//------------------------------// // Fight For The Future // Story: Strange Bedfellows // by BRBrony9 //------------------------------// The steps back up to Princess Luna's chambers seemed twice as long as they had the last time she had climbed them just a few minutes earlier, but Twilight was determined to make the ascent anyway, even though it saw her reach the top out of breath. The telescope awaited, and with it a chance to study the human ships. Perhaps just as importantly, it would give her something to keep her mind off of what Luna had told her. Princess Celestia, her mentor and friend, ruler of all the land, was out there fighting, alone. Fighting something that even these human ships that she wished to examine had failed to destroy. Twilight knew that, unlike the Changelings, there was nothing she personally could have done to change things, to prevent Celestia from going or the Daemon from appearing at all, and so she did not feel guilty, but she felt scared. She knew that Celestia could most certainly handle herself in any fight, no matter how strong or cunning the foe, but to be out there alone, fighting something from another world- no, another dimension- was a situation where anything could happen. Anything could go wrong. What they knew about the Daemon could be written on the back of a single hoof. Luna had relayed to her what Celestia had told her, having heard it from the humans, but it was a vague collection of adjectives and superlatives that contained very little concrete information. Evil. Cunning. Powerful. Devious. None of that gave any indication of how to fight the creature. Luna's telescope was just as beautiful and ornate as it had been in Twilight's memory, from the last time she had seen it. That had been a lifetime ago, practically as the invasion was just beginning. The device had somehow escaped any damage by the Chaos occupation forces surprising given the needless destruction they had wrought on tapestries, statues, stained glass windows and other priceless relics, just for the sake of sport or entertainment. Perhaps they had not recognised what it was, or perhaps they did know, and had spared it because it was a potentially useful piece of technology and not merely some cultural artifact with no practical use. Though it was daylight outside, with sunlight beaming down, the Imperial ships were large enough that they could be seen through a telescope, even against the backdrop of Celestia's bright sunlight. It was not the ideal time of day for orbital observations, but Twilight wanted to distract herself from the potential peril that her teacher was in. There was nothing else she could do about the situation except try to forget it was happening. A few training wheels were adjusted, focus dialled in. Twilight leaned down and peered through the viewfinder of the telescope. It was aimed skyward, at whatever quadrant had been under observation last time it was used. Twilight did not know exactly where the human ships were located, but she made a reasoned guess. Given that fighting was going on around Fillydelphia, and Luna had said that the humans had tried to attack the Daemon there, it stood to reason that at least one of the ships would be in some type of geosynchronous orbit above the city. Fillydelphia was to the south of Canterlot, right down at the tip of the continent, so Twilight trained the telescope in that direction. Despite being quite ancient, the telescope was a powerful device, with a significant magnification thanks to its lenses, allowing a pony on the ground, or rather slightly above it in the Lunar Tower, to observe proceedings high above, not just in orbit, but many light years away, in good detail. Stars, galaxies, nebulae, all were visible through the viewfinder on a dark night if one knew where to look, and what you were looking at. Twilight did, or at least she did when she had access to a good star chart or a list of suitable stellar coordinates. There was so much to see, if only ponies took the time to turn their gaze upward instead of being so focused on their own lives. Of course, things were different now, and nopony had any time for anything so frivolous as stargazing during a struggle for survival. Even this, Twilight told herself, was no mere recreational activity. She was going to be performing a useful service, potentially gaining scientific data on the enemy ships to collate with that obtained by the observatory outside Griffonstone which, although it had been focusing its efforts on studying the warp storm, had also collected some data on the Imperial fleet in the process, albeit with little information as to what they had been looking at. Twilight knew a little more than the Griffon astronomers, having already studied one of the ships on the night before the invasion. She was no expert on starships, however; no pony could claim that title, since until the human arrival nopony had even known such things were actually physically possible to construct. There were scientific theories, of course, regarding rocket propulsion or magic levitation to power simple craft, but even the wildest science fiction writers of Equestria would have baulked at including something as large as the human craft in their stories, for fear of being ridiculed. Too big. Impossible. Don't be ridiculous, something that large would never fly! Yet fly they did, in a manner of speaking, sailing through the vacuum of space to bring thousands, perhaps millions, of humans to this planet. Twilight wanted to see another one close up, and she scanned the heavens eagerly to locate one. It was tricky against the blue sky, as the craft were not backlit by the moonglow or the light from the stars. She stuck to her task, and after a few minutes of diligent searching, she located something, in the skies over Fillydelphia, far above. There it was, unmistakably one of the human vessels. Far too angular and deliberate in shape to be an asteroid, not bright enough to be a comet reflecting light from the sun. No, it was one of their ships, for certain. Twilight twiddled a few dials with her magic, zooming in her view for a better and closer look at the craft. It was mightily impressive, even from such a distance, the ship being many miles geographically south of her, and some several hundred miles above. Perhaps it was the same one she had seen before; it certainly looked similar, though Twilight could not remember every last detail of what she had seen through her own telescope. Her notes and sketches had long since been lost, delivered to the palace to show the Princess but presumably destroyed either during the fighting or afterward by the occupation forces. She examined it closely, getting a good look through the viewfinder. Detail was relatively limited thanks to the brightness of the sky, but one thing that would have been obvious even to a casual observer was its sheer size and bulk. The ship had to be longer than the entire city of Canterlot, several miles long at the minimum. Scale was difficult to judge, but a good guestimate could be obtained by various trigonometric calculations, which Twilight was able to perform on a few bits of scrap paper. She obtained a broad estimation of between four and five miles for the ship's length. Was this one of the largest in the fleet, or was this a mere scout or escort? The former would be impressive enough, but if it was the latter, then just how big would the capital ships be? Given its position over Fillydelphia, Twilight reasoned that there was a good chance that the huge vessel she was observing was one of the Imperial battleships, cruisers, dreadnoughts, command ships or whatever they happened to call their largest ships of the line. It was only when she zoomed out a little more to get an overall impression of the length that she realised there were two of them. Another ship close by, a little farther back- higher in orbit, she reminded herself- perhaps a bit smaller, though not much, than the one she had been observing studiously. A brief calculation told her that, yes, it was shorter, though not by a huge amount, somewhere around three or so miles, give or take and accounting for any error. It was always possible that she had made one, and either over or underestimated the length of the ships. She was not used to recording sightings of things so close to the planet, and certainly not in orbit around it, with the exception of the moon. She zoomed back in again with the telescope, scouring over the other ship's hull with a keen eye, looking for anything she could identify. Naturally, nothing she could see meant anything to her. Were those protrusions weapons? Cameras, sensors? The space equivalent of gangplanks for boarding? She could only guess at what features the ships had, what technological marvels might be found within. Part of her, a large part of her, that inquisitive and scientific mare, longed to somehow get aboard one of those human ships. To travel far and wide across the galaxy, an infinity of new possibilities opened up to her. New knowledge, already being gained just by the mere awareness of the existence of life beyond their planet. What wonders might exist elsewhere, what secret truths of the universe might she learn? Or, what horrors might she uncover. What new and exotic means of death and pain and suffering, what cruelty. Perhaps there were questions out there that nopony was meant to even ask, let alone know the answers to. Perhaps even Celestia, the font of all pony knowledge and wisdom, a would find new and disturbing truths out there. You are the future, not Celestia. But to travel the galaxy, Twilight would have to leave her home, leave Equestria and all her family and friends behind. She doubted very much she was ready to do that, given that she had needed her friends to snap her out of her slump after being rescued. There was also the small but inconvenient matter of the fact that the Imperium, on the whole, was rabidly xenophobic, so far as she understood it. There were of course exceptions, those among the humans who simply didn't care about alien species, didn't consider them all to be a threat, or had a more open mind than most, but she doubted such a ride aboard an Imperial starship, authorised or not, would last very long without her getting one of those red beams in the back of her head, or perhaps worse. She contented herself with watching the ships from the ground. Only Celestia and Luna had ever left the planet, and perhaps that was how it should be. After all, they controlled the sun and the moon. Twilight controlled nothing, not even her own destiny. Maybe one day, if Celestia willed it, and if these Chaos gods that were claimed to exist did not object, she might travel into space, fulfilling a crazy lifelong dream, but most likely she would be earthbound for all of her life. That would be alright, too; if she could not travel among the stars, then she would stay at home, in Equestria, and protect it, from whatever threatened it, to the best of her ability. Which was not saying a great deal. Yes, she had her magic, and she was still powerful as unicorns went, but she did not have Alicorn magic. There was a limit to her power, and without the Element of Magic, she would struggle against the most powerful foes. The Elements had to be complete to be useful, and even if she was there with her friends, her Element was not. Unless they could wrest it free of Chrysalis's grasp somehow, then the Elements would remain a mere set of trinkets, gaudy baubles with no purpose. But your potential is limitless. There was some slim hope, at least. They knew where the Hive had relocated to, it seemed. Out in the jungles of the eastern continent, somewhere in Zebrican territory. Maybe somehow they could get it back, snatch it from the Queen, preferably killing her in the process. But if not, then all Twilight could do was to sit and watch the human ships and wait. Wait to see what happened. She gazed south idly, no longer focused on the human craft. Princess Celestia was out there somewhere, alone, struggling against an unknown foe. What if she needed help? What if she was hurt? What if...if it was even possible...what if she had been killed? No, that could not be true. She would know, somehow. Every pony would know. They would feel it, and Twilight had felt nothing except vague dread at the danger her mentor was in. The distraction of the telescope had worked only temporarily, and now Twilight's mind was once again fully focused on worry. Not panic, but concern, deep concern, because she could not help. She could not influence events, not from here. Luna had told her not to fear, but fear was the mind killer. Once again she had to console herself with the thought that Celestia was the most powerful magical being in Equestria. She could handle anything, whether it came from this planet, or from another dimension. Probably. The air had turned to fire. Celestia instinctively held her breath; to breathe in the flames was something that was best avoided, even for an Alicorn. Her shield sprang up like a bubble around her, keeping the fire at bay as she dove down out of the sudden inferno. The Daemon was a tricky foe, both resilient and resourceful as far as its powers of magic went. Not a creature to be trifled with, clearly, and with abilities like a more malevolent version of Discord, which was certainly saying something. While the Daemon had spoken with forked tongue, twisting its words and speaking meaningless phrases much of the time, one thing was clear, at least. Malaranth the Infinite did what it did because it was working at the behest of some master, this Lord of Change, Tzeentch, it called it, a name that sounded most harsh and grating on her ears. She could quite understand why, as the Lord-Admiral had explained to her at some point, many humans felt violently ill at just hearing the names of Daemons or other Chaos entities, or at simply seeing their foul sigils and symbols. While such things had not had the same effect on her, there was no doubting that they did hold a certain disquieting air to them. Free from the firestorm, Celestia turned, tracking the Daemon with her aura spell. Despite its fiendish deviousness, it could not escape her gaze, and she spotted it up above, observing from where it had unleashed the flames upon her. Her ethereal mane and tail remained un-singed by the heat, and she quickly responded with a flurry of magical blasts in his direction. She teleported away in case of any retaliation. There were still minor Daemons skittering and flitting about the sky, and they needed to be dealt with also. The orifice in space and time was still disgorging more of the foul creatures into her realm, and that could not be permitted to stand. She spotted the opening and made a beeline for it. Her horn glowed again, and intense, magical heat began to cauterise the wound in reality, as she had done with the previous portal. A dozen Daemons coming through the hole were turned to ash in a fraction of a second, being unfortunate enough to run right into her powerful spell. Some of their fellows that had already made the journey tried to stop her, coming at her from behind or from above. Her shield protected her, their attacks bouncing harmlessly off, their own bodies hideously burned when they tried to ram into her. They continued their futile efforts as the Princess sealed up the rift, only to be suddenly struck a hefty blow from the side. Her shield held, and she turned to look with an angry scowl on her face. Malaranth was coming at her again, this time using its staff to hurl powerful bolts of energy at her as his minions pecked away at her from all around. The attacks could not penetrate her shield, but they were making Celestia angry. The Daemons would not give up; she suspected they never gave up under any circumstances, perhaps driven by some base instinct to always fight, hard-wired genetically for killing. Whether that applied to Malaranth as well, she did not know. It seemed unlikely; the Lord-Admiral had said that such Daemons were not usually to be found on the frontline, preferring to manipulate things from behind the scenes, which made its presence here more puzzling. Had it come to the planet specifically to fight Celestia, because it knew that its minions were not strong enough to defeat her? Had it come to distract her from some other occurrence? Had it come to scare the Imperials, or to halt their attack, or was it some great combination of all of those things? Celestia's horn glowed once again, all along its length, and suddenly, her shield became a rapidly expanding ball of energy, crackling and buzzing, growing, being launched outward. Everything it touched burst into flames and flashed to ashes. Even the air ahead of it spontaneously combusted. Malaranth, seeing the onrushing wall of death, managed to teleport itself away, out of the line of fire to a safe distance. Celestia's magic orb reached its full extent, and with a loud crack of displaced air it returned to its original state, just a small bubble around her, keeping her safe. While Malaranth had escaped harm, every one of his surviving minions that had made it through the tear in reality had been wiped out, atomised or flashed to steam by coming into contact with her magic. The Daemon was all alone once more, cut off from its supply of reinforcements, but that did not seem to faze it in the slightest. If anything, it seemed quite happy about the changes in its situation, judging by its gentle laughter. There was something disconcerting about a being of such power and apparent evil having such a lilting voice, soft, almost feminine despite its great bulk and imposing presence. It had never addressed itself as being male or female; it was always possible that Daemonic genders did not conform with those of ponykind. Perhaps it was a genderless species, or perhaps it possessed traits of both the males and females of its race. But, Celestia supposed, many outsiders would no doubt say similar things about her; in appearance and voice, she was the epitome of feminine beauty and grace, elegant to the extremes required of her noble standing. Yet in battle, none could match her raw power, aggression or skill. Despite, or perhaps because of, Equestria being a matriarchal society, it had historically been the stallions who had made up the bulk of the fighting forces. Even today there were still slightly more stallions than mares in most branches of service, as was the case with the Yak Empire, Zebrican Kingdom and Griffon Kingdom also. Anybody who did not know any better would assume that the Princesses of Equestria sent their males off to fight and die while staying comfortable at home in their palace. As was being ably demonstrated in the skies above Fillydelphia, nothing could be further from the truth. Despite the setbacks, Malaranth showed no intention of giving up the fight. Indeed, it seemed keen to continue, and did so immediately, as a searing white light filled Celestia's vision, blinding her to the world around her. So the Daemon thought, at least, but Celestia was able to continue using her aura spell to track Malaranth's movements. The Daemon tried to take advantage of her apparent temporary infirmity, but she was ready for him, and even the Lord of Change had to admit to being surprised for a fraction of a second, although it supposed it should not have been. Celestia was proving quite a handful, which was what it had expected to be the case, but no matter. In fact, it was quite pleasurable to put its powers to the test once again after so long manipulating events from behind the scenes. There was a certain enjoyment to be found in combat, the thrill of battle, and it was just as much a mental test as a physical one, which pleased Malaranth greatly. This was a battle of wits, not just of brawn, a one-on-one struggle for supremacy with another master psyker. Those were hard to find, even in a galaxy as war-torn as this. Even if it fell, Malaranth knew that it would not change Lord Tzeentch's plans. They were already firmly in motion, and had been for some time. Even in this remote corner of the galaxy, the Changer of Ways had long ago made his mark, paving the way for this latest scheme. Come success or failure, Tzeentch would be happy. Happy, because there was always change. Change was the constant. And what pleased Lord Tzeentch also pleased Malaranth the Infinite. Celestia unleashed a wave of golden energy at the Daemon as it tried to surprise her, forcing it back as the magic made contact with the creature. One of its feathered wings was singed by the intense power, before it was able to move away, out of the line of fire, and try to retaliate with a swirling helix of warp energy, channelled through its staff. Celestia teleported away, but its passage left a stain upon reality itself. Not a tear, but a kind of residue, dark energies dripping seemingly from nothing in mid-air. Malaranth turned away from the physical, and back to the mental. It tried a piercing attack directly into Celestia's mind, to tear and ravage her psyche. Any mortal man would have gone mad in seconds, tried to claw out his own eyes or perhaps turned his weapon upon himself. But Celestia resisted. Not just resisted, but fought back, even. Whether it was deliberate or just a natural response, her mind was fighting the invasion, and if forced Malaranth out. The Daemon was not entirely surprised, but it was impressed. It had known that Celestia had no true warp presence as humans and other species did, but existed outside of the warp pressing in, and that was what had intrigued Malaranth the most when he had studied what was known about his target planet. There were things that even Lord Tzeentch did not know and that could not be found in the confines of the Warp, explanations for the powers of these ponies among them. Perhaps Malaranth could find an answer here, in person. 'You are truly a most impressive specimen, Princess,' Malaranth assured Celestia, drawing a glowering look from her as she clearly did not like being addressed as if she were part of some science experiment. 'Unfortunately, it is time for me to finish this task and ensure the success of Lord Tzeentch's plans. You are welcome to try and stop me, of course, but I fear that even you will be unable to do so. Nevertheless it has been a pleasure making your acquaintance. I wonder if your sister will be as...potent as you?' Celestia did not rise to the obvious bait of using her sister to try and make her act rashly. Instead, she sat back, waiting for Malaranth to make a move instead. Soon enough, it did. Suddenly there were two portals, not just one, opening in the fabric of the sky around her, both disgorging hordes of hideous Daemons. Malaranth was pressing again into her mind, and at the same time, it began hurling balls of energy at her rapidly. An onslaught from all sides. Celestia teleported away and began hosing down the lesser Daemons with a continuous beam of golden magic, killing hundreds. But there were more of them this time, and Malaranth was attacking relentlessly, shot after shot flying from its staff in her direction. For any observers, it was hard to keep track of everything that was going on. There was so much light and energy being flung around the sky, so many swirling creatures all of a sudden, so much mayhem being unleashed. Celestia used a quick perception spell to help her, which had the effect of seeming to slow down time for her in relation to the world around her. It helped her avoid attacks, dodge incoming fire, and track enemies. And it was not enough. The Daemons were all over her, and while she doubted any one of them could harm her, perhaps in their teeming thousands they might be able to force their way through her shield so that Malaranth could land the crippling blow it was seeking. If she concentrated on the numberless minions, then the Lord of Change might be able to hit her with something powerful enough to have the same effect anyway. Being outnumbered was not a problem for the Princess, but being both outnumbered and facing a foe of equal or greater power to her own was. She could only focus her attentions in one place at a time. Another quickly expanding orb of magic killed thousands of lesser Daemons, but they continued to pour forth and assail her. She sealed up one of the rifts with her magic, but Malaranth immediately opened another. More Daemons eagerly flew out of the new tear in reality, throwing themselves at Celestia relentlessly. She could not spare any time to attack Malaranth directly. Each time she closed a rift, Malaranth opened another. It was a losing battle and merely a matter of when her strength would eventually fade enough for her to make a mistake, which it could then exploit. For ten minutes the struggle continued, with untold numbers of Daemons melting away before the intense gaze of Celestia's golden magic. With a seemingly endless flood of the creatures coming through the rifts, Celestia realised she could not win the fight alone. She could keep them at bay, but not defeat Malaranth at the same time. Reluctantly, she teleported away, north of the city. She raised her horn to the sky, and fired off a bright blast of magic.