This day just got worse, thought Twilight upon spying a stormpony checkpoint guarding the road into the spaceport town of Morab Eisley. Remembering what had happened to the hay caravan and her home, she considered turning her landspeeder around to go looking for another spaceport. She felt a firm nudge and looked over to Celly in the passenger seat, who gave her a comforting smile.

Earlier, before entering the landspeeder at the homestead, Celestia had insisted on disguising her appearance (so as not to stick out more than anypony else, she had said). She was now no bigger than Twilight or Fluttershy, with a mane and tail that no longer flowed in the wind, whether or not there was any to begin with. It was a relatively simple spell, and it didn't change the colors of her mane and tail, nor did it hide her nature as an alicorn. Putting her cloak back on had solved these problems, or so they hoped.

As they pulled up to the checkpoint, Angel hopped down under the seat he was sitting on. One of the troopers motioned with an armored hoof to pull over to the side for inspection; Twilight had no choice but to comply. Her heart was pounding furiously as the trooper walked up, his face unreadable behind his helmet.

"The Empire has orders to search all vehicles and containers for illegal contraband," the stormpony recited with practiced ease as he examined the landspeeder, "Do you have any items to declare?"

"Just the portable library," Celly responded calmly, opening the shelved box before Twilight could say anything, revealing it to be stuffed with books of all sizes. Twilight continued to stare straight ahead, and hoping nopony noticed how nervous she was. Fluttershy was looking at her forehooves, too scared to make eye contact with anypony.

The trooper circled around the back of the vehicle, not deigning to reply. "Did you come in from the south?" he asked as he continued past where Celly was sitting.

"What? No. Nononono. We come from the north; you know, towards Boerstine?" Twilight answered uneasily.

"Uh huh," responded the armored pony, studying the front. Twilight plastered a nervous grin on her face, as the trooper finished his examination and stood ominously close to her.

"I'm going to have to ask you to step out of the vehicle," the trooper snapped. He raised his weapon to point at Twilight's face. "Right now," he added sinisterly.

Twilight panicked; surely this stormpony knew they were hiding something. Various thoughts shot through her mind; would they be locked in a dungeon? What would happen if they found Angel's recording? Would they just be shot on the side of the road for all to see?

"HOW DARE YOU!" Twilight blinked and turned her head to observe Fluttershy, now flying within inches of the stormpony's masked face. She was bristling with a fury that Twilight had never seen before.

"Just who do you think you are, pointing your gun at innocent ponies like that?" Fluttershy continued to berate the trooper, "Sompony could get hurt if you kept doing that."

"Wha-?" the trooper responded dumbly.

"You should be ashamed of yourself! I have half a mind to find your commander, and tell him how irresponsible you've been."

"But-" The stormpony backed up. He was finding it difficult to take any action at all under the withering gaze of the yellow pegasus staring into his very soul.

"Don't you 'But' me, mister. Now, you are going to apologize to my friend Twilight. Right. Now. And then you are going to let us go about our business. Do you understand me?"

"Erm…" The trooper couldn't tear himself away from the fearsome pair of eyes before him. His squad mates were equally intimidated by the formally passive pegasus.

"I said: Do you understand me?" Fluttershy repeated, intensifying her stare.

The hardened combat veteran nodded meekly, and slowly rose to his hooves. Twilight and Celly both stared blankly at Fluttershy as the trooper shuffled up to them; neither of them quite believing what they had just witnessed.

"I'm sorry about that; you're free to go," the stormpony muttered quickly as Fluttershy settled herself back in her seat, glaring at him. When Twilight didn't move, he added, "Now!" hastily. Twilight nodded politely at the trooper, and accelerated away. As they left, he missed Angel popping up from his hiding place to blow him a giant raspberry.

Twilight drove her landspeeder towards an older section of the city. Nopony said a word as she guided the craft through the narrow and winding streets of Morab Eisley. Celly seemed to have an idea of where they were headed, though, as she pointed out a seemingly random cantina in the myriad of tan-colored blockhouses. Twilight quickly parked her vehicle in an open spot, and turned back to Fluttershy.

"Okay, back at the stormponies: what the hay did you do?" she asked Fluttershy, who shrank back.

"I'm also curious; please, tell us," Celly added.

"Well," Fluttershy explained, "sometimes, when I'm really upset with a creature or pony, I sort of lose control of myself and, just, look at them in the eye. My friends like to call it 'The Stare', but I don't like doing it much; I don't even really have any control over when that happens. It just happens."

"You have a very special gift," Celly commented as the group exited the landspeeder and started walking into the cantina, "Not many ponies can claim to stare down a masked and armored pony and win after all."

Fluttershy mumbled her thanks as they approached the door, but then stopped when they saw a sign that had been posted: NO PETS ALLOWED.

"Seriously?" Twilight asked no one in particular.

"Oh," Fluttershy sighed, "I'll stay with Angel, you know, out here."

"You sure you'll be ok by yourself?" Twilight asked with concern. Fluttershy nodded uncertainly. "Okay, be careful you two," she finished as she followed Celly inside.

---

Twilight squinted as she entered the cantina. It was darker than she had expected. Perhaps it was to keep the interior temperature from rising, or the ponies here would rather not be seen clearly. It never occurred to Twilight that the dim interior combined with the brightly lit entrance would allow everypony inside to see each newcomer before he could see them.

Once inside, Celly leaned close to Twilight. "The ponies over there seem like a good place to start," she said, gesturing towards the far wall where several tables full of pegasi were animatedly telling stories to one another.

"Do you really think one of them can take us to Aldermare?" Twilight asked incredulously.

"I do, if the price is right," Celly replied. "This place can get a bit rough. Please wait for me at the bar, I won't be long."

Twilight nodded as Celly worked her way through the crowd. One of the pegasi immediately welcomed her with a drink before engaging her in conversation.

Continuing to the bar, Twilight's eyes surveyed the room. Ponies of every size, shape, and color seemed to be making use of the establishment; there were even some creatures that clearly weren't ponies. A white unicorn with shades was working a turntable at the far corner, being the most likely source of the techno beat pervading the place. A brown stallion nearby seemed to be examining a crack in the bar with an unknown tool while alight purple mare watched what he was doing intently. Over at a nearby table, she saw a light blue mare with a brass instrument obscuring her cutie mark sitting with a darker blue stallion; they were presumably the next ponies in line to entertain, Twilight mused. As she passed by a trio of ponies with flowers for their marks, she noted that other ponies seemed to keep to themselves mostly. Twilight quickly picked a spot at the bar and sat down next to a plum colored mare, who had her face on the counter and surrounded by empty shot glasses. Twilight shook her head before ordering a non-alcoholic beverage and proceeding to search the room for Celly again.

Twilight found Celly talking to a rather large, red stallion. She had evidently just pointed out Twilight, given that the stallion had looked up towards her. Twilight briefly wondered what was going through his head as he lowered his head back down to Celly without saying a word. She trusted that Celly knew what she was doing, however. She turned back to the bar where her drink had just arrived.

"Hey!" A voice came from below her. Twilight was startled out of her thoughts as she searched the floor for the source of the shout. Her eyes found two colts: one short and blue, the other taller and gold colored.

"You're sitting in our favorite spot!" shouted the shorter one, pointing an accusing hoof at Twilight. The noise level in the cantina had dropped noticeably since he had started talking.

"I'm sorry, but, who are you?" Twilight asked, hoping to steer the conversation in a direction that would hopefully calm the two irate colts.

The taller one spoke this time. "Oh hi, I'm Snails, and he's Snips. Who're you?"

"Nice to meet you; I'm Twilight Sparkle," Twilight replied quickly, hoping that her plan of calming down the colts would work.

"Yeah, well, I don't like you!" Snips snapped.

"Yeah, I don't like you either, eh," Snails joined in.

So much for that plan, thought Twilight as she slipped out of the barstool. Snips and Snails advanced on her threateningly. She didn't know if they were actually capable of hurting her, but she didn't want to take her chances; that usually ended up badly for her. "I'm sorry?" was all she could say.

"You'd better be sorry," Snips sneered, "We know enough magic to make you wish you'd never crossed our paths."

"Eh, we do?" Snails asked his cohort. "Oh yah, we do," he corrected himself when Snips glared back at him, "Let's show her!"

"There's going to be a bar-fight! The horror, the horror!" cried one of the pink flower ponies Twilight had passed by earlier as the crowd gave the confrontation a wide berth.

"This little one isn't worth the trouble," a calm voice beside Twilight said. Twilight looked, startled; she hadn't noticed Celly come up from behind her. "Let me buy the two of you something. Do you like banana smoothies?"

By way of reply Snips unleashed a wave of force from his horn at Twilight. It didn't hurt, but it caught her unprepared, sending her flying into a table. She cried out as she was drenched in tea.

That spurred the heretofore neutral barpony into action. He came clumsily around the edge of the bar shouting "No magic, no magic! Not in my place!" Snails looked lazily at him before charging his horn to back Snips up.

In the split second Snails' attention was on the barpony and Snips was watching Twilight sail through the air, Celly's horn was aglow with a powerful spell. There was a loud crack and a bright flash of light as she unleashed her power. When it was over, Celestia was no longer cloaked pony sized hermit. She stood as a full grown alicorn, her wings spread, and her eyes daring anypony else to come and challenge her. And where Snips and Snails had stood, nopony was there. If somepony had walked in then, they could've sworn there was nopony there to begin with.

Celestia sighed and folded her wings. That final movement broke the silence gripping the rest of the ponies there. Conversation resumed, as did the movement of ponies at tables, the scraping of mugs and cups on tabletops, and the music from the turntable. To all appearances, the cantina had returned to its normal state, with one exception: Celestia was being given a respectful amount of space.

Twilight barely heard the renewed conversation. She was still shaken from her flight into a table and by Celestia's unimagined abilities.

"Are you alright, Twilight?" asked a concerned Celestia above her.

"I think so," Twilight answered truthfully. She looked back at where Snips and Snails had been standing. "What did you do to them?"

"I sent them to the moon," Celestia replied simply as Twilight stood up.

"But…this planet doesn't have a moon," observed Twilight.

"Hmm…" Celestia looked thoughtful for a moment before shrugging.

"This is Big Macintosh," she said, changing the subject and gesturing to the large red pony she'd been talking to earlier. "He's the first mate on a ship that might suit our needs. He'll take us to her captain now."

"Eeyup," the stallion nodded. They started to wind their way deeper into the building, the two larger ponies parting the crowd like a knife through bread.

---

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

Let's play name that pony! Other than the barpony, everypony should be a background character from the show. See if you can identify everypony in the cantina by name.

---

BONUS SCENE!

The first thing Snips noticed when he awoke was the sound of critters quietly chirping. The second thing he noticed was that was the only sound he heard. Somehow, both he and Snails had been transported to a forest.

"Snails, wake up!" Snips prodded his friend with his hoof.

"Just five more minutes, mommy," Snails mumbled, rolling over. Exasperated, Snips started poking him with his horn. "Okay, I'm up, eh."

Standing up, they both took in there new surroundings. The climate was much more temperate then they were used too. The trees that surrounded them seemed to go on forever in every direction. Presently, Snails glimpsed a small round bug with large eyes looking at him from atop a rotting log.

"Hey, check this out," exclaimed Snails as he approached the small creature. The creature smiled and chirped at him. "Sweet."

Snips watched as more of the creatures appeared, hundreds more. They appeared from behind seemingly every tree, log, and rock that he could see.

"Hey, Snails, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" he asked.

"Why is it that every planet in the galaxy only has one biome?" replied Snails, still staring at the first creature.

"Yea, what?" Snips coughed in surprise. "No, I think we aren't in Morab Eisley anymore."

"Well duh," Snails said turning around to look at him. He finally noticed the other creatures that were slowly surrounding the two of them. "Do they look hungry?"

"I don't wanna find out!" cried Snips in a sudden panic, "come on!" Snips galloped further into the forest, with Snails close behind. Neither of them looked back to see the horde of parasprites chasing them.