Cosmonaut

MLP FiM Fanfic: Cosmonaut

By: Lucario247

Chapter 1: Stratosphere

20 Minutes ago

Aboard the E. S. C. Pontiac

Emergency lights flashed in the sleeping tube. This caused the colt in the bed to wake up with a jolt. He sat up, and hit his head on the roof of the pod. He grimaced, placing a hoof on his head as he pushed a button. The bed slid out of the wall, allowing the colt to sit up and stretch. However he didn't have long to stretch, because somepony had come to herd all the ponies in this sleeping sector to their stations.

The higher ranking pony pushed a button on a control panel and all the bed units slid out of the wall. Some of the colts and mares that were in the pods were still half asleep. However, most of the ponies shot out of their beds and ran down the corridors that led to their battle stations.

The colt was one of the ponies that was still half asleep. He was about to lay back down on his bed when a pony that outranked him yelled at him.

"C'mon Private Cosmo! Man your station! We are on full red alert!" the officer spat in his face.

Cosmo was now completely awake. He jumped out of his bed and sped out of "Stasis Chamber DC14". He slid past a corner and almost collided with a fuchsia mare that was heading the opposite direction.

"Watch it!" she snapped. It appeared that the wake up call had annoyed her.

Cosmo quickly apologized and continued running. As he ran, he looked at the reflection of himself that was cast onto the shiny walls. His black and gray mane was totally disheveled and messy, with clumps of hair sticking out in odd angles, tangling around his unicorn horn. His light blue fur was covered with impressions from his bed, making it look like he had strange tattoos all over his face and forelegs. The snug suit, that he was required to wear constantly, covered his entire back and belly. The gray and orange suit stretched down his legs until it reached above his knees. it had a hole for his tail to stick through.

Cosmo saw the airlock to the starboard turret guns ahead.  Many other ponies that were stationed at the turrets were there, suiting up. He joined them and began pulling on the armor/spacesuit. His friend, Ratchet, approached Cosmo with a nervous smile.

"Oi. What do you think's goin' on?" he said while strapping on the shoulder pads.

"Dunno, Ratchet. Guess we're re-entering Valix's atmosphere and fighting off the Arach's gunship."

"Heh. You ready to blast some Arach head?!" he asked with his usual eagerness for action.

"I guess..." Cosmo was unsure about all this. He'd just gotten out of recruit training a week ago, and now here he was, standing by the turrets, preparing to blow up some aliens.

"Ugh." he thought to himself. He wished he was still at home.

2 months 3 days ago

Sparkle residence, Ponyville, Equestria

When the colt from the ECD arrived at the door, Cosmo knew something was wrong. The colt gave a slip of parchment to Cosmo's father and then left with a tip of his hat. Dusk, Cosmo's father, gathered the rest of the Sparkle family into the sitting room to open the note. If it was from the ECD, then it had to be important.

Cosmo remembered, he had sat on the coach, next to his sister, Stella, as he watched his parents read the note. His mother, Twilight, had suddenly burst into tears and embraced Cosmo. Dusk had grabbed Stella and held her close.

"Mom, what's wrong?" Cosmo had asked

She continued bawling and handed Cosmo the note.

"Cosmo Sparkle is hereby Drafted into the Equestrian Colonial Defense. Please report to the Ponyville ECD recruit station three days after receiving this letter.

Signed,

Commander Mustang"

Cosmo had been paralyzed. He'd been drafted into the ECD. Dusk explained the citation to Stella, who started crying like Twilight. Then the entire Sparkle family embraced their family member who had been drafted.

2 months 1 day ago

Ponyville

Cosmo's farewell party had been pretty short notice. Nevertheless, as many family members and friends arrived as possible. Fortunately, Cosmo's Aunt Pinkie had set up the party without any objection. Soon after the cake and toast to Cosmo, everypony began to say their farewells to him. His Aunt AJ told him to be strong and work hard. Uncle Shining gave Cosmo a small golden medallion for safety and luck. Aunt Cadence recited an alicorn safety prayer to him. Soon Jade came up to him.

Cosmo had known Jade since they were fillies. Her parents were originally from Fillydelphia, but had moved to Ponyville and became good friends with the Sparkle family. They both gave birth to newborn fillies around the same time, and began to bring them together.

Jade and Cosmo were practically inseparable. Through school they always helped each other out. It would make sense that she would show up at his farewell party.

She had tear-lines along her face. When she saw Cosmo, she began crying again, her Pegasus wings ruffling in grief. Cosmo jumped up and hugged his close friend, comforting her.

"Hey. It's okay." he said while trying to shush her.

"It's not okay! You're going to war!" she sobbed into his shoulder

He pulled her up to face her, "Since when have I ever been in a fatal position and not made it out ok?"

She sniffed and pushed her olive green hair out of her emerald face with her hoof.

She stared at her feet for a moment.  Then she looked up at Cosmo with fierce determination, her wings puffing up.

"You can't go. You'll be killed!" she started sobbing again

"Jade! I am going to make it through this! I am going to live and return to you! I swear it!"

Jade looked at him with an expression of mixed surprise and sadness. Suddenly, she closed her eyes and jumped forward. Cosmo's eyes widened when their lips met. But soon he relaxed and returned the kiss. She broke away from the embrace and glared at him.

"You'd better keep that promise." she said with halfhearted intimidation. "'Cause if you don't , I'll...I'll..." A tear rolled down her cheek.

Cosmo looked into her deep emerald eyes, "Just take care of my family, ok? That way, I won't have to worry about them, which lets me focus more on my training."

Jade sniffed and then nodded, the redness of her cheeks standing out among her green complexion.

Now

Aboard the E. S. C. Pontiac

Cosmo stood in the airlock with about twenty other ponies. He had his suit on with his helmet securely surrounding his head. There was a small bulge in the helmet to make room for his horn. His safety harness was attached to the rail on the roof, along with everypony else's cables. Cosmo spotted Ratchet, who gave him an encouraging nod.

"Alright, listen up everypony!" a voice crackled through the com in the helmet, "Walk to your gun and start shooting the Arachs. Don't shoot down our fliers. Be careful. If your station somehow collapses, your safety harness will catch you and reel you back in here. Everypony get it?"

"Yes sir!" came the reply of all the gunner ponies.

The airlock door slowly slid open, releasing a gust of wind into the chamber. The ponies slowly made their way out of the airlock and to their guns.

Cosmo stepped out and gaped at the scenery. In the distance he could see the great Valix Mountains. They were so high that they actually pierced the atmosphere. Around the ship, Reddish-purple crafts zipped around, firing bluish projectiles at the Pontiac. Cosmo could see that the yellow/pink clouds were grazing the top of the spacecraft.

Somepony behind him pushed Cosmo forward, shaking him from his sightseeing. He quickly trotted to his station and walked out onto the jutting platform. At the end of the walkway, a circular platform sat with a large gun in the center. Cosmo trotted up to it and placed his forehooves into the grips. He looked down the sights and took aim at the Arach Switchbacks. Seeing one that was slowing down, he pointed at the craft and fired. The plasma bullets streaked from the gun and struck the Switchback in its wing. It caught a weird purplish fire and spiraled under the ship. Cosmo gulped down his regret and took aim at another craft.

He downed five Switchbacks before he heard the noise. On the roof of the Pontiac, a Switchback had crashed and was sliding towards Cosmo's platform. He jumped out of the way as the craft smashed onto the end of the jutting platform.

Cosmo staggered to his hooves and turned around. The crashed craft had flattened his gun. Cosmo had been instructed to return to the airlock if his gun was damaged. He turned to leave when he heard some movement in the wreckage. Slowly turning back towards the wreck, he saw a figure emerge from the smoking heap.

The ECD called them "Arachs" because of the amount of legs they have. Arachnis Eequins is to long to say, so the military shortened it to Arachs. The creature that stood before Cosmo looked equine in physique. It had oil colored skin that was composed of reptilian scales rather than fur. Rather than having a mane, it had a spine of scales that ran along the back of its neck. It's six legs looked somewhat gashed and bruised from the crash. It's eyes gleamed with a slit iris, somewhat like a changeling.

It glared at Cosmo and growled, the sound emanating from its chest, were its nostrils were oddly placed. It grabbed a twisted piece of metal from the wreck and pointed it at Cosmo.

Cosmo was stricken with fear. He fumbled for the knife that was in its holster on his leg. He flipped it around in his mouth with minor expertise and pointed it at the Arach. It whinnied and charged at him.

Cosmo ducked down and used his smaller size to slide under its six legs. It turned and slashed at Cosmo, but he dodged out of the way. Fire filled its slitted eyes at it brought the metal shard down in a downward arch. Cosmo took a small gash out of his left flank but spun around the Arach, behind it. As it was turning, Cosmo crouched and slashed. The knife made a huge gash in the Arach's chest. It whinnied and slumped over onto the wreckage. Golden blood seeped into the flaring nostrils of the creature.

Cosmo heard a sound to his right. He turned and saw a flaming Switchback that was sailing right towards him. He had no time to react. Suddenly, he felt a push from something that sent him flying from where he was standing.

The flaming craft crashed into the walkway, causing the platform, wreck, and Arach to fall into the open air below.

Cosmo got up and winced. His entire body ached. He was still trying to process what happened.

The craft was sailing towards him and the platform. The Arach had noticed it to, but actually reacted by pushing Cosmo out of the way.

He was stunned. His supposed enemy had saved his life.

Cosmo continued to meander in his thoughts as he trotted back to the airlock.