It is a period of civil war.

Rebel spaceships, striking

from a hidden base, have won

their first victory against

the evil Galactic Empire.

During the battle, Rebel

spies managed to steal secret

plans to the Empire's

ultimate weapon, the GREAT

SPHERE, an armored space

station with enough power

to destroy an entire planet.

Pursued by the Empire's

sinister agents, Princess

Rarity races home aboard her

starship, custodian of the

stolen plans that can save her

ponies and restore

freedom to the galaxy...

The space above the desert world of Tolfetooine was usually calm, with maybe one or two freighters taking off and landing per day. Certainly nopony would look up and expect to see weapon's fire. Nor would they expect to see one of the Empire's cruisers chasing the smaller vessel this far out into the galactic rim. However this exact scenario was playing out at that very moment. The small ship lurching from side to side as it desperately tried to avoid further injury. Its efforts proved to be in vain as yet another lance of energy struck its aft, causing the ship to shutter violently. The explosion was felt by everypony onboard, but especially Fluttershy and her companion, Angel Bunny.

Angel glanced up at Fluttershy, who was frantically making sure their corridor was still intact, and let out a silent sigh. He knew that Fluttershy was frightened by most things, but could hear that they weren't in any real danger. Being a rabbit had its advantages after all, even in a galaxy dominated by pony life. He grew more concerned when the normally omnipresent drone of the main engines suddenly died.

"Oh dear, did you hear that Angel? They shut down the main engines. Maybe we should, um, hide. You know, if you really want to. If you don't that's okay too." Fluttershy finally spoke. Instead of answering, Angel pulled her to the side out of the way of a small group of armed ponies trotting down the hall. He then pointed upward.

"What is it Angel?" asked Fluttershy, "Is something happing above us?" Angel made a gesture that clearly commanded Fluttershy to be quiet, causing her to squeak softly. They could then hear a faint scraping noise coming from the deck above them, followed by a short silence and then sounds of laser weapons discharging.

"Oh my, they've broken in! Maybe we should just surrender? Or hide? Or we could panic. Oh, maybe we should just stay here." moaned Fluttershy, sitting down. This display earned another sigh from Angel, who then turned and started hopping away.

"W-wait Angel, where are you going? Eep!" cried Fluttershy as another, louder explosion shook the ship. Fearing for their safety, Fluttershy flew after her friend.

---

Two meters tall, quadruped, and with a starry blue mane which seemed to behave like a fifth appendage, Nightmare Moon was an awesome, terrifying shape as she strode through the corridors of what was the rebel's ship. Fear followed her, as the dark cloud that hung about her like a sudden increase in air pressure caused even hardened stormponies to back away and mutter nervously amongst themselves. The once resolute crewmembers who would die to delay the advance were suddenly scrambling to get away from the black shape with blacker thoughts coming upon them. Only one thought was travelling through Nightmare Moon's head now, however, as she turned down another passageway.

---

Fluttershy had lost track of Angel, and was frantically searching for her little friend. She had always cared deeply for all of what most ponies would term "lesser creatures", and Angel was by far her favorite. They had travelled everywhere together, and having misplaced him was leaving Fluttershy on the verge of panic.

"Angel, oh Angel, where are you?" Fluttershy called as she checked each and every passageway she came across. The sounds of fighting were still audible, but most of it was thankfully above her.

Finally, she saw Angel at the end of a small maintenance tunnel. Overjoyed, she started to gallop towards him, but noticed another presence. Through the smoke, she saw what looked like a pony giving something to Angel. She slid to a stop as the haze thickened past the point of visibility.

"Oh I'm sorry, was I interrupting? I can, just, come back later…" Fluttershy began, until Angel hopped out of the smoke obscuring Fluttershy's vision. He had gained a new accessory, a backpack, but that was the least of Fluttershy's concerns right now.

"Angel! You shouldn't run off like that, especially now. You could hurt yourself! Oh, I'm so glad you're okay. Wha-?" Fluttershy started as Angel began thumping her leg. "What is it?" Angel merely pointed towards the end of the hall and ran.

"Oh, not again Angel! Come back!" cried an exasperated Fluttershy as she began to run after her.

---

The corridor outside the main control center was crowded with the prisoners gathered by Imperial stormponies. Some lay wounded or dying, some stared back at their captors in silent defiance. Orion stared at one stormpony in particular who suddenly became very distracted. Satisfied that he had successfully intimidated his guard, he returned to looking down the hallway.

Everypony stopped what they were doing and became silent as the form of Nightmare Moon appeared from a side passage. She stopped in front of Orion with a look of purest disdain on her face, as one of the stormponies came to deliver his report: "The Great Sphere plans are not in the main computer."

Nightmare Moon nodded, then without warning her starry mane reached out and encircled Orion around the neck and lifted him into the air. Reaching, Orion desperately tried to pry himself lose, but to no avail.

"So, what did you do with those plans?" Nightmare snarled, "Where are the stolen data disks?"

"We…intercepted…nothing of the sort!" Orion gasped in reply, "This…is a councilor ship…on a diplomatic mission…"

"Oh? This ship carries the royal crest of Aldermare." Nightmare leaned in close, "Tell me, are you carrying somepony important I can…talk too?" The implied threat was evident to everypony in the hall. Orion didn't try to say anything; he just looked into the eyes of the black alicorn.

Finally having enough, Nightmare Moon squeezed harder, finding small satisfaction in the stallion falling limp in her mane. Flinging him to the deck, she turned to the stormponies and shouted, "Tear this ship apart! Those plans have to be onboard somewhere. If you find any passengers, I want them brought before me alive!" Nopony moved. "QUICKLY YOU FOALS!"

---

Every stormpony around scrambled over each other in their haste to leave - not only to carry out Nightmare's orders, but to get away from her.

"Um, Angel? If you don't mind me asking, do you know where you're going?" asked Fluttershy quietly. Angel had led the duo down what seemed like an endless series of passages and crawlways that all seemed to travel towards the bottom levels of the ship. She had finally stopped at what looked like an escape pod entry hatch.

"Are you sure we're supposed to go in there? I mean, we don't know if- Eek!" Fluttershy screamed as a panel on the far wall exploded, and jumped inside. Angel just nodded and hit the emergency release. As the pod ejected itself from the doomed ship, both were wondering what they would find after the inevitable crash landing on the planet below.

---

Three stormponies made their way down a dark corridor, the lights having stopped working when the power was cut. The trooper in the lead noticed something moving behind a fallen piece of piping and shone her flashlight towards it. Revealed was the shivering form of a snow white unicorn staring back at her with fear in her eyes. The trooper smiled through the flashlight as she continued down to her flank and saw what she was looking for: a cutie mark of three diamonds-exactly what Nightmare Moon was looking for.

"I found her!" she called, looking back at her companions, "should we set for stun or-". The rest of her sentence was cut off as the unicorn had pulled out an energy pistol seemingly out of nowhere and fired. The officer behind her pointed her own weapon and returned fire at the fleeing mare, striking her flank with the stun blast. He cautiously approached the unconscious unicorn looking over her for signs of life. Behind him the third stormpony had removed the helmet of the first, revealing a blue-gray pegasus with a yellow mane, and eyes that weren't quite looking in the same direction.

"Muffins?" the gray blue pegasus managed to ask before falling into unconsciousness, as a squad of stormponies rushed up the hall, having heard the shooting from the deck above. The officer pony turned back to the unicorn on the ground. Satisfied that she had no visible injuries, he turned back to the stormponies. "She'll be alright; inform Nightmare Moon we have our prisoner: Princess Rarity."

---

Author's Notes:

All characters from My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic are all owned by Hasbro, Inc.

Original story Star Wars: A New Hope by George Lucas

This is my first attempt at anything resembling fan-fiction, so by all means tell me how I can improve
(or that I'm as awesome as Rainbow Dash, that also works ;).