Ponystar Equestria: The Last ponystar

by Commander Celestus

Chapter 2: The End of Peace

Chapter 2: The End of Peace

Captain Atepomonus stared in horror at the read-out on his screen as alwarms went off on every display. A routine scout mission ahead of the fleet on its way to a peace conference had suddenly become a nightmare.

“Bro?” his brother’s voice startled him back to reality, and he pulled up.

“We’re getting out of here!” he cried.

Atepomonus activated thrusters to turn his ship 180 degrees and headed out of the nebula. With the dust swirling around him he could not activate turbos until they were clear of the dust-cloud, and he would not leave his brother behind to face the Cyponians. If the fleet was flying into a trap, then the raiders would not spare two Pony fighters that had stumbled across the ambush.

The Cyponian ships were closing fast. The captain realised that the interference on his instruments was caused by some sort of Cyponian weapon and not by the natural properties of the nebula; while he was flying virtually blind, the Cyponians must be able to see the two fighters as clear as day.

“Seg!”

“What… what are we going to do? Bro, don’t leave me!” Segomo was scared; that was only to be expected. He had never faced the Cyponians in combat before, and now he was outnumbered, facing a massed attack force. But Atepomonus knew that his duty was to go back to the fleet and warn them of the ambush.

“Don’t panic! Follow me out of the nebula!”

More and more contacts appeared on the scanners as the Cyponians began to move in force. Aboard one of the myriad fighters that swarmed in the nebula a gold-plated Cyponian commander’s impassive visual scanner watched the two Colonial fighters’ contacts on a scanner screen.

“Two vessels, Colonial Pony fighter configuration,” one of the two chrome Cyponians at the raider’s controls reported in an electronic monotone.

“Forward scouts of the Colonial fleet. They must be destroyed,” the commander ordered.

“By your command.”

The two fighters broke free of the nebula almost together, with three Cyponian raiders right behind them.

Cyponian pulsar-cannon opened up, targeting the small ships. The Colonial fighters dodged and whirled. This was what worried Atepomonus the most. One hit, and the fleet would be doomed to meet the Cyponian armada completely unprepared. He gunned his little fighter as fast as it would go, trying to get as much speed out of it as possible.

“We’re not going to be able to get back to the fleet like this. On my signal, reverse thrusters!”

The three Cyponian ships were at full speed in pursuit, pulsar-cannon blazing. A blast missed Atepmonus’ ship by a couple of feet, much too close for comfort.

“Now!”

The two alicorn pilots hit reverse thrusters together. In an instant the raiders were in front of them, in their gunsights.

They opened fire at once. Their blasts tore into the Cyponian ships, and two erupted in flame at once. The third tried to turn and counter-attack, but it was too late and Atepmonus’ guns blew it to pieces.

“Hey, nice shooting,” he congratulated Seg.

“Yeah, but look on scanners, bro!”

The captain did so, and his eyes grew wide in horror; he was an experienced combat pilot, but this was something that could make even Star Flash turn and run.

A wall of ships was issuing from the nebula, the whole Cyponian ambush force, headed right for the fleet.

“What does it mean?” Seg ‘s voice, full of panic, came over the radio into the Captain’s helmet

“It means there isn’t going to be any peace. The whole peace deal is a sham, a trick! We need to warn the fleet, or there won’t be much of anything!”

He switched to long-range communications, only to meet the jarring sound of a Cyponian jamming device. That meant they would have to run for the fleet.

“Okay, we have to get back to the Equestria. Full turbos, all the way to the fleet; if we fail, then the whole Pony race is lost.”

Atepomonus accelerated towards the fleet at full speed, praying to all the gods that they would return to the fleet and that they would be able to do something when they got there.

---

Commander Celestus strode into CIC in a foul mood. He hated having suspicions that he could not confirm, and every fibre of his being told him that Altair could not be trusted. What was more, his wings ached, and that was never a good sign.

“Colonel Pie, status report!” he roared.

“Commander, welcome back. How was the meeting?” The colonel had a good idea that it had been pretty awful, judging by the commander’s mood.

“It was the usual, Pie, all self-congratulatory back-slapping for Count Altair and the President! I’m just glad it wasn’t a meal; otherwise I would have been sick. How’s the old girl?”

“She’s running like a dream, sir. Your sons are out flying the probe ahead of the fleet, but it’s all quiet. No word from the probe, and we’re still too bucking far from the rendezvous for my liking!” she tapped the deck impatiently with a hoof.

“Commander!” Moonstone’s cry startled both of the command ponies. “I’m picking something up on long-range scanners! It… it’s just on the edge of our scanner range, but it looks like ships moving towards us!”

“When we’re still so far from the rendezvous?” Celestus frowned. That really did not sound like a good thing. “Colonel Pie, order battle stations! Sergeant Omicron, get me the President’s Ponystar!”

Lights on the bridge flashed red. The grey pony called Sergeant Omicron worked his control panel with his hooves before turning back to Celestus.

“I have the President on the line, sir.”

The battle-scarred alicorn used his magic to lift the telephone receiver.

“Mr. President, this is Commander Celestus aboard the Equestria. Our forward scan has revealed a number of ships heading towards us on an intercept course. I suggest taking the fleet to full alert.”

“Oh, Mr. President,” Celestus heard the quiet voice of Count Altair over the line, as if Altair was advising the President. “I think that’s most unwise. It’s probably a Cyponian welcoming committee. If they find us on a battle footing, they might lose control. What’s more, if one of our gunners should hit a trigger by accident, who knows what might happen…”

“Your concern is noted and denied, Commander. We come in peace – and the Cyponians welcome us in peace.”

Naïve politico, Celestus thought. There was just no reasoning with them. They just didn’t appreciate the Cyponians the way an old war-horse like him did; he didn’t even respect them as enemies.

“Mr. President, don’t you think it would be wise to put the fleet on level two alert? Fighters ready for launch…”

“No, I don’t think that’s necessary. Now, Commander, I need to prepare my speech for the ceremony, President out.”

The line went dead, and Celestus put the telephone down with a sigh of frustration. The trouble with the President, he thought, was that the stallion was a fool when you got down to brass tacks.

“Colonel Pie, do you know why alicorns are not necessarily the superior ponies?” he asked.

“I could suggest a few reasons, but why?” She managed a cynical smile, fairly sure she knew what was coming next.

“Because some of them have brains made of bucking marshmallow! Any foal could tell that’s an attack pattern of raiders! But if we go to full alert that idiot will try to have my plot for insubordination,” he smiled. “Colonel, how long do we have before we reach the rendezvous point?”

“A couple of hours, I expect,” she answered sourly. “Not that we’re going to get there, of course.”

“Enough time for a battle-alert drill?”

“Yes, sir!” Colonel Pie smiled. Now the Commander was talking her language. “She punched a control and shouted into a microphone. All stations, this is Colonel Pie! Battle drill! Prepare fighters for launch! All pilots to the launch bays! This not a bucking drill, it’s the bucking Cyponian apocalypse, so get your plots down to the launch bays on the double before those Tin Cans fry them!”

---

Star Flash smiled happily as she looked at the pile of bits on the table in front of her. The Pegasus pilots were relaxing in the bar of the Officers’ Club aboard the ship, and she was doing her two favourite things, playing Pegasus Poker and drinking good ambrosia. A good cigar helped as well, of course.

“Okay, foals, read ‘em and weep! A full House!” she spread the cards on the table, and the other Pegasi groaned. Her notorious good luck had done it again; she had a hand no pony could beat. Star Flash puffed on her cigar and laughed. “Unless there’s a better hand, then the pot is mine again!”

Before anything else could happen, red lights illuminated and klaxons sounded. Pegasus pilots hurried for their respective launch stations. Star Flash sighed and threw her cigar aside.

“Bucking drills! The bucking war’s over, an’ they want us practicing? I bet it’s just to fly a fancy display for the Tin Cans, as if they’d even appreciate that! But the President says jump…”

“Battle alert!” Colonel Pie’s voice sounded over the speakers. “Full battle alert! This is not a bucking drill, you slackers, so get your plots down to the launch bays or I’ll be shooting you out the launch tubes without your fighters!”

The Pegasus pilots complained bitterly as they trotted from the club and headed down to the launch bays either side of the Equestria’s hull. Each fighter sat ready to launch into its respective magnetic tube, final checks being made by unicorn flight crew in orange jumpsuits.

“How’s the bird, Gears?” Star Flash asked the male unicorn engineer who was checking her fighter.
He smiled. The unicorns’ abilities made them excellent engineers, able to manipulate delicate objects the way earth ponies and Pegasi could not.

“Same as ever, Flash, fuelled, loaded and ready to launch!”

“Good baby!” she dropped into her seat and Gears fixed her helmet in place. The canopy swung shut, and Star Flash sighed. Now came the really dull bit – waiting to launch. She checked her instruments, which were still tied into the Equestria’s systems for launch. Everything was working fine, ready for combat; of course it was, Gears had fixed it. But the war was over, wasn’t it?

“Pilots, this is Commander Celestus,” the voice came through the ear-phones in her helmet, and she knew it was being relayed to all the pilots in the ship. “Officially this is a drill. Unofficially it isn’t. Long-range scans have picked up a wave of ships coming straight at us in what I can only interpret as a Cyponian attack pattern. Their probable aim is our complete destruction. When their hostile intent is revealed, you will launch, and it will be your responsibility to give the other Ponystars the time they will need to launch their fighters and get their guns on line. I expect all of you to give the best fight of your lives, and may the gods have mercy on us all.”

“That means you blow those Tin Cans to hay and back before they bust your sorry plots!” Colonel Pie added.

Star Flash took a deep breath.

“What the buck? I thought the bucking war was over,” she said to herself.

---

Atepomonus could see the fleet on his scanner now, and he was squeezing everything he could out of his fighter’s engine. Seg was a little way behind; unbelievably he had managed to avoid being blown out of the sky by the Cyponian pulsars. Those dreaded cannon had fallen silent now, presumably to avoid giving the fleet warning of their hostile intent. Communication with the fleet was still jammed on every channel.

Out of the nebula the full size of the Cyponian attack force had been revealed, wave upon wave of the menacing raiders, supported by two groups of destroyers. Against a fully prepared Ponystar fleet it would be a close-run battle, but against a fleet that was cruising in line ahead and unprepared, it would be a massacre. He hated to think what the fate of the Colonies would be if the Ponystar fleet was destroyed.

“Come on, come on!” Atepomonus spoke to his fighter, even though it could not hear him. He could feel the compact craft creak as he pushed it to its very limits. The ship was a comet, streaking towards the Equestria at full speed, trailing a tail of blazing gasses. The fuel gauge was falling rapidly as his extended use of turbos drained the tanks. He made a course for the closest landing bay on the Equestria.

The welcome sight of his home ship cheered him all the more when he recognised that her gun batteries were ready to fire. His father, whatever his faults, was an experienced soldier, and he had recognised the attack for what it was.

But now the Cyponians opened fire. So close to the fleet, their hostile intent no longer needed to be hidden. Atepomonus felt the pulsar-shots blaze about him.

“Bro! Bro!”

The Cyponian jamming had been turned off, and now he heard his brother’s voice. Seg was scared; no, he was terrified. He had never been in combat before, and now that he was all of his bravado had melted away.

“Stay on course!” Atepomonus saw the fighters launching from Equestria and he smiled. “Help’s on its way!”

The fighter was practically running on fumes, but the landing bay was so close. A final burst of speed sent the little craft rocketing into the landing bay with fuel warning lights flashing.

Segomo dodged and weaved, trying to evade the Cyponians. Now that fighters were launching from the Equestria, he felt better, and the lust for glory took over. Trust bro to run, he thought, not seeing his own fuel warning light come on. He flipped his fighter to join the counter-attack.

“Hey, Seg!” It was Star Flash, her fighter was approaching his. “Get the buck back in the bay! Your bird’s practically dry!”

“I can fight!”

“Don’t you argue with me, rookie! Get your plot back in the bay before your fuel’s gone!”

But Seg was not listening. He threw his fighter back into full turbo and headed towards a Cyponian destroyer. Then his fuel tank was empty, and his thrusters died.

“Eject!” Star Flash cried, but she was too late. In an instant the Cyponian pulsars had done their work, and the fighter erupted in a ball of flame.

---

Celestus watched, numb with grief, as the battle unfolded on the scanners in CIC. He had seen his son’s death, and he knew that this would be a hard battle.

“The other fighter’s in the bay,” Omicron reported.

“Tell that pilot to get his plot up here ten minutes ago!” Colonel Pie roared. “What the buck is happening out there?” she cantered over to another station where a grey earth pony was working.

“Commander, Captain Atepomonus is on his way to CIC,” Omicron reported.

“What about the rest of the fleet?” The old war-horse asked, his voice still shaking from Seg's death.

“Trying to respond,” Moonstone replied. “Launching fighters, but they were completely off guard!” the ship rocked. “That was one of the destroyers exploding! The other ponystar gunnery crews are trying to get their batteries up, but they’re taking too long!”

“Buck!” Colonel Pie cursed. “The bucking tin cans took us completely by surprise. We’re getting our plots spanked like a bunch of rookies!”

“Commander!” Atepomonus cried, hurrying into CIC.

“Captain,” father and son were not on the best of terms. “What’s going on out there?”

“It’s an ambush, a full-scale attack on the fleet. The whole peace conference was a trick! We have to get Seg on board!”

“No,” Celestus’ tone spoke volumes, but his son was too agitated to realise what he meant.

“Father…”

“It’s too late, Seg… Seg’s ship was one of the first to be destroyed. He tried to engage the Cyponians and his tanks ran dry.”

“What’s the enemy strength?” Colonel Pie demanded. “How many ships are we facing?”

“A couple of thousand raiders, maybe more, and at least ten destroyers,” the alicorn pilot gasped. “I was too busy trying to get back to the fleet to count the contacts on my screen.”

“What about baseships?” the pink earth pony knew that in a situation like this the baseships, the Cyponian capital ships, would be closing on the fleet behind the smaller vessels.

“No baseships.”

“Come on, Captain, you know the Cyponians don’t operate raiders without base ships! There’s got to be base ships!” she demanded angrily.

“There’s no baseships out there, just raiders and destroyers! The raiders were hiding in a nebula, where they were re-fuelled by a couple of tankers.”

“That doesn’t make sense!” the Colonel growled. “They wouldn’t operate without baseships this far from their bases unless… by the gods, unless it was absolutely necessary!” the very thought of why it would be necessary chilled her to the bone.

“Then it must be necessary for their plan!” Celestus cried. By the gods! Moonstone, Signal the Colonies! The baseships must be headed to attack the Colonies.”

The cyan mare worked the controls in front of her, but clearly something was wrong. She looked up at the Commander.

“The Cyponians are jamming us!” Moonstone cried. “I can’t raise the colonies on any channels!”

“Then prepare for jump! We need to warn the Colonies before it’s too late!” Celestus hung on to the command console. “That bucking traitor Altair! It must be him! Get me the President!”

Moonstone obliged. As the shock of the Ponystar’s main batteries firing shook the great warship, the alicorn commander held his telephone tightly.

“Mr. President, I have reason to believe that our Colonies may be under attack! Requesting permission to leave combat and return to the Colonies.”

It was clear that the President had taken it badly, for while he picked up the call, he did not listen to what the Commander had to say.

“How could I have been so wrong?” the president moaned. “How could I have been deceived?”

“Mr. President?” Celestus said firmly, “You are in overall command of the fleet! I need your order!”

But the leader of the twelve Pony Colonies was not listening; he was mourning the downfall of his people, a downfall for which he blamed himself.

---

On board the leading Cyponian raider the gold-plated leader co-ordinated the assault, impassive visual scanners taking in data, computer-brain processing it.

The raiders swarmed through the fleet, vastly outnumbering the Colonial fighters. While Equestria had launched all her fighters, the other ponystars were still launching, and they were launching far too slowly to be able to effectively stem the onslaught of raiders. Cyponian destroyers pounded the Colonial fleet with missiles.

“Concentrate fire on the Epona,” he spoke the order in a controlled electronic tone. “She must be destroyed. The president of the Colonies is on board her.”

“By your command,” came back the reply.

Missiles streaked from a destroyer towards the unprepared Epona. The atomic warheads detonated on the ponystar’s port flight pod with a series of blinding detonations, wrecking the whole pod. Fighters were trapped within, Pegasus pilots and unicorn engineers died together in the twisted metal.

The Epona was already burning in several places, though fighters were still launching from the starboard flight pod. She fell out of the line, battered by missile fire and surrounded by raiders. Out on the flank of the fleet a Colonial destroyer exploded, and for a moment there was a new star in the sky as the warship’s atomic ordnance went up. While Cyponian visual scanners automatically compensated for the flare, the ponies were not so lucky, and several Pegasus pilots were blinded. Without their sight they were helpless, and were blown out of the sky by the raiders.

The gold-plated Cyponian attack commander turned to the console in front of the command chair and activated a control on it.

“Attack on the fleet is proceeding according to plan. They were taken completely by surprise; pressing the attack by your command.”

“Excellent, commander,” the voice of the Cyponian Imperious Leader was cultured, feminine, and not at all electronic. She was the most advanced of Cyponians, and the oldest. “So we proceed with the next phase of our final solution to the problem that has plagued us for so long – the problem that is Ponykind.”

---

Notes: And so the space battle begins!

Comments

[Foasedf]

Yes! I've been waiting for a BSG crossover!

[Commander Celestus]

>11903
You mean nopony has done one yet? Oh well, there we go.

[Foasedf]

11908
I just commented on a Firefly crossover a few days ago that it's the only sci-fi crossover we were missing.

[Celestias Paladin]

11908

Nope none that I can fine, though I have come across a piece of artwork that has Twilight in the uniform of the Colonial Fleet... she still look adorable.

As a BSG fan I'm quite pleased to see this, and though it isn't crossovered with just one BSG canon I'm still happy anyway. You've done a great job with the cross, which I know is one of the most difficult things to do for a crossover. Keep it up man ~Celestia's Paladin, Ex Solis et Lunae, Providentia et Prospera

[Commander Celestus]

11914 I saw the Twilight pic. In further explanation, I was a fan of the original before the new BSG came along, which is why I rather mashed the two together.