Ch.1 "Bite-Size Munchkin"
Fluttershy gets a Pet Rancor
Ch.1 “Bite-Size Munchkin”
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…
STAR WARS!
Episode… XVII or something
THERE IS NO HOPE
It is a period of time when megalomaniacs exist, who order all kinds of ridiculous things done in the name of entertainment… such as pit fighting with large and overly dangerous animals. Or using them as means of execution, such as lord Jabba, who was so fond of the practice.
As it so happens, the infamous slug thug was not the only one with the means, and intent of purchasing such an exotic predator. His lasciviously violent example led to others to gain interest in such beasts.
An aspiring, young in spirit, criminally-minded, entrepreneur by the name of GuguLowkacorrumbanuusuuki desired a rancor for himself, so that he could dangle the oppressed and weakly people who owed him money, for his generous protection, infront of his alpha dominant monster.
The order was made, a receipt printed, bills completed, and delivery arranged. There was however, an unforeseen complication…
- GuguLowkacorrumbanuusuuki’s utility cargo shuttle. Somewhere in the Dathomir system.
“Puddu, dis ding smells hella bad.”
A grungy, grey-skinned, bill-faced Gungan whined in an intolerably annoying voice. He wacked an electrically powered prod stick against a relatively small cage. A feral little screech came from the cage… and the smell of excrement that polluted the cargo shuttle worsened.
“Sssstop that you idiot! Or I’ll jetisssson you off this sssshuttle!”
An angry hiss came from a lizard-like trandoshan at the control panel, who was also annoyed at the stench, because the pilot seat unfortunately shared air space with the cargo bay.
Lord GuguLowkacorrumbanuusuuki had carefully explained he was too cheap to afford a shuttle with its own separate cockpit… money needed to be spent on real priorities, such as exotic predator collections.
So the trandoshan was already irritable because of infant rancor stench. The gungan’s poor attitude almost pushed the pilot mercenary over the edge. But the lizard-man needed to keep calm, the last time he lost his temper he almost lost his job…
“Wwwrrrrrrraaaaaaagghghghghgh”
Oh, and there was a damn wookiee in the co-pilot seat.
“SSSShut up slave! No one wants to hear your gurgling!”
“Wufwufwuf… grrrhawawah”
The trandoshan’s eyes flared, and his slit-like pupils narrow to deadly points. He pulled out his blaster, and pointed it at the wookiee.
“What did you call my mother!”
“Gaaaaaarararararwwwrrr.”
“You’ll die for that you inssssolent walking carpet!”
The lizard man opened fire and red plasma bolts spurted from the blaster. The wookiee quickly swiveled the co-pilot chair to take shelter from the deadly projectiles. A few of the shots burned holes clean through the industrial piece of furniture, but missed the intended target.
“RAAAWWWWWR!”
With a mighty roar and a powerful tug the wookiee picked up the heavy co-pilot seat and hurled it bodily at the trandoshan. The lizard-man opened his golden eyes wide before the lump of metal crushed him.
In a fit of nervous spasm the trandoshan’s trigger finger continued to pull down on the blaster. Several more burning plasma bolts shot out and bounced around the ship’s interior. One lucky ricochet bounced around, and hit the wookiee in the back of the head.
The large furry humanoid let out an unconscious moan as he fell forward onto the control panel, which thoroughly messed up the buttons and levers. One particular lever that shouldn’t be pushed haphazardly, was pushed...
“HEY WATSA GOIN’ ON HERE?”
The entire squabble happened in mere moments, and the gungan turned about to find the control area a miserable mess. Neither pilot was conscious… or alive for that matter.
“oh nononono!”
Through the screen of the pilot’s window the gungan could see the ship had gone into hyperspace, in some totally random direction. Both of his eyes blinked on top of their amphibian stalks.
“Dissa not be good.”
To be sure that he really was on his own, the gungan used his shock prod on the trandoshan and wookiee. No productive results beyond useless fidgets occurred. So in a nervous panic the froggish alien started to push buttons and pull levers.
“C’mon c’mon c’mon. I dunno how to do dis!”
Some part of the ship let out a high pitched whine, and something exploded.
“Oi oi, not good, not good!”
He panicked more and pushed more buttons. The ship remained in hyperspace, heading who knows where.
“Stop! I command you stupid ship!”
In a desperate effort the gungan took the shock prod and rammed it directly into the control panel. Electrical energy cackled as the circuits started to fry and the ship began to power down. Soon the ship slowed out of hyperspace, and the stars resumed their normal, not elongated appearance.
The gungan’s panicky breath slowed as well. He peeked out the view panel to see where he had ended up. There was a blue-green planet that occupied half of the window port, and a yellow star peeked around the edge of the horizon.
“Woowee meesa thought I’d get mega lost dere… wait… meesa still lost.”
Then the ship started to rattle and shake, and the gungan grew nervous again. The cargo shuttle was being pulled into the planet’s atmosphere.
“Nonono, meesa don’t know how to land! WAAAAHH!”
Fiery singes and highlights decorated the ship’s lining as it plummeted further and further into the atmosphere of the mysterious planet. Soon it became a fiery ball in the strange world’s sky. Pieces of the ship started to pull apart, and flaming debris scattered in a trail behind the land-bound craft.
Shortly thereafter it collided with the surface, and created a path of carnage through the forest it impacted. Trees were set alight, underbrush crushed, and animals scattered in fright. The alien ship broke into more pieces as it collided with more and more obstacles.
Eventually the metal juggernaut lost its momentum and ground to a halt. The mess rested in place and smoke plumed from it in a steady column. The nearby foliage started to ignite from the intense heat of burnt ship parts.
A loud violent cough came from the gungan as he limped out of the ship, and dragged a small cage behind him.
“Oi, why did I eva take dis job…”
As soon as the amphibious humoid cleared the smoke he pulled out a chain and collar, then opened up the cage. He held the shock prod at the ready too.
“C’mon you little puddu, I’m not gonna drag dis heavy cage everywhere.”
He lowered the chain and collar into the cage and tried to fasten it around the creature’s neck. But the little monster was fearful and snapped its little sharp teeth on the offensive gungan’s hand. The duck-faced alien pulled back in a howl of pain, before he angrily thrust the shock prod at the baby beast.
“Yousa commin’ with me, or da boss has my head!”
The infantile rancor screeched as the prod delivered a painful jolt, and it tried to futility scurry away, but the confines of the cage were too small to go anywhere. When the creature was pinned in submission the angry gungan forced on the collar and chain, then callously pulled the beast out by its neck.
Free of the cage the tiny rancor tried to run way, and flailed with its four limbs. It clumsily fell down, since one its legs had been injured in the crash. It received fierce tug from the chain and collar, and another shock from the end of the prod.
“Yousa not goin’ any where you little puddu…”
Howls erupted from the nearby forest, and the gungan perked his long flappy ears. The grey skinned humanoid stared to breathe quickly again, and the eyes on the end of his eye stalks grew wide.
That yowl didn’t seem welcoming. Also the green eyes that glowed from the nearby bushes didn’t seem terribly friendly. The crack and snap of twigs didn’t really give him a warm and whimsical feeling either.
Some unnatural woodly themed monsters emerged into the clearing, and eyed the gungan with insidious interest.
“Stay away!”
The gungan held up his shock prod, but that did little to deter the advancement of these wolfish creatures, which appeared to be made out of timber.
“Oi I meant it!”
He trembled in fear and dropped the chain which restrained the baby rancor, and held up the prod with both hands. As soon as the little creature felt no resistance on its leash, it quickly limped off into the nearby bushes and out of sight. The wolves didn’t even seem to notice, but continued to advance on the duck-faced alien… duck-man tastes good right?
Soon a few more wolves emerged from the trees, and had the gungan surrounded on all sides. The doomed alien gulped.
“Ok… yousa win… Can meesa go home now?”
As if the wolves somehow understood the question, they all shook their heads in disapproval. Then opened their jaws and pounced.
The screams were short-lived…
Fluttershy was out and about in her back yard, singing carefree tunes and tending to her animals. Birds chirped and rodents chattered along with her in a magical spirit of whimsicalness. She fluttered here and there loftily on her light wings of loftiness and there wasn’t a thing to worry about in the world. It was all cutesy, picture-perfect, and undisturbed… until it was disturbed.
“gllalala…”
The buttery butter-ball of a pegasus hovered where she was in the air. That noise, that awful grating noise didn’t harmonize with the whimsically whimsical birds or the chittery chattery rodents. Or her own lovey dovey voice for that matter. Her eyes opened wide at the prospect of what it might be.
“Oh Mr. Bear? Are you sick?”
She turned about to look for the source of the sickly sound. There was no Mr. Bear… just some ugly little creature that limped slowly towards her and her entourage of small critters. It croaked out it gritty noise again.
“Grrllalala.”
All the small animals quickly ran away or cowered behind their mighty pegasus leader, who actually stood still, unsure herself. After she studied it for another moment though, she noticed the distinct limp. Also, how the creature slightly dragged its left leg, and propped itself up with its considerably longer arms.
“Oh poor baby, some poor critter got himself hurt!”
She fluttered closer towards the little beast, it was only half her size, and didn’t look poisonous… so how dangerous could it be? When she got closer she saw it had some pretty sharp teeth, and some sharp claws on the end of its fingers, which scared her a little. But her friend Mr. Bear had those things as well. She would just have to see the animal’s disposition first. It did look quite pitiable the way it limped all sadly, and it’s little pouty face, and those sorrowful little beady eyes.
Then she noticed it also had a collar on, and dragged a little chain along with it. Somepony must have owned it!
“Oh, did you lose your way home? I’m so sorry, come here you poor thing.”
She came even closer, and the beast cringed away from her approach. When she was a step or two away it raised it’s arms up high to try and be intimidating.
“Grrarararar!”
It failed to be intimidating…
“Aw, you don’t need to be scared little guy, I won’t hurt you.”
She reached over and picked up the little monster, so that it was gently grasped between her two front hooves. Upon closer inspection she saw that the collar was awfully tight around the sad creature’s neck, and noticed a little lock on the device, so she pushed it. The restraint clicked and fell right off, along with the chain.
The babyish beast gasped as it got a fuller breath of air.
“That better there little guy?”
“Glalalala”
“Sounds like it. Hmm, and we better do something about that leg of yours. It looks in bad shape.”
“Glalalal”
So it was… and Fluttershy fluttered home with a little rancor held in her hooves.
-To be continued-
