//------------------------------// // Chapter 7: Prison Riot // Story: Equestria Wars Episode XVI: The Crystal Princess // by sonicdash123 //------------------------------// Returning to Ponyvile with Starlight, Charming Thunder was concerned with why Danny helped him defeat Valkorion. When he got to the castle, he noticed Rainbow Dash was here talking to Twilight. They noticed him come in and walked up to him. Charming Thunder wanted to know for sure so he decided to ask Rainbow, "Have you heard from Danny yet?" "No," Rainbow replied. "I haven't. Why?" "I saw him when I was confronting Valkorion. He helped me." "You saw Danny?" Twilight asked. "Yes. I don't know why he helped me, but I am grateful that he did." Charming Thunder then decided to change the subject. "Any word about the search for the Eternal Fleet?" "Not yet. I think SCORPIO has gone quiet ever since. What is she planning?" "I don't know, but we will be ready for anything she would throw at us." Charming Thunder then talked about how his quest went at the Crystal Empire and told them that Princess Amore returned and that he has a new ally to the Equestrian Empire who bears a medallion like him and what he found out at the temple. --------------------- At midnight, Charming Thunder was sound asleep in bed with Twilight when a knock was heard at the door. They both woke up and got up to answer the door. When Charming Thunder opened the door, Rainbow was standing there in a panic. "Do you even know what time it is, Rainbow?" Twilight groaned. "It's the Eternal Fleet," Rainbow said. "They're attacking Alcatraz prison!" "Why would they attack a prison?" "Well let's find out," Charming Thunder said. "Rainbow, prep a shuttle and inform the fleet and plot a course to Alcatraz." Rainbow saluted and quickly flew out of the room. While Charming Thunder and Twilight rushed to the hangar to a shuttle. --------------------- As a riot broke down at Alcatraz, the guards began to man the Anti-Air Turrets and began to open fire against the battlecruisers, who were unfazed by their foolish attempts to damage the ships due to their shields protecting them. Suddenly, five of the battlecruisers fired multiple drop pods from their sides and they charged against the security. A few of them were shot down but most of them managed to make it. A stallion prisoner was running when he felt the prison shake at the landing of the Skytrooper forces. A single pod, when it landed, opened up and six Skytroopers and a single yellow droid came out. This droid was a yellow and black droid with some good armor plating and it had a yellow core and yellow eyes. In its' hands was a blaster rifle. "Report: HK-55 reporting and taking command of Skytrooper Rescue Team," the droid said. "Command Order: Location Shockwave for extraction, Priority Alpha. Instructions: Keep the scientist alive at all costs, failure is not an option. Kill any meatbags that stand in your way." The stallion was running when he sees two guards spotting him. "Hey!" the guard shouted as the stallion ran towards the Sector 6 door. "Stop that prisoner!" The guards began to give chase. He spots the Sector 6 door but just when he was about to give up, the door opens, revealing 3 Skytroopers and a single black Skytrooper. "I require assistance," the stallion shouted at the droids. The Skytroopers looked at him before looking at the guards and aimed their guns and blasted them to death. Once they finished, the black Skytrooper looked at the prisoner. "Target ID: Shockwave," the black Skytrooper said as it scanned the stallion. "Confirm?" Shockwave nodded and the black Skytrooper opened communications. "Bravo Team has acquired Shockwave in Sector 6. Bring in the ship for extraction. All teams; Bravo Team requests support." "Acknowledged," HK-55 replied in the communications. " All teams, rendezvous to exaction point! Target has been acquired." --------------------- Outside, as the rescue team made its' way to the landing platform, a fleet of Star Destroyers arrived to the scene. As the air battled kept going, a Eternal Fleet Battlecruiser had a shuttle being transported down the landing platform. However, the Equestrian Empire launched its' own shuttles down another landing platform. Shockwave and his escort managed to make it to their shuttle and they meet up with HK-55 and the rest of the rescue team. However, before they boarded the vessel, they heard hoofsteps and turned, seeing Charming Thunder alongside Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle. Shockwave looked at them. "Charming Thunder, Twilight Sparkle, and...Rainbow Dash," Shockwave said. "Who are you?" Charming Thunder asked. "I am Shockwave and the Cyber Alliance seemed to have an interest in me. For what, its' not in my knowledge. However, I can say this." Shockwave then looked at Rainbow before he pulls out a napkin and threw it at Rainbow. Rainbow caught it and she opens it without Charming and Twilight looking at it. What she saw shocked her. She looked at it for a moment and folded it up then threw it to Shockwave. "You think a simple picture is going to change my mind?" Rainbow said. "You are sadly mistaken." As she said that, she winked with her left eye. "Skytroopers, deal with them." The Skytroopers aimed their blasters and fired. Shockwave ran up the ramp while HK-55 followed him. Rainbow opened her wings and charged after them into the ship and the ramp raised. Charming Thunder and Twilight couldn't stop it without getting hit by the Skytroopers. Charming Thunder activated his lightsaber as Twilight did the same and chopped down some Skytroopers as the ship took off towards the fleet. All of the ships of the Eternal Fleet began to turn around quickly before disappearing into light speed with the shuttle with them. --------------------- Once the riot stopped, the guards escorted the prisoners back to their cells while droids picked up the remains of chopped up Skytroopers. Charming Thunder and Twilight were talking to Bon Bon. "Thanks for the help, your highnesses," she said. "Without your help, the prisoners would've escaped. But don't worry. We will have them back into their cells." "One escaped," Charming Thunder said. "Do you have any information about this 'Shockwave'?" "Ah, him. Shockwave is a scientist who dedicated his life to learning about cosmic energies and tried to replicate it to make it powerful. However, his fellow scientists called him a madman and even the princesses locked him because his goal was too big of a danger to let anyone, even himself, to get hurt. He's insane. He talks to himself sometimes when he was in his cell. He's been a prisoner here for several years. What do the Skytroopers even want with that madman?" "I don't know," Twilight said. "But it is important that we find him and Rainbow, if he has taken her prisoner." The two decided to help the guards with the cleanup of the prison.