Eclipse
The Celestia was dwarfed by the much larger ship, it’s sheer size creating a gravity well and drawing the smaller ship toward it.
Two beams raked across the Celestia’s shields, almost sliding off because of the shallow angle.
“Minimal shielding damage! We must be under its firing arcs!” Engineering called out.
Twilight regarded her fiance, worry on her face. “Celestia, we have to do something. She’ll follow us wherever we teleport.”
“It’s too big! The ship is drawing us down with its own gravity!” Helm cried out, hoping to gun the engines even more.
“Then we’ll fight her here and now. Helm, find a seam and take us down. We’ll deal with her directly.”
Looking over her shoulder, she spotted Celestia. “Ma’am?”
Celestia nodded. “Do it.”
“Aye aye.” Helm shifted in her harness, and the Celestia came about, almost seeming to glide toward the planet-sized ship.
Celestia watched as the larger ship’s hull loomed like a horizon. Various vents and ports seemed to open, discharging their payloads toward the smaller ship, but the lasers and projectiles only seemed to miss, glancing off the smaller ship’s shields at best.
Helm kept the battleship from colliding with the planetship as best she could, effectively flying their ship like a terrestrial fighter plane. “Found one!” She spotted what she was looking for, and started bringing the ship down where a truly massive cannon seemed to slide free from the planetship’s hull.
As they neared touchdown, Celestia keyed up the intercom. “All hooves, brace for crash landing!”
The Celestia came down as gently as Helm could make it, sliding in on two of the three wings. As the cannon turned to try and fire at them, Twilight called out to fire at it. Those cannons that could lashed out several times, two or three managing to find their way into the turret’s rotating ring, disabling it. Seconds later, the ship itself seemed to tremble and screech from metal sliding across metal, still firing maneuvering thrusters to keep as much weight off the ‘ground’ as she could.
Sliding what had to be miles, the battleship came to a rest, rocking slightly.
“Ship status, report.” Twilight was checking her console. As reports came in, Twilight looked relieved. “Minor bumps and scrapes, but the crew seems fine. The ship’s still spaceworthy, but there were some breaches. Excellent job, Helm.”
Helm beamed, hearing that. “Thank you, Captain. It wasn’t pretty, but she’s down. What’s the plan now?”
Twilight growled, standing on her chair, her hair bristling. “We take on this Daybreaker. She must be stopped.”
“We’re with you,” Torus said as he stood from his console.
“No. This is an alicorn fight.” Celestia’s voice was curt.
Silently, Twilight slipped from her chair and made her way to the door.
“But…”
“I meant what I said earlier.” Celestia looked to Twilight, ”We will fight her. Because we are the only ones who can.”
“Why?”
“This kind of power isn’t something an average pony, minotaur, or griffin can shrug off. She will literally boil you alive in your own skin.”
“How do–” Torus was cut off.
“Because it’s something I can do.” Celestia’s muzzle fell. “Quite easily, if I wanted.” Looking up again, she stared each of them in the eyes. “If she truly is an evil-me, what care would she give to sparing lives in combat? Only using what power was necessary to incapacitate?”
Several sets of ears fell and nearly everyone in the room looked away. “I don’t want to lose you. You are too dear to me to lose.”
“But… what about the Captain? Shouldn’t she stay?”
“As much as I dislike it, she has to come with me. I know I will need help to defeat her, and I only hope she is not hurt in the coming battle.”
“While we’re gone, if any ships show up on scanner, hail them and tell them to get and stay away. I won’t have anypony else involved.” Twilight met her wife’s eyes and nodded. “Come, love. Let’s take care of a little ego problem.”
Celestia and Twilight left, quickly making their way to an airlock. After stepping inside, Twilight cast an air bubble spell about their heads and shut the internal doorway. “So, what’s the plan, Tia?”
Celestia slammed down the manual release lever and the remaining air swept free from the airlock into space. “Simple. We stop her.”
“How?”
“That’s the tricky part. I’m not entirely sure.” Celestia hopped out of the ship, followed by Twilight. She looked back at the purple alicorn. “If she has many ‘batteries’ as she put it, she could siphon their power to use in the fight. I’m not entirely sure my magic can touch, let alone harm her.”
“How do you know that?”
“Darn. No access hatch. Guess we’ll have to make one.” Celestia’s horn lit. “As for your question, I have a hunch.”
A small beam of molten sunlight poured from Celestia’s horn, directly at her hooves, slowly melting a hole in the hull. “Have you met another of yourself from a different universe before?”
Very, very slowly, the metal reddened and warped, only the size of a pinhole. Celestia narrowed her eyes. “Just once. She said it was an accident, but we weren’t able to affect each other with our magic.”
“That’s… just weird.”
“You’re telling me. We even did that perfectly-mirror-each-other thing.” Celestia chuckled softly.
Several minutes later, the hole hadn’t grown to more than twice its original diameter and only half a meter thick. Celestia’s horn cut out. “Alright, screw this.” She telekinetically grabbed the multi-ton turret and pulled. The sound of tons of metal twisting and groaning turned to ripping and shearing away before the turret shot free, launching straight up.
Celestia let it go, but Twilight caught it and dropped it off to the side. She smirked childishly, “Littering is a crime, Tia. Don’t want to be ticketed.”
“All the way out here? Who’s gonna enforce it?” Celestia smirked back.
“You never know…” Twilight broke out into a truly infectious smile and both ponies giggled for a few seconds, until the destroyed turret slammed back into its own ship, coming to rest dented, broken, and sparking.
From where the turret rested, atmosphere vented for a few seconds before stopping and environmental shields slid into place. “Huh. Enviroshields. Guess she was expecting hull breaches at some point.”
“Or had some before.”
They made their way to the edge. They shared a knowing look before Twilight said, “Well, let’s go.” and jumped in.
Passing through the shield, Twilight felt warmth suffuse her entire body before she opened her wings. Seconds later, Celestia passed through it, following her example.
Inside, light was dim. Twilight squinted as she tried to make out the floor, only really managing to see it from the darkness of a long fall mere meters before hitting the ground.
As she landed, she lit her horn and the turret’s chamber revealed itself. It was a whole lot bigger than the turret itself, with several lines of ammunition lining the walls, seemingly fed from elsewhere. Currently, there were several massive shells scattered about, along with more of the turret’s superstructure that wasn’t torn loose with it when Celestia ripped it out. A small section of of the walls seemed to be radiating heat, glowing red.
“A lot bigger on the inside, huh?” Celestia asked as she alighted next to Twilight, folding her wings in.
“Yeah. Let’s… let’s see if we can find her.” Twilight nodded, and started making her way toward what appeared to be a shut door.
Celestia silently hoped there wasn’t anypony in the turret she ripped out. There’s no way they’d survive much longer if there was.
A voice cut through her thoughts. “There’s no need to worry. They’re robotic. Fully automated. No less deadly.”
A soft glorping sound reached their ears seconds later as she stepped through her new doorway. Smiling devilishly, she bowed. “Sorry I wasn’t there to greet you, but it is a rather large ship. I can’t be expected to be everywhere at once.”
Twilight yelled, “Daybreaker!”
“Yes?” Daybreaker made eye contact with Celestia and fluffed her wings. “Oh! I see you brought your battery! You’ve made this so easy for me, I should thank you!”
Celestia took a step toward her, ears pinned back and eyes shimmering. “How…” Celestia spoke just one word.
“How did I go from ‘Perfect, Pretty Princess Celestia’ to Daybreaker?” Daybreaker glared at Celestia. “Simple. I shed that goody-four-hooves weakness after I was forcibly removed from office during the space age. My Equus paid for its insolence…” She laughed, an evil cackle chilling both Celestia and Twilight’s spines. “Now I roam the multiverse looking for more batteries to power my ship until my power… my rule cannot be contested!”
“Wha–”
“Why? Are you stupid?” Twilight glared at Daybreaker. “You take Celestias from other universes just because you were angry? Now you want to control what… everything? Wow, talk about being petulant.” She put herself between Daybreaker and Celestia. “Besides, you can’t have this Celestia. She’s mine.”
Celestia was touched by Twilight’s speech, but she knew that Daybreaker would not appreciate the insults.
Instantly, Daybreaker snarled. “Insolent brat. I should incinerate you for that. You–”
“What about Luna?” Celestia’s voice was barely a whisper, but she might as well have struck Daybreaker physically with them.
“What about her?” She shouted. “She was weak, advocated my removal. She paid first, last, and foremost.” A manic gleam made its way to her eye. “I made her watch the world burn.”
Celestia froze, but Daybreaker locked eyes with Twilight. “You say that she is yours, then where is your mark on her? Where is your claim? Prove to me I shouldn’t take her!”
Almost painfully, the ring that Twilight had given Celestia was magically pulled off her horn and flew to Daybreaker. “Is this your claim on her?” She looked to Twilight. “Pitiful. If I can remove the claim so easily, then why bother trying?”
“Enough! This shall go on no longer!” Celestia’s mask shattered as she took the ring back. Before it could be returned to her horn, a ray of white-hot solar fire incinerated it.
Twilight’s heart fell as the ring burned to ash. The ray had not touched either of them, but they both distinctly felt the immense heat such a small ray produced.
“See? The little one shouldn’t have even bothered.” She turned around and beckoned to the melted hole. “Now, come. I shall have you both.”
Both Celestia and Twilight shared a look. Celestia responded, “I think not. You would have to kill us first.”
Almost lazily, Daybreaker shot back, “That can be arranged. I just need a battery, you don’t have to be alive for it to count.” A split second later she vanished.
A chill worked its way down Twilight’s horn as she heard a crunch. Turning back, she saw both Celestia and Daybreaker each slammed foreleg into the other’s cheek. Neither alicorn seemed fazed by the attack.
A second later, Daybreaker’s wings snapped open and she pulled back. Celestia pressed her advantage, not giving her evil alter-ego the chance to attack. Any time Daybreaker would slow down to start winding up an attack, Celestia was on her, hooves ready and swinging.
Twilight surveyed the fight with growing concern. Why wasn’t Celestia using magic against Daybreaker?
Celestia cried out as a quick buck nicked one of her ears, the sharp edge of the boot cutting a small slice of it. The other hoof missed her throat by inches, but it forced Celestia to back off.
Daybreaker hovered around, harrying Celestia in a flurry of kicks with all four of her legs. Twilight watched as Celestia was quickly herded toward the wall.
Launching herself into the air, she swooped in and tackled Daybreaker right as Celestia ran out of room.
Daybreaker rolled with the blow, snapping her wings shut. As soon as she had all four hooves on the ground, the wing in Twilight’s face opened and threw her into the air. A short, “Tia!” left her lips.
Celestia was airborne instantly and caught Twilight. The purple mare was dazed, but otherwise fine. “Twilight?” she asked softly
“I’m fine. I’m fine,” was her response. Silently, Celestia deposited her across the room and out of sight.
Twilight sat still for a few seconds as she regained her bearings. The fleshy sound of a strong hit preceded Celestia flying over her head. Her magic reached out and caught Celestia, slowly guiding her to the ground next to her.
“Where oh where are my two little morsels?” Daybreaker mocked them as she stalked toward their position.
Twilight let Celestia get her bearings before they both rushed Celestia’s evil alter-ego.
Even with two bodies working together, any hits they scored were superficial at best, but Daybreaker left her marks with every strike. Eventually she slapped Twilight with another wing strike, before bodily tossing her. Using her momentum, she spun into a wicked uppercut into Celestia’s lower jaw, throwing the white alicorn after her wife.
Both crashed to the ground next to each other halfway across the chamber.
Celestia slowly got to her hooves, and in a cliche move, spit some blood onto the floor before asking, “Have any ideas?”
Twilight’s horn lit. “Magic?”
“I… don’t like the idea, but she’s clearly far more physically capable than us combined.”
“You may not like it, but it’s time to cheat, Tia.”
“Good luck with that.” A hoof slammed into Twilight’s temple, and she crumpled.
“Twilight!”
“Relax. She’s alive. It wouldn’t do for me to kill my new concubine.” Daybreaker smirked. “Now, it’s just you and me.”
“You shall not have her!” The sheer volume of sound rocked Daybreaker back half a step.
“Yelling will get you nowhere, Princess. If you want to save her…” She slipped into a fighting stance. “Then you’ll have to get through me.”
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Whew, another update to this? Niiice
good work
8653222
Yeah, I'm sorry. Completely forgot I had this half written. I'm already working on the next part and hopefully I won't forget about it this time.
8653742
It's totally fine, no worries! S'long as you're having fun dude :D
8653928
No worries about that. I'm having a ball writing these things.
8653960
That's great to hear
Yes! An update, I have yet to read the next chapter but I’m very much so looking forward to it.
Very good chapter!
I love how Celestia trusted Twilight's abilities enough to bring her along-those subtle things in a relationship always get me.
You need to fix the italics in the first paragraph though. Other than that, it was perfect!
8786312
Thank you!
It wasn't quite the first paragraph that it broke, but I saw what you mentioned. It should be fixed now.
FINALLY got around to reading this chapter. I like where this going. The writing is snappy and feels like a good pace. As a minor nitpick though, you use 'seem' a lot in this chapter and that adds a lot of imprecision to the descriptions.
Otherwise, I like this, Ultra. Thank you for keeping this scifi Twilestia thing going.
Updaaate... PLEASE!!