Brothers Forever

Five's P.O.V.

When I first awoke, I heard a sound that I was all to familiar with: heavy rain and thunder. I still felt very sleepy, but I managed convince myself to get up and take a look outside. I approached what I recognized to be a window, drew back the blinds, and I saw only the light of a street lamp shining into the window. It was still pretty dark out and there were only a few lights on, so I decided to go back to sleep and wake up a little later. It felt nice to relax for once, to not be caught up in senseless war. But, as I settled back into my bed, I couldn't help but wonder what was going on Lola Sayu. Did anyone else die? Did the mission succeed? I also wondered what Captain Rex or Commander Cody were doing, or if they had been taken by Lola Sayu as well. But I hesitantly pushed my thoughts aside and cleared my mind and soon the rain lulled me back to sleep. About two hours later, I woke up again to the sound of rain. I rolled over and I saw a dull grayish light was filtering through the blinds. I quietly got up and walked over to Echo, who was sound asleep, but also mumbling something intelligible. I decided to let him be for a few minutes more and I decided to go see if the inn served any kind of breakfast. I grabbed the key to our room and I quietly unlocked the door, and gently closed it behind me. A burst of thunder rattled the building as I walked down the hall, the smell of food and liquor guiding me in the dim hallway.

Meanwhile...

Princess Luna's P.O.V.

I had no time to waste. I galloped down the hallways at full speed, sliding around corners and leaping up stairways. I finally made it tot he throne room and burst in on Celestia and a few nobles come to complain about something, most likely irrelevant. There are three types of nobility; the good, the bad, and the snobby. From the the annoyed glance I received from Celestia, I could tell she was dealing with type 3.

Celestia turned to the nobles and said, "I understand your concerns, and they shall be dealt with. Now, if you do not mind, my sister approaches, and I believe we need to be alone. Good day."

With a few aggravated sighs, the nobles left. As I rushed past them, closing the doors as they were led out by the guards.

"Luna, I know something is wrong. Speak," said Celestia.

"I have seen the dream of an alien," I said with as serious a tone I could muster.

Celestia was silent at first,  but a grin began to show and I could hear her chuckling softly. She also subtly raised a hoof to her mouth, meaning  she was suppressing laughter.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"A-aliens?" stammered Celestia. "You're pulling my hoof, aren't you?"

"No," I said, so irked that I literally made the words 'not amused' float above my head.

Celestia's face suddenly straightened out and she said, "So you did contact extraterrestrials?"

"Went into one of their dreams, yes," I said.

"What did they look like?" asked Celestia.

"The two that are currently among us are ponies somehow, but in their natural form, they are strange, monkey-like bipeds standing at about six feet that look virtually identical. They wear white armor, sometimes adorned with markings in various colors. They are apart of a military force called the Republic, and they fight droids. The two that are here are known as 'Echo' and 'Fives'. That's all I know," I said.

Celestia suddenly grew pale.

"Sister?" I asked.

"Luna, those nobles just reported two ponies wearing strange white clothes with blue markings. They thought were a threat to the city's security..." replied Celestia.

"I think I know where they are," I said. "They were sleeping at a room in an inn, somewhere near the outskirts of the one tiny red-light district we have in the middle of the east side..." I shivered at the thought of the perverted and sick dreams that I had encountered in that minor area. I really was glad they hadn't gone too far in there.

"We must bring them here at once," said Celestia.

Echo's P.O.V.

Okay. I've seen some pretty weird stuff... watching a wild Reek humping a Battle Droid was the most bizarre (and hilarious) thing I'd seen, but the dream I'd just had took the cake for me. Well, kind of, wasn't too weird... except for the fact a small blue equine named "Princess Luna" suddenly showed up at the Rishi station. It was all so real... but... I knew It couldn't be. I mean, come on, was I really supposed to believe that an a blue pony had helped us win back the Rishi station and save Kamino? No, I won't believe. It's not possible. Anyways, Fives had left, and I figured that he'd be back shortly. As I began adjusting to the dim light of the room, I heard rain beating on the  observed that the tiny bathroom did in fact have shower. So I stripped of my armor and clothes, stepped in, and drew the patched up and stained shower curtain around me. I reached for the faucet, turned on the water, and the pulled up on the handle to activate the shower. The only problem is, it sucked. The water pressure was next to none, and the water temperature was at the Arctic setting. Even the rain on Kamino was warmer! But, it was still a shower. The water stirred my nerves and I began to wake up more. There was a stained washcloth which I dampened and rubbed in some soap with the pitiful soap bar on a rusty metal rack attached to the shower wall. As I washed, I listened to the rain beating on the roof, the rumbles of thunder and the crack of lighting. It all felt odd, kind of surreal. One day I'm on a dangerous Separatist prison planet, the next I'm an equine in a world full of equines who seem to have no knowledge of the Clone Wars. How nice it must be to live in complete ignorance. To not have thought that thousands of people were dying each day, people who you considered your brothers... ignorance must truly be bliss.

Fortunately, my shower was brief, and before I even knew it, I was back in my armor.

Suddenly, there was a knock at the door. "Must be Fives," I thought. "Come in!" I said.

Fives walked and said, "Ah, good. You're up. It's about time we left."

"I wish we could have some breakfast," I said.

"We'll figure something out. Heck, we managed to survive the Citadel... at least... I think we did..." said Fives.

I think we both questioned are reality at this moment. Were we dead? Alive? In another dimension? We both really didn't know. However, we left the room and walked out into the hard cobblestone street. The rain beat on our plastoid armor, creating on odd sensation like a crowd of invisible people tapping on your shoulders. This stuff is actually pretty heavy, but even it wasn't not very effective at repelling enemy fire. The only good armor was Katarn-class, but only commandos got that... I guess they earn the privilege. Regardless, the part we were in looked shady. There were a few noticeable signs advertising all kinds of explicit adult entertainment and brothels of all sorts. We mostly ignored the signs and the shadowy figures of equines probably doing or looking at intimate and explicit things.  One mare with a particularly lustful look sidled up to us and began making a series of suggestive and somewhat obscene gestures and even began grinding on my leggings.

"Knock it off. We're not interested," said Fives.

"You sure? I can give you a real good time..." the mare whispered.

"Positive," I responded.

The mare said nothing but slunk back to the edge of a brothel.

We continued down the shadowy boulevard, walking past prostitutes and the likes, and a few ponies going at it outside.

It was still raining hard, but we finally made it to a more comfortable part of the city. Shops, cafes, and small restaurants lined the streets on both sides, and everything looked cleaner and much more civil. The ponies, though some gave us strange looks, were much more kind and tolerable of our strange outfits. A few even greeted us. We eventually sat down at a cafe, and a few minutes after we did, a large ornate vehicle pained white and covered in some gold trim pulled up. I wasn't sure what to do, but Fives gave me a look that I knew mean to act casual. The door of the vehicle opened and a dark blue pony stepped out. It was a bit taller than the other equines, and it had a large blue man and tail that looked like it was speckled with stars and flowing in a breeze, even though there was none; and on its flank was a white crescent moon. Wait a minute... that was... the pony from my dream! I looked in amazement as Princess Luna, as she had called herself, walked over and sat down at our table casually. Fives, unaware of my dream, simply turned to Luna and said, "Hello. May I ask what exactly you came to see us for?"

"Don't play games, Fives. You know why I'm here," said Luna.

"Excuse me, but may I ask how you know my name?" said Fives.

"Ask your friend, Echo," said Luna.

Fives turned to me and said, "You've got some explaining to do."

I told them about my dream and what happened in it best as I could remember. And by the time I was done, I figured Fives's face had a look of disbelief on it.

"Wait... so you're telling me Luna here, in your dream, helped us save Rishi?" said Fives. "That brings to mind another question... how did-"

"How did I know about Echo's dream? I don't wish to sound... intrusive, but I have the ability to enter one's dreams. Yours stuck out, and, naturally, I was compelled to investigate," said Luna.

"Okay, okay... so you went into his dream and helped us during the Rishi incident?" said Fives.

"Basically," said Luna. "I now know a little bit about you and your brothers."

"Alright, stop with the dream entering stuff. Fierfek, I'd rather listen to Neimoidians conducting business negotiations and trade agreements," said Fives.

"Fives, you do realize she's a princess, right? She could have our heads on a platter!" I said.

Luna suddenly shuddered. "Please, do not describe such... violence," she said, looking a bit green.

I banged my head into the head into the cafe table and thought, "Wow, I'm just doing greaaaaaaaat. Probably offended royalty and ruining all possible diplomatic relations with this planet." Why I was thinking like a galactic senator at that moment I didn't know, but after dying and turning into miniature equine, the line of normal gets a bit blurred.

"Anyways," said Luna, regaining her composure.  "You need to come with me."

"Why should we?" asked Fives.

Luna stiffened a bit and said, "You are penniless, have no place to go, stay, or sleep, and have no friends or means of contacting the Republic. If you come with me, you'll be taken care of well. All that I ask is that you cooperate with me and my sister."

"So, you'll take care of us if we just cooperate?" said Fives suspiciously.

"Well, one other thing: I would like more answers," said Luna.

"I thought so!" said Fives. "Well, it's a deal then. I'm afraid that certain info we can't give, but whatever we can tell you... well, we'll discuss that later."

Just before she got up I said, "Princess........ Can you make us... human... again?"

Luna turned and said, "I don't know, Echo. I don't know much at all about you, except form your dream. Come, Celestia is expecting us."

We both looked at each other uneasily but we followed Luna and climbed in the carriage, our the rain dripping and running  down our plastoid armor darkening the red fabric of cushioned bench we were sitting on.

Meanwhile...

In a dark, slimy cave in the heart of a desolate and towering mountain, something stirred. Inside a clear membrane cocoon filled with a  greenish gelatinous slime, a white bipedal figure stirred from a strange kind of stasis. It struggled through the slime and began tearing at the membrane, kicking and punching and ripping. Just before it could suffocate, the cocoon burst and the creature gasped for air, making strange electronic breathing sounds. The sound stabilized and the creature stood up, recovering from its struggle to escape the cocoon. It raised its right forearm towards what appeared to be its mouth and said:

"This is CT-782, can anyone hear me?"