The Battle for Mars
The massive Dreadnought shook as another beam of light struck it's side, creating a vast gash through the black hull and venting over ten thousand tiny living specks into the void. Surrounding it where thousands of starships, larger or smaller, from the tiniest blocky frigate to the vast, planet-sized monstrosity overhead: The Eater of Worlds. Fighters zipped by the viewscreens and the overwhelming cannon fire threatened to slash apart space itself.
Inside the Dreadnought, things were not much better; half of the ship had now vented into the void and a large portion of the ship's crew were either dead or dying amongst the void of space or the tangled morass of cabling and armour plating that was now the ship's outer decks. With ever hit the ship sustained it began to list ever closer to the Martian planet, where the vast Fleetbase was engaging in a battle of it's own. One in which the fate of the Irenton Empire would be decided.
Another explosion wracked the ship, then another three as Rapture bomber-craft released their deadly payloads onto the ship's already weakened hull. Inside, a jet of flame slammed a white armoured soldier into a wall, where his neck snapped in a sickening crunch and a spurt of purple blood from the gaps in the segmented neck armour. Two of his comrades ran by, ignoring the dead Fusilier whilst another burned alive surrounded by cabling and debris. Six more were crushed by a falling elevator, whilst another was caught up in a mass of cabling and hung.
It was as another bomber launched a flaming blue ball at the bridge that the room was filled with purple light, soldiers on consoles were blinded for a second and the ship was thrown slightly off course. In their attempts to correct their course and continue engaging the starships surrounding them, no one noticed the purple quadruped who now inhabited the bridge with them.
Twilight Sparkle's jaw quivered at the sight, chaos beyond Discord's wildest dreams, bipedal creatures ran back and forth between glowing consoles whilst one of their fellows draped in a purple cloak barked orders at them. Twilight blinked off her afterimage and stared out of the glass screen separating the ship and the stars. For years she had looked up at the stars in wonderment, and now she was amongst them! But they were...fighting?
Another explosion rocked the ship, this one causing a series of fires on the bridge. One of the white armoured bipeds caught fire, so he jumped back from his console right before it exploded, sending shards of glass in a cone in front of it and spearing into the armour of two of his comrades.
"Keep firing on that carrier!" Twilight was finally able to discern the voice of the purple cloaked biped, he sounded wizened but also angry.
To Twilight's shock, a volley of orange beams shot out from the black hull that spread for miles in front of her, they collided with a grey block, that turned out to be a ship almost four times as large as the one she was on now. Explosions erupted across the ship's hull, but the grey block seemed to simply shrug them off before returning fire with it's own orange bolts and two bright blue beams.
The bolts did very little in comparison to what was to come, their explosions were large but seemed to have no real effect on the hull, but the blue beams tore through the ship in it's entirety, creating two massive holes which vented blue gas and tiny specks that Twilight really hoped were not what she thought they were. The ship shook again, throwing two bipeds off of their seats. Twilight shook with it, throwing her onto her flank as she stared horrified at the destruction she was surrounded with.
One biped lay down next to her, white helmet completely blank save for a purple fracture on the forehead. Twilight poked it hesitantly with her hoof and, when it didn't respond, began to shake it until she heard a slight hissing sound and the helmet popped off.
The figure had no coat but instead pale skin stretched over it's skull. The creature's nose was thin and pointed, unlike her snout and it's partially open mouth revealed four long fangs amongst it's teeth. It's right eye was light blue whilst the other was a deep crimson. The only hair it had was on the top of it's head which was matted with a strange purple substance that seemed to be leaking from a gash on it's forehead.
Twilight fell backwards in shock, frantically pushing the dead figure away. Whilst she was panicking, two of his comrades lifted him and pushed him up against the wall with head propped up, the two then ran back across the bridge to assist another of their fellows with an injured soldier. Her breath was fast and cracked now, but minutes ago she had been in the castle researching old Equestrian tomes and now she was in the midst of so much death and destruction. Oh, what would Spike think if he saw this? Spike.
Twilight burst into tears, she would never see Spike again! She would die here, surrounded by unknown creatures and in the midst of a frightening conflict so far from home. How long had she observed events like this through her telescope? How long had she mistaken the stars for beautiful when events like this happened amongst them? She wondered if her friends would remember her, maybe it would be better they forget, if only to ease their pain.
Another explosion rocked the ship, this time cracks began forming in the glass of the viewscreens.
"Seals breached!" A figure shouted as they frantically tapped at their console. Three of their comrades rushed to the viewscreen, trying in vain to seal the rapidly expanding cobweb of cracks. Another four ran by her, carrying what appeared to be a hosepipe attached to a backpack by a string of piping from the far wall.
"Clear!" One shouted, firing a stream of white from the hose which solidified on contact with the glass. They turned to face the central panel, before another explosion set alight a console on the far side, which sent a blazing path of flame up the piping towards the white armoured soldier with the backpack, when the fire reached him he exploded. Two of his comrades screamed out in pain as they were consumed by fire whilst the other had a plate of armour lacerate his head. Three more soldiers screamed out and rushed to try and salvage what little was left of the pack. The cracks had worsened now, the viewscreens were almost entirely opaque now, the cobweb of cracks spreading to the corners from their start point at the centre.
Twilight looked frantically to the purple cloaked biped, whom she assumed to be the captain, instead of a miracle or taking charge in this event he merely stood there, staring sadly at the spreading cracks. He then cracked a smile, much to Twilight's surprise, it was the smile of happy memories and the joy of life and unrelated to the macabre spectacle before him.
"Glory," he said, voice projecting across the bridge and bringing every biped to a halt, they all turned to him.
"Glory to Irenton," they all chorused in unison.
Then the glass shattered.