home.” The pegasi made sure to get her allies’ attention and pointed up at the asteroid belt.
“Why is she performing a dance?” Drax muttered from inside the ship, resting an elbow on Gamora’s head. “And why is it one motion?”
“You idiot,” Gamora shook her head free of the nuisance and smoothed out her hair again. “She’s pointing at something.”
Quill pulled the ship up and nodded as Derpy shot off towards the distance. “Huh. That’d be the Galact Asteroid Belt...She wants us to go through it with her, and Maud can use those giant rocks to her advantage! I like her spunk!”
Gamora squinted at something on her screen and smirked. “She’s got the right idea! Berherts the closest habitable planet, and going through that belt will put us in range for a jump!”
“Through that? Why Quill,” Drax crossed his arms and watched with growing curiosity. “Only the greatest pilot could get through a tangled mess of rocks like that!”
Trixie nudged a grinning Starlord and used her performer’s voice. “Indeed, Drax. It occurs to Trixie that we’ll need a Great and Powerful pilot to get us out of this! The most precise, accurate pilot in all of this galaxy! And luckily for us--”
“I'm right here!”
Trixie nodded enthusiastically and pointed a hoof at the speaker. “Exactly. Only Rocket is capable of--wait. I wasn’t--”
The ship shot to the right to avoid crashing into the first asteroid, and the one to thank for such a jarring movement was none other than the ship’s crazy raccoon. The woodland warrior didn't give his teammates any time to peel their faces off of the ground, for the ship zipped up in seconds and then crashed down again. Given the vibrations from behind them, it was safe to say that the plan was working to an extent. Regardless, Quill overrode the controls for the ship manually and took over from Rocket.
Naturally, Rocket was not pleased with this. “Hey, jerk! What are you doing?”
“Jerk?!Who’s name is on this ship, stupid?!” Quill fired seventeen rounds at a cluster of pods when the ship made a 180° turn before he continued in the intended direction. “Who’s the one who bought this?! Who’s been flying this ship for ten years?!”
Rocket yanked back the controls from him and made a wild u-turn as his first act. A grey blur skidded across the windshield of the ship and Gamora threw a metal bolt at the back of the raccoon. “Careful! You almost hit Derpy!”
“I am Groot!” Groot worriedly pointed at the pegasus outside.
Ignoring them both, he pulled the ship in a reverse motion and smashed their way through another cluster. He leaned back as an asteroid, courtesy of Maud, sandwiched a herd rushing towards them. “I was cybernetically engineered to fly ships three times this toy.”
Trixie hmmphed aloud and turned her snout upwards. “Cybernetically engineered to be a pain in our flanks, maybe.”
Starlord laughed a whooping laugh and pointed at a grumpy raccoon. “Apply ice to the burn, man! Gimme some, Trix!” He bumped his fist with her hoof.
“Alright, b!tch,” Rocket snarled and squeezed the trigger hard enough to bend the plastic slightly. Light flashed in huge clusters outside, the product of several rounds emptying into his enemies. “ Later on tonight, I'm gonna give you a pillow to sleep on, and there's gonna be something big and squishy in it, and you're gonna go, Gee, what’s this weird stinky thing and it’ll be because I dropped a TURD in it!”
Trixie took a step towards him, eyes narrowed to deadly slits. “You poop in my pillow,” She growled. “And I'll turn you into a teacup. A teacup so tiny that it would be all too easy to step on you.”
“Well, it won't be my turd. It'll be Drax’s!”
“AH HAHAHAAA!” The previously mentioned Guardian chortled at the top of his lungs and slapped Trixie on the back. Hard. “You are in great luck, Horse of Tricks! My turds are famous for their size!”
Nebula, sick and tired of pinching the bridge of her nose, cast a pleading look at the gang. “Somebody please kill me.”
No one in the ship killed the poor, tortured woman, unfortunately. Quill and Rocket made the ship turn this way and that in their quarrels, tossing around everyone in the ship and no doubt damaging several pricey items. The chaos only went on until the ship flew out of the other side of the belt and Derpy fluttered in front of the ship, waving her arms frantically.
Quill racked his brain for any way of deciphering the physical message given to them.“Wait. What’s she saying? And how close are we to the jump?”
“10 clicks….She’s…” Gamora narrowed her eyes at Derpy. “...mouthing something. I think it starts with a ‘th’.”
“Hmm...There be whales here?” Drax suggested.
“These are not the droids you’re looking for?” Rocket questioned.
“I am Groot?”
“Ew, no. It can’t be that.”
Trixie poked Quill’s leg. “Just let her in, so she can stop doing all that moving and tell us.”
It was as if she zipped inside as soon as the bay doors opened up, coming to a halt on her face. Derpy stood to her shaky hooves and gasped for breath, for enough oxygen to say something very important. But Rocket beat her to it when a flash of gold caught his attention.
“Oh crap! They went around the belt!” He pointed at the hundreds of ships curling around from a far distance, closing in to form a tight sphere around their vessel. “Derpy, why didn't you say that before?!”
Derpy stared at him.
"5 clicks! We won't make it! " Gamora announced, just before a barrage of golden bolts slammed into their ship from all sides. The heavy fire grew in number as the golden pods put everything they had into it. The glass of Quill's ship cracked and splintered in a growing threat to give way and the hull didn't sound like it would last much longer under the powerful assault. Gamora searched the shaky ship for a certain unicorn. "Trixie! I don't know what you did before with the Abelisk, but you have to do it now!
Trixie buried her head under her forelegs and all but shrieked. “ I can’t! Nothing is happening!”
“You have to, or we’re all gonna die!” Gamora urged her.
“I’m sorry!” Trixie wailed.
And then all of the golden pods promptly exploded into a million pieces.
“ Someone destroyed all of our ships!” The general exclaimed to the gruesome sight of his troops losing each of their old feeds. The troops all groaned and cursed aloud at their misfortune, every single one of them. “All of them: blown up! Even Zylak! WHY ZYLAK?! WHY?!”
“Yeah, you suck, Zylak!”
“Typical Zylak!”
Ayesha trembled with rage but spoke quietly. “Someone destroyed our ships?... Who?”
The ship, barely intact and even less likely to remain moving, was entirely silent. The Guardians and ponies exchanged looks of confusion and relief, but they all flinched at a high pitched beep. Gamora looked down at her screen and instantly flicked a switch upwards. “ We’re at the jump!”
“Do it!” Quill barked.
“Wait...what’s that?” Rocket glanced out of the ship’s cracked windows and curiously stared at a passing ship. It's white, egg-shaped hull stood out against the black portrait of space, but the truly surprising image was that of a figure standing on top of the ship. Tiny thanks to the distance, he waved a minuscule hand at them as they passed. Rocket cocked an eyebrow. “Uh, that's a guy. Does anyone else--”
“Everybody hang on to something!” Gamora commanded before Groot promptly latched onto her neck and hugged tight enough to choke her. “Ack! Groot...not that much…!”
Everything else literally became a blur after that. The ship seemed to enter a much brighter landscape than the depths of space--bright enough to blind them in fact. White clouds zipped by in a blue sky and the faintest rim of green was painted on the very bottom of the windows. Air rushed through their hair and aggressively pulled on their bodies as they plummeted further and further down. The sounds of startled avians could be heard as whispers above the roar of--
“THE BAY DOORS ARE STILL OPEN?!” Gamora’s voice cracked as she tried to yell over the roar of rushing wind. This explained the air trying to suck them backwards, and why Nebula had been screaming very vulgar things for the past thirty seconds. “I THOUGHT YOU IDIOTS CLOSED THEM!!!”
“DON’T WORRY! I’LL HANDLE THIS!!!” Drax heroically marched backwards and instantly fell off of his feet. The air had no trouble sucking him back out if the ship entirely, even while kicking and screaming. “AAAAAAAAAUGH!!!”
Trixie whirled around and used her horn to catch him around the waist, tethering him by the bond of a levitation spell. “FEAR NOT! THE GREAT AND POWERFUL TRIXIE WILL SAVE Y--EEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!”
“DO I HAVE TO DO EVERYTHING MYSELF?!”
The green woman lunged for Trixie just as the pony blurred past. While she managed to snake a hand around a hind hoof, the speed Trixie was flying at didn't slow down. Gamora managed to latch her free hand onto a bar protruding from the ceiling and nearly dislocated her shoulder in the process. Screaming in agony, Gamora somehow maintained her grip on Trixie. In return, Trixie kept her grip on Drax.
Apparently this planet had trees, and a whole lot of them. Everyone quickly noticed this when they were thrashed like rag dolls as the hull battered through the towers of bark. Deafening noise accompanied the chaos of movement, the more they descended towards the ground below. Glass splintered around them like fireworks, appliances in the ship exploded and left smoke to stream out of the bay doors.
Drax screamed at the top of his lungs as his body was slammed and rammed through every tree on the way down, chopping the thinner ones in half as if were an ax. If he bounced off one of the larger specimens, another was there to try breaking his spine. Trixie's hold on him lengthened the closer they came to the ground, but didn't let up one bit. Gamora was seconds away from releasing her hold, however, as her fingers threatened to break at the joints and--
The ship finally scraped to an uneasy halt and gravity resumed its hold on their bodies. Gamora and Trixie crumpled to the ground instantly, panting and joining everyone else in their chorus of paned groans. The pegasus was probably the first to stand to her shaky hooves and look around with a relieved smile.
“Well!” She sighed deeply. “At least nopony got hurt, right?”
A screaming Drax, still carried forward by the momentum of the crash, speared his way through the ship and out of the hull. An audible thunk signaled his sudden stop.
“MY LEG!”
Gamora’s teeth threatened to break, given all of the grinding they did as she surveyed the almost completely destroyed ship. She whirled around the crew and prisoner, and somehow gnashed harder. “Look at this! This ship isnt even habitable anymore, let alone air-worthy! Its destroyed junk now!”
Quill narrowed his eyes as he looked it over again. “Yeah! This thing cost me so many units! No one could fix this heap of trash now!”
“Either one of you could have gotten us out of there without a scratch!” Gamora paced back and forth angrily. “But nooo--You just had to fly with your d!cks instead of your brains!”
Quill raised a finger to object to that. “Actually, if my d!ck had a hand on it, I would have flown us outta of that problem backwards! And upside down.”
His green lady friend stopped and stared at him incredulously. “Peter, we almost died because of you!”
Trixie gave an offended, highly sarcastic gasp to Quill and held a hoof to her chest. “So Quill was the one who stole the Anulax batteries this whole time and got us in danger? I feel so betrayed.”
Drax hmmphed at her. “They’re called Harbulary Batteries, Horse of Tricks!”
Maud, still strangely monotone, sighed. “No, they’re not.”
Rocket took an aggressive step towards Trixie with balled up fists and bared teeth. “Okay! You wanna know why I stole ‘em, b!tch?!”
“Is that the only insult you know?” She sneered.
“I did it for the sole reason of wanting to! So there! Nyeh!” When all the horse did was scoff at him, he continued by shifting the subject. “Are we all just gonna ignore the fact that a tiny dude saved us and blew up all the ships?!”
“Tiny?” Nebula muttered robotically. “What do you mean, tiny?”
“I don't know. He was like, one inch or something. Like an ant. An Ant-man or something like that.”
Gamora skeptically stared at him. “So you're saying a tiny Ant-man saved us from certain death?”
The animal shrugged and crossed his arms. “Sure. Yeah...I mean...If were close up to him, then maybe he would have been bigger.”
Trixie pretended to inspect her hoof, leaning back to sit on her haunches. “That’s kiiinda how eyesight is meant to work, Raccoon.”
“Call me a Raccoon again, I dare ya! Do it!” Rocket snarled viciously.
Stepping in quickly, Quill held out a hand to calm him down and offered a disapproving look to his pony pal. “Rocket, calm down! She's sorry! She didn't mean that.” Before the mare could ask him any confused questions, he cracked a smirk. “She meant Trash Panda.”
Silence(littered with stiffled giggles) stretched on after that. Rocket scratched his head and searched for anyone to inquire, Derpy being the one he selected. “...Is that better…?”
Derpy bit her hoof a few times and settled for shrugging. “Never really... heard of that before. Trixie?”
“It’s worse.” The unicorn confirmed with an open laugh. “Probably THE worst.”
That was all Rocket needed to hear, for his red eyes instantly latched onto the ship leader. “YOUSONOFA--!!!” He leapt forward in an attempt to latch some teeth onto Quill’s arm, only for the laughing human to dodge harmlessly. “Hold still, ya little punk! I've had it with you!”
“Hey, Rocket! “ Derpy was staring up into the sky. “Was that guy you were talking about riding an egg?”
Everyone else instantly found their gazes drawn up to the sky where a large egg shaped vessel floated down out of the sky. The Guardians jumped into a defensive circle suddenly, and the ponies awkwardly followed them. Nebula nudged Maud with her ankle. “Beast, you must free me.”
“She doesn't even have the key, Nebula.” Gamora scoffed. “And even if she did--”
“She could be helpful.” Maud interrupted.
Gamora glare down at the pony. “You can not be this gullible. She would try to kill the moment she was free.”
Nebula swallowed. “Er, no I wouldn't.”
Maud’s eyes widened slightly at the cyborg. “Wow. You are a really bad liar.”
By that point, the egg shaped vessel landed with its bulbous side jutting towards them, glowing an unearthly white shade. The Gaurdians and their equestrian allies watched with growing wonder as a large door opened on the ship and revealed even brighter insides of white structures. A man stepped out of the ship dressed in grey attire and a silver cape beard rustling in the gentle breeze. Where his aged face was set with relieved joy, the odd woman with antennae behind him seemed to be apprehensive and worried about facing the heroes. The old man walked to the base of his ship’s steps and nodded warmly.
“Is he staring at me?” Quill asked.
“After all of these years of searching and days of hardship...I've done it.” The old man seemed on the verge of tears, from the joy growing within him. “I’ve found you, Peter.”
“Uh, how do you know me?” Starlord asked, skeptical and ready to blast if needed. “Who are you?”
“Hmm. I thought my rugged good looks might answer that.” The man laughed softly and raised his arms, as if presenting some amazing gift to them all. “ I am Ego..The Great Celestial...and your father, Peter Quill.”
The Gaurdians and ponies all gasped. Quill wore an expression of surprise, then confusion and finally shocked confusion. His mind struggled to process the news and in turn brought about different emotions to him. Trixie seemed surprised, but only because of the old man’s choice for his title. “I...Ego...The Celestial?”
"And then what happened?" Kraglin quirked an eyebrow.
"Well, they said that Fox was bought...but it could still be a while before I'm in anything related to the movies. Yeah,that's right-- no open slots. I can't even pop up in Netflix's Punisher!" Ever since Kraglin and Tullik made it down to Elsewhere, he'd meandered around for a cheap spot to drink. He found a spot at the Golden Cabaza, a fancy place that gave you sofas to recline on while you were served cheap liquor. Just like that, some random dude in a red suit showed up, with swords on his back and guns and stuff. He didn't catch a name from the freak, but he was hilarious company, so Kraglin didn't really ask. He just sorta nodded along and listened to the very insane stories he brought up. "So, I'm like Feige, come on! Help a guy out, you know? And Feige says he's got a slot open, but I wouldn't like it on account of it being a no pay deal."
Kraglin furrowed his brow at the masked lunatic. "Wait, dude. You didn't take the deal."
The man somehow gave a wincing look with his black rimmed, white lensed eyes. "I had to! My sequel was out and I needed something to do, you know. So he told me, Okay, you can pop up in a random story on a fanfiction site that's set in the MCU. It ain't pretty,it not canon, its got ponies and its only the twelfth chapter, but hey..."
"That sucks." Kraglin sympathized with a wave of his drink. "I'd hate being stuck in...whatever you just rambled about, with nothing to do until next year. I feel for ya."
"Thanks, Kraglin. That means a lot to me, coming from the brother of a director." The suited man offered a tilt of his own glass. "To a wealthy future?"
Kraglin nodded and toasted his drink with him, before guzzling his down. When he set down the empty cup, the suited man was making ready to leave. "Well, this was nice, bro. But now I gotta get going. My team got massacred in said sequel so, still searching for replacements. "
"Thats all right! But, hey!" The Ravager managed to catch his attention with a tongue click before he could move away. "What was your name again?"
"Huh? Oh! Pacina de La Muerta, at your service." He snorted in a laugh seconds later. "I'm kidding, sorry. It's Ryan. Ryan Reynolds."
"Oh, nice talking Reynolds."
"Right back at ya!"
Kraglin downed a few more cups and walked off, away from the sofa he’d reclined on. He figured that everyone else was here by now, huddled at a table and swapping stories or something. He should get on over to them before he missed anything funny or juicy.
He wasn't sure how, since he was looking straight ahead, but he walked into Yondu. It was hard to miss the blue skinned, red finned captain he’d been following as far as he could remember. It was hard to miss that he was sneering,too. “Jesus, Kraglin. You blind now?”
“Uh, no. My bad, Cap’n.” Kraglin quickly apologized.
“Hmm. I hear you and Tullik ran into the Guardians.” Yondu said with disinterest in his voice. “Keep out of their business. We’ll get bad attention.”
“Right.” Kraglin said.
Without another word, or even a look in his direction, Yondu marched in a somber pattern away.
The fire crackled loudly, but it was not the only thing to fill the empty slot of silence in the air. No, for there was also the thick tension between all that sat around the odd group. Well, all of them except two; one highly amused and one highly inquisitive.
"But just a couple of hours ago, I shot this huge bolt of lightning and I didn't know I could do that, cuz I've never really done anything that big before." Trixie rambled with a crazed look in her eye to the old man, who had named himself Ego. Her nonstop chatter seemed to make her oblivious to the incredulous eyes staring at her. "But I never thought I was a celestial, either! Like, wow! I'm a demigodess!"
Ego chuckled aloud and leaned back on the log with a warm grin, chewing on jerky. "Ha Ha! Well, for your heritage its not that simple. You're just as powerful as your father was, some its more than half. More than Demi."
"Can you tell what species my father was? " Trixie nervously bit her hoof and flattened her ears back. "Ooh, he wasn't an alien like you, right?"
He rubbed his big beard in curiosity and shrugged off the question. "Not sure. I suppose I need more strength to assess that. For now, I can confirm that he's from Equestria. Someone ancient, obviously."
Trixie cooed in fascination, and elbowed Quill in the ribs. "Is your dad the best or what?!"
"Or what."
Trixie leaned forward again. "Go on, Mr.Ego! What were you saying about Quill?"
"Well, after a particularly...unhappy time in our lives," Ego glanced at Quill with a brief look of built up sorrow. "I hired Yondu to pick him up. But that was the last I ever heard from him. You both just...vanished into thin air."
"Well, that's cuz Yondu kept me." Quill explained with an uncomfortable frown. "I was skinny, so he forced me to go places where his crew couldn't fit. Apparently I was only ever good for theivin' to him."
Drax gave him a disapproving look. "That is not a nice thing to say about your father. I'm sure Yondu loves you very much."
Derpy poked his leg and pointed at Ego with the same hoof. "Uh, that's Quill's dad."
The green warrior blinked owlishly at all three of them. Peter rubbed the bridge of his nose and sighed loudly, before looking back up at his partner. "You really thought Yondu was my dad."
"Yes! You look so much alike!"
Rocket stared at Drax as if he were a very stupid baby. "Yondu is fucking BLUE."
“In other words,No. Yondu is not my real dad. Real dads don't teach their sons to steal from people and shoot blasters and do nasty stabbing things!” Starlord grumbled under his breath. “And what kind of Dad keeps their kid in check by threatening to eat them?”
Ego gave a very offended look to Quill and almost choked on the jerky he ate. “Oh my gosh--Eat you?! That's horrible and disgusting. I'd never try to eat you...or...anyone I've been searching years for. It's just...weird.”
Gamora’s blade glistened in the light of the fire, but was still in her jade hands. “Right. How exactly did you find him after so long, anyway?”
“Legends, of course. Even where I must reside--even as a kooky old being of mass power--I’ve heard countless tales of the handsome, daring swashbuckler they call Starlord. Way out in the beyond.” Ego explained readily, possibly missing the brief smug look on Quill’s face. He smiled wider and clapped his hands once. “Heck, why don't we travel out there in the morning, son? Oh, and you too, Trixie and--Heck, everyone else! You, Drax and even that...rabbit you got!”
“Rabbit?”
“Sorry, I'm not sure.” The old man shrugged, apologetic. “Triangle faced monkey?”
As Rocket flinched and promptly began patting his face down in worry, Ego turned back to his flesh and blood. “But yeah, you'll love it. It's got a big, outdoor forest feel...A place like you've never seen before--guaranteed! And, its the best place for me explain your very special heritage, your gifts and potential...The perfect way for me to...to start being the father I should have been years ago.”
He held a deep stare with Quill, and the both of them went without any smiling. Ego’s face was set with great hope, and Quill’s face was set with great distrust. After a few more seconds, the old man said the most profound, inspiring and heartwarming sentence that night.
“Sorry. I just...I gotta take a whiz. BRB.”
Everyone, excluding his strange entourage stared as he got up and picked out a nearby tree to mark his territory on. Trixie’ears perked up seconds later and she offered her human pal a small smile. “See? He's pretty sweet!”
“I’m not buying any of this. I don't like him at all.” Peter crossed his arms and huffed to top off that statement. Trixie scoffed at him and shared a sympathetic look with the green woman on the other side of Quill.
“Trixie, join us.” Gamora elbowed Starlord and stood up. “We’re taking a walk.”
When the three of them wandered away into the dark stretches of the wilderness, Derpy inspected the cooked cattail she’d tried to make with a stick and the campfire. If was slightly burnt, but the taste was...edible. She ate it all and casually wiped her chin, just in time for Drax to nudge her. “She has been awfully quiet.” He whispered.
Derpy looked over to the strange, insectoid woman. The newcomer was idly rubbing her arm where the green sleeves didn't cover, almost lightly pecking at her skin with her nails. Her eyes, giant orbs of shiny black, were focused on the pony and the guardian. “I think she’s just shy.” Derpy blinked and waved a hoof. “Hello! What's your name?”
The woman gave a smaller wave. “I am Mantis…” Then, very slowly, she pulled her lips back and gnashed her teeth at them.
“...what are you doing?” Drax practically inspected her pearly white teeth, face contorted with confusion. “Are you growling?”
Whatever she was doing, she stopped doing it. “I am smiling. I hear it is the thing to do to make people like you.”
“Not if you do it like that.“ Drax sneered.
“Hey! Be nice!” The Pegasus pouted at Mantis and patted her hand with a gentle hoof. “Its okay. I like you already.”
Oddly, when Derpy made contact with her hand, Mantis sat up straighter. Her mood seemed to lighten up, much like Derpy’s kind attitude towards her. “Thank you. I am still learning the intricacies of social interaction. I was raised alone with Ego on his planet, and it left very little learning opportunities. No real lessons.”
“I am Groot!”
Derpy beamed as Groot nuzzled her neck. “He says you're off to a good start. So, Lesson one is a success..”
Mantis nodded and looked around the camp, glancing over Maud and peeking at Nebula before settling on Rocket. The woodland critter was licking a paw in silence, locked in his own thoughts. The insectoid woman pointed at him. “Your puppy is adorable.Can I pet it?”
Derpy opened her mouth to explain that she shouldn't do that, but a huge hand slapped over her mouth. She gave a deadpan look to Drax as he nodded at Mantis, suppressing an extremely amused smile. The woman leaned forward with curious glee, fingers reaching and reaching and reaching until they caught the very first hairs of his fur.
Rocket’s head whipped back in milliseconds, making both Derpy and Mantis shriek as he snapped at the latter’s fingers. The woman was about to start to counting them for any missing digits, but Drax’s whooping laughter drew her confused attention. When he had enough breath, he explained with: “That’s your Lesson two! That is what is called a practical joke!”
Much to the pony’s surprise, Mantis giggled and snorted, guffawing at the mention of a joke. She laughed with Drax hard enough to bust a gut, and he laughed harder. Derpy snickered into her hoof and poked Mantis. “Okay, okay. That was pretty funny!”
“That was the funniest joke ever!” Mantis wheezed.
Drax chortled. “I just made it up!”
Nebula hugged her knees close to her chest, as best she could with the annoying shackles. “Maybe I'm dead, and I'm suffering the fourth level of hell right now.”
Maud glanced at her from the side. “Oh, they're not that bad.”
“They’re infuriating,” Nebula paused and snarled. “Just like you.”
“Hmm. Well, you'd better get used to it.” Maud advised as she watched Mantis pick up Groot. The small being was tiny in her hands, fitting easily in one palm. “You might be stuck with us for a while.”
“Hmm.”
Maud looked just the slightest bit hopeful. “Maybe we can talk?”
“I have nothing to talk about with you, Beast.”
“My name’s Maud.” The pony smiled ever so slightly. “Nice to meet you too.”
“Come on, son! I'll teach you demigod stuff!” Quill kicked a tree branch and then a small stone. “ Give me a break! After all this time, you’re just gonna show up out of the blue, and try to be my dad? Does that sound good to you at all?!”
“Well...When its put that way, no.” Trixie trotted alongside him, careful not to get in the way of his kicking. “But, Look. I don't know you extremely well, but second chances must be your thing right? Even a little bit?”
He groaned. “Even if it was, this could all be a trap! There are people that want to kill us for what we do, Trixie. Very bad people with laser guns. Especially Yondu’s people.”
“But if that's not the case, then Trixie has a very valid point! And think past the second chances! This your own flesh and blood!” Gamora offered and visibly wracked her brain for any intellectual leverage over the situation. “What happened to all those stories you told me about Zardu Hasselfrau?!”
“Who?” Both Trixie and Quill asked.
“He owned a magic boat!”
Peter paused, allowing nightly silence to fill in the long break. “...Wait--David Hasselhoff?!”
“Yes!”
“Again, who?” Trixie tilted her head.
“He’s kind if a singer/actor. Look,” Quick as lightning, he unveiled a small image from his pickets, aged greatly but still intact. It was a picture of a human, with stylish black attire and a mullet that flowed in the wind. Despite the hair color, Trixie didn't see much of a resemblance. “It wasn't a boat, it was a talking car!”
“I meant car. Anyway,” Gamora grasped the human’s hand and squeezed it gently. “As a child, you would always carry this picture in your pocket… and if anyone asked, you would tell all the other children… that he was your father, but that he was out of town….shooting Knight Rider--”
“Or on a tour in Germany. I was really drunk when I told you this--why bring it up now?”
“I love that story.” Gamora said sweetly.
“I hate that story!” Quill said bitterly. “Its nothing but sadness and depression! Every time I saw other kids run off to learn how to fish or play catch with their dad...it--it opened a hole inside of me.” He sighed uncomfortably. “I really wanted what they had.”
“Thats what we’re trying to tell you!” Gamora pointed back to where they’d walked from. “ Suppose that old man is your Hasselhoff; Don’t brush off this opportunity! Take it! “
“You may not have had him back then, but you have now, right?” Trixie sternly asked, then narrowed her eyes at the silence. “Right?”
Quill sighed in defeat. “Right.”
“Peter. You should try this. You should. And if he’s evil,” The green woman leaned forward and planted a kiss on Quill’s cheek, leaning back to stare into his eyes. “We’ll just kill’m.”
Soon after, she began to walk back down the path and leave her two friends alone in the wooded area. Trixie looked up at Quill with a wincing shrug. “Or maybe, don't kill him. That works too.” She began to trot their way back to camp. “Um...Trixie recalls that Ego mentioned something bad happening before you two were seperated?”
Quill followed her, but stiffened up. “Don't want to talk about it.”
“But…” As he sped past her, she pouted. Trixie wanted to know as much as she could about him in order to help, but clearly there was still of a lot of trust to be had between them. That didn't mean she couldn't guess, though. “...Did it have something to your mom? I've hardly heard any mentions about her.”
Quill slowed to a halt and sighed. She couldn't see his face, but the body language said it all. “Don’t want to talk about it.”
Trixie surrendered with a nod. “Its fine. Just...wanted to help... Somehow.”
“Well, I never said I wasn't going to try even a little bit.”
When she perked up, he rolled his eyes at her. “Don’t get your hopes up...You may end up hating him too.”
Yondu leaned an arm against the window, hard eyes trained on the entertained chaos below. All his crew was down there in the pit of this place, buying or laughing or wasted or laid or all four at the same time. He could spot his righthand men, Kraglin and Tullik, chuckling at a table with the others. He supposed they deserved some time that didn't involve Ravager work. Yondu idly wondered what they were talking about--so unaware of anything that could happen to their leader or his somber circumstances. Maybe they were blabbing about a funny trip to some far off planet, explaining Yondu leading the charge to steal some fancy stuff.
That fat Bastard, Taserfart, scoffed at them. Yondu scoffed at him, from up high. He always did hate that drooling jack@ss and him going around throwing his name around like he was supposed to scare somebody. Only thing scary was his breath...and his ability to sway the crowds.
Yondu grimaced as he put his jacket. Ever since Quill pulled that nifty trick with the orb, Taserface had been urging to hunt them down and several other crew members opted to do the same. Yondu was quick to shut them down; Quill and his freaks were with the Nova core, so he could scare his crew with the threat of Xandar. The pirate had used that excuse so many times though, and it was only a matter of time before his true reasons came to light. Before his long history with Quill swallowed Yondu’s once savage personality entirely.
History, as it would seem, always caught up with Yondu. That was why he was on some festering boil of a planet. Why an old buddy of his was parking on said planet now, getting out and joining in separate festivities. If Yondu could just...get a little time and peace to explain, he could salvage his reputation as a Ravager leader.
Just a little time.
Stakar Ogord had toured the whole area by now, catching up with other crews and their leaders. His own crew mingled with others and altogether one might call it one big family reunion, just with pirates instead of uncles. The place itself was a dump and not worth meeting up over, but wherever you brothers rested up is where you have to go and see them. So he caught himself a few drinks, discussed plans and told stories to his own crew.
“So, this thing is swinging an’ swinging, with no sign’a stoppin’. But I just keep backpedaling until I get to the cliff edge,” Stakar explained to the eager Ravagers, before taking a swig. “Next thing it knows, I’ve rolled out of the way and gave it a good kick forward.”
“Quick as you ever were, StarHawk!”
The crew laughed around him as he shrugged in his pride.“And don’t you forget it, bud.”
“Ogord.”
Stakar turned.
He swallowed, his smile falling instantly. An all too familiar blue Ravager captain was standing there, clad in a red dorsal fin and a grim frown. The captain patted his chest twice in formal greeting, using a tight fist to perform it. “...Been a long time, Ain’t it?”
He grimly nodded.“...yeah. Suppose it has.”
There was tense silence, and not just from them. Stakar’s crew had become very quiet since Yondu showed up, watching to see what would unfold before their eyes. When Yondu opened his mouth to say something, he beat him to it. “This, uh festering place...is the wrong kind of disreputable. Even for you.”
“Stakar.”
“There were a hundred Ravager factions in the universe. You lost the business of 99 of them...by serving yourself.”
Ogord turned away instantly, an started for his ship after motioning for his crew to follow. The silence made him think that it would easy to just get up and walk off from Yondu, that he wouldn't say anything after. A growl behind him made him sigh--he was predictable this way. “FINE! Go to some other rottin’ carcass! Sh!t-- You can go to hell fer all I care! I don't give a damn what you think of--”
Stakar rounded on him, walking right back to where he’d left.“Then what’cha followin’ me for?!”
“Cause I got something to say an’ yer gonna listen--”
“Like hell I am!” Stakar snarled. “Even if you weren't a Ravager, I’d never listen to the words of a Child-Trafficker.”
Yondu glared. “I already told you and the others, I didn't know the whole deal!”
“You didn't care either! Long as ya got paid, right?”
“All I demand is a seat at the table, Awright?!” Yondu tugged at his own jacket, pounded at his chest again. “You see these grabs, Ogord?! I wear ‘em, same as you and same as all these other yahoos yer with!”
His crew stepped up from behind Stakar, but he waved them off to prevent any fights from breaking out. “...You may dress like a Ravager, but you'll never hear the hordes of freedom when you die-- the colors of Ogord will never flash over your grave. You won't have anyone to attend, Yondu.” Stskar settled a hand on his shoulder, sighing. “If... you think I take pleasure in exiling you, then you are dead wrong...Dead wrong... You broke all our hearts."
Yondu stared back at him for the longest time, his angry features giving way to a look of regret. He watched as Stakar and his crew boarded their ship and made ready to leave the snowy planet. Yondu balled his fists but didn't move an inch to stop them. That wouldn't win him back his title or even a smaller place in the Ravagers.
“Ah, pathetic.”
Yondu didn't move, but his eyes narrowed. That fat bastard.
“How the mighty fall, eh boys? First, Quill betrays the whole crew and Yondu let's him skip off into the sunset. Then that kid and his freaks trick us with the orb, and Yondu just laughs the whole thing off.” He could hear Taserface from a few tables behind him, and probably smell his breath too. “I thought we followed him because he wasn’t afraid to get his hands dirty. Now, look at him, whimpering over bein’ kicked out...Seems he’s gone soft.”
“If he’s so soft, why don’t you go tell him to his face?”
Yondu snorted at Kraglin’s voice. If that was whispering, he’d hate to hear yelling.
“You know I'm right, Kraglin. Something’s gotta be done.”
“You plannin’ a mutiny against him? Hm?”
He heard Tullik’s loyal tone, but he never did hear an answer from him. Instead, he heard hushed voices and a few sounds of surprise. Yondu turned just in time to see a golden man in a fancy blue robe saunter his way over to him. “Are you Yondu Udonta?”
He snorted and spat in the snow. The golden man nodded at this. “I’ll take that as a yes.” He unfurled a scroll and began to read. “High Preistess Ayesha has use for your illegal talents.”
Yondu raised an eyebrow.
" You're leaving me with a bunch of Animals?!"
Gamora casually slapped Nebula on the side of her slightly metallic head and walked past with heavy luggage in tow. "How dare you! Groot is not an animal, he's a plant. You'll be fine with them for a day or two. The visit shouldn't be too long." She tossed a long metal rod to Rocket. "If she does something stupid or you feel like it, zap her."
"Much obliged." The raccoon grumbled.
"Derpy, keep an eye on Maud and make sure she doesn't do anything stupid." Gamora's glare turned to the grey pony. "She'll tear your head off, Maud. Don't underestimate her because of your stupid plans to reconcile us. "
"What? This beast is insane!" Nebula grimaced in agreement.
Maud shrugged at the both of them, giving no signs that she was going to obey anything. "Its going to happen whether you like it or not. I'm getting to the bottom of this whole problem with you two."
Trixie pursed her lips and nodded."Well, that's determination for ya."
With a frustrated sigh, Gamora put her luggage on her shoulder and resolved to let Maud learn from her own mistakes. She exited the ship just as Peter left his own quarters with a handful of items. "Well, I packed my stuff, and I think Gamora's packed. Trixie doesn't have anything to pack but her bad-assness." He and Trixie shared an amused grin with each other. " Drax, what about you?"
"I'm not so sure about leaving the ship." He grumbled.
"God, you're like an old woman."
"Because I'm wise and full of secret intellect?"
Ignoring that question, Quill looked back at an unhappy woodland critter with a frown. He glanced at Trixie, who shrugged and called to Rocket. "Uh, watch out for yourself and my friends!"
"Yeah. Take care." Quill weakly added.
Rocket snorted at her, but mostly at Quill. "Have a good time. Hope you didn't inherit bein' a prick from your daddy."
"Why did I even bother trying to think of something nice to say to you?" Quill sighed and walked off towards the large white ship, Trixie in tow. After Drax left in time with Gamora, they all disappeared onto the strange vessel and even that disappeared into the depths of the atmosphere.
Derpy frowned as a tiny body sniffled under her wing. "Aw, don't worry, Groot. In a day or two, they'll be back and then we'll be back in space again."
The tiny plant shook his head and pointed at his tiny mouth. "I am Groot."
The pegasus blinked. "Oh. You bit your tongue."
Click--Slick. Twick. Whirrrrrr.
Nebula watched as she idly twisted her hands and fingers around in their metallic sockets. Motors whined in time with the rotations of her index and pinkie finger or the subtle backward flex of the other fingers. Her thumb extended like a miniature snake and then reinserted itself. Her hand split in half to reveal the nozzle of a ray blaster with no ammo to fire. Nebula sigh and let her hand relax back to normal.
"Derpy, she should at least eat something."
Nebula didn't look to see the grey pony, but she knew she was there. The other one, with the wings, was blocking her from coming over. "But she seems super bad. Maybe it really isn't a good idea to talk to her. "
"I said I was going to feed her." Nebula idly wondered why the beast always sounded so...bland and sarcastic. It was annoying. " And I want to know what's going on, so I'm going to find out."
The winged one groaned but moved nonetheless."Gamora is not gonna like me for letting you by. What is that stuff you made, anyway?"
"There's more in the kitchen....the undamaged parts, at least."
Against her base feelings, Nebula raised her head to acknowledge the clopping of hooves. Maud was slowing to a halt before with a levitating bowl of...something. She gestured to it with her eyes. "I made you something to eat. You shouldn't have to starve just because you're locked up here."
"Congratulations. " Nebula spat. "Am I supposed to open up about my feelings now?"
Maud tilted her head and blinked. "You're supposed to eat it. It's a Pie family recipe; Rock Soup."
Nebula lost her glare at that statement, only for a very confused look to be settled on her face. "You eat rocks? I assumed your species ate plants."
"We do. When I called this Rock soup, I meant that we use digestible sedimentary elements ground together to perform a decent taste. With a broth and few vegetables, you have yourself a very nice meal." She settled the bowlful of yellow down next to her free hand, offering nothing more than a blank stare. "Go on, try it."
Nebula snarled softly at her, but her belly snarled right back. Ayesha hadn't been feeding her in the prison, so it had easily been a few days since she last had something to eat. Perhaps she could stomach a few rocks for the sake of food. "If this poisons me..." The cyborg warned quietly, before reluctantly taking a spoonful of soup and slurping it down.
She nearly choked on her soup and a gasp of surprise. The flavor was overwhelmingly good--like a perfectly grilled steak with garlic butter to marinate it, only in liquid form. The sensation hit her tastebuds hard enough to give her pause and wipe the unhappy look off of her face, replaced with a sense of morbid surprise. Blinking, Nebula pulled up another spoonful of the soup and examined a diced vegetable in it.
"The Yaro root." She finally looked at Maud, who's face was as impassive as ever. "Its ripe."
"Cooking speeds up the ripening process."
Nebula slowly nodded and returned to her meal. Halfway through the bowl, the cyborg looked up at her again. "This is...okay."
Maud nodded and settled down in front of her, legs tucked under her body. "Thank you. As I said, it's a pie family recipe. Though, it's only been made in my generation."
Nebula swallowed. "Hmm. Who made it?"
The grey pony shrugged. "It's a long story."
"And you're probably going to tell me anyway. Start talking."
The pony removed a small pebble from the collar of her sweater and gently settled it down on the floor. "...We were kids then--my sisters and I. The four of us were born on a rock farm, in the middle of a large, barren forest. Those times were nice, only...well, you know how children are. They often fight, and often argue."
She gently petted the pebble with a hoof. "One day, we really got into it. Like, actual physical fighting. My youngest sister Pinkie was crying cause she wanted us to stop fighting, and I was trying to get ahold of the two other sisters I had. It was one big wrestling match, you might say. Then my father walked up." Maud didn't say anything when Nebula flinched at the mention of her arriving father. "We had been fighting in such a way that we destroyed the water supply, so he was very cross with us. He ordered us to take a bucket and collect water from the fresh stream in the woods, but to do it together as sisters."
"Hmm." Nebula slurped another portion of her soup. "Bet that backfired."
"Well, we argued again in the forest, and that led us to split up again...in said forest. In a storm, if you can believe it. Lost as we were, we somehow managed to meet up at an old cave. Hungry, but not wanting to venture home in the storm, we created a soup based off of natural elements we each found ourselves. " Maud pointed to what the cyborg had nearly finished. "Together we made a special soup because we came to understand what drove us apart and how to get back together. Neither you or Gamora look like chefs..."
Nebula snorted gently. She may not like the pony, but she was probably the only one on the ship that wasn't an idiot and actually knew a good joke.
"...but that doesn't mean you can't come back to do something other than making soup." Maud finished. "Even the worst of conflicts can have a good outcome."
"...Not mine. Not ours." Nebula sighed softly, a metallic rattle in her throat. "I can least appreciate your willingness to help. And I am glad things are settled between you and your siblings. But...my story... it's not as simple as a few harsh words in the forest."
"Well, then why don't you tell me?"
"...Why should I bother?"
"So someone can understand you." Maud answered patiently. "So I understand why you think your sister needs to die. Don't you want someone to understand?"
Nebula stared into her empty bowl, saying nothing.
Her sister was sent flying back when Nebula launched from her kneeling position, striking a fist against her jaw. The young girl stumbled back from the hit, but was quick to return the favor with a kick aimed to the little girl's ribs. This wasn't going the way Gamora had planned--the new mechanic arm was proving to make up for the strength she lacked in the last battle, and Gamora was struggling to keep up with its speed. She would finally win a battle against her. Father would be greatly pleased by it and her opponent wouldn't like his punishment for losing.
The two children stared each other down for a harsh moment. Gamora threw a punch forward, only for her fist to be caught in a metallic grip. Nebula bent forward, making her sibling's wrist bend at a painful angle. Just when it seemed that her wrist would snap, Gamora felt her legs being kicked out from under her.
The impact against the barren ground knocked the wind out of her, and Nebula wasn't looking to give her a chance to get it back. A fleshy hand and a robotic hand snaked around her neck and pressed tightly to cut off her air supply. They both struggled against each others strength; two young children locked in a ferocious scuffle to the death. The cold, intent eyes of their father watched from a golden throne hovering above the ground. Finally, she would win and be in his respect.
Gamora, struggling to peel the hands off of her, stared into her sister's eyes, pleading. Nebula froze at the expression, something within her heart unhappy with this. Could she really keep doing this to her sister? The one she had grown to adore in her harsh life? And what of Father? Could she really subject Gamora to punishment by him?
She was distracted, and that's how Gamora threw dust in her eye.
Xanax dust, to be precise--dust that turned acidic when it came to contact with moisture. Nebula wailed at a pained volume as the worst burning sensation claimed her eyeball before Gamora punched her back with a fist to the jaw. With the same fist, she grabbed a heavy rock, raised it and snapped Nebula's shin bone clean in half--hitting above the knee afterward for good measure. The wail became a blood-curdling scream, nearly ripping her vocal chords to pieces.
The victorious Gamora stood up from the ground and breathed in ragged breaths, eyes focused on nothing but her Father. Nebula caressed her wounds and whimpered as everything throbbed and stung in the worst ways possible. But all traces of sound left Nebula when a giant, gold-clad figure stomped up to them with a lankier figure beside him.
"Father," Gamora said from above. "The battle is won. I have succeeded."
"Yes. Once more, I am proud of you, little one. You never cease to impress me. Which is more..." Cold purple eyes lowered to the defeated sibling, narrowing. "Than I can say for you."
"Father, I--" An invisible force coiled around Nebula's throat, harshly choking her in an instant. Tears formed in both eyes, stinging one of them.
"Your father is not finished speaking." The lanky figure spoke, only moving his left hand.
"It has been years now, Nebula. Years of combat against Gamora. Training from the others." The huge being shrugged impassively. "And yet...here we are again. Another failure at your hands. Or should I say, at your eye and leg?"
Nebula sobbed openly, begging beyond all hope to be spared from punishment. "Father please," She sniffled, trembling with fear. "Forgive me. Please."
Father said nothing for a long time. He breathed in and exhaled in a gentle sigh. He kneeled down from his great height and then leaned down more to her level. She found him more frightening up close than at his usual height.
"I have always forgiven you, Nebula." He grinned. "That is why you are still alive." He watched her whimper for a moment more, then stood back up to address the winner. "Come, Gamora. There are many things we must discuss. And I'm certain you can't do that on an empty stomach."
He led her a little ways away, back turned to Nebula and his scrawny subordinate. "The eye and the leg, Maw. Then to the repairs again. They'll be expecting her."
For all it was worth, Nebula tried to crawl away from his servant and away from the impending torture she was to receive. An invisible force --all too similar to icy, groping fingers--hauled her up from the ground and back in front of the noseless servant, who eyes had a strangely hypnotic charm to them. Their cold black depths made her want to look away, but she stared nonetheless.
"So, which would you rather start with?" His breathy voice sounded like he was containing some kind of sick excitement. "The leg, or the eye?"
Nebula couldn't talk if she wanted to. She was scared into silence. She gasped sharply as something unseen pulled on her injured eyeball with a growing strength and her leg was slowly being pulled down from the socket. She screamed and screamed as the force threatened to rip her eye from her socket and her leg as well.
"Excellent choice," Ebony Maw grinned. "We'll do both at once."
Night filtered everything around them, shrouding both pony and cyborg in the dark shadows. The story Nebula told was a long one, and while she would never admit it aloud...she was glad to say it out loud to someone willing to listen. It didn't erase her internal pain, but it still felt good to talk about it.
"Gamora walked away as things were ripped away from me, and never looked back." Nebula said. "And this happened over and over again. Some days I awake...wondering if I'm still Nebula...or a robot. Much of me has been replaced."
She turned towards Maud. The grey pony was silent and her expression was still blank, but she could feel the pity radiating from her eyes. "For what she did, my sister must pay. She must die by my hands."
Maud blinked. "...You really think you can kill her?"
"Yes." She said.
"...If you couldn't bring yourself to defeat her in combat when you had those rare, fleeting chances..." Maud asked. "...Will you really be able to end her, when the time comes?"
The expanse of the ship was...abnormal, so to speak.
Trixie recalled that Ego had lost a fair amount of energy before coming to them, and told his guests he would be napping for the duration of the trip back to his planet. It left them ample time to explore the entirely white ship and it gave her enough time to discover that the halls moved at times. Sometimes they led into one corridor and other times they lead into an entirely new one. The mare wandered as many hallways as she could, but she stopped any form of movement when she came to the window.
It was a simple oval shape in the side of the ship, but its glass was clearer than any other she'd seen. The ship itself appeared to be passing through a large field of asteroids--or perhaps they were comets? They were blazing like fire and leaving blue trails of ice in space as they hurtled their way through the infinite dark. She stared intently at the closest one in particular, her fascinated gaze slowly turning envious. An inanimate object could create light that fierce...she could too, if she tried hard enough.
The tip of her horn lit up with a crackling green, as if drawing energy from her own envious emotions. When she noticed this, the energy disappeared and was replaced by a yellow spark due to her shocked gasp. Then the spark went out completely and she was left with the comets she had been so jealous of. Trixie curiously began to focus on the comet again, thinking about wanting its energy so badly. With a blink, she had an even larger spark of energy surging forth from the tip of her horn. Raw embers of energy spilled from the aura and sizzled on the white floor. Her pupils narrowed at the comet, as if the energy she was creating could also influence other emotions as raw as itself. She aimed at the comet beyond the glass, gritting her teeth and--
"Hey, Trix."
Like a cracking whip, she whirled around and fired a swift beam of black lightning. She gasped and brought her hooves to her mouth; Quill was caught leaning almost completely backwards while a huge sizzling hole lay in the wall behind him. The human stood up again, blinked owlishly and looked back at the hole in the wall.
"I. Um," Trixie shivered, afraid of the outcome she could have wrought if he hadn't dodged so fast. She could have seriously harmed the one person she'd been getting along pretty well with. "...I-I didn't...that w-was..."
Quill turned back to her and warily held his hands up. "Uh, it's okay. I...almost deserved that. " He walked towards her with a cautious pace, and stopped just in front of her. "I was just looking for ya. Drax would call me a sissy if I ever apologized in front of him."
The mare blinked. "Uh, apologize? Trixie almost took your head off."
"Yeah, but I was also a little rude to you last night. When I snapped when you asked...about my mom. Gamora says I get too touchy sometimes and I lash out during those touchy moments." He rubbed the back of his neck, shrugging lightly. "Plus, your species seems overly...emotional, and I didn't want you to cry or anything. I guess. Maybe."
Trixie gave a highly amused smile, holding a hoof to her heart. "Aw, I didn't know you cared so much about me. Trixie is just so...ooh--So touched about your totally unnecessary apology. Parents are touchy subject, and I shouldn't have pressed so much. " She grimaced. "And if you think you're bad, you haven't met my best friend Starlight Glimmer. The last time I tried to help with her dad, who treats her like a little foal--whoo! Angry choo choo train."
"Huh. And where is this choo choo train now? Back home? " The man walked up the window and admired the comets, unknowingly stirring her jealousy. She managed to ignore her feelings this time. " She sounds fun."
"Oh she is. She hangs around this totally not cool Alicorn, and five other sappy ponies. They just came back from a trip to...Earth, I think the name is. Went to visit the princesses.” She somehow missed the briefly surprise look Starlord gave her. The showmare lowered her head in gloom. "They’ll be back in a day and a half, I guess. I was preparing a party for Starlight when my house got totalled. So...party’s over, I guess.”
"Aw,That sucks. I guess you could...Wait." Quill snapped his fingers, grinning. "I think I met your friend. Or saw her."
"...You did?"
"Yeah, remember what I told you three? We went and visited the princesses and left afterwards. Well, a bunch of these ponies came in as we were leaving. " He explained. "And then this really sassy sounding unicorn pissed off Rocket, which was hilarious. She was pinkish you know, with toothpaste colored hair. Her mane kinda arched over her horn, sorta? Chubby, a little?”
Trixie smiled warmly at the physical description. Oh, what she wouldn't give to be back on Equus, hugging Starlight and partying with her. "Yep. That sounds like the Starlight I know."
Quill glanced around and nudged Trixie with his heel. " Don't tell Gamora...but it was kinda sexy. Like, her voice was really attractive."
"Oh trust me, I know." Trixie purred in agreement, purposely making her voice sound suggestive.
As she hoped, Peter blinked hard at her, his smile fading. There was a hilarious stretch of silence, then a cautious point of the finger. "You're shitting me, right? You two aren't..."
"Hang around Trixie long enough, Star Lord," Trixie giggled into her hoof. "You'll know when I'm joking...And no, we aren't."
"Really? Because I was just starting get used to the idea of you two...you know..."
Trixie scrunched up her snout when he made gesture with his fingers she didn't understand and didnt want to understand. She rolled her eyes and shook her head. "Lets go meet up with the others, before you describe something that ruins how I view my BFF."
"Good idea. Drax and I have a question for that Mantis chick." As they walked away, he glanced down at her with a rarely serious expression. "That apology was accepted, right...?"
"Let's just hope you're as forgiving as me when it comes to your father," Trixie teased lightly.
"Look but don't touch. That bomb could blow us all sky high,"
Derpy obliged with a bored slowness, carefully pushing the cart back into place. She trotted over to the raccoon and promptly flopped down on her belly. He looked up briefly. "Most people have a different reaction to finding a bomb."
"I bet they do. " Derpy sighed and blinked at whatever Rocket was fiddling with. It was shaped like a 'Y' and had buttons on each end. "That's a very weird bomb."
"This ain't a bomb, stupid. It's a graviton disrupter. Or flipper, if you want to call it that. It reverses gravity in a specified area."
"How come you're always so mean to pon...People?"
"Its not my fault if some guys are actually stupid. You should try being less stupid sometime."
The pegasus groaned in irritation, but didn't move from her spot. After a while of inspecting the metal beneath her hooves, she glanced at the setting sun just outside the demolished doors. " It's getting dark out there."
"Captain Obvious strikes again. "
Frustrated by his remark and the fact that he hadn't even looked up from his work, she sat upright. "What are you even working on a Gravy-Flipper for?! Why would we need it?"
Rocket pointed at small, paw-made monitor with his tail. A blue dot sat at the bottom of the tiny screen while a red dot closed the distance from the top of the screen. "That ship is making a beeline for this planet. Could be goons sent by The Sovereign. I'm just preparing for them."
Derpy eyed the assortment of devices around him and smiled softly. "You must be the best wherever you come from."
Rocket looked up, red eyes glinting with a mischievous nature. "And don't you forget it."
The pegasus giggled softly to herself. "Hey, can I help with this?"
He actually stopped moving completely just to stare at her, completely baffled by that suggestion. "You don't even know the first thing about mechanics."
"No, not that. You look like you're planning a trap for whoever is coming," She shrugged as she picked up a very small circular object and inspected it. "Maybe you'd like a pony partner to help you set them up?"
Rocket opened his mouth to protest, only to close it when he smiled deviously.
Peter sat down on the opposite side of the alien woman. "Alright, so can we ask you a personal question?"
Mantis stared at him, then Drax, then Trixie and then at Gamora some several feet away. She fiddled softly with her hands, running her thumb between each finger in thoughtful silence. "...no one has ever asked me a personal question before."
"Don't get flattered just yet," Trixie warned her. "It's a kinda stupid question."
"Quill and I bet differently on the purpose of your antennae." Drax explained, much to the chagrin of Peter. "I believe they are meant to keep you from being decapitated by a low doorway, because you can feel it with your antennae."
"And it's anything other than that, We win the bet!" Quill confirmed.
"They are not there to feel doorways!" Mantis sent Trixie and Quill into celebratory high fives. When they calmed down again, she carefully flexed them as she thought. "I think they help me to feel the intangible. I am Empathic."
"Empathic?" Drax scratched his head.
Trixie lit up like a candle. "Oh! Oh! I know! Starlight was telling me about mythical unicorns and stuff, and she mentioned one of them was Empathic and read emotions and stuff."
"Precisely." Mantis turned to Starlord and reached for his hand. "May I have a demonstration?"
He glanced at Gamora, who looked ready to leap forward if Quill showed any kind of pain. He nodded at her as she grasped his hand, and her antennae straightened upwards. The ends glowed with a violet twinkle, like UV lights but less focused, less bright. Mantis closed her eyes and then opened them again with a faint smile. "You have Heroic emotions. You are a selfless man, though you are plagued by some that you care about."
"Told you Rocket was a prick." He whispered to Gamora.
Mantis went silent again, her eyes closed in concentration. When they opened up again, it was hard to miss the faint blush beneath her eyes. "...You feel love."
Peter rolled his eyes. "Well, yeah. Of course I do. Just a general, selfless love. Hero stuff."
"No, Romantic, Sexual love."
Quill went entirely rigid, as if someone had replaced him with a statue. "No, No I don't."
Mantis pointed behind him. "For her."
"Shit." He facepalmed, clearly imagining the look of morbid surprise and mild amusement on Gamora's face. There was nothing in the world more embarrassing than your crush being broadcasted in front of said crush and two other friends.
“...WAA-HA HA HA HA HAA!”
Drax quickly proved that wrong by giving a roaring laugh and falling backwards into his seat. He pointed at Quill, wheezing and guffawing at the given news. His laughter was loud enough to rival speakers, and obnoxious enough to make Quill sigh. He should have been thankful that his other friend didn't find it so hilarious.
“SHE JUST TOLD EVERYONE YOUR DEEPEST, DARKEST SECRET!” He laughed loudly. “YOU MUST BE THE MOST EMBARRASSED MAN ALIVE!”
"I don't find this hilarious," Trixie said helpfully.
"THAT IS BECAUSE YOU HAVE NO SENSE OF HUMOR!" The grey dude laughed even more, completely ignoring the daggers Trixie sent with her eyes. He giggled as he pointed to himself, grinning like a child. "Do me next! Do me next!"
Mantis obliged; he pressed one finger against his shoulder. That was all that was needed to push her into a realm of uncontrollable laughter. Her high pitched snorting mixed with the hyena laughter of Drax, which equaled to them both pointing at poor Peter. He sighed and lowered his head, even though it did nothing to get him out of the situation. Trixie lept onto the seat next to him and patted his shoulder.
Trixie had to speak up over the sound of laughter. "Its okay. It could have been much worse."
The human glanced at her. "How?"
"She could have talked about you having some weird, hidden sexual fantasy about Gamora."
"What? Why would I have one of those?"
"Well, you didn't deny it."
Giggling like a little school girl with a morbid obsession with some random boy band in town, Mantis slowly got out of the seat. Even with giggles tearing every last inch of her breath away, Mantis managed to stumble over to Gamora, reaching out to press a few fingers to her green face.
"Touch me," Gamora announced, without even moving to intercept her. "And the only thing you're gonna feel is a shattered jaw."
Needless to say, Mantis stopped laughing. Slowly, when backed away and searched her brain for anything else to talk about. "To an extent, I can alter some emotions. If I touch someone who is sad, I can ease them into contentment for a short while. I can make a..." She glanced at Gamora. "... stubborn person compliant. But I mostly use it to help my master sleep. He lies awake at night, thinking about his lost son."
Peter's face shifted into another indescribable expression, sighing to himself. Trixie nervously raised a hoof to get Mantis' attention. "Um...Can you try one of those on me?"
The alien woman stalked over to her and slowly rested a palm on her forehead, just below her horn. She closed her eyes and her antennae lit with a light blue color. She breathed. "Sleep," Then she moved away.
Trixie waited a few seconds, looking at everyone and even at her own hooves. Everything felt normal, without the slightest change in her consciousness. The unicorn shrugged at Mantis. "So, what? Does this happen now or does it gradu--"
She fell over into Quill's lap instantly, going as limp as a ragdoll. Her eyes were shut softly as a polar opposite to her lips, which were parted to produce a slightly loud snore. Peter raised his arms as if Trixie were radioactive waste, but he lowered one hand to poke her in the side. The pony snored even louder than before.
"Wow." Quill nodded. "That was kinda cool."
Drax laughed again. "She is drooling on your pants!" After laughing some more, he lowered his tone to a whisper. "Who has a marker? We can draw nasty things on her face while she sleeps!"
Derpy flinched away from another giant spider as it scurried up a nearby tree, making very unhappy noises. The pony wasnt regretful of her decision to help Rocket with his strange antics, but she was greatly confused by why she had to carry all the stuff. She was not a luggage mule for the raccoon's personal use.
"Alright, luggage mule," The raccoon pointed up the tree. "I'm gonna be waiting up there for them to pass on through. "
Derpy looked farther past the tree. She could see a bunch of flashlights like tiny fireflies in the far distance, and she estimated a few minutes before they ever got near them. "Who did you say they were again? Raiders?"
"Ravagers." Rocket said as he picked out a few items and started to climb up. "Space pirates, real nasty too. They'd probably cut you up, eat you, use you for target practice or sell you off as the bride of some king."
"And Quill was with these people his whole life?! He seems so nice!"
Rocket scoffed at her. "He's just as bad as them. They definitely ain't guys to mess with."
Derpy flew up to his height in the tree with a pout. "We can't let them keep going towards the ship, then! Maud might not be able to handle all of them!"
"Of course not! They're coming at the ship from three different angles in three different groups. " Rocket explained with an eerie grin. "So we'll need some live bait to keep focused in the forest."
The pegasus nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, great idea! Now we just have to figure out who should be the bait."
"Don't worry. I have someone in mind." Rocket nodded as he looked Derpy over once and then twice. "They're really stupid and bright and cheery."
The oblivious pony tilted her head. "That sounds like bait material. Who is it?"
“Well, you are certainly an immovable object as far as your beliefs go, Maud. That I can respect,” Nebula slurped up the last of her soup, glancing at the pony sitting so close beside her. Perhaps the cyborg could easily snap the beast’s neck...but it would accomplish nothing. Nebula would not kill anyone without a good reason, least of all someone who was willing to listen to her side of the story. “But your notion of forgiveness is too simple. Not being in my situation might be making forgiveness seem all too easy to you.”
Maud idly sighed, glancing down at her own empty bowl. “Perhaps I wouldn't forgive my sister in this situation...not for a long time. But family is a very important thing. If it’s possible to, its wise to hold on to them.”
“My ‘father’ had my ‘brother’ tear me apart. I suppose you’ll want me to forgive them, too?” Nebula made no sound of anger, but she sounded very tired.
“They aren’t Gamora, and they aren’t here for me to judge. I’ve seen it in her,” The pony explained with a shrug. “Her eyes give it away. When she looks at you, there’s anger...but there’s guilt. A lot of held back guilt.”
“She’s the most dangerous woman in the Galaxy,” Was the brief response. “She has a lot to be guilty for.”
“She feels guilty, probably because of what she did to you. She thinks she made you who you are now.”
“Maybe she did. She’s too stubborn to apologize for it.”
“She’s afraid you won’t forgive her. If you won’t even think about it, then there’s no reason for her to try.” She raised a hoof to make her point. “Think about it from her perspective. It would hurt to say sorry and not get acceptance from that. It already hurts to remember how she treated you as an obstacle...not as her sister.”
The mare continued, slightly more stern than before. “You both act really tough--emotionless and uncaring towards most of the beings around you. But it all stems from your past together; you distance yourselves to destroy your chances of being hurt again by anyone who gets too close. For Gamora, she probably fears falling into the routine of being the best, at the expense of others. You just want love, as cheesy or preposterous as that may sound.”
Nebula stared into Maud’s eyes, feeling more tired and unhappy than before. Part of her idly wondered if Maud was a psychiatrist back where she was from--it would explain her logical verses and quotes. “How do I know I wouldn’t look stupid...telling her what I’ve told you? I already feel stupid telling you my...feelings ."
“Don’t. I’m your friend.”
Nebula flinched a little, stared and then looked away. “W-We’re not friends.” She snorted to herself. “Yes, you’ve been...kind to me, but...but that would be utterly preposterous. I’m a Luphomoid and you’re an Equine.”
“I know a Princess who adopted a dragon. Trust me when I say this wouldn’t be the weirdest friendship.”
Nebula tried to glare at her, but it came off as more of a pout. “Stop saying that! We...are merely associates. No, not even that--not even Acquaintances. Nothing more than a prisoner and her warden.”
Maud tilted her head and blinked impassively. “Prisoner?”
“You have me bound and--!” Nebula didn't quite register that her arm was free from the single cuff that trapped it, and it ended up lightly hitting Maud on her snout. “Shit! Maud! Did I--!” She flexed her free hand, blinking in surprise. She was actually free, for who knows how long. “Wait. What?”
“While we were talking, I levitated the key over to unlock you.” Maud explained with a shrug. “I guess you didn’t notice, friend.”
“I’m not your...Hmmph.” Nebula rolled her eyes as she leaned back against the wall of the ship. After several long moments of silence, and she sighed and crossed her arms. “...I could kill you now. Now that I'm free."
Surprisingly, Maud rolled her eyes. "The fact that you're saying it and not doing it says a lot already."
"...Well? What happens now, Maud?”
A pause. “...I don’t know. That’s up to you to decide.”
“Oh, great. Thanks to your sugary, disgustingly good natured rambling about forgiveness and sisters, I don’t know what to do. My whole life has been nothing but an ending cycle of pain, torture in one form to the next--back to back. So why now do I feel all...weird?” The cyborg grumbled in frustration--there was no other way to describe it. “Part of me wants to just kill you, your friend, the rat and the tree and just get off this planet somehow. And the other part...is just plain naive and foolish.”
“You would at least be trying. If she doesn’t, you can at least say you did. I’d be with you every step of the way.”
“What good will that do?”
“I’m convincing you, aren’t I? How hard can your sister be?”
Nebula couldn’t help herself; she actually snorted a laugh at the repulsive horse thing. “You are probably the only friend I know that can say that without an ounce of emotion.”
“Ah, so I am your friend.” Maud’s left eyebrow raised the slightest.
“Oh, fuck you.” Nebula entered another silent game with the pony, thinking thoughts that she never thought would occur to her in her life. The cyborg ran over her options once, then twice, then thrice and then a fourth time with hesitation. “Why don’t we make a deal?”
When Maud’s ears perked up at that, the luphomoid continued slowly. “If I try to make things up with Gamora--try to search for the ‘love’ inside her or whatever--and she rejects me like I know she will...then you let me kill her. No interruptions or interceptions.”
Maud went stiff at the first half of her proposal, but relaxed enough to ask: “And If I’m right? If Gamora tries just like you're trying?”
“Then...I dunno-- I’ll be your best friend forever or something.”
Maud shot her hoof out. “Deal.”
Nebula stared the outstretched limb, reaching out a metallic limb of her own. Her ice cold, vnarsan-metal fingers wrapped around the warm circumference of her fuzzy hoof. She shook once, gently yet somehow firmly. “Deal.” She retreated her hand instantly and searched the ship for something else to talk about--something not related to talking about feelings. "Where are your friends, anyway?"
"Rocket and Derpy...?" Maud looked around, her ears swiveling in opposite directions. After a while, she shrugged. "I'm not sure."
A tiny plant being nonchalantly swam in a bowl of rock soup, drinking and splashing like a little kid. "I am Groot!"
Maud stiffened. "What do you mean they're setting traps? Traps for who?"
Trixie pushed herself up shakily, while the world swam before her very eyes. Her body felt like she was being tossed through the air, this way and that on a neverending rollercoaster. Her hoof was pressed against something that didn't seem like the ground, and he slowly blinked at seeing who’s leg she propped herself up on. Not quite comprehending things on account of how drowsy she felt, Trixie raised her eyes to the human’s face, which sported a cheeky grin.
“Quill…?” She drunkenly mumbled. “Wh...What happened?”
“That Mantis Chick put you to sleep like a good punch! Right on top of me, I might add. You snore, too.” He chuckled to himself and helped her into a groggy sitting position. “Drax tried to draw on your face, so I had to fight him off.”
The unicorn nodded softly, still sleepy and numb to her surroundings. “Thanks. I would have turned him into a teacup if he had.”
“...You can’t really...do that, can you?”
“I most certainly can, don’t test me.” She gently lowered herself onto the floor and tested her ability to stand. Mantis was really powerful, if she could reduce the Great and Powerful Trixie to walking like a stumbling drunkard. “How Long was I out?”
Peter walked alongside her, leading her down a hallway with many doors. In his left hand was his walkman, with earbuds already resting in his ears. “About an hour. Ironically, you and my...Ego woke up at the same time.” He flinched when she stumbled into his hip. “You know, I could carry you, if you’re gonna be falling into me like this.”
“No, No. I’m good. Let’s just...keep going. Wait. An hour? And Ego...oh, does that mean we’re already there?” She perked up at the thought of being closer to some information; some form of knowledge over who her father was. “Wow. That was...faster than I thought.”
They both stepped through the door waiting for them, where the rest of guardians waited alongside Ego and Mantis. The former looked wary of their closing destination while the latter seemed hopeful. Trixie and Quill found themselves standing next to Gamora, briefly flinching as the floor beneath them broke apart like jelly. They, with the others, waited as the entire floor section began to float forward through the air. Ego stood at the forefront of the platform, as the wall before it began to dissolve into a moderate sized hole.
Trixie gave Quill a hopeful, albeit sleepy smile. “You ready for this?”
Quill rolled his eyes. “Doesn’t matter if I say yes or no.”
Then they were flying forward, slowly crawling their way through the air and across the mystical planet. To say it was a bright, cheery looking place would be a great understatement--its colors were almost painful to look at. They traveled over great expanses of green grass and equally jade mountains. Arching structures of soil were dug with holes that impossibly channeled several waterfalls down into giant canyons. They passed over more than one Oasis, connected by gentle streams this way and that.
“Welcome, Everyone...to My world!” Ego offered in a friendly gesture, as their platform floated past a bizarre yet awe inspiring forest of green rocky formations. They towered above their heads, higher than mountains and stabbed at the orange, dusky sky.
“So, just to be clear…” Trixie looked up at the sky, and then all around. Odd, how she had yet to see any birds or wildlife on the planet. Perhaps she would later. “This whole place is yours? Did you build this planet?”
Ego shook his head, then mildly shrugged. “Well, I mean. Maybe a few things here and there. Not the whole thing, though. It's about the size of Princess Luna’s moon. No bigger, though.”
“Hmmm. Humility. I like it.” Drax commented aloud. “I too am extraordinarily humble. “
“You’re about as humble as my foot.” Gamora rolled her eyes, before being startled by a circular floating object. It's bubble resemblance, coupled with its transparent nature and liquid movements made it fairly strange. She watched as it floated past her and Drax gently poked it, causing it to slowly explode into even more bubbles that floated up into the sky. Even she couldn't repress a small smirk as Drax laughed.
They eventually arrived a giant metal building, likely born from bronze. It resembled the shape of a mountain but had elements and designs from other species engraved in it. Markings that paved pathways for the eyes to travel to the aqua colored windows and the peaks of different parts of the building. This grand palace had a sloping courtyard ready to receive the platform, as evidence by the blue surging tentacles that reached up to halt them where they were. The tendrils lowered them down with a metallic clink, and Ego was the first of them to step off the white transport. Gamora followed briskly as they walked past an enormous water fountain with metallic fish leaping out of it.
“So, are you saying that,” She started cautiously. “You were human but became a Celestial?”
The old man laughed as he ascended a small rise of golden stairs. “Nope. I am one hundred percent Celestial, through and through.”
Quill spoke up next, skeptically tapping the rim of the water fountain. “Well, if you can build all this stuff and blow up sovereign ships, doesn't that make you a god?”
“Well, yes--but little ‘G’, son. Little ‘G’. At least on the days when I’m feeling as humble as Drax,” He pinched the air for emphasis and waited patiently for the doors to his palace to open up to their full potential. Inside was a large chamber of sorts, paved with marble floors and designs painted blue and gold. Giant windows surrounded the room like a swarm of colorful butterflies, filtering the light from outside to it's own hue. Well, except for a wall made of gold plating layered one on top of the other, sitting to their left. “My story is a bit...complicated, to say the least.”
He walked over to the gold wall and it's layered playing shifted to reveal empty space encompassed by a metallic liquid. The liquid formed into a brain surrounded by stars and galaxies alike. “The first thing I could ever remember was flickering...like a damaged lightbulb in the cosmos. Utterly and entirely alone.” He looked at the brain as it morphed into a planet. “Over the years, and then over the millennia I learned how to control and expand my molecules--make things from them. When I got good at it, I managed to create this planet, layer by layer. Piece by piece...but I needed more.”
He turned to Quill, sighing to himself. I needed meaning--for there must be some life in the universe, right? I could not be the only thing out there. And so, I accepted the challenge to find life in a form capable of mobility. “ The strange matter morphed into a mirror image of Ego, only twenty years younger and with a stylish mullet of sorts. The red leather jacket looked strangely similar to Quill’s. “I created this body for myself! Right down to the last, tiny little detail in the grand design--”
“So you made a penis?” Drax asked curiously, then blinked at the stares thrown his way. “What?”
“Trixie can NOT process how you can ask something like that so…” Trixie massaged her forehead with a hoof. “...so nonchalantly.”
Quill huffed at the grey alien. “Dude, not cool.”
Drax raised his hands in defeat. “I’m bringing up a perfectly valid question! If he’s a planet and he made himself a body, how could your mother have you? He had to have something to do her with!”
“DUDE!” Peter squeaked with a reddening face. “I DON’T WANT HEAR A STORY ABOUT MY PARENTS DOING EACH OTHER!”
Gamora turned more green than usual. “Yeah, me neither.”
Drax gave an offended look to the both of them, his brow furrowed in confusion. “What? Why?” He gestured to himself incredulously. “My father would tell us the story of impregnating my mother every winter solstice! He said he would first--”
“NO! STOP!” Starlord pointed a finger at him, while Gamora and Trixie made noises of agreement. “That is disgusting, man!”
Drax snorted at them. “It was a beautiful story of making love. And I pity you for your lack of love for stories.”
Ego stood still in the awkward silence and then clapped. “Yes, Drax! I have a penis! A really good one! I have a digestive system, pain receptors...and all of the other horrid junk.” He conjured a holographic image of himself again, this time next to an unidentifiable woman. She was nuzzling into his neck, both wrapped around each other as if the world didn't matter. “To experience what it truly meant to be human, I set out amongst the stars until I found what I sought! Life, in all shapes and sizes! An unending array of colors in the great black canvas that was the universe.”
Quill stared at the holographic woman, eyes narrowing slightly. “Is...that when you met mom?”
“It was with Meredith that I first experienced love. I called her my river lily. And from that love, Peter…you.” Ego’s back was turned to him, heavy with unseen weight. “I searched for you for so long, wanting to...to know you. I thought I’d never find you after Yondu disappeared. But when I heard of a man from Earth, who held an Infinity Stone in his hand without dying…I knew you had to be him. The son of the woman I loved. The son I love.”
Starlord slowly, but surely tore his eyes away from the image of his mother, Ego and a familiar baby in their arms. He stared at the real Ego, frowning. “You say you loved her. That you love me.”
“Yes.”
“...If you loved us so much, then why did you leave us?”
Ego didn’t answer, not that Quill was waiting for one. The man walked off from the room despite no prior knowledge of how the place worked or where to go. He just wanted to leave and get some fresh air for a while--to understand how to process his own frickin’ father. So that's what he did.
He never noticed Trixie reluctantly following him.
"This really sucks, Rocket."
Derpy couldn't believe she was the one Rocket had in mind for bait. She had no bait qualities whatsoever! But here she was, stuck in the middle of the forest with a bunch of mean pirates ready to close in on her position. She didnt even see any traps set up for their foes and Rocket only had a small rock to indicate where she should stand. She sat there and huffed, anxiously waiting for something to happen.
"Don't you have some kind of robot you can use for this situation?"
She heard grumbling in the trees, and she glared at the dark canopy. "Hey! I heard that!"
A few particularly bright flashlights emerged from the distance beyond the rock and with the lights came the ravagers. A whole bunch of strange, dirty looking aliens in red leather wandered out from the trees with her instantly in their sights. The pony warily stiffened, instinctually biting her bottom lip.
"Huh. Hey guys, look at this," One of the Ravagers piped up. He appeared to he munching on a rather large spider. "The local wildlife."
"It looks big," Another one said. "We can kill it and grill it for later!"
Derpy glanced into the trees. What's taking that raccoon so long? She wracked her brain for something to say, to stall before they stepped completely over the trap and ruined things. "Uh... Do you really think that's a good idea? Because...um, I probably have fleas."
They didn't seem surprised about a random talking animal. "We eat fleas on the side." That particular individual continued after scrutinizing her closer. " Wait....You're that critter that Kraglin was talking about. Look boys! Don't he fit the description?"
The pegasus straightened up sharply, giving him an angry glare and aggressively flared wings. "uh--Excuse me, I am a MARE!"
"That's...what I said." The ravager exchanged shrugs with his fellow lackeys. "Male."
"No, MARE. That's a female! I'm a girl!"
"Well, geez. No need to get so tense about it."
"Well how would you like it if I called you a mule?!" Derpy shot back as she crossed her arms. The nerve of some ponies--er,aliens. "That wouldn't be so nice now, would it?"
"Actually, Mule is my last name."
"Oh...nice to meet you, Mule!"
"Likewise!"
"Enough of this!" A particularly large Ravager stomped forward, with a beard and face that looked like it had been tased beyond recognition. His troops marched behind while he slowed to a halt in front of the rock before Derpy. "You will take us to the rest of your Guardian friends or face the wrath of TASER--"
"Dude, what happened to your FACE?!" Derpy gasped in shock as he pointed a hoof at the Ravager's head. She winced sympathetically and glanced behind him at one of his lackeys. "Has it always been like that?"
The Ravager shrugged. "Rumor has it he accidentally tased himself in the face as a child."
"I heard he tried to swallow acid." Another voice said.
"He was CLEARLY struck by lightning!"
"I've been saying it for years! It's a symbiote on his face! It's fused to his skin!"
The bearded pirate whirled around on them with a sigh of disbelief. "No! That's not what happened at...ugh." He held up a finger in Derpy's direction. "Could--Could you just give us a second?"
The pegasus nodded a few times. "Sure, Sure. I'll be here."
While the outrageously silly and childish space pirates began to argue about the horrific past of their unnamed leader and his horrible face, Derpy idly scratched pictures in the dirt and wondered what a symbiote was. A hissing noise got her to look to her left, focusing on a particularly thick tree trunk. She smiled widely at the small critter hiding behind it, trying to get her attention. "Hi, Rocket!"
"Shut up, You moron!" When the Ravagers only continued to talk with each other about skin balm and lotion, the raccoon pointed. "Look--kick the rock, stupid! The rock!"
The pony glanced down at the rock, then the noticeably blue button on the side of it. She started to press it, but she suddenly stopped and fixed Rocket with an indescribable stare. He flinched at it. "What?"
She pouted and crossed her arms.
"Oh fuc--" He facepawed himself in disbelief and frustration, before glaring at her. "Are you serious?!"
Derpy didn't move.
"No! I'm not apologizing!"
Derpy still didn't move.
"You are acting really childish right now!"
Derpy hadn't even twitched. One might assume she was dead.
"Come on! They could kill us both!"
Derpy was the Queen of not moving.
"...I'm sorry I called you a moron. And stupid."
A flying hoof struck the button with a loud beeping noise. Before the Ravagers could finish up the lecture on proper skin care and dental hygiene, a wall of darts exploded from the forest to the left of the pirates. They hit their marks on every single Ravager, effectively stopping the conversation when every dart landed somewhere on someone.
"...well, that hurt."
The whole army fell out like a bucket of rag dolls being poured on the ground, limp and unconscious as they hit the hard dirt. Derpy grinned proudly at first, having taken down this many enemies by herself. Then she gasped and frantically shoved a few of the unmoving bodies. "Oh my gosh! Did I just kill them?!"
"Maybe a few of them. They'll know if they wake up soon or not." Rocket waltzed over and hopped onto Derpy's back, forcefully pushing her wings out so he could settle his heavy supplies on her back. "Alright, Derpy! Let's take to the skies! We got more troops to take out!"
Derpy sighed tiredly and slowly took off into the air, with a valiant raccoon knight leading her off towards the next battle.
“Must be attacking mercenaries sent by The Sovereign,”
Nebula went silent, waiting with held breath as more screams sounds from outside, along with different noises. The cyborg shared a look with Maud and Groot as the cacophony of chaos continued in the background. “They sound like they're winning...but there must be a lot of them. Your friends won't last much longer.”
Maud didn't say anything for a while, preferring to listen for any screams or shouts that sounded like Derpy. The expressionless pony suddenly held up her gloved hooves and the entire ship vibrated lightly. Nodding to herself, she looked up at Nebula. “Stay here with Groot. I'll go help them,”
A robotic hand latched onto her shoulder before she could trot a few hooves ahead. “They might ambush you in the cover of darkness. Or worse, they'll capture your friends and use them to get to you.”
“I am Groot.” Groot nervously wrung his tiny hands and blinked up at Maud. “I am Groot.”
Maud shrugged. “That might not happen, Nebula.”
“There's still a chance.” Nebula looked away in deep thought, but suddenly turned back to her. The glint in her one remaining eye seemed to speak for her--she had thought of something foolproof. “I...I have an idea. But I'll need you to play along with me, or you and your friends could die.”
Maud grimaced, but just the slightest. “Okay. What is your plan?”
Nebula smirked. “Are you familiar with the concept of deception?”
Derpy would have never guessed she'd be so into bringing pain to her enemies.
Most of her life had been spent as a simple mail pony who was kind to everyone, never once thinking a mean thing about any pony (okay, maybe one or two things but really small things). She just did her job, hung around Doctor Hooves a couple of times and ate muffins when the occasion arose. All in all, she just lived her peaceful existence the way she wanted to live it. She wouldn't have considered harming a fly, even if it was a really pesky fly.
But now, as she joined her extremely violent Racoon friend on his adventures, she began to see the potential in her for dangerous antics. Something about these mildly heroic acts against the forces of space pirates made her feel energetic and happy. Sure, she didn't want to kill anyone (and for some reason Rocket didn't set off any lethal traps yet) but the urge to cause some damage pushed her forward. Derpy was already smiling widely as she helped Rocket to set up four individual sub-detonators in the path of an oncoming army of Ravagers. The duo hid high up in the trees and snickered to themselves as the Ravagers approached.
“Oh man, they are walking right into the shit! “ Rocket guffawed to himself, simultaneously unsheathing the trigger.
“I know!” The pegasus giggled to herself, but forced herself to silence when they walked closer. “Oh shh! Shh! Here they come!”
They watched on in giggling anticipation as the large group trampled over the detonators in search of their furry foes. When they were all assembling over the sub-detonators, Rocket finally pressed a button on the main detonator and the ones below suddenly flared to life. The pirates had no time to move, let alone react; every last one them were catapulted into the air by an explosion of blue energy and electricity. The furry duo whooped with laughter as they all soared into the night sky--at least thirty feet into the air before gravity slowed them down and yanked them back to the ground. Snickering loudly, Rocket passed the main detonator to Derpy and slapped his knee when she chortled and pressed the same button again. The screaming pirates were thrust skyward once more but, much to her amusement, she noticed that another pirate group in the distance was blasted into the air as well. She pressed the button a few more times.
“Oh man, look at ‘em fly!” Rocket wheeze with laughter, especially when their enemies were slapped by the ground one again.
“I know!” She leaned back against the tree trunk and giggled to herself. “It reminds me of the time when I accidentally set fire to a mail order of dynamite I had!”
“You can order dynamite on your planet?!” The Raccoon snickered.
“Yeah! We're insane that way!”
They continued to laugh and watch the show unfold for a little longer, for even a few minutes. Eventually though, Derpy pointed out that any more rough landings might actually kill them and even though Rocket didn't care in the slightest, he’d respect the pony's wishes to keep them alive. One final fall had the pirates put into a state of unconciousness and Derpy helped the Raccoon back down the tree. He led them through a nearby clearing, chuckling to himself along the way.
“You know, I gotta admit,” He shrugged. “You surprised me.”
“Well, here I was thinking you were just some stupid horse with stupid eyeballs...You're still a stupid horse with stupid eyeballs.” Rocket explained, amusement rimming his voice. “But you're not half bad. You'd make a good sidekick for me, or a guinea pig at the least. You got...moxy.”
Derpy stopped in her tracks. “I have what?”
“No, wait. That's not the word I'm looking for...Is it?” He stopped too, and went silent for a long while. Then he grinned broadly. “Yes! Yes it is--That is exactly what I was going for!”
Before Derpy could grin any wider than she was now, the distinct sound of weapons clicking got their attention. The duo turned in time to see two Ravagers approaching them slowly, their guns aimed directly at them. Rocket snarled, but Derpy quickly shook her head. “Don't worry, Partner. I got these two.”
The Raccoon rolled his eyes. “Don't push it, D--”
Derpy shot forward with surprising speed, whipping her hind legs into the face of the first one and causing him to shoot down into the mud. She yanked the other one into the air with a few strained flaps of her wings, and then let him drop right back down on his head. Rocket soon remembered to close his mouth when she settled back down on the ground. “Well, I'll be. What kind of moves were those?”
“Oh I kinda just flailed around, really. I was aiming for that guys stomach and I was gonna carry that other one into a tree branch.” She winced and drew her left hind leg up into the air. “Ow. I think I pulled something, too. Or maybe it's just cramping.”
Rocket waved her off. “Eh, just walk it off. You'll be fine.”
A sharp whistling noise sliced through the night air, and Rocket's fur stood on end before he could mentally register what the sound was. Sure enough, he spotted a red streak whipping it's way around trees and bushes as it zipped closer to them. Cursing under his breath, the raccoon tensed as a familiar arrow stopped just centimeters from his head. “Derpy, do me a favor and don't move,”
Derpy blinked owlishly at the arrow, before wincing again. “Yeah, but my leg is really cramping up.”
“Trust me, just don't move. We're surrendering,”
“We are? Aw, man!”
“Hey there, Rat!”
Oh, Rocket would know that scraggly voice anywhere--not to mention the nickname. Sure enough, the big blue leader of the Ravagers walked out with a small squad behind him. His short red fin sat arrogantly atop his head, almost arrogantly as his yellow toothed smile.
Rocket flashed an equally nasty grin. “Hey there, ya blue nutsack. How's it going?”
Yondu chuckled. “Not so bad! We got ourselves a pretty good little gig here! See, this golden gal with quite a high opinion of herself has offered us a large sum to deliver you and your furry freak pals over to her, because she wants y'alls heads on a pike!”
The Ravagers started to laugh amongst themselves as they assembled around the two, picking darts out of their head or groaning when they weren't chuckling. All forms of laughter left them when they suddenly noticed Derpy hopping in place and grimacing deeply. Yondu's smirk fell slowly. “...The ‘ell is she doing?” He glanced at Rocket.
The Raccoon would have responded, but Derpy beat him to it. “Sorry! Sorry! I know you're being intimidating and all, but I have REALLY bad leg cramp right now--Can I just walk in circles around Rocket?”
Kraglin poked his head out from behind somebody. “Uh, walkin’s gonna make it worse.”
Someone else piped up. “Yeah, just lie down, stretch out the leg. That helps it.”
Another one also spoke. “Yeah, that helps my corn when it gets like that.”
“Yer corn ain't been hurt a day in yo life!”
“You callin me a liar?!”
“I ain't callin you a Truther!”
Yondu fought to keep himself from rolling his eyes, and another grin rose on his face. “I tell you, it was pretty easy to find y’all. I put a tracer on your ship back there… during the war over Xandar. Kept an eye on you the whole time.”
Rocket growled to himself, but kept from using anymore insults. “Look...Just...give me your word you won't hurt Groot,” Reluctantly, he remembered the others. “Or Derpy and her friend...and I'll tell you where the batteries are.”
“In case you didn't hear it correctly, Ayesha wants you, Rodent.” Taserface laughed aloud. “Everyone here is dying either way.”
“And you know for a fact that my word don't mean diddly squat.” Yondu rolled his eyed at Rocket. “Lucky for you in this case, or else you'd actually be going to Ayesha.”
“...wait, what?” Derpy said from her position on the ground. “You’re not gonna kill us or sell us off or anything?”
“Hell naw. We'll just take those batteries,” Yondu pretended to count on his fingers, not noticing the strange looks of his crew. “They're...what--A quarter mill on the open market?”
“A half mill for the black trade,” Rocket said helpfully.
“A HALF?!” Taserface shouted, great amounts of spittle flying from his mouth. “The Priestess said she'd pay us a full million! A half is only one third of that!”
Everyone stared at him for at least half a minute, before another Ravager spoke up as well. “He meant to say only a quarter mill,” He paused and added angrily: “Wait--A quarter ain't enough to buy a pair of boots!”
“I once bought a muffin with a quarter of a bit,” Derpy offered.
“The point is, we ain't stupid enough to help kill the Guardians of the Galaxy! The whole dang Nova Corps would be on our tails!” Yondu interrupted in frustration. He didn't seem angry with his crew, but rather trying to prove a point in the face of a mob. “Quill ain't been the best of us, but we ain't gonna sell him or his gang off like dogs!”
“Quill?!”
“This is about Quill?!”
“That ain't right!” Kraglin angrily stepped forward, fists tightening with passing second. Even Yondu seemed mildly surprised with his appearance. “I just gotta say it this one time, Cap'n... No matter how many times Quill betrays you, you protect him!”
The Ravagers all cheered loudly at that remark. “ You act like none of th’ rest of us much matter! I'M th’ one what sticks up for ya!”
“Kraglin,” Tullk frowned deeply in his direction. “If you stick up for him, y'would--”
“Damn straight, lad! He ain't the same as he was before--He's gone soft on us all!” Taserface scowled darkly in his leader's direction amongst the agreement of the Ravagers. His hand went his weapon in it's holster. “ Suppose it’s time for a change in leadership!”
Youndu whistled his arrow into the air, posing it dangerously while everyone else suddenly unsheathed her weapons. A chorus of clicking guns filled the air, and that was followed by blasters charging in the blink of an eye. Different Ravagers, torn apart by the subject of Yondu, yelled and barked at each other while aiming at the heads of their fellow pirates. Derpy quietly crawled over to Rocket and poked his leg. “Should we sneak away while we still can?”
Rocket nodded silently and took a step to the left. A strange blasting noise shut everyone up, followed by a few surprised gasps and an electric sound. The duo looked up to see Yondu standing in complete shock, immobilized by some unseen force. His fin was gone thanks to a blaster from behind, and wires sparked from atop his skull until he finally toppled forward into the ground. Rocket stared at the unconscious pirate and then slowly looked up to see who shot him.
Nebula shot the blaster again, incapacitating Rocket with the effect of a taser. Derpy gasped in horror; the cyborg had Maud slung over her shoulder, with a red smear dripping from the pony's forehead and Groot clutched tightly in a hand. Maud's eyes were closed, but her face had the slights of pain engraved in it.
“M-Maud?” The Pegasus flared her wings in growing outrage and dawning fear. What could she do? What could she do?
“Hello boys,” Nebula grinned and shot her blaster again.
A blue blur hit Derpy's chest and the world went black.
“I have a proposition.”
“Did you have to shoot Derpy?” Maud asked in her usual monotone uncertainty. “That seemed...unnecessary.”
Nebula rolled her eyes as she clicked the chain into place, for some reason hoping that it wasn't too tight on Maud. “She was panicking. Some one else could have shot her with a more lethal weapon.” She stood up when her work was finished, her hands on her hips. “This way, she lives to see another day.”
“I suppose that's logical. These chains…” Maud tried to lift her left foreleg, but could barely lift it a few inches off the ground. “...won't the one around my neck suffice?”
“Deception is a key factor, Maud. We have to be careful about how this is staged, or we won't have a ship to get off this thing.” The Luphimoid reminded her and cautiously allowed Maud enough time to walk down the hallway. Friends didn't pull each other's chains, after all. “And we'll be stuck here with your friends.”
“How long will this take?”
“Not long, I hope. “ Nebula sighed to herself, hearing the sounds of the Ravagers laughing in the background. For your friends’ sakes.”
Quill watched as the rock he threw failed to bob its way across the surface of the water and promptly sunk to the bottom.
His hand reached for another rock, somewhat smaller than the first one and set his sights of the disturbed surface of the small pond. Once he deemed it settled enough, he reared his hand back just enough and flicked the small thing forwards. He expected to see it finally skid and bob across the surface for a while, but it just sunk it's way to the bottom again. Quill slumped to the ground and pouted at the sight. “It's not working! It never works!”
“I never said it would come to you naturally on the first try, now did I?” A voice remarked from just behind, approaching slowly. Soon someone was sitting right next to him, picking up one of the rocks he'd collected to inspect it. The voice laughed at what she saw. “This rock is too jagged and hard. I told you only smooth pebbles will do the job.”
Eight year old Quill pouted harder. “It's im...i...im--pahseebull to find any of those.”
“You mean one of...these?” A feminine hand pulled a small, flat storm from his ear like she knew magic. He didn't doubt that she did. “You should have asked me where to look for them.”
“I guess so.” He admitted sheepishly. “Thanks, mommy.”
The woman nodded, but her smile slowly fell. She looked internally pained, her body briefly shuddering and then relaxing again. She shook her to clear an unseen haze, but there was still the lack of a smile. Quill inspected her closely, worriedly. “Are you okay, mommy?”
Meredith's warming smile appeared again. “I'm just fine, Quill.” She handed him the smooth pebble and gestured to the lake. “Now, why don't you try again? I've got a good feeling about this one.”
Quill watched the rock he threw sink into the pond. It hadn’t even tried to skip across just once.
So instead of cursing himself for his inability to throw it the right way, he merely stared at the ripples in the water and reflected on the times he'd tried to practice with his mother. She was an impossibly patient woman for someone to have a kid who couldn't ever get the blasted technique right. She was impossibly patient for someone who was just as content as her child to wait for her husband to return. She waited for as long as the brain cancer would allow her, but that just wasn't long enough. Quill stared at the ripples in the water again, watched them until they stilled and became nothing.
Why hadn’t he believed his mother on her deathbed, when she finally revealed that his father was not a world famous guy with a truckload of money and a smile that could kill women where they stood? He was ashamed for thinking she was crazy when she said he came from space, but he was more ashamed to be the son of an abandoning father. Had the roles been reversed, Quill would have stayed with his son through it all. He was glad Yondu never dropped him off to him.
Heck-- Yondu had, at times, been a better father than David Hasselhoff and A thousand gods combined. Sure he'd threatened to kill him as a boy, or just truss him up in a good soup and there had been a lot of exchanged punching between the two. He was a major douche, but he never left him in trouble. And there were...exceptional moments where Yondu hadn't been an A-hole--a few now that he looked back on them. He would never know how to fire a blaster if it weren't for that lesson in the woods, he would have been shot by angry gamblers if they hadn't been talked down and there was never a day when he didn't have at least one bite of something; nasty or not. It was a distant memory, but Quill remembered falling asleep near the blue pirate leader and waking up for a few seconds when someone draped Yondu's jacket over him and walked off briskly. Yondu would later pretend that Quill stole his jacket for a blanket.
Yondu was not a good father, but he had been a better figure than Ego. Quill shook his head at the thought of the sad yet well-meaning celestial. There was too much to just...accept him. Too much to consider and...the human sighed in mild irritation.
“Not now, Trix. Go back to the others.”
A feminine voice and trotting hooves approached from behind, giving a surprised gasp. “How did you know Trixie was here?!”
“Quill-Sense. Now get lost, ” He sniffed and licked up another rock. He tossed it into the water without even trying to make it skip. “I'm not looking to have a heart to heart right now.”
“Well...Trixie wasn't going to try anyway. She was just...making sure you hadn't fallen and hurt yourself.”
“Well, as you can clearly see, I'm just fine and dandy.”
“You look more like...mopey and conflicted.” Trixie sat next to him and picked up one of the rocks. She eyed it with disgust, and then tossed it into the water. “Which is the same mood your dad's in, sooo...like father like son?”
Quill huffed at her. “He can't be in the same mood I'm in, because I have worse stuff to deal with.”
“So he does he, I'm certain. Honestly, after watching you two, I’m glad I’ll have no stuff to deal with when I meet my dad, ” Trixie inspected her reflection in the water's surface with deep thought. She blew a strand of hair out of her face. “We’ll be thick as thieves right off the bat!”
The human stared at her as if she were growing another set of hooves. “Cut the bullish!t. No one would be comfortable with their dad abandoning them along with their mom.”
Trixie rolled her eyes at him. “Uh, Equus to Quill? I grew up in an orphanage, remember?”
“How is that any better?!” He asked in pure exasperation. “Don't tell me you haven't once been bitter about being left in an orphanage--instead of living in a nice house!”
“That orphanage may not have been the best home, but it was still home!” The pony poked him roughly with a hoof and glared. “Which is the point we're trying to make! He may not rhe be the best dad of the year, but you should try to accept him!”
Quill massaged his aching forehead. “So you and Gamora keep saying! Why do you care about this so much?”
“Because aside from friendship, my time learning from my mistakes also taught me that family is important for shaping a pony’s life!”
“How would you know that?! You don't even have a family!”
Trixie stared at him with an unblinking look, slowly tilting her head. She gave a short huff of breath--a cross between a disbelieving laugh and a scoff. “ Wow. That was a really low blow, Starlord.”
Quill dragged a hand down his face and sighed at her. “Look, please don't do that cliche movie thing where I say something mean, you start crying and then you run off. I'm just really--”
The mare rolled her eyes. “Please, Trixie doesn't cry. And even if she did, which would be rare, you'd have to go lower than that to do it.”
Starlord shrugged to himself. “Well, what I meant to say was that you don't have any experience to judge...all this crap going on with me. You just don't, okay?”
Trixie’s stern look weakened over time. “You didn't even give him a chance to defend himself. He…” She caught sight of something behind him and focused on it curiously. “...is flying up into that huge dome thing.”
“He--what?” Quill turned to follow her line of sight and soon caught visual confirmation. Connected to the far right side of the grande palace was a circular metal dome sitting on top of a downward come structure, with strange markings engraved in the sides. Ego was just floating up to a small compartment on the west side of the dome, walking in and closing it behind him. Quill huffed through his nose as he looked over the building once more. “What is that place for?”
A blue blur trotted past him. “I'm gonna go and find out myself.”
The man didn't try to stop her, but he did find some reluctance following behind. He debated whether or not to just go back to the pond as they finally approached the base of the odd tower, looking up at its daunting height. He scanned the cone shape for any grooves or steps that he could use to climb up the normal way, but was met with nothing for his efforts. His pony pal appeared to be sizing up the tower with a tense expression. Finally, she spoke up. “I could teleport us up there!”
“You could--uh, no. No teleporting. The thought makes me nauseous.” He stared up and grimaced. “Couldn't you just fly us up there? Levitate?”
“You look like you weigh a ton. Teleporting is much faster at a lower price of magic! Sure, Trixie could accidentally fuse our flesh to the metal or even even each other, permanently disfiguring us for the rest of our short lives…” Trixie explained with a casual shrug. “But hey, no pain--no gain!”
“That saying doesn't make any sense here!” He responded begrudgingly. “And neither does taking a transportation route that could screw up your internal organs, or turn your skin inside out or turn you to dust! I don't like the idea of turning to dust you know.”
Her horn lit up without a second thought to his very reasonable concerns. “You're just being a sissy, you sissy. I'm gonna do the thing now, and you're gonna take it like a man!”
Quill couldn't get three steps away before he horn lit up, then exploded with the fury of a thousand miniature hurricanes. He felt nothingness for the smallest fraction of a second, hurled through an infinite void only to be yanked back onto the world before he could even make sense of what was happening. He quickly noticed some good news and some bad news: The good news was that Trixie hadn't seriously deformed them by accident and actually did get them to the top of the tower like she said she would.
And therein lay the bad news.
“Woah--woah--woah--woah-woah!” Quill scrambled frantically as they slid down the dome structure, finding nothing physical to stop their fall. This thing was a lot slippier than it looked. “H-hey! Slow us down!”
Trixie gasped and lit up her horn again just as they started to fall off the dome, enveloping Quill in a light blue aura of some kind. The man gasped for breath as he was held in a very shaky grip, just inches away from tumbling off towards a hard landing. He shot her a look of confusion as she strained heavily to keep up the flow of energy around them both. “Has...A-anypony….ever told...y-you...that you w-weigh...so much?!”
“It's not like I can just get a set of dumbells right now, you know!” He squeaked when her grip faltered very briefly and pointed down. “Just set me down in front of the door, slowly!”
Trixie strained even harder when she tried to do that, her brow crinkling with the effort. In a way, it was completely infuriating to be capable of much, yet be able to do so little. “Easy to say...Not so easy...to do.”
“Allow me!”
Crackling white energy erupted from the door of the dome in the form of three thick tentacles. They twisted this way and that as they poured out and swiftly hoisted the two beings safely into the air. As they dangled, the controller of the tendrils leaned against the dome's doorway and crossed his arms. “Seems I've caught you two in the act of sneaking in.”
Quill rolled his eyes at Ego's constantly aloof nature. “It was Trixie's idea.”
“You traitor! I should've let you fall to the ground.”
“Speaking of which, you seem to be straining a lot with your power. It only comes with your emotional state, and its constant change means its hard to predict when it will be strong.” Ego lowered them onto the platform checking the dome and knelt down in front of the pony. “If you want, I can give you a tune up?”
She blinked. “Give me a what now?”
“It's just a way of saying: Cerebral Adjustment. Your power is...basically a big battery. Your emotions are the plug right now, but if you want…” He explained eagerly, yet slowly so she understood. Quill bristled as it distantly reminded him of those days at the pond. “we can upgrade the plug so that your power connects to your mind instead. Then you can think things into existence like these tentacles I made. Or that lightning bolt you mentioned earlier.”
“So...basically make it so that I use my powers with my brain?” Trixie scoffed, waving a good for emphasis. “Uh, duuuuuh! Make it happen, Cap'n!”
Starlord glowered even more. “I'm the captain.”
Ego reached forward with his hands, now glowing an otherworldly white and pressed his bright palms into her temple. The pony's irises shrank into pinpricks almost instantly and her eager smile melted away into slack-jawed nothingness. The old celestial seemed like he was calmly searching through files in an office, his own eyes pinpricked by tiny irises. Quill frowned when his face suddenly became...distressed, like fearful recognition. His hands trembled ever so slightly.
And then it was over.
Ego slowly moved his hands away and their pupils returned them almost instantly. Trixie shook her head a few times, but her eager attitude returned full force. “So? Did you do it? Am I the Spectacular and Invincible Trixie now?”
Ego grinned away any emotion that had been on his face earlier--so fast that Quill wondered if he had actually seen him look...scared or not. “Y-yeah. It's done! Go on, try something, ”
Trixie thought over that for a least half a minute, then gasped with delight at the idea that entered her mind. Once her horn lit up with a darker blue aura, the ground beneath them rumbled. A pillar of dirt rose up from the ground and solidified itself into white granite. Then a good chunk of water from the garden pond floated its way to the flat top of the pillar and hovered there for a moment. The water chunk rippled and churned as it tried to find a shape to take. Eventually, it took on a familiar, four-legged form and posed while it hardened into ice. Trixie smiled proudly at her finished work. “Ta-da!”
“Very impressive!” Ego clapped momentarily.
Quill regarded the statue Trixie made of herself for a moment, but ultimately tore himself away from it to look at the elderly being of mass power. “Yeah, nice. So, what we're doing in this...thing?”
Ego smirked and traveled inside the dome, gesturing for the two of them to follow behind. Trixie exchanged an indescribable glance with Starlord before following suit and being introduced the stunning interior of the dome. It was bigger on the inside than on the outside, all made up of one Interconnected web of bronze metal. Floating in the center of the room was a silver helmet of sorts--very simplistic to match the calm decor of the dome. Ego pointed at the helmet. “This is the...theater room, you might say. That helmet is a telescope specifically designed for Celestial beings.”
His son squinted at it. “Really.”
“Really.”
Quill walked up to the helmet without a sound and paused for a moment when Ego gestured for him to out it on. The man reluctantly did so and found his eyes opened far past the walls of the dome--past the planet itself. Stars, nebula, comet herds and the like we're there everywhere he turned his head. He could see them as if they were just a couple hundred yards in front of him, even though he knew better than to think such. He turned his head everywhere until he saw one planet that stood out from the rest, catching his attention for a long time. He licked his lips. “...you really were from the stars. Hmm.”
His father furrowed his brow. “Hmm…?”
“She said you were from the stars.”
“...”
“...you know-- funny story, Trix.” Quill's eyes were wet as he tore them away from the view of earth, and took the helmet from his eyes. “My mom-- she told everyone my father was from the stars. She had brain cancer, so everyone thought she it was making her crazy. All the kids liked that, you know. A kid saying his father was David Hasselhoff, and the dying mom spouting shit about an alien husband. What a fucking joke, right?”
Trixie shuffled uncomfortably where she stood in the corner of his eye, backing up just a pace. Ego held an even stare with him, tired and remorseful. “Peter--”
“No. No. Listen, I’d love to believe all of this happy go lucky daddy stuff, I really would.” Peter growled out the words between clenched teeth if only to keep from sniffling. “ But you abandoned me… and the most wonderful woman in existence. You jumped ship and left her to die!”
“You think that's it?!” Ego barked at him, angry and saddened all at the same time. “you think that--t-that one day, I just up and decided I didn't love her anymore?! There's nothing in my life I've hated more than leaving your mother, Peter! If I don't return to this planet on a regular basis to replenish my power? I die and return to this planet regardless!”
Quill sarcastically raised his arms. “Oh, yeah! That makes everything better! I'll just go back to my planet and never return--no, better yet: I'll send the shittiest pirate gang in the world to abduct my son and bring him to me, instead of getting him myself! God, I'm so smart!”
Ego was turning red by this point, trying to emphasize his points. “I loved your mother more than anything in this universe! I’m not just sleep deprived because of thinking about you--I can't sleep because I close my eyes and see her smiling at me! There's a hole in my heart, Peter!” His voice broke as he shouted. “I couldn't and still can't set foot on an earth where she isn't alive! You don't have the slightest idea what that's li--”
“Who had to watch her get sick? Who had to watch her cough up blood day after day?! Who had to visit her every day?! I did!” Quill cried. “...I had to watch her die, dad!”
Ego said nothing. He and Quill merely stared at each with rolling tears, for minutes on end and then even longer. His son sniffled and aggressively rubbed his tears away on the sleeve of his jacket. Ego breathed through his nose, shaking his head. “..I'm the worst.”
Peter looked up, squinting sharply. “What?”
“I am the worst father. To have made you go through that alone. I know that...and as sorry as I am to have left you...I know I'll never be able to change it.” Ego declared sadly, then went silent again. “Over the millions and millions of years of my existence… I’ve made more mistakes than I can count. But you’re not my mistake, Peter. Just...please give me the chance to be the father she would want me to be.”
His son gave a shaky sigh, but didn't leave the room for some reason. Quill still felt like he should keep dodging his father, but part of him kept him rooted. Ego wiped his face and took it as a good sign. “There’s so much that I need to teach you about this planet… and the light within the very core. They are a part of you, son.”
Trixie, who had been silently backing up towards the door and looking awkward, glanced up when the conversation started to become...less heated. “...Are his powers connected to emotion too? Will you have to...upgrade the plug?”
“Maybe not.” Ego explained thoughtfully as he walked up to Quill. Grasping his son's hands, he shifted them so that the palms were facing up. “Here, hold them like that. Now...close your eyes and concentrate.”
Starlord held an uncertain stare with him, but eventually closed his eyes and chose to focus on the energy he'd seen Ego manipulate earlier. The white matter that moved as he saw fit, like an extension of himself. “Yes...take your brain to the center of this planet…and make it.”
Ego continued to urge him on, and Quill closed his eyes harder as a bewildering sensation bloomed in his stomach. Like running water, it flowed into his veins and traveled along his arms in mere seconds. The feeling pooled into his palms and gathered the more it moved, sloshing over molecules of itself as it built up to something. What that something was, he had no idea what it would be. At least not until an electric crackling sound was heard.
He heard Trixie gasp in delight and Ego whoop enthusiastically. “Yes! Yes! That's it!”
Quill opened his eyes to a most startling sight--he was holding a huge ball of electric green plasma, which frothed this way and that between his palms. He squeaked in alarm, causing the ball to slowly fizzle out and die before he could fully appreciate it. He looked up at the celestial and gaped. “That...Did I just…?”
Ego gestured to his hands excitedly. “It’s okay... Just relax. Concentrate. You can do it. Bring it back…”
His hands shook nervously, but he nodded all the same. He concentrated once more and steeled himself when the energy began to bloom through his body again. The ball of green plasma sparkled to life faster than the last time, gleefully surging like a puppy. “Woah. Woooah. Man, it feels weird.”
“That's all you, son….Yes; shape it. Feel that energy.” Ego watched with a proud smile as the man compressed and shaped the ball like clay, giving it a more refined look than before.The old celestial stepped back a few paces, his smile growing wider and he watched him finish shaping it. For the first time, he finally saw Quill smile at him. A genuine, eager smile. “Looks like you're home, Peter.”
Peter nearly choked on air when Ego pointed at the ball and held out his hands expectantly. He laughed at the whole situation for a moment, and then beamed down at the ball he'd formed in his hands. Shakily, he tossed the ball to his father and watched as he caught it with one hand like it was nothing. He threw it back with an underhand toss and a laugh that could melt the hardest of hearts. Quill laughed right back as he caught it.
This was it. This was it felt like. This was what he missed. This was what he had now.
As the childhood glee filled him he stepped back a few paces and hurled the plasma ball once more. In the background of the truly heartwarming scene, a blue unicorn sighed between smiling lips. Trixie couldn't imagine a sight more gushy and cheesy, but in the best way possible. To see someone finally get what they always wanted since childhood was a rare treat in itself...one that she didn't want to ruin by being there. Without a sound, the mare turned around and began to slowly trot out of the dome.
“You, Trix! Heads up!”
“Huh? Woah!” Trixie turned around just in the nick of time; her head was only inches away from being hit by the green plasma ball. She used her magic to hold it in place, only for her to realize what happened and blink owlishly at the others’ smiling faces. “Uh…?”
Quill shrugged, almost holding back a laugh. “Where ya going?”
Trixie sheepishly brushed hair out of her eyes. “Oh. I...Uh, I figured this was just a family thing between you two. So, I’ll just leave you two to play catch.”
Ego shrugged as well. “Celestials are a rare breed, you know. You can be my adoptive niece if that's what it'll take to get you in here.”
The mare's eyes widened, her mouth ajar for a while. “...I...I-I've never been a niece before…”
Quill chuckled aloud. “I've never had a pony as my...adoptive cousin. Join the club, Trix.”
Trixie could do nothing but gape in surprise at them, and then at the ball in her grasp. It never occurred to her how the lack of a family didn't leave her any opportunity for playing catch, like Quill. It didn't leave her with memories to look back on, and now she had a once in a lifetime opportunity to have memorable fun--even if they weren't in any way her blood relatives. The thought of having family, a cousin at long last, made her smile wider than ever. With a very warm heart, the showmare giggled to herself and prepared to toss the ball back.
For as far as her eye could see, it was completely dark.
“Derpy…”
She looked around slowly, but it was still dark.
“Derpy…”
“Who said that?” She asked warily.
“Derpy...ake up...diot.”
“Oh, I get it.” Derpy smiled widely--it all made sense now. “You're my conscience!”
“...at?”
“Like that silly stage play, Finding Zemo!” She laughed an airy laugh at her conscience, floating somewhere in the darkness. She idly wondered, where exactly. “But they were at the bottom of a really dark cave with...uh, monsters and stuff. Conscience, are we in a cave? Is that why its so dark?”
“Stop mumbl...ike a moron...wa...up!”
She scrunched her nose up. “Uh, you're breaking up. What did you say? Repeat the last part ag--ow!”
And then, with that painful pinch, she was back in the world of the living.
Derpy winced away her mild discomfort to focus on blinking her vision back to normal...only to regret it moments later. It didn't take a rocket surgery-ist to realize that she was tied up against a very cranky looking raccoon and was being carried only by a single metal pole--like a shish ka-bob. The Ravagers were all chuckling and chittering amongst each other, surrounding the two of them like hungry sharks. She could spot Groot being held in the tiniest bird cage she had ever seen, cramped beyond believe and very angry. Behind him, that blue dude with the broken fun was also bound and prodded along every couple of steps or so. And further beyond him, all of the…’nice’ Ravagers were in a similar predicament.
“No!” Derpy gasped aloud. “We've been captured!”
Rocket growled. “I'm gonna kick you right in your moronic little face if you say something obvious again.”
Derpy looked ahead of them to see that they were on a fairly desolate planet, traveling through a giant field of garbage and rotting metal parts. They were going towards a spaceship of massive proportions, like a miniature mountain parked in front of their unofficial path. The entry doors for the ship were open, ready to accept the pirates and their prisoners.
“What is that?” Derpy asked worriedly.
“I was wondering that myself, ” Rocket might have tried to shrug, but it was hard to do so when tied up. “This planet might be a Ravager outpost.”
Derpy looked it over once more. “Oh, good. Does that mean they're just gonna keep us prisoner and not kill us?”
“Don't count on it.” One of the pirates smirked at them.
Well, there was good news and bad news about being on the Ravager outpost.
The good news is that no one liked the original plan of what to do with their prisoners. The original plan was that they would fly up into a remote section of space and then push them all out into the great black vacuum, one by one. Thankfully, everyone found that plan to be, apparently, ‘too kind a death for them’. So no one decided to give anyone that kind of execution. That was the good news.
The bad news, as Derpy had come to find out, was Goom.
Courtesy of one of the more gleeful of their executioners, she was told that when they first claimed the planet, they discovered a giant, really deep hole in the ground that housed a great beast. They described it as fifty feet tall, with skin like decaying flesh and rock, as well as a massive head, beady eyes and a gaping maw. It was a creature that was always hungry and provided great entertainment to watch when it was fed something. It had limited linguistic skills and referred to itself as Goom, which made sense to her as the bad news when that Ravager said they would all be fed to Goom.
Her stomach churned unpleasantly when they entered the massive room, caused by attacking stenches from everywhere. It smelled absolutely horrible, like a thousand rotting bodies had once been piled up in here. Her stomach flipped more when half of the floor cracked open via a mechanical hatch. It revealed a mammoth, gaping hole that dissolved into pure darkness and nothing more. When the cheering Ravagers all gathered themselves around the hole, whatever was inside slowly awakened.
“HUH…?” A vibrating voice shook their bones. “FOOD? FOOD FOR GOOM?”
“Yeah, here's your food!” A Ravager kicked one of the ‘nice’ Ravagers forward and watched him fearfully tumble towards the hole. “Fresh and piping hot!”
The unfortunate pirate didn't quite fall in, thanks to his arms grabbing onto the edge to keep him from going any further. Even that wasn't enough to stop him from being grasped by two humongous fingers, which pulled him down with little effort. The screaming was there for a while but it was soon silenced by the wet crunch of bones, a slurping gulp and then a satisfied--
“BURP!” The hidden giant sounded like it was smiling, and Derpy wished she didn't have that kind of mental image in her head. “GOOM'S COMPLIMENTS TO CHEF.”
“There's more where that came from!” The same pirate grinned maniacally and laughed. “Awright, boys! Throw ‘em all in!”
Derpy folded her ears back as the air began to fill with the sounds of horrified screaming, abrupt crunching and thunderous laughter. She caught sight of one of the prisoners (Tullik, if she heard it correctly) being pushed past that Kraglin guy into the hole, cursing them all on the way down. Kraglin looked just as sick as she did, and she would have offered sympathy if she wasn't so scared out if her mind right now. They had had at least a minute or so before they would be cast down to the literal belly of the beast and crunched into a disgusting pulp.
She tried to get a good look at her death row companion, but couldn't twist her head around enough. She could only see the side of his head. “Uh, R-Rocket? What a-are we gonna do?”
“I dunno. I'm thinking.”
Derpy looked back at the dying prisoners, then tried not to throw up. “Well, uh, I-I don't know about you but I really, really don't wanna die.”
“Well I'm not exactly eager to meet my maker either.”
“I know, so could you p-please think of something? I think I…” Her vision blurred as she hyperventilated. “Is it a g-good sign if y-your life is flashing before your eyes? I'm seeing a whole lot of my life! I don't wanna relive Kindergarten!"
“Just shut up! I'm trying to think! Actually, ” Rocket snarled at her in frustration. “No! You get us out of here, if you’re so desperate!”
“I can't think straight when I'm desperate!”
“Then I guess we're both gonna die.”
“Why are you always so mean to me?!”
“I am not mean! I have never acted more nicely to anyone else than you!”
She whimpered as she looked around for any sign of a saving grace. Just ahead of them, she saw the blue guy with the broken fin being punched by that nasty pirate dude with the weird face. He snarled at the blue guy as he set blood. “You’re the one what killed those men, Yondu…by leading them down the wrong path. You pushed them down to their deaths because you're flawed!”
Other Ravagers cheered as they saw the scuffle. “Because you’re a weakling!” Derpy winced as he hauled Yondu back up only to be punched again. The pirates cheered for their nasty leader. “And incompetent! Excommunicated by your own people! Pathetic! It is time for the Ravagers… to rise to glory once more, with a new captain… TASERFACE!”
The pegasus’ mind blanked, and she stared at the pirate leader with a slack jaw. After a moment of listening to the bandit horde laugh and applaud their captain for his words, she finally found the ability to speak up over the voices. “...Excuse me! I said, Excuse me!”
Everything fell deathly silent, as the Ravagers all blinked at her. Taserface glared daggers, but didn't move. “What?!”
“Um...I just…” She wrinkled her nose at him. “I just want to be clear that I didn't mishear you. Your name is...Taserface?”
He nodded suspiciously. “That's right.”
Derpy grinned brightly, somehow not realizing that she was stalling for time against a gristly fate. “That is awesome!”
The Ravagers all murmured in agreement, and their captain chuckled sheepishly. “Ah. Well, thank you. I try. Believe it or not, some people don't appreciate the name.”
“Well, that's just silly! It's really cool!” The pony shook her head in disbelief, but smiled again. “So how does it work? Do you have to eat batteries? Can you talk while your face is doing the thing? Show me!”
He squinted at her. “I--what?”
“Your face thingie! Tase someone! Show me!”
“...my face is not an actual taser.”
“What?”
“I can't tase people with my face.”
Derpy instinctively glanced back at Rocket and found that he was also exchanging a confused look with her. He turned towards the scarred being. “Well, if you can't actually tase people with your face...why is your name Taserface?”
A ravager coughed. “He was tased in the face!”
“Symbiotes, man!”
“NO! That is a greatly exaggerated rumor! I chose the name...” He went silent to create dramatic suspense for everyone, but exploded with a roar. “...FOR METAPHORICAL PURPOSES!”
His troops all cheered louder than ever, clearly satisfied with the odd and not-very-helpful answer. The two furry prisoners on the other hand, were more confused than before. “Okay, ” Derpy responded when the noise died down. “...metaphorical for what?”
“For, ” He explained eagerly. “It is a name what strikes fear into the hearts...of anyone what hears it!”
Everyone, his pirates included, made sounds of either confusion or reluctant agreement with that. But Derpy suddenly perked up. “Oh, I get it! Like an actual taser striking electricity into your heart.”
Taserface grinned. “Exactly!”
“Man, that is dumb.” The pony remarked in disapproval. “I would have gone with Arrow Guy. Then you’d be striking fear in hearts like an arrow. Oh, scratch that--” She nodded to Yondu, who was slowly losing his guilty frown in favor of something more annoyed. “He's the arrow guy.”
Rocket nodded. “Yeah. He--you should try Plasma Bolt.”
“Just shut up! I am in the middle of something here!” Taserface eagerly unsheathed a sizeable dagger and leveled it with Yondu's neck. “Udonta, I have waited a long time for...for…”
He couldn't continue over the sound of snickering and giggling, which made his face scrunch with fury. The Raccoon was the one doing most of the laughing, but it was apparently infectious to the pony. He glared at them, expecting the laughter to stop, but he quickly lost his patience. “WHAT?!”
Derpy stifled her giggling. “Why are we laughing? Aren't we about to die?”
“I know, I know! I am so sorry! This is unprofessional of us...but…” He trailed off into a fit of laughter again and struggled to catch his breath. “Oh man--I just keep imagining you waking up in the morning, sir-- looking in the mirror and then in--all seriousness-- you're like… ‘You know what would be a really kick-ass name? TASERFACE!!!’ Ah Ha Ha Haaa!”
While the new Ravager captain began to turn red with anger, his subordinates fought to contain their own amusement with the Raccoon. Some had their dams burst when he kept laughing, joining in a melody of snickers. “Yeah,that's how I hear him in my head! Ooh, looka me--i'm tAsErFacE!”
Derpy smiled at seeing that their captors were getting more distracted, and decided it'd be best to help out.
“I can't begin to imagine what his alternate choices were! Hold your nose, here comes TaserBreath!” That really got the pirates laughing, so she continued with whatever popped up in her head. “Or FartHead! Huh? Huuuh? No…?” Seeing that the Laughter died down reluctantly, the pegasus rummaged her mind for any other funny insults she knew of. “ Uh, BoogerCheeks? Baron Buttface? No? How about..uh...HairyBeard?”
She paused when Rocket nudged her and leaned in when he began to whisper something to her. She scrunched up her snout, clearly unamused. “Scrotum Hat?!”
The entire scene erupted into a late night comedy show, complete with an audience dying of pure cachinnation. The Ravagers leaned on each other as they wheezed and pointed fingers, while even Goom guffawed at the insult to end all insults. Groot kicked his legs at the hilarious scene, his own tiny laughter lost amongst others. Derpy didn't quite understand what was hilarious about such a disgusting moniker, but if it was enough to stall for time then--
“SCREW GOOM!” She squeaked when Taserface's dagger pressed against her neck and his roaring voice sprayed spittle in her face. “I’ll kill you two myself!”
Rocket grinned at him nonetheless. “Well, dying is certainly better than having to live an entire life as a moronic shitbag who thinks Taserface is a cool name.”
Derpy swallowed nervously as the blade pressed in harder. “uh, Rocket? Now is not the time to--”
“I think that's enough killing for today.”
Taserface stood up sharply as Nebula made her presence known, having walked inside during the immense laughter. Her poise was held in disinterest with what was going on but looked ready to dart if anyone made the wrong move towards her. A chain was held in her hand, trailing down to the metal collar around a familiar pony's neck. Despite the look of things, her prisoner looked undeniably calm about the whole thing.
“Maud!” Derpy tried to wiggle free, a vain attempt on her part. “Let her go, you...you...robot face!”
Nebula sighed through her nose. “Wow. That really hurt me.”
“Hmm. The daughter of the Mad Titan.” Taserface warily regarded her, as did his many followers. It was clear that her reputation was about as dangerous as it was well-known. “Taking in pets, now? You're supposed to be the biggest sadist in the Galaxy.”
“That was back when daddy paid my bills--times are changing. Now...the Priestess wants to kill the fox herself. And he has bounties on his head in at least 12 Kree provinces. I don't even need to remind you how much of a wanted man Yondu is…” She narrowed her eyes at the Ravagers that whispered to each other and spoke up louder. “I assure you… I am not as easy a mark as an old man without his magic arrow or a couple of yammering woodland beasts…”
She glanced down at Maud without an ounce of emotion to play over her features. “ I want aboooout...10% of the take… and a couple more things...if you don't mind.”
Taserface glared at her but seemed wise enough to know just who he could take on. He turned to signal for the remaining three prisoners to be thrown in their cells.
“Kraglin! Tend to the robot’s needs.”
“There’s extra rations on board, in case the food don't last y'all.”
“It will suffice.” The cyborg remarked, marching forward at a pace that her prize could keep up with. She looked only ahead of herself and never at Kraglin, who kept making nervous movements. “And my money? What of it?”
“Money? Oh yeah. We'll wire the ten percent once we get the bounty money.” There was uncomfortable silence for a while. But when they neared the ship’s docking bay, Kraglin gave a mild cough. “...So, you uh...think them Kree'll execute the captain?”
Nebula sneered. “Why would they execute Taserface?”
Kraglin looked a tad more crestfallen than before. “Right. I...I-I meant Yondu.”
“The Kree consider themselves the most merciful race. I'm certain it will be painless unless they decide he deserves misery with his death.”
“I see...Well, uh. Here's your ship.” Maud and Nebula gazed down from their heightened view through the glass, witnessing a ship at rest. Shaped like a ragged crescent shape, it's obsidian hull glistened like black ink in the light. Dangerous looking miniguns hung like giant bats from the belly of the aircraft. “Again, we'll have your pay wired soon...Whatcha gonna do with it?”
“What?” She asked.
“I--your pay. Just curious about whatcha gon’ do with it?”
Nebula continued to stare out of the window as if she hadn't even heard him ask the question. Her eyes sought out the reflection of herself in the glass and soon found it when she made out the glinting metal pieces of her face. She could not see the luphomoid part of her body beyond the cybernetic parts no matter how hard she squinted.
“...My life...has not been one worth living for the longest time. As a child...my father would have Gamora and I battle one another in training. Some days it was mere sparring and other days...it was a wonder I ever survived. Every time we clashed, and every time my sister prevailed… my father would replace a piece of me with machinery… claiming he wanted me to be her equal--to also hold the title of the fiercest woman in the galaxy. But she won. And she won, ” Her teeth gritted, tightly pressing against each other. “ Again and again, and again-- never once showing me mercy. I realized that my father was not the only one who stole pieces of me...it was his daughter.” Her fists hardened and shook the more she thought about it. Flashes of memories played; pleas spilling from her lips, the emotionless stare on her green face. “...So after I’ve murdered my sister… I will purchase a warship unlike any other-- a hell with every conceivable instrument of death. I will hunt my father like the filth that he is, and I will tear him apart slowly--piece by piece--until he knows some semblance of the profound and unceasing torture I know: Every. Single. Day.”
“...Jesus, lady--I was talking about a pretty necklace or something! Don't ya care about fashion choices?” Kraglin took a few careful steps back after that brief, dark moment and started back in the direction of his fellow pirates. “ You really are the biggest sadist in the galaxy.”
Maud watched him go silently and didn't do anything until he finally disappeared around the corner. She frowned without emotion, and yet it told Nebula enough. “Don't start, Maud. That was a lie. I will keep my word and...talk things out, as you put it. But I will kill her if things don't go as I hope.”
Maud tilted her head as she leaned down and unbuckled the metal collar. “Are you actually going to hunt your father down and kill him?”
Nebula groaned softly. “Don't tell me you want me to reconcile with my father too.”
“No.” When her blunt response got a surprised frown, she continued. “From what you told me, he sounds like he would sooner kill you than apologize. Besides, we're already barely getting by with this agreement. I prefer to take things one at a time and we're already dealing with Derpy and Rocket.”
“The fox will be free if we do not come back for them by then. They now have all the time in the world to prepare one of their daring escapes.” She gazed beyond the glass once more. “Now lets make haste, before Taserface changes his mind.”
Maud produced the world tiniest smile, one that was almost missed by her cyborg companion. “Ha. Ha. Ha.”
Mantis smiled as she nodded, her antennae flexing occasionally. “Thank you. I may not be a cook, by anyone's standards...but I do appreciate creating the perfect soup.”
Drax finished slurping down the entire bowl, which was as big as his own head, and placed it in a random flower vase. “Well, never said it was perfect. Just mediocre enough to be delicious, maybe.”
“You have a knack for being rude, you know that?” Trixie sipped from her spoon as she trotted alongside Drax, secretly basking in the strong energy of her own levitation magic. She nearly choked as she considered her own words. “I can't believe I'm the one saying that…”
“I consider Mediocre to be...how do you say...a step up?” Mantis grinned brightly, or in her case, gnashed her teeth with furious glee. “Yes! Yes, that is the word!”
Drax practically kicked down the doors to the balcony with a laugh. “Ha! Mediocre is the worst by our terms.”
“Oh.” Mantis’ smile fell the slightest, but she still looked hopeful as she stepped out alongside him and the pony. “I understand. I see I still have much to learn about social intricacies.”
Trixie smiled the slightest.“I’m surprised Ego doesn't teach you anything. He taught me a lot of cool stuff in the last hour." She nudged her with a grin. "Now Trixie can make teacups without having to say teacup!"
When Mantis made no comment on that comment, the mare settled for staring out at the many acres of land that she could see from where she leaned on the balcony railing. Silence captured the trio as they reflected on the slowly disappearing suns in the distance, gradually getting lower and lower with each passing second. Drax glanced over the lands of golden designs and sparkling fountains, seeing no life beyond this or the mountain ranges in the distance. The only signs of life in the world stemmed from the green plant life surrounding them. Had he reflected on this more, he might have wondered why a planet so big harbored a population of only two. As it was, he had slightly different questions in mind. “How did you end up on this planet, Mantis?”
“...Ego found me as a Larva.” Mantis reluctantly spoke, fingers tapping against each other. “I was...abandoned on my homeworld. Unwanted. So he took me back to his planet; raised me and kept me as his own.”
Drax nodded slowly. “So, you are a pet?”
“What? How do you just...jump to that conclusion?” Trixie stared at him incredulously. “That's like saying if I adopt another pony, it's my cat.”
The wide eyed woman practically ignored her. “I...suppose I am a pet.”
The Burly man wrinkled his nose in apparent disgust. “That is weird! People usually get pets that are cute. Why would Ego love a hideous pet?”
Mantis frowned and spoke in a quieter tone, looming as though she'd been punched in the gut. “...I-I'm hideous?”
“Yes! You're horrifying to look at. I'll probably wake up screaming at the thought of you.” Drax told her without an ounce of regret. After a tense pause, he patted her shoulder and smiled. “And that is a wonderful thing!”
“It is?” Trixie and Mantis asked in unified confusion.
“Yes! It is very simple.” Drax explained, turning to lean sideways so that he could face them both. “When you are ugly, and someone loves you...you know they love you for who you are and not just because you're easy on the eyes. Ugly people can always trust their loved ones...Beautiful people never know who to trust.”
Trixie blinked owlishly. The pony reflected on his words; it all made sense. Derpy and Maud weren't physically ugly, but they were spiritually ugly; they must have a lot of trustworthy friends. Trixie was both spiritually and physically hot as Tarturus, and as result only had one real friend she could trust...and maybe a few side chumps. She knew her looks were the reason she had so very little friends! And ugliness must be the true key to the Magic of Friendship! Curse that Twilight Sparkle! She probably purposely made herself ugly to get good friends! That sly little…!
Trixie breathed to calm herself down. “You know...That was probably the deepest thing Trixie has ever heard, Drax.”
Drax laughed loudly. “Oh, that is nothing, Horse of Tricks! I shall take you to the Pits of Mandalore! We'll throw rocks in and see how long it takes for them to hit the bottom.”
“This is most enlightening! I am very grateful to be ugly and hideous!” Mantis looked very content with her new outlook on herself, and smiled as the lowering suns. Suddenly she gasped, her antenna drooping in sadness. “Poor Gamora...She may never know who to trust.”
Trixie laughed to herself after what she heard; she supposed Gamora wasn't ugly too. She shrugged at the bug woman. “Ah, cheer up! If all else fails, she can keep trusting Quill. You could feel it, remember?”
Mantis slowly perked up. “He does love her very much.”
Drax returned his sights to the fountains in the courtyard, and silence followed behind them all. However, it did not stay for long. “...Hmm. Those pools ; they remind me of a time… when I took my daughter to the long forgotten lakes of my homeworld. I liked to disturb the water by throwing in stones...but she liked to put leaves in the water. To watch them slowly float away…” He said. “...She was much like you.”
Mantis grinned knowingly. “I know! She was disgusting!”
“...No...She was innocent.”
Her grin fell away as she stared at him. Innocent? Innocence was a good thing? Mantis curiously pondered the meaning of his words, but couldn't bring herself to a logical conclusion. Was innocence a form of beauty to Drax? She had to find out somehow, some way to...Ah, right. She only needed to touch Drax to find out what he meant.
She leaned onto the balcony railing the same way he did and managed to press her elbow to his. Her antenna perked up with a sneaky glow as she rooted through his emotions, searching for the one that she needed to find out what he was talking. Yes! There, buried in the present time; he must be reflecting on a time in his past. She let the emotion leak into her so she could analyze it and...and…
Mantis shuddered at the pain in her heart.
How could he look like that--with a faint smile on his weary face? There was too pain to bear with this emotion, too much for him to feel any sense of comfort. It was like smiling in the face of some terrible burden that you had to carry with you for years, never able to scrub it free of your conscience. Her lower lips quivered; the worst part was not that Drax had to live with this heavy pain in his heart...it was that she could actually relate to his pain. A heavy trauma set in her heart too, one that she never spoke of before. But maybe…
“Drax? Trixie?” Their eyes moved to her. No turning back now. “There is something I must tell you. Ego--”
The she felt it. His eyes on her, from somewhere in the building. It was so sudden, so powerful that she shut up instantly and lost her will to talk.
Thankfully, it was just as Gamora walked onto the balcony with them, eyes instantly settling on Mantis with thick suspicion. Had she heard he talking before she arrived? Was she listening in, waiting to hear the truth?
“...What's going on here?” Gamora asked suspiciously.
Drax gave a toothy grin. “This revolting bug lady is my friend now!”
Mantis shakily joined in. “Y-Yes! I am learning so many new things, like I'm a pet and very ugly!”
Gamora's face flipped from surprise to severe annoyance. “You're not ugly, Mantis. Drax, what is wrong with you?!”
The Burly man scoffed. “Oh, please! My eyes hurt just looking at her.”
Rolling her eyes, Gamora elected to ignore Drax. “Mantis, can you show us where we'll be staying? Quill...Quill will be staying here, since he likes it so much.”
Trixie tilted her head. “Hmm. That doesn't sound good. What happened up there?”
Gamora frowned.
A Few Minutes Earlier…
Gamora traversed the last hallway, and poked her head into the right room at long last. It was a wonder Ego would build a place with so many rooms to begin with. “Quill? Can I talk with you about something?”
Quill removed one of his earbuds, glancing back from his position on the balcony. “Yeah?”
Gamora slowed down beside him. “Well, for starters, I've been occasionally trying to reach Rocket with no response from him. Either he's dead, about to be dead, this planet has no signal or this hissy fit between you two is keeping him quiet.” After that list of possible reasons, she continued on with: “There's also...something off about this whole place. Mantis hasn't exactly done much talking and Ego is the one explaining everything. It's all a little...Quill, are you listening to me?”
“...sorry. Just thinking.”
Gamora raised an eyebrow, reluctantly deciding to go off topic for a while. “...About…?”
“Things have really changed in the past couple of hours. Never thought I'd actually get to meet my actual dad this far out in the galaxy. Aside from the whole...leaving us behind thing, he's...pretty cool. We're really connecting, I think.” Gamora followed his gaze out at the expanse of the horizon, noticing how content he looked. Even if she was wary about this planet, it warmed her heart to see Quill in a seemingly happy mindset. “ And Trixie...she's got a family now. Granted, we're not actually blood related or anything...but, man. I actually have a dad and a cousin. A horse cousin.”
Gamora nodded slightly. “I was wondering why she had such a stupidly happy grin on her face.” Reflecting on the happy pony almost brought a small smirk to her face. Almost, in any case. “...I haven't seen you use that...Walking thingie in a while. Who are you listening to?”
Quill slowly removed one of his ear buds and just as slowly placed it in her ear. The slight contact of his fingers against her cheek tickled her, but she did well to keep it from affecting her facial expression as he spoke. “This is Sam Cooke...one of the greatest earth singers of all time.”
Gamora silently listened to him, watched as Quill swayed slightly in time with the beat. She would probably never understand why he enjoyed this music--so uncoordinated and sporting lyrics that didn't make any sense to her. She frowned as one of Quill's hands found her waist and the other locked with her hand. “...Hmm. He sounds...fine.” She admitted with a roll of her eyes. “But he's not as good as Queen.”
“Never said that he was. Queen is always number one.” Peter shifted to the left slowly, and Gamora clumsily followed. He was always trying to teach her as much as he knew about dancing, but she honestly didn't think she was ever going to get it right. He chuckled softly as her boot rammed into his heel by accident. “My mom would have loved you. She had two left feet too.”
“What? I don't have...oh. Right. Just an expression.”
“Yep.”
“Oh...Should...Should I say you have two right feet?” She winced when he blinked in confusion. “It makes sense, doesn't it?”
He laughed again. “Yeah. It does.”
She nodded, but a thought occurred to her. “You danced with your mom? You never told me that.”
“What can I say? I guess I actually am...sensitive about it. Yeah...she was a dancer.” He smiled as if he remembered something, his voice lowering to a suggestive level. “You know...Drax thinks you're not a dancer.”
Gamora fixed him with what she hoped was an emotionless gaze, despite how her heart seemed to pick up speed. “I'm not. At least...not a good one...And I swear, ” She gripped his hand tighter. “If you're telling the others about our...lessons, I will kill you slowly.”
As they swayed in a continuous circle, Quill pursed his lips. “Oh come on...They'll know sooner or later, Gam. When are we gonna do something about this...unspoken thing?”
“Thing?” She finally smirked, but it was in a mildly cruel way. “You and your weird earth terms.”
“You know what I'm talking about; Cheers...Sam and Diane,” He explained quietly. “A hot guy and a cute girl on a tv show...who dig each other, but never say so...because ratings would plummet if they did.”
The Green woman furrowed her brow in utter confusion. “There’s no such thing as ratings in real life romance, Quill. And for that matter, there's no unspoken thing either.”
“Ha. You just fell for the bait, ” He offered a nearly contagious (and mildly attractive) grin. “Catch-22; If you talked about it, then it would be spoken and the love would be real. And even if you keep quiet, like I know you will...you're telling the truth and admitting there is.”
“...Y...Y-you...But...how do...That's not what I meant. You can't...ugh. You are absolutely unbearable sometimes.” She broke away from the slow dance reluctantly, her mind settling back into its usual uncaring mode and slowly forgetting the few moments of calm she felt. “Look, we're getting off track--This planet...somethings just not right about it.”
“Not right about it?” He asked. “Is there...proof to this, or are you just being untrusting again?”
Gamora scoffed and crossed her arms. “That girl, Mantis...something about us being here has her acting weird...terrified. I can just...sense it. Has anything about Ego irked you?”
“Yeah. And then we talked and got over it, ” He examined sarcastically. “You know, like normal people?”
“Are you not listening to me? We should leave this planet!”
Quill narrowed his eyes at her. “So, you practically beg me to give my dad a try and the moment I actually do, you just--you want me to up and go?!”
"You have blood on earth, but you never wanna go there!"
"Maybe because my dad's actually alive?! Ah-doi!" Peter bristled in place, crossing his arms. "I don't know about you, but I don't like going to places where my mom died!"
Gamora shook her head."That's not why you're here. This is all a fantasy! At least your mother was real!"
"What are you on? I've got fifty percent celestial genes in me!"
"That's what worries me, Quill!"
"Oh, okay--Is this you being jealous of my heritage? Yeah! I see now. You're mad cause you're the weak one in the relationship now!"
Gamora began to massage the bridge of her nose; she often did this around Quill during his stupid moments. Obviously, this was one of them. "You know...I can't even with you right now." She roughly brushed past him. "I'm gonna go try to contact Rocket again and I'll be back with actual proof!"
"You are seriously that jealous?" Quill laughed from behind her. " You know what? This isn't cheers after all! This is whatever the show is where one person actually tries to open themselves up and the other person is a green grump who doesn’t trust anybody!"
The Jade warrior stomped out hurriedly. "I don't even understand you anymore!"
"Oh yeah well the feeling..." He awkwardly trailed off when she stomped out of earshot. "...the feeling is...mutual. Yeah."
"He's just being stubborn right now. Anyway, " Gamora explained to the trio, already leading the way down stairs to the giant doors. "Mantis, we do have a place to stay here, right?"
The big woman nodded politely. "It is across a great, beautiful field. Not a very long walk from here, I assure you."
Trixie stared down at her hooves with a sigh. "I just realised...I've probably destroyed my hooficure... Wait. Maybe if Trixie uses her heightened magic, she can get her hooves back to their former glory!"
Drax furrowed his brow. "What's a hooficure? Is that some kind of voice condition? Is that why you keep switching back and forth between first and third person?"
Before anything could be said, the green woman stopped right before the doorway and faced her pony ally. "Trixie, I need you to stay here with Quill."
"Oh. Sure, that's fine. I could use a little more alien cousin quality time!" She blinked rapidly as Gamora approached her and got down on one knee. "Um...."
"That's not the reason I want you to stay, " Gamora spoke quietly, almost to the point of whispering in close proximity. "I need you to do something for me...Keep an eye on him and keep a closer eye on Ego."
The mare couldn't help but crack a smirk at her task. What was she talking about--keep an eye on Ego? "Pfft. Are you serious? That's kinda weird. Trixie's not gonna--"
"If anything happens to Quill under your watch, " Gamora narrowed her eyes to slits. "No amount of celestial power will save you from me. Do you understand?"
Trixie shrank into a very small ball and squeaked. "...Y-yes, ma'am. I totally understand."
She watched as Gamora shot up, bristling as she made her way past a confused looking Drax and a nervous looking Mantis. She continued to stare at the empty doorway long after they were gone, her lips forming an unhappy frown. How dare she threaten the Spectacular and All-powerful Trixie?! She didn't have to act so mean just because a big grump. Quill may be stubborn, but she had a few issues to tend herself.
Still, she decided that she'd keep an eye on the occupants of the building out of the kindness of her heart. In fact, she'd started by showing off some tricks to Quill and maybe he could...who knows; tell her more awesome pirate tales! She trotted towards the stairs with a smile.
"Ba-aa."
Trixie's face fells slack with confusion, before looking around the seemingly empty lobby. Was that a bleat she just heard? No, it was likely her imagination. Ego wouldn't have any random farm animals in his lobby.
She trotted up the stairs, quickly forgetting the bleat.
Grande is a specific term--one which here means of amazing proportions and/or stature. In this unfortunate part of our heroes' tale, you may have come to realize that their obstacles are not at all grande, but rather depressing and dreadful. For an example, take the situation of Rocket, Derpy and Yondu as they were lead to their containment chambers.
Their cell wasn't grande, in way whatsoever. It was medium sized, if anything, and seemed even smaller with the three of them in it. There were both blood and urine stains all over the concrete and a few teeth to spare in the corner. There was no furniture (unless one counted a few smashed crates as a reliable couch or kitchen sink) and it was clearly a place that didn't look like an ideal home environment, that Derpy was certain enough. And it would be made less comfy by the three of them randomly being thrown inside.
“You'll be staying here until we reach our wealthy buyers.” The Ravager captain grinned a nasty, drooling grin as they picked themselves up off the ground. “For now, please enjoy the many hospitalities we have to offer you.”
“Thanks, Taserface! I'll see you later, Taserface!” Rocket called after him sarcastically, grinning when he heard angry growls coming from the disappearing pirate. “Tell everybody I said Hi, Taserface! Stay cool, Taserface! Don't be a stranger, Taserface!”
Needless to say, the new captain growled on his merry way off from the trio of cellmates and left them in brewing silence. Derpy shook grin from her mane and spared balances at both rocket and the blue dude. The blue guy looked emotionally weary if that was any way to describe to his face and he didn't even offer them a glance as he leaned back against the wall. Rocket seemed to be scanning the ceiling for something; maybe a wire panel above their heads.
“Nice trick, Derpy.” Rocket remarked, almost hesitant to give her any kind of praise. “Got us out of that mess real good.”
Derpy opened her mouth, perhaps to explain that she never thinks about half of what she says, but closed it immediately and nodded. “Sure. You're welcome.” She frowned as she looked around the dingy old cell. “Wish I'd known it'd be like this.”
Rocket raised an eyebrow, so she inhaled and continued. “Well, I...before I met you guys, I thought I'd enjoy a little break from life to do some cool stuff--thats why this whole super hero thing seemed interesting! Kinda wish I'd known there were life or death stakes in this.”
The pony was met with a scoff from the raccoon. “Ain't it better dying doing something new than living out some boring life?”
She shook her head almost immediately. “Heck no--death is like, my worst fear! Unless by dying, I get to live out a safe life like I used to do. Then maybe dying isn't so bad.” She kicked away a tooth on the ground near her. “Don't you ever get scared of dying? Like back there, we could have died. Or...we might dead soon. You're not worried about that at all?”
“Nope.”
“...Death ain't somethin’ to fear, ”
“Woah!” Derpy flinched back against Rocket in shock, blinking owlishly. The two animals stared at the former leader of the Ravagers, his scruffy blue face wearing a resolute grimace. The pegasus blinked again. “Wow, he can talk.”
“Living can be a helluva lot worse, if you play all the cards wrong. Every wrong turn you take just adds up to something, ” Yondu remarked solemnly, not even starting at them but rather off into the small distance of the cell. Who knew what he was picturing in his mind, what could be more enrapturing than the very thought of his end creeping towards him minute by minute. “And before y’know it, yer not looking back on yer life. Y’looking at a screwed up mess, yeah?”
Derpy cast a slightly nervous glance at Rocket, then shrugged at Yondu. “Well, I don't think this is a part of that. I don't want to offend you, but your co-workers seem like big jerks.”
Yondu snorted a little. “Not all of ‘ems jerks. I was a Kree battle slave for 20 years...when ol’ Stakar freed me. He offered me a place with the Ravagers, said I could live as good as a king. All I had to do was adhere to the code. That's all...But I was young…and greedy, and real stupid.” His eyes lifted to the raccoon. “Like you stealing those batteries.”
“That was Drax, ” He flinched Derpy glared at him. “Okay...that was mostly Drax.”
“Me and Stakar and the other captains…we wasn’t so different from you and yer screwed up friends. The only family I ever had after I was freed. When I broke their code...they exiled me.” Yondu nodded in acceptance. “This is what an Exile deserves.”
The Pegasus wrinkled her nose. “What? No you don't!”
Rocket scoffed at the both of them. “Derpy, don't lie to his face. Drama Queen deserves all of this shit. But you and me? We don't. We gotta get offa this ship.”
Yondu scratched his chin with a sigh and leveled a stare in Rocket's direction. “An’ where's Quill, eh?”
Rocket scoffed. “Who knows? Off playing catch with his new daddy.”
“Ego?”
“That's right.” Derby giggled to herself as she flapped her wings, hovering into the air without much effort. “I guess it's ‘funny names’ day, huh guys?”
The small joke was lame but its always the small jokes--no matter how bizarrely corny they are--that end up making others chuckle anyway. The trio were not immune to this universal code and quickly found themselves in a soft fit of chuckling. Rocket grinned toothily at Yondu. “Ey! Ya smiling! And for a second there, I got a warm feeling...but then you ruined it with your fucked up teeth.”
Derpy coughed, sputtered and went silent. Yondu ceased his snickering faster, sneering at the infernal beast across from him. “You always was a professional asshole, weren't ya?”
The Racoon looked smug. “Yeah, pretty much a pro.”
Derpy grimaced at him, his confirmation bringing to mind past scuffles and arguments. She looked at Yondu again, an ear raised curiously to listen to him. “We heard from that Ego guy that you were hired to bring Quill to him...Why keep him?”
A shrug was almost all she got. “He was a skinny twig. Could fit into places we couldn’t. Good for thievin’.”
“Nah, you liked him!” Derby edged close enough to elbow Yondu slightly. Though he didn't appreciate the friendly gesture or accusations given by this pony prisoner, he didn't react with any dissuading hostility. “He was like the son you never had and stuff! Or at least, you were an uncle or a really big brother.”
“Ah said he was skinny and good for theivin’. Nothing else.”
She shook her head innocently. “I know you said that, but it means something else entirely. You just don't see it yet!”
Before Yondu could summon enough volume to restate what he really thought of Quill, Rocket poked his nose between the bars of the cell and interrupted the talk. “Yondu, ya gave me an idea jes’ now. And here comes the main key now, strutting his way over and…”
The others soon discovered why Rocket had trailed off when Groot slowly shuffled his way up to the bars. Groot was in a state of disarray--a term which here means 'looked really, really bad.' He was dressed in a very bright red leather outfit that seemed impossible to take off, his entire body reeked of something disgusting and his tiny posture looked utterly crippled. When he was close enough to the bars of the cell, the trio could see he was soaked to the twig in some sort of alcoholic substance and wearing a depressed pout.
“Aw, Groot, ” Derpy cooed sadly when he shambled through the bars and hugged her foreleg. She cradled the tiny being to her chest, trying to ignore the horrible smell if only to bring some comfort to the plant. “What did they do to you?”
“I am Groot, ” His tiny voice reassured the worried faces of Derpy and Rocket, but it wasn't very convincing. “I am Groot.”
“Those pirates are a real bunch of poopheads. Don't worry about them though, ” Derpy shifted Groot so that he was still comfortable and able to see Yondu. “Hey, why don't you help us break out of here? It’ll be really fun and then we can get outta here.”
When a nervous nod answered her, Yondu adopted the most kind voice that a middle aged pirate leader could fathom in three seconds time. “Hey, uh Twig. There’s something I need you to get and bring back to me.” He explained slowly, pronouncing each word as though he were teaching a kindergarten class. “In th’ captain’s quarters, there’s a prototype fin…the--the thing I wore on m’head? There’s a drawer next to the bunk. It’s in that….oh--It’s red.
“You got it?”
Derpy set him down carefully and patted his small head affectionately. “Yeah, go get the the fin! And I promise that someday, we'll all go out and eat ice cream until it explodes out of our eye sockets! Right, guys?”
Yondu grinned his fastest, most cheesy grin that he could and Rocket soon followed suit, to which Groot grinned brightly and saluted Derpy. As he ran off with a newfound purpose in the belly of the pirate den, the trio grinned cheek-harmful smiles and waved him off the farther he traveled down the hallway.
Yondu slowly looked at Rocket, still smiling.
Rocket slowly looked at Yondu, still smiling.
“...Rat?”
“...Yeah?”
“...What is Ice Cream?”
Groot returned a little quicker than expected!
They eventually went to doing minor tasks in an attempt to wait patiently on their tiny spy. Derpy had flown to the ceiling to count the amount of dust on the ceiling, Rocket had settled for grooming himself in the corner and Yondu was curled up in a ball; trying to figure out just where his life went this wrong. This had to be karma for something stupid he did as a pirate. The universe had judged him and punished him by leaving his fate in the hands of a baby tree and two grande morons. Maybe it was that silver hoverboard he stole from Planet Dregok--the one that was supposed to have belonged to some powerful surfing bozo. Stupid thing was a fake though, so he must have been punished for that one time--
“I am Groot!”
The trio smiled happily at hearing that same old sentence and rushed to the bars to get the fun that Yondu desired to be aloft his cranium once more. Their smiles fell rather quickly when they saw that Groot hadn't brought them a prototype fun, but rather--
“My underwear, ” Yondu said with slow disbelief, staring at the white briefs clutched in the twig's hands. “That's my underwear.”
Derpy cringed. “Do you ever wash your clothes?!”
“Yeah, I figured he didn't understand you the first time.” Rocket rolled his eyes as he leaned against the bars. “You have to explain it to him more carefully.”
“How can I even--?! You know what? Okay. Fine.” The blue ravager pointed at the damaged part of his skull again. “It's a. PROTOTYPE.FIN.”
Groot returned a little later than expected.
Everyone was back in their waiting positions when he showed up with noises much different than his usual sentence. When they slowly shuffled over to the bars again, they found Groot holding one of the vermin of the ship. It clearly didn't like to be held, if it's ear-piercing caws were anything to go off of.
Derpy grinned anyway, even if it was faltering. “....uh, ha ha! Groot, that's not the fin!”
Yondu chilled his gaze down upon her. “NO. It's NOT my fin?! But they look so IDENTICAL! Rat, you explain it this time.”
The mildly amused Racoon shrugged at the request. “Sure, alright. That’s an orloni, Groot. It’s a fin. Real big and mechanical looking.”
Groot had come quickly again.
Yondu was contemplating whether or not he wished to have died quickly with his loyal crew members, Derpy was cleaning the ceiling of all the dust and Rocket was yelling at her for getting dust in his face. When those famous three words were uttered, the trio reluctantly glanced at each other and went to see just what the cat dragged in this time.
Yondu held his face in his hands. “...That's Vorker's eye.”
Derpy tsked in disappointment at the cybernetic eye Groot held up to them, twitching horribly in his grip. “Well, you brought us something mechanical, at least. Just, uh, try again.
Groot started to walk off from them. “But leave the eye here.”
Yondu started down at him in confusion. “Why? You gonna make a gadget out of it?”
“...H-He's gonna wake up in the morning...and hE’s nOT GONNA KNOW...WHERE HIS EYE IS! HA HAAAA HA HAA!”
Rocket crumpled to the ground in a fit of grande laughter, beating his paws on the ground with each amused wheeze. Derpy and Yondu stared blankly at him, but the racoon only laughed all the more.
Groot was...well, how can one even tell if he was any earlier or any later? There was no clock in the cell for anyone to be certain.
Derpy and Rocket were in the middle of talking Yondu down from banging his head on the wall until his skull caved in and he'd be free from this endless torture. The sound of something heavy scraping to a half in front of them made them all cringe in apprehension.
One look was all Yondu needed. “THAT'S A FRICKIN’ DESK!”
Rocket held his paws up. “We told you it was this big! THIS. BIG.”
The three of them started at Groot with wide, round eyes. Groot, innocently grinning, held up the object to them without an ounce of understanding.
“...Yondu...do you guys have a refrigerator full of people's d--”
“No. God no.”
Derpy blinked for the first time in two silent minutes. “...s-so he cut off someone’s p--”
“Yes.”
Grande silence reigned for quite some time after that. It was only broken when Rocket coughed and nodded slowly.
“Okay. Um. Let's...lets just take this to our graves.”
After making him throw away the you know what and wash his hands three times, Groot returned for a different set of instructions. Yondu, still a bit more torture away from going insane, pulled out something from his pocket; a bronze symbol that was light as a coined and somewhat resembled a leaf. He held it at eye level for Groot to see. “The drawer you're looking for...has this symbol on it. Okay?”
They all watched with fierce tenseness as Groot slowly took the symbol. He looked at it this way, then that way, then upside down and right side up. Practically biting their fingernails/claws/hooves, the trio observed the plant's careful examination until finally he lifted it overhead and--
“WHAT?! NO!”
Derpy massaged her forehead while Groot balanced the symbol on his cranium.“He...thinks you want him to wear it as a hat.”
Yondu growled. “That's not what I said.”
“I am Groot.”
Rocket's ears perked up. “He’s relieved you don’t want him to.”
“I am Groot.”
“He hates hats.”
“I am Groot.”
“On anyone, not just himself.”
“I am Groot. I am Groot. I am Groot.”
“One minute y’think someone has a weird-shaped head; the next minute it’s just because you realize part of that head is the hat…” Rocket sneered at him. “That is a stupid reason to hate hats, you know?”
Yondu interjected soon after Groot just shrugged silently. “This is an important conversation to be having right now?”
Derpy leaned down to his level in exasperation. “Okay, look. It's on a drawer. Something shaped like that is on a drawer. Get the big, red, flat thing in it. Pleeeease?”
“Ah knew it. Th’ twigs been caught.”
“Hey!” The mare exclaimed in fearful surprise, pacing one corner of the room. “Let's not think like that! We need to think positively! He's only been gone for three minutes, right Rocket?”
“Three plus ten minutes, yeah. We may have to go to with plan b to get out of this cell.”
Derpy’s hoof shot up fast enough stop Rocket's paws from reaching his mouth, and the pony herself shook her head frantically. “Will you just stop with the ‘pulling out your own teeth to pick the lock plan’?! That's not a good idea.”
Rocket rolled his eyes. “Quill says animals on earth would bite their own arm off to escape captivity. If they got balls like that, then mine are bound to be bigger.”
Derpy groaned at the ceiling in exasperation. “Rocket--the animal dies of blood loss anyway!”
“Pfft, ” He snickered. “You think I'm gonna bleed out from a ripped tooth?! You can't bleed out from that!”
She shrugged hesitantly. “You could if you don't cauterize the wound!”
“Cauterize? WOUND? It's a tooth!”
Derpy nodded frantically. "It can happen! A buddy of mine in Filly Scouts had that happen to her once when she yanked out a loose tooth!" She paused and thought over the memory briefly, before mumbling: "Oh wait. She lived through that. The wound stopped bleeding after thirty seconds."
Rocket put his paws on his hips. "I'm just shocked that you're using the word wound to describe this."
Derpy shrugged defensively. "It counts! If you have a papercut, it counts as a wound! Yondu, doesn't a pulled tooth count as a wound?"
Yondu looked up at the ceiling, or maybe at something beyond the cieling. “ OKAY! I'll apologize! Is that whatchu want?! Whatever I did to deserve this nightmare, I'm sorry!"
The prototype fin clanged noisily on the ground next to Yondu. It was so sudden that he nearly flinched at seeing it, but rather picked it up slowly. All eyes turned to the cell door as it opened up, revealing a waving Groot held by a particular figure.
Yondu stood up slowly, leveling a narrowed gaze with Kraglin as he slowly approached him. Waryness was in the former captain's eyes, but it was mixed with deep confusion. Kraglin looked down at the ground and didn't look up.
"I ain't mean to cause a mutiny. Ain't mean to kill all my friends. Or Tulik." Kraglin swallowed, a sorrowful tone in his throat. "I forgot who you were, I guess. Y'loyal to everyone, not jes' us. Not jes' Quill."
To that, there was no immediate response. Yondu placed a firm hand on his shoulder and gave an emotionless sigh, as he often did with his subordinates. But this time, he finally acknowledged Kraglin with one nod and lopsided grin. "Get th' third quadrant ready for release."
Kraglin nodded back, glanced at the other freed captives and saluted Yondu with stuff respect. Before he could even turn to get started, a Swift cough brought his attention back down to the Raccoon.
"That was cute, " He smiled. "Just wanted to ask, you got any copies of Quill's old music?"
Kraglin raised an eyebrow at Yondu, but his captain just shrugged.
The light of the falling sunset refracted dimly off the old metal, off of the small details engraved along the side. It resembled the tall grass behind her; golden in color and yet dusty in texture, like a shiny item left to rot for eons. A light breeze pushed and bent the grass out of shape, only for it return to normal form when the breeze passed by. The rocky plains in front of her were different than the malleable plant life to her back, for they knew only the stillness of the ground and no movements whatsoever. The hardest of winds could blow and the only thing that would be slightly affected would be the surface's dirt. She spotted a small tumbleweed not far from her, eagerly following the breeze as it traveled along the planet's surface. Nothing could stop it from moving along and nothing could change its mind about tumbling after the breeze. Because it was a plant--a dead seed, really. It couldn't think for itself.
Her eyes narrowed, brimming with frustration. Something was wrong with this planet and Ego--something really big-- and Quill thought her to be jealous, not cautious. She wasn't jealous of a growing relationship that could be fake or have some dark goal at the end of it, she merely aware that something was amiss now. It was just her luck that she felt it after Quill had come to accept his father. Her thoughts idly asked whether Quill would be that same position with her if she and...her adoptive father were the ones reconnecting. She snorted; if this were that situation, she'd believe Quill before he even said anything.
The thought brought her back to a talk with Mantis just a few minutes prior to now, with Drax there too. En route to their sleeping quarters, She asked the bug woman why she was the only other sentient creature on the planet, or which the response was that she was like a flea amongst the other fleas on the planet; she served a purpose. But when Gamora questioned just what purpose it was that she was referring to, Mantis changed the subject easily to the meaning of dreams. Even Drax shared a suspicious look with Gamora.
But it meant nothing if Quill didn't really with her on this, or Trixie too. They were both caught up in the feelings of having a family, or at least some semblance of a family. Gamora had grown used to the prospect of being forever alone or being in the company of an insane warlord for the rest of her life. She had things long ago that were taken and instilled this acceptance in her; the distant memory of her real parents, the first time she met Nebula...and--
Cha had brought her a few days ago, and she'd been this whimpering, liquid-eyed thing through all of that time. Cha said she was to be Gamora's sister, and the little girl was very happy for the first time since being taken from the massacre of her homeworld. She remembered telling her parents how much she wanted a sister growing up, and she remembered their hopeful faces in response. Maybe they were expecting when she was taken from their draining bodies, throats fresh with bloody gashes. Now Father--he must have caught on to her loneliness and given her what she wanted all along. Finally, a little sister to call her own…
It was jarring, to see someone so depressed and unhappy, but Gamora made the most of this fragile blue girl. It took a day or two of cautious waving and platonic affection when it was allowed, but the blue luphimoid started to brighten up whenever Gamora entered the room. Grinned Even, whenever they locked eyes. And so Nebula became her sister in those few days. And Gamora became hers.
Nebula had a sort of curiosity within her bald head, yearning to know her parents had been beheaded and why she was given a green sister immediately after. When Gamora failed to give an answer to such a difficult question and mused that the only way to find out would be to ask the scary purple monster, the Luphimoid was happy with asking smaller questions instead. One day Gamora had been talked into giving her little sister a tour of Sanctuary I, and they were traveling down the hallways and interconnected bridges. The jade girl would occasionally point out a specific area that was fun to be in and a place that was reserved for punishment. After pointing out the recovery room, Gamora felt a timid tap on her shoulder.
“Gamora, ” Nebula asked softly. “...Do you miss them?”
“Who are you…” It didn't take much thinking to realise who she was talking about. Gamora gave her a few slow nods. “...I do. Every day.”
“...I wish I knew how to make the pain stop. In my heart...I can't really sleep at night.” Nebula wiped at her face, and Gamora noticed the bags under her tired eyes. They slowed to a halt next to each other, drowned in silence. “...I wish I could just forget them, sometimes.”
Gamora didn't say so, but she wished the same at certain occasions. It would save her a lot of rest if she was allowed to forget those smiling faces of theirs. After a moment of thinking, she brightened up. “You can stay with me in my quarters tonight if you can't sleep!”
“W-what?” Nebula seemed hopeful. “Really?”
She nodded eagerly, her smile growing wide again. “Its what I'd do with my parents if I couldn't sleep. Maybe it'll work for you too!”
“Hello, Daughters.”
The girl's smiles died instantly.
Gamora was the one to speak for both of them. “Hello, Father. Hello, Cha.”
“H'llo, Cha, ” Nebula squeaked.
Cha fought against a grimace. Gamora often wondered if Cha willingly went along with the plans of his taller, more threatening friend. The two often argued, but it was never anything serious. “Greetings, you ones. Off for a harmless stroll, I see.”
Thanos caught the emphasis of the word harmless, shared a smiling glance with Cha. “...Well, nevermind us, Daughters. We were just passing through, ”
Gamora nodded and, gripping Nebula's hand in a gesture of comfort, tugged her past the Titan. The aging warlord and his advisor watched the children go about their business down the hall, both of their gazes differing. Thanos was certain that Cha saw nothing wrong with the two as they scampered further and further out of sight...but there was a darker meaning to this. This was foreshadowing for something unfortunate in the future that had to be stopped before it started.
“Delightful children, aren't they?” Cha remarked.
Thanos stared at him. “Yes, I almost envy them. In this present time...it warms my heart to see them both bonding like this... ”
“...In this present time?” He asked almost immediately.
Thanos raised his broad shoulders with a weary sigh, arms folded behind his back like a soldier with a stressful duty ahead of him. “I’ve single-handedly destroyed their childhood...and now they've gained some small part of it back. If they think themselves to be allies, they will eventually rise up against me as a united pair.” He growled under his breath. “I need them both to be loyal to me and not each other.”
“United or not, they will still eventually try to kill you.” Cha frowned.
“They are less likely to try alone.”
“You really think that?”
“Trust me, Cha. I've thought this through.” Thanos turned to nod at his old friend. “The best brainwashing allows the subject a modicum of independent thought. I'll allow them to hate me because it gives them the delusion that they have choices and free will. They don't know that they're too accustomed to this life now; they've ingested my philosophy and accepted my dominance, whether they like it or not. They are my children, and while children may hate their parents, they rarely raise a hand to them.”
Cha sneered openly. “Rarely, ”
Thanos swallowed down memories of A'Lars and the ruins of that building on Titan. “Like I said, They are less likely to try alone...and even less likely to succeed.” He smiled widely. “We'll start with sparring.”
Cha didn't look pleased with the idea, but he nodded all the same. “So we shall,” He said, thinking sadly of Gamora and poor, timid--
Nebula tensed up suddenly, awakening from the dream. Or rather, the memory.
Her eyes instantly darted to the nearest living thing on the ship, then calmed down when they saw just how familiar the creature was. Maud had apparently caught on to steering a ship easily. The crooks of her ankles were placed firmly on either side of the steering wheel, keeping it from swirling this way that. The seat had been raised enough for her to comfortably sit and lean upwards at the same time. Nebula wondered about a time where right now, snapping the pony's neck seemed like a one-way ticket to starting a new life far from her wretch of a sister and her demon of a father. Back when she had been left to be watched by Maud, as a prisoner. Despite how far they had come, Nebula still felt the capacity to immobilize Maud and end this silly trip to redeem her relationship with Gamora.
She was still thinking deeply when Maud glanced over at her, expressionless as always. “You're awake.”
“An understatement.” Despite herself, she felt comfortable enough to yawn near the equine. “Where are we right now?”
Maud squinted at something on the dashboard, pursing her lips slightly. “Within the S'lestyul galaxy, if this navigational mechanism is correct. A couple miles off from the planet.”
Nebula nodded as she sat up straighter in the co-pilot seat. Her mechanical eye focused more acutely on what was waiting for them in the distance. The small speck became a moderately sized planet in her eye, with strange formation on its surface that almost resembled a face. She thought nothing more of it. “That's the planet, alright.” After a stretch of silence, the cyborg swallowed quietly. “...so...remind me again how we do this thing?”
“We land, tell Quill and the others what's going on and then you tell Gamora what's on your mind. The apology you want to give her, ” Maud slowly retreated her hooves away from the steering wheel, and the ship thankfully stayed the course. The pony turned to face her, her expression blanker than ever. “You're holding yourself together very well for someone in position as nerve-wracking as yours.”
Nebula made no comment to that, but she was certain her body language indicated how much she agreed with that statement. She was practically terrified about what she would have to say when the time came, but in the face of daunting situations her face always became a hardened neutral expression. After musing over her acquired facial habit, she suddenly lurched out of her seat and towards the back of the ship to rummage around in the compartment. She allowed herself a small smile when pulled out a pair of familiar weapons, which she carried back to the dashboard. “I meant to give you these back earlier, but I suppose my… nap got in the way.”
Maud's eyes somehow lit up while remaining half-lidded. “The gloves.” She said with bored surprise, glancing from the bronze hoofwear to the cyborg. “Thank you. These are going to be very helpful for adding things to my rock collection when I get back home. How did sneak them away?”
Nebula scoffed. “Cybernetic daughter of the galaxy's most fearsome warlord, remember?”
Maud had been staring at the planet, now growing larger and larger as they approached it and her gloves were already snug around her front hooves, like bronze socks in a way. “ Sorry. Hard to remember when you do nice things like this. I get you confused for a good friend instead.”
Nebula just rolled her eyes, trying ignore the strange and sudden warm feeling spreading in her chest. She could swear that this equine's...goody, gooey emotional effects on her were going to be the death of her. She huffed as she stopped next to the pilot seat and leaned against the backrest with an arm. “Let me land us. I know more about ship protocols than you do, ”
Maud turned to look up at her, one. Eyebrow raised just the faintest bit. “Why don't you teach me? I've learned a lot this far.”
“You want to learn?”
“If you fish for a pony, they have fish for one day, ” The mare stated with a certain tone that couldn't quite be placed. “But if you teach a pony how to fish, then they have fish for a lifetime. Do you understand what I'm getting at?”
Nebula stared blankly. She wanted to say that she didn't and she wanted to ask why a herbivorous species would have any need for fishing to begin with, but she knew that would bring up an entire pointless conversation that could be discussed much later. The luphimoid sighed as she examined the pilot seat once again, judging its availability for two. “..Well, I can teach you. But it will be...awkward.”
Maud barely scrunched her nose. “Awkward how?”
Wordlessly, Nebula stiffly lifted her out of the pilot seat and sat down in it herself. True to her word, it was quite awkward for Nebula to sit there with a pony sitting on her lap, facing the wheel and blocking about half of her view. It was even more awkward to be guiding Maud's hooves to steering wheel and then holding them there to properly guide their movements. “Do you see what I mean?”
Maud's ear flicked--probably because Nebula was practically speaking right into it--but she made no physical movements to signal any weird feelings about their proximity. “I’ve had stranger experiences.”
“Well, this is one I don't want being talked about outside this ship.” Nebula warned.
Maud nodded once. “Duly noted.”
Gamora decided that she'd been brooding long enough, so she took to standing up instead of sitting down. The breeze of the planet brushed past her unnoticed, went off to bother bendable plant life. She started at the bending plants with a sigh of tiring, of uncertainty; What if she was just jealous of Quill, deep down inside? She was so used to the proximity of a family of heartless murderers--perhaps to see a family getting along as well as they did caused her some discomfort. She wondered if Quill would be jealous if the roles were reversed if he were the son of a lunatic with immense power. She wondered if she could ever bring herself to apologize given the height of her prideful feelings. She wondered if she should even try to apologize, to begin with, to save herself some embarrassing words. She idly wondered if there was some unspoken thing that she was refusing to acknowledge.
But most of all, she wondered what that noise was.
It had been so soft that she hadn't noticed it at first, mentally dismissed it as part of the gentle sound of the breeze. The sound grew in volume over the course of a full minute and now became a distant humming noise. It was too continuous to be a bug, and yet she could see nothing for miles in all directions. Wait, there was something behind her in the horizon. A tiny dot in the sky that was gradually starting to increase and size and volume.
Gamora squinted, wrinkling her nose.
Nebula was pleased to find how fast of a leaner Maud was becoming and surprised to find how easily her hooves worked with the controls just as easily one with opposable thumbs would. It wasn't long before they'd broken the atmospheric surface of the planet and then steadily made their way down to the bottom. The cyborg was smiling as the pony pulled up slowly, bringing them into a flying position that would be ready to land at any moment. Just as Nebula was about to advise a good spot to land given the planet's many land formations, Maud suddenly straightened up from her spot in her lap.
“Hey. I think I see Gamora, ”
Nebula looked up sharply at the sound of the name, her eyes widening as she took in the landscape of the peaceful plains in the flow of the sunset. Indeed, at the edge of the horizon, there was an unmistakable green figure facing them with apparent confusing in their body language. Her cybernetic eye enhanced the image of the person just outside; their dark hair tipped with violet, their dark attire, their infuriating green face. Her intentions with her sibling were peaceful ones, and yet the moment she took in her full appearance...something in Nebula's partially robotic mind snapped.
Nebula's eyes became impossibly wide as both her pupils shrunk to pinpricks, and she became eerily silent.
“Well, I suppose our plans changed a little. We'll land so you can talk to her first, ” Maud nodded to herself, then stiffened. “Uh, Nebula...why are you squeezing my hooves? Wait, what are you--?”
Just when she was close enough to see who was piloting the ship, Gamora ended up jumping to the side to just barely dodge an onslaught of gunfire. She half stumbled, half sprinted forward to avoid being impaled by fist-sized lasers and ended up charging a good distance ahead despite being barely able to see in the cloud of dust that had been thrown up by the ammo. The jade woman was so blinded by the need to run away from imminent death and the plumes of dust rising from the ground that she didn't realise there was a tall cliff up ahead until she was in free fall. Had there been nothing but a sheer cliff face, she would have landed in mess of broken bones and probably have snapped her neck hitting for ground.
As it was, Gamora merely bounced off different rock formations and slopes that jutted out of the cliff face. Her body rolled to a halt on the ground as the ship flew overhead and upwards into the sky once more, reserving their next round of fire. She glared after the flying vessel as she remembered the mental image of just who was trying to kill her. “Psychopath,” Gamora seethed as she scrambled to her feet.
She couldn't fight Nebula while she was flying around in that ship; she needed cover and time to assess how to ground her. Her peripheral view alerted her to a cave connecting to the cliff face, and she was soon darting right for it as the sound of gunfire rained down behind her.
“Nebula. What are you doing? Stop.” Maud wasn't sure if she could be heard over Nebula's bloodthirsty screaming and cursing, or over the mental strain she appeared to be going through. The cyborg was practically foaming at the mouth in anger, eagerly smashing the firing button in hopes of a spray of blood being thrown up. “I said stop. Let go of the wheel.”
Finally, Maud forced her hooves out from under her metallic hands and slammed her weight forcefully into the biped's chest. Nebula grunted as Maud attempted to use her gloves to control the metal components in her body and hold her back from the steering wheel, making the ship lurch into a half-hearted barrel roll. She eventually overpowered the energy of the gloves and landed a cracking blow to Maud's temple. The pony’s body flew to the side and lay in a groaning heap against the wall.
Snarling words that one couldn't even begin to say in public, Nebula returned her hands to the wheel and rammed into the mouth of the cave.
That psychopath! She actually followed her inside with the ship, breaking off the wings almost instantly and plowing within even further thanks to the thrust of the engine pushing her forward. Gamora wheezed and panted as the ship gained her thought stopping, like the ever-present hatred that her sister showed towards her. It ignored damage from inner rock formations and thick hills just gain distance towards Gamora, and the lasers never seemed to stop pouring out of it. For an excruciatingly long ten seconds, the two of them were locked in a stalemate chase; one able to remain one step ahead of the trailing danger and the other never losing any distance.
Gamora didn't know it at the time, but Maud gained her bearings enough to use her gloves and pry Nebula's arms from the steering wheel. She only saw the ship flying over her head and coming to a particularly painful halt against the back of the cave, crumpling like paper. Only, paper doesn't catch fire when it crumples up against a wall. The Jade woman watched with tense muscles as small pockets of fire quickly appeared around the ship's lower portions, melting just enough for the front part to be lowered to her view. Behind the cracked glass, she could see that the crash had forced one of Nebula's arms into a part of the dashboard and each attempt to free herself only electrocuted her. Maud, sporting a massive bruise on her forehead, was trying pull Nebula free from the fiery wreckage around them.
Gamora growled as she stepped forward, but paused when she noticed something large lying in the rubble. She picked it up quickly and her hands worked feverishly to hot wire it, balancing its girth on her shoulder. The mechanical weapon, two times her size, charged to life and began firing.
The angry Zebhori stomped towards the destroyed ship as round after round of laser ammo pelted the hull of the grounded aircraft. She screamed all of her rage and fury as the glass refused to break, even when both Nebula and Maud flinched from the way it cracked and splintered. The fires rose higher underneath the ship, no doubt cooking the both of them inside. Despite the heat of death licking at he, it seemed Maud was unwilling to abandon the cyborg.
She dropped her weapon beside her.
Gamora, numb to the scenery, briefly wondered why the pony was so willing to help someone so harmful. Why couldn't she have just left them alone and allowed their hatred for each other to grow? If it were just them alone here, fighting to the death on this planet, she would allow Nebula to burn to death or die in a fiery explosion.
She watched as the blue woman not far from her looked up at with a brief flash of fear in her eyes.
“P-Please, sister.”
Gamora narrowed her eyes down at the quivering form of Nebula, clutching her injured arm close to her. Her fingers were bent all the wrong way and her elbow was dislocated too far out of the socket. Gamora would have enjoyed being in her position, so bruised and beaten that she would many wonderful scars to boast about as an adult. But here was her singing, weakly sobbing and begging for mercy. It was something that father was growing tired of seeing.
“You are a pathetic sister, ” Gamora snarled. “I am ashamed of knowing you,”
“Kill her, daughter, ” She heard father say from behind. “I will bring you another sibling in the future. One who will not break so easily.”
She raised her spear with the intent to ram it into Nebula's chest, but she did not follow through. She realised, much to her anger, that she couldn't do it herself. Something in her mind was keeping her from making the killing blow. Gamora stared at her with a crumbling glare and Nebula cried all the more, fearing death but also fearing the fate of getting metal limbs. The Zebhori teen knew that killing Nebula would be a mercy to her--would finally end her miserable life and give her peace eternal. Perhaps she would see the parents she still had nightmares about, and would no longer be under the strangling grip if the mad titan.
She dropped the spear. “I will not.”
“...Is that so?”
“You give her these...biomechanical implants to improve.” Without looking Nebula in the eye, she leaned down and careful lifted the girl to her feet. She began leading her past Thanos, who blinked down upon them with an expression she couldn't determine. “You shouldn't have her killed because of boredom. She just might beat me one day, father. Patience is a weapon, as you once told me.”
Thanos frowned as if he wished to argue, but he miraculously stayed his hand. “...yes. I suppose your points stand, my daughter, ” He watched them go with a slow nod. “Know that both your food rations will be cut down by 70% for the week. If you disobey my orders again, I will kill you both myself.”
Gamora kept walking, and Nebula did too.
Gamora crashed through the front of the ship, desperately landing next to Nebula and ripping her arm out of the dashboard in an explosion of sparks. Maud, while deeply surprised to see her rescuer, wasted no time in helping to push her injured cyborg friend out of the broken windshield. The trio of heavily breathing beings made it to the nose of the ship within a few seconds, and Maud was just leaping down to make the transition to the ground easier for Nebula when the fires finally became too high. A rippling explosion blasted all three through the sky before the ground happily came up to greet them again. All was silent for a while, save for the crackling of fire.
Gamora wheezed out a mouthful of dirt and rolled off of the small boulder she'd crashed into, her body screaming at the slightest movements. She almost instantly became aware of a strange feeling in her arm and she drowsily looked to see a funny hump in her shoulder. She inhaled as she crawled to a kneeling position, braced herself and flung her body shoulder first into the boulder again. Given the loud popping noise and the pure agony that rippled through her body, it seemed her shoulder was back in place.
Panting like a tired dog, she looked for the other two. Maud was struggling to get up to her left, though her limbs looked to be fine. Her head sported a fresh gash across the temple which bled profusely. She also had a bruise that completely closed up one of her eyes, and she had a feeling that it wasn't from the explosion.
Nebula was the one to take the worst of the explosion, it seemed. Not only did she smell like fire and smoke, but her physical condition was horrible. The cyborg swore and huffed in pain as her twisted limbs forcibly began to shift back into place, each metal part whirring to click into another part. Her left leg twisted 180°, her elbow snapped back into place and her finger straightened again. Gamora noted that her jaws crooked, her eyes widening when a metallic hand reached up and pried at the side of her jaw. Nebula’s hands shook as they relocated her jaw's joints in a split second,and they shook harder as she fought the urge to urge to whimper at the pain.
Gamora locked eyes with her, heartbroken at the sight. She'd spent so long not really caring about the woman's physical state that she never realised just how much of her was...real. Gamora opened her mouth to say something, anything to--
“gRAAAAAR!” Nebula lunged forward and knocked Nebula into the ground, spittle flying from her mouth.
“Are you kidding me?!”
Gamora kicked her off easily, but Nebula had far too much adrenaline flowing through her to be slow to return. They exchanged a small flurry of hand to hand combat moves, each one Gamora sent begin blocked by her sister. The Luphimoid was at her angriest this night, her rapid hits emphasizing the anger pumping through what remained of her actual body. Nebula finally shot a hand around the green woman's wrist and tugged her forward into the clenched fist of the other hand, pounding into her abdomen with enough force to knock the breath out of her. Gamora wasn't given a second's worth of time to recover either.
With a flipping kick, Gamora's head bounced painfully against the ground. Nebula was on top of her in an instant, metal hand wringing her neck with shaking fury. She roared into the face of the suffocating woman below her, who flailed and kicked for a way to get out from under her. Eyes narrowed to slits, Nebula watched her struggles start to slow down as the lack of oxygen weakened her and made her gurgle strange noises. This was perfect--finally she would kill her and the waking nightmare of her life would be one step closer to ending. She just needed to press in a little farther and Gamora's neck would snap like a twig. Just a little farther.
She released her with a shriek of rage and rolled off. As Gamora rolled onto her stomach and fought to regain her breath between hacking coughs, her sister started to laugh a long bitter chortle. She grinned darkly in her direction. “ I did it. I won--I've bested you in combat.”
“Y-you psychotic wretch…!” Gamora spat and looked as though she would have resumed the fight if she weren't so winded. “I saved you from that ship! I saved your life!”
Nebula's smile vanished. “And you were a fool for letting me live!”
“You let ME live!” She shot back.
“I don't need or want you always trying to beat me, Gamora! You--”
Gamora grabbed her shoulders tightly. “You're the one who wanted to fly across the universe just to fight me!”
“Do NOT tell me what I want!”
“Why would I tell you what you want when its so obvious?! You want so badly to win--”
“You were the one who wanted to win, ” Nebula roared at her. “I just wanted a Sister!”
The flames of the wreckage eagerly roared and gurgled to fill in the silence after that statement, as if the silence was too deafening to handle. Gamora's saddened eyes widened as she stared at Nebula, whose head hung low and weary towards the ground. When she spoke again, her voice lost all traces of anger and malice. “...Y-you were all I had. After he took me from my parents’ corpses...I thought you would be able to fill the void they left, be my only real family...but you didn't want a sister.” She sighed pitifully, sadly. “You just wanted to win. And it didn't matter to you if it costed every leg, every arm--my own brain...just as long as you won.”
“...” Gamora trembled, sniffled the slightest. “...I-I'm sorry.”
Nebula lifted her head and stared at her. “...Yeah. I know you are…but what happened has happened.”
“You're absolutely right, Nebula.”
The two sisters flinched and relaxed; Maud was limping over to them with a hoof pressed against her bleeding forehead. The emotionless pony sat inbetween them both and winced as she struggled to get comfortable. Gamora wasn't sure, but Nebula looked the slightest bit apologetic about the pony's condition. “What happened has happened. There is literally no way for Gamora to go back and change anything, and no way for you to do the same.” She explained. “There is one thing that can happen right now that can lead to an endless set of possibilities.”
Nebula blinked. “...What is that?”
“Change your future. Stop this fighting, ” Maud glanced between the both of them with a forlorn frown. “Please. You don't want to spend the rest of your lives in a death struggle, over something that cannot be changed. Change your situation now, and who knows what will become of you two in the future.”
Gamora swallowed the lump in her throat. “...It's not that simple.”
“You keep saying things like that. When did I say ever say it would be simple?”
“I think that Gamora assumed you meant change would be simple, ” Nebula said slowly. “Because of how you say things. No offense, but you’re kinda unsettling the way you are.”
Unsettling was a harsh word, but Gamora found herself nodding reluctantly. To the surprising amusement of them both, Maud rolled her eyes. “In case you haven't noticed, I don’t express emotions the same as everypony else.”
“Everypony?” Gamora raised an eyebrow.
“Whatever. The point is that you should both try to look past what happened.” Maud pointed out and shrugged, much to her painful chagrin. “If you start today, you might both be old Grandmas eating fruit together on a porch eighty years from now.”
Gamora and Nebula locked eyes with each other, exchanging unspoken words. They both sighed, weary of their endless struggle with each other and nodded once. They wouldn't hug, they wouldn't cry and they wouldn't be accepting apologies today...but maybe tomorrow things would look different. Gamora slowly got to her feet and popped her spine. “Actually Maud, if we did keep fighting, we might still end up as old ladies eating fruit on a porch. I'd poison her fruit though, ”
“Like I'd fall for that, ” The cyborg rolled her eyes. “I'd use my one good arm to punch your frail face in.”
“Like you punched me?”
She flinched at the pony's words and rubbed the back of her head. “I apologize, Maud. It was a heat of the moment thing, I guess. Sorry about your eye, ”
“That reminds me, ” Gamora said as she began to walk towards the entrance of the cavernous tunnel. “I got a good look at you when you first swooped down. What was Maud doing in your lap, Nebula?”
Nebula's cheeks turned darker, and she coughed. “She wasn't in my--...y-you mu--”
“She was teaching me how to drive, ” Maud said, perhaps a bit quicker than she usually spoke. “ So that's why I was…yeah. Anyway, how have you all been? We got captured by The Ravagers.”
“Well, maybe that'll give Quill incentive to leave this planet. He's in one of his stubborn moods, ” Gamora said as she passed a huge opening in the side. She kept walking, then slowed down and paced backward to stare into the dark, small cave. “Do you two smell something?”
Nebula inhaled. “...It smells like death in there.”
Maud walked forward to the mouth of the small cave and picked up a tiny white pebble with both hooves. “This is a tooth.”
The Cyborg leaned down to peer at the object herself. “What?”
“It's a tooth.”
Gamora furrowed her brow and tried to look into the darkness of the cave. She snapped her fingers for her sister's attention. “Nebula. Light.”
Nebula's cybernetic sparkled to life, flashing a bright light through her false pupil into the dark cave to illuminate it. Gamora gasped, Nebula flinched back and even Maud's eyes widened the slightest when they saw piles upon piles of what was in the cave. They were all stacked together, in mountains of death that were far too many in number. The stench of the small cave was nothing compared to the sight.
Nebula breathed. “We have to get off this planet,”
It was quite a startle, for the Ravager's early rising routine to involve a sudden broadcast of revolting music. Or at least, Yondu found it to be a bit of a startle. He also found this particular selection to be the most distasteful out of Quill's stash; something he'd probably torture his enemies with in their holding cells. Terra was probably filled with a bunch of soft skinned, tone deaf people with no idea what a real song sounded like. Yondu may not have the prettiest voice you ever heard, but he knew knew better singers than...Fay & The Wakandans, or whatever.
He raised his gaze upwards to the rodent that was busy soldering and repairing the wires that would attach his brain to the prototype fin. That cyborg hag blew out a lot more than his old fin given the damage, but supposedly it wasn't unfixable by the Professional A-hole's standards. “How we doing up there rat?”
“One last wire to connect, ” Rocket mumbled as though he were deeply concentrating.
Kraglin had gotten Quill's music up on the speakers, but he also retrieved confiscated weapons. Derpy, who had previously gotten her hoof stuck to her chest trying to put her Domino gun straps on, wiggled about with frustration. “I...ergh...don't think we...have a lot of time...before someone figures it...out!”
Rocket rolled his eyes dismissively, but Yondu felt that he had enough of watching the grey coated equine struggle about like she was and whistled for her to come closer. When she cautiously did, he tugged the strap loose enough for her leg to get through the shoulder opening. “Wow! Thanks!” Derpy grinned at him with a disgustingly cute grin, one that made him want to barf just seeing it. “I can't believe he mentioned his great Dad #2 except in terrible passing!”
“I told ya already, kid, I ain't...You know--Whatever!” The blue ravager grumbled unhappily under his breath. “Think what you want to. D’Matter none t'me.”
Derpy tilted her head. “Why don't think of yourself that way?”
“Dads don't threaten to eat their kids, for one.” Rocket remarked from above. “Which would have been just fine by me. One less douchebag in the world.”
“Ah, but he just threatened to do it! It's good that he didn't follow through, right?” Yondu's silent response to that prompted more words from Derpy. “The way I see it, Quill grew up to be a pretty nice superhero alien with cool blasters and a cool face mask and a bunch of awesome friends! You must’ve done something right.”
Yondu blinked at her, memories slowly coming to him. Yondu certainly wasn't what his slave holders were, but he wasn't the universe's #1 parent either. Maybe it was a miracle that his few nice moments with the scrawny Terra runt shaped him to be something good, or maybe it just dumb luck. Or maybe it was something beyond coincidences or luck that shaped the current Starlord. Perhaps what the human was today was only there because of his childhood aboard the Ravager ships. Maybe it all did have something to do with Yondu's care for him, even in the slightest.
“Let's check the cell, ” A voice suddenly said from beyond the open door.
Rocket flinched, but he didn't stop what he was doing to finish up Yondu's neural connections. “Derpy, shoot those guys when they come in, ” He demanded nonchalantly.
The Pegasus shook her head firmly in response, her dusty blonde hair swaying every which way in front of her. “Sorry, no can do. I'm a strictly no-kill pony. Wish I could help.”
“Dumbass, the gun only blows up ships! It’ll just paralyze them and put them in a severe state of agony.”
“Huh. You made a gun with an oddly selective range of damage. Waaaaait. What if they break their necks on the floor when they fall?”
“Then they shouldn't have fallen that way--Now shoot them!”
“Will they get radiation poisoning?”
“Derpy!”
“What if they get electric superpowers when I shoot them?
“JUST SHOOT THEM, YOU MORON!”
Derpy swallowed and reluctantly faced the doorway with her weapon charging up. Though her wings shook and trembled anxiously, she still kept her focus towards the only entrance to the cell and was more than ready to fire at the approaching shadows. When the two ravagers did show up with brief expressions of surprise written all their faces, her weapon quickly blasted them back across the hallway. Their bodies hit the opposite wall and soon enough, crumpled into a uncomfortable pile on the disgusting floor. Derpy released a breath she forgot she was holding, while Rocket hopped down from his perch and picked up his own weapon. The music blared into the scene again with starting lyrics from a smooth, calm voice.
“In a little cafe~, Just the other side of the border~!” The rusty speakers vibrated. “She was just sitting there givin' me looks...That made my mouth water~,”
“Well look who grew a pair! Good shootin’, ” The woodland creature slapped a paw across her back as Groot wandered over to her other side and hugged her foreleg softly. Yondu lifted his arrow from his side and twirled it nonchalantly between his fingers, his steps carrying him behind the Flora and Fauna with casual ease.
The Grey Pegasus winced the closer they got to the entrance. She could actually smell smoke coming off the bodies,and it certainly didn't smell like a barbecue. “Uh...yeah. I don't think I'm ever gonna like doing that, though. How long are they gonna be paralyzed for?”
Rocket snickered into her shoulder. “Six hours, at which point they might be dead.”
“I am Groot!”
“So I started walking her way--She belonged to bad man Jose~, And I knew, yes I knew I should leave…When I heard her say: yeah!”
“Groot's right! That's just as bad m killing them!”
“You'll live, kid.” Yondu’s height gave him a leading advantage over their relatively stubby walking, not to mention an intimidating stature given the red metal mohawk on his head. He turned past the bodies with a grin. “You'll live. More than I can say fer their compadres.”
“Come a little bit closer! You're my kind of man:So big and so strong, ” The four of them set off side by side down the long stretch of hallways, Yondu in the middle with the two talking animals covering his left and right by keeping up the cool pace. If one were to witness the casual traveling from a safe distance, the only thing they could or would ever edit to make it look 20% cooled would a healthy splash of slow motion. “Come a little bit closer-- I'm all alone and the ni~ght is so long, ”
As unbelievably epic as their armed walk was, they couldn't avoid conflict for long. As if on some silent cue, a hefty number of Ravagers flooded into the part of the hallway they had yet to reach and raised their blasters with the intention to shoot their prisoners if they didn't comply with their barked orders. Derpy hesitantly prepared herself to fire, but Yondu thankfully raised a finger to stop her. With a smirk as dangerous as his redfin, he uttered a high pitched whistle that reverberated through the air loud enough to reach the arrow still twirling away in his grasp. It fizzled to life in mid-flip and zipped into the air making a beeline towards the suddenly panicking pirates.
“So we started to dance! In my arms, she felt so inviting~, ” The arrow easily plunged right their red-clad torsos, and even more easily did it rip through her most vital organs or arteries. Derpy stifled a mouthful of oncoming bile and vomit with the utmost disgust; the way blood sprayed up and everywhere when the arrow left one body after the other was probably one of the most disturbing sights in her life, right next to pouring the milk in before the cereal. Rocket barely batted an eye at the quick slaughter and Groot seemed morbidly fascinated by the exclusive gore he was seeing, rather than terrified. “And I just couldn't resist just one little kiss; so exciting, ”
Not a single body was left standing, but there were several left lying around after the blue pirate finished--some against the wall, some against each other and other swimming a pool of collective blood. He kept walking as if the whole ordeal was a simple inconvenience, leading his allies in stepping over the giant roadblock of bodies to keep heading down the hall. With an uncaring snort and a follow-up whistle as well, he felled another five rushing down the hall with vain battle cries. He clicked his tongue at Rocket. “Alright, go set ‘im loose then meet us up, rat.”
Rocket set off down a different hallway just like that. His travels through the narrow corridors brought him into conflict with the occasional space pirate rushing towards him, but he was far too quick to be but and too good of an aim to miss any bumbling idiots. A couple of dead bodies and about fifty feet later, and the Trash Panda finally arrived in the room that could have easily been his place of death. Grinning a toothy smirk, he pressed the bay door button on the side of the door and rushed up to the massive hole in the ground as a net of intertwined bars slowly descended from a hatch in the ceiling.
“Hey, Goom!” Rocket bellowed into the dark hole, where two blazing eyes sharply looked up at him. “The Ravagers called your mom a Kree Whore!”
“WHAT?!” Rocket nearly shrieked when the voice from within boomed to life, shaking the very ground he stood on. “GOOM'S MOM IS NOT A KREE! GOOM MAAAAD!”
Snickering into his paw, Rocket raced towards the door just as the heavy reached the side of the hole and a red-orange hand reached up to grasp it. He estimated he had about another twenty seconds before Goom got out of the hole and rushed over to the doorway, so that amounted to about twenty seconds to live. When Rocket did make it to the doorway, he was instantly greeted by another small army of Ravagers with blasters ready to blow him to smithereens. But the potty-mouthed woodland creature showed no signs of worry about any of this.
Rocket bared his canines in a smug grin, stepping backwards slowly. “You guys have about eight seconds to run the other way.”
“Oh yeah?” One of them laughed, and a few others snickered as well. “Why?”
“YO YO YO!”
“What…?!”
Rocket leaped backwards several paces just as a giant, elephantine foot slammed down in the place he'd been in. The Ravagers all gaped in shock and horror at the giant entity bursting through the short metal frame of the doorway, his intimidating muscles rippling with a sense of angered power. With a bulbous red skull, beady little eyes and horrific white tusks protruding from his lower jaw, Goom uttered a terrifying baritone laugh and pounded at his pale yellow chest like some kind of hairless King Kong. “ GOOM IS IN THE HIZZAAAAAYYYYY! Y'ALL FINNA GET IT!”
Rocket raced down the hallway not longer after that, howling with laughter as the agonized screams echoed on and on.
The Ravagers in the storage level weren't expecting Yondu on their end of the ship, and the first of them on the balconies gasped at the sight of him. “Down there!”
Yondu, barely carrying to look up, pursed his lips to whistle again. Just like that, his arrow zipped into the air for another messy slaughter, unhindered by the bones of its many victims. As his arrow once again took flight and began to massacre the many legions of space pirates, Derpy took to the sky with Groot sitting firmly on her shoulders. Her Domino gun blasted only once every couple of seconds since each hit would infuse the metal railing with electricity and end up hitting more targets with painful ammo. She paused to watch Yondu's arrow fly for a moment, only to blink when Groot urgently tugged on her mane and pointed down at a small group of fearful pirates nearby.
Amusingly enough, it actually didn't take her very long to put two and two together when she saw Groot's fiery expression. An equally angered look flared up over her own features which only served to make the goons below cower all the more. She flashed downwards after their retreating bodies while Groot hopped off to land on the balcony, slamming her hooves into the back of one of them and tackling him into the ground. Her gun quickly took down the second one and she pounced on his painfully writhing form to deliver a few good kicks to his gut. Above the sound of his own wheezing for breath, he could distinctly hear her saying. “This! Is Why! You never! Be mean! TO PLANTS!”
The groaning of the other one she stopped drew her attention; he made the mistake of trying to get up off the metal flooring. Her gun had him joining his friend in agony, allow her to give his head a good kick off extra measure without the threat of retaliation. “Yeah! How do you like it?!” She suddenly blinked rapidly and exchanged a look at both of her fallen targets with shock. “Wow. I can't believe I just did that.”
“GRAAAAAAAH!” Groot drew her attention when her barreled past her on his tiny little legs, yelling bloody murder with his helium-fueled voice. The Ravager that escaped her notice was now racing frantically to get away from the tiny tree demon intent on repaying the kindness shown to him a few hours ago, but he would not get very far before he was tripped. He screamed as Groot's finger vines dragged him backwards by his ankles, and Groot screamed at him just for the sake of his tiny, cute fury. “YAAAAAAAAAAUGH!” Without another sound, Groot used all of his strength to toss the pirate right of the elevated side of the balcony and snorted at the sight of him screaming all the way down to a very abrupt death. Immensely satisfied, the plant being walked over to a mildly horrified pegasus and hopped onto her back again.
She managed to make a smile appear as she looked back at him, taking flight. “Remind me not to get on your bad side.”
Groot giggled. “I am Groot!”
In just a few short minutes, the group met up again. Yondu led them up a short flight of stairs until they were all standing in the monitor room, with a collection of different camera angle visible to them on several monitors. The Ravagers they could see on camera were either trying desperately to dissuade Goom from trashing up the entire place or were trying to find the escaped prisoners. Debris was pretty much everywhere, and the hallways were rampant with frantically sprinting space pirates. Derpy blinked over the collective chaos unfolding on several screens, then looked up at her towering blue leader.
“So, uh...What now?” She asked hesitantly.
Yondu twiddled the arrow locked in his grip, and grinned a yellow-toothed smirk.“Now, kid...we have ourselves some fun.” And just like that, he whistled again.
The arrow sliced through the wall in front of them easily, then joined in the chaos on the security cameras by helping Goom destroy several bodies. All that could be seen to identify the arrow’s slaughtering rampage was its bright red glow that trailed behind it, illuminating darkened spaces with its haunting light. Like a bullet, the weapon zipped from camera angle to camera angle in the time span of a blink or two; never missing any of the targets its wanted to impale on its sharpened tip. It occasionally added collateral damage as well, like cutting the chains off a hanging ship to have it crash down on swaths of pirates. Yondu needed no breath to lengthen his whistling; it persevered as long as he liked.
Rocket glanced at a lower camera panel and noticed several goons starting to surround the room with guns ready to blow holes into them. Readying his own blasters, Rocket erupted into a fit of roaring laughter as bolt after bolt of laser ammo began to the walls and their bodies with smoking holes. None of his targets ever even got close to the room before they were shot to the floor with giant, gaping wounds. The Raccoon laughed all the more at his good work and taunted the falling bodies outside. “HA HA! CRY SOME MOOORE!”
Despite the laughter starting to erupt from both Rocket and Yondu, Derpy managed to hear another noise above it. She raced over to the stairs they just used to enter the room in time to view a few ravagers rushing up the stairs to try and sneak attack them. A single shot of her gun caused the first few to topple backward on the ones behind them, which ended in a giant amusing heap of groaning goons. Snickering a little at seeing the uninjured ones trying to rush back up to her, the pony unleashed another round to just to laugh at the harmless humor she created all over again.
Yondu was caught up in the mirth of the others for a while, but it was short-lived. As the hallways became more and more spacious due to the lack of life in them, he was able to see things more clearly if they moved. And his gaze hardened as he noticed one particular individual stomping angrily down one of the hallways, likely intending to come straight for Yondu.
Derpy gasped when she looked at the screen.“Oh no, it's Scrotum Hat!”
Yondu cleared his throat. “I got ‘im.”
Taserface waited for it for the longest time, as he charged down the hallways from his sleeping quarters. He knew that eventually, what fates befell his newly acquired men would soon try to come and claim his life. And just as he assumed Yondu hadn't seen him, a bright red glow flashed around the corner and made a quick beeline for him.
The Ravager growled under his breath as the arrow came straight for him, slicing air molecules with its very speed. It bore fiery flames on its sides, heat that would cauterize the wound before it even exited his body. With a roaring laugh, he dodged the arrow with a quick leap to the side and laughed as it harmlessly flew past him to hit the gas tanks at the other end of the hallway and nearly blow him to pieces.
Now a fiery, smoking mess, the Ravager pirate dragged himself down the hall again with a newfound plan. He eventually managed to turn on the hall corner, get down the stairs next to a more condensed group of gas tanks and towards a auditory mechanic built into the wall. It took a bit of time to get the cracked screen to focus, but he eventually managed to get the facial scanning of a particular golden woman.
“This is a secure channel! Who is this--”
“I am sending you the coordinates for Yondu's ship, ” He growled and did just that by pressing a few more buttons. “I only ask one thing of your high priestess.”
The golden woman regarded him a serious expression. “Tell him the name of the man what sealed his fate...Taserface.”
The woman stared at him in silence for a few, long seconds and he basked in the fear that his name was apparently getting. Then she motioned to someone offscreen, and he blinked in confusion as four others of her kind appeared on screen with her. Coughing strangely, the woman nodded at him. “What was your name again?”
“...Taserface?”
All five faces immediately broke down into chuckles, giggles, and dorkish guffawing. Taserface stared at the screen utter disbelief as the fires melted everything around him and caused the other gas tanks to engulf him a fatal wall of fire.
His last moments were ones of pure, bitter annoyance with the universe's judgment of his name.
“You maniac…” Rocket gaped at the screens, each one starting to become engulfed with roaring flames. “This whole ship is gonna blow up!”
Derpy rolled her shoulders and grinned her widest. “Aw, don't worry Rocket! Yondu knows exactly what he's doing! I'm sure this was all part of his master plan…” She paused, blinked worriedly and flew up to the blue man's height. “This was a part of your master plan, wasn't it?”
“Not really. I was gonna let Goom trash the place, ” Yondu responded, watching broadly as the previously mentioned beast bounded out of the ship to escape the approaching explosions and flames. His redfin glinted as he looked up at a hatch in the ceiling, still wide open. He whistled for his arrow to return to him and then spoke up to the hole in the ceiling. “Let that ladder down, Kraglin!”
When a steel crafted ladder lowered down just enough for him to start climbing, the raccoon glanced at the walls around them as they started to glow red from the approaching heat. He hopped on reluctantly after Yondu disappeared up the hatch and Derpy urged for him to follow. “I never get to be on the big ships.” He sighed, though it came off as more of a grumble that made the pony giggle a little.
“Releasin’ the quadrant, Captain!”
Kraglin carefully peeled back the quad-lever and braced himself as their part of the ship slowly broke off from the rest. The giant dome view of the windshield allowed them all a glimpse of the atmosphere above getting darker and darker before ultimately losing itself to the inky blackness of space, illuminated only by the nearby stars and the planets’ eerie glow. The thrusters of the ship continued to push them further into space, picking up speed now that there was no friction to threaten them.
When the shaking of the ship smoothed out into something more manageable, Yondu made his way over to the captain's seat and made himself at home, never noticing Rocket taking a seat in the chair next to him. Memories started to pop up in his head, but he knew he couldn't allow himself to drift off into them. Quill was his top priority now, and he had to focus on creating options for getting to him faster. He looked down at the panel in front of him with a weary sigh. “Alright, boys. Let's get this show on the road, ”
“But I'm a girl,” Derpy quietly protested.
Kraglin glanced at her, almost laughed and thought better of it. “Where to, Captain?”
Rocket snickered as he began poking and prodding the button panel in front of his chair, his claws clacking against the plastic coverings. “ Ego! Don't sweat it, blue boy--I'm hyperdriving all the way there!”
A look of pure fear flashed over Yondu's face. “NO, BOY--”
They all nearly got whiplash from the way the ship shot forward, causing Kraglin to trip backwards when Derpy tripped into him. She helped him up shakily, then helped nudge Groot onto Rocket's shoulder before she ever took notice of the windshield and gasped. They were flashing through small holes in the space in front of them, constantly zipping into new environments with each flash. One minute they were in dark space, then they were zipping through pink mists and then they were flying by rippling rainbow patterns. She might have easily been hypnotized by the sight if she weren't distracted by Yondu trying to move against the blinding speeds they were reaching.
“Rat, ” Yondu spat venomously, managing to turn his head towards the woodland critter. Strange. His jaw looked bigger. “It ain't healthy for mammalian bodies to do more than five jumps at a time! It'll distort their bones, send ‘em through time or who knows where!”
Rocket rolled his eyes and scoffed. “I know that.”
“You set the jump-parameter too high!” Yondu's mouth stretched awkwardly as he yelled. “WE'RE ABOUT TO DO 700 JUMPS!”
Rocket’s eyes widened. In fact, they were a lot wider than his skull should have allowed them to be. “...ohshit.”
The environments they jumped through were starting to pass them by at an alarming rate; sometimes moving too fast for anyone to even remember where they'd been. Unspeakable creatures and demons passed them by as if they were on a very busy highway, going past all manner of strange vehicles. Derpy adopted a face of absolute horror at what unfolded before her eyes; the faces that were changing in the ship. Yondu's eyes should have fallen out of his sockets by now, or at least into the giant gaping expanse of his mouth as he screamed for dear life. Kraglin clung to a metal bar with a girlish scream as his pupils expanded to dinner plates and his ears expanded to elephant size and drooped all over the floor. Rocket’s lips had grown excessively big and were then flapping all over his face and eyes, blinding him and possibly causing him to scream all the more. Groot’s head was more of a mouth than an actual face by this point. Derpy swallowed nervously, braced herself and looked down at her totally normal hooves.
“What?”
She blinked in surprise at seeing her body look so...normal. Nothing had changed about her, from her tail to her adorable little snout. So this...weird, jump thingy didn't affect ponies at all? Boy, what a relief! She didn't like the idea of becoming nightmare fuel like the others or possibly being stuck with a horrible face. Still...it would be best to check and make sure.
She trotted over to a nearby mirror amidst all the screaming and began to check her reflection over for anything she missed. What she saw tore apart her sanity and pieced it back together; burned at her violated pupils and earned the most terrified shriek she'd ever uttered in her life…
Jessica Jones stopped snoring when her phone went off, shattering whatever semblance of dreamless slumber she had left.
She twitched uncomfortably as her dumb ringtone began to rise in volume. Her hand groggily snaked out from beneath her blankets to thump into her nightstand repeatedly, until her hand finally located the vibrating rectangle. Without even opening her crusty eyelids, she disarmed the call and her hand promptly fell slack again. Unfortunately, the damage was already done. She would not be falling asleep again, no matter how hard she tried. It was a wonder why anyone would call at this time of afternoon in the first place, all things considered.
Jessica contemplated her night as she sat there, face half buried in her fluffy pillow. She'd been hired to investigate the fears of a man who hadn't seen his dog in weeks, claiming that his crazy neighbor must have stolen it. He paid her a very wealthy amount of cash, which she blew half of on drinks while claiming to the same man that she was investigating when he came calling. But that was probably a couple of hours ago, and judging by the hangover...she might still be a tad bit tipsy. Maybe she could judge what she would do with her day by taking notes from Groundhogs: they slept in if they ever saw their own shadow. So, if she saw one sign that she was still inebriated, then she’d head right back to bed.
Jessica groggily shuffled over to her bedroom window and lifted the blinds enough to see through it. Well, everything seemed normal.
“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAUGH!!!”
A spaceship-- a screaming spaceship-- zipped by the window at breakneck speeds and disappeared into nothingness.
Without hesitation, she turned on her heel and flopped back into bed.
A Few Weeks Ago…
Doctor Strange stifled a groan as he stood up from the jagged, rocky ground and faced the hovering threat of Dormammu. His humongous, rippling face was frightening but he would not give up in his plan to defeat the Elder being. He stomped forward with closed fists and steeled his expression into one of resolve.
“Foolish Wizard…” Dormammu rumbled with a laugh.
“Dormammu, ” Strange began. “I've come to B--”
He was killed by a screaming spaceship ramming into him and by the time he re-emerged, it was gone.
In Another Universe...
Sunset Shimmer sat against the wall of the gymnasium, biting the eraser end of her pencil softly. The question she had on her mind to ask Twilight wasn’t quite a necessary one, but she was one of the smartest ponies she knew. She had to have some sort of answer.
She coughed, sighed and began to whisper while writing: “Dear Twilight...Do you think Golf counts as an Athletic Sport?”
She blinked as the sound of screaming and shrieking briefly filled the empty classroom, startling her to a sudden stop in her writing. After a moment to calm down, she added:
“...P.S...I think I'm being haunted by ghosts right now. Got any books for that?”
And Another one…
Bill Denbrough stared in horror as the disturbing clown slammed his brother's skeleton into the water, making his yellow raincoat disappear beneath the bloody waters in a flash. The otherworldly clown stared at him for a single heartbeat, then began to sprint and twist his way out of the water. He shared like a charging lion as he thrashed towards Bill, kicking up water and--
A screaming flash of light punched Pennywise right back into the water.
Deadpool got hit by a ship too. Not the ship our space gang was in, but a Tugboat.
The Assemblance of Uatu Watchers sneered at the small metal craft that screamed its way over their heads, then disappeared into nothingness. One of them shook his head in disapproval of the sight. “Hmmph! How Rude. That's the Universe, I tell you…” He rubbed his massive forehead. “One of these days, someone is going to really be fed up with it!”
“Oh, balderdash.” Another said, looking down at their important speaker. “Please, sir. Continue.”
“Indeed! Never mind that rude interruption. What happened after your delivery with Tony Stank?”
The old man sitting below them smiled, his grin glowing even through the helmet of his spacesuit. If there was one thing he enjoyed doing for his audience, no matter who it was, it was telling them an inviting story they couldn’t wait to hear more of. “Well…” He nodded happily. “After lamenting about the sixties and meeting that head-eating feller...I found myself selling a Spider-man outfit to a kid. I think his name had two M's in it...Matthew Mcconaughey or something.”
No one could know for certain just how long they'd been warping around the cosmos, but they were certain that the ride was finally over. The ship suddenly came to an abrupt drift over a specific planet, and the sudden change of momentum had nearly everyone sprawling on the ground. Deroy pulled herself up with a groaning grimace, then bolted back over to the mirror. To her relief, everything was back to the way it was before the 700 jumps-- eyes included. She trotted back over with a happy pep in her step, just narrowly the waterfall of vomit Groot coughed up. “We’re alive!”
“Of course we're alive, ” Rocket snorted from his position face down on the floor. “I'm the one who piloted.”
Yondu somehow managed to pick himself off the floor, swallowing bile reluctantly.“What th’hell you doing, boy?!”
“The way you went on about him?” Rocket leaned back against the stair steps to catch his breath. “I can tell this Ego guy ain't so squeaky clean. So we're goin’ down there ta save Quill!”
“For what?” Kraglin sneered and his limped his way over to them, not quite certain if his intestines were in the right places. “For honor? For love?”
Derpy grinned even brighter. “Aw, Rocket! I knew you still cared about him!”
The raccoon snarled at that jumped to conclusion, scoffing. “Pfft--No. I don’t care about those things! This is the perfect time to prove I’m better than him! When I rescue his sorry tail, I’m gonna lord it over him forever.” He grinned wolfishly at Derpy's exasperated sigh, but found a different noise coming from the blue ravages leaning against the glass. He tilted his in confusion; who laughs in response to that kind of explanation? “What are you laughin’ at me for?”
“Ah, you jes’ the most pompous thing, ain't ya?” Yondu shook his head at him in mild disgust and loathing. “Y’ can fool yourself and your little friends, but y’can't fool me. I know who you are, rat.”
Rocket rolled his eyes dismissively, picking his teeth with his claws. “Eh, You don't know anything about me, loser.”
Yondu narrowed his eyes. “ Boy, I know all about you. I know you go around playin’ like you're the biggest and the hardest son of a gun out there, but actually you're the most scared of ‘em all,”
Rocket’s fur stood on end, evidently starting to be riled. “Hey, Shut up!”
Derpy slowly backed away towards Kraglin's side, along with a nervous looking Groot. “Uh, Yondu, maybe you sh--”
“I know you go around stealin’ batteries you don't even need, and you piss on anyone who's willing to put up with you, ” Yondu went on, as if he couldn't hear either animal and began walking towards him. “ 'Cause just a little bit o’love reminds ya how big an’ empty that hole inside you actually is!”
The Raccoon was up on his paws now, dangerously baring his teeth but not willing to do anything, oddly. “ I said shut up, ya big blu--”
“I know them scientists that built you up, never gave a rat's ass about you! Tossed ya out as soon as they was finished!”
Rcoket's angry demeanor faltered into something more anxious, and his ears folded back against his head. “I-I'm serious, dude! Back o--”
“Just like my own damn parents who sold me, their own little baby, into Kree slavery!” Yondu leaned down to his height with the utmost seriousness in his raspy voice. “ I know exactly who you are, boy…because you're me.”
The silence was filled by shaky breaths and a choking aura of awkwardness. As the blue pirate and the raccoon remained silent, Derpy rubbed the back of her head. “...That was…”
Kraglin looked down. “Profound?”
“No….Intense. Super intense.”
“I am Groot.”
Rocket eventually sighed, then silently stared up at Yondu. “Man...What kinda pair are we?”
Yondu didn't know how to respond to that at first. From this point, it would be easy to just move on to different stretches of the universe, to find new and better things than what was currently in front of them. With that thought, the blue Ravager turned his sights back to the giant world beyond the glass. “...The kind that's about to go fight a planet, I reckon. Kraglin, take us down.”
“Alright! Now we can final…” Derpy stopped herself in mid-flight and exchanged a confused look with Rocket and Groot. “Wait...planet?”
Mantis probably should have expected this to happen, given how abruptly Gamora rampaged into the room and made a beeline towards her.
All the same, she still gasped for breath as she was half-strangled against golden interior of the wall, and Drax gasped for understanding of just what was going on. Not only did Gamora charge in, but Maud and that cybernetic sadist as well. He blinked owlishly at everyone that entered the room, and then at Gamora probably trying to kill Mantis. “Gamora, maybe you should--”
The Jade warrior pressed harder still, gritting her teeth. “Who are you people, really?! What is going on?!”
Maud glanced at Nebula standing nearby, who seemed ready to have to yank her sister back. She held up a hoof to give her pause, then cleared her throat. “Gamora, you are going to break her neck before she can tell us anything. Let her go.”
“The skeletons in the caverns, ” Gamora growled. “Who are they?!”
“...y-you are...s-scared…” Mantis wheezed as she reached up, then placed a single finger against her attacker's green skin.
The reaction was pretty much instant. Gamora threw her to the ground with a terrified yelp, then backed away with an amplified sense of fear in her eyes. She stared at her trembling hands in confusion, even as Mantis slowly retained her breath and her previously taken footing. “W-What did she do to me?!”
Maud nudged her cyborg friend's leg. “She's an empath, by the way.”
Nebula nodded. “Hmm.”
Drax helpfully blocked off Gamora's access to her in case she worked up the courage to try again, grimacing. “She already told me everything. Woke me up not too long ago to explain.”
The Grey pony turned to the bug woman with a mildly raised eyebrow. “Explain what?”
Mantis coughed, timidly rubbing her hands around each other. In croaking words, she explained exactly what they saw down in the caverns and went into worried detail about why Quill was brought for Ego. As she finished the explanation, Gamora seemed more worried than ever and even more anxious to put a stop to this whole thing. She clenched her fists and started for the door. “ We need to find Peter now, and get off this damn planet.”
Mantis shook her head sadly. “Ego will have won him to his side by now. If he claims him and your pony friend--”
Nebula nodded. “ Then we just go. Leave them to their own undoing.”
Gamora shook her head firmly. “ No, sister! He’s our friend.”
“Friend? Really?” Nebula asked sarcastically. “All any of you do is either yell at or try to kill each other. You're not friends. Not even close.”
A stretch of silence followed her truthful words, but as was becoming a usual thing, Drax spoke up with some profound words. “You're right… We are not friends...We're family. We leave no one behind.” He paused and pointed at the two monochrome individuals. “Except maybe you and you and your other pony friends.”
Nebula incredulously stared at him, then at Gamora's pleading look. With a frustrated sigh, the woman conceded. “I'm gonna die...surrounded by the biggest idiots in the galaxy.”
As she followed Gamora out and Mantis followed her out, Drax and Maud exchanged glances as they followed. “What happened to your face? You are as revolting as Mantis’ feelings for me.”
Mantis whirled around, kicked him in the shin and then turned as if nothing happened.
Trixie brushed a lock of her mane out of her hair, and didn’t quite know how to physically respond to the recount of details given. After an odd frown, she took the silent moment as an opportunity to speak up. “That does sound kinda...irrational about her. But...perhaps you’re both sorta overreacting? Just a little bit?”
Quill frowned as well, though it was more in disbelief than in nervous spirits, like Trixie’s frown. His walkman was playing at a slow pace, gently wafting sounds from his headphones into a single ear thanks to their angled position. From his leaning position near the balcony doorway, he tensely squared his shoulders and shook his head. “Pfft. No way. I don’t overreact unless there’s a death involved...Okay, granted my mom is involved, but my point still stands. I acted completely calm about this--SHE’S the one who overreacted. Gamora is basically just...telling me to throw away the last thing I have left of a family.”
There was a stretch of silence afterwards, one that could have been dramatic under more serious circumstances. She playfully threw a nearby pillow at his head, secretly enjoying the hidden strength of her horn’s magic. “Well, that didn’t sting at all, cousin,” Quill uttered an apologetic laugh, but Trixie just rolled her eyes. “I get your point though. I really do. I'm just saying that...She's only doing this because she cares about you!”
The Space hero mulled over that unspoken love talk with Gamora, then sighed at the direction it had gone. He shuffled over and sat on the couch next to her, frowning deeply. “Well, she doesn't act like it...She never wants to admit anything going on between us.”
Trixie glanced over the way his body was positioned on the couch, then shrugged and adopted a position similar to his. It was strange seeing a pony sitting like a human from the corner of his eye, but if was strangely comforting that Trixie was trying to get on his level in every way possible. He idly wondered if that Starlight chick was behind this behavior. “Oh, please. She admits it by not admitting it. I haven't had any love interests as of yet, but it's a universal thing between all females! We allow the male to come to us through physical attraction, then we go into different phases of being flirty and being despondent. Gamora is keeping herself in control by doing 80% despondency and 20% Flirty stuff. The bigger the Despondency and Flirty stuff ratio is, the more interested she is in you.”
Quill blinked his wide, surprised eyes at her. “...So...does that mean Gamora is secretly more into me than I am into her?”
Trixie nodded with all the knowledgeable sass of a college professor in the face of a particularly dim-witted crowd of students. “Oh, she's drooling all over you. Just try to add in more flirtatious moments, and you'll reach a comfortable area for a more definitive relationship.”
“Wow.” He murmured. “So she doesn't have to be a dancer, like me?”
“She could have four left hooves, and she'd still be madly in love with you!”
“Man...this is kinda bizarre.”
“Yeah, we ladies like to psychologically torture men with all kinds of tricks! I'd tell you more, but I'm sworn to secrecy by the Super Secret Sisterhood of Sisters Syndicate Squad.”
Before he could have a moment's thought to process the secrets of the universe, there was the light but increasing noise of footsteps approaching from the hallway outside. As they both expected, Quill's father and Trixie's uncle strutted his way into the room with a casual smirk set ilon his bearded face. “You all right, son? I--uh--I saw your girl stomp off a little earlier in quite a huff.”
“Yeah. I had a bit of...lady trouble.” Quill remarked, but playfully ruffled his ‘cousin's mane. “But another lil lady had more than enough knowledge to help me out.”
Ego nodded in understanding of their conversation, though his eyes were drawn to his son's audio device with confusion. After Quill eagerly handed it over to him, the celestial's brows raised in surprise and mirth. “Hmm. It’s fortuitous…you listening to this song.”
“Yeah. You know…uh, Brandy? By Looking Glass?” When he noticed the confused pony, Starlord explained with a simple: “That song I showed you earlier.”
Ego chuckled warmly as he listened to the tune. “This...was a favorite of your mom’s. One of Earth’s greatest musical compositions--Perhaps its very greatest.” He started at the walkman, history flashing behind his old eyes as though he were watching a sad yet uplifting movie. “...Peter... you and I, we’re the sailor in that song.”
Trixie made a face, looking between the old man and his son. “How so?”
“Well, He came on a summer’s day. Bringing gifts from far away. Like the child I put in his mother…or the freedom he brought Gamora.” Ego explained with the utmost adoration written on his face and directed at his son. He listened for a while longer, then his face brightened up: “Brandy, you’re a fine girl~. What a good wife you would be. My life; my love. My lady is the sea. The sea calls the sailor back. He loves the girl...but...its not his place.”
Ego slowly handed him back his walkman, his adoring grin still present on his bearded chin. “The sea calls upon him as history calls upon great men. And sometimes we are deprived the pleasures of...mortals.”
“Oh, right…” Trixie nudged Quill playfully with an elbow. “Your old man still has a lot of years left in him.”
Quill nudged her back. “Well, he may not be mortal, but we might live a pretty ripe age if we're lucky.”
“No, Son, Niece. We are all Celestials here. Death will remain a stranger to both of us…” The old man explained casually, as if he were simply saying their hair would remain brown and blue forever...which he technically was saying. “As long as the light burns within the planet.”
The half pony blinked slowly, her eyebrows raised high. “...I’m...immortal?
“Mmm-hmm.”
“R-Really?”
“Yes! As long as the light exists for me and Quill, we'll live forever. And you don't have to worry about this planet, so you'll definitely live forever.”
Quill expected to see a look of delight on her face when he glanced over, but he glimpsed a brief look that seemed to be the exact opposite. Her proud expression was melting away into a look of worry, then ultimately the slightest tinge of sadness. The theory behind the silent mood shift made him down as well; this whole trip, she was probably only worried about getting to see that Starlight pony again. And now she was faced with prospect of their time together being even shorter even if she did get back to her. He frowned deeper when he tried to imagine himself in her dilemma; Gamora wasn't immortal, neither was anyone else. He didn't think he could take living forever while his friends…
Maybe there was something they could both do to stop that from happening. There was no need to be all mopey now anyway. So, Quill resumed smiling as he thought of another question to hastily ask. “And we can use our powers to build cool things…like how you made this whole planet?
Ego laughed heartily, then honestly shrugged. “It might take you a few million years of practice…before you get really good at it. But, yes!”
That seemed to bring Trixie into a lighter mood, at least partially. “You’re kidding! I can make a planet?!”
“Screw a planet! Get ready for an 800-foot statue of Pac-Man with Skeletor--a-and Heather Locklear!”
“Ooh! Ooh!” Quill's pony pal squealed excitedly, kicking her legs in the air. “My planet is gonna be a giant purple Teacup and I'm gonna call it Purple Teacupia!”
The older celestial chuckled at them. “Ah, You kooky kids can do anything you want.”
Peter rubbed his hands together excitedly. “Oh--I’m gonna make some weird shit.”
“But you know, Son, it is a tremendous responsibility. Only we can...save the universe. You and me…” Ego sat down in front of him, his suddenly serious gaze boring into his son's. Quill shifted awkwardly at the change of tone, and Trixie blinked his way once or twice, but he nodded. His father sounded very serious...even worried, so he was certain this was important. “Only we can take the burden of the cosmos…and lead it to where it needs to go.”
“...How?”
Ego stared at him for the longest time, nodding slowly as his unknown thoughts reached a careful conclusion. “...Son, come with me.”
Trixie blinked as he stood up and Quill reluctantly did as well. “Uh, aren't I coming too?”
Ego looked as though he'd just remembered that Trixie was in the room with them. “No. This is a bit more of a family thing, I’m afraid.”
The mare chuckled that statement off. “Yeah, and I'm part of the family. Well, sure, I'm adopted but…”
Quill waved at her cautiously, then shrugged. “Ah, I'm sure we'll be back soon, Trix. Me and My dad are gonna...bond or fish or whatever and come right back later!”
The showmare celestial blinked with uncertainty, but eventually found herself settling back onto the couch. “Uh, okay. Don't be gone too long, ” She shrugged and tried to smile to dissuade any worries, which thankfully worked to get them moving towards the door. Sure, she would love to go with them to learn whatever Ego was intent on teaching it explaining, but she knew when to give people their space. Besides, Ego would probably have a one on one with her too when he was done with Quill.
"Baa-a."
“Hey, ” Trixie’s ears swiveled towards the balcony, and her eyes followed them. “Did you guys hear that?”
Ego and Quill stopped right at the door, then exchanged confused looks with each other. “Hear what?”
She scratched her mane in muted confusion. After a tense, uncomfortable silence, she slowly shook her head and laughed. “Nothing. Must've just imagined it. You guys go on!”
With calm speed, the two of them did eventually exit the room, leaving her in a room that slowly glowed the more the planet's star settled in the far distance. Trixie quickly forgot about the strange noise she heard in favor of boredly playing around with her newfound magic strength. She found it much easier to lift heavy objects than when she had no idea of her celestial strength, bringing her to admire her ability to lift all the furniture in the room nearly effortlessly. The blue energy that surrounded any inject she lifted looked...clearer, for some reason. Like a fine mist, but so much more. She would compare her magic to Starlight's when she got back.
Trixie chewed the inside of her mouth. Thinking about that made her realise that her time with Starlight seemed perilously short. When she thought she was just a normal unicorn, she always envied the longevity of Alicorns; they git see the world and look young while doing it. They didn't need to fear the slowly but nearing crawl of death, or the sluggishness of old age. But while the blue showmare might not ever have to experience it, she secretly feared seeing the form of her best friend wither away with time. Without Starlight, who would she go shopping with? Who would she get into magic related trouble with? Who would she get a new kite for every time her birthday popped up? That mare always had the most contagious grin when she got another seemingly boring kite to add to her collection. It was frickin’ adorable.
With a sigh, Trixie found that she couldn't imagine Quill having an easier time. Groot would probably last the longest, since he was still a toddler now, but had too would eventually die. Gamora still hadn't quite confessed her feelings, but Trixie hoped that it came sooner than later or too late. And even that lousy Trash Panda was--wait.
Gamora.
Hadn't she said something to Trixie before she came up here with Quill?
What was it…?
“Trixie, stay with Quill. I need you to do something for me...Keep an eye on him and keep a closer eye on Ego. If anything happens to Quill under your watch...No amount of celestial power will save you from me. Do you understand?”
Trixie shuddered, despite rolling her eyes at the memory. Gamora could probably win an award for ‘The Most Paranoid Woman In The Universe’ title, with no one even coming close to second or third place. Ego wasn't some mad lunatic with an agenda, no matter how hard she wanted to think that...but Trixie did sorta promise to keep an eye on them. If she was quiet enough, perhaps she could sneakily watch them from above and report to Gamora that she saw nothing out of the ordinary from the old man or his son. Maybe she would stop being so paranoid, she would admit things to Quill and Trixie could be an intergalactic cupid!
Trixie carefully crept out into the hallway, then set herself on a path that arched to the left and bordered itself with bronze railings. She could hear some muffled talking from down below, but she only ever managed to make anything out when paused right above their heads. “Now...Son, you need to readjust the way you process...life. Everything around us, including your girl…Everything is temporary.” That definitely sounded like Ego's voice. “ But for us? We are practically the embodiment of the word forever.”
She peered over the side of the gold path, just enough to look down to spot them both in the lobby of the palace. Quill, an eyebrow raised, coughed a little. “Yeah...about that...Doesn’t eternity get...boring?”
The older being shrugged half-heartedly, his face blocked from Trixie's view.
“Not really. Not if you have a purpose, Peter…which is why you’re here. You see, I told you how all those years ago…I had an unceasing impulse to find life. But what I did not tell you was how when I finally did find it…it was all so…” His hands curled into fists at sides, then I curled. “Disappointing...And that is when I came…to an extravagant realization. The greatest answer to the greatest question of my existence. My innate desire to seek out other life…was not so that I could walk among that life.”
Ego turned and slowly walked up to Starlord, his hand rising to his head. “Peter...I have found purpose.”
Trixie blinked. Quill blinked too, and his eyes were suddenly gone, replaced with the very depths of space itself. Inky blackness encompassed his gaze now, with little dots of light slowly swirling within like little stars. The pony felt herself start to drift starting into them, like some kind of strange hypnosis and she quickly brought her attention back to the human's face in its entirety to avoid being captured.
“I see him…” Quill gasped aloud. “I see Eternity.”
Trixie had an odd feeling in her gut; telling her that this was directed towards something wrong. But she had to see what was wrong, what was Ego talking about?
“I see him too, son.” Ego nodded in agreement and proudly summoned constructs of light to create a system of planets around them, some right next to Trixie as well. As she inspected them, she noticed that each planet had one or two blue dots on them--glowing eagerly to stand out against the colors of each planet. “I call it the Expansion. It is my purpose… and now it is yours as well.”
Peter murmured: “It’s beautiful…”
“ Over thousands of years after my enlightenment… I implanted millions of extensions of myself… on billions of worlds, one for the smaller ones and two for the biggest. I need to fulfill life’s one true purpose: To grow and spread across the universe… covering all that exists… until everything is Me!”
Trixie’s mind seemed to freeze hearing that statement, trying to process what his insane plan seemed to be. He couldn't be serious, could he? He had been nothing short of a kind old man this whole time! He couldn't want to commit universal genocide; he couldn't be insane. “ I only had one problem. A single Celestial doesn’t have enough power for such a task, no matter how strong their will is. But two Celestials… maybe even three? Well, now, that just might do something.”
Ego’s light constructs vanished into a billowing mist and then reformed themselves into a giant of Ego in his red jacket like before--when he was with Quill's mother. Trixie stifled the loud gasp she felt forming when she saw his younger image in intimate positions with other species of aliens. More than she could possibly want to count. “Out of all my righteous labors, the most beguiling was… attempting to graft my DNA with that of another species. I hoped the result of such a coupling would be enough… to power the Expansion--to give me another celestial. I had Yondu deliver most of them to me. It broke the Ravager code, but I compensated him generously… and to ease his conscience, I said I’d never hurt them.”
The old Celestial swallowed. “I mean, that was...partly true. They never felt a thing, intentionally. But one after the other, they failed me. I even kept myself away from some planets, knowing from experience with similar species that grafting would not work. Not one of them carried the Celestial genes…Until you, Peter. Out of all my spawn… only you carried the connection to the light. You...are the special.” He coughed. “The special one, I mean.”
Peter nodded slowly, and his deranged father laughed softly at first, only to grow louder and more triumphant. He turned his head skyward as if gazing up at someone who had done nothing but taunt him his entire life and laughing in their face. “For the first time in my existence… I am truly NOT ALONE!!!”
Trixie swallowed the bile in her throat and tried to stop her heart from beating so fast. What could she do? She may powerful, but she was severely inexperienced-- Ego had billions of years to perfect his craft. It would be like a white belt in Karate trying to fight a Military General--plus, Ego might use her as well to make things faster. No, she couldn’t fight him head on to save Quill...she just had to distract him, snap Quill out of his trance and hope they could run fast enough to escape. She glanced at Quill to gauge how fast she could reach him but noticed something off about his expression. Seconds later, Ego noticed it too. “...What is it, son?”
Peter sniffled, his expression sad. “ My friends. Gamora…”
The old being tsked, shaking his head. “You see, that’s the mortal in you, Peter.”
Trixie hated seeing Peter now his head in shame. “...Yes.”
“We are beyond such things.”
“Yes.”
“ Now…
“ But my mother…” Peter began. “You said you loved my mother.”
“...And that I did.” Ego stopped entirely, turning back to him with sadness set upon his aged face. The Celestial was silent as he thought over his next words carefully, and he seemed to genuinely be sad at the memories behind his old eyes. Trixie shakily moved herself to be ready to pounce at him, to take him by surprise and hopefully briefly subdue him. “My river lily who knew all the words to every song that came over the radio. I returned to Earth to see her three times. And I knew if I returned a fourth…I’d never leave. The Expansion…the reason for my very existence would be over. So, I did what I had to do. I left her. But…”
He sighed, frowning. “It broke my heart to put that tumor in her head.”
Time stopped moving.
The air itself became still.
Trixie completely forgot about her plan of action, her fear of Ego and everything else except those words. Her jaw fell, her eyes widened to the size of dinner plates and her mind drew a subconscious blank. First felt utterly sickness, then utterly horrified and utterly saddened for not only Meredith Quill but the one who Ego spoke to.
Quill hadn't moved at all in the three millisecond time span that followed his father's words; his body had stiffened into a statue of lethargic shock. The blackness of his eyes faded away into his normal pupils, made glossy by the sudden onset of tears welling up. He seemed to notice nothing else in the physical world, even when he staring straight ahead at a murderer's back. “...What?”
Ego held his hands up in light defensive, as if he'd merely told an offensive joke. “Now, I know that sounds bad--”
Giant blue lightning blasts tore right through a good chunk of his head and red hot blaster shots zipped through his body not long after.
Starlord screamed bloody murder through his tears and over the sound of his blasters unloading into the body of Ego, and Trixie grit her teeth in outrage the more her horn funneled out short bursts of highly damaging bolts. Quill didn't even seem to notice her until they both stopped firing at Ego, and they both exchanged emotional glances with each other. Trixie wished she knew what to say to him--if anything--but she wasn't given much time to think. She joined Quill's surprised look as they both noticed Ego was still standing.
With giant, gaping holes in his body.
The Celestial groaned as if he were having a mild headache, and reached up to touch where part of his head used to be. He blinked his one remaining eye as he felt the hole, now inexplicably beginning to hsal and replace the flesh it lost to the destructive blasts. Ego blinked again, looked down at the other healing wounds in his body and then gave Trixie and Quill the most ‘WTF’ expression in the history of incredulous looks.
“Who, “ His throat was still healing, so he sounded off. “In the hell do you think you two are?!”
Peter roared at him. “YOU KILLED MY MOTHER!!!”
Trixie’s horn lit up in a defensive manner, matching her disgusted expression. “How could do that and claim you loved her?! You're not a celestial, you're a monster!”
Ego’s head briefly morphed into a familiar face-- the face of David Hasselhoff that Quill showed her earlier. “I am the best Dad in history! I tried so hard to find the form that best suited him… and this is the thanks I get? The both of you really need to GROW UP!”
Giant tendrils of blue surged forth from the ground, their energy coursing with the strength of the entire planet. Even though they braced themselves, Quill and Trixie both grunted as they were slapped backwards across the room by the tendrils. They both lept to their feet/hooves quickly, with Quill preparing his blasters and his equine cousin preparing her magic.
“You know…” Trixie glanced at him apologetically. “If it makes you feel any better...I fell for his facade too.”
Quill sniffled and shrugged, trying to smile. “You made me feel better the moment you blew his face off with a lightning bolt.”
Their moment was short lived when Ego stomped forward, the tendrils pouring from behind him towards them. The Celestial's eyes were wide and blinding with blue energy, giving his appearance a very frightening aesthetic.
“I wanted us all to do this as a family! But I suppose you’ll BOTH have to learn by spending the next thousand years as BATTERIES!”
Gamora finally got a signal, grinning. "Finally! Rocket?"
Sure enough, his voice came through. " Keep that transmitter nearby, so I can find you. We’re in an old piece of construction equipment Yondu once used… to slice open the Bank of A ‘askavaria, if I'm correct."
Gamora nervously held the transmitter. "Hurry. Ego’s unhinged." She glanced up, alongside the others to see Yondu's sizeable spacecraft descending from the dawning sky, showing as it began to approach them.
"I know. Yondu filled me in, " He explained. " Get ready."
Gamora did a double take, raising an eyebrow. "What? Yondu is on board with you?"
Nebula cast a sharp smirk down to Maud. "I told you it would only take half an hour."
Ego whipped his hands this way and that, sending his energy racing after the two demigods whom he just couldn't seem to hit. They always seemed to be a step or two ahead of his grasp, utilizing their skills together to keep them safe. Still, they weren't exactly able to much more than that; Trixie couldn't think to attack Ego while fending off the tentacles, and Quill was in the same exact position. They both collectively flew around the giant space of the building, zapping away or blasting away to keep themselves uncaptured for just a little longer.
"This isn't--" Quill narrowly dodged a tentacle, then narrowly managed to shoot at another incoming one. "Getting us anywhere!"
Trixie released an explosive burst of energy to stun the tendrils momentarily, then shot off the walls with her hooves. "Yeah! I'm gonna try something! Keep me covered!" Despite the protests she heard, she shot downwards towards the older celestial with a building electric charge in her horn. With just the right momentum to go with her attack, they might have a chance of gaining some ground with the all-powerful being. Ego narrowed his eyes in her direction a little too early, and she flinched at the massive blue blur coming at her from her peripheral.
Quill's eyes widened as he witnessed the blue unicorn in her failed attempt, smashed into the ground by a swatting tendril. "Trixie!" With an enraged yell at his father, the demigod tried to execute Trixie's plan himself and ended up forgetting the many blue tentacles that were previously trying to stop him. One in particular stabbed right through his back with a hooking maneuver and poked out through his torso like electricity passing through one's body. Quill roared in agony as the blue energy paralyzed his muscles almost instantly, his voice rousing a certain pony from her brief unconsciousness.
"Quill!"
She started to fly at him, but another tentacle was too fast for her. Like Quill, she suffered a brief moment of searing agony as the tentacle stabbed through her back reappeared from her heart. She struggled to move against the paralysis as she and Quill were slowly positioned in front of the evil deity behind the condensed energy tendrils. Ego sneered as had walked up to them, nothing but disappointment in his intense gaze. "Look at you...even with all of your strength, " He shook his head. "You still fail to grasp the bigger picture."
Quill struggled to talk through the thudding pain coursing through him, trumping any other pain he could imagine in his life. "You...you're in...sane…"
"I'm saving the universe." Ego rolled his eyes dispassionately. "I know a few people in the universe who would agree with what I'm doing wholeheartedly."
He noticed something on the ground, with a mild glint in the rising sunlight. The Celestial looked down and eventually kneeled to pick up the metallic object that had fallen from his son's jacket, staring at it with saddened intensity. Quill and Trixie struggled uselessly as Ego continued to stare at the Walkman still playing it's music, unaware of the powerful hands holding it. The old being swallowed a lump in his throat and a sighed slowly. "My life, my love. My lady is the sea…"
He held up the Walkman. "...Peter...this is the sea."
He crushed it.
Before Quill even had a chance to watch his beloved device crumble to the ground in a pile of destroyed pieces, his eyes exploded with raw blue energy and a higher form of pain. Trixie slowly joined him when Ego pressed further inward with his influence, connecting the raw power within them and channeling it into the many seeds he planted across the universe.
Tony Stark had an odd feeling.
It was the feeling one gets when they go camping in the woods and they encounter a bear, only to realise that fresh can of Bear Spray is sitting on the counter at home, miles out of reach. He didn't know exactly why this feeling was thrust upon him since he wasn't the type to go camping in the woods and was in fact in one of his fancy penthouses miles from any wildernesses and even farther from bears. It could be his recent days, spent busy with intense political matters, lengthy law signings and getting punched in the face repeatedly by the guy his dad couldn't stop talking about for years. Maybe it was also that bubbly, talkative kid that was on his mind since the Airport incident. Or maybe it was just the seventeen coffees he'd drunken that morning finally kicking in.
The point was that Tony had this bizarre feeling.
Getting out here had been a strange sort of rush for a small, quick vacation from the madness. Pepper was in the penthouse with him--had been for the past few hours--getting into her lovely blue dress for the evening with him. It was a wonder they ever got to see each other anymore what with life-threatening events, emotions and they occasional deadly argument...but there was still a thread between them, somehow. Tony himself wore a snazzy tuxedo, practically jogging up and down the halls because of his 'Stark-y sense'. After about two minutes of this, he finally decided to calm his nerves with some sightseeing and found himself by the giant window a few moments later. Sighing, the billionaire Avenger looked through his electronic binoculars helpfully displayed on the window, allowing him to see farm fields far in the distance as well as towering trees and cliche barns. He settled on the Dairy Queen a few miles out and did two double takes.
A giant blob was forming very slowly behind the building, like a massive pulsing slug that was trying to climb up a hill. It was alien, a being not from this world that was trying to grow forth and demolish all in its path. He blinked in surprise as the blue gelatinous mass nearly crested the entire building, though swallowing it would take a few more hours. Still, that didn't stop Tony from bolting towards the bedroom.
He never told Pepper, but he brought a modified MK 42 suit that had been copied and made exclusively for secretive travel--you just couldn't be too prepared for anything nowadays. He flung open the closet doors in search of the metallic suitcase stored in the corner. Nothing. Not a single glint of red or yellow in sight. Tony cringed, softly slammed his head against the wall and sighed.
"Honey?"
The shuffling noises from the bathroom stopped. "What?"
"Where's Mark Thirty Two?"
"What?"
He walked over to the door in exasperation, stomping for emphasis. "WHERE. IS. MARK.THIRTY-TWO?!"
Pepper paused awkwardly. "I, uh...put it away."
"Where?!" He was halfway through flipping the mattress over when he asked that, trying to look under the bed.
"Why do you need to know?"
Parker would have been proud to see the way Tony was clinging to the ceiling, prodding the attic door. "I need it!"
"Oh no you don't! I will not allow you to and ditch this date too!" She growled from the bathroom. "It felt we were in that car for two months!"
"The Public is in danger!" Tony announced in mid sprint towards the living room.
"My evening's in danger!"
"YOUTELLMEWHEREMYSUITISPEPPER!" He practically shrieked as he lifted the couch up. "We are talking about the greater good!"
Ooh. Not good to say.
"Greater Good? GREATER GOOD?!" She began to roar through the wood, making Tony cringe in the worst way possible. "I'M THE GREATEST GOOD YOU ARE EVER GONNA GET!"
Ego laughed at his triumph.
"Finally! In ten minutes, I will have saved the universe from what it's taken thirteen billion years to do!" He proclaimed righteously, his eyes as dark as the night in order to view his essence already spreading across every planet he'd visited. The Gravity on some planets slowed his essence, but in time they too would become him. "Yes, " He announced to the disobedient Celestials before him, forcefully having their energy stripped from them. They couldn't hear him in their current state, but it still helped to have an audience no matter how unwilling they were. He flinched as he sensed a sudden pulse from his left, eyes flickering to a certain individual.
The energy tendril he'd hooked into her melted slowly until it became nothing--absorbing into her body like a sponge. Her unknown potential was becoming too much of a threat to his plans--he'd come too far to let someone more powerful dictate the fate of the universe. He conjured energy tentacle as she struggled to regain her bearings on the floor, then hardened the density of the tentacle until a blade of sleek metal was pointing at her. The blade reared back and--
"Hey There, jackass!"
--Ego was crushed before he had the chance to be insulted by the loudspeakers of the ship.
Trixie was luckily able to fully awaken in time to catch Quill before he fell to hard bronze floor, using her telekinetic spell to lower him down slowly. From her peripheral, she saw that Gamora, Drax and Mantis were rushing in through the hole the small ship had made, trailed by Maud and that emotionless cyborg lady she never quite got the name of. Seeing as how she wasn't trying to kill anypony or anybody, Trixie decided not to blast her into the outer reaches of the atmosphere and instead rushed to duck her head under Quill's arm. Her muscles flared up as if they were on fire, but she still guided the human over to a rather frantic looking Zebhori.
"Quill?!" She saw he was alive and changed her whole demeanor again. "I told you there was something wrong about him--didn't I tell you?!"
Trixie shoved him towards the ship and everyone seemed to follow suit by helping their leader to walk with buckling his knees. Even while busy, Trixie still found the time to glare up at the green-skinned woman. "Seriously Gamora?!" She asked aloud. "Not only is that a useless thing to say, but its also childish to point out! Just accept that he learned the truth and move on!"
As soon as the words left her mouth, the unicorn was actually certain she was going her head twisted 360°, but the green woman actually seemed to consider the outburst. With an apologetic sigh, she ripped the door to the ship open and helped pull Quill in. "I apologize, Peter. I shouldn't be rubbing this in your face. I'll accept this, "
"Will you accept the unspoken thing between us?" Starlord wheezed a dry laugh, only to whine when Gamora gave him an unpleasant pinch on the ear. He stumbled his way past Groot, who tried to be helpful to those arriving. His first intended target to help was Drax, so he held out his hands to help the burly man in.
"Out of the way, smaller and more annoying Groot!" He swatted him aside as he climbed in, though Groot would try to thwack him with his branches on the way in. Maud gingerly stepped over the plant in his futile attack, running straight into a certain woodland creature and a grey pegasus.
"This ship could have exploded on impact, " Maud scolded him. "We could have all died."
"Uh… "Thank you, Rocket" is the word you're looking for, lady." Rocket sneered and nudged Derpy painfully with his elbow. "These people don't give me any respect, Derpy. You know what I mean?"
She shook her head. "No respect at all."
Drax kicked aside Groot without even realising it. " We had it under control!"
Mantis raised an eyebrow at him. "We barely arrived in tie. Besides, that is only an extension… of his true self. He will be back soon."
"Speaking of being back, what’s Smurfette doing here?" Starlord inquired upon fully realising that Gamora's equally dangerous cyborg sibling was in the corner, silently regretting ever meeting these people. He shrugged when Trixie eyed him quizzically. "It's a cartoon, you know? There's a bunch of half-naked blue dudes and one girl and--"
Trixie closed her eyes tightly. "I don't wanna know where this is going."
Nebula rolled her eyes. "I'm doing whatever I need to do to get a damn ride home."
Rocket looked skeptical. "She tried to murder me and Derpy!"
She glared daggers at him. " I saved you, you stupid fox!"
Maud gently petted her leg. "Nebula…"
"Sorry."
The entire ship seemed to go silent for a while in surprise, with Gamora having the most bemused expression in history as she glanced back and forth between her sister and the highly persistent pony. "Wow. You're actually saying sorry to her? What did I miss between you two?"
"It's called respect, Sister." She responded as nonchalantly as she could. "I give it to those who deserve it."
Rocket snickered. "Yeah, sure. When's the wedding?"
"Shut up, fox."
Maud sighed. "He’s not a fox."
" I am Groot."
" I’m not a raboon, either."
"I am Groot! I am Groot. I am Groot."
"Okay, okay. 'Raccoon.' Whatever."
Daggers unsheathed and ready to slash, Drax looked at Mantis. " How do we kill a Celestial?"
Peter was the one who piped up, all too eager to get down to business. " There’s a center to him. His brain, his soul, whatever it is… Some sort of protective shell."
Mantis nodded in agreement. " It’s in the caverns… below the surface of this planet."
Derpy flapped into the air. "Alright, so all we gotta do is dig to the center of the earth and blow up his soul! As dark and gruesome as that sounds, I think it's doable." She flew into the front section of the ship and landed next to the red finned pilot. "What do you think, Yondu?"
Peter blinked in surprise, already stumbling his way over to the seat next to the pilot and frowning when he finally confirmed who it was for himself. Yondu Udonta, scruffy beard and all was getting the ship's thrusters to start back up. There was a tense sort of silence as they both eyed each other, before Quill gave his patented lopsided smirk. "Guess I should be glad I was a skinny kid. Otherwise, you’d have delivered me to this maniac."
Yondu chuckled, shaking his head. "You still reckon that’s the reason I kept you around, y'idiot?"
"That’s what you kept telling me, you old doofus. That I wasn't ever good for anything else?"
"Nah, boy. Once I figured out what happened to them other kids… I wasn’t just gonna hand you over. Even I got a heart, beneath this cold, handsome exterior."
"Oh really? What about all those times you said you were gonna eat me?"
Yondu grinned even brighter as the entire ship began to rise in the air, gaining a couple feet worth of levitation thanks to the strong power of the thrusters beneath the metal hide. "Aw come on--That was being funny! Didn't you find it funny?"
"NO!"
Derpy squealed into her hooves like a giddy schoolgirl. "Ooooh, it's just like an adoptive dad to make jokes their children either don't understand or groan at!"
While Yondu resisted the urge to facepalm, Quill thought his eyebrows would leap off his face from surprise. "Adoptive dad? He's not...I...he wasn't really--"
Trixie popped up next to Yondu and tapped his elbow. "Hi! Since he's your adopted son, that makes me your adopted niece! Your eating jokes are hilarious, by the way!"
Rocket slowed next to Quill and sighed. "Your family has issues, man."
Peter rolled his eyes. "Of course I have issues…"
An otherworldly moan silenced all in the ship, bringing their attention to what was slowly rising beyond the glass of the windshield. Quill leaned back, startled by the haunting image of the ghoulish blue figure floating in front of the ship with pupiless eyes and a mouth opening far too wide. The body grew slowly but sure, causing the figure to loom over them with an increasing sense of volume.
"--That’s my freakin’ father!"
Everyone reacted with their own unique ways of expressing shock or disgust, but Derpy expressed her shock by clinging tightly to Yondu's head and glaring her wings. "Go forward, go forward, go forward, go forward, go forward!"
That he did--after ripping the pony off his face, of course. Yondu punched the controls forward and sent the ship ripping right through Ego's reforming body with ease. While his form withered away once again, the sturdy metal of the hull proved good enough to survive another crash through bronze walls. Quill leaned over to push the controls down when they broke through, and their surroundings lurched backwards as momentum came into play."
Yondu swallowed as he saw how fast the ground was approaching him. "You know...we should be going up, boy."
Peter tsked his disapproval of that option. " We can’t! Ego wants to eradicate the universe as we know it, and he's immortal. He won't stop until he finds me and Trixie again, and then he can he do what he wants. We have to kill him. Rocket, get ready to dig us a hole!"
For the first time since their previous argument, Rocket smiled eagerly and did as instructed. With a whistle for help, he was soon dragging forth a very sizable bag from the back to the front. There was perhaps another thirty seconds before impact, so he took his time getting ready. " So, we’re saving the galaxy again, guys...?"
Gamora shared a grin with Drax, almost too eager to leap into a good battle alongside those she cared for. "...I guess so."
Derpy used her teeth to unzip the bag, then smiled brightly. "I could get used to this space hero thing!"
" Awesome! " Rocket emptied the contents of the bag out of the open door: seemingly ordinary metal spheres with a metallic grip on the floor. The rolled their way out of the ship and began to slither into certain grooves between the metal plates, positioning just right. "We’re really gonna be able to jack up our prices if we’re two-time galaxy savers, AND if we have a bigger group!"
Peter laughed, turning back to shake his head at the raccoon. "Bro, I seriously can’t believe that’s where your mind immediately goes."
"Hey, It was just a random thought, man! I thought we were friends. " The Trash Panda warmly announced, unleashed a heavy looking remote control. "Of course, I care about the planet and the buildings… and uh...all the animals on the planets...yeah…"
Maud cracked the slightest smile as she walked up beside him. "And the people…?"
Rocket shrugged. " Meh. They're more of a downside to the job. They're lucky I pity them."
Mantis giggled to Drax, a gigantic smile spreading. "The crabby puppy is so cute--He makes me wanna die!"
The spherical devices Rocket deployed were apparently several mini-lasers, given how they all appeared to be firing thick beams of red energy in repetitive succession--one firing after the other in a specific pattern. Their intended targets appeared to the cavernous soil and rock structures around them, or at least the larger formation that remained after Maud's initial sweep of the landscape in front of them. Her gloves still buzzed in hopes of being used again, but the lasers were making short of things and creating a path easy to squeeze into. Though most of the trip was going smoothly, there were a few occasional jolts and shakes that thrashed the ship about at random.
After a very brief shudder that rattled the metal hull, the blue captain wrinkled his nose. "Hang on a tick. Tell me why Ego wants you two, of all suckers, here?"
"Trixie would make things faster, but I think he's really focused on me. "Quill uncomfortably shifted in his seat, still internally reeling from the blatant remark about his mother's tumor. He could feel a light, somewhat comforting pressure on his knee. He didn't need to look down to see that it was Trixie trying her best for him. " He needs my genetic connection to the light and Trixie's power levels… to help destroy the universe. He tried to teach us how to control the power within us, or whatever."
"So, y'all are like...demigods and stuff?" Yondu raised both eyebrows in interest. He was cleaning his blaster and somehow steering at the same time. While not exactly safe, it didn't seen he was struggling. "And could you? Use the power?"
Trixie opened her mouth, closed it after a few seconds and then allowed herself a moment to think about what to say. "Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeell...Trixie has really just used it for flying, stuff my other friend does on occasion and making teacups out of things."
Peter shrugged. "I did something. A little. I made a ball?"
"...A ball?"
Gamora grimaced in their direction. "You two have the power of literal gods at your disposal, and you used it to create an insignificant sphere?"
"I am Groot, " He snickered.
Rocket laughed too. "Yeah, they probably made rubber duckies, "
Derpy giggled."Or silly soap sculptures,"
Trixie shoved her lightly, not enough to be painful or serious. "Hey!"
Quill pouted to himself, clearly betrayed by his own companions in a time of emotional need. "Hey, I thought as hard as I could. It was all that I could come up with."
" You "thought"? Please!" Yondu leaned on the steering wheel with an elbow, monetarily forgetting his blaster which pointed right behind him. "You think when I make this arrow fly, I use my hea--"
The blaster accidentally fired, and zipped over Derpy's head, singeing her mane as it hit the wall far behind her. She flinched while everyone else erupted into a small uproar about the way the gun was pointed, with Rocket notably explaining: "Hey man, you could've shot Derpy in the face!"
Yondu nervously apologized, engaged in an awkward silence as the ship drilled some more, then added: "Reminds me of a feller I know named Wolf." By the time he went on to explain a particular situation he had with Kraglin, they had already entered the giant empty space in the center of the giant planet, dutifully surrounding the core like an all around gate.
Mantis pointed to the rocky sort of boulder hanging from the weblike soil structures above, pulsating with thin blue veins of energy. " That’s Ego’s core."
"That core looks thick, Rocket." Gamora warned as the small raccoon quickly reshifted the attention of the spherical lasers, targeting them at the giant shape before them.
Rocket only nodded in response to her concerns as the ship slowed to a halt in front of the core, then aged to give all of the lasers ample time and space to get into position. A concentrated beam of blazing hot energy was created from the combined might of Rocket's technology, funneling its way into the hard surface. While definitely penetrating, it was only enough to make the surface brittle; time crawled by too slowly to make it seem like an easy task. Trixie, after recalling on the magic lessons with Starlight that she never really paid attention too, finally managed to produce a similar beam of power and joined her own laser with his. Even then, the act only gained them a millisecond or two in advance.
Mantis wrung her hands worriedly. "We must hurry. It will not take Ego long to find us here."
Rocket carefully twisted the dial to increase the laser power, causing the ship to move just slightly from the force. He nudged Trixie. "Keep it steady, Demigoddess."
"Yeah, Yeah." She hmphed.
It was about another ten seconds before anything else was said after that, and it was only from the cracking comm at the dashboard. "....uh, C-Captain?"
Yondu didn't pay the voice much attention, too busy trying to peer around Quill to see their progress. "What is it, Kraglin?"
"Uh...r-remember that Ayesha chick?"
Everyone, excluding Yondu, froze up in the moments following the utterance of that name. Not quite catching onto it yet despite how familiar the name sounded, the blue captain shrugged. "Yeah, why?"
Yondu glanced to the side, to see what that movement in his peripheral was. He flinched. "Oh SHIT!"
The ship lurched forward and just barely managed to avoid oncoming laser fire from the sovereign pods rapidly approaching them. The sudden sideways tip of their ship caused everything to lurch to the side, causing a quick loss of the number of people on board. Gamora, Maud, Derpy, Drax, and Mantis tumbled out of the ship without anything to stop them--their momentum causing them to fall at a deadly speed from their already threatening height. Derpy stopped screaming when she remembered her ability to fly, swooping down to catch Drax before he could fall any further. Maud summoned a slide of rocks from below them using her gloves, then decreased the height of the slide to slow them down near the bottom. As Mantis and Gamora helped each other up at the bottom, Derpy and Drax made an unceremonious landing right next to them. The grey warrior got with a grunt of indignance. "You fly like a one-winged, drunken Altai."
Derpy carefully flexed her wings. In all her years of mail delivery, she'd never had to carry anything as insanely heavy as Drax. "You're welcome. Don't even mention it."
Maud released the tiniest of sighs, her bored looking gaze directed up at their ship taking evasive maneuvers to avoid being taken down by the swarms of golden pods. "I really wish Rocket hadn't taken those batteries."
"We can thank him for this later, " Gamora remarked as her sword became present in her hand, glistening readily. "Right now, we just need to cause a distraction big enough to get most of them off their--"
The ground vibrated, then roared to life with thicker veins of blue energy. The fiercer the quakes became, the more the ground began to crack and split apart with these veins. Pieces of debris fell from the ceiling above them, with some the size of their own bodies crashing down around them. Mantis nervously shook in place, her antenna rising with urgency. " He is coming!"
Drax looked as though a lightbulb had appeared above his head. " Didn’t you say you could make him sleep?"
She shook her head fearfully. "When he wants! He’s too powerful to be forced! I can’t--"
Mantis squeaked when a pair hooves whirled around to be face to face with Derpy, who was wearing an expression that would have looked uplifting if her eyes weren't crossed. "You don’t have to believe in yourself, Mantis… because Drax and I believe in you! You can do this!"
Mantis didn't seem certain, glancing from certain death looming in the ground beneath them to the certain faces of her friends. With a nervous gulp and a thoughtful self-assurance that she was probably going to die, either way, Mantis lept to one knee and forced her hand into one of the crevices in the ground. Her antenna lit up with the brightest energy she'd ever created as she closed her eyes tightly. "Sleep."
The ground roared all the more, as the blue light of the veins started to converge in an area in front of them. A specific shape was starting to form, little by little. "Sleep!"
The shape continued to form itself, but she was too frustrated to stop. "...SLEEEEEEP!!!"
Almost immediately, the energy in the blue veins subsided into nothing. The humanoid shape that was forming ceased to exist and the general chaos was now reduced to the sovereign ships above their head. Derpy patted her on the back gently as Mantis wheezed for breath. Drax glanced around their rocky environment with surprise. "Wow. For the record, I never believed she’d be able to do it… with as weak and skinny as she appears to be."
Derpy would have said something particularly rude, but Mantis beat her to speaking. " I don’t know how long I can hold him!"
Gamora nodded and pointed her sword to the three others in a specific order, starting with the sole earth pony. "Maud, use those gloves to knock some of them out of the sky. Derpy, use that gun to help her out and help Quill and the others if they need it. Drax, make sure nothing disrupts Mantis,"
Nebula held onto the metal railing tightly, her fingers temporarily locking into place. The ship's constant spinning and sharp turns would have thrown her out long ago, and probably everyone inside as well. She watched Maud race up on a tidal wave of rocks, shooting smaller boulders at the pods. "Fox, Why aren’t you firing the lasers?"
Rocket, who was trying every dial on the remote, promptly threw the remote out the door. " They blew out the generator." His eyes lit up as a thought occurred. He began to rummage through a nearby bag, somehow using his tail to catch Groot in mid-tumble. "Hang on-- I think I packed a small detonator."
Trixie leaned out of the door to let her magic slice through a few of the pods before she flinched back inside to keep from being decapitated. "I don't know much about science, but isn't a detonator is worthless without explosives?!"
Rocket chuckled as he pulled out a familiar yellow glowing tube. "Well, we got these."
Trixie shared an uncertain glance with Starlord as he flew back inside the ship, his helmet visors glowing red. "You think those batteries could kill Ego?"
Quill looked willing to try anything. " If they can, it’ll probably cause a chain reaction throughout his entire nervous system. This whole planet might blow up or implode or turn into a black hole. Whatever it does, we’ll have to get out of here fast."
By the time he was finished explaining, Rocket was strapping on his own temporary flight device and holding the newly created bomb in one paw. "Alright, I rigged a timer!"
Trixie's horn lit up to illuminate the breathless yet confident smirk below it, crackling with electric potential. "The Great and Powerful Demigoddess will cover you!"
Groot rolled his eyes.
The three of them lept out of the ship and became airborne in seconds, maneuvering past laser fire and golden pods to the reach the planet core. Trixie broke off form their group to handle an incoming group of adversaries, and coincidentally, Derpy flew up to escort them the rest of the way; the first to land in the part of the core they managed to damage earlier. When her allies joined her, they all assessed the various holes and inner structures of the core. Quill sighed when he noticed Rocket's furrowed brow, placing his hands on his hips. "I'm guessing we can't just place the bomb right here. "
Rocket sighed. "The flooring here is too thick. For the bomb to work, we’d actually need to place it on Ego’s core. And none of our fat butts ain’t gonna fit through those tiny holes."
Quill looked down slowly. "Well…"
Everyone's eyes lowered down to the smallest being in the room, who was casually picking up pebble debris and attempting to chew them in his mouth. When he noticed everyone staring at him, Groot grinned and waved. Rocket took one long look at that innocent grin and gulped fearfully. "That is a horrible, horrible idea."
Starlord agreed with a nod. "I know. But...I don't see anyone else small enough for this.” He took one more look at Groot, accepted that he would probably die today and nodded. “ Look, just...just, uh...try and teach him now before you let him run off with it, ”
Derpy was reluctant about this risky plan, but tried to look optimistic anyway. “Sure! How hard can it be?”
Rocket breathed in slowly and exhaled to calm his nervous heartbeat. He spared himself one small glance in the direction of Derpy and exhaled again. “ Okay. You...You wanna start, or should I?”
Derpy tried to stop shivering in worry just to nod. “I-I got it...Alright, Groot. First... you flip this switch, then this one. That activates it.”
With Groot's attention held, Rocket continued. “Then you push this button, which will give us five minutes to get outta here…. Now, whatever you do, don't push this button. Because if you do, that will set off the bomb immediately and we'll all be tiny bits and pieces all over this side of the galaxy.”
Groot drooled.
Rocket rubbed his paws together slowly. “...Now, repeat back what I just said.”
Groot looked down at the detonator, and all its many components. “ I am Groot…”
Derpy perked up. “Uh-huh.”
“I am Groot.”
“ That's right…”
“ I am Groot!”
Rocket stopped his tiny little hand before it could reach the red button. “No! No, I just said that's the button that will kill everyone! Try again.”
Groot restudied the switches and buttons for a moment. “ Hmmmm. Hmmm. I...am Groot…”
“Mmhm.”
“ I am...Groot...?”
“ Uh-huh.”
“I am Groot!”
Rocket had to stop him once more before any life endangering buttons could be pressed. “ AAAUGH! No! That's exactly what you just sai- how's that even possible?! I told you twice now that--”
Derpy pressed a hoof into his shoulder to calm him, even though she felt just a frantic as he did. “ Hang on. Let's just see where he messes up. Groot, which button is the one you're supposed to push? Point to it.”
He pointed at the red button, raising Rocket's blood pressure again. “NOOOO!”
The grey pegasus continued letting his shoulder. “ Calm down, you're making him nervous.”
From a sizeable hole in the exterior behind them, Starlord's red-goggled visors appeared. “ Hey, how's it going in there?”
Rocket grinned his most convincing smile. “ We--We're good! Uh, do you--Does anyone have any tape out there?! I wanna put some tape over the death button.”
Quill paused. “Uh...I don't. Lemme see real quick.” He disappeared from view, presumably to dodge laser fire and travel to the other's locations. “ Yo, Yondu, Nebula! Do you have a--WOAH! Do you have any tape? Maud? You got any tape? Gamora! Do you have any tape? ...no, not vape! CAPE?! TAPE! With a ‘T’! Ah, never mind! Drax! Do you have any tape?! Yeah...Scotch tape would actually work nicely! ...Then why would you ask me if scotch tape would work, if you don't HAVE any?!” Quill reappeared seconds later with a sympathetic shrug to the furry duo. “Sorry, nobody has any tape!”
Rocket's fur stood on end. “You’re telling me not a single person out there has tape?!”
Peter turned to fire his blaster a few times. “Yeah--not a one.”
“ Did you ask Trixie?
“... Uh, Yes!”
“ Really?”
“ Guys.”
Quill finally relented after his cold stare. “I’ve been with her this whole time-- I would know if she had tape with her--”
“ I KNEW IT! I knew you were lying!”
“ Guys!”
“ YOU'RE A WALKING SWISS ARMY KNIFE, MAN! IF ANYBODY'S GONNA HAVE TAPE, IT'S YOU!!
Rocket pulled at his ears exasperatedly. “THAT'S EXACTLY MY POINT! I have to do EVERYTHING!!”
“ GUYS!” When she was confident she had their attention, she used a quieter tone. “Couldn't you just make tape with you celestial powers?”
“Well, I can't. Hang on a tick, ” He disappeared once again in search of Trixie, but she was apparently so far off that they couldn't hear any conversation. He returned in half a minute, and tossed them a roll of tape. “ Here you go!”
“Perfect!” Derpy grinned. “Now lets…”
The bomb was gone, and so was Groot. As they looked further down the very thin tunnels and sharp passages, they just could just barely make out the silhouette of Groot's eager little body sliding down the tunnels. If they listened closely, they could just hear his mad laughter in the distance.
Rocket slumped down. “... We’re all gonna die.”
Derpy sighed. “Actually, Quill and Trixie are immortal so…”
“ Thanks for that reminder.”
Trixie cut off the whip of electricity she fashioned, which had previously sliced through a few Golden pods racing towards their ship. Using her levitation, she zipper over to the windshield and kept up their cover with more blasts. “ Captain Yondu! How's it looking in there?!”
“Just Yondu is fine Darlin’, ” He said from within the ship, noticeably trying every switch and button on his dashboard. “Rear thrusters are out again and our blasters are kapoot! We’re done for without that generator!”
Almost immediately, a lightbulb appear above Trixie's head with a bright intensity. Confused as to why she randomly conjured a lightbulb, the pony studied it’s brilliant light until--instead of another lightbulb--an idea surfaced. She raced inside the ship and rushed up to the cockpit. “ Hey, Trixie has a Great and Powerful idea!” As she explained it to them, a thud from behind signals Quill's arrival inside the ship thanks to being chased inside. He turned slowly to face the entryway and swallowed when he noticed that every Sovereign pod had gathered around them in a massive swarm.
Ayesha’s face was present on the largest pod, grinning wickedly. “Guardians… perhaps it will provide you solace… that your deaths are not without purpose. They will serve as a warning… to all of those tempted with betraying us.” She snarled. “...Don’t fuck with the Sovereign!”
Yondu attached the last wire and Nebula offered Trixie a solemn frown. “ This is gonna hurt, you know, ”
Trixie swallowed and glanced up at the several wires connecting to her horn, before shaking her shoulders loose of tension. “ Yep. I do.”
She powered up her horn with pure power, and Yondu turned the dial on the remote all the way up. Trixie stifled her agonized scream between her gritted teeth as certain voltages of electricity began to travel through her entire body--drawing from her own energy to power up the remote. While she couldn't see it with her eyes shut so tightly, the lasers that had once been dormant on the outside of the ship were now all firing off in unison. The ship turned into one giant porcupine with red hot quills that sliced through the stationary pods. Screams of rage and futility were all fht could be heard from Ayesha's pod before it joined the ranks of the others that exploded in nothingness.
From below, those closest to the ground or on it, dodged the lasers as they carved up the ground beneath them. Quill watched all the exploding pods meet their end silent, until a piece of flaming debris fell inside the ship and into a freshly made hole in the flooring. He didn't need to look to know exactly where the flaming piece went.
“We’re gonna blow!”
Gamora’s breath was ripped from her when their ship exploded not long after vanquishing all the pods surrounding them, disappearing in its own flames and smoke. Quill had flown inside it and now it was gone. “ Peter! NO!” She grimaced worriedly until a figure landed on the ground after falling out of the explosion, standing back to their full height. Gamora and Nebula exchanged scanning glances with each other, secretly checking to see if there were any injuries on each other. Then Nebula slowly looked up, and Gamora followed suit.
Peter, Yondu and Trixie were still alive! With the use of his own flight technology, Quill was floating down with Trixie shakily using her magic to keep herself up. The Showmare groaned as though she was going to throw up at any second and cracked a weak smile at Quill. “...R-Remind me not to do that again, ”
Quill chuckled at that, only to go into louder laughter when he noticed Yondu flowing down by holding onto his red arrow. The blue pirate raised an eyebrow at his chortles. “ What?”
Peter managed to slow down his laughter. “ Nothing, its just... You look like Mary Poppins right now.”
Yondu nodded slowly, not quite recognizing the name. Almost timidly, he looked at him again. “...Is he cool?”
Peter started to explain that he was talking about a Disney movie character who wore a dress, was a woman and flew around with an umbrella. But instead he smiled wider and nodded. “...Hell yeah, he's cool.”
“ Ha Ha Ha!” Yondu grinned brightly and turned to the others below him. “ I'M MARY POPPINS, Y'ALL!”
And so the three of them finally joined the others on the ground, with Rocket and Derpy joining them a few seconds later. Gamora hugged Quill in a surprising display of affection, one that he want going to pass up returning. Trixie and Yondu both stared at the falling debris around them, impressed by their combined efforts and the fact that they actually survived to begin with. Maud and Nebula exchanged glances in close proximity, then slowly let their gazes fall to other locations. Rocket refused the offer at first, but eventually he did hold up his fist to bump it with Derpy's hoof. Drax stood closely and protectively near Mantis, who had all her focus directed towards her ongoing task. All in all, the poses they performed would have been great for a blockbuster movie poster…
If only Mantis hadn't been struck by flaming metal.
"Mantis, Look out for that debris!" Drax shouted to Mantis' unconscious body. He frowned at the lack of response from her and shrugged at everyone else. "I tried to warn her guys."
Nebula glanced at Gamora with a weary frown. "Is it possible to slap the stupid out of him?"
Gamora sighed. "I wish it were so."
Trixie didn't like the look of the sparkling blue veins starting to reappear on the ground, like hundreds of spider webs of energy. “Uh, How long until that bomb goes off?”
Rocket unsheathed a fairly sizeable gun, especially for one of his height. He glanced back at Ego's core and gave an uncertain shrug. “In the unlikely event that Groot doesn’t kill us all… about six minutes.”
Gamora tensed up. “You gave the bomb to Groot?!”
Yondu raised his wrist up to his chin, speaking into the comms there. “Kraglin, we need the quadrant for an extraction. T-minus five minutes!”
The Guardians and the ponies kept themselves wary and ready for Ego's eventual resurfacing. Quill’s mask slid back into place on his face, muffling his voice with that familiar robotic noise. “Somebody’s gotta be up top when Kraglin arrives. Drax, take Mantis.” He commanded and when Drax lifted her bridal style, he slapped an Aero-rig on his back--instantly activating and taking off.
Drax's final parting words to them were: OW! MY NIPPLES! AAAAAAAUGH!”
Rocket snickered. Derpy nervously glanced around at the tentacles surging from the distances around them, collecting rocks to give themselves a dangerously sharp look. A ghoulish moan vibrated the air with an intense baritone, and more blue veins appeared. Parts of the ground uplifted and practically exploded into another part of the ground, causing their flooring to rumble enough to disbalance them. “So what do we do?!”
“Stay alive long enough for the bombs to go off!” Quill remarked as he shot into the air and used his blaster to dismantle the first tendril racing towards them. He gasped when the ground not only split up below him but burst apart to fling Gamora, Nebula, and Maud away from him. “Gamora!”
“UNGRATEFUL BRATS!!! ”
Trixie launched into the air, narrowly avoiding the tendril reaching for her hind legs and using her magic to blast it as well. Derpy fluttered over head to draw some attention away from the main group with Rocket in tow. Twisting in midair to see another onslaught approaching, she flicked out a whip of lightning to cut the tentacles in half. While some of them were indeed cut in half, one of them managed to evade her attack to lunge at her from below. Before it could fulfill its goal, however, she witnessed a certain red arrow dismantle it easily before flying back to the blue hand of its owner.
Yondu managed to give her a nod, but she wasn't given the chance to nod back thanks to the punch from behind sending her flying. Oddly, she didn't feel any pain as she was sent soaring into a rock peak a few hundred feet away, even when she actually broke through it and tumbled to a stop on the rough surface of the ground. Blinking away her dizziness, Trixie stood up to her four hooves to resume the fight, only to notice that her stance wasn't quite right.
She glanced at her right foreleg and shuddered at the condition it was in. Apparently smashing through the rocks and the ground had twisted it into a bizarre new angle--dislocated out of the socket. Before she could begin to wonder why she hadn't felt it at all in the crash, her ankle suddenly snapped back into place. She blinked foolishly and missed the sight of her shoulder rotating 90° to pop back into the socket loudly. And still, she hadn't felt anything. In fact, it was as if something else entirely had pulled her foreleg back into its former glory.
Though perplexed, she didn't waste time in rushing forward on all four hooves. She could ponder what other hidden talents her lineage gave her later.
Gamora wasn't very happy to slam face first into the side of the outer walls, grunting from the impact. She also wasn't very happy to find gravity inflicting its will upon her by dragging her down the fatal height the found herself at--increasing speed with every half second she plummeted. She wasn't very happy about the thought of becoming a very green splatter on the ground that was about to explode in six minutes time. She was only ever pleasantly surprised when she found that her fall was halted by an outstretched hand, locking with her own.
Nebula rolled her eyes at the somewhat hopeful grin sent her way. "Oh, Get over it."
She let go of the rock with her metal hand when a boulder floated up to them, courtesy of the pony who landed on it shortly thereafter. Summoning the use of her Asteroid Gloves once again, she caused a cliff face to form by extracting rock from the walls around them and they all clambered onto the plateau-like surface. The three of them instantly noted the tendrils rising from the ground to attack their legs, working together to stop them from doing just that. Maud enlisted the aid of small pebbles and rocks the size of her head to crush their attackers, while The Daughters of The Titan were just fine to slice through them whenever they sprouted up. If one of them slipped up and one of the tentacles darted towards their weak spot, one of the sisters would slice it in two. Maud lifted her pet out of her sweater and held him up to her snout. "Okay, get 'em Boulder."
Boulder practically leaped from her hoof when she tossed him, flying high to strike the side of the wall as too many tendrils appeared to stop. The wall instantly crumbled and broke off into small pieces--each one somehow landing directly on a tentacle and nowhere else. When there was nothing but a garden of crushed rocks surrounding them, Maud caught Boulder and settled him in her shirt again--though not before nuzzling the small pebble. Nebula glanced in Gamora's direction.
Gamora just shook her head. "I'm not even questioning anything right now, "
Suddenly, a wave of dangerous energy surged up from the side, forming together to create a massive Scythe bent on slicing right through them. Maud raised a dome of thick rock over their heads to protect them and made it stayed steady enough to withstand blows. Though it did just that, there was no telling how long it would be until it gave way.
Ego's face had formed several hundred yards away, a mixture of rocks, his energy, and an angry expression. His pupiless eyes were trained on the combined efforts of Quill either killing off the 'fingers' rushing towards him or leading them to Trixie, who was becoming more and more natural at destroying them. The oldest celestial scoffed at their futile resistance. "Come now, Children! I know this isn’t what you want! What kind of father or uncle would I be to let you make this choice?!"
Trixie bolted forward at the giant face, charging up her horn for a powerful blast that nailed him right in his left eye. "Maybe the SANE kind!"
It definitely hurt him, but not enough to put him out of commission forever. Ego roared with fury at her, with enough vibrational force to shoot her off into another series of pillars again-- allowing his focus to return to his true heir and his useless allies. With a flurry of tentacles rising to catch him, far more than he could gun down, Rocket quickly reached into a belt much and used his paw to fling an array of tiny mechanisms at the tentacles. In mid-flight, they finally caught him, but not in the way they intended. The mechanisms created a force bubble around him that prevented the fingers from crushing him easily, although it still left him trapped with no means of escape.
Yondu's whistling lasted him a long time, but he wasn't able to keep from getting taken down as well. A shower of rocks and sediment lunged at him when his arrow was farthest from him, quickly pinning the blue pirate to the ground and breaking his arrow almost effortlessly. Try as he might battle against the weight slowly crushing him, he couldn't move.
Groot was close to the heart of Ego--he could feel it thumping through the core from somewhere. But the already narrow walls of the passages were squeezing down on him, cutting off his oxygen and making him whimper fearfully.
"Soon, ...We will be all that there is! "
Derpy's Domino Gun could only protect her so far. The electric bursts from the cannon-like weapon did well in repelling the dangers constantly nearing her, and even briefly immobilizing several tentacles at once. But all it took was a distraction from one for another to get to her. She grunted in surprise as it swiftly wrapped her up to her mouth and squeezed like the deadly grip of a python around its prey. Oxygen was wrung from her lungs as fast as a bullet, but she found herself in an up-mountain battle to inhale against the increasing pressure around her neck and chest.
Several miles above, Drax was startled see giant tentacles dragging down the Ravager's giant ship, attempting to crush Kraglin inside it. The Grey Alien soon found himself struggling to stay up in the air when Ego's fingers grabbed ahold of him and Mantis' unconscious body as well.
"So stop PISSING ME OFF! "
Trixie and Quill continued their fight with all they had left in them; Quill's blasters were on rapid fire and the showmare's horn produced a steady, thick beam of electricity. They fired with all their strength against the conjoined fingers forming one gargantuan tentacle, trying to kill it before it complete its journey towards them. As their efforts failed and they struggled to get up after being nearly crushed by the slap of the tentacle, the giant face of the planet drained into a single body--slowly forming a smaller body from scratch.
Ego's skeleton bristled with disappointment, his eye sockets filled with blinding light. "I told you… I don’t want to do this alone!"
Quill barely had time to notice his helmet being utterly shattered and useless before he was stabbed through the spine once more by one of the battery tendrils, giving his body that agonizing sense of paralysis all over again. Trixie joined him in that disturbing feeling, but the tendril seemed to be getting...thinner; weaker the more she struggled against it. Ego either didn't notice it or didn't care. Perhaps he was too busy reusing the muscles and nervous system slowly returning to blanket his skeleton. "Neither of you can deny… the purpose the universe has bestowed upon you, to help me!"
Ego didn't even inch when the tendril attempting to harness the unicorn's power suddenly exploded, leaving her planting and wheezing "It doesn’t need to be like this! The three of us can make things right! Why are you destroying our chance?" He looked at Quill longingly, extending a hand towards his son. "Stop pretending you aren’t what you are. We're more important than billions. Trillions. Even more. What greater meaning can life possibly have to offer than THAT?!"
The light blue mare narrowed her brightly glowing eyes to slits and snorted in a fairly unladylike manner. "...Trixie...is sick and tired OF YOUR PSYCHOTIC RANTING!"
Surprisingly, Ego was the one to charge into her with a furious roar. They both tumbled over each other farther and farther away from Quill, who was still trapped in the painful grip of the tentacle. Quill found himself drifting into memories after his father questioned why he resisted so much, perhaps a way of life flashing before his eyes. He recalled many things in his life-- watching the clouds with his mother next to him, laughing with Drax over something funny, testing the Aero-rigs with Rocket in the air, feeding a much smaller Groot, dancing with Gamora... Yondu. He fondly looked back over his childhood under the watch of Yondu, spying bad moments but strangely more good ones than he remembered. He could see Yondu teaching him how to shoot a blaster, putting a blanket over him when he was half asleep, secretly admiring the talent of a kid who could squeeze down into tight crevices...Many more memories floated by until a familiar voice broke him from his trance. He used all his strength to turn his head towards the blue Ravager now, trapped under piles upon piles of rocks.
"Quill! I don’t use my head to fly the arrow, boy!" He shouted. " I use my heart…!"
Quill blinked at that, finding a sudden change in his chest; a sort of spreading warmth that attacked the tendril.
The power he had trouble accessing rose within him slowly. He angrily gritted his teeth and forced him to rise one knee at a time. The more height he gained, the more of the tendril dissolved into nothing. Quill growled as the finger of Ego left completely, and untapped power pounded through his veins like never before, making his fists glow a wonderful Earthly green color like his home. He smiled down at his vibrating fists, then turned sharply towards the sounds of struggle behind him.
Trixie.
Ego.
Peter's eyes glowed like flashlights. " You shouldn’t have killed my mom...and squished my Walkman."
Ego pushed her through the ground at Mach 5, only stopping when her head collided with the base of a small mountain. Even then, he took her into the air with him and then smashed right through the rocky floor itself, using her body to drill through it and back up into a different area. Trixie recovered fast enough to attempt performing a spell, but Ego's hand closed over the horn before it could light up.
Trixie screamed as she felt her horn snap effortlessly against his palm, even if she couldn't feel the pain for some reason. "No!"
Ego reared back with her body and launched her into the farthest set of pillars once again--this with greater speed and intensity than before. His hand morphed into a vicious looking blade the moment she hit the tough rock, extending his arm as fast as a bullet towards her. Perhaps the blow had knocked her out or the pain of the blade stabbing through her ribs took the fight out of her instant. Either way, she went as limp as a ragdoll instantly with only the lack of movement and the flow of fresh blood to know he hit his mark. He frowned in the midst of his beard returning to him. Ego wasn't expecting that to actually kill Trixie, and yet it apparently did the job. Perhaps her horn was the source of her immortality and strength, thusly meaning that breaking it rendered her mortal and easy to--
Her head lifted up so fast that he missed it in a blink.
Ego's eyes widened when he took notice of her face. Gone were the purple irises and even her pupils; they were replaced by an otherworldly white and were opened farther than her anatomy should have allowed. Black fluid with the consistency of tar leaked from her eyes and her jaws, incidentally giving her unsettling moans a gurgling undertone. Her mouth had been open to horrifying lengths, but now they were slowly closing into a fearsome grimace.
Ego was torn between disgust and fear; he knew everything about the universe thanks to the time he took studying it. This was new and something he had never faced before. "...What...are you?"
"Htaed sraef amonTbel. amonTbel si lanretE. Eht lleb lliw gnir dna eh lliw emoc." A voice leagues deeper than Trixie's boomed from her throat, speaking tongues not uttered in centuries upon centuries. Not that he would know, as he had never heard them before. "Htaed sraef sih egdelwonk."
Her horn reformed itself from being broken in a few seconds. Any limbs put out place were back together again, or reset from being broken or shattered. Trixie's hooves raised robotically and settled upon the blade question of his hand. Before he could recoil from this unknown danger, she vomited a fresh helping of the writhing black tar substance all over the blade his hand had formed. Instantly, an acidic sort of pain blazed away at him, at his own hand before it was sudden severed off and eaten into nothing by the substance. Trixie fell limply to the ground as Ego screamed and stared at the stump of where his hand had been. Reforming a new hand would have been easy before, but for some reason, he couldn't get the slightest molecule to heal. Like some kind of celestial fire, the tar burned off the stump and wasn't allowing anything to extend from it. He would probably be one-handed forever, but Quill didn't let him think about it for long.
Trixie awakened from the ground and shook her light head; when did she black out? Was it because of her broken horn...or rather...her not-broken horn? She was surprised to feel that it was still all in one piece when she felt it snap apart earlier...then again, it could just been adrenaline talking. She looked up to where she thought Ego might be, gasping when she saw Quill ramming into him from the side at full force. One of Starlord's fists had formed a cartoonish wooden hammer, to beat his father over the head with it with appropriate cartoon sound effects. And he was flying just like her, without the use of his equipment, so he must have some serious power to him now. Even The Great and Powerful Trixie alone couldn't bring the battle with Ego to a stalemate...but with Peter to help?
She watched Quill launch Ego into one of the towering stalactites from above, only for the villain to quickly recover. Trixie grinned and flexed her shoulders, while her horn flashed brighter than ever. "Time for a Great and Powerfulfinale!"
"Groot? If you can hear me, hurry up! I’m not sure how long Quill and Trixie can keep him distracted!" Breaking out of the struggle he was had been easy when the tentacles mysteriously disappeared. Rocket urgently looked around at the noises of battle, uncertain of how long they had, especially with the twig being so unhelpful on the other end. "Just hurry you idiot, Yondu, I think we’re about to blow!"
Yondu slowly got up from the ground, staring at his broken arrow. With a frown, he picked it up and handed it to the raccoon. "Take this and Get to the ship!"
Rocket growled. " Not without Quill!"
Yondu featured to the fast-approaching child, using his vine arms to pull himself towards them faster. "You need to take care of the twig!"
"Not without you!" Derpy exclaimed as she approached them, still wheezing from the strangulation earlier. "We all get out of this alive!"
Yondu shook his head slowly. "I have ta get him...I ain’t done nothin’ right my whole damn life, yeah? You need to...to just give me this."
"...Bleeding hearts of the world unite…" After an uncomfortable stretch of uncertainty, the woodland critter finally relented in his demands and procured objects to offer. "...A spacesuit and an aero-rig. I only have one of each."
Yondu silently took the offered items, with a soft nod of gratitude when he actually received them. Though Derpy looked unhappy with the decision, she offered no rebuttal or argument to make him join them. The tiny being hopping onto her shoulder, however, had a few choice words. " I am Groot!"
Yondu raised an eyebrow. "What’s that?"
Derpy narrowed her eyes at him, reluctantly cracked a smirk and answered: "Well...He says, 'Welcome to the frickin’Guardians of the Galaxy.'... Only...he, uh, didn’t use 'frickin', exactly...I won't say the exact word. Heh."
Yondu nodded in acknowledgment to that, to the one who spoke the greeting. " Bye, twig."
They lifted off into the air, after that and raced towards the giant exit in the ceiling. Rocket glanced back at Groot's cheeky grin with a shake of the head. " We’re gonna need to have a real discussion about your language."
Derpy scoffed. "Oh please, I know he got that from you."
They soared up past the surface and towards the ship, something Drax had done a few seconds prior to them upon reading he wasn't being dragged down anymore. The Pegasus and the Raccoon scooted to a halt inside the open bay doors, unloading whatever they carried with them into the core of the planet. They were surprised to find Gamora, Nebula, and Maud already in the ship and tending to various wounds on each other.
Rocket groaned in disappointment. "How'd you guys get here so fast?!"
Maud blinked slowly at him. "I shot us down on an elevated slide through the soil and rocks, then used our momentum to catapult us back up through the surface just high enough to reach the ship. Simple rock mechanics, really."
Gamora looked behind them. "Where's Quill and Trixie?"
Derpy confidently smiled. "Last we saw of them, they were handing Ego's butt to him on a silver platter."
Rocket closed the bay doors with the press of a button. "We gotta get to orbit, at least. Wait for Yondu to bring those two to us."
Ego kicked Quill off of him and watched as he was flung into the ceiling, but it left him open to an attack from Trixie--who bucked him hard enough to whip some of the bones in his body. They only thing stopping his momentum was a well place stalactite, and then the plateau right behind that one. Whatever Trixie had vomited on him had made him weaker somehow, not able to move as fast or efficiently as he desired. He got up from the rocky surface slowly, his clothes and face a little more than torn and dusty. When he did get to his feet, it was in time to witness a boulder sailing straight for him. With a mighty leap, Ego smashed through the rock and got a reward in the form of a punch from his son.
Quill held onto him to deliver more painful punches to his face, and each one greatly diminished the older being's strength. He kicked off his son again and both made controlled landings on different plateaus away from each other. Trixie joined Quill with her horn glowing brighter than it ever had and uttered a single word to her ally. "Pull!"
Without much hesitation, Peter dug his hands down into a good portion of the plateau and lifted with all his might. A hefty chunk of the rock was flung right at Ego with blinding speeds, and the showmare finally got to do what she intended to do with it. In an instance of bright light, the rock chunk was now but a chrome steel Teacup ready to crush anything in its path--which happened to be Ego. While it did eventually hit him, he recovered from it fast enough to create a giant hand that slapped it away. Angry, Ego used the entire plateau to make the hand absolutely gigantic as a means to squash them all the way down. The Plateau itself shattered from the impact of the palm striking against it, but Trixie teleported them away from the threat of injury and they both landed on the back of the hand. With a blast of green and a lightning bolt of cyan, the two of them created a beam of intense heat rivaling that of nearby stars. Needless to say, Ego's body was turned into floating bits of dust.
But then the ground rumbled. From the debris of the plateaus, a figure began to form--a two hundred foot tall replica of Ego's body fashioned out of the rocks towered in the distance, already rushing forward to destroy them. Unphased, rocks collected around Trixie and Quill's bodies in almost a flash to form whatever things they desired to appear as. As Ego neared, Quill floated forward as a one hundred fifty foot yellow ball with black dots for eyes and a gaping maw. Trixie stomped forward as an all too familiar looking dinosaurian creature, with a bear-like stance and blue-glowing dorsal fins. All three charged towards a colliding point: Ego with a desperate yell, Trixie with a high pitched kaiju roar and Quill with the lively sound of Pacman.
When all three collided, their rocky forms broke apart. But the combined strength of our heroes once again knocked Ego away from them, leaving them floating in midair and planting for breath. Although for one individual, it didn't take long for him to recover. "That was awesome!"
"It was!" Trixie perked up. "You were a giant beach ball!"
Ignoring that gravely incorrect statement, Quill laughed. "You were Godzilla!"
The pony furrowed her brow. "What's Godzilla?"
"...you mean this whole time, you just imagined a monster you haven't even s--!"
"Childish! The both of you! Treating all of this as a game, " Ego said as he rose from the rubble, very bruised and fed up with the fighting he'd had to endure in a weakened state. "The fate of the universe is as stake because of you!"
"Duh!" Trixie scoffed at him. "Why do you think we're fighting so hard?"
The Living Planet balled his fists angrily. "You'll have to join me sometime. We could literally fight forever, "
Quill narrowed his eyes at him, smirking. "Yeah...but you don't have forever, do you?"
At first, the statement confused the older celestial and left him silent. But then he looked to the core surrounding his heart and bellowed with fear and outrage. Before he could even fly forward very far, Trixie and Quill tackled him into the rubble-littered ground and tried to hold his wrestling body there. Even if he elbowed one of them hard enough to let go, the other was still there to hold him until the other recovered. Shifting from anger to fear of his arriving death, Ego fought as hard as his weakened form could fight. "No, we need to stop it!Stop. STOP!" He gripped Starlord by his shoulders and stared into him with a pleading expression. " Listen to me! You are a god! If you kill me… you’ll be just like them. You'll grow old! YOU'LLDIE!"
Peter started him coldly in the eyes. "What’s so wrong with that?
The core exploded.
Like brittle ice in the way of heat, it broke apart and melted into nothingness as the batteries engulfed it in their fiery embrace. The reaction was almost immediate for the older celestial, who Quill and Trixie watched closely. His face paled with fear despite the angry look of resentment forming. "Y...you'll-l b-e j...oining me..n de-ath...o-g..gugl..lg.." With sickening noises of bubbling oil, Ego's old man face caved in on itself and his body soon disintegrated into giant amounts of floating dust. As the dust settled upon their clothing and their fur, Trixie and Quill couldn't help but shudder at the final words. Was it just something meant to make them regret their actions? Was how he died an unknowing jab at their fates?
They would know a few years after this, but knew nothing but shivers now.
The Dairy Queen patrons all cheered and clapped when the giant blob became nothing bust dust on the restaurant building. As everyone began to shuffle back inside in eager participation of a good burger or chicken sandwich, they became aware of a strange humming sound in the air. People looked up to see a very familiar Avenger slowing to a halt in the air.
Iron man looked at the chaos now gone, then sighed.
"Now she's really gonna kill me for this."
Spike looked out of the train window again and shrugged to the girls behind him. "Nah. I don't see anything now. Just a bunch of dust."
Rainbow Dash,limited in her movement by the fresh wounds from Earth, settled for slumping against the window. "Then why aren't we moving?! The giant blob is out of the way now,"
Applejack waved some of that dust away from herself, while Pinkie, Fluttershy and Rarity tried their hardest not to sneeze. She chewed the eraser end of her pencil as she stared down at her crossword puzzle book, a courtesy of the train staff. "Y'all...what's a seven letter word for…'Obvious Foreshadowing for another Story with sad deaths'?"
Starlight wrinkled her snout. "What? What kinda book are you--"
"Ooh! Ooh! I know!" Twilight perked up. "Awkward!"
Rarity smiled. "Bizarre!"
Pinkie stuck out her tongue. "Cuttlefish!"
"...thats ten."
"No, silly! That's a fish!"
The explosions of the planet around them forced the duo out of their thoughts; forced them to look around at the planet literally crumbling around them as it died. StarLord nervously and mentally timed the rate at which this was all happening. "Uh...This is all coming down a lot faster than I thought it would."
Trixie enveloped them both in a giant bubble, which bounced harmless in place despite all the sharp debris raining down on their heads. She bounced towards the only visible light in the cavern now and spotted Yondu racing towards them as well. He reversed his direction to fly alongside them, and together they ended up getting back up through the tunnels of soil. They exploded from the surface as the once colorful world they walked on now started to suffer from speaking earthquakes. The land masses jolted and quivered as time went on, but they started to see less and less of all the dying parts of the planet when they finally entered the atmosphere and escaped the planet's gravity. From there, all three of them watched as the planet swiftly imploded on itself into the tiny form of a speak, only that for that speak to pop with a high flash.
Then there was nothing.
Ego was dead.
Trixie was hoping to see happiness when she looked in her ally's direction--but she saw the direct opposite of that. Quill's teary eyes stared down at where the planet used to be, silently looking back on the memories of his mother...now knowing that the man she loved had been killing her slowly the whole time. The whole time his mother lay in pain on her deathbed was because of Ego. He may have killed Ego, but he could never kill what he did. Nightmares of him would come, and there was little he could do about it. He slowly looked at Trixie when she placed a hoof on his shoulder.
"Trixie is tr...I...am truly sorry, " She muttered in sorrow. For him; for his life. "That your father was who he was. And I'm more sorry about your mom."
Quill didn't know what to say to that. The bubble shifted slightly, and he turned to see Yondu next to it in his space suit. His old eyes were usually filled with regret and pain, but now the blue man's eyes were overflowing with admiration and happiness."H...He may have been your father, boy...but he wasn’t yer daddy." He said to him with growing tears. "I’m sorry I didn’t do none of it right--yer childhood...but... I’m damn lucky you’re my boy."
Trixie nodded a long time after he said that, practically tearing up herself. "And I couldn't think of a better cousin than you…" She slowly frowned, a bit sheepish. "We...we're still cousins, ri--oh!"
Quill wouldn't let her finish that sentence, his arms wrapping around her for a right hug. Trixie, though surprised, certainly want going to pass up a mushy hug if no one was looking anyway. They hugged for a half a minute at the least, unil Trixie pulled away to grin sheepishly. "So...I take that as a yes?"
"Ha! Yeah, Trix. "Peter turned to Yondu and smiled his way as well, arms still wrapped around the pony. " I think we're shaping up to be one screwed up family, huh Pop?"
Yondu chuckled to himself. "I reckon so, boy. You, me, and all your friends, "
Trixie looked at them both curiously, ears raised in anticipation. "So...what now?"
Peter stared at her quietly, before a shape got his attention outside the bubble. He saw their giant ship approaching at slow cruising speed, getting ready to pull all three of them in from the vacuum of space. He could see Gamora in one of the windows; while he couldn't make out her expression from his distance, he could tell she was happy to see him alive by her body language. Peter looked down at Trixie again, smiling.
The next 21 hours were definitely eventful, as they came to notice. With Ego vanquished permanently, the trip home went without a hitch for the most part. Quill went around the ship with a different perspective on Yondu, one that had a positive effect on both parties. They talked more frequently with each other, as Trixie would come to overhear, often swapping stories of adventures that they hadn't told anyone else. Trixie was very happy that she was around when they escaped the imploding planet--given how Yondu acted then, she was certain he'd have given Quill the space suit and let himself die. No, it was much better for him to be alive to receive the other Ravagers.
Unbeknownst to the others, Rocket had sent out a message to the ex-pirates explaining how he aided the Guardians in saving the universe--probably going into a sort of exaggerated retelling of the story just to make him look good and all. It was about nine hours before a response was received in the form of an entire fleet of Ravagers showing up--though they were stationed in non-threatening positions around the Benetar. Even then, Yondu feared that a hostile conflict was imminent and went forth to speak with whoever boarded. It was someone entirely unexpected given his reaction to the aging man walking up to him, regret brimming in his eyes and a glinting silver badge in one hand. It was pinned to Yondu's jacket, then the two conversed for a very long time. When he was given a moment, Yondu explained everything to them with an emotional voice.
The man named Stakar not only did the honors of reinstating Yondu into the Ravager organization but also promoted him to their level; Part of the Chief Council. Yondu reckoned it would be enough to earn him another fin and arrow, but a little extra asking around granted two more fins and arrows. One for the likes of Kraglin to use as his right hand man, and the other in case he goofed up and accidentally destroyed his own arrow like an idiot. A little tearful yet proud, Kraglin eagerly accepted his newfound position and hurried along onto the ship. Yondu stayed the longest to speak with Quill, giving him the proper goodbyes that he should have given him a long time ago. Near the end of their farewell, he pulled something out from his pocket.
"Oh, boy. Almost forgot this doohickey, " He placed it into Starlord's hand and nodded. "Try that on for size."
Quill examined the device in his hand with a look of pure shock, his hand gently traveling over the small metal casing in his hand and the futuristic buttons as well. The whole thing had a yellow paint look to it, and almost seemed to glow in his hand.
"Found this for you in a junker shop. Always said you’d come back to the fold someday...dint realise you found your own."
Peter blinked slowly. "...What is it?"
Yondu shrugged. "From what I reckon, it’s called a Zune. It’s what everybody’s listening to on Earth nowadays. It’s got about 300 songs on it."
Quill felt like his knees were going to give out. "300?"
"Heh heh. I figured you'd like that, kid." Yondu placed on a hand on his shoulder and gave a lopsided grin. "I sure am gonna miss having ya, son."
Peter smiled slowly as well and shrugged. "Ah, I'm sure we're gonna meet up again some time. Who knows when."
And so he departed with his group of Ravagers, ready to begin a newly cleansed lifestyle...ironically by stealing more stuff from people. C'est la vie.
His son and niece didn't view him any differently.
Nebula intended to leave while they were all sleeping, so as to avoid any awkward goodbyes. She packed up what little of hers she had, then stuffed a spare food ration in her bag and made her swift escape. She took a few turns down one stretch of hallways for a moment, then veered into a downward spiral staircase to get to the lowest hangar. This would be where the small escape pods would be stationed, enough room for just one to fly and enough fuel to make decent time from planet to planet. Nebula decided she would first stop off at a refueling station to keep the pod's fuel up and to stock herself with more food. Then it would be a short trip to--
"No goodbyes, then?"
Nebula stopped in her tracks with a metallic sigh, forcing air from her cybernetic lungs. "That was the plan."
She turned to see two familiar figures expectantly walking up to her, likely having followed in secret the moment she escaped. Maud looked her over as Gamora uncrossed her arms. "Are you all set for the trip?"
"I am. I do not have much of my own, " Nebula explained quietly. "But it makes for light luggage, at least."
"You have me." Gamora started, gaining her sister's attention with that one sentence. "Nebula… I was a just child...like you. I was concerned with staying alive until the next day, every day. That doesn't make it right at all...but its what I did. I never considered what Thanos was doing to you every day, even now. I’m...I'm trying to make it right." The jade warrior hated that even she couldn't quite read the expression on Nebula's face then and there. "There are little girls like you… across the universe who are in danger. You could stay with us and help them."
Nebula slowly nodded, and Gamora first thought she was agreeing with her offer. "I will help them…" She blinked. "by killing Thanos."
Gamora stepped closer to her. "I don’t know if that’s possible. "
Nebula tensed up from the growing proximity, sneering. "We killed a celestial being. Anything is possible." Her green sister reached out towards her and Nebula prepared a deadly fist to strike at her with. "What are you--?!"
Gamora pulled her in against her, then hugged her tightly. Nebula's half cybernetic mind drew a blank at this, her features going slack as she struggled to process what was going on and what her sister was doing. If that wasn't enough to completely stump her, she could feel her tears soaking into the jacket and feel her arms hug tighter. Nebula's fist dissolved as her own eyes welled up with liquid, her heart hammering hard enough to pound against her ribs. Gamora's gentle whisper reached her ears. "You will always be my sister. " The luphimoid completed the hug with her own arms, held Gamora there with her for a long time.
Maud finally had her fill of the touching scene and coughed. Just like that, Gamora and Nebula awkwardly pushed each other away and wiped their wet eyes as though absolutely nothing had happened. The cyborg began to back up slowly, wordlessly until the pony signaled for her to stop. Curiously, Nebula approached as Maud unsheathed something from the wooly neck of her sweater. She took the small slip of folded paper balanced perfectly on her hoof, opening it to look at the contents.
Nebula slowly tore her eyes away. "Your Rock Soup Recipe?"
"Yes." Maud nodded, smiling softly and yet somewhat wider than usual. "Something for you to enjoy while you're out there. Take care of it."
Nebula looked down at the paper once more, then looked at the pony once again. She almost felt like crying again, but she miraculously steeled her nerves. "I will keep this forever...Thank you, Maud. For...for everything."
Maud smiled.
21 hours since that final fight.
21 hours since they saved the universe.
Finally, they landed in the grass of Ponyville's outerfields. The ponies left the ship and began their trek on the grass with a strange thoughtfulness to their every move. It was so surreal for them to feel the warm grass of Equus beneath their hooves after so many days of being in foreign places. Maud, Derpy and Trixie exchanged glances as they stepped further and further out into the grass of the hill and took a good look around. Despite the fact that it was day now as opposed to the night they left, everything looked exactly the way it was. Peaceful, basically untouched by the hooves of time. No pony spoke for a while, even as the Guardians wandered out slowly to stand with them. One might guess it was because of the scenery, keeping them silent in all its vast glory. But they were only silent because of the hardest part of the journey this far.
Saying goodbye.
Rocket awkwardly walked up to Derpy's side, and the pony slowly turned to face him. He sighed and rubbed the back of his furry neck as Groot, Drax and Mantis approached her as well. "So. I guess, uh...I guess this is it, then."
Derpy blinked, her eyes a little watery. "Y-yeah." She sniffled as a tearful Groot hugged her foreleg. "A-Awww. I'm gonna miss you too."
Mantis frowned sadly. "I'm going to miss your giddy emotions, smol pony."
"Drax and I were thinking...uh, about it, y'know? Maybe you keep this," Rocket patted the Domino Gun vest and handed her a smaller device. "And keep this. Even the Guardians of The Galaxy need backup sometimes. We'll call ya and your friends, when the universe needs saving. And then--then we'll pick you up. Of course."
Drax nodded. "In a ship. Not with our bare hands. We can't fly. Or breathe in space."
As Derpy laughed at that and talked with them some more, Gamora carefully approached Maud and knelt down in front of her. "...I told you not to try it; to fix what Nebula and I had. If you had listened to me...we'd be right where we were years ago, at each other's throats. I...I didn't think I'd ever get to...hug her. Ever." Gamora admitted quietly and held out her hand to the grey earth pony. "...I hope we meet again someday. And maybe Boulder too."
Maud smiled and nodded slowly. "Boulder says he'd like that. I would too."
As they shook, hand in hoof and hoof in hand, Quill sniffled and forced himself to actually go through with this. He sighed heavily as he got down on one knee, scratching his scruffy beard to appear nonchalant. "Man. It's been a weird couple of--"
Trixie cut him off with the tightest hug he'd ever gotten in his life, startling him into silence. If anyone had told Quill he'd go from making small talk with a seemingly stuck up, prissy unicorn to adopting said unicorn into the weirdest family ever to getting this heartfelt hug...well, he would need some convincing to believe it. Quill smiled as he hugged her back for some time, then let go for her to part. Trixie grinned brightly at him. "I'll miss ya, Starlord."
"Eh, " Quill shrugged softly. "I think you can call me Quill anytime you want, Cuz."
Gamora flipped a switch on the dashboard, and the song came on.
"When I had you to myself, I didn't want you around~"
Rocket sat in the co-pilot seat and carefully lifted Groot into his lap, wiping his tears off his bark cheeks and trying to get him to smile. As Quill passed him, he looked up. "Hey, Quill. Lemme see the long distance communicator, "
The ship lifted off into the sky slowly, and Quill smiled as he waved to the three ponies he flew over. "The what?"
"The LDC. I wanna talk to Derpy for a sec, "
"Uh, what does It look like again?"
The Raccoon frowned at him. "What do you mean--What does it look like--You're the one who has it!"
"I mean, I lost it a long time ago, so…"
"Oh, baby, give me one more chaaaaaance~..."
Rocket facepawed and gritted his teeth tightly. "So you're saying you lost the only means we have of communicating with them?"
"Wait, what? That was…" Quill looked back at the ground as the passed over something apparently recognizable to him. The ship lurched as the captain pulled it into a turn around motion, then slowed it down some more. "Yo, Rocket! Look who it is!"
Rocket carefully ambled out of the chair and waltzed up to the nearest window, growling even then. "Don't change the subject on me, man! I paid a good chunka units for that LDC, and you're gonna pay back every…" When he looked out of the window, he blinked in surprise and groaned. "Oh. Him again…"
"And then what did you, Mr. The Duck~...?"
"Yes, tell us~!"
A cheesy smile was permanently plastered to Howard's bill by this point, as he laid back on the town's bench with a chuckle or two. Two of the planet's smoking hot dames--Lyra and Bon-Bon or something-- were each held by one of his arms as they laid against him. If getting his ride stolen on random planets landed him in fun situations like this, he would have to do this more often! He crossed one leg of the other as he played with Lyra's mane. "Well, it's like I was telling you ladies! I went inside the building without a second thought, saved everyone from the fire and uh, helped a puppy too!"
Bon-Bon rubbed the feathers of his chest with a sultry smile. "Oh, Howard~...You're so brave."
Laura rested her head on his shoulder. "And Masculine…"
"Eh, what can I say?" The giant duck closed his eyes and leaned backwards. "You're all outta luck until you've gone duck."
"HEY HOWARD!"
Huh? Someone on this colorful planet of ponies actually knew his name! But who? Snorting in surprise, Howard looked up to see a really big Ravager ship floating just above them. The Guardians of Galaxy were apparent inside the giant vessel, with Quill and Rocket looking down on him. "Hey! We got your ship on board! If you want it, hurry up and get on board, ya feathery bastard!"
"Holy smokes!" Howard lept up from the bench, paused and rushed back for the two Equine hotties on the bench. He gave them both quick pecks, much to their amusement and giggling. "Hey, was nice meeting you dames! Catch you on the flip side!"
The two of them waved off the giant duck as he rushed aboard the ship as quick as a flash.
Maud, Trixie and Derpy waved back at the ship as it began to fly off behind the horizon and off to do who knew what. Derpy was the first one to break the silence as the ship finally disappeared into the atmosphere, smiling widely. "What a semi-week it's been."
Trixie exchanged a look with Maud. "...What?"
"A semi-week! Three days! Or...maybe it was two days." Derby trailed off and rubbed her temple. "I can't really tell for sure. Maybe it was two and a half days?"
"It doesn't matter. " Maud answered her with the slightest of shrugs. She admired the blindingly beautiful day once again, then the two friends beside her. "So...now that we're back...what are you two gonna do?"
Derpy flared her wings a little, ruffling the feathers. "My vacation from Mail Delivery is probably gonna be over soon. So I'll just enjoy what's left of this day."
"Well, first, I'm gonna find a new home. Maybe I can scrape together enough bits for a bigger wagon." Trixie confirmed as she began to walk over the peak of the hill. When the others followed her up, she continued to explain her plans. "Maybe after I'll try to look into all the possible fathers I have. Maybe it's a super powerful Alicorn!"
They finally finished their trek up the side of the hill only to find that one of Trixie's plans would have to be marked off the list. For when they fit got to the top of the hill, they discovered Trixie's wagon a short distance away--fully intact, with all the party items set up in nearly the exact way Trixie had envisioned. But as if that wasn't surprising enough, then the assembled individuals scattered about the area certainly did. Twilight Sparkle and her five friends, Discord and Starlight were all gathered somewhat around the wagon. They all appeared to be chatting idly amongst themselves until the three shocked ponies approached close enough for them to notice.
The instant she noticed Trixie, Starlight squealed loudly and rushed forward for a hug. "Trix! You're back!"
"Trixie sees you're back too!" As happy as she was, the powerful showmare was still very, very surprised at seeing everything look exactly the same. "But...my wagon...and the cake, and the...how…?"
Starlight smiled. "Well, when I got back to town, I was really hankering for a good cupcake! But imagine my surprise when I found out a certain somepony left me a cake to pick up myself! Mrs.Cake said she preserved it since you didn't show up yourself."
Fluttershy piped up next, enjoying a particularly good cookie. "And then when she brought the cake to us, we just had to look for you! But then we saw the destroyed Wagon and Pinkie saw that Maud was missing too! We assumed you two went off to get a repair pony! But I guess you got Derpy!"
The aforementioned pegasus blinked in confusion. "Then how is the wagon fixed?"
Fluttershy gestured to a certain being of mass power, grinning from ear to ear. "Discord did that!"
Before Trixie could even begin to form the thought of inhaling oxygen, the wily Draconequus gave a whooping laugh and poofed into another one of his silly forms. He looked like a dancing overly muscular human now, clad in only a kilt of leaves, some impressive tattoos and a giant fish hook. "What can I saaaaaay except, " He sang proudly. "You're Welcooome!"
A smiling Pinkie Pie, dressed in an overly glittery crab outfit, hopped out of Discord's hair and scuttled across the ground. "Shinyyyyy~."
A moment of confused, very awkward silence passed as everypony started at Pinkie. Then Twilight coughed to break the silence and blinked towards the creator of the whole party. "Well, sorry you came all this way for nothing, Derpy."
"Nah, Trixie and Maud have been with me in space!"
"Eh?" Starlight tilted her head. "What exactly have you three been doing?"
Trixie looked at Derpy. Derpy looked at Maud. Maud looked at Trixie, then Derpy. They all smiled in unison and sighed:
The Asgardian Sif finally took a seat next to Doctor Whooves as he surveyed his bizarre work. The way hands his hands worked furiously to get the bolt in just tight enough intrigued her, and made her all the more curious about this strange man. Nevermind his claims to have accidentally jumped way forward in time, or the fact that he was supposed to be one of those Equestrians--he was just an interesting being of his own volition.
"Just to be clear...fixing your...Shake machine is going to send you back to Equus?" Sif crossed her legs where she sat, her jaw in her hands. Either Whooves didn't notice her right next to his shoulder, or he was very good at ignoring her antics. "As a pony?"
He nodded, but didn't look up from his work. "Indeed. My calculations should be correct this time."
"I still can't believe you made your Shake machine capable of...this." Sif nearly laughed as she smiled. "Scientists are so odd."
"It's not like I wanted to be in this situation. I just wanted to make the best Shake known to Equus."
"Well, It's a shame you'll be leaving, Doctor. I've enjoyed all the messes you've gotten me into."
"Yes, well. I'll miss being confused by your unbelievable strength. Oh well…" He briefly stopped his mechanical work when he heard a sudden frenzy of noises outside. High pitched yet hurdles muffled by the walls. Perhaps it was earth's time of year of Halloween? It would explain the screaming. He went back to work and tsked. "Alright, that's good enough. Hand me the Soldering tool."
Silence.
Hooves fanned away the dust trying to get in his eyes. "Sif, if you would be a dear and please...Sif?"
Where did Sif go?
When did that pile of dust get there?
"...Sif?"
Terrax was happy by now, sitting in prison for all these years.
He remembered all that time ago, when The Maw visited him in the dark of night it release him. He'd told The Maw he wished to remain because now he had realised it-- the beauty of being among the over confident. He casually sent him away to experience the end among these who were completely unsuspecting of anything. The Maw accepted his choice and they both expressed their delight in seeing the day when it happened.
It was only years later, as he began to drift into another night of sleep, that it finally happened. He was awoken by the screams of those lucky few who were chosen, their voices dying away with the rest of them. Terrax rushed to the bars of his cell to witness some of those lucky few in their cells--those chosen by his father.
Terrax felt a numbness in his arm and looked down at it.
He smiled as he died.
Yondu was awoken by the balding noise of the alarms in his massive ship, and he quickly lept out of his bed to get his arrow. Just as he secured his Chief suit into place and adjusted the big red fin in his skull, his door shot open. Yondu whistled loudly and brought his arrow very, very near to hitting Kraglin in the chest.
Yondu glared at his red-finned second in command. "Krag! You sunnova bitch! I coulda gutted ya right there!"
Kraglin wheezed, startled and completely out of breath. He pointed down the hallway and shook his head. "We're getting massacred, Cap'n! Massacred!"
Yondu furrowed his brow. "Who is it? Ya seen 'em?"
"No, Cap'n! We ain't seen nothing! No ships or nothing! It's killing us all at random!" He explain shakily. "I ain't seen nothing like this! They're all just turnin' straight t--"
Yondu peered closely at the tip of his red fin crumbling away. "Hey, what's happening to your...Kraglin?"
Kraglin's remains floated against Yondu's clothes, staining it. Yondu started at it all, witnessed the screams and stood there without comprehension of what was happening.
Another Dimension, 2018
The sudden, collective fear and sadness of the universe joined together and cried out in anguish for all to hear. Such emotion pressed at the very boundaries of time and space--leaking through into this particular plane of existence outside of the universe, only through Trixie Lulamoon.
Since there was almost nothing in the infinite expanse of this darkness, the fear spread quickly through it all thanks to the actions in that universe. The darkness mixed with the fear, slowly but surely making its way towards the only thing worth knowing about in this black dimension. Even when Trixie Lulamoon was no more and the dimension was once again sealed off, the fear reached the floating, barren city.
Like a wind, the fear wafted through Tambelon and caused the tiniest crack to be produced on a single, Ram shaped statue.
