My Little Clone Wars

by ThunderDasher07

Chapter III: Ambush

In the endless sea of stars, a Separatist fleet jumped out of hyperspace in front of an unknown planet. It was led by the Providence-class destroyer, the Invisible Hand, the flagship of cyborg General Grievous. It was accompanied by two Recusant-class destroyers, two Munificent-class star frigates and one DH-Omni Support Vessel. The fleet began to move itself into a blockade position around the planet. His cape was as black as the vacuum of space. It swayed as he moved, his talon feet clicking on the cold metal floor. As Grievous coughed his way onto the ship’s bridge, a ST-tactical droid stood at attention next to the Neimoidian captain in his command chair. He wheezed when facing the droid.

“General, we have arrived at the coordinates of the Republic distress beacon,” the droid informed him. “An unknown planet in the fourth orbital position of an unknown system.”

One of the B1 battle droids stationed on the bridge remarked, “But I don’t see the ship anywhere.”

The cyborg general ignored the comment from the droid. “Excellent…”

“What are your orders?” the other asked.

“Launch the probe droids to search for the Republic vessel,” he commanded, adding, “Jam their scanners, so our droids are undetected.”

“Yes, sir,” it replied. “You heard the General.”

Several B1 battle droids said in chorus, “Roger, roger.”
The Providence-class dreadnought deployed a number of small pods. The probes blasted away into the planet’s atmosphere. They streaked across the sky and landed like meteors on the surface. Two of them landed on the outskirts of Ponyville, another landed past the Everfree Forest and a fourth landed near Canterlot. At one of the crash sites near Ponyville, a probe droid slowly emerged from the black, smoking crater. It had an elliptical head with a large, central bulbous photoreceptor along with a few smaller ones and several legs underneath. It let out a low humming sound. The droid hovered and began to search the area.

---

It was early in the afternoon, two days after their trip to Canterlot. The six mares, five Republic heroes and Spike were outside of Fluttershy’s cottage. They were making conversation as R2 was playing with some animals. The astromech let out electrical beeping laughter.

“Oh, do be careful with them,” Fluttershy commented with concern, turning to look at R2.

“They will be fine,” Anakin reassured her. “He won’t harm them.”
They turned back towards the others.

“So your cutie marks, what do they mean? We have never heard of anything like it where we are from,” Ahsoka asked.

Twilight explained, “Well, they appear when you discover your special talent. Each one is unique to everypony. My talent is proficiency in magic.” She went on, “Pinkie’s is organizing and throwing parties, Rarity’s is finding gems, Fluttershy’s is taking care of animals, Applejack’s is running her family’s apple farm and Rainbow Dash’s is flying fast.”

Rex listened and asked, “Just when exactly does it occur?”

“It is different for everypony, darling. Some ponies get theirs earlier than others and some get theirs later. We received our cutie marks all at the same time, but that is very rare indeed,” Rarity said.

“Young-ins git their cutie before becomin’ teenagers. I ain’t see no pony with no cutie mark at that age,” AJ added.

“We clones were bred for this war, it is what we were made for, but I’m proud to serve the Republic and fight alongside my Jedi comrades,” Rex said and inquired, “And you are all happy with what you have?”
The ponies looked at each other and then all nodded their heads in agreement.

The probe droid made its way to the cottage after searching for any sign of the enemy. It hovered low to the ground to not be detected and hid in some bushes behind the house. Its photoreceptor noticed the Republic heroes, identified each of them and quickly reported back its findings to the Invisible Hand. The three Jedi were suddenly bolted upright by a sensation in their minds that they were not alone. They felt like there was a presence nearby. Ahsoka swiftly ignited one of her lightsabers and hurled it, whirling at the bush. The droid attempted to dodge, but it was sliced in half with a hiss. She caught the saber when it returned to her. She deactivated her green lightsaber, putting it back on her belt.

“Nice one, Ahsoka,” Anakin complimented his apprentice.
The group stared down at the smoldering, severed remains, which emitted a few electrical sparks. The six ponies and Spike had looks of shock and surprise on their faces. R2 beeped and whistled alarmingly, his dome swerving back and forth.

“Probe droid,” Ahsoka muttered, examining it.

“Which means the Seps are in the system,” Rex added. “Now they know we are here.”

“What the hay was that?!” Dash exclaimed.

Fluttershy asked, stuttering, “W… what was that thing?”

“It was a probe droid, meant for reconnaissance and spying purposes,” Rex replied. “Unfortunately, our enemy has found us first.”

Twilight gasped in response, “We need to alert the princesses at once.” She rushed off to get a message out. “I need to find a pen and paper!” she shouted.

“We need to get our troops over to Canterlot as soon as possible,” Anakin said, looking over at Rex and Obi-Wan.
R2-D2 beeped affirmatively. Just then, Skywalker’s comlink started to beep. He pressed the flashing button on his wrist and answered it.

“You have an update for us, Admiral?”

“Yes, I do, sir,” Yularen told him. “We encountered a Separatist probe droid a short time ago.” “We just encountered one of them ourselves,” he informed the naval admiral, adding, “Prep two gunships for launch and have them directed to these coordinates.”
Anakin gave the location of Fluttershy’s cottage.

“Prepare all available starfighters and walkers as well. Rendezvous with us at this location, Point Spire,” he said as he gave the admiral the coordinates for Canterlot.

“Right away, General Skywalker,” Yularen answered before the call ended.

A few short minutes later, they heard a loud whining/humming sound approaching. The group saw two Low Altitude Assault Transport gunships as they circled overhead. The grass rippled in the wind as the ships came down for a landing outside of the cottage. The first gunship’s nose art featured a Kowakian monkey-lizard wielding a bomb called the Crumb Bomber. The nose art of the second gunship depicted a blue-skinned female Twi’lek in clone trooper armor known as the Lucky Lekku. Their cabin bay doors opened; inside were several clone troopers with orange markings, including Commander Cody. The other gunship had clones with blue markings like Rex.

“Gunships as you requested, sir,” he said.

“Do you have any news about our reinforcements?” Skywalker asked.

“Yes sir, we just received word from General Yoda on Houche that he will be here within the standard hour. General Plo Koon will take slightly longer than him to get here,” Cody answered.

“Let’s hope he has more than a few troopers with him,” Anakin remarked.

The other responded, “He is bringing a division of the 41st Elite Corps with him.”

“Well, that’s good news,” he replied.

“The rest of our forces will be meeting us shortly at Point Spire,” Cody informed them. Despite having their helmets on, the ponies knew they were getting looks from the clone troopers in the gunships.

“Anakin, you, Ahsoka and Rex go in the other gunship,” Kenobi instructed.

“Yes, Master,” Anakin replied. “May the Force be with us,” Kenobi stated.
Twilight, AJ and Rainbow Dash got on with Obi-Wan while Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie and Rarity went with Anakin and the others. Pinkie hopped on in like her usual self. R2 rolled into the gunship, letting out some positive tweets. Fluttershy’s legs were wobbly as she got inside.

“I have a bad feeling about this,” she whimpered.
The non-ponies held onto the handles attached to the ceilings. The doors closed on the LAAT gunships as they lifted off and headed towards Canterlot.

---

Grievous’s piercing yellow animal-like eyes stared into the blackness of space as the tactical droid approached him.

“General, we received the intel that our probe droids have gathered,” it stated.

He coughed as he turned around. “Good.”

“Their Republic ship did indeed crash on the planet’s surface,” the droid informed him.

“One of the probes encountered a few Jedi before we lost contact with it. From what we received, it was one of General Kenobi and Skywalker’s star destroyers.”

Grievous cackled at the news, “Excellent, I can finally finish off Kenobi once and for all and I can add his lightsaber to my collection.”

“From the data we have received, the inhabitants of this planet are only in the early stages of industrialization,” the droid explained. “They do not appear to have any advanced weapons. I have calculated that the odds of them defeating us are a thousand to one, even with the support of the Republic forces.”

“Those are good odds,” one nearby B1 droid commented.

“Yeah, I nearly lost my head in the last battle,” another replied.
Grievous growled and gave a cold glare at the battle droid. Then, with a hum and a swift flash of blue, he cut the droid in half with his lightsaber.

“And now you have lost it,” he retorted back.
Another battle droid took over the empty station.

“Prepare all units for a ground assault,” Grievous commanded.
“As you command, General Grievous,” the tactical droid responded.