Chapter Thirty-Six: Nightfall
Location: Wreck of the Ardent
Local Time: 22:44
“Okay, boys,” Damarcus addressed the Ardent’s surviving crew, “the admiral says he needs time to reach us, so that’s what we’re going to give him.”
“But we don’t have any time!” protested one of the mechanics. “The enemy capital is right there!” He pointed to Canterlot, which was still visible in the dark of the night. “It’ll take them, what? Twenty minutes to mobilize against us? Thirty, if we’re lucky? We’re karked! We can’t fight them!”
“We will fight them. We must. We will not be taken alive.”
“Why the kark not?! Because the CoC says we can’t? Kark that! I’m not dying for a cause I just joined for the money!” A murmur of assent rose from many of the enlisted men.
“No. We’ll fight because death is a preferable alternative to capture by the ponies.”
“Says who? Command tells us they’re horrific, immoral monsters, then turns around and says they’re a bunch of push-overs who hate killing, even in self-defense! One of those has to be a lie, and I’m betting it’s the first one. When they get here, I’m surrendering. Who’s with me?” The murmur turned into a roar, then was silenced by the report of a blaster pistol. The mechanic pitched over with a smoking hole in his forehead.
Damarcus pointed his blaster at the group of would-be mutineers. “Would anyone else like to follow Crewman Jax’s example?” he asked quietly. The barrel of his pistol flicked between a few crewmen who seemed tempted to draw on him. After a few seconds, he nodded. “I thought not.” He holstered his blaster, but kept his hand on it. “Ensign Fenn, find a compartment to lock Crewmen Tanis, Darsana, Opelan, Palle, Hadde, Gren, and Janse in, then organize patrols. Recover any debris we can use to reinforce our position, and report in if you see any more ponies. Mr. Harkaan, choose some of your men to assist the search teams in determining the most useful salvage, and see if you can fix some of the cannons and get the main reactor back online. The rest of you, prepare yourselves. We’re in for the fight of our lives. For the glory of the Empire!”
Cislunar Space
10:45 P.M.
Luna appraised the fleet arrayed against her with a critical eye. She hadn’t expected them to notice her so soon, much less be in good battle order. She knew she was much too far away for the humans to be able to see her, even with the aid of telescopes. Clearly, their scryers were both numerous and incredibly skilled. This would make things much more difficult, certainly, but she was still confident in her ability to run the blockade. After all, these were only humans. They might be more than a match for the Royal Guard, but not for an alicorn.
She summoned her shield as capital ship fire flew around her and a wave of TIE fighters closed in. She could have just assumed the form of pure shadow and not had to worry about the attacks, but without the power of Nightmare Moon, she wasn’t sure if she could stay immaterial long enough to make it through, and she definitely didn’t want to exhaust her power with the humans still firing at her. As the distance between the foes shrank, the Imperials’ fire became more accurate, and the shots from TIEs and anti-fighter batteries began impacting on her shield. Then the TIEs were all around her, and her view was cut off by the swirling mass of black and gray.
She cut apart several TIEs with her magic, always pushing forwards. She knew she couldn’t beat all of them on her own – she just had to make it through to the other side. Off to her right, a TIE she hadn’t been aiming at exploded, and she realized with horror that the capital ships were still firing at her, killing their own allies.
As her shield started to crack, she considered turning around. Talking with the nyx wasn’t worth getting killed. But suddenly, an opening appeared in the swarm of TIEs, and she once again saw the Imperial cruisers. With confusion, she realized that they weren’t trying to encircle her. Instead, they were presenting their largest sides to her, forming a wall between her and the Moon. After a moment, she had a flash of realization. They weren’t necessarily concerned about killing her – they just wanted to stop her from reaching the Moon.
She felt a chill that had nothing to do with being in space. For some reason, they wanted to keep her away from the Moon, and based on the sheer willingness with which they threw away their lives to stop her, it had to be absolutely vital to them. But she was sure that the nyx would have uncovered any human activities there and alerted her through their own control over dreams. Which led her inexorably to one conclusion. But she refused to believe it. Even after everything the humans had done, she refused to believe that they would go so far. They weren’t monsters. She knew that from viewing the clones’ dreams. They simply didn’t know any better way. Everything they had done could, through their own twisted perception of morality, be at least somewhat justified. But what the nyx’s silence implied was nothing short of evil. There had to be another explanation. And in order to find it, she had to break through the human lines.
Filled with new resolve, she forced her way past the screen of TIEs and slipped through a gap between two of the cruisers.
Location: Everfree Imperial Garrison
Local Time: 22:48
“Admiral, the Bandit has slipped past our cordon,” Captain Cortess’s nervous voice reported over the comm.
“I can see that, Captain,” Gavrisom snapped. “Follow her. I’ll address your failure later.”
“Un– Understood, Sir.”
Gavrisom switched to another channel. “This is Admiral Gavrisom to Lun Base. The blockade has failed. Dispatch your spacetroopers, but keep your emplacements quiet. The Bandit might not realize where you are.”
Canterlot Castle
10:49 P.M.
Celestia tried in vain to stifle a yawn as she shifted through her pile of crisis reports. At this time of year, she would have normally been asleep almost four hours ago. But the humans’ actions demanded her attention. The fires were finally out in Ponyville, but rescuers estimated that all the bodies wouldn’t be found for days. The survivors of the destruction of Cloudsdale had all been given temporary housing in the Canterlot Castle, Twilight’s castle, and hotels. The wounded from both attacks were being treated by some of Equestria’s best doctors, but Celestia knew that the deepest wounds weren’t the physical ones. Almost every pony from the two towns had lost a friend or loved one. The psychological scars would never fully heal. Equestria hadn’t seen this level of devastation since the Changeling War, shortly after Nightmare Moon’s banishment. And at least the changelings had taken near-comparable losses to their pony victims.
There was still so much more to do. The griffons’ alliance with the humans was, without exaggeration, terrifying. The humans, though few in number, seemed to have no limits when it came to destructive potential, and a rejuvenated Griffon Kingdom armed with human weaponry would be almost undefeatable for the Royal Guard. Celestia planned to send Twilight and Spike to the Dragon Lands for help first thing in the morning. The destruction of the Cloudsdale Weather Factory was a devastating loss. It was, of course, absolutely possible for the weather to be regulated without it, but she was faced with the very real and horrifying prospect of having to draft ponies into the weather patrols.
Her sister had gone to her room to root around in the human’s minds and find out their plans. It suddenly dawned on Celestia how utterly lonely her sister must be. Luna had spent several days almost entirely alone in her efforts to untangle the confusing web that was the human mind. Celestia had been so concerned with her own preparations for war with the humans that she had never thought how her sister must have been feeling. Luna was never one to talk to others about her problems. Maybe, Celestia thought, I should go check on her. She rose from her throne and walked to the door.
Just as she was about to open it, a guardspony rammed through it with a bang and plowed into her, knocking them both into a heap. Stammering, the guardspony extracted himself from the tangle of limbs and snapped to attention. “I… Oh… Princess! I’m… I didn’t mean… That is to say, I didn’t realize… I’m so sorry, Your Majesty!”
Celestia got to her hooves, shaking her head in mild amusement at the flushed stallion. “It’s quite alright. No harm done. But what’s so important that you came barging in here like that?”
“Oh! Right! Your Majesty, the scout group you left behind at Cloudsdale was attacked and driven off by a large force of humans! Shall I assemble the Guard for battle?”
Celestia squeezed her eyes shut. She had thought that, at least for tonight, the bloodshed had ended. But clearly, the Imperials’ violence never slept. “No,” she replied. “I won’t send any more ponies to their deaths. I’ll deal with this myself. Let my sister know where I’ve gone.”
“Of course, Your Majesty.”
Location: Lun Base
Local Time: 22:54
CL-7382 checked the systems readouts on his spacetrooper helmet as it interfaced with his normal stormtrooper one. He wasn’t sure he was physically ready to fight again just yet, but it was what was required of him. Besides, he was looking forwards to get a little payback. This was his opportunity to redeem himself for losing to and getting imprisoned by a bunch of alien barbarians.
“CL-7382, are your troops ready?” came the voice of the base’s commander over his comm.
He looked around at his brothers. Just over a platoon and a half from his entire battalion weren’t dead or crippled. Oh, yes. He was very eager to give this pony a piece of his mind. “All ready, Sir.”
“Venting airlock. Good hunting, Lieutenant.”
The Moon
10:57 P.M., Canterlot Time
Luna did a loop over a TIE fighter pursuing her and unleashed a beam of magic, obliterating it. Glancing around, she saw the remaining TIEs break off and return to the human fleet. Strange. Why are they giving up?
Her question was answered when a hail of small, glowing pink cones shot up at her from the Moon’s surface. As she flew to evade them, her stomach threatened to empty itself – and not from the dizzying maneuvers. This proved that the humans had a presence on the Moon.
Her eyes widened is surprise when she realized that the cones were following her. She cast a beam at one of them, then hastily threw up a shield when it erupted in a large explosion, causing a chain reaction. Out of the wall of fire emerged a force of humans in bulky, two-meter-tall armor made of gray metal, flying through the vacuum with flames erupting from their backs. Streams of red energy flowed out towards her from their right forearms. As the bolts splashed off her shield, she responded with her own beams, blowing holes through spacetroopers and sending them plummeting back down to the Moon’s surface.
The spacetroopers closed in, small metal spheres launching from their backpacks. Luna evaded most of them, but two exploded against her shield, spiderwebbing it with cracks. Her magic sent more troopers tumbling to the ground, their blood boiling out of gaping holes in their armor.
On the ground, CL-7382 aimed his gauntlet-mounted proton torpedo launcher, unnoticed by the alicorn above him. “Okay, schutta,” he hissed, “I’ve got a message for you from my fallen brothers. They say, ‘Greetings from hell. See you soon.’”
Luna cut apart three more spacetroopers, then was suddenly engulfed in pink light. Her shield shattered, and she felt a metal claw close around her throat. Immediately, she was plummeting to the ground. With an agonizing crunch, she was crushed between moonrock and one hundred pounds of soldier and armored exosuit travelling at three times as many miles per hour.
She groaned, and coughed up blood. She could feel several broken shards of ribs slowly working their way out of her lungs and back into place. She blinked rapidly, and her vision cleared just enough for her to make out a huge metal boot coming down towards her head. Almost reflexively, she grabbed the leg with her magic and hurled the spacetrooper over the edge of a nearby crater.
She unsteadily got to her hooves, but was immediately ripped off of them by another spacetrooper ramming into her, shoulder-first. He smashed her into the face of a cliff and pinned her there with one claw. With the other, he punched her multiple times in the face and stomach, then dropped her to the ground. She looked up at him, and the barrel of a gauntlet-mounted blaster cannon filled her vision.
“Well? What’re you waiting for, Brel? An invitation? Kill her!”
“I… I can’t.”
“What the hell do you mean, ‘you can’t’?! Just blast her!”
“I… I want to, I want get revenge for our brothers, but… I just can’t. It’s like there’s something in me screaming, ‘She’s beaten. This is wrong. You can’t kill her.’”
“Well, I sure can.” CT-8016 pushed CT-8024 out of the way, levelled his own cannon at her, and… hesitated. He stood in that position, frozen for several seconds, then suddenly backpedaled away from her, his head clutched in his hands. “What the kark?!” he moaned. “What’s going on?! What’s happened to me?!”
“That rainbow poodoo,” CL-7382 whispered. “It did something to us. They messed with our heads. We’re… we’re compromised.” He switched his comm to the fleet channel. “Indomitable, this is CL-7382. We are unable to complete the objective. Request immediate orbital bombardment. Fire for effect. Over.”
“This is the Indomitable. Fire for effect. Out.”
“Coordinates plus-ten-point-zero-six-nine-two-seven-eight, minus-three-point-zero-zero-one-one-three-nine. Over.”
“Coordinates plus-ten-point-zero-six-nine-two-seven-eight, minus-three-point-zero-zero-one-one-three-nine. Out.”
“Alicorn Princess Luna, in the open. Danger close. Over.”
“Alicorn Princess Luna, in the open. Danger close. Out.”
Luna slowly hauled herself back up, watching the humans with confusion and suspicion. It wasn’t like them to not murder the helpless. And judging by what little of their body language could be seen with their bulky armor, they weren’t happy about not killing her. Perhaps they have orders to take me in alive? But why? They didn’t seem too concerned about that before. As she looked around at them, she noticed a faint glow in the sky. She looked up, and her eyes widened in shock. She seized one of the spacetroopers with her telekinesis and dragged him at her top speed away from the incoming salvo. The heat scorched her tail as the other spacetroopers were consumed in fire. It almost didn’t surprise her anymore when the Imperials so callously threw away their own lives. But… If they were willing to attack themselves to destroy me, why didn’t they just put a beam in my head? She came to a stop under an overhanging cliff, and looked at the spacetrooper in her grip. Well, let’s find out…
CL-7382 glared up at the foul creature that held him helpless. Her mouth was moving as if she was speaking – a totally ridiculous idea in hard vacuum, but she seemed to be getting increasingly agitated, as if she was angry that he wasn’t responding to her. Regardless, he had a job to do. “Indomitable, this is CL-7382. Adjust fire, shift Target One. Over.”
“CL-7382, this is the Indomitable. Adjust fire, shift Target One. Out.”
“Shift minus-five-point-seven-seven-one-se–”
Suddenly, he found himself flying. He slammed into the cliff, his head banged into his helmet, and everything went black.
Luna seethed. Again, the humans had proven totally uncooperative, no matter what promises or threats she made. Their bravery was admirable, in a way, but the unflinching loyalty they had to such a relentlessly evil regime was also infuriating.
She took a few moments to calm herself down, then looked back at the unmoving soldier. Her newly-developed connection to the human subconscious had allowed her to sense when he had passed out. He was still alive, fortunately. And perhaps her short loss of self-control would actually be a good thing. He might not have been willing to answer her questions, but he wouldn’t be able to stop her from taking what she wanted from his mind while he was unconscious.
“Now, human,” she murmured, “what are you doing here?” The first thing she encountered in his surface thoughts was a voice.
“– you there? Repeat, CL-7382 are you there? What is your status? Please respond. Over.”
She frowned. It sounded like somepony was trying to talk to this human, but she doubted that any of the few pony mages who were skilled enough with telepathy would have any desire to contact him, and as far as she knew, humans had no telepathic abilities at all. It took her a moment to realize that this had to be a result of the humans’ “comm” devices. He was subconsciously registering the voice of another human who was speaking to him using the human technology.
She shook her head. It still slipped her mind at times that the humans’ technology allowed them to almost casually replicate even some of the most powerful spells ever devised. She couldn’t even begin to fathom how their vile organization had managed to thrive. After all, it was a simple fact of the universe – one that she had firsthoof experience with – that evil never prospered.
She couldn’t dwell on that. Instead, she delved deeper into his mind, pushing past his emotions. Anger, hate, fear, and… guilt? She paused for a moment on that one. Yes, guilt. He thought that he was the one who killed his “brothers.” She knew what he was feeling – survivor’s guilt. It was something that occurred in ponies, too. Paramedics who couldn’t save their patients and survivors of particularly bad monster attacks would often feel like they didn’t deserve to live when others had died, and sometimes even feel responsible for the death’s, even if there was nothing else they could have done. In a way, she found it comforting that he felt that way. It meant that there was still some trace of goodness in him, that he wasn’t totally unconcerned about the lives of others. Still, that wasn’t what she was looking for. She plunged deeper, into his memories.
She sifted through his history, going past his imprisonment in Canterlot and the attempted assassination of Twilight Sparkle. She came to a looming image of the Moon, and played back the memory.
CL-7382 looked around at his brothers, standing in the Intrepid’s hanger. A cold, emotionless voice came over his comm. “All units, this is CC-9483. Prepare to jump. Time to jump: ten seconds.” The spacetroopers stepped up to the edge of the faint blue glow that held the atmosphere in. “Jump.” As one, the clones leapt out of the hanger and fell towards the Moon. Part of the way down, they activated their jetpacks, split into teams, and angled themselves towards different points on the Moon’s surface. CL-7382’s group of ten landed heavily in the shadow of a crater.
“Squad Twenty-One, this is CL-7382. All troops, report in.”
“CS-8016, reporting in. All systems green.”
“CT-8017, reporting in. All systems green.”
“CT-8018, reporting in. All systems green.”
“CT-8019, reporting in. All systems green.”
“CT-8020, reporting in. All systems green.”
“CT-8021, reporting in. All systems green.”
“CT-8022, reporting in. All systems green.”
“CT-8023, reporting in. All systems green.”
“CT-8024, reporting in. All systems green.”
“CL-7382, reporting in. All systems green. Myself, Scuzz, Brix, and Tal are Fire Team One. Brel and Daz, you’re Fire Team Two. Hax and Sen, you’re Fire Team Three. Chase and Hal, you’re Fire Team Four. Everyone know their assignment?”
The reply was chorus of “Yes, Sir!”
“Good. Team Three, move up on the ridge and see if you can get eyes on the target.”
“Sir!” With a short burst from their jetpacks, the two clones launched themselves to the lip of the crater. “Eyes, Sir. About five-and-a-half klicks northwest. Right where it’s supposed to be.”
“Don’t need the commentary, Hax.”
“Sorry, Sir.”
“Team Four, circle around and take up position three klicks north of the target. Team Three, same distance to its west. Team Two, five klicks to its southeast. Be ready to fly at my command. You’ll be our air support. Make sure none of ’em make a break for it. Team One, we’re going three klicks to its southeast. Got it?”
“Yes, Sir!”
“Move out!” The clones ran, hunched over as much as their armor allowed, to their assigned positions and threw themselves flat. “Fire Team One in position. The enemy doesn’t seem to have noticed us. Fire Teams Two, Three and Four, report.”
“Fire Team Two in position. Unnoticed, of course. If they saw us, they’d have definitely seen you.”
“Commentary…”
“Right. Sorry, Sir.”
“Fire Team Three in position. Unnoticed.”
“Fire Team Four in position. Unnoticed.”
CL-7382 nodded his approval and broadcast on his platoon channel. “Squad Twenty-One in position. Squads Twenty-Two, Twenty-Three, and Twenty-Four, report.”
“Squad Twenty-Two in position, Sir.”
“Squad Twenty-Three in position.”
“Squad Twenty-Four. Give us a minute, Sir.”
“Hurry it up, Bak.”
“Sorry, Sir… Okay, Squad Twenty-Four in position.”
There was silence for just under a minute, then another voice came over the comm. “Platoon Five in position. Platoons Six, Seven, and Eight, report.”
“Platoon Six in position,” CL-7382 reported.
“Platoon Seven in position.”
“Platoon Eight in position.”
It was silent again for another two minutes before the order the clones had been waiting for came through. “This is CC-9483. All forces are in position. Attack!”
With a roar that could be heard only by themselves, the clones pushed themselves off the ground and charged towards the small village they had surrounded. The first indication the nyx had that something was wrong was when proton torpedoes smashed into their homes. The spacetroopers were merciless, their blaster cannons and concussion grenades tearing apart the helpless creatures as they tried desperately to flee. If the nyx had tried to fight, they might have broken out by sheer force of numbers – several hundred nyx versus ten spread out clones. But they were pacifists, with no understanding of warfare. All they could do as the noose tightened was huddle together in the town square for the comfort of their friends and family. They were surrounded, and grouping together just made them easier targets. Not one of them was spared.
CL-7382 turned over one of the diminutive bodies with his foot. As he did so, he noticed one of them squirming. A quick blast from his cannon put a halt to that.
“Squad Twenty-Three, reporting in. Mission successful. No casualties.”
“Squad Twenty-Two, reporting in. Mission successful. No casualties.”
“Squad Twenty-Four, reporting in. Mission successful. No casualties.”
Luna retreated from his mind, horrified. This was what she had feared, but it was still beyond what she had believed even the darkest depths of the humans’ cruelty could achieve. This wasn’t something that could be justified by a traumatic life. It wasn’t war – it was murder. She could sort of understand their original attempt to wipe out Equestria – Discord’s arrival had proven to the humans that Equestria had a significant chance of stopping them. But the nyx weren’t any possible threat to anypony, aside from them occasionally messing up their dream crafting and giving somepony a nightmare. “Why?!” she raged. “Why did you do it?!” She plunged back into his mind, tearing through the layers of his consciousness in a desperate and furious attempt to find some explanation. Something caught her attention, a combination of memory and imagination.
She saw a crater on the Moon’s surface. After an instant, it shifted from a normal picture to a green wireframe image, and she gasped. The ground surrounding the crater concealed hundreds of weapon emplacements, and an entrance to an underground base. She passed through the hidden door and travelled through the winding labyrinth of corridors and chambers. Deep under the crater, she was found a massive chamber filled with control panels, pillars, and spheres. From the clone’s mind, she gleaned that this was a power generator – an absolutely massive one, even by Imperial standards. But for what? She directed his subconscious to reveal its purpose to her, and it complied, leading her up to a ledge looking into a vertical metal tube twenty feet wide. The image returned to normal color, and she was surrounded by scurrying humans in various uniforms.
A voice echoed through the halls. “All personnel, prepare for firing of the main gun.”
She floated off the ledge and up through the tube. At its top, it irised open, and she passed through to see that she was in the middle of the crater. She floated to the side, and a huge, emerald beam emerged from the tube and lanced towards Equestria. She followed it, and saw it impact Canterlot. The city was hidden by a massive explosion. When the smoke and fire cleared, there were only a few traces of the most well-built buildings remaining. The human’s mind carried her back up to the upper atmosphere, and she saw more beams shoot down to the Crystal Empire, Manehattan, Fillydelphia, Baltimare, Los Pegasus, and Vanhoover.
Again, she recoiled from his mind. She had trouble processing the level of power she had just seen. That was why the humans had committed genocide on the nyx. There was no way they’d be able to keep that construction a secret, and once the nyx learned of it, they would have warned her. The humans had committed mass murder… in order to conceal their preparations for even greater slaughter.
Her eyes narrowed. She would stop them. She had to. She recognized the crater the human base was built into. She would destroy this horrific fortress of murder. But first…
She looked down at the unconscious human. Whatever compassion she might’ve once felt for him was gone. He was a monster. And unlike her sister and the Element-Bearers, she took a hard line on monsters. A beam from her horn removed his head. Not sparing his body a second glance, she took flight.
Location: Wreck of the Ardent
Local Time: 23:04
Chief Warrant Officer Harkaan laughed as the Ardent’s power core started back up. “I knew you wouldn’t let me down, old girl! Now, let’s see what you’re still hooked up to.” He brought up a long list of technical readouts on his console. “Hmm… LCs eighteen and nineteen are still operational… Hey, Jann, take a look at this. I figure we could scavenge enough parts off of fourteen and fifteen to get seventeen back up. What do you think?”
“Let’s see… yeah, I think so. Be a hassle to run the power cable, though.”
“Gee, a hassle, or getting cut up by a bunch of aliens. Decisions, decisions.”
“Hey, just pointing it out. I’ll get a team right on it.”
Lieutenant Damarcus paced outside the wreck, responding to reports from the scavenging teams. His comlink chirped. “Lieutenant Damarcus here. What is it?”
“We’ve got incoming from Canterlot.”
“Well? How many, damn you!”
“One, Sir.”
“No…”
“Yes, Sir. Celestia.”
“Get back here, on the double! All patrols, return to the Ardent! The battle’s upon us!”
It took Celestia by surprise when two of the cannons on the downed vessel opened up on her. She hadn’t considered it possible for any part of it to still work after such an impact. The humans certainly make their craft to last. Still, just two cannons were hardly a threat to her. A magic beam passed over the vessel’s hull and silenced the weapons. She threw up a shield and landed in front of a tear in the metal walls. The energy bolts from spilled from inside bounced off harmlessly. She heard cursing, and the attacks cut off. She stepped inside and saw black-uniformed humans disappear around a corner. She followed them, and wherever she went, the humans fell back before her. She didn’t even have to fight any of them. Soon, she had herded many of them into a cavernous room dominated by a giant sphere that was practically crackling with energy. There was no other way out except past her. As she advanced, the gray-uniformed human in front lifted his weapon to his own temple, bringing her up short and causing the rest of the humans to back away from him in shock.
“Don’t take another step!” he screamed, his voice cracking and his eyes filled with terror. “I swear, I’ll… I’ll do it! Don’t make me pull the trigger!”
She studied him carefully. She could tell that he wasn’t really prepared to die. She called his bluff and kept walking.
“I mean it!” He backpedaled, and the other human pushed to the sides of the room, watching the showdown. “You… you won’t take me alive! This is my brain, damn you! You’re not gonna take it from me!”
Sheer surprise and confusion stopped her dead in her tracks again. One of the other humans voiced something similar to her thoughts. “What the kark are you talkin’ about, Lieut? These aliens are freaky, but they ain’t some crazy body-snatcher-type poodoo.”
The first human glanced at the one that spoke, his panic clearly growing. “They get you when you sleep! That’s what Command said! When you fall asleep, they get inside your head! They mess around with your thoughts, brainwash you! I’m not letting them do that to me!”
Another of the humans scowled. “Why the hell weren’t we told about this?”
“There aren’t enough stims for everyone. We officers just had to hope they wouldn’t get too many of you guys before we could wipe ’em out.”
“So you were just going to sacrifice us to save your own skin?!”
“There wasn’t any choice!”
“You self-centered bastard!”
The humans converged on the officer, but Celestia intervened. She could tell they intended to kill him. While his utter lack of concern for those under his command was revolting, nothing justified murder. She wrapped him in her telekinetic grip and lifted him above the humans’ reach. They suddenly seemed to remember that she was there, and they turned their weapons towards her. They were shaking.
Celestia sighed. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
“How can we trust you?” one of them called.
“Think about it. I’ve always tried to avoid war, and I haven’t done anything to harm you when I clearly could. Do you really think I’m your enemy?”
“Well… I…”
A blaster shot rang out, and the humans opened fire. The room was packed with almost two hundred humans, enough that she couldn’t afford to hold back. Her eyes welling with tears, she cut most of them down. In less than a minute, there were only fourteen of them left, who mercifully had the good sense to throw down their weapons and surrender. Unsteady on her hooves, she walked over to the source of the shot that had triggered the senseless battle. The human officer was laying on the ground, his pistol next to his hand and a hole scorched through his head.
The Moon
11:12 P.M.
Luna swooped down towards the human base. As she expected, a dozen cannons emerged from camouflaged hatches and began firing at her. But she had the measure of these humans now. They simply couldn’t get a bead on her, and it took her mere moments to tear apart their defenses. That accomplished, she tore open the hidden doors. A gust of wind came out, and she walked in to find the main corridor littered with writhing humans. They were clutching at their throats, their bodies swelling and blood boiling from their eyes and noses. She stepped over them and progressed deeper into the base.
Major Vexx watched the alicorn’s inexorable progress through the base on the holocams. A few men managed to get into envirosuits before she reached them, but the cumbersome suits restricted movement and made combat almost impossible. And she showed no mercy to even noncombatants. He activated the intercom to the fire control room. “Lieutenant Danz, it would appear that the base is lost. We can’t allow the ponies to get their hands on the superlaser. Commence primary ignition.”
“But Sir! The superlaser isn’t complete yet! All that will do is overload the reactor!”
“Exactly. We’re all dead anyways. We’ve already lost. All we can do now is make sure that the enemy loses just as badly as we do.”
“I… Yes, Sir.”
Vexx sat heavily in his chair, his eyes closed, as he heard metal tearing outside his command room.
Wreck of the Ardent
11:17 P.M.
Celestia escorted over three hundred captured humans out of the wreck. After that first fight, she fortunately hadn’t needed to kill any of them – either because they simply gave up when she cornered them, or because they were in too small numbers to force her to such extremes.
Suddenly, she felt a horrible sense of emptiness, and her heart skipped a beat. She collapsed to her knees and looked up to the sky just in time to see a small light disappear from the Moon. She released an impotent scream of loss and helplessness.
“LUUUNAAA!!!”
Location: Everfree Imperial Garrison
Local Time: 23:21
Gavrisom and Aerin looked over the reports flowing in from the fleet. One of the alicorns, now confirmed to be Luna, had broken through the blockade, defeated the spacetroopers assigned to defend Lun Base, avoided an orbital bombardment, and broke into the facility. A few minutes later, it had exploded, and the alicorn hadn’t been seen since.
Aerin turned to his companion. “Well. This has been quite the first few hours of a war, hasn’t it?”
Gavrisom shook his head sadly. “What utterly pointless wastes of life.”
A dark grin crossed Aerin’s face. “Oh, I don’t know about that. I think this’ll be quite fun.”
Local Time: 23:57
The door to the medbay hissed open, and the sixteen stormtroopers who had been too badly wounded to be returned to active duty looked up to see an ISB officer walk in. “It is my duty to inform you that the One-Eighty-Third Legion, Fourth Regiment, Second Battalion no longer exists. The men in this room are its only surviving members.”
The maimed clones stared at him in shocked silence for a moment, then burst into obscenities.
“But!” the officer shouted above the noise. “What would you say if I told you that there was a way you could get back on the battlefield, and take revenge on the ponies?”
The room when quiet again. One of clones, hate filling his voice, replied, “I think you know what we’d say.”
The officer smiled. “In that case – welcome to the Dark Trooper Project.”
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Shit about to get real. After the base got destroyed and the survivors of the Ardent captured, I would've called reinforcements from Imperial High Command by now. Then I would order the Star Destroyers to bombard their cities from orbit.
More and more high-powered MLP characters are starting to be wiped out.
Wonder how long this is going to last?...
Did Luna die.......I dont ....uh..what?
Well, there goes the moon. Inwould have imagined her going down the superlaser tube and getting vaporized when thry shot, but you made it interesting. With that much loss, high command really can't ignore this though.
This is about to get dark.
7556822 I know, they should of made orbital bombardments on their cities by now.
Im going to be the guy
BRING IN DARK VADER AND END IT ALL
i would play to see that ending
Well the Lieutenant was murdered by Luna so its only fair she gets blown into oblivion.