//------------------------------// // Salvation // Story: Strange Bedfellows // by BRBrony9 //------------------------------// The brilliant beams smashed into the Chaos fleet with little warning. Though their sensors picked up the discrepancy and recorded the fluctuations in energy, their operators were clueless as to the cause until it was too late. They burned against the void shields, which resisted only for a few moments before collapsing, emitters shorting out. They bored through the hulls like a drill, melting away feet of adamantium and ceramite as it it were paper and wood. The first ship to be struck, a cruiser, threw all available power into its port shields to try and stop the sudden onslaught, but it was futile. Within moments the beam had cut straight through the entire ship and out the other side, almost splitting it in half. Explosions belched out vapour and plasma from internal compartments as the next ship in line, a destroyer, took a direct hit. Within seconds it had ceased to be, its reactors breached, detonating in a spherical fireball. Other Chaos ships tried to turn, move out of the line of fire as they could see more of the white-hot beams coming straight at them. But they were far too slow, and another three destroyers paid the ultimate price. One of the Grand Cruisers took a heavy hit that tore straight through the bridge and killed the entire command crew, punching out the other side and expelling half a dozen hangar bays and their contents into the void. The Chaos battleship that had already been damaged by the Imperial bombing raids was next to be hit, and despite frantic thruster use and bringing its main drives to full reverse, it could not escape. Nor could two of its frigate escorts escape the cataclysmic blast which annihilated the entire, miles-long craft, the main reactors exploding and followed by a string of huge blasts as secondary reactors and ammunition magazines went up. Some of the Chaos ships panicked. How could this be happening? It was impossible. They tried to run, and in the confusion a frigate and destroyer collided, almost welding themselves together, firmly locked in a deadly embrace as another of the beams found them and blew them to pieces with another reactor explosion. The escorts were so relatively small, and the beams so wide, that there was no possibility of maneuvering to try and protect the aft section where the reactors were located. Nor could armour or shields offer more than a few moments of defence against them. What was this, cried the Chaos captains? Some new Imperial trick, an unknown weapon carried by the Crusade fleet? But the attacks were not coming from the Imperials. They were coming directly, impossibly, from the system's star. Raw solar energy was being weaponised and hurled through space to kill and destroy. No human weapon could cause such a thing, and no psyker could accomplish that, not even their Emperor. Was there another foe out there, the Necrons, perhaps? Their starships were known to be able to hide inside a star's corona. But even they, perhaps the most technologically advanced of the foes of Chaos, could not accomplish this feat. Lord-Admiral Marcos stood watching from his command lectern, with an undisguised feeling of utter relief clearly displayed on his face. His fleet, it seemed, had been saved right at the last, when all hope seemed lost and the enemy had been close to striking the killer blow that would finish them off entirely. The only assistance they could have possibly received in this darkest hour would not come from humanity, but from a Xenos, a Princess with the powers of a goddess, who he thought might just, conceivably, be both able and willing to help them in their desperate plight. And so he had sent a message over the vox. Boosted by the powerful signal repeaters aboard the Emperor's Judgement, his call reached the planet, and the liaison team stationed at Canterlot. He was able to speak directly to the Princess once more, and to ask for her aid. He was willing to beg if necessary, if it offered any hope of saving his fleet and his men. It had not been necessary. Celestia was more than willing to help, once she had been informed that the ships in orbit were, indeed, those of the enemy and not of the Imperial Crusade. That meant they were a threat to the planet and to the ponies as well as to the humans. Marcos had asked for her aid in defeating the Chaos ships that were besieging his fleet in the deep system- they were being overwhelmed and if nothing else was done, it was likely that they would be destroyed in short order, ending all Imperial presence in space in the system and leaving the ponies and the Imperial ground forces extremely vulnerable to whatever Chaos might be planning. In reply, Celestia had agreed to help but had pointed out that she had no means of telling which ships were which from such a distance. She could detect individual vessels with her spell, but they all seemed alike to her, glowing auras suspended in the inky blackness of her mind's eye. She needed a way of telling friend from foe, lest her efforts to assist turned into disaster. Marcos was once again astounded when she told him that she could detect the ships, even those no longer in orbit, but he quickly remembered that nothing surprised him truly any more, not when it came to these creatures and their leader in particular. He did not bother asking exactly how she managed it, but he was able to come up with a solution. It was simple enough; all of his ships would stop moving, and once the Brigand's Folly had completed its death charge, Marcos issued a fleet-wide order to that effect. Anything large enough for Celestia to detect that was in motion would be an enemy. It did not mean that every stationary ship would be Imperial, but it did rule out any friendly fire. Marcos hoped the Princess could thin the herd of enemies that faced them. And that was exactly what she did, in about the most spectacular fashion imaginable. The bridge crew knew their Admiral was in conversation with the Xenos leader, and they had seen her exhibition before when she had destroyed the asteroid. But this was something else entirely. Not one single, focused beam, but dozens of them, lancing out one after the other from the boiling bulk of the sun, flashing across the void and smashing into the enemy. Not just a single ship; first one, then another, and another, all being struck in succession by the rays of superheated plasma direct from one of the largest nuclear furnaces in the galaxy, and far more effective than any lance beam or plasma cannon could ever hope to be. Even the strongest void shields, mounted on capital ships, proved to be little more than a very temporary inconvenience. Armour melted away before the blasts. As he watched, Marcos's relief turned to grim satisfaction. The enemy, so confident in their pursuit of the Crusade, had suddenly run straight into an unexpected problem, and found themselves, in turn, being totally outclassed by something that they could not understand. Their confusion was clear to see, as ships turned in every direction, command and control breaking down as the Chaos fleet came under fire from a source that was both unknown and seemingly impossible. No doubt it seemed a ridiculous concept to those witnessing it; the sun itself was hurling energy at them, in a way that defied physics, even to the strange and twisted Chaos interpretation of that concept. They were not in the warp, where such things might have been possible according to the whims of their gods. Yet something, some being or force of godlike power, had harnessed the very essence of the stars themselves to strike deadly blows against an invading force. Perhaps even more notable, the attacks seemed to be selective. The Imperial vessels in the vicinity were not being attacked, which ruled out any possibility of it being a natural or uncontrolled phenomenon. They knew someone was responsible, but they did not know who. Marcos knew the truth, and he had never been so glad to see a Xenos of any species display its power. Eldar sorcerers and Farseers had sometimes forged temporary and unsteady alliances to fight alongside forces under his command in the past, and their psychic powers were impressive, but faced with a situation where they could protect human forces, the deceitful Eldar would almost always choose not to bother, to save themselves the trouble of doing the same job later. Tyranid synapse creatures and Hive Ships and the forces of the Archenemy held nothing but evil intentions toward the Imperium. Finding a creature with both the power and desire to help save an entire Imperial fleet from certain destruction was all but impossible outside of Holy Terra itself, and yet that was exactly what the Crusade had uncovered. There was no doubt Celestia was doing this to help save her own people. Nothing less could be expected of any good leader. But the immediate threat to the ponies came from the ships still in orbit, not those that were attacking the Imperial fleet, but those ships out in deep system had been her first target. She had made the decision and taken the action to try and save human lives, a deliberate choice and one that Marcos could still only marvel at even as he watched one of the Grand Cruisers slowly tear itself apart from within, riddled with internal plasma explosions that were spreading from stem to stern. Perhaps she felt it was right, or perhaps she knew she could still protect herself and her ponies from the ships in orbit if she had to, even while focusing on the rest of the enemy force. Either way, Marcos was more than grateful. He and his forces had done their bit to protect the ponies, and now their Princess was doing the same in return. It was clear to him that without the sudden outburst of solar activity, the fleet would, even now, be undergoing its final death throes. Her assistance was driven by her apparent ability to detect the ships, even those not in orbit, with unerring and unnerving accuracy. Had she only recently developed this ability? Or did she simply not wish to use it earlier on? Perhaps, Marcos reasoned, she had simply not mentioned it to him, and maybe during the initial invasion she had been caught unprepared. Perhaps it was not a passive ability, but required an active mental effort; in which case she could not have reacted and scanned the skies until she had been made aware of the arrival of something in orbit in the first place, when the Crusade fleet had warped into system and started to make planetfall. Whatever the reality and the full extent of Celestia's real power, it was just yet another in the string of revelations which continued to impress the Lord-Admiral at every turn, making him both more in awe of, and more wary of, the Princess. After all, she may have been saving their hides, but as much as anything this was another demonstration; on a larger scale, and with a more stunning outcome than the destruction of a mere piece of space rock, but it was no doubt designed as much to show that, yes, her wrath could quite easily be turned upon the Imperial ships if they did something to upset her. Everything she had done since that first meeting with Marcos had told him the same thing about her. She was smart, and she was dangerous, and that could be a very deadly combination if one got on the wrong side of it. He was glad that the Crusade fleet was still on her good side, otherwise it could have been his own ships being turned into empty hulks and lifeless clumps of gently spinning debris. As it was, the Chaos fleet was suffering that particular fate, and Marcos relished watching every moment of it through the viewscreen, and seeing the number of red sigils on the holo-map dwindling. A proud and deadly fleet was being steadily reduced to scrap, and thanks to the arrangement with the Princess, the more they tried to maneuver themselves away from danger, the more of a target they became. The Imperial vessels held position steadfastly, those crews with access to viewports or displays screens watching in awe and shock as the foe which had been about to strike them down suddenly died in their droves, ships of all sizes exploding in incandescent flashes of exploding plasma and warp energy. Not even the fabled, semi-mythical tales of the Blackstone Fortresses or the greatest of the Necron war machines could bring about such massed destruction in such short order, and if they could, then it would certainly lack the same precision. This was not a shotgun blast, but a scalpel, making cuts in all the right places and annihilating the Chaos fleet before their very eyes. Confused cheers and shouts of joy rose from the throats of thousands of Imperial crewmen and attack craft pilots. They did not understand the source, but all they cared about was the result. They could see the enemy dying, trying to flee and being cut down mercilessly. Some new weapon that the Magi of the Mechanicus had come up with, perhaps? Or as others suggested, something discovered on the planet, some ancient and unknown source of great power that the Lord-Admiral had been keeping up his sleeve until the time was right? In a way, they were right. Twilight had stayed with the Princesses as they retreated into a war conference. What she had learned from studying the skies was of little help to her now, and once again she felt utterly powerless when confronted with such a major danger. Even with the Element of Magic in her possession, she would feel inadequate against this foe, but without it she felt completely impotent, bereft of any ability to engage or cope with whatever might follow. The human ships, Chaos ships now, she reminded herself, were in orbit, far out of her reach with even her strongest magical spells. After all, there were no spells in any of the textbooks about attacking or moving objects that were in orbit. The treatises on astronomical movement and phenomena she had read had all been unanimous in stating the simple facts; the only heavenly bodies that could be manipulated were the sun and the moon, and that could only be done by the Princess of the Day, and the Princess of the Night, or some other pony or group of ponies with the combined power to do so. The truth of the matter was rather more complex; after all, Celestia did not exactly raise the sun. It rose of its own accord, as the planet rotated, bringing day and night to each continent in turn. Most ponies accepted that to be the case, though the ritual of raising the sun and the moon were still adhered to by the Princesses. What was clear, however, was that Celestia could move the sun if she wanted. She had done so in the past, albeit only slightly, more for effect and demonstration in the ancient times than anything else. Moving it too far would create unpredictable tidal effects in relation to the planet, which could cause a catastrophe as great as anything ponies could possibly imagine. It could perturb the orbits of asteroids in the solar system and send them hurtling on a collision course with the planet. It could cause increased gravitational stress, causing the breakup of tectonic plates and impossibly massive earthquakes and tsunamis. It could affect the day/night cycle and the ability of the planet itself to support life. That was why she did not move the sun, and why Luna did not move the moon- but they could if they had to. Twilight knew this, but that did not help ease her mind. Moving the sun or the moon did not necessarily equal the ability to fight an orbital threat, and while she knew that Celestia had somehow opened up a hole in the Chaos-spawned warp storm, she did not know precisely how it had been done. Attacking or affecting the storm was different again from attacking individual ships. It did not necessarily follow that because she could do one, she was capable of doing the other. Nevertheless, there was reason for some optimism when the human liaison team had announced that the Lord-Admiral was calling on their vox system. Celestia had answered, and together with Luna, Cadence, Twilight and Shining Armour, had been appraised of the situation in as brief yet concise a fashion as Marcos could manage. Twilight was more unnerved than ever by his admission that the Imperial fleet was being overwhelmed, but Celestia had quickly assured the Admiral, and by extension everypony else, that she could help. That brief moment was enough to turn Twilight's fear into hope again. If Celestia felt she could help, then Twilight knew the Princess could save them, and the Imperials as well. She had never doubted Celestia's ability to fight; only her ability to do it far away from the planet. When she had voiced her ability to detect ships in orbit, Twilight had wondered if that meant she could fight them as well. It seemed possible; now, it seemed certain. The Princess herself had said as much, and Twilight doubted that was just an attempt to appease or calm the Admiral. It seemed that she intended very much to fight, somehow, the Chaos ships, even as they were now many millions of miles from the planet, according to the Admiral. They were, however, drawing steadily closer to the sun. All part of his hopeful plan. And his plan had come to fruition. Twilight had listened as the Princess had dished out her orders to her underlings, and accepted the Admiral's request. Her horn began to glow, and, though nothing seemed to change as far as Twilight could tell, she knew she was watching great concentration, great effort, and the wielding of great power. Far above, unbeknownst to Twilight, Marcos's hope for salvation was being granted, not by his own Emperor, but by her Princess. Just as she had helped and saved so many ponies down the long years of history, now she was helping humans, protecting them from their greatest foe using the fundamental power she possessed, far in excess of any other creature under normal circumstances. Even her sister could not stand against her directly if Celestia did not wish it. Nor could these ships, being so far away and unable to effect her or influence her actions. They could do nothing to protect themselves against a force of nature itself, for that was what Celestia represented. Twilight stayed quiet, just watching, observing, learning even though nothing seemed to be happening. She knew that vast forces were being set in motion, even if it would be impossible for her to actually see. She could use the telescope, but she could not look directly at the sun even with that- it did not offer protection for the eyes from such a light. Even if she could she did not know if she could see anything of the attacks which Celestia was surely unleashing upon the Chaos ships. So she contented herself with watching her mentor kill thousands, possibly millions, of humans in a matter of minutes, trying her best not to think of the enemy as worthy of such consideration in the first place. So what if they died? They all came here just to kill, to maim, to rape, plunder and despoil the land. That was all. They were worse, far worse, than Discord or Sombra or even the Changelings, their other current mortal enemy. They had no objective other than to cause misery, no goal they could claim as their noble cause, no matter how misguided it might be. Pain was all they knew, and had to be dealt back to them in equal measure. At least, that was what Celestia had tried to drill into Twilight's mind. Her brother had done the same, trying to explain why he had been party to the execution by firing squad of some of their number. Twilight had come to agree with them, for the most part. Everything she had seen of this enemy showed they had no redeeming qualities, not exhibiting a shred of remorse for their actions or for the shameful pleasure they took in spreading so much suffering wherever they went. Ponies had died, towns and cities had been wiped off the map or turned into charnel houses as a result of their passage, buildings burned with families trapped inside, foals torn unborn from their mothers' wombs for no reason other than as a symbol of their vicious cruelty toward, seemingly, all their fellow living beings. None had been spared, save for those who had managed to escape detection through one means or another. Clearly, if the Chaos forces did have an ultimate objective on the planet beyond simple murder, then it was carefully concealed behind a smokescreen of violence for violence's sake. Some small part of Twilight, the part which had guided her conscience through all of her trials and tribulations, alone or with her friends, still told her that violence in return was not the answer. But she certainly had no alternative ideas. Celestia, her mentor and teacher, clearly had no qualms about unleashing the full potential of her vast powers if she deemed it necessary, even when the deaths of countless beings would hang on her conscience for the rest of her life- assuming, of course, that the Princess actually thought of these enemies as creatures in the same way that she would with, say, a Griffon or Yak or Zebra.They were sapient beings with a conscience, with free will, with a moral code, however different it may be to that of ponies. They had principles which they lived by; all these Chaos humans had was the principle of pain, and that was no principle at all. Perhaps that was why Celestia showed no emotion over the prospect of killing thousands of them. Perhaps they had angered her to the point where she could see no other alternative, and they did not deserve the kind of mercy she had shown even to some of Equestria's greatest villains. Above it all, though, Twilight knew, lay the overriding desire of the Princess to protect Equestria and protect her subjects. That was ultimately what drove her to carry out whatever tasks she put her mind to. That was why she did what she did, and in the way that she did it. Everything would come down to the simply equation. Would it protect Equestria? Very clearly, destroying the enemy fleet would help to protect the planet and its many inhabitants, and regardless of any other factors, that was why Celestia was carrying it out. Not purely to help the Imperials and maintain their shaky alliance, but to protect her sister, and Twilight, and Cadence, and the rest of the population of Canterlot, and all the other towns across the land. Twilight sat quietly, just watching and thinking, as Celestia stood still and silent, her horn glowing brightly as she manipulated the sun with her magic to meet her goals and carry out her will. It did not last for too long, though to Twilight it seemed half an eternity had passed, though it had only been a few minutes in truth. Such a timescale to change the course of a war; so short, so impossible except for something as powerful as the human's atomic weapon, or a being wielding an equivalent level of magic. Control of the sun, however, put the atomic blast that had destroyed Baltimare to shame. It put the mightiest weapons mounted on the human ships, friend and foe alike, to shame. It was, perhaps, the ultimate weapon so far as ponies were concerned. Maybe even the Elements of Harmony would fall into line behind such power. Twilight tried to convince herself of that latter fact as a way of escaping the reality that she had been trapped in since being captured; that she had been responsible for the loss of the Element of Magic, and thus rendering impotent the entire set. Maybe it was true, maybe it was not, but what was undeniable was that in the absence of the Elements, Princess Celestia was very much their best hope for survival and ultimate victory, whoever the enemy might be. After a few more moments of pondering, Twilight noticed that Celestia's horn had stopped glowing. She looked up expectantly at her mentor. The Princess turned to her with a steady gaze, no hint of emotion being found in her eyes, though her mane and tail continued to flutter steadily in the absent, ethereal breeze. 'It is done,' she said simply.