Cracking the sky like it was made of porcelain, or, like… whatever aliens call their space-ceramics, Rainbow Dash rocketed from her position directly towards her comrade’s, only slightly slowed by heavy air-tight armor designed to keep her ‘safe’ in a battle-zone so often filled with magnetically wrapped bolts of plasma and things that explode if you kick them hard enough.
It wasn’t that the armor was useless, per se. It was made from a nigh-indestructible and, relatively light, metal alloy known as Phrik, after all. It was just that Rainbow Dash could only outspeed even the fastest fighter in atmosphere usually by a magnitude of five times or more while wearing it. Okay sure, there was this cool heads-up-display built into the heavy transparisteel visor in front of her face that let her know what was going on during battle which was marginally better than her ability to hear what was going on around her. Also, the armor itself had maybe saved her from a few blaster bolts that, allegedly, might have exploded her body and cooked her insides. However, the armor was additional weight and drag that the built-in thrusters and maneuvering jets only compensating for after a few microseconds of Rainbow Dash deciding where she wanted to go and shifting her body and weight do so. It was probably analogous to trying to play shock-ball in Stormtrooper armor, which was totally something she’d tell Wedge after he wasn’t busy being shot at.
Oh, the armor did have some modestly-sized laser cannons which she used to harass the larger, slow-poke fighters she often found herself combating. Much like right now, as she let loose a volley of scarlet energy that splattered across the shield of the red TIE Defender she was coming up fast on. Still, the blasters weren’t nearly as fun as her heavy-duty ‘shock hooves’ which she slammed into the Crimson Trip’s hull and sent it tumbling off into the sky as she herself bounced away from the fighter before quickly regaining control.
“Thanks, Rainbow. I owe you one,” Valarus’s much calmer, post-immediate danger voice called out on Rainbow Dash’s com.
Rainbow Dash let out a short laugh. “You owe me like six, but who’s counting?” She positioned herself above the battered X-Wing where she could see inside its cockpit, just able to make out the bits of fur and whiskers of her Bothan friend’s face.
“Yeah, yeah,” Valarus said dismissively with a shake of her head. “What in the hell do you ponies do to train yourselves?! Fly headlong into giant rock piles?!”
While this would normally elect a laugh from his squadron mate, however a surprising beat of silence followed before Rainbow Dash replied. “… Remind me some time to tell you a confusing tale involving my friend Spike… preferably over drinks. You’re buying”
“Roger that,” Valarus replied with a chuckle.
No sooner had Valarus got out her good-natured response then Rainbow Dash took note of the Defender she had just walloped. The pilot, it seemed, had regained control of their senses and the craft with an inhuman speed. Rainbow Dash’s eyes widened as she watched it launch a single concussion missile from under the round, tinted view-port. “Valarus! Watch out!” Rainbow Dash surged forward. Missiles where much faster than starfighters by design, but still not as fast as her, of course, this was racing towards her, or rather, her friend. Still, there was still time to knock the missile, no-way the projectile had locked on target given the timing.
Then, she felt it, maybe a millisecond before she even saw the much slower emerald tracer from the blast. A blaster bolt from the Defender slammed into her armor and exploded in pressure and heat that sent Rainbow Dash reeling. Rebelling with her wings and very body against physics itself, Rainbow Dash desperately shifted herself to get a view on Valarus’s X-wing. To her great relief, Valarus rolled her ship and pitched it away from the path of the missile. However, a hailstorm of emerald bolts caught the craft in the front, tearing through the nose-cone and front sections of the ship before the canopy itself was blasted open.
Rainbow Dash looked on in shock for a moment, somehow hoping to see Valarus had ejected out of the vehicle, but no ejection seat could be seen escaping from the wreckage. There was simply nothing left to save.
Rainbow Dash snarled and flapped as hard as she could, moving once again dive at the enemy fighter. She rolled and juked up and down, left and right she continued forward, keeping out of the path of the deadly blaster fire tagged with emerald tracers. True, the bolts themselves traveled far too fast for even her to see, but her small size and fixed position of the laser cannons on the enemy fighter meant keeping out of their path was relatively easy.
Rainbow Dash caught a glimpse of the Crimson armored pilot inside the craft who either failed to note Rainbow Dash was on a direct collision course with his ship or perhaps welcomed the opportunity to end up in some mutual kamikaze situation with the pony.
Images of crashing through the Defender’s front and smashing into its engine components flashed through Dash’s head as did the realizing that she simply didn’t have the mass to tear through the ship and end up on the other side. Her armor was mostly indestructible, but it did have its soft point like the many joints so that she could move in it as well as the transparisteel faceplate that probably wouldn’t survive. Grimacing as she realized she liked her face non-melted, she jinked down to her right at the last moment and smashed her heavily armored hooves into a collection of the ship’s maneuvering jets. Phrik collided with titanium to the sound of metal bending and tearing as bits of debris went everywhere. Rainbow Dash had hit with nearly enough force to tear the Defender’s pylon from the pilot pod, but was once again sent tumbling away from her opponent, this time to the sound of alarms inside her helmet and the sight of flashing on her HUD letting her know both her shock hooves and inertia dampeners were not having a good time. She ignored them and flapped against her own spiraling inertia until she was once again level, this time she searched for the damaged Trip immediately and bolted fast in the direction of the still plummeting spacecraft.
“Rogue 13, report!” Wedge’s voice called over the com. “What happened to Rogue 8?!”
Rainbow Dash grit her teeth. “She’s gone, Wedge…” Rainbow Dash reported with a note of melancholy. She was sad, yes, but loss was something she was something she was getting a lot more accustomed too. But that doesn’t mean I have to be okay with it, she thought as she sped towards the Defender even as the pilot did their best to regain control. “But I’ve crippled the Trip that did it. I’m about to finish it off!”
“Negative, Rogue 13. Luke needs your help!”
“But, Valarus—”
“She’s dead, Dash!” Wedge said harshly over the com. “And Luke’s next if you don’t pull your head out of your tailpipe and help him out.”
Rainbow Dash grit her teeth and took a deep breath. The damaged TIE was so close she could practically feel it already.
“Rainbow?! Do you copy?”
Rainbow Dash flapped with all her might and pushed forward, causing the sky to split with a loud boom as a rainbow shockwave emanated out from her. She followed this up with banking and changing direction. The blast probably wasn’t close enough to destroy the fighter outright, but if the pilot thought he was having a bad time before…
“Rainbow Dash!” Wedge hollered over the com.
“I copy, Rogue two,” Rainbow Dash said in a controlled tone as she brought up Luke on her HUD. “Heading towards Rogue Leader’s position now. Over and out.”
Starlight Glimmer began teleporting the moment she sensed that complete annihilation would be what awaited her if she stayed at her physical location a moment longer. This was, unfortunately, a moment or two after Tempest’s magical Force lightning touched her, set her teeth on edge and set every hair on her purple coat to its full upright position.
Thankfully, it was still before the ‘Force storm’ portion of Tempest’s attack could hit and start detaching molecules that she desperately needed from one another. Still, a surge of energy ran through her body, flooding her touch receptors with pain, which made them that much more unreliable as they attempted to hop to the front of the line of her priority list and override her brain with the notion she needed to flee and tend to her wounds. She dedicated a portion of her magical and Force powers to numb the pain so her body would stop being overly concerned with its well being. Tempest was unleashing an enviable amount of power and Starlight needed to, first, not be disintegrated, second, not let her friends be disintegrated as they provided valuable company and support in such situations, and third, establish that she was, in fact, more skilled and more powerful than Tempest.
There was a smattering of priorities after that, but they didn’t finish ‘in the money’ as they say, so why bother?
Rematerializing a split second after Tempest’s Force storm ate up the spot she had occupied moments before, she quickly reached out with her senses and noted with not an unduly amount of satisfaction and happiness that Twilight had likewise avoided being obliterated. Despite Twilight’s near-constant nagging, she was still a welcome presence in Starlight’s life and a constant reminder that there were higher summits to conquer in regards to magic… Maybe not ‘the Force’ so much… That’s what Luke was for and perhaps the odd cavalcade of Sith touched beings that seemed to cross sabers with Starlight and her friends.
Speaking of which, she fired off a bolt of pure energy in Tempest’s direction, only for the mare to jump out of the way. Starlight fired off another and another. Of course, Tempest responded by swatting the next few energy beams off course with her lightsaber. Starlight frowned and redoubled her efforts to hit Tempest, though the mulberry unicorn’s ability to not be on the path of deadly, matter annihilating beams or deflect said beams with some skillful use of magic and enhanced magnetic shielding was outpacing Starlight’s ability to send said beams downstream.
“Starlight! Starlight!” Twilight called out as she quickly put up a shield to absorb a few errant blasts rebounded from Tempest’s saber. “Stop! Stop!”
Right, and Tempest kept deflecting the magical force blasts back towards Twilight with startling accuracy, though Twilight was quick to put up her shield and even managed to deflect a beam back towards Tempest with her own lightsaber, turning things into the universe’s most colorful, whimsical, and dangerous game of tennis.
“Starlight! Our BASE!”
Starlight reached out with her senses and took note that a few of her blasts HAD been redirected back at the stout durasteel base on top of the plateau which almost looked and sounded to be throwing some sort of impromptu celebration with all the massive firework explosions and scarlet blaster fire being shot into the air, except of course, it was being attacked by some sort of Sith shuttle or something. Well, having her blasts redirected there wouldn’t do! That durasteel might as well be paper mache as far as the disintegrating power of her blasts were concerned, and more of her friends were in that base! Also, Han and C-3PO! And life just wasn’t as rewarding without a few entities close by who lived in constant mortal fear of her power.
Also, some other allies who helped distract enemies and could go get things for her when she didn’t feel like doing it herself where there… They were replaceable, sure, but that usually took some time…
The main thing was having the base wiped off the planet would be mostly objectively bad. Though, the constant stream of anti-starfighter blaster fire and accompanying ‘fireworks’ that had basically been weaponized let her know that the base must still be mostly intact.
Starlight and Twilight took up a defensive position in between the base and Tempest. “Okay then, what do you suggest?” Starlight said.
“I’m thinking!” Twilight barked out in reply.
Starlight sighed. “Well, that’s not very helpful!”
Starlight felt the annoyance of Twilight, but before the alicorn could slip out a verbal protest, Tempest fired off another blast of her Force lightning storm. It missed Starlight and Twilight completely, but Starlight immediately deduced that wasn’t its target.
Well… We’ve lived in WORSE places… Starlight thought somewhat dejectedly as the energy soared directly to the large metal blast doors of the base.
Twilight let out a startled yelp and immediately teleported in front of the blast, putting up another shield as she did.
Starlight sighed even as Twilight’s shield absorbed and dissipated the attack. “See! Do you think Tempest needed to think about what you’d do if she did that?” Starlight’s attention suddenly snapped back toward Tempest, saving herself from sudden decapitation by blocking the incoming red saber with her blue one. Using the opening, she focused on the Sith's broken horn and took a swing with her green saber.
Tempest shifted her body out of the way and to the right. “Of course I didn’t,” she replied. She suddenly twisted her entire body and swung it to her left, catching Starlight in the face with an armor covered hoof. “As I said,” Tempest said as she readied both her saber and horn for another attack. “You’re both predictable!”
Her thoughts suddenly jumbled like so much brain smacked hard against skull via armor-plated hoof to the head, Starlight immediately raised a shield and put her lightsabers in a defensive position, just in time to ward off another lightsaber attack and blast from Tempest. Tempest charged forward as Starlight quickly lowered her shield and charged her horn full of deadly magical energy to counterattack Tempest. However, the Sith was fast and opted to jump to Starlight’s right and expertly bucked Starlight’s abdomen with her two back hooves.
Starlight felt the searing pain from her ribs and the air escape her lungs, and for a moment, the world was no longer just molecules, Force energy, and magic flying about, but pain and what she could see and sense around her without the constant use of the Force.
She opted to fire off her blast of magic anyways.
Tempest deflected with her lightsaber.
Starlight grit her teeth as Tempest’s horn fired off another shot. She tried to maneuver her sabers back to defend herself, put up a shield, and refocus her senses all at once but her body hitting the ground and sending her rolling sideways across the increasingly ruined meadow made focusing exceedingly difficult.
For a moment, she caught a glimpse of the blast of Force and magic that might very well be her undoing, but a bolt of white energy suddenly pierced the maelstrom and it dissipated harmlessly. Twilight suddenly appeared in a magenta flash in front of Starlight.
With another glow of her horn, Twilight put up a shield around herself and Starlight. “Are you okay?” she asked with a touch of concern.
“Fine!” Starlight shot out as she got back to her hooves, her perception of the world once again being reduced to its base components of matter, magic, and Force energy. “Just ticked off,” Starlight added gruffly. Her body, of course, was letting her know that it was in fact, not all that fine, but it didn’t get a say in the manner at the moment. “How’s the base?”
No sooner had the question left Starlight’s lips than a roar of an explosion from the direction of the complex let itself be known. The ponies took a quick glance in the direction of the blast to note the blast doors were now sailing through the air like kites being buffeted by heavy winds.
Twilight swallowed. “It’s been better!”
Strapped to a heavy black seat with a screen in front of him and his hands on two control sticks, Han Solo took a quick moment to collect himself after the rumbling of the explosion which rocked the base passed. He uttered a quiet curse under his breath. The pilot of that combat shuttle had played him and his comrades perfectly, keeping them busy defending themselves and the top of the base before it could get a solid shot off at the entrance. He took his right hand off one of his weapon’s control sticks and tapped the side of the headset he was wearing. “Leia?”
“I’m fine, Han,” came Leia’s even response.
Smiling inwardly, Han continued, “Trix—”
“The Grrrrrrreat and Powerful Trixie is fine as well,” a voice announced haughtily over the com.
Han suppressed a grimace. It was cold comfort that the crazy magical ponies on his side were about as likely to do him in as the ones that actively were trying to kill him, though Trixie might be the only one to do it from an aneurysm brought on by sheer annoyance. “Col? How we doing?”
“That explosion took out the main doors,” a gruff male voice answered. “I’m getting the gang into position. We’ll give those Imps hell.”
“Well, let’s hope it doesn’t come to that,” Han replied dryly.
“Han, the shuttles coming back for another run,” Leia replied over the com.
“I see it, Leia. Trixie, keep an eye out for more of those torpedoes.”
Trixie’s replied, “You expect me to explode a rocket out of the air by launching my own rockets, at it, General?”
“Look, I know it’s a tall order, but—”
A titter interrupted Han. “Trixie loves it when you give her a challenge.”
Han rolled his eyes. “Great, don’t get cocky,” he said as he returned his hand to his control stick and motors rotated his seat to face the oncoming shuttle before he lamented the wasted breath spent on the four words that made up that sentence. His quad-laser battery filled the sky with scarlet bolts, soon joined by shots loosed from Leia's own battery. The cacophony was quickly joined by several colorful explosions, rocking the air around the shuttle.
Fortunately, Han was seeing this through the screen in front of him. He was quickly coming to the conclusion that being exposed to Trixie's arsenal for prolonged periods of time would mean he'd eventually have to be fitted for cyber ears.
Possibly new eyes as well.
On the bright side, he wondered if that would mean he'd be able to selectively mute the little gremlin disguised as an impossibly bright quadruped’s ongoing, third person diatribes. Maybe even tint out the absurd level of pastel colors he'd been forced to look at day-in and day-out. That might be nice.
Even slightly removed from battle, Han could feel and still hear muffled explosions from his gunner station. These came both from Trixie’s modified rockets and the smattering of blaster fire the shuttle was unleashing on the base. Thankfully, the base’s ceiling proved too thick for what must have been some heavily-modified, top of the line blaster-gas spitters, but for all the shots that were connecting with that shuttle, it just kept on making run after run, meaning its shields, hull, and maneuverability were in a class all of its own.
It must be nice to have near unlimited credits to throw at ships. “Hey Leia, any chance you can channel the powers of the Force and friendship and rainbow blast this thing out of the sky?”
“I’m trying, Han,” Leia replied with a heaping splash of annoyance added to her voice.
“I was joking,” Han clarified.
“I wasn’t,” Leia replied.
Trixie’s growl of frustration cut into the conversation. “Oh! It’s getting away again!”
Han watched the back end of the triangular shuttle as it cut up and away from the base. “Relax, your worshipfulness.”
“I didn’t say anything!” Leia protested.
“I was talking to Trixie,” Han countered.
Trixie replied with another titter. “You do know how to talk to a mare, General.”
This time, Han failed to suppress his grimace; Trixie was easy to sooth, but the price was high. He refocused his attention on the shuttle and caught a flash of green from its backside before his screen went dark and sparks flew out from around it along with a somewhat alarming amount of fire and klaxons telling him to get the hell away. As Han unbuckled himself from his seat, two thoughts crossed his mind. First, he should have known an Imperial shuttle had aft laser cannons, and second, he really hoped that exchange between the two girls wasn’t his last conversation ever.