Celestia sat at the window in her room as she watched the construction craft bring the parts of the jump gate back into the ship and sighed. She had been through death and somehow gained a new, what she would consider friend. But something was bothering her.
“Can you remember where any of the invader planets were?” She asked Tetra, a concerned look on her face.
“Not entirely, we didn’t exactly try to find them.”
Celestia nodded, “I see… what’s the chances of meeting them out here?”
“I wouldn’t be able to say, we’d have to hope that I was in that box for longer than their race could survive but something tells me I wasn’t.”
Sighing, Celestia nodded once again and sat down in her chair that faced the door, “I don’t like the sounds of that…”
“If they are out here, I’m not sure what they would do.” Tetra moved over to the other seat and hovered, “Apparently they were only aggressive to my species.”
“Alright, I’ll tell the captain to keep an eye out for anything strange.”
The next couple of days went by pretty fast with nothing to report in terms of activity in the surrounding space. It was the morning of the third day in their current system when Celestia was woken up by a savage banging on her door.
Groaning, she pushed the pad next to the door and it slid open, depositing the culprit on the floor. “Yes?” She asked, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes and yawning.
“Ma’am, we’ve detected something!” The pony looked towards Tetra who was floating on the chair in the corner and said, “You and Tetra had better come look.”
Celestia nodded and made her way out of bed and slipped on her usual top, making sure not to spear it on her horn and walked out of the room with Tetra close behind. The three of them made it to the bridge with nary a word and nodded to Fog who was sitting in the captain’s chair with a bead of sweat running down his face.
“What’s going on, Captain?” Celestia asked, knowing the right time for protocol. “I’ve come to believe we’ve detected something.”
“Take a look…” Fog nodded to one of the ponies working the consoles and the front window zoomed into what looked to be a half-moon with hundreds of tiny lights sparking on the front bow.
Celestia’s eyes widened as she saw it turn to face her and quickly turned to Fog, “Hail them, quickly!”
Fog pressed a button on his chair and the next few seconds were spend in complete silence; no pony in the room even breathed or tapped buttons as they waited for some sort of rely.
The sound of static rang in every ponies ears, making some of them cringe before a voice could be heard, “Die.”
Tetra let out a whimper and fled into Celestia’s mind as the ponies sat stunned. Fog leaned forwards and asked, “What species are you?”
The only reply he received was, “Die.” Fog leaned back and cut the hail. Now he was sweating profusely and turned to Celestia, “Ma’am, I think it’s best if you get to a pod. It’s not safe for you on this ship.”
Celestia shook her head, “I’m not leaving my Ponies to selfishly run away!”
“Please, I won’t ask you again.” The look on his face was serious and Celestia was thinking about reconsidering when an idea popped into her mind.
“How long does a jump gate take to build?”
Fog was confused by her question, “I, uh… an hour if we use every pony, why?”
“I’ll buy you some time, tell Taylor to meet me at pod one.” With that, Celestia walked out of the bridge leaving a stunned Fog and crew.
Celestia stood in front of the pod she was going to use and sighed. “What’s the chances this will work?”
“Unknown to me, I’m sorry.”
“No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be pulling you along to help my ponies.” She shook her head, “It’s selfish of me…” She felt a small zap fry the end of her horn and yelped.
”That’s for lying. It’s not selfish at all; you want them safe.”
Celestia rubbed her horn and grimaced. She stopped once she heard a ponies hoof-steps and turned to face them. She saw Taylor in a skin tight space-suit and her eyebrow raised, looking her over.
“Take a picture, Princess, It’ll last forever!” Taylor joked as she bowed.
The princess looked away as a tinge of red made its way onto her face and she coughed. “Do you want to know what we’re doing?” She asked, watching Taylor pull open the door to the pod.
“I know we’re going to save our ship, but that’s it and that’s all I want to know.”
“Why?”
Taylor stopped and went to say something but closed her mouth. Instead, she simply went inside the craft and shouted, “Let’s go princess, I doubt the aliens are going to wait for us!”
Celestia shook her head and stepped onto the pod. As the door was about to close, it was stopped by a claw. “Spike!” Celestia said, shocked he was actually deciding to do something other than avoid her.
“I’m coming with you,” He said, stepping inside. He was wearing his suit and carrying his helmet under his arm. Sitting down, he avoided the princess’s gaze and found the floor especially interesting.
Taylor pressed some buttons on the console and the pod shot out into the space, using its thrusters to slow down and turn towards the alien vessel. She pressed a couple more buttons and the ship sped up, flying past the MHS Twilight. “Where do you want her, Princess?”
“A quarter of the way between the ships and put your helmets on.”
The craft quickly made its way between the two ships; Taylor and Spike wordlessly put their helmets on and the former looked towards Celestia for guidance.
She nodded to herself and said, “Vent the air.”
Taylor frowned, “Vent the air?”
“Yes, I’ll be fine. Now do it.”
Taylor looked shocked but nodded slowly and pressed a few buttons. A couple of seconds later, a harsh hissing sounded out and the console displayed the quickly reducing air supply.
Spike looked Celestia in the eyes and she nodded before the counter ran out and the air was vented.
”Time to do this I guess…” She thought, Taking solace in the fact that some…one would be there for her when she eventually passed out. She walked over to the door and disengaged the lock, pushing it open.
Spike rose and gripped her leg, “Stop!” he tried to say, but she chose to ignore it and carry on.
Moving his hand away, she made her way onto the top of the craft and gripped the floor as best she could. Twin lights signalled her to start her plan as she saw the beams travel closer to the ship behind her.
Charging up her horn, Celestia cast a shield spell around her and the ship behind her, stopping the two beams and nullifying them upon contact. Celestia felt the shock of the impact and coughed up blood which floated off before freezing.
”Celestia, I recommend returning to the ship, you won’t survive this.
”I know… but I have to save them!” She begged as another two beams smashed into her shield, making cracks that ran along the length. They quickly healed, but left behind magical scars that weakened the entire spell.
Celestia shut her eyes and grimaced as another two beams blasted a hole into her shield. She fell forwards and vomited blood, freezing upon contact with the hull and staining it crimson. ”I won’t lose her!” Celestia cried as she strengthened her shield as the alien craft began to inch forwards, choosing to target her instead of the larger vessel.
She shook as twin beams of hellfire crashed upon her golden shield, bathing her in deep red light for seconds at a time before fading, leaving her white again.
The HMS Twilight turned to face the enemy craft and lowered its underside to show off its impressive armament of auto-cannons. The 200mm semi-automatic cannons started spinning as a blast caused Celestia to fall onto her side; bleeding from her nose and showing signs of magical whiplash as liquid mana started draining from her horn.
Still, her shield held as the cannons launched their first volley at the invaders, crashing into the enemy shields and making them light up a bright blue hexagonal segments. The enemy fired back, hitting Celestia’s personal shield and shattering it completely, making her silently scream out and curl up. Blood was now pouring out of her horn instead of mana, the latter was exhausted long ago. She was using her own life force to power the shield, turning it from a golden yellow to a deep crimson.
Twilight launched a second volley that impacted and cracked the enemy’s shields, making them slow and stay at a distance.
The enemy fired another two beams at Celestia. Just as she thought she was about to get hit, Spike stepped in the way, taking the beams in the back, causing him to let out a blood curdling scream and falling to the floor, his back melting.
Sparkling tears floated away from her as Celestia rose from the deck and stood up on shaking legs. Her horn shone red, her coat covered with her own blood and that of Spikes and she floated upwards, wings outstretched.
She shot up to level with the deck of HMS Twilight and linked her mind with Fog’s. ”Tell Luna I love her…”
She cut the connection and opened her eyes, light shining through the darkness towards the alien craft. It launched two more beams of light at her which she simply batted away, the light bending in both directions.
Celestia looked down at the charred body of Spike and cried, she let out a century and a half of anguish, pain and lose. She let it change her.
She was always told by Luna how intoxicating the nightmare could be. How much power it could give and how much more it would promise. Now, Celestia realised, she could be so much more.
She cried tears of blood and gradually neared the enemy vessel. ”Celestia, what’s going on, it hurts!” Cried Tetra as she let out a pained groan and promptly cut off.
The vessel shot two beams in rapid succession, each one turning more ultraviolet and hotter. Celestia bounced them away as well and stopped half way between the alien ship and where Taylor and Spike sat.
She charged her magic and using her instinctual link with her sister to teleport the HMS Twilight back to Equis along with Taylor. Having done her primary objective, she moved on to the issue of the alien craft and charged her horn back up.
Finishing what her instincts had urged her to do; save her ponies. Celestia gasped as her strength left her and she was forced to float above her own craft.
The last thing she saw was a bright light and the alien craft nearing her and Spike.
~~~Some time later~~~
Celestia found her consciousness return and screamed in pain. It felt like her insides had been pulled out and then tortured. She tried looking about but found her vision covered and started to hyperventilate.
She found it hard to breath and pain coursed through her entire being, urging her to vomit though she could only dry heave.
The sound of tapping brought her out of her shock and her ears turned to face the sound. "Ahh, it seems the being has woken up..."
The voice made Celestia grimace, almost as if it was walking through a mouth full of saliva.
"Let's carry on with the examination then," The alien said, picking a scalpel up. Celestia pain fueled screamed echoed throughout the room as the alien pierced her chest and ran the scalpel down and through her ribcage, cracking and outright snapping many of her ribs.
Celestia laid there sobbing as it stopped and placed the scalpel down. It then picked up a retractor and jammed it through the cut and spun the handle to pull apart her ribcage, snapping the remaining bones.
Being immortal meant she couldn't die from this, but she could feel every shred of skin tearing, every bone break and every drop of blood that was spilt. She let out another agonising scream as her voices began to ache.
She started coughing as the examiner sighed and picked up the scalpel again, brining it to her neck. He gripped her neck and jammed the blade into her throat, bringing it around the voice box and back out.
Celestia's tears tell out from under her mask and dripped down onto the floor, mixing with her blood and urine.
The alien gripped Celestia's voice box and yanked it out with a wet tear. She felt unbelievable pain and passed out, hearing, "About time..."