My Little Space Empire: Mechs are Magic

by Wheezyandbreezy

And Celestia Actually DOES Something This Time!

On Terra Celestia had been coordinating the ground defenses in preparation for the attack. The invading fleet had assembled on the day side of the planet to mask their approach, and no one on Terra was even aware of the battle currently raging in the void until small streaks of flame were made visible in the sunlit sky. Celestia thought out loud, "That's odd. I don't remember there being a meteor shower scheduled for today. . . During the day. . ."

She decided to look into the heavens and saw blood and carnage like she hadn't seen since Cloudsdale. Instantly she was on her feet and barking orders to every mind on the planet. Now technically it was illegal for Celestia to get involved with military affairs as that was Twilight's prerogative, but when it became public knowledge that there was an invasion on, no one seemed to quibble about legal technicalities. Pieces of destroyed ships began raining down onto Canterlot, and a few buildings began to be damaged. Celestia herself flew high above Canterlot and began to blast pieces of debris out of the sky before they could hit her city.

Terra had never been directly threatened in all of Celestia's reign so the situation was chaotic to say the least. Evacuation centers in many places simply didn't exist. Ground defenses were sparse at best and non-existent at worst. Royal guards, police, and even some crosswalk attendants were drafted, tossed a rifle, and told where good choke points were in their areas. Celestia tried desperately to contact Twilight, but for the first time since they'd met, Celestia couldn't find her. Twilight wasn't in the battle, she wasn't where they'd landed on the beach yesterday, she was simply gone! Celestia began to fear the worst for her beloved student and colleague.

In the orbital battle Applejack slowly came to herself. She had the fourth worst headache of her life and she could barely see. She blinked several times and realized she just had spots from the giant wave of plasma that had hit her. That's when she recalled what had happened and looked around frantically. She looked on her mech's radar, no she wasn't there. She'd been too slow. Fluttershy was gone.

Hot tears ran down her face. Fluttershy had become a genuine friend to her. They had fought side by side for four years. Now she was gone. On top of everything else, what would Rainbow think of her now? She came back to herself when several hard hits began to thud heavily off of her mech's armor. She looked around and saw that she'd been blasted several thousand miles closer to friendly lines, but was still in the midst a space battle. She limped slowly towards the Damocles, not caring what hit her. She didn't care anymore.

Rainbow Dash hung limply in the void in horrified shock for several moments. The woman whom she had loved, the one who had gotten her back in the sky when all she wanted to do was lay down and die, was gone. Not just dead, but completely erased from the cosmos. Her hands went slack on the joysticks. She barely breathed. She had always assumed she would fight to the death someday, but Fluttershy had been her way forward. With her Rainbow might actually be satisfied with living for once. Fluttershy had always hinted about settling down someday and raising some bastards, a thought that in any other context would have revolted her, but with Shy it almost seemed tolerable. Now she was gone.

Rainbow's eye caught a glimmer of movement near the spot of newly emptied space. It was Applejack, creeping away from the battle like a coward. She had left her Fluttershy exposed and without help! It was her fault Shy was dead! Rainbow saw red and hit her mech's thrusters to full throttle.

Several of her fleet's officers had been begging for orders, but Rainbow hadn't heard them in her shock. They saw her charge forward and followed grinning. This is what they'd all heard about their commander. They roared like warriors as they charged into the fray. Rainbow didn't even see the fleet, she could only see one thing, only one thing in the universe existed right then. Applejack, she was going to murder her for what she'd done to Fluttershy.

Several squads of fighters moved to intercept her in her charge, but they were quickly dispatched. Rainbow didn't care about the battle, she didn't care about taking hits. No, all that mattered was revenge for Fluttershy. Rainbow was going to crush that traitor's throat with her own augmetic hand. She didn't even look at the few targets she had to kill to keep moving. She let peripheral vision handle them as she focused on Applejack's mech. Rainbow was in the zen of battle, the perfect warrior.

Rarity had cleared enough of the sky to slowly carefully turn the fleet. She looked and saw that every ship in the invading fleet was still charging headlong towards the planet. She didn't understand, any other force would've seen their terrible losses and turned tail by now. More than half of the invading fleet had been converted into smoldering wreckage in the void. A terrible reality dawned on her then, they had no intent of surviving this day. The invasion fleet had one goal in mind, and the very last invader would keep charging until they had either succeeded or died. It was to be a knock down drag out fight to the death.

With Rarity and the invading fleet now on a level playing field the Terran fleet gave better than it got. For every ship they took, Rarity scuttled five, but every one of her ships that was destroyed she felt physically. She felt active tangible pain as one of her bodies was attacked, breached, broken, and ignited. She clenched her teeth and fought on, disregarding the pain. She saw every movement, every action, every mistake the enemy made and exploited it by the book. This was war at its most theoretical, and Rarity was its philosopher.

Applejack landed on one of the primary deck of the Damocles, but simply sat there in shock. Two techs came over and began switching out fuel rods, and ammunition canisters, but Applejack didn't stop them. Rainbow came tearing into the landing bay and stomped heavily up to Applejack's mech. The ag worlder didn't even look up as Rainbow leapt from her cockpit and smashed her in the face with her augmetic fist.

She screamed as she thrust her steel knuckles against Applejack's face over and over again. The two techs saw what was happening and scrambled up the ladder to try and stop her. Two other techs had run in to help refuel Rainbow's mech and they too joined the attempt to tear Rainbow off of the bloodied woman. It took all four of them to carry her off, and it took three of them to overpower her augmetic arm. She was dragged away screaming for blood and Applejack was left a bloody wreck in her mech.

Rarity had noticed the invading force's expert coordination and had inferred that they were working as a single hive mind controlled from a single origin. Well now that single origin was set against her, and she was clearly a better strategist. The invading fleet's greatest strength had just become its undoing. Rarity poured expertly timed volleys of macrolaser into their lines decimating their formations.

Rainbow's fleet faced no opposition at the other side of the battle. To them it was like a day on the firing range and the invading fleet was torn to shreds from behind. The two fleets made quick work of the invasion force and soon the battle had come to a quick bloody end.