For the right price

Chapter 1: Smooth flying

Spike was tired of space, Of course his job on the Imperial Equestrian liner earned him good credits and it was neither hard nor boring to write down schedules for the fighter pilot patrols and reporting in to his boss about any findings or any need for repairs. But the thing that bugged him the most was that when you go to sleep, it's just emptiness and stars, and when you wake up, it's always the same thing, he couldn't stand it, the same thing over and over again.

The liners that travelled from his home planet Equestria were filled with different resources of trading. They traded food, ores and even vehicles and small spaceships in return for credits, and even some spices from the distant planet of Arrakis, which was controlled by the alien species called 'humans'. Spike had done his research and studies on different alien species, since it was crucial to know who you traded with, but these humans had caught his interest more than any other alien species. From what he knew, the humans were the youngest of all the species in the galaxy to have invented space travel, but they were also the ones that expanded faster than any other so far. They had so far colonized about fifty different planets, he didn't know the names of all of them but he knew about 'Arrakis' and 'Mars'. The latter was located in the humans own solar system, where their home planet of 'Terra' was located. The name of their planet had, besides 'humans' as the general name, made the different species of the universe call them 'Terrans'.

...

Spike stood up from the bunk bed in his room and walked over to the window, looking out into the big void outside.

He sighed, "Only five space days left 'till we arrive at the Sander trading docks..." He looked over at his computer. Sighing again, he walked over to it, looking at the notification he had saved at the screen desktop. "And I need to report in to Officer Sparkle tomorrow night..." He didn't have anything against his commanding officer but she was... Special to say the least.

He started to dress up in his uniform that hung on the chair before him, getting ready to go out to his assigned fighter ship hangar, hangar number five, to inspect the ships and collect reports from the fighter pilots that had been on guard duty patrolling around the imperial liner. He walked through the long halls leading to hangar five, which were either filled with imperial pony soldiers, which by standard wore their bronze coloured imperial armour along with their laser blasters, or merchants and different employees, employed by the equestrian merchant guild. Thanks to him being so flexible because he was a dragon, he could easily squeeze in between all of the ponies there and headed into hangar five.

The hangar was huge, there was not only room for three fighters, which pilots he were to schedule and get reports from, but it was also filled with large landing crafts and bombers that were to be used in case they were attacked by a larger enemy fleet. Luckily there wasn't much of a chance that it would happen, regarding to the size of the imperial liner and due to that the only regular attacks that occurred were by smaller bands of bandits and raiders that were dealt with quickly by the liner's own guard crews. Two of the fighter ships had already landed at their specified landing pads and the last one was just flying in through the hangar force field. It slowly sank down onto it's landing pad, its cockpit opening.

Rainbow Dash, Rarity and Applejack were skilled fighter pilots, some of the best on the liner. Spike smiled as he walked over to them with his holo-pad ready to write down anything that they had to report. "Hello ladies, good flying today?"

Rainbow dash, a blue pegasus with rainbow coloured hair and tail smirked. "As always Spike, we did some really awesome flying out there!"

The white unicorn with purple hair, Rarity, and the orange coloured pony with long blond hair, Applejack, chuckled at her.

"Well, at least some of us tried to do our patrol seriously." Rarity started. "But someone wanted to pretend to be an acrobat rather than a pilot, as they should."

This earned her a frown from Rainbow Dash. "Hey! I was trying to make it a bit less boring!"

Spike nodded, understanding that patrol duty could very boring. "The last thing we need is you two fighting." He said, a stern tone in his voice. "Now, anything out of the ordinary today?"

Applejack pointed at her fighter. "Nothing much, but there's an odd sound inside my cockpit. Sounds like it's coming from above, behind my head. Can you get someone to check it out for me? Might be one of the oxygen tubes leaking."

Spike was already writing it down on his holo-pad. "Fighter ship 4PPL3J4CK in hangar five, needs a maintenance check ASAP. Possible oxygen tube failure inside cockpit." He pressed send, mailing it to the engineer and repair foreman of the liner. "The engineers should be notified any minute now and then they will have it worked out 'till the next patrol, that's atleast what I'm supposed to say, I hope they will get it on time." Spike told Applejack, scratching his head.

She smiled at him, "Thank you Spike. See you in a few hours!"

"Yeah, see you," Spike started to walk out of the hangar, the same way he came in.

"Spike!" Rarity called out to him from the other end of the hangar, from the door leading to the pilot quarters.

He turned around and looked at her. "Yes Rarity?"

"Nurse Fluttershy wanted me to remind you to go see her. I think she said that she had to move your health checkup ahead of schedule."

He sighed. "Allright... Thanks, I guess..."

He turned back around and headed out of the hangar. He wasn't usually this annoyed about having to deal with this stuff. He liked to visit Nurse Fluttershy, she was nice and was always careful during the health checks. But there are still some things about being in the hospital wing that he didn't like, like all the sick people throwing around diseases in there.

Maybe I should tell her when she asks the usual questions about how I'm feeling, and if I slept well and all of that...

Once again he could easily slip in between all the ponies chatting and standing in the hallways. The infirmary was on the fifteenth level of the liner, which meant he had to take the elevator two levels up.
As he walked through the infirmary doors, an older, and very grumpy unicorn addressed him. "You don't look injured or sick! Visiting hours are over! Have you booked a time?"

Spike walked over to the desk, a tired look on his face. "My name is Spike and I'm going to see Fluttershy. I was told that she had to push my health checkup ahead of schedule"

Spike could clearly see that she didn't believe him.

"I'm going to check with her." She pressed some buttons and a hologram showing a yellow coloured pony with long pink hair popped up.

"Yes?" The yellow pony, known as Fluttershy, asked quietly.

"There is a lizard here, Spike, saying he had a checkup pushed ahead of schedule?"

Fluttershy smiled, "That is correct, you can send him to room #10."

The hologram disappeared and the unicorn gave him a look to show she was annoyed that he was still there. "You heard her, room #10. Hurry up!" She barked.

As Spike headed towards the room Fluttershy was in he thought to himself. And I think I'm tired of space! She must have been here since the universe was created! Talk about tired of space, more like tired of life... By the way, I'm a dragon... And not a LIZARD!

The doors to room #10 opened and he walked through. He was met by a smiling pegasus, who spoke to him in a quiet manner. "Hello Spike. How has your day been?"

"Mostly been in my room, scheduling. Then I got the patrol reports from the girls. Nothing unusual. Rainbow Dash was feeling a bit acrobatic while flying today." Spike answered her, sitting down on a chair in front of her.

Fluttershy giggled, picking out her medical equipment. "That sounds normal, considering it's Rainbow Dash."

Spike chuckled. "Yeah, I can't blame her, you can get bored easily out here. I'm getting tired of space."

Fluttershy turned around and looked at some document she had laying on the small table beside her. "We will arrive at the trading docks soon enough, and then you can ask Twilight if you can take a day off while we stop to trade and refuel to spend some time on the planet. Might do you good to get some real oxygen and get to have solid ground under your feet" Spike nodded.

"Now." She continued. "I'll have to do the regular checkup on you, I'll check your blood pressure, and I'll have to check your the levels of nutritions in your blood and I will check your scales for anything out of the ordinary, like parasites or lice." She cleared her throat and smiled again. "I'm sorry that I had to push you ahead of schedule like this, but I have some engineers that got hurt in a gas leak near the engines. They have been treated already but I need to do a follow up treatment, it takes a lot of time and I have to focus on them, you do understand don't you?"

Spike nodded again, "I'm just glad I can get this over with."

She giggled. "Still afraid of needles?" Spike shuddered.

...

Rarity sighed where she sat in her fighter jet, talking to the other girls over the radio. "It must be boring for Pinkie to be stuck on guard duty again!" Rainbow Dash's fighter did a barrel roll and stabilized itself between Rarity's and Applejack's fighters as they flew on their second guard patrol for the day.

"Yeah, but I guess we have the same problem." Rarity answered through their radio communications system.
"We're stuck on patrol."

"But not for several hours with no breaks!" Rainbow Dash was annoyed. She had hoped to wind-off together with Pinkie Pie for a while in the kitchen, sharing a meal or something. But her plans had been trashed when she was told that Pinkie Pie was on guard duty for another three hours.

She let out a deep sigh, "At least we don't run into anything odd out here, like drunk civilians that have to be calmed down..."

Suddenly all of the three fighters alerts went off. "Hyperspace rupture!" Applejack's voice said through the radio. "Evasive manoeuvres!"

In front of them a slip-space rupture appeared and a fighter burst through it, followed by three others that got busy attacking the first.

As the three ponies evaded the fighters that flew past them, they all received a message on the radio, "This is Stingray 405, I'm under attack by smugglers and I need assistance!"

Rainbow Dash spun her fighter around and pushed the speed to max, pursuing the smugglers.

"This is Rainbow Dash, I'm from the Imperial Liner of Equestria, we're on them!" Applejack and Rarity's fighters followed close behind.

The Stingray had it's hands full dodging the laser blasts from the smuggler ships flying behind it. As soon as they got in range, the three ponies began to fire, their rain of blasts forcing the smugglers to make a u-turn and attack them instead.

"This isn't your fight. Leave now or die!" They heard a dark voice say over the radio, clearly one of the smugglers. They ignored it and kept up their attack. After a few hits one of the enemy fighters exploded into a firework of flames and ship debris.

The Stingray had turned around and joined the hunt for the last two smugglers.
"We'll get these bastards now!" The pilot of the Stingray had a tone of enthusiasm in his voice. With joined strength, the girls and the newcomer shot down another smuggler ship, and now they had their sights on the last one.

A missile shot from his ship and flew past Rainbow Dash and the others, heading straight for the last enemy. The missile followed close behind the smuggler, the lock-on system ensuring that it stayed on his tail until it finally hit, turning the fighter into intergalactic dust.

As the last fighter got shot down, they all let out a collective sigh. This was all a well needed change from the usual boring patrols, if only it had come as less of a deadly surprise.

"I need to land and get some medical treatment, can I get a landing clearance?" The male in the Stingray fighter were breathing heavily, clearly relieved that his pursuers were dealt with.

"We'll make sure that there's no problem sir." Applejack answered him, as they guided his ship back to hangar five.

...

Waiting for them as they landed in the hangar were Spike, his boss, a purple unicorn, and a battalion of Equestrian soldiers, armed with big laser rifles.

They surrounded the Stingray fighter ship and aimed at the cockpit. It opened slowly, and looking out of it was a human with short blond hair, and currently with a very pissed expression adorning his face. He aimed right back at them with a rifle of his own, the front of it covering half of his face. At the front, it had a large gun barrel, and on the sides of it small hatches, that emanated some sort of blue smoke or steam. And under those, it had large capital letters, saying "UAC".

He opened his mouth to speak, and his rifle made sure that everyone was listening.

" I don't know who or what you think I am, but I'm not going to escape from a smuggler attack just to be surrounded and captured by gun wielding horses! All I want is to rest and get some medical attention, allright! And this..." He held his rifle up for a second. "Is just so you won't shoot me, and so that I have your attention, allright? I mean you no harm!"

The soldiers looked at each other, not knowing what to do. This human was armed and he was aiming right at them, if they opened fire he would aswell. He could kill more of them to start with, protected inside the cockpit of his ship. what could they do? They were at a stalemate.

"What is your name, human?" The purple unicorn that lead the soldiers asked.

"I'm Isaac. And who are you?"

"My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I'm second in command under the Admiral of this imperial Equestrian liner! If you lower your weapon I will make sure that you will get medical attention. Deal?"

Isaac looked back at her, silent for a few seconds. Then he lowered his rifle and put it in some sort of rifle hold in his fighter's cockpit.

He climbed down the ladder that had automatically connected itself to his ship when it landed inside the hangar.

The soldiers had lowered their weapons, but they were still alert, in case he decided to do anything. As he turned around, a few gasps could be heard. To be exact, they came from Twilight, Spike, Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash, and some of the soldiers mumbled things to eachother.

His face didn't really look that unusual, he looked to be in his thirties, maybe a little older and he had long blond hair. He had facial hair that grew around his mouth in a well groomed goatee, but the thing that earned the reaction from the ponies was his right eye. Then again, it wasn't really an eye, it was a piece of machinery. It had a thin horizontal lens, emanating a blue light, with metallic pieces around it. He was a cyborg.

/ I know that a mechanic eye doesn't really make him qualified for a cyborg position, but it sounds cool as hell, so let's go with it! /

"Well..." Isaac started, looking around. "I would feel safer if my rescuers would escort me to the medical bay." He turned his head towards Twilight. "Is that allright with you?"

She nodded, "I'll send Spike with you too, he knows one of the nurses personally, so he might be able to get you ahead of some ponies already there."

"Thank you, Miss..." He started to limp towards the hangar exit, followed by his saviours, Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash. And now Spike, leading the way let him lean onto him to take weight away from his leg.

"Thanks for helping me, Spike. This injury is killing me..." Isaac said. He didn't look at Spike, but the appreciation in his voice was sincere.

"Hey, no problem. I can't imagine what it's like to walk on an injured leg, and it sounds terrible."

Isaac groaned. "Ngh! Yeah, it is! Is it far to the medical bay?"

"Just a little further."

...

As the three ponies, Isaac and Spike stumbled in through the medical bay doors they immediately got a reprimand from the old unicorn sitting at the desk. "And what is this? A party? Get out!"

Both Isaac and Spike glared at her, but Isaac, having a sharper tongue than Spike, answered her first. "I'm injured and I need medical attention. I can give you first seat to the limp show if you don't believe me, you old cow!"

This made the unicorn sit straight up and frown, "How dare-"

But Spike interrupted her. "Give a call to nurse Fluttershy, tell her we're bringing a human in with a leg injury."

"Laser blast injury!" Isaac filled in.

Through all this, Rarity, AJ and Rainbow Dash had been quiet, letting Spike and Isaac do the talking, not that there was any room for them to talk. As the group hurried towards Fluttershy's office, the unicorn in the reception pressed some buttons on the console in front of her and a hologram lit up, but they were already so far away that they couldn't see who it was, but it was obvious enough that she was talking to Fluttershy.

It took about a minute before they got to Fluttershy's office, she was waiting for them at the door, "Come right in, I've got a bed ready for you." Spike helped him in and helped him up on the medical bed.

"What's your injury sir?" Flutterhsy asked him.

Isaac looked at her. "You can call me Isaac, and uh, I got shot in my leg by a blaster rifle, though I am not sure of the laser calibre."

Fluttershy went to work, she took up a small knife, or a scalpel if you will, and cut up Isaac's trouser leg, revealing the leg itself. It didn't look nice at all, he hadn't been hit just once, it looked like he had been hit two or three times from what Fluttershy could see. It was big, the wound was red and burnt, and you could just barely see the flesh shining through under the burnt skin.

"Oh, this doesn't look very good at all!" Fluttershy gasped and went to her cupboard, searching for whatever she were going to use to help with his ailment.

"They had regular laser rifles I think." Isaac said to Fluttershy. "Maybe that will help you find the right thing to heal it?"

She nodded and turned around, holding some bandages, cotton wipes and something that looked like jars with oil or creams. "First I have to tend to the burn. I will clean the wound, which will hurt a bit, but you will be allright. Then I will use this oil on the burn and after that I'll let this medical droid treat the rest that needs to be fixed. Then I'll put this bandage on you and you'll be good to go. Does that sound okay?"

Isaac nodded, "As long as I don't have to amputate it... Another piece of machinery on me wouldn't feel too good."

Fluttershy looked up to ask him what he meant, and then she noticed his right eye. "How did you lose your eye?" She started to use her cotton wipes, along with some antiseptics, to clean his wound.

The first touch made him hiss in pain, but as he got used to the stinging sensation he started to speak, "I lost it when I was younger. Got shot straight in the face, I don't want to go into any details."

The door opened and two ponies came in. Twilight Sparkle, followed by a pink one, dressed like a soldier.

"I told you Twilight, the alarm went off and I grabbed my group and took them to hangar five because they said that's where the alarm was initiated! I followed orders!"

Twilight shook her head. "Allright Pinkie, we'll clear this up later, now I have to talk with..." She turned to Isaac. "Isaac was it?"

He nodded back, grimacing as the medical droid stuck a needle into his leg and started to work on laying a layer of some protective organic wrap over his wound. "Yeah, Isaac's the name."

"So, Isaac." Twilight continued, stopping to stand next to him.

"Can you tell me what happened? I have to report this to the admiral, you know how it is with reporting this and reporting that."

Isaac rolled his eyes, "If you absolutely have to know, me and my mercenary team were going to escort some important goods for the UAC at a loading station on the planet Hampi when we got attacked by smugglers, trying to steal our goods."

He sighed. "My boys put up a good fight but they were too many, my friends died one by one until i was the only one left alive, and I had to get out of there. So I used a grenade to clear a way to my fighter. But when I ran over to it I got hit and had to get them off my back for long enough to get into my ship, so I turned around and let loose, and I got four of them, but they busted my leg in the process. When I got into my ship, three of them jumped into theirs and followed me into my hyperspace jump. I tried to jump out at a random place, hoping they wouldn't come out where I did, and ended up here."

Twilight nodded, "When you came out of hyperspace so close to us, the whole ship lit up like fireworks." She explained. "But you were lucky the girls were out on patrol."

Isaac looked over at them and smiled. "I owe them for their help, thank you once again."

"No problem dear, we are delighted that we could get something exciting to do once in a while." Rarity said, smiling back at him.

He chuckled, "For my own sake, I hope that I wont have to do this again anytime soon!"

The medical droid bleeped and turned itself off, it's work on Isaacs leg finished.

"There we go" Fluttershy smiled at Isaac as he sat up. "For safety reasons you have to take it easy for a while and relax. I will call around and see if we can get you a room somewhere, I mean there must be-" She was cut of by Spike clearing his throat.

"Ahem! He can sleep in my room." He frowned at the way all of the ponies were looking at him. "Come on! I'm twenty six, I can share a room... For fucks sake..."

They suddenly realized that they might have hurt him, so they all started to walk out, giving excuses for leaving so sudden.

"I have to go back to guard duty." "I must report to the admiral." "We have to relax after all this." They all blabbed as they walked out.

As they walked out Spike turned to Fluttershy again, "Thank you for helping him, I'm sorry we just came in like this but, you're the best doctor I know."

She giggled, "No worries Spike, as you know I enjoy helping, and that it isn't a pony or a dragon just makes it more fun to do" She leaned forward and spoke a bit more quiet. "Besides, if I file this as an 'emergency overtime' call, I'll get extra pay."

This made both Spike and Isaac chuckle.

"Clever girl."

Isaac followed Spike out of the medical bay. "Thanks for letting me stay at your place, you sure there's room for me?"

Spike looked at him, since he were grown up now and much taller than he was when he were little. He was one meter and seventy centimetres tall, and Isaac didn't seem to be much taller than himself, of course Spike wasn't including the green spikes on his own head to his length.

"Yeah I have an extra bunk bed that I can press a button for and it'll emerge from the wall. And they aren't that small, so you'll fit." Spike gave Isaacs shoulder a pat.

Isaac nodded, "So," he started, stretching a bit, "Do you have a cantina on board?"

"I was just thinking about the same thing!"