I didn’t feel like retyping the entire Canterlot Wedding so just imagine I did. Everything is the same except for two things:
Celestia is not in a cocoon
After the girls got captured byt the changelings, Celestia teleported Twilight to the room where she kept the radio Keyan gave her.
*a few days after Ch.10*
Keyan was currently leaning back in his desk chair, it seemed he was doing alot of that nowadays. Probably due to a lack of things to shoot at lately.
“Auraaaaaaa. I’m boorrreeeddd.” his distressed voice rang throughout his room.
The A.I did not deem a response necessary.
Keyan sighed and his arms dropped to his side. He was getting accustomed to one pony or another calling him at random times. to talk about one thing or another. For the past few days he hadn’t received one call. He wasn’t sure if he should be elated or worried.
“Dammit Aura say something!”
After a few seconds the A.I finally responded,
“Is another combat simulator in order sir?”
“ughhhhh. If I do another simulation I’m, going to shoot something Aura.”
“Isn’t that the point sir?”
Keyan glared at one of the cameras,
“Don’t you use your fancy logic on me Aura.”
Keyan could swear he heard the A.I sigh in disappointment
“So did the probes find a wormhole yet?”
“No sir”
“Could be worse” Keyan said with a shrug,
“The probes did however find some abnormal crystalline asteroid formations.”
Keyan sighed again,
“I don’t care Aura.”
“The formations are extraordinary sir.From the readings they’re nothing short of spectacular. It seems the “magic” present in this system has seeped into it. And---”
“Whoa whoa whoa Aura. What’s going on. I never heard you this excited before. Actually I never heard you excited before.”
The A.I was silent for more than a few minutes, causing the capsuleer a fair amount of worry.
“Sir, It appears my programming has been modified.”
“huh?” Keyan said with a raised eyebrow.
After a few seconds the A,I responded,
“Sir, it seems that the sleeper components in this ship have been interacting with the “magic” in this system. It is unclear what this entails, but being as my A.I core is constructed out of a Sleeper Drone Cerebral Core it may have altered my code.”
“In what way?”
“Unclear sir, I will have to analyze this further.”
“So do I have to worry about you throwing me out an airlock now?” Keyan said with a grin.
“No more that usual sir”
….
“That was a joke.”
…..
“Sir?”
…..
…..
…..
The awkwardness was broken when the ships alarm went off. Thankfully this jump started Keyan’s mind as he immediately jumped up and started walking to the bridge.
“What’s up Aura?”
“Twilight Sparkle has initiated an emergency sir.”
“Put her on speaker.”
A beep was immediately followed by Twilight’s voice,
“Keyan! You have to help! Canterlots being invaded!” Her voice was nothing short of hysterical.
Keyan sat down in his captains chair.
“Aura pull up the camera feeds. Now tell me whats going on Twilight.”
“Changelings! They tricked everypony and we need help!”
The camera feeds leapt into his vision. Keyan was shocked when he saw actual fighting occurring on the peaceful planet. Black insectoid equines were locked in battle with the golden armored Royal Guard.
“What do you need me to do Twilight?”
A banging sounded through the radio,
“They found me Keyan. Just do something please!”
A second crash thundered through. Keyan heard Twilight scream in terror as chattering sounds became louder and louder.
“TWILIGHT!” Keyan shouted helplessly as sounds of fighting escalated. Eventually a there was a great crash and everything fell silent. He heard more chattering and then the line went dark.
Keyan stood up,
“Prep my pod Aura. Lets show them why you don’t mess with a capsuleer’s friends.”
***
Tears slipped down Twilights face as she was roughly ponyhandled back to the throne room. She had managed to knock out a fair portion of the changelings sent after her but in the end there was to many.
She was being levitated by no less than 8 changelings, making it so she couldn’t even move. Another had Twilight’s horn in a rough grip, disrupting any attempt to cast a spell and a strong deterrent not to.
They burst through the throne room doors. Twilight looked up as she entered, seeing her friends being held off to the side. She couldn’t resist as she was shoveled off to join them.
She grunted as she was thrown to the ground next to them. Rainbow was immediately by her side as the others formed a protective circle,
“You okay Twi’?”
Twilight nodded slightly as Rainbow looked at her.
“Did you get a message to him?” She asked
“Yea, I was able to talk to him for a few seconds. I hope he comes.”
Rainbow patted Twilights cheek,
“Hes gonna come Twi’, he wouldn’t leave us hanging.”
Twilight managed a weak smile in return.
The two of them sat back up and looked at Chrysalis as one of their guards roughly jabbed them.
They sat up just in time to hear Chrysalis finish her “conversation” with Celestia.
Chrysalis held one of the Royal Guards in her hooves, her fangs dangerously closed to his neck.
“When you kill a pony, princess, they release enough love to feed a changeling for a year. Those last thoughts of family and loved ones are positively delicious.” Chrysalis said as she dragged her fangs across the guards neck. He did his best not to shake as his skin split, beads of blood flowing down his neck.
“But, you’re lucky your ponies feed us better alive than dead.” She finished as the tosses the soldier to the side. Twilight’s brow furrowed as one of the changelings next to Chrysalis looked… disappointed at that.
Celestia glared daggers at the changeling queen.
“You will be defeated Chrysalis.My little ponies will never bow to you.”
Suddenly a changeling’s hoof whipped out and struck Celestia across the cheek. Chrysalis immediately struck the changeling in turn.
“She is not to be harmed fool!” She thundered.
She turned back to Celestia,
“It seems your proteges escape attempt was for nothing! Why did you use your last shred of magic to teleport her right where we could capture her again?”
Celestia was silent.
“my queen” One of the changelings hissed. “She was talking to somepony through this.”
Keyan’s radio levitated in front of Chrysalis.
“What is that?” She asked Celestia.
Celestia maintained her silence.
Suddenly Keyan’s voice sounded through the radio,
“Whos this?”
Chrysalis backed up slightly in alarm before she regained her composure,
“I am Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings. Who are you?”
“So you’re the one invading Canterlot?”
Chrysalis laughed,
“I am the one controlling Canterlot fool.”
“Well, I hope you won’t mind losing a few windows then.”
As Keyan finished his statement a boom that put ten rainbooms to shame thundered through the sky. The reason why capsuleer’s don’t warp into a planets atmosphere unless necessary is that when the warp bubble around around the ship collapses it lets out a huge amount of sonic energy. In the vacuum of space this isn’t a huge problem, but it an atmosphere its an entirely different story.
A visible shock wave passed through through the city, shattering most, if not all, of the windows in Canterlot. The ponies felt it pass through them as it made its way through the castle, knocking more than a few things off shelves.
All the ponies, and changelings, jaws dropped in awe as they saw what appeared in the skies above Canterlot, no more than 500 meters above the city, even less than that for the castle. Its massive presence hung there, completely silent after its thunderous entrance.
“Thats me” Keyan said, chuckling as he saw the ponies expressions through his cameras. Everypony and Changeling in the city was in a similar state. When Keyan spoke again it seemed to emanate from the entire ship, not his radio.
“Now, “Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings”, leave. If it were up to me you’d already be dead. But my friends next to you might not feel the same. ” It carried through the entire city.
Chrysalis’ mouth opened and closed a few times in shock.
“My Queen!” The changeling who struck Celestia said, “You can’t be considering surrendering!”
“No no, of course not.” Chrysalis muttered to it before turning back to the ship, “And what if I don’t?”
A mechanical whirring sound pierced the air. The ponies jaws dropped farther as she saw Keyan’s massive armament emerge from the ship. The threat was clear.
Chrysalis bit her lip,
“I...I..I” She mumbled out.
“My Queen, I do this for the good of the hive.” The Changeling next to her said as its horn lit up.
Chrysalis wasn’t able to react in time as a green ball hit her. She collapsed to the ground, her eyes opened wide in shock as tears began to spill from them.
“What did you do!?” Twilight shouted.
A second ball of light hit Twilight sending her crashing to the ground, her limbs were twitching as green electricity danced across her.
“I severed her connection to the hive. We have come to far to give up now!” The changeling shouted in its raspy voice.
He turned to the mass of Changelings surrounding the castle,
“What are you waiting for! Destroy that thing!”
In unison the changeling swam burst into motion. A veritable wall of green balls shot at Keyan’s ship. Twilight and the others bit their lips in worry for their friend. Thankfully, they didn’t have to as the projectiles hit the sphere of Keyan;s shield a fair distance away. A blue wave emanated from every strike but the shield gave no signs of collapsing.
The changelings swarmed around the ship, launching volley after volley but all had no effect.
“I’m sorry Twilight, I tried to do this peacefully.”
Twilight managed a weak smile, she knew what was going to happen next,
“Its okay Key. We understand.”
*****
“Alright Aura, lock targets. Order targets by number, lets not have any civilian casualties.”
Keyan’s gun lit up as they aligned to their targets. Great hunks of lead, capable of tearing armored hulls apart, ripped into the changelings around the city. Wherever there was a changeling in the city alone it soon found itself the proud recipient of a hunk of hot metal to the face.
Keyan couldn’t use the higher caliber autocannons for fear of collateral damage. But it was essentially open season for the smaller ones. Every now and then Keyan would take manual control of a turret, streams of masterfully aimed lead ripping changelings apart.
The changelings began to wise up, having a civilian or two in the middle of a group prohibited Keyan from taking an easy shot.Thankfully they didn't understand the marvels of quantum mechanics as it only took a few more moments for Aura to calculate the trajectory to prevent the loss of civilian life.
Keyan felt Aura adjust the aim of a gun my millimeters so the spread of its impact completely missed a pony by inches. Leaving him with slight scrapes while a few of his guards were eviscerated not a step away from him.
“Launch drones Aura, all of them. Have them clear the skies around me.”
“Very well sir”
25 Hobgoblin light combat drones immediately launched from Keyan’s drone bay. Armed with 2 12.7mm miniguns they are more than capable of shredding frigates with ease.
They broke off in pursuit of the flying changelings. They’re guns lighting up as soon as they were lined up.
Dozens of Changelings began raining from the sky, in some form of dismemberment or another. But even with the vast amount of carnage the drones were reaping on the changelings 2 were replacing everyone that was killed.
Keyan watched as a swarm of Changelings pursued one of his drones. A stream of magic from them followed the drone, spelling out certain death if it managed to hit. 2 drones quickly came in perpendicular to the others flight path, expertly timed as the pursuing changelings flew in front of it.
A flood of bullets leapt from the drones, impacting the changelings with dead-on precision. Entire Changelings were vaporized in the air. WIth nothing but clouds of blood and gore to signify their death. Others were sent plummeting to the ground, unable to fly with missing wings. They impacted the ground below with a splat, spreading changeling muck on the streets below.
Keyan suddenly felt a drone’s connection die. He shifted his focus over in time to see it impact a house. The combined force of the impact, and resultant explosion, sent house collapsing to the ground. Hopefully the ponies inside had fled earlier.
“Aura, if you can have the drones crash away from the city, or at least into Changelings.”
“If possible sir”
Keyan’s focus was suddenly stolen when he saw a green flame envelope a changeling. After a flash of light the flames disappeared, leaving a normal pony in its place.
After making it a little more dead he said,
“Aura, these things can camouflage themselves. You have to find a way around it.”
“It appears that they don’t as much emit infrared light as a pony sir.”
“Good, factor that into your calculations.”
Keyan’s focus shifted again to a legion of city guards advancing up the road to the castle. Their path was blocked by ranks upon ranks of changelings. They’re must have been thousands standing there. A bright shimmering shield surrounded them, shots from Keyan’s guns impacted it. The shield flared brightly but still held.
Keyan smiled,
“Aura, do that speaker thing again I have to ask Twilight something.”
“Very well sir”
“Twilight? does the road to the castle have any significant historical value?”
A camera focused on Twilight,
“Other than being there since the founding of Canterlot? No not really.”
“Good”
*****
Twilight looked at the changeling shield. Thousands of changelings were maintaining it, even Celestia would have a hard time breaking it.
“What are you going to do Key?” Rainbow asked.
“I’m gonna use my 425s, should take care of that shield no problem.”
The group watched as Keyan’s main weapons emerged from his ship. All breaths were being held as the guns aligned with the horde of Changelings.
Now, the world was not silent by any means at this moment. The cries of the injured mixed with the thunder of smaller autocannons. It created a horrific orchestrated symphony of death in the air. But when these guns fired, they could hear it.
Rhythmic booms sounded from the cannons as they opened fire. The shells impacted the shield, the solid hunks of metal exploding into thousands of bits of shrapnel on contact. The second volley caused cracks to appear on the shield. The third made it collapse. The three volleys happened in half a second.
Sadly for the changelings protected by the shield, the sudden collapse allowed the shrapnel through. Like a rain of knives, that were travelling at hundreds of feet per second coincidentally, they cut into the changeling ranks.
The changelings carapaces were capable of stopping a spear thrust but provided no protection against the hail of metal. The shrapnel impacted the changeling bodies, passing through to the other side with little resistance, dragging bits of entrails and organs behind them.
Then the intact shells hit.
They didn’t even have to be aimed really.
Great hunks of earth were torn from the ground, bellowing out in clouds. Rocks and soil rained back down, burying the corpses.
Changelings were thrown of the points of impact, limbs and bodies being torn asunder.
The front few ranks of Changelings engaged with the Royal Guard quickly fell when all their support was ripped apart. Like a river the legion of guards poured towards the castle, the decimated changeling lines giving little resistance.
***
“NO NO NO NO!” The changeling that had zapped Chrysalis shouted. “THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING!”
All of a sudden Twilight felt a breeze and turned to find its source.
Cadence and Shining Armor were surrounded by a pink glow and were floating above the ground.
With a sudden burst of magic a pink sphere exploded from the two. Every changeling in the room was caught on it and sent hurling through the air. The lucky being sent crashing through windows, the unlucky into stone walls.
Chrysalis, who was still weeping on the floor, hardly reacted as she was thrown from the throne room into the sky.
****
Keyan didn’t know what the hell just happened but damn was he thankful. Whatever it was it picked up all the changelings and sent the hurling off into the distance. Fortunately for the ponies it picked up everything changeling, including the bodies and blood. Needless to say, Keyan felt bad for whoever lived where they landed.
He saw a unique figure amidst the monotony of the routed swarm. For a brief second he considered leaving Chrysalis to her fate, but to her credit she did try to stop this.
“Aura, get her in a tractor beam before she gets out of range”
****
The ponies in the throne room were in shock, except for Cadence and Shining Armor who were in a rather heated lip lock.
Cries of, “I’m sorry!” and “I love you so much!” could be heard from both of them. Twilight pointedly looked away from that.
All the ponies were jumping up and down in joy, thankfully they did not have to see the actual gore of the fighting or their attitude would be really different.
Celestia walked up to the radio that was left unattended on the ground.
“Keyan, can you hear me?” She said softly.
“Yea princess, loud and clear.”
“Equestria is in you debt Keyan.”
“Thats the second time now right?” Came the snarky reply.
Celestia continued undeterred,
“If there is anything I can do for you, do not hesitate to ask.”
There was a long pause on the other end.
“Keyan?” Celestia asked.
“Can I come to the wedding Princess? I thinks its time to meet you in person.”
“In Pony!” Pinkie Pie interrupted.
“That doesn’t even make sense Pinkie.” Came the exasperated reply.
Pinkie shrugged.
“Well you would have to ask the bride and groom Keyan.” Celestia said. She turned towards the couple in question, who were still locked in a heated lip and tongue battle.
Shining Armor managed a slight nod.
“Well, that that's a yes then. I look forward to meeting you Keyan”
“As do I Princess. I’ll be there for the wedding”
The radio beeped.
Celestia walked to a shattered window and looked down on the city below. Wisps of smoke wavered up into the sky in a few places. A fair number of houses were destroyed, and craters of Keyan’s guns littered the streets.
The damage would take some time to repair, but it could have been worse.
“Princess?” Twilight said trotting up to her side. Her face opened wide as she saw the city below.
“Do not worry Twilight. The damage could have been worse, believe me. You didn't see Canterlot after the Griffin Wars. This will be fixed in time.”
The two of them turned back to the others and Celestia said,
“Lets fix what we can now, and in a few days we'll try the wedding again."
The ponies nodded.
.