The corridor was lit with the brilliance of the emergency lights as Twilight and the crew raced to the engine room, sweat starting to build on their heads. The doors to the control room opened upon standing in front of them, slowing their speed down as they reached their destination. Twilight wiped her forehead with her hoof as she asked, "We're here Lon, what went wro-" She felt as if her breath was sucked right out of her as she saw a familiar face crawling out of the maintenance junction, the others, especially her friends and the Royal Sisters, gasping in horror at the sight before them. Wyatt was grunting and coughing as Twilight went up to the locked door between them, Rarity looked like she was going to rain waterfalls as she whimpered.
"Di-did he.. save us?"
Twilight looked as if she were about to collapse, her mentor for her time in his universe was suffering in agony in front of her eyes, she couldn't bear it as she turned to Lon and ordered. "Lon, open the door, get him out, now."
Lon looked at her with a surprised expression as he answered. "If you don't mind the radiation, I might. I open that door, we'll all get radiation poisoning in minutes!"
Celestia, while she knew the risks, asked him as well. "Lon, open the door, please."
"Your Highness, forgive my defiance, but are you crazy?! We'll all get ourselves in the med bay if we play that g-" He was interrupted by a grunting voice behind him.
"Lon... d-do as the Princess says, and open the damn door."
He stood and stared at him for a moment before he turned to Elisa and Kapor and ordered, "Open it, now." They nodded as they quickly opened the door and carefully lifted him out of the gassy room before immediately closing the door behind them. The Admiral looked paler than somepony with the flu, he was coughing up a little bit of blood at this point, the radiation was taking it's toll on him, Twilight held evident tears in her eyes as she spoke.
"Y-you crazy stallion, you gave up y-your life to save all of us." She said in a weak voice.
He responded with a faint smirk as he replied. "Y-yeah... captains like m-me can all b-be crazy in some ways."
He tried to let out a chuckle, but was stopped by another cough as Twilight held onto him. Wyatt could see the sadness in Twilight's eyes, while he taught her all he knew about being the leader of a crew and flying a starship, she'd never seen someone so close to her carry out an act such as this, Twilight's friends were looking like their dam was about to breach, Celestia had a sad look on her face while her sister had built tears of her own. The purple alicorn never took her gaze away from Wyatt's damaged body as she asked him. "Why.... why did you do this for us?" Her tears were slowly dripping down her face as he answered.
"I..... I did it because you're all like family to me, and be-better for one life to end than almost two d-dozen others. Would you have do-done the same for your friends if you were in my position?" He asked as he looked into her eyes.
"Y...yes, I think I would have." She said as she started to break down, crying into Wyatt's chest for about half a minute, before she looked up and asking Lon. "Lon, there has to be a way we can save him, I can't stand to see him suffer like this!"
Lon shook his head as he answered sadly. "I'm afraid not, I'm sorry, Twilight."
Celestia then trotted towards Wyatt as she spoke up. "Maybe there is, but we'll have to hurry. Twilight?"
She looked to her before she backed up, Celestia stood over him as her horn lit up in a golden aura, surrounding Wyatt's body as the magic did it's work. When the aura vanished, they looked back to her with worrying curiosity as she answered. "I've managed to recharge enough magic to use a spell on Wyatt, the radiation in him is gone now, as well as a few internal injuries. However, he still must be taken to the medical bay. If we hurry, I believe he might have a chance."
They looked to Kapor and T'Vrell before Lon ordered, "Take him to the nearest working sickbay immediately, do everything you can." They nodded as they helped Wyatt up, Twilight still looking at him before he spoke to her once more.
"Don't worry about m-me, Twilight, I'll- ..... I'll be fine." She nodded a few seconds after he finished, watching him being taken to sickbay where they'd hope he would make it through the mission. Flash trotted up to his princess and wrapped a hoof around her, Twilight smiling as she watched the trio leave out of sight.
Everyone stood in silence for a moment before Dash spoke up. "Um, not trying to be mean, but do you still have enough magic for a-" A loud crash sounded nearby as the room shook, Twilight then became immediately alert from her grief as they looked around.
"What was that?!" She asked worriedly.
"I think that might be some of this girl's bones coming back down!" Lon yelled.
Pieces both large and small were slowly falling down from the sky, smaller ones either bouncing off the hull or punching through. A large chunk of the saucer, which from the looks of it was from the one spot on the saucer that was now an open hole through it, was coming down directly towards the right impulse engine, but before it could hit, a wave of pulse lasers came in after it, tearing the broken piece of metal apart before it was reduced to ash. Three stalker fighters flew by the engine as they took position over the ship to protect it.
In the control room, Twilight heard her combadge beeping until she answered it. "What hit us, bridge?!"
A familiar female voice sounded from the small badge. "Who you callin' "Bridge", your Highness?" The wonderbolt asked sarcastically.
Twilight built a faint smile as she replied. "Spitfire! You came for u-.... How'd you get down here?"
"We had just taken out the majority of the Imperial fleet before we noticed your ship falling, Soarin', Fleetfoot, and I then grabbed some stalkers and came to provide cover for ya!" The pegasus flyer answered with glee in her voice.
"Thanks, we'll need it. We're pretty badly hurt up here." She replied with relief.
Spitfire sounded worried as she asked the Princess of Friendship, "Hey, uh, is Wyatt there?"
Twilight cringed upon hearing her friend's name, but kept herself relaxed as she answered. "He's... he's alive, but he is seriously injured, he won't be able to command the ship for the moment."
"Oh.... well.... please let him know of me and my team's regards." She said with a sad tone in her words.
"You got it. How's my ship, by the way?" She asked Spitfire.
"Bon Bon's got her taken care of, your Highness. Everyone onboard is A-OK." She answered with delight.
Twilight smiled a bit more as she replied. "Good, because I'm going to keep the Admiral's seat warm for him while he's being fixed up. Let's see if we can get this ship-"
"Up and back into the stars above so we can take out the baddies?" Minuette's voice rung from the badge as she finished her friend's sentence.
"Minuette, where are the passengers?" She asked in worry.
"They're all fine, Canterlot was able to keep the civilians safe so we could go look for you. When we found out that you were near the surface, we made our way here." She answered in her usual excited voice.
"Good, can you help us out on this?" The princess asked.
Minuette didn't waste a second before answering. "Mm-hmm! This little piranha of a lifeboat here comes with a tractor beam onboard, we could probably get your ship back into space in less than five minutes, at least that's if you can give additional power to your engines."
"Done, we'll inform you when we arrive on the bridge. Sparkle out." She tapped the badge off before turning to her friends and speaking. "While our home is safe with the weapon's destruction, the last of the Imperial fleet, specifically the I.S.S. Sacramento, is most likely still in orbit above us, if we can either run them off or capture the crew and destroy the ship with the help of our allies, this battle will have been won for us. All we need is a weakness to take out."
Everyone looked to each other before they looked to Twilight again and nodded, Rarity smiling as she looked to Sweetie Belle and asked her, "Sis, I think I'll need your help with powering the shields." Sweetie nodded to her before Rainbow looked to Scootaloo.
"I think I'll need you at one of the tactical stations, Scoots. Can ya lend a hoof?"
Scootaloo jumped in excitement before responding to her idol. "I'd SO love to help out! Let's send those Terran scum packin'!"
Applejack noticed Applebloom holding her hoof as she asked her older sister, "Mind if Ah help with fixing the ship?" Her sister hesitated a little before nodding to her and speaking to her.
"Just don't get hurt when you're helpin' me."
"I believe my sister and I can assist in this as well. We may be able to help power the beams when Applejack and her sister fix them." Celestia said to Twilight before looking to her sister, who nodded in agreement.
Twilight then smiled at her friends before ordering to them, "Everyone, to the bridge! I don't think our fleet can hold much longer." The group cheered before they quickly made their way to the door of the engine room, running with all of the stamina they had as they went to finish the battle for their home so that peace could reign in Equestria once more.....