Of Imperials and Equestrians

A Violent Arrival

The battle above Ponyville

Captain Wolfe began to regain his senses. He tried to drive the thoughts of fear and panic from his mind. “Connors... we need to... get out of here... before... the... Black Hole...” Wolfe cut himself short. His mind was a blur, and the world before him seemed to be spinning.

A weak voice came from nearby. “ Yes... sir...”

Captain Wolfe began to regain his sight. He noticed a figure stumbling towards him. Wolfe looked around at the others in the bridge. Most of them were still somewhat dazed. “Men, we need to get out of here. I want as much distance between us and Star 4306 as possible.”

The men began to stumble around, fumbling at their controls. Wolfe looked out the window at the signs of the battle. The light seemed to daze more than just Wolfe and his crew. There were many Stingers and Locusts accidentally crashing into floating debris and other ships. Wolfe looked at the area where Star 4306 used to be. Wolfe noticed nothing. No stars. No light. It was a black splotch of emptiness against the painted landscape of stars and planets. Wolfe thought nothing of it for a moment. “Alright, Connors, let’s get these engines going. We have a little bit of time before... Wait a second...”

Captain Wolfe stood to his full height. “We need those engines up and running now. Let’s get this ship turned around and get out of here.”

The ship began to turn away from the battle. The engines were operational, causing the ship to sail away from the battle as fast as possible. Captain Wolfe pulled up a recording of what was occurring behind the cruiser. The darkness began to spread, hiding more stars and planets. Wolfe noticed that the Swarm ships were moving backwards more than they should be. There was something more, they seemed, more colorful than normal....

“Connors, we need to go faster!”

“We’re going as fast as we can, sir!”

Captain Wolfe watched as the darkness spread more. The entire backdrop that had been littered with stars and planets was now completely dark. Captain Wolfe screamed at his men. “If we don’t go faster, we’re all going to be dead! Get this thing going, shitheads!”

That was when the darkness began to envelop the ship. Within moments, nothing was visible. The entire world was dark. Nothing was left. Captain Wolfe swore loudly, but he couldn’t even hear himself. Captain Wolfe realized that he was somewhere worse than even Hell. He was in a state of non-existence. He couldn’t see, smell, hear, touch, or taste anything. All that Captain Wolfe could do was think. Everything else didn’t exist.

***

“Everpony, look! It’s the eclipse.” Twilight looked into her telescope. Everpony put on their sunglasses and looked towards the sky. The moon slowly rolled over the sun, blocking the sun entirely. The sky turned dark, rays of light forming a rim around the moon. Twilight marvelled at the beauty of the total solar eclipse.

Just as the eclipse was occurring, dark clouds began to gather in the sky. Nopony really payed any attention. The eclipse was so dazzling. Luna and Celestia had really outdone themselves this time. Everypony was captivated by the sheer amazement.

That was when the lightning struck. A nearby tree was struck, catching into a shower of flames. Rainbow Dash flew up at the clouds and tried to kick them in order to rid the sky of the lightning. However, the clouds wouldn’t go away. The whole sky was being consumed by these mysterious clouds. Even the eclipse was covered by the clouds. “Rainbow, get these clouds out of here!”

“I’m trying!”

Then came the terrifying roar. Nopony had ever heard of a noise like that. It came from the clouds, specifically the direction of the eclipse. The day had seemed so peaceful before. Everything was fine, then... holy shit, spaceships!

From the clouds came a large metal contraption, spewing behind it a light blue flame. Everypony ran in all directions. Nothing like this had ever happened before. Whatever this thing was, nopony wanted anything to do with it. Twilight stood, gasping in horror at the sight. “Everypony, let’s not panic. Besides, they might be friendly.”

Nopony listened to Twilight’s attempts to reason. Twilight sighed and ran off towards her home. She couldn’t hold in her fear any longer. It was a good thing, too. A lone pony slept at the field. More Swarm ships began to arrive in the sky above. Locusts flew around above the field. Just as the lone pony was waking up, a locust zoomed by, shooting off its plasma cannons, the pony shrieked in fear, only to be silenced as the plasma weaponry burnt the pony. The pony fell over, writhing in pain. It looks like the Swarm wasn’t just after the Empire. They were willing to kill anything that moved.

***

The revitalization of his senses made Captain Wolfe groan. He had been in complete darkness and hadn’t heard a single sound. Being able to see and hear in seconds was quite astounding.

As Wolfe was finally able to think clearly again, he noticed his crew was recovering from the same symptoms. "Men, I want a status report on what in the Sam hell is going on here."

The men began to frantically move about, going from console to console. Conners walked over towards one of the analysts. "Sir, it looks like the Swarm are here too. We're picking up life forms down below, but apparently the Swarm don't like them that much. I suggest we attack ASAP."

Captain Wolfe nodded. "Alright, men, listen up. I want the Heavy Weapons Ship online pronto. I want all of our Incisors focussing on the Hive ship. When the Heavy Weapons Ship's cannons are operational, we're going to hit that Hive."

Several men nodded in acknowledgement and typed away at their keyboards. Conners approached the Captain briskly. "Sir, we've got a problem. It looks like the Hive ship is pulling out the big guns. It's warming up, but it'll be up shortly. What should we do about it?"

Captain Wolfe gave a smirk in Conners' direction. "We proceed as planned."

"But sir, a direct hit from our heavy weapons might cause a chain reaction. We are within the blast radius if that thing blows. We would all die, sir."

"Every single man in this fleet knew what he was risking by coming out here. They knew that they might not be coming home. I don't want to do this, but it's the only chance we got."

Conners nodded and talked into his headset. "We're taking it down. Aim at the Hive ship. We need you to hurry the Hell up, too. We're counting on you."

*****************************************************

Books began flying around the room as Twilight frantically searched for a book that might help her figure out what was going on. After a couple minutes, Twilight found that her search was pointless. These things had never been seen before.

Suddenly, her door was bashed in. Applejack trotted in, followed by a bouncing Pinkie Poe and a shuddering Fluttershy. Applejack looked around the room and sighed. "Now ain't a good time to find ah good read, Twi'"

Twilight gave her a dark look. "I'm trying to figure out what's going on. Unfortunately, I don't have anything that seems to help."

Rarity walked into Twilight's home and looked around in disgust. "Twilight, darling, things may be in chaos, but that's no reason to throw things around like this."

Twilight stomped her hoof in frustration. "Forget it. Let's just hope Celestia got my message my message from earlier."

It was then that a tremendous roar was heard from above. Screams could be heard from every direction. Twilight trotted outside to see what had happened. She opened her mouth to scream.

"What is it, Twi'?" Applejack stood besides Twilight and looked up at the sky.

Twilight was finally able to cry out a response. "Something bad, something really bad!"

*****************************************************

"Sir, the heavy weapons ship’s hyper-macro cannons are ready."

Captain Wolfe looked out at the battle. The Imperial ships were taking quite a beating. Captain Wolfe looked at the faces of those who were in the bridge. He quietly shook his head. "It was an honor serving with you all. I wish I could have returned you all safely home."

Captain Wolfe turned to Conners. "I want you to give them word to fire. This is our last shot. If we die here, at least we will die knowing that they did too."

Captain Wolfe looked out at all the ships before him. So many people had decided to fight for their Empire. In just one simple move, Captain Wolfe could end all of their lives. In just one move, so many voices could be silenced...

Captain Wolfe watched as the weapon fired. He watched as the Hive ship was destroyed, sending out a huge blast of fire and energy. He watched as his ships were consumed. He watched as his life flashed before his eyes. As his life was about to end, he whispered to himself, "I hope I paid the mortgage last month."

The explosion encompassed both fleets and vaporized the battle cruisers and the smaller craft, however as it reached the Empire’s flag ship the shields fluctuated and a pulse traveled through the power systems and the engines super boosted sending the ship into the very edge of the atmosphere just short of a perpetual orbit. This was not before most of the crew was killed and the rest were critically injured. They would all died before the hour was out. A few of the stingers and locusts had been out of range and were sent spiralling to the ground at break neck speeds. A small number of stingers and locusts were traveling at just under maximum velocity and would possibly survive the crash landing. Only two stingers were able to continue flying at normal speeds and only one fought on. A small squad of locusts attacked the battling stinger and were met with crippling defeat. The other operational stinger oddly swerved into a large oddly shaped cloud bank along with another downed stinger. One of the stingers sailed towards what appeared to be a castle on a mountain side. The fighting stinger was hit with what appeared to be a stray muffin in its intake valve and went careening in the direction of an ominous looking forest. Another fell around a farm and a colorful village. There were more stingers heading down, but none would survive. The last noteworthy crash landing craft were a trio of locusts sailing at the horizon at a trajectory that would see them landing relatively unharmed.

Despite the battle, the super-nova, and the particle implosion the fight would go on in this excessively colorful world.

Alex: sup

Nick: Alright, Chapter 1 is out there.

Alex: but they know that, nick

Nick: Whatever. Now, as you may have noticed, it took a little while to write this.

Alex:nah, in fact we updated this twice and some stories I’m following aren’t updated, yet.

Nick: Well, I hate it waiting, and I'm assuming they do too.

Alex: I know! but most people accept that these things can take time.

Nick:i r alex writing in ur spot

Real Nick: nope still me

Actual real nick: Mother...

Alex:     :3

Nick: Alright, well, I hope you guys have enjoyed the seriousness of our writing thus far. From now on, things are gonna change.

Alex: our next chapter SHOULD be up soon. No promises because Nick is a procrastinator, and I can’t write this alone.

Nick: I don't procrastinate... I just take my time and get distracted.

Alex: yesss you doooooooo~~~

Nick: No. Well, anyways~interruption~, the next chapter is underway. It will be up in the next week. Well, maybe... Son of a... Alex!

Alex: Maybe a few days if I harass him enough. Wait, son of a me?

Nick: Yeah... I'm on vacation, so I haven't been able to write. Next week, things should be back to normal. Anyways, prepare to have your mind blown.

Alex: BOOM headshot!

Nick:.......