Star Fox Equestria

by Pronche

Rating: teen
Tags: Main 6, Princess Luna, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Alternate Universe, Other, Science Fiction, Adventure, Star Fox, Princess Celestia, Crossover
Length: 32862

Since the Anglar Blitz, the galaxy is at peace... until this day, with Oikonny's invasion on Katina. But, in another system away from Lylat, a new threat arise and only one famous team can intervene: The Star Fox Team.

There's been something wrong with the moon, Princess Luna is certain of it, but can't put her hoof on what the disturbance is exactly.

Her older sister Celestia, also known as the Princess of the Sun, try to ease her fears and concerns but without any success. However, the sudden and unexpected arrival of the Arwing and its pilot, the legendary Fox McCloud, push the topic to the back of her mind. Yet, the help of an otherworldly biped, one that can also fly, could be the perfect thing she needed to investigate the strange activity on the space rock.

On the condition they manage to repair the All-Range Fighter, of course.

This story takes place after Command and just before the end of Season 3.

All rights belongs to Nintendo and Hasbro for their respective characters.

Published 2013-12-20 16:20:03 UTC
Last updated 2015-09-01 21:05:42 UTC

Mission Briefing - Revised

Intro - 0:00 to 0:23

2013

Nintendo®/Hasbro®

Presents

A StarFox/My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic Crossover

In

Star Fox Equestria

He tossed and turned on the right side of his single bed. His sight fell on the clock, which was placed on his metallic beside table, showing it was barely 6 a.m. Yesh, barely five hours of sleep this time, a new record for him after what happened. With a grunt, the red fox rolled on his back.

Looking at the light grey ceiling with his arms crossed behind his head, a deep sigh escaped his muzzle. How much time has passed since the Anglar Blitz? One year? Two? In all honesty, he stopped to count after the first six months and the fact that he was in space was not helping to keep track of the time. Now, the only remaining members of the team were ROB 64, the robot/A.I of the Great Fox II, and him... just like after the Aparoid Invasion. The legendary Fox McCloud had almost lost everything in the recent war: the vixen of his life, his celebrity, eclipsed by Star Wolf which gave the final blow to the Anglar Emperor, and what remained of his team.

Now, he was completely alone, in his mothership, drifting around Corneria’s orbit. Since Krystal flew away at the end of the conflict, he didn't have any news about her whatsoever from Katt Monroe or Lucy Hare, the daughter of his old mentor, Peppy Hare.

He only pushed her away to protect her, not to hurt both of their feelings. But in the end, his decision was useless because it left the two foxes completely devastated emotionally and she disappeared in the wild.

The ex-leader hated himself for months after this but, ever so slowly; he learned to live with this fact. A small knot made its known in his guts every time his mind wandered to the memories related to her, and to all the other scenarios that could have happened if he had acted differently. A lot of question popped in his mind: where was she actually? What was she doing? Did she was involved in a romantic relationship with someone else?

At the last thought, the vulpine with green eyes felt as if his tongue and mouth were filled with ashes. If there was one thing he hated most than everything, it was to imagine her in the arms of someone else...or those of Panther Caroso. Or kissing him, or even making love to him. Fox almost gagged at that.

However, to this day, what was the most important for him was the fact that his friends were living a happy and peaceful life. Slippy was freshly married to Amanda and had two childrens for the moment; Falco created his own squad with Dash Bowman, Andross's grandson, and his girlfriend Katt, even if he kept refusing to admit it publicly. Finally, Peppy was still working as the General of the Cornerian Army.

The galaxy was at peace, so no one required his services as a mercenary…

Not in the mood to get back to sleep, he stood up and walked in his personal bathroom to take a shower. The hot water against his light orange fur was all he needed to be completely awake. One shower later and with a towel around his mid-section, Fox stepped out of his bathroom. Looking outside, a small grin grew on his face.

From his personal quarters, he was admiring Corneria, the space and Solar. Oddly, stargazing was always something that fascinated him and he never got bored of. It provided him a strange sense of calm and peace. Why? He didn't know. His best guess was he inherited it from his father, just like his flying skill.

“Time to do something productive today… or at least, try.” Putting his pair of pants for flying and a green sleeveless t-shirt, McCloud Junior walked out of his quarters, in direction of the kitchen. The silence present in the corridor was broken by the sound of his boots against the grey and dirty metallic ground.

Arriving in the room, the two fluorescent lights flickered to life, bathing the place with cold, white light just before one them began to vacillate and die. Inspiring slowly, Fox closed his eyes, opened them again and exhaled loudly. “What a great way to begin the day”, he thought.

Fortunately for him, his lack of luck was counterbalanced by a fridge and cupboards filled with enough food to last two weeks. While his coffee was brewing, he occupied himself by making a few pancakes, without any garnishments. Then, when his food and drink were ready, he sat onto one of the four chairs present around the single table of the room, digging in. As his breakfast was slowly disappearing from his plate, the veteran pilot consulted his transparent tablet, looking at the news of the day, the jobs proposed through the galaxy (even if he found nothing that was even remotely interesting for a mercenary) and in the end, his bank account. Another good thing: he wasn’t in the negative but had barely enough to survive until the next job.

Thinking back to a past conversation he had with some higher-ups from the Cornerian Army, a reconversion as a flying instructor at the Cornerian Defense Army Academy, where he himself was a student, almost twenty years ago, began to be a more and more interesting idea. It was nice of them to propose him this work, also unsurprising after everything his team did for the Lylat System.

Unfortunately, his train of thoughts was interrupted the voice of ROB talking through the speakers.

"Incoming transmission from General Peppy! Priority one!"

Standing up, the tan fox rushed out of the kitchen and hurried to his bedroom. What could be so important for the old rabbit to contact him through an emergency call? Entering it quickly, he took a wireless earpiece that was on his desk, put it on his left ear and pressed the single button on it.

"I'm coming ROB, just give me a minute."

He opened his built-in wardrobe to take his old white jacket with the logo of the team on the back of it. Quickly, he left his quarters and ran to the command room, also used as a living/briefing room. ROB was already there, waiting for him. Then, Fox sat on a leather seat, in front of a table with a giant holographic device on it.

[Briefing Theme]

"You can answer now."

After pushing a single button, the screen turned on and the face of a rabbit in his late fifties, with red eyes and glasses, appeared in the middle of the place.

"Long time no see, old timer."

"It's good to hear your voice, Fox."

The vulpine crossed his arms and looked directly in the eyes of his mentor, a small grin plastered on his face. He distinguished the single strands of white fur on his grey coat and the dark circles under his eyes. Time and duty weren’t doing any favor on the dean of the StarFox Team, it would seem.

"So, I suppose you didn't only call me just to see if I was alright, especially with the priority of the transmission. Am I right?"

"Indeed.” replied the General, his tone sounding more serious now. "I need your help. Out of nowhere, Andrew Oikonny had gathered enough people to have his own army and is currently trying to take over Katina! We lost any trace of him after his defeat at Fichina City but it looks like he didn’t stay inactive for long."

The ace pilot chuckled "Again? I hope it will not end with another Aparoid invasion this time. How many are they?"

"Six hundred, at least."

The number surprised Fox, it wasn’t that much. “So few? How can they stand up against a world considered as an outpost of the Cornerian Army?”

"They’re extremely equipped and our army is still rebuilding after the Anglar Blitz. The majority of our ships are currently in Corneria. However, the local forces are standing their ground very well thanks to a friend of you: Captain Bill Grey.”

A faint smile appeared on Fox's face while he nodded.

"And why not sending Falco and his crew, he'll be more than happy to kick that ape's ass."

"I've already dispatched Star Falco on another mission."

"Perfect.” Turning his head to the side, the red vulpine looked at the robot. “ROB, you know what to do."

The latter entered the planet’s coordinates in the computer.

"Affirmative. Opening of the portal in thirty seconds from... now."

"Good luck Fox, and be careful.”

"Don't worry Peppy, everything will be just fine."

The veteran was going to cut the communication when his old friend and superior interrupted him.

"Oh, I almost forgot, is 60,000 credits enough as your pay?"

"Yeah, I could use it to repair ROB and some parts of the Great Fox." The amount in itself shocked; it was a little more than two times his usual fees for something like this. Eh, maybe the old man was using this invasion as an excuse to give his deceased friend’s son enough money to stay afloat. Even with his golden heart, Fox wasn’t going to spit on more money, it would be very useful for the near future.

"Good, I'm transferring the money as we speak. Peppy out."

A simple nod was the only response the rabbit received before the call ended. A large green circle appeared a few kilometers away from the old Cornerian Assault Carrier, which began to move toward it.

"Portal complete. No interference detected. ETOA: ten seconds," informed the robot.

The moment after, the mothership flew through the gate and found itself not far away from a battlefield full of Venomian and Cornerian Carrier. Both followed by smaller ships, just for one pilot, the Venomian/Cornerian fighters. Andrew's ships had dark red/gold colors while the Cornerian Army were painted in white/green.

"Katina's casualties evaluated at 40%. At this rate, and without our help, they'll be all killed."

Fox nodded, acknowledging the situation.

"ROB, keep the Great Fox II away from the battle, I'll take care of everything. Use a few missiles against their Battlecruisers as a support."

"Affirmative, I'll send supply if needed."

The mercenary left the room, rushing to the elevator. He stopped on the device and pushed the down arrow, two times. It began its course before slowing down and stopping two floors lower. The sound of his boots against the ground made of metal echoed in the large corridor leading to the docking bay. When he was in the hangar, Fox rushed at fast as possible and jumped into the only ship present. The fighter itself was one of the legendary Arwings, known to be one of the most powerful, fast and maneuverable ship of its category. It was shaped like a 'Y', also colored in light grey/blue, had three Laser cannons and a Smart Bomb launcher filled with seven of them. A red flying fox was painted on both side of the hull behind the cockpit and above the exhaust for the engine, representing the logo of the Star Fox team. This model of Arwing has the same design as during the Lylat War.

Despite being twenty years old, the Arwing was still one of the best Starfighters ever manufactured. Even the current fighters from the Cornerian Army had some difficulties getting on par with it, just two or three pilots in the whole galaxy were skilled enough to compete with the legendary ships, Star Wolf not included.

The cyan cockpit closed itself, protecting its pilot from the outside world. A few sentences appeared on the green screen in front of the vulpine:

[Twin lasers: enabled

Alpha interface: enabled

All range mode: waiting

Beta interface: waiting

Secondary weapons: waiting

Primary weapons: enabled

Astrogation systems: enabled

Targeting systems: enabled

Nova bombs: waiting

Internal power: enabled

Life support: enable

External power: disabled

Starflight mode: enabled

Deflecting shields: waiting

Good luck!]

"This is Fox, ready for takeoff. ROB, report in!"

"Communications line…green. The lift lock has been released. Arwing primed and ready."

The rail which suspended the ship moved on its own and launched Fox in the space, at high speed. The Arwing made a few barrel rolls before stopping, deploying its wings and flying in the middle of the battle.

"I see ‘em up ahead! Let's rock and roll!"

Meanwhile, on another side of the galaxy…

Tonight was one of the most beautiful nights of the summer. The sky was empty of any cloud, thanks to the Canterlot weather team, and there wasn't a single storm or even rain scheduled for the next two weeks. The current temperature was fresh but not enough to be considered chill.

In the white and gold castle of the capital, where lived the two Princesses of Equestria, a single pony was currently sitting at the balcony of the observatory. The castle itself was built in the side of a mountain, giving the possibility to see a wide part of the country. The mare, with a crescent moon as her Cutie Mark, was staring at the stars…more precisely at the white orb replacing the sun during the next couple of hours. Her blue coat was as dark as the night sky and her flowing mane, despite the lack of wind, as deep as the space itself. Slowly, the smile on her face disappeared and was replaced by a slight frown. Something was wrong with the stars tonight, she could feel it. Her connection to the lunar body was a little strange when she raised it a little earlier.

Just at the moment when she began questioning herself of the reason why it she was feeling like this, another pony, taller than her, with white coat and multicolored flowing mane this time, walked to her side at a slow pace. She sat at her left and raised her head to look at the sky. She had a long horn on her head, wings tucked at her sides and the Cutie Mark on her flanks was representing a picture of the sun.

"Is something the matter, Lulu? You were distracted during the dinner. If you want to talk about it, I'm all ears."

The first pony, which also had a horn and wings, turned her head toward the voice, still frowning.

"I-I don't know Tia. It feels like there is something not right with the moon, a magical disturbance or a malevolent presence like the ‘Nightmare’. It could be nothing but my instincts tell me otherwise. I hope I’m wrong."

The other mare, slightly taller than 'Lulu', raised an eyebrow, "I thought that young Spike had defeated it when he opened his heart to the Element of Generosity, Rarity?" she said, slightly surprised.

"I thought it too, but something's not right, I can feel it in my guts."

Tia lowered her neck to her sibling's level and nuzzled her, with a smile on her face. "Don’t worry little sister, even if the dark mist comes back, we'll face it together and with the Elements of Harmony. But for now, let not this beautiful night you made be a waste because of a dark thought."

"I hope you're right Celestia, I hope you're right." whispered the dark blue Alicorn to herself, but loud enough for her older sister to hear it. The latter winked at her. “Tomorrow morning, let me lower the moon, if I don’t feel anything, it’ll mean that you were worrying for nothing. Are you fine with this?”

The smaller princess thanked her elder. Another opinion on the subject would be greatly appreciated; it could clarify the disturbance she felt: dismiss it as an unfounded feeling or… confirm it. Looking one last time at the sky, the youngest Alicorn left the room, readying herself for her daily duty.

Lunas walked back to the throne room, sat on the single throne, ready for the night court that resumed in long hours of boredom, some paperwork and conversing with the guards.

Space Battleground

A few seconds after the Great Fox created the portal

The customed Cornerian Fighter let out a charget shot which flew to its target and destroyed it. The pilot was about to chase another enemy when a voice coming from the Communications Channel interrupted him.

"Captain! We're detecting gate transmission outside the combat sector!"

Just after the soldier said this, the large green portal appeared. A long ship, colored in grey, red and white, came out of it. The old Carrier was flying toward the Cornerian fleet before stopping less than ten kilometers away from the battle.

"Hang on guys, help is on the way!"

"Sir, we're detecting a lone ship coming to us! He's flying at Mach 4.2 and don't show any sign of slowing down."

A single fighter, colored in grey and blue, flew in front of the Cornerian Fleet and destroyed one of Oikonny's aircrafts with a single shot. The captain's eyes widened when he saw this. He took his radio in one of his paws and pushed the button on it.

"Fox?! Is that you? I can't believe it!"

"It's my quote! Even after 12 years, you don't have the right to steal it!"

Bill couldn't help but laugh at this. This person was indeed his best friend.

"So, you're the reinforcement Peppy send to us?"

"Affirmative."

"I see... what's the plan Fox?"

"Keep shooting down the Carriers and Battlecruisers, Oikonny is mine."

Then, the battle began.

"You sure you can do it? You have to go through his whole fleet to fight him."

Fox smiled at the caring attitude of his old friend. "Bill, I've fought in the Area 6, it was far worse than this. And I wasn't as skilled as now. Don't worry for me, I'll be fine. I'm not Fox McCloud for nothing, after all!" he replied before accelerating towards his target.

An enemy ship passed before him, right in his screen with the green square. Before the rational part of his brain could do anything, his instinct kicked in and he pulled the trigger. A single laser, coming from the nose of the ship, left his plasma cannons and hit its target which exploded in tiny parts. A high-pitched sound was resonating in the cockpit, coming from his radar. Someone was behind him and was about to launch a laser beam or a bomb. Quickly, Fox pulled the stick to him, forcing his Arwing to do a loop. Then, he found himself just behind his opponent and killed it without a second thought.

Unfortunately, this technique left him vulnerable for a few seconds and, of course, another foe used it at its advantage to defeat the vulpine. This time, Fox used another tactic which was very dangerous and could finish in a collision between the two ships.

The fox suddenly braked, forcing his Arwing to stop its course. His enemy barely escaped from the possibly collision by dodging on the right and continued to fly. Now, McCloud's foe was before him. At the first second it entered the green square, Fox pulled the trigger as fast as possible and destroyed it.

After this, a few ships tried to shoot him but the fox either dodged their lasers or made a barrel roll to deflect them. The Arwing may be one of the best but it wasn't invincible and could be damaged or destroyed, just like any other ship.

Slowly but surely, Fox was progressing. He stopped to count the number of his victims after fifty or so. From where he was, he could see Oikonny personal flagship but had a few Battlecruisers on his path.

Looking at his screen, the pilot swore. His shields were a quarter-down and he only had one Nova Bomb left. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to use it as a distraction. His left finger was about to press the button used to call ROB for a supply when he was interrupted.

"Unknown ships approaching at high speed." said the robot, in Fox's headset with a monotonous voice.

Fox frowned. "Who could that be?"

Three fighters flew before the Arwing before someone's voice could be heard in his left ear.

"Hey Foxy, need some help?"

The pilot couldn't restrain himself from smiling when it reached his ears. This voice belonged to one of his oldest friend and teammates. The blue avian's face appeared on his display.

"Sure Falco, I prefer to have you to watch my back than someone else, except Bill. But don't be too cocky."

"No problem pal. Katt, Dash and little ol' me will keep the other ships at bay and do me a favor... kick Oikonny's ass as hard as possible."

Fox couldn't help but laugh at the request.

"With pleasure."

The vulpine pushed the Arwing at its maximum velocity while Star Falco was busy throwing lasers and bombs at the remaining cruisers and carriers with what remained of the Katina's defence forces. Luckily, Falco's plan worked perfectly. Fox flew around the dogfight without being noticed and dashed to Oikonny's mothership which was the same as when he rebelled on Fortuna. Fox knew that Andrew had detected his aircraft but didn't do anything, as if he was waiting for the mercenary to come to him.

Oikonny's Theme

"So, the legendary Fox McCloud is here to put me in jail, isn't it?"

"Not really Oikonny. After all those years, I'm really tired of dealing with you. So, I'm going to end you, just like your uncle."

A maniacal and sickening laugh left Andrew's mouth.

"You don't know what you're fighting McCloud, I'm not going to make the same mistake as the last time."

Fox's facial expression darkened. "Me too. I'll make sure that you stay down, definitively."

[Hyper Laser: enabled]

Fox began the hostilities first, he threw his last Nova Bomb, which exploded at the contact with his foe's ship and followed with a charged laser. He continued to shoot as fast as possible, wanting to end this fight quickly. But, contrary to what he thought, his assault left Oikonny's ship completely undamaged. There wasn't any visible weak point on the mothership. The confusion was clearly visible on his face.

"What?"

"Playtime over McCloud."

A black large cannon appeared from the tip of the ship. Strangely, Fox's Arwing began to be attracted to the strange weapon. For the vulpine, that thing acted like when Andross tried to eat his fighter on Venom and Sauria with his Telekinesis. He pulled his stick to left and barrel rolled a few times to try to escape the sudden change in gravity.

"Admire the power of my new weapon! A black hole generator!"

"Shit!"

Hearing this, Fox's eyes widened and his survival instinct took the control of his body and mind. He quickly made a U-turn and flew as fast as his Arwing could. Unfortunately, the hole was progressing on him. The distance between the two was becoming closer and closer. The orange fox deactivated all the systems he didn't need and transferred the energy to his G-Diffuser.

"Fox!" yelled the blue avian, quickly approaching.

A growl escaped the vulpine's muzzle. "Don't come any closer Falco, I don't want anyone else to be trapped with me!" he replied while trying to control his ship which was dangerously shaking at this moment. Despite the fact there wasn't any gravity in space, Fox could still feel the attraction created by the generator. He was trying his best to stay calm and not panic, something only years of experience would help to achieve.

"But…and you?"

"I'll find a solution."

Fox decided to surcharge the engine, hoping he would gain enough speed to escape from the weapon's grip. A few warnings appeared on his screen, telling he was overheating his engine but he ignored them. Until the moment when the security systems were automatically activated and the power in the cockpit went off, deactivating all the other systems still online, except for the life support. The second after, Oikonny's cannon exploded, quickly followed by the whole ship.

"FOX!!!!!!!!!!!!!" yelled the blue avian, flying at the position where he'd last seen the Arwing and its pilot.

There was nothing. No Fox, no Arwing...absolutly nothing. Andross's nephew may be dead in the explosion but it was too late. Fox McCloud wasn't here anymore, he had fallen in the darkness of the black hole and was lost forever.

Three minutes earlier

A deep brown monkey with glasses and a white jacket was furiously typing on a holographic screen. He left his position and walked to his superior who was watching the progress of the battle.

"Sir, we don't know how but the vortex is out of control and still gaining power!"

"What? You must be kidding me! It's supposed to be perfect! I advise you to quickly find a solution before I decide to kill you with a round in the head! I will not let my uncle's work be wasted by your incompetence." screamed the nephew of Andross, anger clearly present in his voice.

The head scientist bowed. "Yes sir." he replied, trotting back to the computer to find the source of the problem.

Looking at the little scene from his seat, Andrew Oikonny slowly smiled and raised his hand.

"Wait a second. I think our now-wild black hole will help us to get rid of McCloud, and this, definitively. We'll take care of our first problem after."

The two watched Fox struggling against the gravitational field of the black hole and trying desperately to fly away. Internally, Oikonny was completely overwhelmed with joy by what he was seeing. One of his greatest enemy was about to die just before his eyes and the death of his uncle, the mighty Andross Oikonny, could be avenged.

Unfortunately, everything couldn't go as planned. Electrics arcs popped from the computers and other equipments, destroying everything.

"What's happening?"

"The vortex is dissipating too much energy and the ship is absorbing it! It could explode by any second from now!"

Just before Andrew could do anything, his mothership was engulfed in a blinding light.

"Uncle Androsssssss! I've failed you!"

The second after, there was nothing left of the ship and its crew.

Just like he imagined it, the interior of a black hole was void of anything except darkness. His ship continued to float for what seems hours when a small light appeared far away from him. After a few minutes, the environment around him changed drastically. The darkness was suddenly replaced a beautiful cyan sky, void of any cloud. The sun was very high in the sky.

Fortunately, his engine came to life despite the dark smoke coming from it. The mercenary knew he couldn't stay airborne for a long time. His ship was seriously damaged and almost all the equipments were offline.

"Where the heck am I?" asked the fox to himself.

Looking around him, the vulpine saw there was several distinct landmarks and a city before his eyes with a white castle. He decided to fly to it and spotted a garden with a wide area to land. After this, the cockpit opened itself and its pilot jumped on the ground. Fortunately, the atmosphere of this strange land was breathable.

After a few seconds, Fox heard the sound of footsteps coming toward him and turned his body in this direction. He put a hand on his holster, ready to defend himself against whatever local threat this world could have. But he did not expect what he was actually seeing: white ponies with wings or horn, protected with a golden armor, and armed with spears.

'Well, I hope they're as friendly as the Earthwalkers.'

The group of guards, composed of ten ponies, stopped a few meters away from Fox and his Arwing.

"State your business creature! Are you friend or foe?!" asked one of them, in a commanding voice.

The orange vulpine put his hands in the air, as a sign of peace.

"Calm down guys, I think we should begin with the presentations first and the questions after. My name's Fox McCloud and to answer your question: I'm not your enemy. I was fighting against a really bad guy when I was aspired by a black hole and I ended here. I don't want to cause you any harm. I promise."

The pony who talked to him, a unicorn stallion, slightly nodded. "It would be better for both of us if you meet the Princesses, they'll be able to take care of your problem. So, follow us and don't make any trouble. I keep an eye on you."

"I wouldn't dream of it. Lead the way." smiled the pilot, before being surrounded by the equines.

Explain & Fix

"What's exactly your problem? I suppose it should be something quite difficult if the rulers of this country can't take care of it."

The older of the two sisters was going to answer when she was interrupted by the other Alicorn who blinked and turned her head to look at the white pony, dumbfounded.

"What? You told him about…—"

"Let me explain Luna… I hired Mr. McCloud to help us if your fears are confirmed to be true."

She seemed unsure for a few seconds before sighing.

"I see." The dark blue mare moved her head in the direction of the pilot. "Well, would you care to tell me who or what you are? You're the first creature with fur walking on two legs we ever seen. The foxes we have here are not bipedal and don't talk."

Fox smiled before coughing a little to clear his throat.

"Basically, I come from another galaxy called the Lylat System. Thirty years ago, I was born on its fourth planet: Corneria. All the inhabitants of the system are anthropomorphic like me but there are different species: foxes, birds, wolves, cats, dogs… Your sister wanted me to do a job because I only work for money and I'm the ex-leader of a famous mercenary team which was once lead by my father. Oh, and if you want to know, I arrived here by pure accident, thanks to a black hole, and can't fly back to my world. My ship is damaged for the time being. This is why I'll stay here, at the castle, for the next weeks. Want to know anything else, Princess?" he finished with a faint smirk, emphasizing the last word with a hint of sarcasm.

Said hint of sarcasm she completely ignored…or didn't heard.

"No, that would be enough. But I have a last question: can we trust you? I mean, if we're fighting a powerful foe, would you stay loyal to us even if we're losing or would you turn your back to us?"

The fox directly looked into her teal eyes, a very serious look on his face. If there was a topic he never joked about, it was this one.

"Ma'am, with all the respect I owe you, I'll never do such a thing. Despite the fact the Cornerian Army was losing during the Lylat Wars, which opposed them to Venom's forces, we helped them. It never was the policy of the StarFox Team to betray the original bidder for the counterpart who tries to offers more money. I stick to the contract until the job is finished."

At this moment, all doubt left Luna's mind and face. This honest answer was all she needed to hear to soothe her worries. This Fox McCloud was really somepony trustworthy.

"Alright, let's get down to business. I think there's possibly something wrong with our moon, as if a strange or vile force was emanating from it. We already had a problem with it one year ago and that's why I'm suspicious we could have another invasion coming from 'The Nightmare'. If what you're telling is true and my fears are confirmed then, you're the only one who can go on the moon and defeat the potential threat…except us and the Elements of Harmony, of course."

The ex-leader leaned back on his chair, tilted his head in confusion and raised an eyebrow. The Nightmare? Elements of Harmony? What the heck were those things?

"I think you have some things to explain to me if I want to fully understand the situation."

Hearing this, Celestia smiled. "I guess you're right. We can do this while eating."

For the next hour, both of the sisters told the fox about Nightmare Moon, the Elements and their bearers, Discord, Sombra and more recently, Nightmare Rarity. Needless to say, it was difficult to Fox to believe them. But heck, he had lived a crazy adventure with talking dinosaurs, SpellStones, a magical staff to fight the local foes and he saved the life of a telepath.

"Honestly, I'm not sure if you're telling the truth or if you're crazy but the simple fact I'm actually talking to a pega….corn, is enough to think all of this is true."

"Alicorn is the right term, for your information."

He scratched the back of his neck and smiled sheepishly.

"Well…sorry if I insulted you by saying this. So, let's just say I trust you. You shared some information about your world; I think it's time for me to do the same. Nothing military or else, I don't have the authorization to tell anything about our weapons and technologies. You're only going to know why me and my team are known all around the Lylat System."

Fox resumed the main battles during the different events like his encounters with StarWolf during the war of Lylat, Andross, the Saurian Crisis with General Scales and his triceratops friend, the Prince Tricky, the Aparoid Invasion and finally, the Anglar Blitz. It took him almost half an hour to resume everything.

When the fox finished his tale, the two sisters looked at each other before looking back at the pilot. Celestia was the first to speak.

"I think I made the good choice by hiring you, Mr. McCloud."

Luna smirked.

"I agree with my sister, your help is more than welcomed."

A single light brown muffin was disposed in a silver plate, on the table. Fox licked his lips before deciding to take it and bite into it. Despite the fact the mercenary was careful about his diet; he never was the kind of man to say no to a little sweet from time to time. Needless to say, the muffin was very good…almost too perfect for him. He finished eating it and crossed his arms, looking serious again.

"Now, what I'd like to know is…how are we going to repair the Arwing? All the tools needed for this task are on the Great Fox."

"The Great Fox?" asked the Princess of the Night, confused.

Fox moved his eyes in her direction. "It's the name of my mothership. This is where I keep the Arwing when I don't use it. You can consider it as my home since I'm on my own and don't live on the ground anymore."

"You live in the space? Fascinating. How can you breathe there?"

Celestia looked at him too, curious and waiting for an answer.

"Basically, The Great Fox is like the Arwing….it's a flying ship but bigger. A lot. There's enough place for five Arwings and eight people to live in it. A mothership has the same properties as a livable environment: gravity and breathable air."

"Well, our scientists at the C.I.T will be more than happy to work on a project like this one."

This time, it was Fox who was confused. The Princess of the Night answered before he could open his muzzle to ask what it was.

"The C.I.T is the name used for: Canterlot Institute of Technology. We can thank them for all the improvements in the different fields of science and magic: alchemy, astronomy, healing spells…all those kind of stuff. Only the best scientists work there."

He nodded and stood up.

"Okay but I must warn you before we do anything: the G-Diffuser is a very powerful power system and gravity's reducer. It releases vast amount of energy when we use it and its core is really fragile. If it's not properly configured or manipulated, the G-Diffuser can blow up and the consequences for the people around it would be serious. A few engineers and scientists died when they created it because of a few things they didn't take in account or a miscalculation."

"We completely understand your worries and we're going to proceed with extreme caution. But before we repair anything, the best would be to estimate the extent of the damages."

"Yeah, you're right."

The two ponies and the fox left the dining room and walked in direction of the Royal Gardens. The guards he met on his way looked at him strangely, as if he was some kind of freak or threat, but didn't say anything because of the presence of the two Alicorns.

"For the moment, your presence in Equestria is only known by us and the staff at the castle but soon, all the ponies living in Equestria will know there's an alien in their country. There's also a possibility the other rulers of our world would want to learn more about you. It's the first contact we have with an unknown species since the creation of our world: Equis."

"Great." he growled. "I always loved politics, that's why I prefer to be in my ship, fighting Wolf and his friends rather than be behind a desk!"

The two rulers slightly laughed when they heard this.

Looking ahead of them, Fox saw that his spaceship was at the place he left it and completely intact. Except for the light grey smoke coming from the engine. A few guards were poking it with the wooden part of their spears.

"Hey guys, if you could try to not damage my ship with what you dare call weapons, that'd be great!"

The guards turned their heads in the direction of the voice to see the bipedal fox and the two mares. They immediately stopped what they were doing and walked away, muttering a quick apology with their heads low. The vulpine pushed a button on his wrist communicator to open the cockpit, jumped in his seat and began typing on a little keyboard. A long list of all the important elements of the ships began displaying. When it stopped, Fox swore.

The two sisters looked at each other, a little worried, before looking back at the fox.

"So?" asked Luna, more curious than worried now.

A sigh escaped the vulpine's muzzle and he closed his eyes for a few seconds.

"The cooling system is down. I can't dissipate the G-Diffuser's heat without it, the left wing was weakened by the gravity created by the black hole and the bombs' launch system is a little damaged. The Arwing can live without a weapon but not if it can't fly. I hope someone from Lylat will hear the S.O.S."

He stopped talking for a few seconds before putting a microphone in front of his muzzle.

"This is the captain Fox James McCloud of the StarFox Team. This message is an S.O.S. My Arwing was seriously damaged during a battle and I landed in an unknown world. The local inhabitants are sentient, civilized and friendly. I'm completely safe. Unfortunately, I can't fly back to Corneria so if you're not far from my position and can help me or even give this message to General Peppy of the Cornerian Defense Forces…that would be really cool. This message will be sent every hour to help you find my exact location. Fox McCloud out."

Immediately after the recording was stopped, the computer of the ship sent it in every direction in the space. The mercenary really hoped he could find a way to go home. In the meantime, he had a mission to fulfill. First advantage: he didn't have to waste his time to search any source of information about his potential foe because the local leaders gave him all he needed to know. His main objective for the moment was to help the scientists in repairing his Arwing by giving them as much as possible knowledge on the G-Diffuser.

Fox jumped out of his seat and closed the cockpit. He activated an alarm to warn him if someone was trying to open his ship without his authorization.

"Now that I've take care of this, we can continue."

Celestia nodded.

"Well," She moved her head in the direction of her sibling. "Luna, could you go to the C.I.T and inform them of the situation? I'll give Mr. McCloud a tour of the castle and accompany him to the room where he'll stay during his time here."

"Not a problem Tia, I'll see you later. I bid you a good day Fox McCloud."

Before the vulpine could respond, her horn glowed cyan and she disappeared. There was a look of shock on his face. Celestia answered his silent question.

"Teleportation spell, I'll tell you more about it later. For the moment, follow me."

"But what about—"

The Princess of the Sun began to walk in direction of the castle and looked at her right, locking her eyes into those of Fox.

"You'll work with the scientists on your ship tomorrow; let them take a look at it first. Don't worry, they're not going to lay a single hoof on it until you say so. I promise."

Despite the soothing words he was hearing, the mercenary was unsure. This Arwing was in his possession since the beginning of the war against Andross. He had lived many adventures with it and wasn't very fond of leaving it to ponies who could unintentionally destroy it. A sigh escaped his muzzle.

"Okay, I trust you."

"Perfect, we can continue." she said with a reassuring smile.

After fifteen minutes of walking and talking, the Alicorn and the fox stopped in one of the many corridors of the castle, in front of a brown and golden door.

"This is the room where you'll sleep during your time here. Everything you need is inside, except clothes because we don't wear them all the time and we don't have any for somepony….or should I say 'someone' like you. There's even a private bathroom."

"Don't worry for the clothes, I'm used to only have what I wear on me during some missions."

"I understand but this isn't an excuse for us to let you without any spare clothing. Our best tailors will be happy to work on a unique character like you. The dinner will be in six hours, I'll send a guard to your room to accompany you to the dinner room. If you need everything, don't hesitate to call for the maids."

Fox scratched the back of his neck. "Thank for your generosity Princess."

"You're our guest Mr. McCloud, it's the least we can do. See you later."

Then, Celestia trotted away, in the direction of the throne room, leaving Fox completely alone. The latter opened the door and entered. The chamber was colored in red and orange. There was a king-size bed in the middle of the room and a nightstand on each side. The door to the bathroom was on his left and two closets on his right. When Fox looked up, he could see a picture of the sun and the night on the ceiling. There was also a large window leading to a balcony. From said balcony, Fox could see the city of Canterlot and the landscape behind it.

The orange vulpine crossed his arms and smiled.

"It's seems that StarFox is back into action again. I wonder where this adventure will lead me…"

Mission N°1: Enter Star Fox

A few days have passed since Fox’s arrival on Equestria. The news of his presence was spread all around the country. The guards stationed at the castle were slowly changing their behavior, they became less aggressive and nervous in his presence and wherever he walked, the disgusted looks had almost stopped. But he couldn't say the same about the civilians… mostly because he hasn't left the castle since his forced landing. Unfortunately, the vulpine didn’t receive any answer to his S.O.S but wasn’t losing hope. He knew that one way or another, he’ll go back to the Lylat System and to his mothership.

But there was one thing he feared the most….his friends' reaction to his prolonged absence and possible death.

The morning after his crash, he began to work on his ship with the help of the scientists and engineers, not before explaining for a few hours what the G-Diffuser was and how it worked. Firstly, they repaired the weakened left wing by using small iron bars and then, the group replaced the damaged parts of the Bombs' Launcher. In the end, it took them three days to repair those two things. But the hardest problem was still to be done.

Fox and the others had to partially remove the G-Diffusers placed on each side of the engine to have access to the cooling system and replace it. The worst part of this job was to secure the extraction of the plasma engine and its instable Zero-point energy core, thanks to the high electron density in it.

After a quick talk with the scientists, the vulpine decided to let them study the Arwing a little longer before working on the last part of the project. Not that he was in a hurry or anything but he preferred take him his time to do things correctly rather than rush it and mess up. During his first real dinner in Equestria, in the dinner room with Celestia and Luna, Fox had the misfortune to meet Prince Blueblood. Said Prince which declared he was a filthy creature who doesn't belong there and shouldn't be authorized to stay in the castle. He even called Fox a "thing".

In his youth, the vulpine had to deal with this kind of guy at the Cornerian Flight Academy and wasn't offended at all. He simply laughed and ignored him. Fortunately, Celestia stopped the verbal assault from the unicorn before it could go further. Fox was a diplomatic guest and had to be treated as such. During the whole dinner, the vulpine could see the hate behind Blueblood's eyes but didn't care… unless he was a threat to his plans.

Today was Fox's fifth day since his apparition in Equestria. He had met the two Princesses at breakfast and he talked a little more about his life and his team mates. There was a part of sadness and an ounce of hope in his eyes.

Actually, the mercenary was admiring Canterlot and its buildings from his balcony. A sigh escaped his muzzle. This world was truly magnificent and peaceful, living in an era that he only heard about in books. He was happy to see they didn’t have to live in the prospect of a war, contrary to the Lylat System which had to deal with a conflict every few years.

The feeling of the wind against his fur made him close his eyes in delight and smile. Yeah, he definitively liked this planet. Heck, he could come back here in a few months or years for a vacation.

Unfortunately, his train of thoughts was interrupted by three knocks at his chamber's door.

"Who is it?"

"I'm a messenger, sir. Her Majesty sent me to fetch you."

Fox could sense the haste in his voice. He walked back inside to open the door. In front of him was a light grey Unicorn Guard in his golden armor.

"Why?"

"I don't know but she said it was very important and related to your contract…or something like this."

Just at the moment the pony finished his sentence, the fox was running like a madman in direction of the throne room. He pushed aside the ponies waiting for day court and entered in the room. Celestia was sitting on her throne, looking at the bipedal creature who interrupted the actual session.

"Ah Fox, just the fox I was waiting for."

He smirked and rolled his eyes at the bad pun.

"I heard from your messenger you need my help?"

"Yes." She then signaled for the civilians and guards in the room to leave them alone before continuing. "Luna detected a magical presence in the Everfree Forest, not far from Ponyville, a rural city. Unfortunately, we don't know precisely where it is. Your mission is to go there and investigate. If you find anything about what we're dealing, report ASAP to us or your local referent, Twilight Sparkle."

The mercenary crossed his arms and nodded.

"The Element of Magic, if I remember right."

"And my personal student too."

"Okay, anything else I need to know?"

Celestia stood up from her throne and walked to Fox before stopping in front of him. Her long horn glowed gold and the communicator/P.D.A wrapped around his left wrist glowed too. After a few seconds, it disappeared.

"Thanks to the researches made by our scientists on your Arwing, they were able to make magic interact with your technology without damaging it. I memorized the actual map of Ponyville, the Everfree Forest and the important cities in Equestria before transferring this knowledge in your P.D.A."

Fox looked at his device and checked. Just like the Princess said, the map of the castle and Canterlot were displayed on the screen.

"Well, thanks. I'm sure it will be useful."

"Now go. A royal chariot is waiting for you at the main gate. It will drop you at Ponyville's Library, where my protégé lives. Good luck."

He didn't say anything and dashed in the direction indicated by the princess. Two white pegasus in full armor, tied to a golden chariot, were indeed waiting. There was no need for words between the fox and the two ponies.

The mercenary jumped in it and the cart immediately took off.

Twenty minutes later

From his position, Fox could see the outskirt of Ponyville. The city was indeed very different from Canterlot. He didn't have to wait long to fly above the city. The houses were made of wood and not cement, contrary to the capital of the country. The duo of guards began their descent and softly landed in front of a house…a tree house. There was a sign on the left of the house with something written on it: Golden Oak Library.

"Must be here." whispered the mercenary, walking to the door and knocking three times.

He didn't have to wait long before a purple aura surrounded the door and opened it.

"What can I do fo—" began a pony with the same color as the aura and with a horn on the head, stopping in the middle of her phrase when she saw who was in front of her.

"Twilight Sparkle, I suppose?"

"Y-yes, it's me."

He presented his left paw.

"Fox McCloud of the StarFox Team. A pleasure to meet you."

She shook it with a look of shock which quickly changed into one of utter joy.

"Princess Celestia told me in her letter you were coming and I'm so excited! It's not every day you have the chance to encounter and talk with an alien species, after all!"

He chuckled and rolled his eyes. "If only you knew. I've met a lot of intelligent species, some were coming from the past and others were mechanicals creatures."

Her excitement almost doubled when she heard this.

"How so?"

"Well, I'd like to talk about it but—"

Before he could say anything else, Fox was interrupted by the arrival of a yellow mare with pink mane and wings, followed by two fillies.

"Twilight, I need your help!" said the pegasus in a soft voice but with a worried look on her face. She took a few steps back when she saw Fox.

"What's wrong?"

One of the two fillies, with white coat and a two-tone mane talked. "It's Scootaloo! We were collecting a few plants for Zecora in the Everfree when a group of Timberwolves attacked us! She distracted them so we could alert Fluttershy."

Hearing this, Fox's eyes widened and he let out a growl before manipulating a few buttons on his wrist communicator.

"ROB, could you send me a Landmaster, pl…" He shook his head and sighed. "Damn! Old habits die hard, I guess. Twilight, I want you, yellow pony and the two foals to stay here. I take care of this."

The librarian was about to protest when he quickly trotted to the chariot.

"Guys, to the Everfree's border."

One of the guards turned his head in the mercenary's direction.

"But sir, our orders were to…—"

"Listen carefully what I'm going to say: this is an emergency, there's an innocent life in danger. I have the grade of Captain in the army so technically, I'm your superior. I don't care about your orders, I'll assume the consequences of my acts even if the Princess banishes me on the moon. Drop me to the forest, nothing more nothing less. Understood?"

Twilight looked at him, impressed. The way he acted and talked was very familiar to her. She could clearly see he had the spirit and heart of a leader, just like her brother. The Sun Guards obeyed and the cart flew off in direction of the forest.

Flying low and at full speed, it took them less than two minutes to arrive at their destination.

"Thanks for the ride, and sorry for being harsh with you but the situation forced me to do it." He patted one of them on the back and jumped.

When he touched the ground, Fox rolled on the side to lessen the impact and the pain. But it didn't stop him from letting out a grunt of discomfort. Just as planned, the ex-leader had landed in front of the forest. He stood up and ran inside the Everfree, not knowing the dangers waiting for him.

The forest was dark and thick, blocking most of the sunrays. There were a lot of trees, some dead and others full of life. The atmosphere coming from this place was strange, almost evil. Even if he knew what he was going to do could be the death of him, the fox called for the filly. It was giving his position for anyone who wanted to kill him but it was his only option at the moment. The mercenary continued to run, looking everywhere for something out of the ordinary, something with bright color.

His left ear flickered, hearing a distant voice. A plea coming from someone young. Fox instantly changed his original direction and accelerated. The filly’s life was in his paws and he didn’t have the right to mess with it. She was his main objective at the moment, nothing else. Lowering his head to dodge a branch, he entered into a small clearing. An orange filly with violet mane and eyes was facing five creatures made of wood, her back against a tree. From where he was, Fox could see the terrified look in her eyes.

“Hey!”

All the people present in the clearing turned their heads in the direction of the newcomer. Wolves, thought Fox. Theses creatures are wolves made of wood. Fucking great. Wherever I am, you always find a way to be there, coincidence or not.

“We can do this the easy way or the hard way, you choose…”

One of the timberwolves snarled at him and ordered one of his companions to take care of him with a move of the head. Fox immediately understood the movement and snickered. He exhaled loudly and unsheltered his blaster, which was tied to his right leg. Fox almost could feel the adrenaline in his veins and his heart against his chest. Despite his little run, he was still breathing calmly. A smirk grew on his white muzzle.

“You want it the hard way? Perfect, that’s what I was expecting.”

The wolf chosen to do the dirty job jumped at his prey, his maw wide open and ready to kill. Fox sidestepped and punched it in the chest. The creature broke into tiny pieces of wood. Seeing this, the others timberwolves ignored Scootaloo and began circling their new target. One of them lowered itself to the ground, ready to pounce, and leaped at the ex-leader who kneeled down to dodge it. Then, he raised his weapon to the nearest opponent and pulled the trigger a few times. One laser finished its course in the wolf's head. Again, pieces of wood fell on the dirt where it once stood.

Seeing he was in a vulnerable position, Fox rolled on the side to evade any attack and stood up with one knee on the ground. His blaster was still raised in front of him.

Heck, despite the fact he was outnumbered, the orange vulpine was on the winning side, thanks to his training, his weapon and his survival instincts. The now-three wooden wolves didn't mind at all the lost of one of their pack members… and that what was worrying him. At the same time, the trio lunged at him. His eyes widened when he saw this and unfortunately, reacted too late.

Fox jumped on the side but had his blaster knocked away by one of the timberwolves' paws. Before he could do anything to take it back, one of the wolves had it under its leg.

"So, no weapon then? Alright, bring it!" he said, clenching his fists and raising them at eye level.

This time, it was Fox's turn to be on the offensive. He dashed to the group and delivered a powerful roundhouse kick to one of them on the face before punching the second on the head. The third creature leaped, paw raised. Fox's instincts kicked in and he leaned on the right to dodge the blow. Unfortunately, the claws touched his skin, leaving three gashes soon filled with red blood.

The fox growled in pain and swore. Luckily, he could easily deal with the pain and the wound was just superficial. One of the wolves used the wound as a distraction to jump on Fox. The latter saw this from the corner of his eye and anticipated the move. He quickly stood up and stopped the creature's move by grapping its throat. Without hesitation, he snapped its neck.

More wood pieces fell on the ground.

Fox turned his head in direction of the two creatures still alive.

"You should go away if you value your lives."

The duo gulped and ran off with their tails between their legs. The vulpine exhaled loudly, feeling the adrenaline wearing off. A small whimper brought him back to reality and he slowly walked to the small filly. She was looking at him with a frightened look. Fox was almost on her when she closed her eyes, sobbing and waiting for the final blow but it never came. Seeing this, he sat on his knees, a tiny smile on his face.

"Hey, don't worry. Everything will be just fine."

She looked at him with a surprised look.

"What the heck are you?"

"Fox McCloud, at your service. I suppose you're Scootaloo?"

The orange pegasus nodded.

"You can thank your friends because without them, you wouldn't be here."

"How so?"

"They alerted a yellow pony, I think her name was…Fluttershy who rushed to Twilight for help. Fortunately, I was here so I decided to look for you by myself."

"That's completely crazy!"

"Yeah but it was my only option at the moment."

He stood up and began walking where he had dropped his weapon.

"Thank you for saving me."

"No probl—"

Fox was interrupted by a beeping noise coming from his P.D.A. He looked at it and saw a message on it: High amount of magical energy detected! A dark blue and black mist entered the clearing. It split in three smaller fogs and each one flew in direction of what was remaining of the timberwolves. Then, they dashed against each other, creating a bigger timberwolf but this one had white eyes and looked far more dangerous than the others. The mercenary's eyes narrowed.

"I think it was what the Princess was talking about" he whispered, to himself. "Well, I have to use a bigger weapon to kill it."

His hand reached his belt and he took a circular object from it. The mercenary pushed a little button on it and aimed before launching it with all his strength, right into the Timberwolf King's throat. The latter swallowed it and a few seconds later, its chest exploded. The dark mist flew away from the corpse, retreating in the forest. Scootaloo watched this, a dumbfounded look on her face.

"Follow me, we should leave this place before something else want to eat us. And I have a rapport to write to the Princess, one more reason to not stay here longer than needed."

She snapped out of her trance and quickly trotted to Fox's side.

"It was so awesome! How did you do it?"

"Grenade."

"Could you do it again?"

The vulpine chuckled while looking at his map to find a path to get out of the forest.

"I don't think it would be a good idea."

Mission N°1: Mission Accomplished

Author's Note

I'm sorry if Scootaloo sounds a little Ooc but I'm not very familiar with her personality and sorry for the delay, I had a lot of exams lately.

Healing and Stories

Fox hissed in pain when the bandage touched his left upper arm and was wrapped around on the injury by a yellow hoof. He felt like a hundred needles had pierced his arm at the same time. And honestly, it wasn't something you'd like to feel everyday...but the orange mercenary was better than that.

"Oh…I'm sorry. I should have been more careful." said Fluttershy's soft voice, lowering her head to the ground and slightly afraid that Fox could be mad at her or yell in anger because of her mistake.

His right hand stopped writing and he turned his head in direction of the yellow pegasus, a small smile on his face. Fortunately, she was kind enough to escort back the three fillies to their respective homes before taking care of Fox's injury. Contrary to what they thought, Fluttershy wasn’t that afraid of the bipedal vulpine but still cautious of how he could react.

"Don't worry, you didn't do purposely and to tell you the truth, I had far worse than this. It's just a scratch for someone like me. I'm not angry at all."

"It's strange that you use the term someone rather than somepony." inquired Twilight, sitting in a chair and looking at the scene in front of her while her assistant, a green and purple dragon named Spike, was cleaning the bookshelves.

"It's the way we talk where I'm coming from."

"About that, could you tell us what you are and describe your world? I’m rather curious to hear your story."

While saying this, her horn glowed purple, she put a notepad and a quill in front of her, ready to write everything he was about to say. She smiled widely and let out a ‘squee’. A sigh escaped the mercenary's muzzle in response to her childish curiosity and he shook his head in defeat.

"The Princess didn't told you who I am?"

"She gave a physical description of you but stayed vague about why you're here."

"Well, since I have some time to spare before receiving my next orders from your ruler, I'll give you the how and why I'm here. For the safety of your country, it's best if you don't divulge it to the populace. Since you're the Element of Magic, I trust you with this."

During the next half-hour, he continued to write his report, let Spike send it with his magical flame, something which was completely unbelievable for him, and explained everything that happened the last few days. He also told them about his origins and what kind he job he was doing before.

"Wait!" said Twilight, understanding the situation. "You're in Ponyville because of the magical disturbance from the moon I felt a few days ago! You think this black mist which created the King Timberwolf has something to do with it?"

"I don't know… if it's the case, we have to be prepared to meet it again and destroy it before it could do any real damaged to Equestria or the world. I've spend a full day in the Royal Library to search any evidence about who would try to mess up with the moon. The only powerful being I think capable of doing this is 'The Nightmare' but I could be wrong. Discord is reformed, the Changelings are in peace with Equestria and Sombra is….are you sure he's definitively gone? He doesn't have any real connections with the moon but he can take the appearance of a fog. That could give us the identity of who I've fought in the forest."

This time, it was Spike's turn to answer.

"I'm sure! I saw his defeat with my own eyes!"

"Okay, so we only have one suspect at the moment."

Needless to say, the two mares were surprised to hear the possibility of the Nightmare's return after all this time. The dragon, who was tall in comparison with the ponies (4'8") but still shorter than Fox, was a little angered by this and also too eager to fight if the suspicions about the evil creature were true. The orange vulpine chuckled at this. This little guy reminded him a lot Tricky. After living with the prince for a few weeks, he was certain that some parts of their personalities were alike.

After this, the pegasus excused herself and left the library, explaining she had to take care of a few sick animals. Fox thanked her for healing his wound.

“She’s the Element of Kindness, it’s completely normal after all.”

“I don’t agree with you. Despite the fact it’s her element, she still have to be thanked. I’ll give you an example: Fluttershy and someone else help the same person, or pony if you prefer. And said pony only thank the second person but not Fluttershy, do you think it’s normal?”

“Not at all!”

Fox smiled and crossed his arms.

“So, in my case, I corrected the mistake made in the example. Do you understand now?”

Twilight nodded and opened her mouth to reply when the mercenary cut her off.

“You know, by hearing what you and your friends did… you remind me when I was younger. I don’t say I’m old but I used to be a leader, ready to accept every mission proposed by the government, whatever were the risks for me or my friends. But I stopped this kind of activity.”

The ease he had to suddenly change the topic of discussion was rather disturbing for the librarian.

“Why don't you do it anymore? What happened to make you change your mind?”

“I grew up. I learned that some things are not worth doing it. Especially if the possibilities of losing my teammates is greater than accomplish the mission. I may be only thirty years old but I’ve seen and lived a lot of events.”

“Wow, that’s deep.” replied Spike, surprised by the wisdom in Fox’s words.

“I’m just speaking from personal experience, nothing else. You’ll do the same when you’ll see all the things the world has to offer. Every friend I've met, every fight I had, every loss I've mourned. It changed me into who I am today.”

A short silence settled into the room before Twilight broke it, a slight hurry and shame in her voice.

"I'm sorry for not asking sooner but would you like a cup of tea, Fox? I hope you're okay with me calling you by your name."

The ex-leader shrugged.

"I prefer coffee but I'm not against tea…and I don't mind, if I can do the same with you, Twilight."

He put two fingers on his chin and began scratching, lost in his thoughts. "You know what? For once, screw coffee!"

For the first time in years, he laughed. It wasn't a laugh which sounded wrong. No, this one was coming from the heart. The warmth coming from this simple gesture was rather pleasant. It had been a long time since he acted like this.

Before the unicorn could move, Spike walked in direction of the kitchen.

"I'm on it, Twi."

Her horn glowed purple and she teleported in front of the young dragon, a small and almost motherly smile on her face.

"I can do it myself and besides, you could talk with Fox. I'm sure he wouldn't mind."

The drake reluctantly nodded and walked back in the main room before sitting on one of the chairs.

"So…Spike, I suppose you have some interesting adventures to tell? Care to share them with me?"

A big grin grew on his face.

The next ten minutes were spent in resuming what happened during the Dragon Migration and how he saved the Crystal Empire from Sombra's reign. Twilight came back from the kitchen with two cups of tea and gave one of them to Fox with her magic. The vulpine nodded as a 'thank you' gesture and continued to listen to Spike's tale, quietly. When he stopped talking, the ex-leader blinked a few times.

"Well, it's seems you lived a fascinating and dangerous adventure, I don't think I could have done everything you did."

"It wasn't a big deal, really."

"It was Spike. You faced your worst fear, something I couldn't have the courage to do. Yes, I had to pass the test of fear to retrieve the Krazoa Spirit but it wasn't as bad as you."

The dragon and the purple pony looked at him, surprised.

"What's your worst fear, Fox? What are you afraid of?"

A defeated sigh escaped his muzzle.

"Leave the living world alone, without my friends by my side. We've gone through a lot of things together and I want to see them a last time before giving my final breath."

The duo didn't say anything, letting an awkward silent settle in the room. Deep inside their hearts, they knew they feared the same thing than him, especially since they arrived at Ponyville. Twilight and Spike met a lot of friends during the last four years, each of them holding a special place in them. So, in a way, they knew what he was feeling right now.

Fortunately, the unicorn directed the discussion to another topic.

"Earlier, you mentioned someone called Rob, who is it?"

Immediately, the vulpine's behavior changed and a small smile appeared on his muzzle.

"ROB is a robot, created by my father but not completed when he died. To put it simply, a robot is a creature made of metal and can have the physical appearance of someone, like me, but without the fur and the emotions."

"Like a drone?"

"Yeah, it fit the description."

"Back to the question, ROB was the only member of the team still with me after the Anglar Wars. His job is to control my mothership and provide me with information when I'm on a mission. Ah, he can also send a vehicle if I'm on the ground or a bomb for my Arwing if my lasers are not enough to take care of my foes."

"I still have some difficulties to think all of this is real. The mere fact we're not the only sentient beings in the universe is a big step for the science! If we create an exchange program, we could learn a lot from each other; think of all the possibilities if we mix your technology and our magic!"

Fox couldn't help but laugh. Twilight was acting like a child on her birthday, waiting for the permission to open her gifts.

"I agree with you but we could talk about it later, no need to rush things."

"Sorry." The lavender mare lightly blushed and looked at the ground. "I have the habit to become ecstatic when it involves books, magic or science. Or all of them at the same time."

"Don't be. I wouldn't act differently if I was in your position."

Before they could continue their discussion, Spike opened his maw and belched. A green flame escaped from it and a parchment popped in the air. Twilight took it in her magic and opened it. After two seconds, she gave it to Fox. Apparently, it was for him.

Dear Fox McCloud,

I’m happy to learn you accomplished your mission without a hitch and I hope your wound don’t incapacitate you too much. Despite that good news, your report about this ‘black fog’ is worrying us. It is unfortunate that you couldn't follow it but you had somepony’s life in your paws and it was your main objective at the moment. So I completely understand your choice. If you want, you’re allowed to stay at Ponyville to make the acquaintance of Twilight’s friends or go back to the Castle. Whatever you choose, reply to this letter and if it's the latter, I'll send a chariot.

Seal of the Co-Ruler of Equestria, Princess Celestia

"What are you going to do?" asked Twilight.

The ex-leader shrugged.

"I think I'll stay here for the moment. I'm going to work with you and your friends so… the best thing to do is introduce me to them."

"It's not going to be as awkward as with Fluttershy, I promise."

He laughed. "Don't worry, I trust you Twilight."

The Bearers

Fox and Twilight were actually talking about how politics and administration worked on Corneria, compared to Equestria. The mare was surprised that even with the technology's help to work faster, there were still some things like paperwork which couldn't be taken care of quickly. She couldn't wrap her mind around the concept of electing a ruler every five years but Fox didn't blame her. All her life, she lived under the same reign, she couldn't understand even as open-minded as she was. It was very interesting for him to see all the differences and similarities between the two worlds. The laws of physics were not applied the same way as in Lylat, thanks for the magic and the fact the sun and the moon were raised by two ponies.

Spike had left the library ten minutes ago to retrieve all Twilight's friends, except Fluttershy, of course. The duo was now debating about how artificial gravity was working when they heard a very loud gasp and moved the upper part of their bodies in direction of its source.

A pink head was stuck against one of the windows and the pair of blue eyes which accompanied them looked at the fox and the purple mare, wide open. "I knew it!" said a high pitched voice, belonging to the head.

The mercenary blinked.

"I knew there was a new pony in town! My Pinkie Sense told me so."

"What the-Slippy?" whispered Fox, completely paralyzed by the scene in front of him.

That voice…the orange vulpine didn't know how but it had some familiarities with the amphibian's one. It was, at least, very disturbing. The second after the strange pony said this, she disappeared.

"Hi!"

This time, the voice was coming from behind them. Instinctively, Fox jumped from his seat, withdraw his blaster from his holster and turned around. The barrel of his gun was directly pointed to her head.

"Pinkie! Don't scare us like that!" replied Twilight, breathing rapidly and with a hoof on her chest. "Fox, she's a friend, there's nothing to fear."

When the mercenary saw that the Earth Pony wasn't a threat, he lowered his arm and put his weapon in its place.

"I'm Pinkie Pie! You must be new here because it's the first time I see you! I mean, it's not every day you meet a fox on two legs and I never saw you in town before. What's your name? Wait, let me guess… something related with 'fox' I suppose? *gasp* silly me, it's Fox, isn't it?"

He stayed completely silent, looking at her as if she had something on her face.

"Helloooooo?" The party pony waved a hoof in front of him but he didn't react. "I have some cupcake on my nose or something?"

"I think you broke him….Fox, you alright?"

The mercenary blinked a few times, regaining his senses. "Yeah, I think I'll be fine. I'm sorry for my reaction, it's just, you remind of an old friend of mine."

"His name is Slippy, isn't it? You mentioned it when Pinkie appeared at the window." asked Twilight.

His head nodded 'yes'. "He's used to be the mechanic of the team. We went to school together and he was the first person I asked to join me when General Pepper wanted Peppy to form a new StarFox Team. His father, Beltino Toad, was one of the creators of the original Arwing."

The sound of a door opening resonated in the living room, quickly followed by Spike's voice.

"Twilight, I'm back!"

The trio could also hear the sound of other hoofsteps, meaning that the young dragon correctly did his job.

"Hey Twilight, Spike said you wanted to se-" A cerulean mare with wings, rainbow mane and tail stopped flying when she saw the librarian and the baker in the company of the vulpine. The other two stayed silent but had a surprised and frightened look on their faces. They were obviously afraid of this new creature, which was something Fox could understand, but they had the courtesy to not treat him as a monster. Or maybe they were too mentally broken to have any kind of reaction at the moment.

"What the heck is that?!"

'This girl sounds exactly like Falco, interesting'

Twilight made a few steps forward.

"Girls, I present you Fox McCloud. He's the captain of the StarFox Team, a group of mercenary, and ambassador of the Lylat System during his stay here. He's our ally."

The orange fox slightly bowed his head in respect.

"No need to present yourselves, Princess Celestia gave a little briefing about each of you."

The blue one, who was named Rainbow Dash, flew to him with a slight frown on her face. He instinctively tensed, with his paw on his holster and ready to unsheathe his gun if she showed the slightest sign of hostility.

"Scoots told me you saved her hide in the Everfree but I didn't believe her until now. I think I owe you one buddy."

He raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

"You're her sister?"

She shook her head. "Nope. Just her idol, she's… she's an orphan."

Fox cringed when he heard this. He had become an orphan himself when the last member of his family died when he was fourteen. Fortunately, Peppy took him under his wing and trained him to be the man he was today. In his eyes, he considered the rabbit as his step-father, assuming this role after the tragedy on Venom. The ex-leader's heart ached in sadness because he remembered clearly the pain he felt when the old pilot told him the news about his deceased father.

"Oh, well... send her my regards, I lived the same fate. My mother was killed by a car bomb and my dad was tortured to death… both by the same person."

Seeing the look in their eyes and feeling the now cold atmosphere in the library, he gave them a sad smile.

"But it's in the past, no need to bring back bad memories again."

"You're right, we should concentrate on the current task."

During the twenty minutes which followed Fox's introduction to the trio of mares, Twilight resumed the recent events, with the orange vulpine adding his own version and the purpose of his presence in Equestria and more precisely Ponyville, at the moment. It wasn't hard to tell that Rarity was the most shocked by this, the mere idea of Nightmare's return was enough to prevent her for sleeping for the next few days. Spike was at her side, trying to soothe her mind by gently stroking her barrel with a claw but Rarity's brain was set in a panic mode.

"What am I going to do? I can be in danger if I stay here or I'll have to close the Boutique if I seek refuge at the Castle! But I don't want to let Sweetie Belle behind."

Her train of thought was interrupted by a southern voice.

"Ah think it wouldn't do any good if ya leave Ponyville, Rares. If ya stay here, we can confront it together!"

"I know! I know!" yelled Pinkie, bouncing. "We could all live at one place and the fog will leave us alone!"

"Applejack and Pinkie are right, it's not going to do anything against us if we are with each other. Besides, we have Discord if something bad happen."

"You can count on me, too. At the second my Arwing will be fully repaired, I'll be able to fly from Canterlot to here in less than three minutes."

Twilight and Rainbow Dash turned their heads to him, surprised.

"It's impossible! The record for this distance is twelve minutes and belongs to Spitfire, the captain of the Wonderbolts."

"What is the maximum speed your best flyer can reach?"

"Rainbow can break the sound barrier, she's the fastest."

A cocky smirk grew on his face.

"I can do it….four times. Well, exactly, 4.2 times."

The purple mare's eyes light up. The cyan mare's jaw dropped on the ground.

"How?"

He shrugged.

"It's technology. I ain't gonna explain it!"

"Plea-"

The blue pegasus interrupted her unicorn friend.

"Prove it!"

"Give me a few days or a week and I'll give you the race of your life."

"I'm in."

He shook her hoof, vigorously.

'Wow, Falco would have so many things to share with her.' he thought. 'In a way, it's perfectly normal, they're both brash and competitive. Wait a minute.'

Fox looked at all the ponies in the room before concentrating on four of them.

'Pinkie Pie sounds and act like Slippy, Rainbow Dash is a copy of Falco, this Applejack think the same way as Peppy and Twilight is their leader, guiding them as best as possible. Just like me. Now, I have a reason to believe that some things can exist on two planets even if they don't have anything in common. Another StarFox but on a pony planet… they should call themselves StarPony *chuckles*'

"Something's wrong, darling?"

"Huh…no, I was thinking about something funny."

"Oh, care to share with us?"

"Nah, it's nothing. Just a little comparison between our worlds."

The purple mare frowned, lost by the meaning of his words. "What's funny in this? I don't understand."

The mercenary sighed.

"Well, you, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash act a lot like me and my old team. In fact, I was comparing your personalities to ours."

He put his right paw in one of the pocket of his flying jacket and let out a picture of him and his friends, taken just after the Lylat Wars. Then, Fox pointed an index on each member and at the same time, voicing who was the Equestrian counterpart.

Needless to say, the group of ponies was interested by this fact, Twilight more than the others, of course.

"I suppose you don't share my love of books, don't you?"

"I'm not against a book from time to time but not to the point of buying one each week."

"So, what are ya' goin' to do now?" asked Applejack, curious about what he'll do next.

Fox looked at her, a small smile on his face.

"My mission here is complete and I've met my co-workers so, I'm going back to Canterlot. The scientists need my help to repair the last part of my ship."

Pinkie looked at him, eyes wide open.

"No 'Welcome to Ponyville' party?"

"There're some higher priorities for the moment. Arwing in first, everything else later." Her smile faltered a little. "But we'll have one if you really want."

The orange vulpine turned his head in Twilight's direction.

"Could you send a letter to Princess Celestia saying I'm ready to leave Ponyville and that I'll wait here."

"Sure."

She grabbed a letter and a quill with her magic before writing a quick note. Then, she gave it to Spike who blew his green fire on it. The four mares left the library leaving the fox, mare and drake alone. Finally, after twenty minutes of waiting, they heard the sound of flapping outside and a knock at the door. Fox rose from his seat and opened it. In front of him were two pegasus guards, in full armor, looking impassively.

"Sir McCloud?"

A chuckle escaped his lips when he heard it.

"Yes, it's me."

"We're ready to take you back to the Castle, the Princess wish to speak to you with about something really important."

He raised an eyebrow, intrigued by the fact the guard told him implicitly to not waste time. "No problem. Let me just say goodbye."

Fox gave a brofist to Spike with a wink and a smile then, he nodded to Twilight before jumping in the cart. The duo began trotting before quickening the pace. They opened their white wings wide and leaped in the sky, flapping fast to gain altitude and stay airborne.

Meanwhile

Location : Unknown

The dark blue fog was flying. It wasn't worried of being spotted, thanks to the black void and the stars around it. Nopony could see it even if they had to look up in the sky. Finally, the gloomy mist landed on a cold and grey ground. Only silence greeted it. Floating in the direction of a cave, it saw a lot of holes in the soil and long trail of sand with it. They all pointed in the same direction, inside the grotto. If there was air in this place, the silence would have been replaced by the sound of metal clanking.

Once inside, it could see a lot of ponies with blank eyes and working on steel birds. There was a few of these strange things which were completely intact, except for the glass part, on top of the creature. The equines working on them were coming from the three races, each one of them using its natural ability to repair them. The ponies were guarded by changelings, all in their natural forms. Sometimes, a mare was stopped in her work and escorted to a room by two bug-ponies. The fate for them was far worse than just working on a flying metal bird; it was to become a broodmare for the love-thieves.

The cavern in which all those kidnapped and brainwashed ponies were working was lit by torches infused with magic. They only needed to be refueled once every month.

Finally, the fog arrived at the end of the cave, in front of two thrones with another fog on one of them. The second mist was black, as black as the darkness. Both of them took a pony appearance, each one corresponding to its color.

"I have some news for you, master." said the newcomer, with a hollow and strange voice, belonging neither to a mare or a stallion.

"Pray tell, I'm all ears."

The second pony's tone was deep and echoed in the room, proving it was a male.

"While I was searching for the Timberwolf nest, I've found a very exotic creature. An orange fox walking on two legs and talking. This mere fact was more than enough to remove it from this world, and this is what I tried, but I underestimated it. It used a weapon similar to those on the birds."

"You think they're coming from the same place?"

The pony with dark blue and violet coat smirked.

"Probably. Anyway, it's just a thorn in the hoof, nothing else. It will not last more than a few seconds against our combined power."

"And what about the old castle? Did you find what you wanted?"

"Yes. We have to keep the bearers alive if you want your whole body back. I can't wait to see their faces full of fear when they'll see us."

"Soon, Celestia, Luna, the dragon and their friends will perish by our hooves." The black pony licked his lips. "With our powers, nopony would dare to challenge us. Then, we'll be able to conquer the rest of the universe with those metallic creatures!"

Author's Note

Sorry for the long wait, I had a lot of exams lately and it will be worse in the coming weeks. I'll do my best to update faster but no promise!

Farewell Fox

The sound of boots against the red carpet, leading to the golden double doors, echoed in the wide corridor. On the left, the windows' paintings were shining brightly, thanks to the sun and the clear sky. A few sunrays touched his face, warming the fur under his green eye. One of the two guards opened the door to let him enter in the room.

"Announcing Fox McCloud, captain of the Star Fox Team and ambassador of the Lylat System!" said the unicorn.

The vulpine walked inside with a concerned look on his face. The guard's comment about Celestia who wanted to see him to talk on an important subject was enough to put him on alert. If it was another magical activity detected in a random part of the country, he wasn't against confronting it. His encounter with the timberwolves was more than enough to revive the dying warrior's spirit present in his heart. The same flame which gave him the determination to save Lylat each time something was threatening it.

All the secretaries and advisors turned their heads in his direction. For some of them, it was the first time they had the possibility to see the legendary pilot in flesh and bones. Naturally, the mere fact that he was taller than them was frightening… something he could completely understand.

After all, they were not used to deal with a talking alien every day.

The Princess of the Sun looked up from the scroll in front of her and faintly smiled, taking care to not break the impassive mask she was wearing when she's working. An aura of authority, leadership, maturity and wisdom was emanating from him, something that Celestia respected greatly.

The vulpine stopped a few feet away from the throne and bowed his head. Then, he cleared his throat. "When the carriage you send arrived, one of your Pegasus Guard told me you wanted to see me, your Majesty."

She nodded in return, as a sign to greet him and to confirm what he said.

"Indeed. I wanted to inform you that your presence in Equestria is now known by almost all the countries of Equis and some rulers want to meet you. I've decided to organize a dinner, here, so they could have the chance to make your acquaintance. Do you have any problem with it?"

He shook his head. "No. In fact, I was almost sure something like would have happened before I could go back to Corneria. Now, what I'd like to know is: when and who will be attending?"

"In three days. There'll be my niece, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, who rules the Crystal Empire, the Griffon King, the Changeling Queen, Chrysalis, and the ambassador of Zebrica. Unfortunately, the rulers of Prench and Saddle Arabia can't come so, they're sending their own ambassador."

This time, the orange fox nodded. He wasn't very fond of fancy dinners, especially those in which he has to be careful with his words if he didn't want a diplomatic conflict. And the coming meeting was a very good example.

"That's all?"

"Almost, I'd like to know how well your meeting with the bearers went."

"It's was…" His left arm went behind his head and his paw scratched the back of his neck while he was searching for the right words to describe the encounter. "…interesting."

"That's good to hear, I hope Pinkie Pie didn't bother you too much."

She was keeping a straight face but Fox knew that in her mind, the white Alicorn was smiling.

"She's very strange and intriguing. Her ability of popping out of nowhere caught me by surprise. Either I'm rustier than I thought or she's very good to play hide-and-seek because I didn't hear her coming from behind me."

A chuckle escaped Celestia's lips.

"Well, I'm happy to know you didn't have any problem to get along with them. There's nothing else I have to discuss with you so you can leave if you want."

"Great, I bid you a good day Princess." He bowed and began to leave the room.

"You too, Fox."

Just at the moment he was about to step outside the room, her eyes light up, as if she was remembering something important.

"Wait!"

The mercenary stopped walking and turned his head in her direction, one eyebrow raised. This time, the tall pony was wearing a wide grin.

"I just remembered that the scientists are ready to work on the next part. They're waiting for your approval and help to finish the repairs."

As if it was contagious, Fox grinned too.

"Thanks for the information, I'll go meet them in the Royal Gardens and we're going to fix my ship ASAP."

Happy to hear such news, he ran in direction of the nearest door which could lead him to where his Arwing was stationed. Once outside, he could indeed see the unicorn scientists who were removing the engine with extreme precaution. The vulpine joined them and played his part by pulling it to him and giving a few instructions. When they lowered it to the ground, Fox groaned and let out a small and sad sigh.

"Something's wrong, Mr. McCloud?" demanded one of the ponies, a light grey mare with glasses.

He pointed his index to a small piece of metal hanging in the middle of the now-empty space. "You see this? It's a special kind of nut. It was used to keep a pipe in contact with the engine to cool down the latter…except that it melted because of the intense heat. And another pipe was cut in two parts, also caused by the temperature."

"Well, we can duplicate a new one from the original and improve them to not be altered by the heat or cold if you want."

Fox closed his eyes and rubbed his left temple.

Until now, he only trusted one person to take care of his ship: Slippy. But now, without the amphibian, he had to let some strangers do the job. He didn't like that. It was his Arwing, his ship and one of his oldest friend, one who never turned his back to him. Letting somepony else repairing it was like selling it to anybody… and this was something the orange vulpine didn't want at all. But in this case, he didn't have the choice. He had to improve his whole ship if he wanted to stand a chance against whatever enemy was threatening Equestria.

And who know, it could be useful in a future fight against StarWolf.

"Okay, we'll do it and… could you modify the shape of the ship with your magic, I'd like to give him another form."

"It wouldn't be a problem, we know a transmogrification spell. Which one do you have in mind?"

A cocky smile appeared on his muzzle.

"Well, the style it had during the Aparoid Invasion wasn't so bad."

At the same moment
Location: Lylat System, Corneria, in General's Peppy room at the Cornerian Defense Forces' HQ.

A sad sigh escaped the ex-mechanic's lips. Black really wasn't his color, especially for an event like this one. When Falco called him five days ago to tell him Fox was dead, the amphibian was utterly destroyed by the news. His eyes were red, puffed and he had bags under them. Saying that he slept less than six hours during the first two days was an understatement.

His mind still couldn't wrap around the fact his childhood's friend wasn't in the living world anymore. Amanda tried to comfort him during the following days but it wasn't very effective.

Moving his head in direction of the desk, he saw Peppy who was putting his old pilot's wings badge on the left part of his vest. For the first time in a week, Slippy Toad smiled. Even if it was a weak one, it was still something. He was the first to have this idea and it seems that the other two present in the office had followed him on this.

It was more a symbol of respect for the deceased pilot than taking part again of active duty.

Anyway, the young father knew that Peppy was in a bad state, just like him, but the old rabbit had the hard habit to not show it and stay distant. And this was something Slippy was afraid of. The General was a very close friend of the McCloud family, just like his father Beltino Toad and him, and almost a second father to James' son. The lack of emotion on his face was worrying the toad.

Despite his lone-wolf attitude, Falco was very affected by his buddy's disappearance. At the beginning, he accused himself of Fox's absorption by the black hole. He often repeated that he should have stayed by the vulpine's side but Slippy and Peppy finally convinced him it wasn't his fault and he could have shared the same fate. Knowing his attitude in this kind of situation, they knew that he'd drank to the excess every night, waking up the next morning in his bed with a massive hangover. It was his way to not have a mental breakdown and do something he'll regret later.

Today, the whole system was sharing their pain. As a sign of empathy with the ex-leader of StarFox, there'll be having a full minute of silence at noon.

"Peppy?" called the blue avian.

The General turned his head in the pilot's direction.

"Yes?"

"I've received an answer from Miyu and Fay, they'll wait for us at the entry of the cemetery and Bill will be with them."

"What about Katt?"

"She's parked in front of the building, Lucy is with her."

Peppy nodded. His voice had become hollow and void of emotion even if he tried to stay as impassible as possible.

"Great. If everyone is ready, I think we can go. It's useless to wait any longer." He walked around his wooden desk, holding a picture of him, James, Lucy and Fox went they were young, in his hand.

Before he could make one step toward the door, the phone rang. A tired groan escaped his lips and he walked back to his desk. On the other side of the line was his secretary.

"I'm sorry to disturb you sir but someone want to see you before you left for the ceremony."

"Tell him it will have to wait, I have more important things to do today."

"She says it's very urgent and it can't wait."

The old rabbit shook his head.

"Send her. I'll make it quick."

"Yes sir."

Ten seconds later, the door opened to reveal a blue and white vixen.

"Krystal!?" said the three guys, in unison and shocked.

She walked in the room, wearing her dark blue flying suit with a grey jacket. The telepath had a sad smile on her face and her turquoise eyes were full of sorrow. She put her arms around the General and began to cry in his neck. The formed patted her back while Slippy was rubbing her arm as a sign of support. Falco stayed a few feet away, not really a fan of this kind of physical gestures. No word was needed to know the reason of her presence here.

"It's alright dear, he's in a better place now." whispered Peppy in her ear, trying to alleviate her pain.

The duo stayed in this position for one or two more minutes before they broke the hug. Krystal silently thanked Slippy for his act of kindness and looked at Lombardi who nodded. They were here for each other in this situation, after all.

"You should come, the others are waiting for us."

"I'm already having a headache. I need a drink." said Falco, randomly.

The rabbit made a faint motion with his head. "For once, I agree with you Falco."

The group left the room and walked into the corridor leading to the elevator. All the others workers present at this floor stopped what they were doing and stayed silent, in respect for the ex-members of the mercenary team and for the deceased leader. Of course, they did the same thing when Pepper retired from his post.

Finally, the four old teammates left the building, walking to the car parked in front of it. A pink cat with blue eyes left the vehicle and walked to them. Krystal hugged her, happy to know that one of her most trusted friends was coming too. Lucy Hare was waiting against the passenger door, smiling at the scene in front of her and waiting for her turn to talk with the vixen.

"Glad to know there'll be all of us present at the ceremony. I'm pleased you're here darling."

"Me too, Katt. Even if I would have liked to see you under other circumstances."

The feline confirmed she was thinking the same with a nod. The light pink rabbit walked to the blue Cerinian and greeted her. Then, the six people entered the car.

"Hey Krystal, where were you after all this time? We tried to find you on Sauria but Tricky said you weren't there."

"I've found a job on Kew, as a waitress. It wasn't much but it helped to pay the bills."

Falco turned his head from the window and looked at her.

"When did you learn about Fox?"

A sigh escaped her muzzle. "Three days ago, when they made the official announcement. I wanted to be here with you sooner but I had a lot of work lately."

She seemed sincere and, in truth, she really was. Despite everything that happened between her and Fox, she couldn't stop herself from loving him. Yes, he pushed her away, stained their friendship and hurt her feelings but at the same time, the orange vulpine saved her life and gave her a place she could call home.

"It's no biggie." replied the amphibian.

"He's right." added Peppy. "The most important is that you're here."

The Cerinian smiled when she heard this. The toad and the rabbit were those who had the softest heart, unlike Fox and Falco. Those two were not cold but had to remain impassible and distant. They had a reputation to conserve, one of leader for Fox and another of lone wolf and ace pilot for Falco.

After a few minutes of driving, the group of friends and old teammates arrived in front of the Military Cemetery of Corneria, where hundreds of souls were resting in peace. Today, there was one more which was joining them.

Three people were waiting at the entrance of the cemetery. One of them was a grey Bulldog, another was an orange lynx with black patterns on her body and the last was a white collie with a red bow. A group of journalist was also there but couldn't go near the car, thanks to the barrier installed by the police.

"Krystal." began Peppy. "I present you Miyu Lynx and Fay Spaniel. They used to work with us for two years after the Lylat Wars. They helped destroy what was remaining of Andross' army."

She shook their hand, with a small but sad smile on her face. She had to keep a straight face, she needed to be strong, for her, for Fox.

"The coffin is already in its place, in the same hole as James and Vixy. We give him our last goodbye and then, they'll bury him with his family, just like he wanted."

Together, the nine of them set foot in the place. They could see graves everywhere with one name or two on it. All had fallen because of the different conflicts during the past years. When they arrived near the familial grave, there was someone already waiting with a bouquet in its hand. The old brown hound was wearing his old red costume with his medals on his left breast and his hat.

Instinctively, the rest of the team stayed two meters away, letting Peppy walk alone to the person standing in front of the open grave.

"I should have known you'll be here, old friend."

The grey rabbit walked to the ex-General and hugged him before broking it a few seconds after.

"It's good to see you too Peppy." He turned his head to the grave, sighing sadly. "At least, he left us as a hero, like his father before him. But it means the end of the McCloud's legacy and with it, what was remaining of StarFox."

"Unfortunately, yes."

"His parents would be so proud of him… and I'm sure they are."

"I'm pretty sure too. Especially Vixy, she should have been so happy to see the man he has become."

Pepper turned his head in the direction of his friend, looking profoundly sad.

"Why is it the youngsters who leave first? They have so much to live for."

"I'd like to have the answer to this question…"

"Me too." interrupted someone before walking past the silent group and to the duo. "It pains me to have to see you two because of something like this."

"It's the same for us, Beltino."

The rest of the group walked to the trio. There was a small basket on the ground with a few flowers in it. Each one of them took a dozen petals before releasing it above the grave with Fox's name on the coffin. None of them had the strength to contain their tears. Some were hurt more than others but in the end, they all conclude the same thing: Fox McCloud had definitively left them.

To worse things, the sky was quickly covered with dark grey cloud and it began to rain. When the first drop of cold water touched Krystal's fur, she shivered. The water coming from the sky soon melted with her salty tears, soaking her beautiful fur.

Silently, another person walked to the grave, took a two flowers and put it on the coffin.

"Farewell McCloud. Despite the fact we were constantly at each other's throat, it was an honor to know you and have you as a rival."

Yes, in front of the shocked group was the infamous Wolf O'Donnell with an impassive look on his face.

"What are you doing here?" yelled Falco in anger, ready to pounce on the lupine and punch him. Katt grabbed his arm and tried to calm him.

"Calm down pup. I'm here for him, nothing else."

"He don't need your presence, we don't need you to be here."

Wolf frowned and growled, threatening.

"Listen carefully, even if we were rivals, I respected Fox and I know he would have done the same for me. I don't care what you think about me being here. I did what I had to do so, goodbye."

He walked away, in direction of the entrance of the cemetery. They all looked at each other, waiting for one of them to talk.

"What do we do now?"

"Well, we could go back to the HQ and have a toast in memory of Fox." proposed the General.

Everyone had now a glass of champagne in his hand.

"In loving memory!" said Bill.

"In loving memory!" replied the others before drinking the content of their glass in one big gulp.

Then, they all began to talk about the good moment they passed in company of the orange vulpine and the awkward moments. There were a lot of blushes and laughs but in the end, the group had a good time.

Unfortunately, this brief moment of joy was interrupted a knock at the door.

"You can enter!"

The door opened and a raccoon with brown eyes walked inside.

"Lieutenant Racine, I didn't expect you to come, especially after I said my secretary to not disturb us."

"I know General but I have something very urgent to tell you."

"Okay. What is so important to interrupt the celebration of Fox McCloud's death?"

The raccoon cleared his throat.

"One of our satellites flying around Kew's orbit intercepted a message. An S.O.S to be precise. It would be better if you hear it."

Then, he walked to the table and put a very small disk in the phone. Immediately, a familiar voice could be heard in the room. Everybody's blood ran cold when they recognized it.

"This is the captain Fox James McCloud of the StarFox Team. This message is an S.O.S. My Arwing was seriously damaged during a battle and I landed in an unknown world. The local inhabitants are sentient, civilized and friendly. I'm completely safe. Unfortunately, I can't fly back to Corneria so if you're not far from my position and can help me or even give this message to General Peppy of the Cornerian Defense Forces…that would be really cool. This message will be sent every hour to help you find my exact location. Fox out."

All the people present in the room were silent. It was impossible, Fox was dead! Falco had seen it with his own eyes! Krystal's eyes had widened when his voice reached her ears and she was slightly agape. Her lover was still alive! He was alive and unharmed. Fresh tears formed at the corner of her eyes and finally, she cried. But they were tears of joy this time.

"Are you're sure it's him?" she asked.

"Affirmative. We made a comparative test with his voice and the result is clear: this voice belongs to Fox James McCloud. Fortunately, we know where he is and there's only a full week of flying to go there."

"That's it! I'm going to rescue him!" snapped the avian, rising from his chair. "There's no way I'm gonna abandon my buddy like this! Slippy, prepare this old bird Fox dare to call a ship. Make me a list of everything needed for two weeks and I'll buy it. Peppy, give the coordinates to ROB. We're leaving within the hour."

The General shook his head.

"There's no way I'm going to let you go alone." A smirk appeared on his face. "I'm coming with you."

The avian and the toad looked at him, shocked. After a few seconds, Lombardi laughed.

"Like the good times, old fool."

"I follow you, I obeyed Fox's orders but I will not make the same mistake twice." interrupted Krystal.

Bill walked to the desk, a serious look on his face. One he rarely wore.

"With all my respect General, I also want to be a part of this rescue mission. Fox is my best friend and I have to be here for him."

"And wherever Falco go, I'm not far!" said Katt, enthusiastically.

"Sorry to break your hopes but only the three of us, accompanied by a small squadron and a medical team, will go there. We don't need a full team of fighting ships to land on an unknown world. It could give a bad second impression to the locals. This is a rescue and diplomatic mission after all, they could feel threatened if we're too numerous."

The voice of wisdom has spoken, no one could say anything to deny it because they knew Peppy was right. The people present in the room knew absolutely nothing about the strange world where the orange vulpine had landed except the local inhabitants were intelligent and not threatening.

"So, what do we do now?" asked Miyu, curious of what will happen next.

The blue bird was thinking deeply before answering with a serious tone. "I suggest we're forming the StarFox Team again…but with more people. In this room, all of us are confirmed pilots and have experience with all kinds of missions. I may act like jerk and prefer work on my own but I'm still loyal to Fox. He saved my ass more than I can count so I owe him this."

"I couldn't be with you everytime because of the childrens and Amanda but I'll answer the phone when you'll need me."

Looking at the telepath, the ace pilot raised an eyebrow. She nodded and added: "I'm not staying on the side of the road again."

Katt jumped on Falco's back and hugged him.

"You know you can count on me, birdy."

A sigh escaped his yellow beak. He absolutely hated that nickname.

Peppy watched all of this from his seat, his arms crossed and a smile on his face. This was the proof of true friendship and love. StarFox was more than just a mercenary team, it was a group of friend, a family. He couldn't help but shed a single tear.

The rabbit looked at his daughter.

"What about you Lucy? I know you wanted to join the team when you were younger and you know as me that Fichina's university is going to be closed. Now is the occasion of a lifetime."

The pink hare looked thoughtful for a few seconds, thinking about the pros and cons of the proposal.

"I join."

"Good. I suppose you want to keep your place in the army Bill?"

The latter laughed.

"As much as I love Fox, I don't think this kind of life is made for me. Sorry guys."

Slippy walked to him and patted his arm.

"No need to apologize, Fox knows how much you love your job."

Falco turned his head in direction of the lynx and the collie.

"And you two?"

They looked at each other with the same though in their mind.

"We worked together before so… why not repeat the experience?"

"Great. If we add ROB, that make the eight of us as members of the team."

A pregnant silence settled in the room before being quickly broken by Falco.

"Hey Slip', what are ya' waiting for? The Great Fox will not prepare itself! The same for you, old timer, we really need those coordinates."

"Alright team, let's go! We have one hour to be ready!"

With a new purpose to reach, the members of the StarFox Team left the room and walked away, each one of them going at a different place to accomplish their tasks given by Falco who was the temporary captain during Fox's absence.

Falco promised himself to go back to Corneria with the last member of the McCloud family… and a Lombardi never breaks his promise.

Author's Note

Phew, that was a difficult one!

I wanted to put a lot of feels in this chapter but at the same time, I wanted to update rather quickly. Sorry if there's not a lot of plot's progression on Fox's side but I felt the need to work on his friends and family. After all, they're very important for him and the games. I just hope I did well.

Spoil for the next chapter:
I believe I can fly, I believe I can touch the sky!

Just me... you... and the moon

The words left his muzzle in a whisper. "The engine don't seem to cause any problem, I can say the same for the G-Diffusers. Nothing abnormal with the temperature and the cooling system is actually working at 3% of its capacity. The launching rail for the smarts bombs is also OK. All the other systems are intact."

Fox moved his head to the left, looking in direction of the leader of the scientist's team.

"I just made a quick check-up and everything seems to be fine."

"That's good to he—"

"But," he interrupted. "We can't be completely sure if we don't test it. You should back away, I don't want to put someone on his back with the wind created by the ship when I'll take off."

"B-b-but, what if something go wrong?"

"I'll take care of it and I'll protect Fox McCloud in the case if there's a problem with his ship."

All the ponies and vulpine present on the landing area for the Arwing turned their heads towards the origin of the voice. It was no other than Princess Luna.

"The day is setting, there's no need to keep you away from your homes and families any longer."

Fox pressed a few buttons on the panel and the moment after, his engine glowed more brightly. Seeing this, the others ponies made a few steps back. In answer to Fox's action, Luna opened her wings and smiled at him, ready to fly in the cloudless sky.

"Ladies, first."

"As you wish, Mr. McCloud."

The blue Alicorn quickly left the ground, flapping her wings to gain altitude and speed. The mercenary smirked and closed his light-blue cockpit.

[Arwing primed and ready to go]

The engine roared more vigorously than before and he took off. Fox quickly catch up with the Princess and flew by her side. Luna looked at him and smiled, he moved his head in her direction before smiling back.

Despite the fact it only have been one week since he couldn't fly anymore, he'd missed it. He missed the feeling of freedom it gave him when he was in his seat, in the company of the clouds and the stars.

His three holographic screens were actually displaying all the information he needed to keep flying without a hitch. A knock on the left part of his cockpit cut off his train of thoughts. He pushed one button and said cockpit separated itself in two before retreating inside both sides of the seat. It was a new feature Fox asked to add. He said it was still better than lower or raises it with the two small electric motors installed in the back of the cockpit.

"Everything's good so far?" asked the Princess of the Night, raising her voice to be heard above the sound of the wind.

"There's no problem with the cooling system for now."

She rolled her eyes.

"No. I mean, I'm confident in our scientists' work but what about you? You look like a foal who received his birthday's gift."

The orange vulpine grinned again and raised a hand to touch the only cloud present in the area. He could feel the water contained in it wetting the fur on his fingers.

"I'm… happy. This is like a reunion with a friend I haven't seen for a long time."

"I think I understand what you mean. Would you like to test it to its maximum speed? To see if there's no problem with it?"

"Maybe…" He looked thoughtful for a few seconds, stroking his chin, before nodding. "Yeah, I'll do it and at the same time, I test the ship to be sure it can go through the atmosphere."

She looked at him confused, an eyebrow raised.

"And how do you plan to do this?"

"Simple." Fox smiled. "I fly to the moon."

Luna looked shocked for a moment before shaking her head and blushing.

"Unfortunately, there's no air in space so, it'll be silent for most of the time."

"Well, I could still use a telepathic spell to communicate with you."

The orange anthropomorphic creature cringed and felt a pang of guilt and sadness. It also gave him a lot of flashbacks, all of them about a certain blue vixen.

"Okay, let's do it."

Fox pushed a button and his cockpit reappeared again before sealing him from the outside world. He brutally pulled the stick to him and began to gain altitude. The Princess flapped her wings harder to keep up with him. Seeing this, the fox decided to not go any faster. An idea popped in his mind to accelerate the process but he didn't know how to contact the princess with his mind to say it.

The mercenary decided to fly closer to her. When she saw this, Luna looked at him and raised an eyebrow. He pointed to his head with his left index. Her horn began to glow a soft blue.

"Something's wrong, Mr. McCloud?"

Her voice echoed in his head, just like Krystal's each time she was doing it.

"No but I've found a way to reach the space faster and without straining you. Hang on the wing."

She nodded and flew to his left wing.

Immediately after this, Fox pushed the engine to twenty percent of its capacity. A white cone was forming around the tip of his ship. Slowly but surely, the Arwing was reaching the sound wall. Looking a second time at the dark blue mare, the ex-leader nodded and she nodded back.

"Show me what you have in the guts buddy."

This time, he decided to fly at maximum velocity. A very powerful sound, like a thunderclap, echoed in the air around the ship and Canterlot.

[Engine working at full power
Actual speed: 4.2 Mach
Engine's temperature: 210°C
Cooling system: 17 % of its capacity]

Fox laughed. He could feel butterflies in his stomach and his head was slightly buzzing. After one week on the ground, he was again free to roam in the sky or in the space. The feeling of freedom it created was one of the best gifts life could give him.

The beautiful white moon was in front of him, gaining in size. His ship trembled a little when he left the exosphere. Now, he was in a place void of any sound, where he was on his own, where there was no problem, no consequences, no laws, no limits, only… space.

Luna let go of his wing, allowing him to do all sorts of maneuvers. He did a few barrels rolls followed by some loops. There was a sensation of euphoria during the whole time. If Fox could see himself in a mirror, he could have seen a grin plastered on his face. Equus' moon was slightly bigger than Corneria's, there's a clear difference between the two. Contrary to the latter, its surface wasn't smooth at all, there're holes and small mountains dispersed randomly on its whole surface.

His Arwing was flying very close to the ground and the vulpine was playing a very simple but interesting game: dodge anything made by the environment that could be considered dangerous; such as rocks, small mountains and stalagmites.

It was the way they were trained at the Corneria Flight Academy and it also was a good exercise to stay alert and in good shape.

Fox slowed down to not leave the blue Alicorn too far behind. Then, he typed on the touch screen of his P.D.A and run a scan of the glowing orb to see if there was any magical disturbance. Shortly after, the scan answered negatively.

"Princess Luna?" he asked in his mind.

"Yes?"

"I thought that while we're here, we could see if the 'disturbance' you told me about a week ago was still present. I did a quick analyze on my computer and there's nothing. My ship's systems are not used to do this kind of things so…could you confirm my conclusion?"

"Sure."

Her horn glowed for a few seconds before stopping.

"You're right. There's nothing wrong, like every other day since the night I felt the anomaly."

She stayed silent and talked again a moment later.

"But we should stay prudent. It could be a trap to lure us into false security."

"That's what Peppy would have said." whispered Fox to himself, smiling and shaking his head.

His green eyes widened when he thought of something rather shocking.

"Wait? How can you breathe in space? There's no air!"

"Magic, Mr.McCloud." she chuckled. "Remember?"

He blushed in embarrassment and looked away.

The two of them continued to fly in silence during one hour before deciding to call it a night and leave the lunar orb. Luna teleported to the landing area to wait for Fox. The latter arrived a few minutes later at full speed and suddenly braked before lowering to the ground. He jumped out of his seat and pushed a button on his P.D.A which closed the cockpit and locked it.

"I thank you for sharing for sharing this moment with me. It's not often I have the occasion to do it with somepony else, I really appreciate it."

The orange fox gave an awkward smile and scratched the back of his head.

"Nah, it's nothing. I'm glad to help."

"I have to go now, I must attend to the Night Court. Farewell, Fox McCloud."

She walked to him and gave a peck on his lips before quickly trotting away.

"Luna, wait!"

The Princess of the Night stopped to move but didn't say anything. Even if Fox couldn't see her face, he knew she was blushing. And, in all honesty, he was rather surprised by what she just did.

"I may not have lived a thousand year but I know what it feels to be alone, to have the world against you and live with regretting your past actions. There's always an ear to hear you if you have the need to talk about it... or anything else."

"Your support is duly noted."

Her horn began to glow and one second, she was here, the next, she wasn't. The vulpine put two fingers to his lips, sighed and thought: "Was it a kiss as a 'thank you' gesture or something else?"

He began to think about the reasons she did it for a few seconds but quickly abandoned.

"I shouldn't give it much thought after all, I'm sure it means nothing."

Author's Note

Sorry for the (very) short chapter but I hadn't a lot of time for myself and writing lately.

Don't worry, the next chapter will be longer and with more plot development (I hope).

I wonder what's for dinner?

Fox James McCloud looked at himself in the mirror.

'This Rarity has very good taste in fashion. Who knew I looked great in a grey tuxedo?' He thought, chuckling.

Moving his left wrist at eye's level to see the time, his watch/communicator/P.D.A indicated he had half an hour before the beginning of the dinner with the dignitaries of the neighboring countries.

'I wonder what the others are doing right now...' Fox sighed. 'Heck, I'm sure Falco would laugh at me if he knew what I'm doing tonight. This brainless bird always preferred nightclubs to fancy dinners and for once, I share his opinion.'

The mercenary finished to brush the white part of his fur on his head when somepony knocked at his door, quickly followed by a voice.

"Fox, are you ready? The guests will be here shortly."

"You arrived at the right time Princess, I'm finishing one last thing and I'll be there in a moment."

He put the brush on the sink and left his bathroom before walking to the door leading to the balcony and closing it. Then, his legs lead him to the door and he opened it. Celestia was in front of him, wearing a very light gold/purple dress with small diamonds in it. She was also wearing her royal attire. The colors were in perfect harmony with her eyes and her coat.

"You look pretty in this dress; I suppose we shared the same seamstress to work on our clothes, right?"

A faint tint of red appeared on Celestia's cheeks but it quickly disappeared.

"Indeed and thank you for the compliment."

"Think nothing of it."

The bipedal fox and the white Alicorn walked in direction of the entrance of the Castle. Princess Luna was already there, waiting for them to arrive. Just like her sister, she had a dress which was perfectly matching with her coat and had sparkle of sapphires instead of diamonds. The sunlight was reflecting in them, adding some small blue dots on the ground. Contrary to Celestia, the Lunar Princess wasn't pretty in her dark gown, she was beautiful.

"Good evening, Princess Luna."

She turned her head in direction of the two and smiled.

"Hello to you too, Mr. McCloud. Are you ready for the main event?"

He slightly blushed in embarrassment and scratched the back of his neck with his right paw.

"Yeah, it shouldn't be too difficult... I hope."

The Night Princess merely chuckled and looked in direction of the medieval city. Fox still didn't know what to think about what happened three days ago. The kiss she gave him was a chaste one and the sentiments behind it were almost non-existent. At least, that's what he hoped. On his part, Fox didn't have any romantic feelings for her and still had Krystal in his mind. A small part of him wanted to see the blue vixen again, to hold her in his arms, tell her sweet nothings and watch the sun set in Sauria as if nothing else mattered but the moment they would share together.

After a few minutes of waiting in silence, a single carriage driven by two Earth Ponies from the Royal Guards was coming in their way before slowing down and stopping in front of the stairs. The door opened and a pink Alicorn, slightly shorter than Luna by a few inches, walked out of it. She dashed to the trio and jumped at Celestia's neck.

"Auntie Celestia! Aunt Luna! It's so good to see you two."

"It's the same for us my dear niece, we should make a tea party more often."

"I agree with you, sister."

The pink pony nodded then moved her eyes to meet those of the fox. His green eyes were looking at her with curiosity, apprehension and a faint hint of guilt and sadness. Of course, the last part wasn't directed to her but more to something that happened before his arrival in Equestria. For her, it was clear that what was paining him was a matter of heart and was affecting his mind. Cadance wouldn't be surprised if he was suffering from depression. And as the Princess of Love, she had the obligation to help him.

"And here is the famous creature that everypony talk about. My name is Mi Amore Cadenza but everypony call me Cadance. I'm the niece of Princess Celestia and Luna, Princess of Love and ruler of the Crystal Empire along with my consort, Shining Armor. You are?"

Being a gentleman, Fox took her left hoof and kissed it with a smile on his muzzle.

"Fox McCloud, ace pilot, ex-soldier and Captain of a mercenary team called Star Fox. Temporary ambassador of the Lylat System during my stay here."

"My aunt said you were coming from the space and I have to say, it's difficult to believe something like this. How is it possible?"

Before the orange vulpine could answer, the Sun Princess stopped him. "As much I hate to interrupt your discussion, it is better if we wait for all the others guests to arrive before talking about this kind of topic."

"Not a problem Auntie."

Not long after this, eight silhouettes appeared in the sky, coming from the east. The four didn't have to wait long to know who it was and see them landing at the foot of the stairs. There were five griffons and three dragons. Six of them were wearing armors while the two remaining had little to nothing on them.

What surprised the two rulers and Fox was the fact that the dragons were sending an emissary with two guards to ensure his security. Usually, the 'flying reptiles' as Blueblood would call them, weren't going out of their country that much, except for the dragon migration. And at the same time, the ambassadors of Prench and Saddle Arabia cancelled their journey to Equestria because they had more pressing matters in their countries.

Just as the vulpine imagined them, the griffons were walking on four legs and were part-lion, part-eagle. Their ambassador had feathers white as the snow while his, or her, companions were covered in armor, head to pelvis. Contrary to the diplomat, their coats were fully brown.

As for the dragons, they were all different. One of them was yellow, the other mauve while the ambassador had dark red scales.

Not wanting to stay outside any longer, Celestia cut short the presentations.

"Ambassador Breeze, Lord Rhêm, this is Fox McCloud. Dignitary from the distant solar system called Lylat. You'll have plenty of time to ask him questions later. Your companions are invited to stay in the barracks with our guards and share a meal with them while we discuss in the dining room. Is it to your convenience?"

"It is." reply the white griffon, who was obvious a male, thanks to his deep voice. "We thank you for your kind hospitality and sharing such news as the discovery of another specie, especially one coming from beyond the sky."

He then turned his head to look at Fox with his deep yellow eyes.

"I hope I didn't offend you by talking about you as if you were just an animal. You may call me Breeze."

Fox smirked and crossed his arms. He liked him already. "None taken, I was expecting something along those lines."

The group was now inside, letting the Royal Guards close the door behind them. One servant took the dignitaries' bodyguards with him and gave them the tour of the castle while the three princesses, one bipedal fox, one griffon and one dragon walked in direction of the Royal Kitchen.

"Queen Chrysalis isn't going to come?" asked Fox, slightly surprised to not wait for the last member of the meeting.

Princess Celestia has a faint smile on her lips, almost invisible to anyone who wasn't paying attention to her facial expression right now.

"She is. And I'm pretty sure she's already waiting for us in the dining room."

"That evil witch is here?"

The orange vulpine and the others stopped in their track when they heard the voice and looked at the flying reptile. He had a look of pure rage on her face.

"Do you have something against her?" asked the Princess of the Sun, raising an eyebrow.

"She's bad, the evil incarnated! You shouldn't let her assist at all of this, Celestia. Her and her minions had stolen a lot of our eggs to feed on the warms emotions of our hatchlings! She's an enemy of the dragon's nation!"

"Firstly, would you be kind enough to not call me by my name? It's not because I'm an old friend of your uncle that you have the right to not call me by my title. You're nothing more than a dignitary here, even if we were alone. Secondly, Chrysalis and her changelings redeemed themselves for the Canterlot Invasion. Princess Mi Amore Cadenza was the first one to forgive them and I quickly did the same. We're often giving them emotions to feed on and they're now friends of Equestria. A war against them would means against us. You wouldn't that, would you?"

The mercenary choose this moment to step in.

"The Princesses are kind enough to house me in their palace while I'm stuck here and they did nothing wrong for now. So, if your country wants to be in war with Ponykind, you'll have the Lylat System against you too. And there're twenty billion of people who will be more than happy to participate at something like this." His voice was now cold and calculating. Fox hated to act like this but he didn't have the choice. The situation didn't give him the possibility to react differently. "Think twice before saying your next words."

"Y-you're lying!" stuttered the drake, pointing an accusing finger at him. "You can't be that much where you're coming from!"

"'Does I look like I'm not telling to truth? Watch closely my face. You'll know the answer."

Nopony said a single word for the next ten seconds. The Princess of the Sun had to break the silence by clearing her throat.

"Shall we move on?"

"I think we can Princess, I'm beginning to be hungry. This journey was rather boring and we didn't have a hot meal since this morning." said the white griffon, a broad smile on his beak.

This time, it's was Luna's turn to talk. "Then, follow us and don't worry friend, we'll talk of the matter at hoof during dinner."

"That's good to hear."

After a couple of minutes, they arrived in front of the dining hall and entered. Inside the room was a creature, bug-like, who was sitting in one of the few seats present in the room. Fox quickly deduced it was the Queen of the Changelings, Chrysalis. Her hooves and mane had holes in them, her horn didn't have a distinct form, contrary to the three Alicorn, and her eyes were like those of a cat or a dragon.

She was watching the group intently, and Fox more precisely. Her eyes were following all his movements, analyzing his way of acting and walking. A smile appeared on her lips. Maybe with some work, she could taste the mercenary before the end of the night.

But like everything, she had to wait a little before setting her plan into motion.

"So, Mr. McCloud, could you tell us more about yourself?" asked the red drake. "I'm eager to know about you and your kind."

The vulpine stopped munching on his salad and looked at the dragon, giving a small smile.

"Well, I don't have much to say. I was born in a normal family with both parents but no siblings. I went to the Corneria Flight Academy as a first class pilot, just like my father before me. But when I turned eighteen, a mad scientist named Andross who was exiled on Venom, another planet of the Lylat System, decided to declare war to the entire system. My dad was the creator of a mercenary team called Star Fox.

With the help of Peppy, my mentor and best friend of my father, we resurrected and added two members to the new team. Then, the four of us fought Andross' forces in the whole system. We even went on the sun to kill a bio-weapon. The temperature was almost unbearable. Anyway, we reached Venom and I killed Andross, avenging my father's death at the same time. Since then, we saved the system a few times. Peoples considered us as heroes but for me, I was just doing my job."

Celestia's eyes widened when she heard this.

"You're telling us you went on your sun?"

He nodded.

"Yes. The Arwing can take up temperatures to nine thousand degrees."

The griffon ambassador raised her arm. "Excuse-me but, what is an Arwing?"

"The Arwing Mk I is the result of twenty years of hard labor. It's one of the most powerful spacecraft in the whole galaxy made by Arspace Dynamics Company. Even today's aircrafts can't reach his level. His mobility and destructive power is far superior in comparison to the conventional fighter. You can think of it as a carriage completely made of metal and which can reach the space at high speed."

"It must be something very big if you talk about it so highly."

This time, Fox smirked.

"Quite the contrary, the Arwing can only transport its pilot. Nothing else."

Cadance gave a small nod, memorizing the newly acquired information about the fox and his origins. Lord Rhêm was very curious about the Arwing and its capacities.

"If we were in a situation where both our worlds were at war against each other, who could be the winner?"

"Considering you're living in the medieval age and the best weapon you can have is a giant crossbow which launch spears. Even with your magic…. you don't stand a chance against a few frigates and their ships…which is nothing when you think about the fight we had in Area 6. I think I destroyed forty frigates all by myself, if I remember correctly."

Everyone in the room had their eyes on him, not believing at all what he was saying. It was already difficult to think there was life somewhere else and that magic didn't exist there. But to hear that all their efforts would be vain if they were in conflict with those anthropomorphic animals was unconceivable for the rulers of the different countries of Equus.

"Is it true, Fox?" demanded Celestia, with a small hint of worry in her eyes.

"As much as I hate to say it, yes. We, Cornerians, have the firepower to destroy a world like yours, to only leave ashes in our path. But I can assure you that on my side, I'm going to do my best to not let something like this happen. If we work together, I'm sure great things can come out of it. The Cornerian Government is pacifist and would only attack if they think their citizens' lives are in danger."

Now, the features on their faces relaxed.

The dark dragon didn't completely believe him, he still had some doubts about the fox's words.

"And what if you're lying?"

Ambassador Breeze, Princesses Luna, Celestia and Cadance were looking at him, surprised. Chrysalis still had a stoic face and was silently observing the scene. As a great specialist of lies and deception, she knew that the mercenary was telling the truth but wanted to see how he was going to answer Rhêm's insecurities.

"I can prove it to you. My Arwing is parked in the Royal Gardens. I could show you what it's capable of."

The dragon's ambassador, confident that he's right, gave a smirk. Seeing this, Fox smirked too.

"After you, Mr. McCloud."

"With pleasure."

All those seated at the table stood up and left the room in direction of the gardens, following the orange vulpine and the royal sisters.

The little show with the Arwing went well, very well. A little looping, barrel roll, U-turn here and there, followed by a few accelerations with one breaking the sound wall was all Fox needed to convince the white griffon, the dark red dragon and the pink Alicorn that he was telling the truth. All the dignitaries decided to stay at the Castle for the night and leave the next morning.

Now, the pilot was currently in his room, looking at the stars on his balcony with a faint smile on his muzzle. He was happy with himself; the meeting went without a hitch, if you don't take in account the tension between Lord Rhêm and Queen Chrysalis. A chuckle escaped his lips. He was certain that Peppy would have been proud of the diplomatic skills he displayed tonight.

Unfortunately, his train of thoughts was interrupted by the sound of hoov…no, more like feet or paws, coming in his direction.

"Something's wrong, Fox?"

His heart froze.

This voice…it couldn't be! Her? But how could she be here? It's impossible!

Fox did a quick 180°; he unsheathed his blaster and pointed it at the blue vixen standing a few meters away from him.

"Who are you?"

She looked at him with surprised eyes.

"But Fox, don't you recognize me?"

He snarled and tightened his grip on his weapon. "Don't try this bullshit on me! You're not Krystal, so I will ask one more time before shooting: who are you?"

Her shocked expression immediately changed to a wicked smile. Green flames engulfed her body, replacing fur by shell and adding two insect-like wings. In front of him now stood Chrysalis. Even after seeing this, Fox didn't lower his arm. If there's one thing the vulpine hated the most, it was people toying with his emotions. Despite the fact he wanted to put a bullet right in her forehead, Fox decided to calm himself. She wasn't worth it.

"What do you want?" he asked, putting his gun in his blaster.

"You're something intriguing, interesting and…exotic. I love everything that's exotic." Then, the Queen licked her lips, making a lewd sound.

"Listen, I know what your kind is capable of and what they do to survive but I'm not interested."

"I can be everypony you want, even that disguise I just used."

He raised an eyebrow.

"How did you do it?"

"A changeling never tells its secrets. But know that I never looked into your mind, nopony can do that. Are you sure you don't want to change your mind? It's been some time since I had some fun."

"No."

Chrysalis shook her head and snorted.

"Well, at least, I tried."

She trotted outside and spread her wings before taking off, leaving the mercenary alone. The latter sighed and walked inside, he then closed the window and lay on the cover, too exhausted to remove his clothes. Five seconds later, he was sleeping soundly.

Author's Note

I'm sorry for the wait everyone. I procrastined too much and had to take care of some administrative problems with my school but I'm back. Don't worry, the wait for the next chapter isn't going to be as long as this one ><

Mission N°2: When sh*t goes down

Mission N°2: When sh*t goes down

The Princess of the Night was sitting at her balcony, enjoying her sky as much as possible before being obliged to lower her moon in the next minutes. A sigh of relief escaped her muzzle, knowing that her duties were over for a few hours. She was going to retreat in her chamber when she saw a lone shooting star, going to the north.

How strange. Usually, the shooting stars and meteors showers were her doing but not this one. Her horn was lightly flaring in her teal aura, trying to have a grip on it but it was completely useless. It was as if this meteor had a mind on its own.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" the Solar Princess asked, smiling smugly.

Her younger sister nodded. "Indeed but it refuse to cooperate."

"Well, where is it heading?"

"To the Crystal Empire."

"Let it crash there, I'm sure it will not harm anypony."

Luna looked at her sister.

"I hope so. We could ask our niece to send a research team after it. Maybe they'll find why it didn't bend to my will."

"It's not a bad idea, I'll notify her of your idea in the morning…oh, and while I'm at it. How is our little gift for Fox progressing?"

"The scientists are almost done. It wasn't easy to extract the data from his computer and reassembly them from it. Their firepower is far superior than what we anticipated. I'm sure he'll be happy to know he now have unlimited Nova Bombs."

Luna's and Celestia's gaze followed the object as it streaked across the sky, becoming somewhat more visible, and witnessed its impact behind the mountain ranges in the distance which separated various regions of Equestria.

Later that day, in the afternoon

The Sun Princess was sitting on her golden throne, reading a parchment about the futures taxes for Baltimare when a guard entered the room.

“Your Majesty! We received a message from Princess Cadance, the Pegasus who delivered it said it was urgent.”

Celestia raised an eyebrow and took the scroll with her magic. She opened it and read its content for a few seconds before closing it and reducing it to ashes with a simple fire spell.

“Send somepony to the guest room where Fox McCloud is staying and tell him to come here as soon as possible.”

“Of course Princess.”

A guard saluted and left the throne room, galloping in direction of the area reserved for the guests or ambassadors. As the white Alicorn was watching the Earth Pony leaving, a knot formed in the pit of her stomach. She didn’t know why but she had a very bad felling about this. As if Fox wasn’t going to come back from this mission.

“I hope my instincts are wrong about this.”

“So, you want me to go to the Crystal Empire and find a team of scientists who went missing because of a shooting star which crashed a few kilometers away from the capital?”

The tall pony in front of him nodded. “Yes. Normally, they could have been lost because of the snowstorms but it’s not the season for them and the sky was clear of any turbulence last night. Their colleagues were waiting for them to come back at noon but they never arrived.”

“I see. I’ll begin my research by the place where the object crashed and start from there. It may be nothing as it can be something very serious.”

Fox rushed out of the Castle, where his ship was waiting for him. When he entered inside and closed the cockpit, his screens showed that everything was in the green. The second after, the Arwing left the ground and flew at full speed to the north.

According to his computer, it would take him barely half an hour to reach his destination. The vulpine activated the auto-pilot and admired the landscape.

“I wonder what the others are doing right now. Maybe crying on my grave about how cocky and stupid I was to fight Oikonny alone.” He whispered to himself, slightly smirking.

After what seemed to be an eternity, Fox spotted a long trail in the snow and some pieces of metal of different sizes and shapes on the ground.

Fox frowned. “This is not what a shooting star is composed of… as far as I can remember.”

Suddenly, his map showed a red dot less than three kilometers away. The mercenary immediately activated his laser cannon, just in case of. Finally, his Arwing arrived at destination and after flying a few laps around the crashing site, he landed less than fifty meters away. Here, there was no wind, the sky was covered by grey clouds and everywhere around him the ground was coated in white.

This place was cold. But not as cold as Fichina, fortunately.

The orange fox slowly walked to the ‘shooting star’, his blaster raised in front of him. Seven ponies were laying on the ground, not moving at all. Fearing the worse, Fox made his way to one of them and checked for a pulse.

Just as he thought, he found none.

As he approached the strange object, his eyes widened. “Those colors, this design…no, it can’t be…”

Before his eyes was standing a Venomian Fighter, an Invader III from the Lylat Wars, in a very bad shape. A ship completely outdated and worthless in comparison with today’s standards. What was that thing doing here? Was it a remnant of the war ? And how did it ended here?

While Fox was in deep thoughts and his guard low, the same mist he encountered in the Everfree Forest flew out of one of the bodies and split itself in six, each part flying to the other corpses. It was the sound of something moving against the snow which alerted the vulpine. His left ear twitched and he turned his head in direction of the origin of the sound, finding himself in front of seven ‘zombies’. His P.D.A emitted the beeping noise saying there was a high amount of magic near his position.

The second he saw the blue and dark fog escaping from the noses of his enemies, a snarl left his throat.

“It seems there’s someone or something who really want to get rid of me.”

Gripping his weapon tightly, Fox raised his arm and pressed the trigger a few times, aiming at the pony in front of him. Hearing the sound of a magical beam launched at him, he did a backflip to dodge it and killed the Unicorn in a single shot. Before he could do anything else, an Earth Pony tackled him from his back, sending him to the ground. His blaster glided away from him.

Fox rolled on the side and jumped on his feet, unsheathing his combat knife. A Pegasi tried to hit him on the head but he sidestepped and left a deep gash in his left side. Red blood escaped the pony’s body and soiled Fox’s flying jacket.

Another equine bite him in the leg, forcing the vulpine to hit him in the barrel a few times and finally slice his throat. The mercenary didn’t have any remorse in killing them a second time, he knew they were already dead and couldn’t feel the pain he was inflicting on them. Three of them were already down and soon, the other four would follow.

Quickly, he retrieved his blaster and faced his opponents with one weapon in each hand.

“Bring it.” He whispered, his teeth bared and growling.

Suddenly, the group lunged at him, thinking at least one of them was going to injure him but it was a very stupid move. Stupid indeed because the orange fox knew they were going to do something like this. He delivered a roundhouse kick in one of the scientists’ head, heard the sound of the neck snapping, planted his knife in the maw of another and pulled the trigger a few times, each laser finishing its course in the chest of the third.

The three bodies dropped on the ground, definitively dead this time.

The only one still on his hooves was the Pegasus he injured sooner. The equine was standing less than ten meters away from him. A single bead of sweat trickled down Fox’s left cheek and he was breathing as if he had jogged for five minutes.

“What do you want from me?”

The pony chuckled.

“To tell you the truth, I wanted to meet you in person, away from prying eyes and ears.”

“Okay and could I know why do you want to see me dead?”

“Well, unfortunately, you’re on our path so we need to get rid of you to accomplish our plan. We want revenge from the Sun Tyrant, her useless sister, her student and the Bearers. They all deserve to perish in Tartarus for what they did.”

Hearing this, Fox deduced his identity and smirked.

“So, you’re the Nightmare.”

“Exactly. I’m surprised that a disgusting creature like you is still alive, especially after your fight with the Timberwolf King. Your presence alone makes me want to throw up.”

“Oh don’t worry, you’ll don't have to worry about those kind of things after I kill you.”

The creature laughed maniacally, with his mouth wide open. “You should first take care of your friends in Canterlot. I think they’ll need your help against those steel birds. You know, those which looks like this one.”

Fox’s eyes widened.

“This fighter crashing here and the fight… it was a bait to keep me away from the Castle!?”

“That’s right, and at this exact moment, they’re reducing the city to ashes. You can still go and try to save them but it’ll be too late.”

Tightening his fist, the orange vulpine frowned and let out a deep, primal growl of anger. It was his job to protect the ponies against this kind of threat and nobody was going to stop him from saving the day.

“We’ll just see about that. You don’t know who you’re fighting against, I’ll prove you wrong.”

The pony didn’t answer and in burst of light, he disappeared from Fox’s sight. The latter didn’t waste a single second and rushed back to his Arwing. When he was inside, he immediately took off and flew to his objective.

Fox pushed a few buttons on his holographic keyboard and a single sentence popped on the screen in front of him:

[Hyperdrive activated. Location set: Canterlot]

A small portal appeared in front of him and the moment after, he wasn’t in the Crystal Empire anymore.

Mission No. 2: Mission Completed

Mission N°3: Canterlot City

There was smoke coming from houses and a few buildings. Some of them were completely destroyed while parts of others were still standing. A few ponies were running in the streets, trying to find a cover to escape from the metallic birds flying in the sky. The class III Invader ships were everywhere, reducing everything to pieces. True to the Nightmare’s words, Canterlot was in a bad state. Only the Castle was faring slightly better.

[Suggestive theme]

It was on this sight of destruction that Fox emerged from the Hyperdrive. The Royal and Night Guards were doing their best against the Venomian Fighters but they knew it was a lost cause without help. Unfortunately, some of the guards were laying in their own blood on the pavement.

The mercenary own blood turned cold when he saw this.

Those innocents has nothing to do with all of this, they shouldn’t suffer from this….pathetic revenge. It was time to put an end to this madness.

“Computer, I want a check-up. Right now!”

A few sentences appeared on the green screen in front of the vulpine:

[Check-up incoming…loading]
[Twin lasers: enabled
Alpha interface: enabled
All range mode: waiting
Beta interface: waiting
Secondary weapons: waiting
Primary weapons: enabled
Astrogation systems: enabled
Targeting systems: enabled
Nova bombs: waiting
Internal power: enabled
Life support: enable
External power: disabled
Starflight mode: enabled
Deflecting shields: waiting]

[Improvement of the Nova Bombs detected. Their firepower have been enhanced with magic thanks to Princess Luna and her scientists. You also have an infinite amount of them since they can recreate themselves, using the magical crystal stored in your ship.]

[All systems go]
[Arwing primed and ready]

“Magical Nova Bombs? That’s good to hear. Since Canterlot will be the battleground, switch to the All range mode for a better mobility and agility.”

[All range mode: enabled]

Obeying Fox’s orders, the computer opened the Arwing’s wings.

[Emergency, emergency! Emergency, emergency! Incoming enemy fighters]
[Objective: Destroy all invaders or repel them]
[Good luck!]

[Very HIGHLY suggested theme to listen while reading]

“Too bad Falco and the others are not here to help me with this. I’ll keep all the fun for me.”

Fox pushed the throttle to its limit and flew in the middle of the battle. A few Unicorns who were fighting with beam spells stopped what they were doing when they heard the sound of the G-Diffuser coming in their direction. One of them erected a force field to protect himself and his comrades but the metallic bird colored in grey and blue ignored them, preferring taking down one of the other birds.

They looked at the ship with the red fox painted on it, completely shocked. One of those things was on their side? If it was the case, they had a chance to win this fight!

Two other enemies exploded in the sky, dropping various parts almost everywhere.

[Number of Venomian ships: calculating…]
[500 Venomian Invader III and 10 Zeram-class Cruiser]

“That’s all? I thought there were more of them.”

It was at this exact moment that the aforementioned ships appeared in the sky, they weren’t in a good shape but still functioning and ready to do some damage. Those things, measuring at least a hundred meters, armed with seven laser turrets and one missile launcher, directly aimed their weapons at the vulpine. The latter quickly pressed the trigger, his lasers damaging the bridge of one of them very quickly, since it was its only true weakness.

He didn’t have to wait long to see the heavy cruiser transform itself into a giant ball of fire. The orange fox’s radar may be full of foes but he was completely confident about this. He could win this battle, he was in his element after all.

Fox was brought out of his thoughts by a shot passing near his right side. Pulling the stick to him and slowing down, he did a U-turn and accelerated to catch up with the one who tried to put him down.

‘I wonder who is piloting those fighters. It can’t be the ponies, they didn’t receive the training to do something that complicated and none of them would willingly betray Celestia and Luna.’

The answer appeared clearly in front of him, when he saw an Invader III with a bug in it, smoke coming from the eyes and nose, on the seat reserved for the pilot. He was using his horn to manipulate the stick and throttle of his vehicle.

“A changeling?! But they’re in peace with Eques-…wait, the smoke…they’re manipulated by the Nightmare! That explain why they barely know how to use the Invaders III and do a poor job against me.”

Sighing sadly, Fox let out a small ‘I’m sorry’ before aiming and letting out a single plasma beam which immediately destroyed the enemy’s ship. Despite the fact he knew he didn’t have a choice, the mercenary still felt a twinge of pain in his heart. Unfortunately, not every conflict can be avoided and sometimes, blood is spilled.

‘It’s already too late for them, Fox. They’ve been lost since the moment they were corrupted. The best thing you can do, is to relive them from this.’ He thought to himself, taking a deep breath.

In a whisper, he added: “And this is what I will do. I’ll bring all of them down if it’s necessary.”

A squadron of three followed him closely. Suddenly, the fox braked and slightly lowered his Arwing to let them pass above him. He then killed the trio with a charged shot, destroying them immediately. It was the best he could do: not make them suffer more.

Each time he pushed the trigger, one foe caught fire and exploded. Unfortunately, a few of them managed to do some minor damage to his shields, by pure luck.

Using a tall building to turn around, Fox pushed his engine to the limit, moved to the left and right to dodge some lasers and destroyed another Cruiser with a well-placed bomb. It has been a long time since he fought completely alone in his Arwing, since the Anglar Blitz if he remembered correctly.

A small group of six, or seven, fighters passed before him, right in his targeting screen. Instantly, a few shots left his plasma cannon and hit all of them, they exploded into tiny parts which fell to the ground harmlessly.

Some of the guards still fighting cheered when they saw this, their will to fight and moral renewed. With Fox and his Arwing at their side, there was nothing that could stop them from winning this battle.

The mercenary angled his ship in direction of the sun and began to gain altitude. A few Venomian Invaders tried to follow him but were too slow and quickly gave up. When he was at a good distance, he did a full 180° and deactivated all the things he didn’t need before spinning on himself.

[Simple laser: enabled]
[Twin lasers: enabled]

Both of the cannons at his sides and at the nose of his Arwing hummed, ready to unleash their fury.

[Diffusion mode: enabled]

“Here.I.Come!”

A rain of plasma poured from his ship, destroying all the things that came in contact with. Fortunately, all the civilians and allied forces had left the area since a long time. A lot of enemies’ fighters were reduced to nothing and the rest of the Cruisers had some serious damages from this unexpected attack.

His instruments came back to life and at the last moment, Fox brutally pulled the stick to him and escaped a crash that could have been fatal to him. He panted and his forehead and back were drenched in sweat.

“Now I remember why it’s dangerous to use this technique! Good thing I didn’t flew at Mach 4.2.”

[Number of Venomian ships remaining: 307 Venomian Invader III and 6 Zeram-class Cruiser]
[Warning! Nightmare’s and another Unicorn magic detected inside the Castle. Exact location: Throne Room]

“I’m not going to fell for another distraction this time!”

Fox changed his direction and flew to the palace. Not wanting to waste time, he decided to not use the front door and create his own… by smashing the windows. The glass shattered in thousands of pieces when the nose of the ship entered in contact with it. On his path, the Arwing destroyed a few columns.

The sound of the engine died down and the second after, the vulpine jumped from his cockpit, blaster in his hand. Celestia, Luna and the bearers were standing on one side, minus one, surprised to see Fox here. On the other side, there was the Nightmare in company of a grey Unicorn stallion with black mane, a red curved horn, red eyes and purple smoke coming from them. Twilight was standing at their side, a dagger menacing to slice her throat.

“And here comes our last guest. You put a beautiful show outside.” said the pony, grinning.

“King Sombra, I guess?”

“Himself.”

Fox smiled, still aiming his weapon at the duo. “I can’t say I was expecting you to be still alive, care to explain?”

“I survived through my horn, using it to store a part of my essence and kept my shadow form until I was powerful enough to have my body back. With the help of Nightmare, I created my own army to bring Equestria to its knees.”

“But you forgot one thing.”

“Yes, you. But now that I have the Elements in my possession, nopony can stop me!”

A loud bang echoed in the room and there was now a hole right between Sombra’s eyes.

“Nah, I don’t think so. Not while I’m here to kick your plot.”

Strangely, the tyrant grinned, showing his teeth and fangs. “Fool, don’t you understand? I can’t be killed, this body is just a shell. But if I can’t have Equestria, I’ll have to make it disappear from this world.”

He released the dagger’s grip on Twilight and pushed her in direction of the others. Sombra then took his shadow form and merged with the Nightmare who stayed silent during the whole conversation.

There was now a new pony standing at their place. He was as tall as Celestia, had a long horn, floating mane and wings. His eyes were still those of Sombra.

“WE ARE NIGHTMARE SOMBRA! All of you are going to die!” declared the tall Alicorn before his horn glowed red and he teleported away with the Elements of Harmony, laughing manically.

Fox rushed at the ponies’ side, checking all of them for any sign of injury.

“Is everyone alright?”

“Yes, they didn’t harm us.” answered Luna. “But he has the Elements and without them… we have no chance to stop him.”

Celestia smiled at this, shaking her head. “Don’t worry, little sister. The Elements are perfectly safe, I gave a copy to Sombra, nothing more.”

“But, where—“

“You’re not the only one who gave something to Mr. McCloud. I’ve stored them inside his ship.” She then turned her head to look at the mercenary. “Star Fox, you’re the only hope for our world. The only one who can stop this.”

“I’ll do my best, Sombra won’t have his way with me.”

“Will they work without us using them?” asked Twilight.

“Don’t worry my student, they will.”

It was at this exact moment that the light blue sky turned orange, as if the sun was setting. The group rushed to what remained of the windows to see the moon in front of the giant ball of light, creating a solar eclipse. Nightmare Sombra’s head appeared in the sky, still laughing.

“First Andross, then Andrew and now him… why do they like so much to show their big heads to everyone? To scare people away? Anyway, he’s mine.”

Fox then rushed to his vehicle and jumped in his seat. The cyan cockpit closed and the Arwing pivoted until it was in front of the shattered windows. The ponies stepped aside to let him go out of the Castle without having to maneuver too much. The engine began to hum for a moment before the vulpine pushed the throttle to its limit, taking off at full speed and breaking the sound wall in less than three seconds.

[Shield level: 61%]

“Damn, if only I had a silver or gold ring of energy.”

The second after he said this, his communicator rang. Surprised, Fox pressed the button to accept the call.

“Location confirmed. Sending supply.”

That voice…

“ROB?!”

A crate with an “S” written on it was floating in the air, a few meters away from the mercenary. A plasma beam destroyed the crate, releasing its content: a gold ring. Fox passed through it and his shield level rose up to eighty-six percent.

Descending from the space, the old Carrier was floating less than five kilometers away from Canterlot. The sound of three other G-Diffusers echoed in the sky and the Arwings went in formation around the orange fox. Shocked to see his old team with him, he finally smiled before opening his Communication Channel.

“Check your G-Diffuser system.”

“Falco here. I’m fine.” replied the blue avian.

“This is Peppy, all systems go.” said the hare.

“Slippy here, I’m okay.” answered the toad.

“Ok guys, show them why we’re the most feared mercenary team in the galaxy. Let’s rock and roll!”

The team flew to the Cruisers, ready to take them down.

“Falco and Peppy, the three on the right are for you. Slippy and I will take care of the others. Be careful, the others ships are the Venomian Invader III but their pilots are not that good. Their only advantage is their number.”

“Roger.”

“So, who are we fighting against, Fox?” asked the General.

“An Andross-like pony who think he has every right and that no one can stop his plans.”

Suddenly, his Communication Channel went to life and Falco’s voice echoed in the vulpine’s cockpit.

“Watch out Foxy! There’s a charged shot coming on ya’!”

“Do a Barrel Roll!”

Fox applied a little pressure on the left side of his stick, two times, and his aircraft whirled on itself, deflecting the shot. A single Nova Bomb was all he needed to destroy one Zeram-class Cruiser while Slippy flooded the other with plasma. Then, together, they transformed the third ship into a ball of fire.

The other trio met the same fate a few moments later.

“Just like the good old time, right Fox?”

“Yeah, thanks for coming guys.”

Falco’s Arwing began to act strangely, his engine dying down and coming back to life every two or three seconds.

“Something’s wrong with the G-Diffuser.”

Fox sighed and shook his head. “There’s always something’s wrong with yours. Reboot it.”

The avian did as told and his engine did it one last time.

“It’s good now.”

“Alright team, the counterattack begin… now!”

The four Arwings split up to cover more ground. The arrival of the trio was what sealed the fate of this battle. Even if Nightmare Sombra didn’t knew it, his army had already lost. They couldn’t keep up against veterans who went into countless battles.

[Number of enemies ships remaining: 43 Venomian Invader III]

“I leave the rest to you, I’m taking care of our friend. Say your prayers, Sombra.”

Fox accelerated until he reached full velocity and flew toward the space, where Nightmare Sombra’s head was waiting for him.

“You’re a fool to think you can destroy me. Only I have the power to rule Equis!”

The vulpine growled. “There’s a lot of people who said that long before you and they all died. Just like the others, I’ll bring you down… definitively. You’re going to learn the hard way why I’m one of the best where I’m coming from.”

[All systems green]
[Hyper Laser: enabled]
[Harmony Nova Bomb: enabled and ready to be launched]

Sombra’s horn began to glow and a second later, he send a few magical bolts at the fox who easily dodged them. The latter retaliated by spamming the trigger of plasma cannons, aiming at a precise place. Fox knew what his weakness was and how to exploit it, simply because Nightmare Sombra told him earlier: his horn. It was this part of him which survived from the Crystal Heart so if he could destroy it, Sombra would be no more.

Well, that was the best theory he had and strangely, this is where his instincts were telling him to shoot at. And the only thing he had to do is to trust them. A very small crack, but big enough to be seen by Fox, appeared on the appendage. The horn glowed again and this time, it was a long and wide beam, red as blood, which tried to kill the ace pilot. Fortunately, Fox escaped from it but not by much, his shield confirming it by dropping to twenty-two percent of its capacity.

‘If I’m too close a second time, it’ll be the end of me. The Arwing’s shield and fuselage can manage some of the smaller shots but not a laser like this one.’

The more Fox shot at the horn, the more cracks were present on it, making Nightmare Sombra howl in pain.

“I’m going to crush you like the bug you are!”

This was the moment Fox was waiting for. Because of the pain, Sombra would need a few seconds to concentrate and launch his spell. A few moments later, he closed his eyes and grunted in pain while his horn glow for a third time.

“Oh really? In that case, take that!”

Fox used this opportunity to launch the Nova Bomb filled with the magic of the Elements.

The Arwing made a U-turn, accelerating and leaving the scene at full velocity. The ex-leader didn't want to stay near his enemy when he'll explode. The red dot on his map designating Sombra disappeared, indicating he was gone for good this time. An alarm was off, blasting a high-pitched sound in the cockpit to warn him about the bad shape of his shield. The Great Fox II and the Cornerian Carriers were now following him after standing not far from the battle, silently observing the outcome. He activated his Communication Channel and his voice resonated in the others ships.

He sighed. "Fox McCloud here, I'm fine. I'm going to land on the planet, it would be better if you don't follow me until I come back. The inhabitants may be friendly but it wouldn't a good idea if they see a whole fleet in their sky."

The vulpine entered the atmosphere and flew in direction of Canterlot. All the ponies looked up at him, cheering. The Elements of Harmony were with him, flying back to their bearers. He landed in the garden and jumped out of his ship. Shortly after, three other Arwings did the same. A few tears were rolling down his cheeks while looking at his friends coming down from their ships.

"Peppy! Slippy!"

He rushed at them and took them in a tight hug. They could clearly hear him sob…and the hare and the toad were crying too. His heart was overwhelmed with joy. It was like a family reunion. The fourth member of the group looked at them, arms crossed.

"And I don't mean anything for ya', Foxy?"

He gestured the blue avian to come closer.

"Don't be a smart ass Falco, I know you don't like all this mushy stuff but I think you can make an exception, for once."

"Yeah, you're right."

A laugh escaped his beak and he hugged his fox friend too.

"I'm so glad to see you again guys. Come on, I have a report about Nightmare Sombra’s death. Follow me."

When the four entered the Throne Room, there was a row full of soldiers on each side of them. Suddenly, there was the sound a trumpet, signaling the arrival of the team. They stopped in front of the two thrones, where the Princesses and the Bearers were standing. Fox bowed his head and his friends did the same.

“Guys, I present you Princess Celestia, her little sister Princess Luna and the national heroes of this country, Twilight Sparkle and her friends.”

“Princesses, those are the others members of my team. Falco Lombardi, Slippy Toad and Peppy Hare.”

“It’s an honor to meet you three. Fox told us about all the adventures you had.” said Celestia, a smile on her face before setting her eyes on the orange vulpine. “StarFox, you filled your part of our contract, we are in your debt. Thank you for saving us from Sombra and the Nightmare.”

“It’s nothing, I only did my job. Unfortunately, I have to shorten my stay here.”

"But you just defeated Nightmare Sombra and I'm sure you're tired after repelling an invasion. We have plenty of guest rooms for your friends." replied Luna.

The orange vulpine shook his head.

"There are a lot of people who'd like to see me again, so we have to leave. It was a pleasure to meet all of you."

The Princess of the Sun bowed and made a few steps back, still smiling.

"For us too, Fox. I bid you farewell."

The Element of Magic, at her mentor's side, bowed too. The Princess of the Night, silent, walked to Fox. He kneeled and she used this opportunity to nuzzle his right cheek before looking into his green eyes.

"Thank you Fox for what you did for us… but promise me one thing: come visit from time to time."

"Well uh, ok… I mean, sure, no problem!"

The vulpine put his paw behind his head and scratched; a habit of his when he was either nervous or in deep thought. Behind him, Slippy laughed.

"You're not shy, are you Fox?"

A light blush appeared on the mercenary's cheeks.

"Nah, I'm gonna be just fine."

The leader hugged the other bearers of the Elements and he turned his head to his old friends before putting a serious face. "Come on team, it's time for us to go now!"

Before they could leave the room, Celestia interrupted them.

"Fox, what about the payment?"

"Negotiate with the Cornerian Army about this. I'll send them my fee and I'm sure you'll find an arrangement."

Then, the group rushed to the courtyard where their ships were stationed. The two princesses and the six mares quickly followed, wanting to watch the group take off. Fox was the last to enter in his Arwing. The light blue cockpit closed itself and sealed its pilot from the outside world. The vulpine looked at his left to see all of them. He smiled and did a thumb up gesture.

[Arwing primed and ready]

The second after, his personal fighter left the ground and joined the others in direction of the sun, where the old grey Cornerian Carrier was waiting for them.

"So Fox, how was this little adventure?" asked Peppy, curious.

Falco and Slippy said nothing but were exactly thinking the same thing, a grin on their faces.

"It was the best I had in a long time, old-timer." he smiled. "If only, you knew."

Hearing this, the old hare laughed.

"Oh, I'm sure you'll tell us when we'll come back. The rest of the team would love to know what you did during the last month."

"The rest of the team?"

This time, it was Slippy's turn to talk. "Yes, we convinced Krystal, Katt, Lucy, Miyu and Fay to join us."

"W-wait…Krystal!? She's back?"

"Damn it Slip'! It was supposed to be a surprise!" yelled Falco, annoyed by his friend's incapacity to keep a secret for long.

"Don't be so harsh with him." replied Peppy. "Anyway, she was present at your funeral and decided to stay at Corneria for a few weeks. She was with us when we received your S.O.S. You should have seen her face when she heard your voice."

"It was difficult to convince her to stay at Corneria while we were coming for you."

This time, it was Falco who talked.

"Hey, buddy, we brainstormed for some times and I had the brilliant idea that we could create a squadron… StarFox Squadron, what do you think? Cool name, huh?"

"You want to work with me again?"

"Why not? The more, the merrier and it'll be funnier then if we were only four."

Fox grinned. "You know what Falco? You're right, let's do this. I'll even say it's even 20% cooler than StarFox Team. But what about you Peppy, it's not like you can fight with an Arwing on a daily basis. Today was an exception."

"Well, I keep my job as the General of the Army and I give you something to do, from time to time."

"… 20% cooler." muttered the avian, grinning. "I don't know where you learned this expression but I like it! Gimme the copyright!"

The orange vulpine laughed but he was interrupted by a robotic voice on his Communication Channel.

"It's good to see you again, Fox."

"The same for you, ROB. Let's go home."

"Affirmative. The Great Fox is ready to go."

Fox pushed a few buttons on his board and his Arwing accelerated, leaving Equis’ atmosphere.

"We're heading out! All aircrafts report."

The other members of the team were flying slightly behind him with Falco on his right, Slippy on his left and Peppy the farthest.

"Well, I was worried for a moment."

"I’m sure your father would be proud of you… and it’s a good way to make your comeback, huh?"

"I’m fine. You okay over there, Fox?"

"Okay, the others ships are also in the green. ROB, wormhole in direction of Corneria in 3…2…1…Go!"

The second after, the Great Fox II fired a beam which stopped its course a few miles away from its position. The Cornerian fleet crossed the portal, leaving the old ship and the mercenary team flies through it last. Fox looked one last time at Equis with teary eyes and a small smile on his face.

"My friends…thank you." Were his last words before he followed the others, closing the gate behind him.

Equis would be in peace for a long while, thanks to the legendary StarFox Team.

[Suggestive Ending Theme]

Mission N°3: Mission Accomplished

The End

Author's Note

Wow, that was one heck of a ride.
I was almost in tears when I was writing this chapter.
It's the end of an adventure, one which lasted a little more than a year and half but it was a very cool one. I want to thank all of you for reading/commenting, it was a real pleasure to read what you had to say.

Don't give up and trust your instincts.

Just one last thing

Game Over / Meet the Princesses

The little group composed of ten ponies and one bipedal orange fox walked to the front doors, which were protected by two guards. The guard on the left side of the door looked at his colleagues in front of him. The leader of the squad nodded and the guard did the same before allowing entrance by opening the door.

"Fancy place, isn't it?" said Fox to himself, slightly chuckling.

The interior of the castle was just as magnificent as the exterior. The tiles, walls and pillars were colored in white and gold. A large and red carpet was covering a large part of the ground. Two banners, one representing a crescent moon and the other the sun, were hanging from the ceiling. The architectural style of the castle corresponded to the medieval age, the vulpine was completely certain of this.

On the left side of the corridor, the vulpine could see the windows which were colored in different colors and represented a few ponies. Two of them had horns and wings and they were fighting something which looked like a mix of a few creatures. In another one, the duo was against a black colored unicorn with a red horn and smoking purple eyes. Whoever were those two ponies with horn/wings, they were indeed very important in the history of this country.

In all honesty, Fox was in awe and there wasn't a single word which could describe this place except 'beautiful' for him.

"So, you guys are like Royal Guards or something?"

"You could say that." replied one of them before receiving the glares of his co-workers.

"Mmmmmmh, I see. I suppose you don't know anything about the Lyl-"

Before the pilot could finish his sentence, he was cut off by the same one who talked to him just after he landed.

"All your questions will be answered by her Majesty. So, I suggest you to stop talking and continue to walk. Am I clear?"

Fox rolled his eyes and decided to stay silent; the white stallion took this as a 'yes'. Despite the fact those ponies were a little snappy, he admired them for their professionalism. For now, they didn't treat him as if he was something dangerous, even if his arrival was completely sudden and unexpected.

On Corneria, appearing in the sky like this could be considered as a threat and the pilot who did it could end dead or seriously injured without any warning from the local forces. So far, these guards were well organized.

The orange fox also looked at the right side of the hallway and saw a few doors and corridors, leading to some unknown parts of the castle. He also saw a few candlesticks on his path, clearly for the purpose of illuminating the corridors at night.

Whoever imagined the design of this building was made for this job. Finally, the group stopped in front of two golden doors with markings of the sun and the moon on it. Fox couldn't help but whistle at their height.

"Wow, not bad. I bet they're made of iron or platinum."

The leader of the ten guards ignored him and pressed his hoof against the massive door before opened it, revealing a grand throne room on the other side. More stain glass windows adorned the walls, and the threading in the carpet was composed of what Fox could have only guessed was pure silk. At the far end of the room, he could see one seated figure and deduced it was their ruler.

"Well, it's time to meet the big chief."

The famous ace pilot and leader of Star Falco, Falco Lombardi, was walking in the corridors of the HQ of the Cornerian Defense Forces, in direction of the General's office. His mind was filled with sorrow and anger. One of his best friends was dead because of Oikonny. If Fox hadn't decided to play solo, none of this would have happened.

Yet, it was the vulpine's job to kill that bastard and he perfectly knew the risks but still…for the avian, it wasn't fair to see your ex-leader and friend disappear into nothingness in front of you. The feeling of uselessness was still haunting Falco when he stopped his walk in front of a dark brown door with Peppy's name on it. How would the old hare react to the death of his former apprentice? Knowing the old-timer, he would be devastated, at least. And Slippy? God, he didn't want to know the toad's reaction when he'll learn the bad news. The frog and the fox were friends since their childhood.

He knocked three times.

"Come in!" replied a voice.

Opening the door, Falco saw the old-timer sitting on his leather seat, looking at some paperwork. He raised his head to look at the newcomer and smiled. His office was wide enough to fit twenty people, had a light brown carpet and grey walls/ceiling. Falco could also see Corneria City behind his friend and superior, thanks to the large window.

"Ah Falco, good to see you! How was your mission?"

"Pretty good, all the members of this terrorist cell are now in jail."

The General nodded, still smiling despite the sadness in his friend's voice. "I'm happy to hear that. What about Fox? I don't have any news from him since the briefing and when I try to contact him, he won't answer. This is rather strange because I've seen the Great Fox landing in one of the hangars."

At this moment, Falco's body was trembling in apprehension and sorrow. He could feel a knot in the pit of his stomach, preventing him from saying anything. The rate of his heart had quickened. Peppy deserved to know the truth; he was like a second father to Fox, especially after the death of James McCloud. Tears began to fall from the avian's eyes.

Seeing this, the General frowned.

"It was me who piloted the Great Fox. I'm sorry Peppy. I tried to save him but I was too late. I shouldn't have let him fight that son of a bitch alone!"

Seeing the gravity of the situation, the hare stood up from his seat and quickly walked at Falco's side. The expression on his face was one full of worry. The ace pilot always was the strongest of the four members of the team. He rarely expressed those kinds of feelings.

"Falco, what happened?!"

"What happened?" repeated the avian, lowering his head and clenching his fists in frustration. "Fox is dead, that's what happened! And all of this is my fault!"

The blue bird continued to silently cry and sob for a few seconds before talking again.

"Fox was fighting a group of Battleships and Carriers who were standing between him and Oikonny's flagship when the three of us arrived. We distracted the ships from Fox to us and he was able to directly confront Oikonny. Said bastard who deployed a black hole generator and… I'm sorry Peppy, I'm so sorry."

Peppy didn't need to hear anymore to know what Andrew did. A few tears appeared in the corner of his eyes and fell down his face. Just like Falco, he felt guilty for Fox's death. Maybe even more than his bird friend because without James' presence, it was his duty to take care of the orange vulpine. He shouldn't have sent him on this mission, even if he was the only one available at this moment. He felt like he had failed his promise to James to protect the young McCloud. He had made this promise just before the fox with sunglasses was killed and tried to keep it, even if it nearly cost him his life more than he could count.

The two of them stayed in the middle of the room, in a hug and trying to comfort each other. Finally, after a few minutes, they broke the hug. Peppy's expression darkened.

"Falco, could you contact Slippy to tell him about it? I need to be alone."

"No problem." replied Falco in a sad tone, walking towards the door and opening it. "See you later, old-timer."

When he closed the door, the blue bird released a breath he didn't know he was holding. His eyes were slightly red and his throat was dry. He raised his left arm to the level of his chest and composed a few numbers on the communication device strapped to his wrist. After a few seconds, the hologram of a light green toad with blue eyes and a red/white cap on his head appeared.

"Hey, Falco! What's up?"

The avian sniffled before answering.

"Yo, Slip'. I'm not disturbing you, I hope?"

"Nah, I finished feeding the childrens. Why?" replied his friend, with a small smile.

"I have some very bad news for you, pal…Fox's dead."

The orange vulpine stopped a few meters away from the throne and knelt. Even if he wasn't one of her subjects, it was always wise to make a first good impression. Fox could feel the sun's warmth on the left part of his face and smiled. He always preferred the summer to the winter, even if he loved when the nights were longer during that time of the year.

"Your Highness, this creature was found in front of the strange device which flew around Canterlot and landed in the Royal Gardens. He seems to be the pilot of this 'metallic carriage'. He told us his name was Fox McCloud."

A heavy silence settled in the room before the ruler spoke.

"You can rise."

Fox did as the feminine, but commanding voice, said and his green eyes met her magenta ones. In front of him was a tall and white pony. Her mane was made of four different colors and was moving despite the fact there was no wind in the room. She had golden regalia and a picture of the sun on her flanks. She had a long horn and wings. Fox knew about mythical creatures like unicorns or pegasus but not both of them in the same creature.

"Is it true? Does this 'carriage' belong to you?"

"Yes, the Arwing is my ship. But, I forgot to introduce myself correctly: my name is Fox, Fox McCloud and I'm the leader of the StarFox Team."

"StarFox Team?" she repeated, raising an eyebrow. "What kind of job your team do?"

"We're mercenaries ma'am…but the good kind of mercenaries, we only work for the government."

Slowly, a smile grew on her face.

"Interesting… as you could have guessed, I'm the co-ruler of Equestria and Princess of the Sun. Everypony knows me as Princess Celestia. May I learn where are the others members of your team?"

"They don't work with me anymore. They left two years ago." said Fox, a slight tone of sadness in his voice. "But today, after two years of doing nothing, the Cornerian Army, my employer, wanted me to get rid of someone very dangerous. I did it, well… I suppose I did, but as a result, I was engulfed in vortex which leads me here."

"Can't you go back to your homeworld?"

He shook his head.

"Unfortunately, no. My Arwing is far too damaged to try the hyperspace. He can barely fly, the only hope I have is to send a distress signal and pray they receive it. And even if it's the case, I don't know how much time it will take me to go back at the hyperspace's speed."

"I see. What if I told you that we, Equestrians, need the services of somepony like you. Are you interested?"

"Maybe, everything depends on what you have to offer me."

"You stay at the Castle as our guest, the best blacksmiths, scientists and magicians will be at your service to help you to repair your ship and we'll give you money or even gems when you'll be done with the job."

Now, Fox was interested. If the gems were not fake, he could sell them at a very good price and live comfortably for a few years. And honestly, it was his only option. He wasn't as skilled as Slippy to keep the Arwing in good shape.

"It's a deal Princess. Whatever is your problem, I'm in."

"Perfect. Come with me, it'll be better to talk about it in a safer place."

The two of them left the throne room and began to walk in the corridors of the castle. They stayed silent for a few seconds before Celestia spoke first.

"Are you hungry, Mr. McCloud? I suppose you must be after what happened."

A growl coming from Fox's stomach was the answer the white alicorn received.

"To tell you the truth, yes," began Fox, chuckling. "My superior sent me in this mission before I could have breakfast."

The princess slightly giggled. "If we are lucky, my sister still should be in the dinner room. It would the perfect occasion for you to meet her and eat at the same time."

"I'd love to."

Then, they stopped in front of another golden door and the Goddess of the Sun opened it with her magic. Fox nodded in thanks and entered the room. In front of him was a long wooden table with a few chairs. And on one of those chairs was a very gorgeous creature: a tall pony with wings, a horn, dark blue coat, teal eyes and a crescent moon on the flanks. The similarity with Krystal, his old love interest, was quite disturbing for him.

"This, Fox McCloud, is my little sister: Luna. She's the Princess of the Night."

"What do you mean by 'Princess of the Night'?"

"Simple. She controls the moon."

Fox looked at Celestia, stunned.

"I beg your pardon? Did I hear right?"

"Yes, the moon is under my watch and the dreams are my domain. But....who are you?"

The vulpine with green eyes blinked a few times, walked to one of the wooden chairs and sat on it. All of this before looking at the two princesses and crossing his arms, still dumfounded by the information. Then, he put a serious look on his face.

"Okay, let's put that aside for the moment and talk business."