Chapter Thirty-Seven: Imperial Attack
Canterlot Castle Courtyard
1/13/4
7:20 A.M.
Her tears flowing unrestrained, Celestia lowered her sister’s beloved Moon beyond the horizon. Around her, the mourners who filled the courtyard snuffed out their candles as she raised the Sun. It took all the self-control she had to not simply collapse in sobs, as she had for most of the past seven hours. The pain was even worse than when she had banished Nightmare Moon over a thousand years ago. At least then she had known that her sister would return one day. But she knew, deep inside, that her sister was dead. She had felt the profound shift in Equestria’s magical currents. But still…
She turned to Twilight Sparkle, who was standing beside her. “Somehow, I feel like she’s still out there.”
Twilight looked back to her with a sad smile. “I feel it, too. I think, so long as the Moon’s in the sky, a piece of Luna will always be with us.”
Location: Everfree Imperial Garrison, Secret Chamber
Malen smiled at the small, almost microscopic dot floating in the nutrient-filled test tube he held in his hand. He had always wanted to leave a legacy, and bringing into existence such a powerful weapon for the Dark Side would certainly immortalize his name in the annals of the Sith. He sighed in contentment and replaced the test tube on the rack, next to nineteen identical tubes. In comparison to him, Darth Plagueis would be relegated to a footnote.
Trottingham Harbor
Admiral Fair Winds watched a faint glow come to the overcast sky from the quarterdeck of his flagship, the H.M.S. Royal Princess. Two hundred and fifty feet long and possessing three weapons decks bearing a hundred ballistae, she was the largest, most powerful ship in the Royal Navy and was surpassed in all the world by only the Saddle Arabian H.M.S. Maremudineigh and the Griffon H.M.S. Eagle of Griffonstone. Heavily gilded, she was also the most expensive ship in history, costing almost thirteen million bits.
The Equestrian First Fleet had been reassigned to the Griffish Isles after Celestia received the news of the griffons’ alliance with the Galactic Empire. Still, Fair Winds wasn’t concerned. The griffons couldn’t possibly be stupid enough to attack. Even if their flagship was larger, it was also a leaking relic of the Griffon Kingdom’s old glory days, and the rest of the Griffon Royal Navy was truly pathetic when compared to Equestria’s. Besides, he highly doubted that those primitive, squawking pigeons would actually be able to work together long enough to carry out a coordinated military campaign. He hadn’t even bothered to post watchponies, considering it more important that he keep his ponies relaxed and well-rested.
Smiling, he headed back to his cabin for breakfast, just before he would have noticed dots appearing on the eastern horizon.
Fluttershy’s Cottage
8:34 A.M.
Fluttershy felt a small paw shake her shoulder, but she didn’t look up from her tear-soaked pillow. The rest of the Element-Bearers had gone to Luna’s funeral in absentia, but nopony had tried to tell Fluttershy that she had to be there.
The paw shook her more insistently, and when she still didn’t move, it pulled her head up by her mane and its opposite slapped her across the face. She gasped and opened her eyes to see the panic-stricken face of Angel Bunny. He gesticulated wildly towards the front door, and all the other animals in her room were looking in that direction with expressions ranging from concern to full-blown terror.
Sniffling, she dragged herself out of bed and to the door, where she heard a soft knocking. “Just… just go away,” she whispered, her voice cracking.
A familiar voice responded from the other side of the door. “Miss Fluttershy? What’s wrong?”
Her sorrow suddenly turned into rage. She slammed the door open and tackled the human standing on the other side. “How could you?!” she shrieked at him. “What sort of monster could just murder them like that?!”
Orramas squirmed under her hooves. “Miss Fluttershy, please! I have no idea what you’re talking about! I’ve never killed anyone! I’m just a diplomat!”
“Does ‘Cloudsdale’ ring any bells?! What about my parents… or Zephyr…”
Orramas’s eyes widened. “Oh… Fluttershy… I’m… I’m so sorry.”
“How could you do it?!”
“I didn’t have anything to do with the Cloudsdale operation! Captain Rann was the one in command!”
“Then why haven’t you punished him?!”
“We can’t!”
“You mean you won’t!”
“No, we can’t! He died in that battle.”
“Then you could at least condemn his actions!”
“You want us to give him a sort of posthumous dishonorable discharge? Strip him of all his benefits? Fine, but you didn’t strike me as the type who would want to leave another family destitute as revenge.”
“He… he had a family?”
“Oh, yes. A wife and a son. They’ll be receiving the notice of his death in a few days, and begin receiving the compensation given to the dependents of those who died in the line of duty. Of course, they won’t be receiving any credits anymore, what with him being stripped of his benefits. They’ll lose their home, I’m sure. Mrs. Rann will have to find a job in a factory or something, I suppose. A pity, but Korl did destroy your family, so it’s only right that his family get destroyed…”
“No! No… But… How could somepony with a family knowingly murder all those other families?”
“Miss Fluttershy, almost everyone in the Imperial Military has a family. That’s one of the main reasons that they serve – so that their families can have better lives. They relegate themselves to a life of war so that their families can live comfortably. And war often demands that they do terrible things – things like destroying cities to crush revolts. Now, I could personally never do something like that. I’ve dedicated my life to finding peaceful solutions. But it’s what soldiers have to do. They destroy families, and they know that if they die, it will devastate their own families. War’s an awful thing, but it’s how the galaxy works. I can’t explain it – that’s just the way things are.”
The rage leaked out of Fluttershy, and she started sobbing again. Orramas reached up and gently stroked her mane as her tears drenched his uniform. After several minutes, he cleared his throat. “Ah, Miss Fluttershy? May I get up now?”
“Oh!” She backed off of him, and he clambered to his feet.
“I… understand if you don’t want to,” he said slowly, “but I was wondering if we could still have our chats over tea?”
“But we’re at war!”
“Yes, but I have diplomatic immunity. It’s my goal to end this conflict as quickly as possible and with as few casualties as possible. Seeing as you’re one of the most important ponies in Equestria, I figure that staying on good terms with you is a very good way to do that.”
“Oh, I’m not so important.”
“You’re one of your nation’s six greatest heroes, and you have the ear of your sovereign. I’d say you’re pretty damn important.”
“Well… It would be selfish of me not to do everything I can to help stop the war. You can come in, I guess. I’ll put on the tea.”
He gave her a deep bow. “Thank you, Miss Fluttershy. That’s very kind of you.”
She blushed and trotted into the kitchen, Orramas following close behind her. “So, what did you want to talk about, Zem?”
“Hmm… The Crystal Empire, I suppose. It still confuses me how its inhabitants being happy protects it from all threats.”
“Well, magic isn’t really something I know much about…”
“Just give me your best guess.”
“I don’t know… If I tell you how they defend themselves…”
Orramas sighed. “Yes. We might find some way to subvert it. War certainly isn’t good for establishing mutual understanding, is it? Okay, how about… Oh! Zecora! Why’s she always speak in rhymes?”
Fluttershy chuckled as she poured the hot water. “Nopony really knows. We think it’s part of zebra culture, but we –” She cut off, feeling a breath of wind on the back of her neck. She turned around slowly, and she saw Orramas holding one of her kitchen knives in an inverted grip a few inches away from her head. His hand was shaking, and his eyes were squeezed shut. With a small squeak, she backed away from him. The knife slipped from his grasp and clattered to floor. Tears rolling down his face, he slumped to his knees.
“They – they wanted me to kill you,” he whispered. “They wanted to cripple the Elements. But… I can’t… my friend… Oh, Emperor forgive me.” He opened his eyes and gave her a pleading look. “Please, you… you have to kill me.”
That stunned her even more than his attempt to kill her. “Wha–? Kill you? No! Why would you say such a thing?!”
“I failed my mission. I may just be a diplomat, but I’m still part of Imperial Intelligence. You don’t fail Imperial Intelligence. You either succeed, or you die. However you kill me will probably be a lot faster and less painful than what will happen to me if I go back there without putting you in the ground.”
She pressed a hoof to his shoulder. “You don’t have to go back. You can stay here, with me.”
He shook his head. “You don’t understand. The Empire’s assassins are relentless. You’re a target now, and if I don’t report back, I will be, too. They know where this place is; they’ll come here and kill everyone.”
Fluttershy fell back on her haunches. It hadn’t occurred to that this wouldn’t be an isolated event. The Imperials wanted her dead, and they wouldn’t give up. She looked around at her cottage. She had lived here most of her life, unafraid of the creatures that lived in the Everfree Forest nearby. But there were new, even more dangerous predators living there now. She realized that neither she nor her animal friends were safe anymore. “Come on, everyone,” she called to them. “We… we have to go.”
Orramas laughed grimly. “It doesn’t matter. Nowhere’s safe. There isn’t anywhere you can run. They’ll get to you. They always do. We’re all dead.”
“Now, Zem! That’s no way to talk! Look, we can go to Canterlot. Celestia can protect us.”
He sighed. “No, she can’t. There’s nothing we can do. No fortress is impregnable to them, no watchman too alert for them to slip past. They’ve broken in and out of bases protected by the latest in high-tech defenses without anyone realizing it until their target was found dead. You have to just kill me, then kill yourself.”
“I’m not doing it, and that’s final. You’re coming with me to Canterlot.”
“You’re not giving me any other option, are you?” he asked, giving her a sad smile.
“No,” she replied firmly. “I’m not.”
“Well, then,” he said, getting to his feet, “we’d better get moving. They’ll be expecting my report any minute now.”
Canterlot Castle Caverns
11:47 A.M.
Celestia walked down the rows of cells, looking in at the humans inhabiting them. They glared back at her. These were the worst of the prisoners she had taken last night, the most hateful and belligerent. Most of the humans, including the diplomat, had been transferred to slightly more comfortable lodgings after signing documents in which they promised not to attack their guards or try to escape. Just under a hundred of them, however, had refused, calling those who signed traitors and vowing to do everything they could to resist their captors. Unfortunately, the hostile group contained most of the Imperial officers. They utterly despised the ponies, calling them “monsters” and “sub-humans,” and many of them jeered or cursed as Celestia passed.
She came up to the commander of the prison guards, and he threw the Princess a nervous salute. His predecessor had been sacked after the first human prisoners had escaped – posthumously, many presumed, as he had disappeared along with the humans and had likely already been tortured to death. “Have you discovered how the first humans managed to escape?” Celestia asked the commander.
“Well… sort of, Your Majesty.” She responded by raising an eyebrow. “Err… We know how they got out, but we don’t know how they did it.” She kept staring silently at him. “They… they dug a tunnel, Your Majesty. All the way from the deepest point in the mine to the base of the mountain. Well, they didn’t dig it, obviously – the other humans must have done that. But we don’t know how they pulled it off without anypony noticing them, or how they managed to overcome all the guards without making any noise.”
“You’ve assigned guards to make sure none of them use the tunnel to sneak into Canterlot, of course.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. Some of my best. No humans will be using that tunnel again.”
“Good. Do your best to determine the humans’ methods. We need every advantage we can get.”
“Of course, Your Majesty.”
“How have the prisoners been behaving?”
“The ones down here are about the same as the first prisoners. A bit more refined in their speech, perhaps. They had this big debate when we brought them their breakfast, talking about ‘truth serum’ again. We didn’t have to force-feed them, though. They apparently concluded that we didn’t give the first prisoners ‘truth serum,’ so we probably wouldn’t try it on them.”
“I wish we knew what that was,” Celestia muttered. “And our ‘guests’?”
“Passive, Your Majesty. They’ve told us a lot about themselves. Apparently, they need to eat mammals, reptiles, or birds in order to survive, so we’ve set up an agreement with a few of the farms to buy some of their pigs, though the idea of killing things to help humans makes me sick. They’ve also told us that being naked is considered extremely degrading in their culture, so we let them keep their uniforms after we determined that they didn’t have any hidden weapons on them.”
Celestia frowned. Under most circumstances, she would have found the idea of a species that couldn’t tolerate not wearing clothes to be absurd. After all, how could they reproduce if they hated being naked? But the clones’ memories had shown her that humans didn’t reproduce naturally. I wonder if their taboo against nakedness came about as a result of them no longer having sex, or if they had to develop this alternate method of reproduction to maintain their species after the taboo arose? And why didn’t the first humans mention this? They didn’t seem to mind being naked that much. Different subcultures, perhaps? Maybe it has something to do with the first humans all being identical, while these aren’t? She shook her head. Those were the sorts of questions that Twilight would love to spend days upon days studying, but she had left with Spike right after the funeral to ask for Dragon Lord Ember’s help. Besides, there would be plenty of time to wonder about human culture and reproductive habits later. “What have you learned about their plans?”
“Unfortunately, very little, Your Majesty. They all either refuse to talk about them or claim that they don’t actually know anything. We have learned, though, that they’re apparently under orders to not drive us into extinction under any circumstances. Says lots about ’em if that’s an unusual order.”
“Yes…” Celestia murmured. She wasn’t sure if she was primarily relieved that the humans wouldn’t be wiping out her little ponies, sickened that genocide was so common for them that they had to be specifically ordered not to do it, or concerned that the Imperials apparently had an unusual amount of interest in Equestria. “Do you know what –?”
“Your Majesty!” A gasping pegasus guard scrambled up to her. He tried to give her a salute, but the action threw him off balance, and he crumpled to the ground. He didn’t try to get up, instead giving his breathless report from where he lay. “Fillydelphia is under attack!”
Location: Fillydelphia
Local Time: 14:09
Lieutenant Colonel Banok looked out over the city from his position on a nearby hill. In only six hours, almost a third of the enemy’s primary industrial center had fallen under the control of his regiment. Overhead, TIE fighters mopped up the last of the pegasi guards and militia in a series of totally lopsided dogfights. The Intrepid cast its vast shadow over the city, holding seven other regiments and occasionally unleashing its turbolasers against areas of particularly heavy resistance. His walkers and repulsortanks tore apart the pony defensive lines, and his assault squads cleared out buildings. The pony garrison of over forty thousand may have outnumbered his deployed ground forces by a factor of twenty-to-one, but they simply couldn’t compete with armored vehicles and blaster rifles. So far, Imperial casualties had been minimal, though the entire Dragon Town district had to be incinerated by the Intrepid after handheld blasters and even light cannons had proven largely ineffectual against the dragons’ thick, fireproof hides.
A report came over his comm. “Colonel Banok, this is the Manka. There’s an incoming pony relief force from Canterlot. Estimate just over ten thousand, led by Celestia.”
Banok smiled. “Excellent. Indomitable, are you reading me?”
“This is the Indomitable. We read you, Colonel.”
“Celestia’s bringing her reinforcements. You know what to do.”
Celestia led her division across the rolling fields between Canterlot and Fillydelphia. Without the railroad, it was painfully slow going, and they were only halfway there.
Suddenly, beams of light fell down from above, blowing huge gaps in the pony formations. After a few seconds, the bombardment stopped, but before Celestia could reorganize her troops, several dozen TIEs swooped in, cutting apart the pegasus battalions. She flew to engage them, knocking three of them out of the sky in a matter of seconds. The rest swerved to avoid her, concentrating on isolating and annihilating small groups of pegasi. She had to chase them all over the battlefield, and in short order, she realized that she had followed them away from the main body of her ground troops. Another dozen TIEs broke through the clouds and dove towards the unicorns and Earth ponies. Her eyes widened as she recognized these TIEs’ bent wings and double bodies. She lunged at them, but before she could get in range to attack, they dropped their glowing payloads, and the TIEs rocketed back up into the upper atmosphere. She could do nothing but watch helplessly as most of her troops were obliterated in towering pillars of fire. Then the beams of light returned.
Celestia’s heart sank. While she was confident that she’d be able to make it through to Fillydelphia, the attempt would prove fatal for her few remaining troops, and she knew that they wouldn’t abandon her to continue on her own. “Everypony, fall back to Canterlot!” she ordered. Fillydelphia would have to defend itself.
Trottingham
4:26 P.M.
The Royal Sisters, Sun, Moon, and stars of the Equestrian flag in the town square fell, illuminated against the dark clouds by the burning hulk of the H.M.S. Royal Princess. As pony civilians cowered in their homes, the talon and lightning bolt of the Griffon Kingdom rose in its place.
The Dragon Lands
9:56 P.M.
Ember sighed. “When I received the Bloodstone Scepter, I had planned to keep the dragons out of war. Now, it seems, I have no choice. Of course we’ll help you.”
Twilight and Spike bowed. “Thank you, Dragon Lord,” Twilight said.
Ember smiled. “Friends help each other, don’t they?”
At the edge of the crater, a dark red and orange bipedal dragon slipped away from his hiding spot and flew away until the crater was far in the distance. Then he pulled a comm out from under a rock and pushed a button on it. “You told me to let you know when the ponies showed up. Well, they’re here.”
“Understood. Keep us informed.”
Location: Fillydelphia
Local Date: 1/14/4
Local Time: 03:00
“I accept your surrender.” Banok would have liked to punctuate that sentence by shooting the unicorn standing in front of him in the head, but orders were orders. Instead, he took the offered spear and gestured for his guards to escort the pony to a cell. Then he turned and stepped up to the makeshift podium that had been set up in front of Fillydelphia City Hall. The square was packed with the ponies his men had herded there. AT-STs stood vigil at the streets leading in and out of the square, and the ponies were surrounded by a ring of troopers. The Intrepid loomed large overhead, its lights illuminating the scene.
“Inhabitants of Fillydelphia!” he said, his voice amplified. “Your city is now under the protection of the Galactic Empire. I assure you, we will do our best to minimize the impacts that this has on your daily lives. However, for your own protection, there are some changes that must be made to ensure that any instability is minimized.
“One: Elections are to be suspended and the position of head of the local government taken over by an officer of the Imperial Army until the state of war between the Galactic Empire and the Kingdom of Equestria is resolved. This will reduce unrest and ensure that conflicts do not arise between the local and Imperial governments.
“Two: The local security forces are be nationalized and made subordinate to local Imperial Army Command. Furthermore, the civilian court system is to be dissolved, and criminals will instead be tried by a military tribunal. This will streamline the legal process and ensure that criminal activity is addressed in a rapid and effective manner.
“Three: A curfew is to be instated from twenty-two-hundred hours to oh-six-hundred hours until the state of war between the Galactic Empire and the Kingdom of Equestria is resolved. This will reduce the rate of crime and keep the civilian populace safe while Imperial forces are called elsewhere and are unable to defend them.
“Four: All violent actions undertaken against members of the Imperial Military are to be classified as treason and prosecuted as such. This will ensure that those defending you are kept in the highest esteem and remain as safe as can be reasonably expected during these troubled times.
“In the name of His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Palpatine, I hereby proclaim these laws.” Behind him, troops on City Hall unrolled Imperial banners down its sides and central spire, and TIEs soared over the building. “Long live the Emperor! Long live the Empire!”
The square echoed with the words as the Imperial soldiers chanted them again and again.
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so, i kinda want to read this, but i first want to know just how far the dark and gore tags go.
I find this chapter pretty satisfying. Thing is, even with Imperial success, Imperial High Command would know about the Imperials captured and would've sent reinforcements.
Well, no one said that fighting the Galactic Empire was easy... or, at least, they should know better.
7575019
Spoilers for already-published chapters ahoy!
Dark: Most of the story so far has focused on the increasingly poor relations between the ponies and the Empire, with the war (at this point) only just entering its third day. However, the morality of both sides has been portrayed as rather ambiguous. The ponies simply don't understand human values (for example, the Imperials are disgusted by the ponies being ruled by ultra-powerful Force-users who can use their abilities to invade and alter their subjects' minds at any moment and are considered perfectly justified in doing so - note that most Imperials don't know Palpatine is a Sith and don't have particularly high opinions of Vader and the Inquisitors), while the Empire is, well, the Empire. Most of them aren't sadistic murderers, but they're still space Nazis. The Imperial Army is more Wehrmacht than SS, though. Also, only three days in, Imperial casualties have passed the one thousand mark and pony casualties are well past fifty thousand (a large portion of whom are civilians). Being a major character provides absolutely no protection.
Gore: Again, massive casualties. While I don't go into loving detail about the color of intestines or that sort of thing, characters lose limbs and are physically torn apart with a fair amount of frequency, and blood is mentioned regularly.
You know who Twi should really get in touch with? Though she doesn't even know he exists right now, and likely never will unless the Rebels show up. But she should really train under Yoda for a bit, regain that power she had while corrupted, yet remain in the light
Cougn bring in dark vader cough
7575249 ah ok. i get a bit squeamish when stuff gets too dark, but that sounds like it's within my limits
7575249 Still, enjoying this story. Like how you have given the Equestrians at least some what of a chance against this small force. Never thought I'd say it, But I am happy Lulu was blown up in the Moonstar... Deathmoon? you know, you just name it. But I've never been truly happy about Luna's death in a story before... must have been how you portrayed her.
But only 3 days!!! 50,000 in three days, and not a warhammer fic! that is madness
only thing I have ever found that has more casualties in less time ishttps://www.fimfiction.net/story/213056/how-an-actual-human-vs-pony-war-would-go ... Five minutes
7576254
Actually, Star Wars has pretty massive casualty figures in general. There just isn't much emphasis put on it. A single Imperial-class Star Destroyer has a crew of over thirty-seven thousand, not including the entire stormtrooper legion that can be housed in each one. For the Galactic Empire, taking over fifty thousand casualties over the course of three days is worthy of classifying the resistance in an area as "significant," not a major catastrophe - and it isn't the Empire that's taken those casualties.
People keep mentioning "Look at how much the Empire's lost! Why aren't they getting shit-loads of reinforcements?" The answer is, they've lost quite a lot of money off of the Lun Base superlaser (though not a ridiculous amount - the Death Star I had such a small impact on the Empire's economy that its construction costs could be entirely hidden within the budgets of the Department of System Exploration and the Department of Public Works, and this smaller laser that was never intended to move would cost significantly less), but the losses in terms of personnel are utterly trivial to the Empire as a whole.