STAR WARS / FiM: Realms of the Heavens

Chapters

Chapter Two: First Contact
Chapter Four: Base Delta Zero Effect
Chapter Five: Pacem Appellant
Chapter Six: Unexpected Developments
Chapter Seven: How to (Not) Kill Goddesses
Chapter Eight: One Last Chance
Chapter Nine: Imperial War Council
Chapter Ten: The Fires of Industry
Chapter Eleven: The Ecstasy of Gold
Chapter Twelve: The Invitation
Chapter Thirteen: To Thine Own Self be True
Chapter Fourteen: The Nature of a Hero
Chapter Fifteen: Allure of the Dark Side
Chapter Sixteen: The Voice of Their Blood is Crying to Us from the Pool
Chapter Seventeen: The Sentencing of a Murderer
Chapter Eighteen: Slaughterhouse
Chapter Nineteen: Such a Quiet Thing
Chapter Twenty-One: Empire over Cards and Brandy
Chapter Twenty-Two: A Very Imperial Hearth’s Warming
Chapter Twenty-Three: Fowled Foreign Relations
Chapter Twenty-Four: Bug Hunting
Chapter Twenty-Five: The Day of Change
Chapter Twenty-Six: The Other to Crave It
Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Way of Sion
Chapter Twenty-Eight: Revanchism
Chapter Twenty-Nine: Revolution and Revelation
Chapter Thirty: Tabula Rasa
Chapter Thirty-One: Reformation
Chapter Thirty-Two: Aggressive Negotiations
Chapter Thirty-Three: Skirmishing
Chapter Thirty-Five: No Time to Rest
Chapter Thirty-Six: Nightfall
Chapter Thirty-Seven: Imperial Attack
Chapter Thirty-Eight: Evening the Odds
Chapter Thirty-Nine: Retribution
Chapter Forty: In the Halls of Traitors
Chapter Forty-One: Hemorrhaging, Information
Chapter Forty-Two: Rematch
Chapter Forty-Three: Firestorm
Chapter Forty-Four: Wounds
Chapter Forty-Five: Dragon's Breath
Chapter Forty-Six: The Desolation of the Dragons
Chapter Forty-Seven: Resurgence
Chapter Forty-Eight: Peace Talks
Chapter Forty-Nine: Morale
Chapter One: Initial Reconnaissance
Chapter Three: Blastboat Diplomacy
Chapter Twenty: One to Embody the Power
Chapter Thirty-Four: The Battle of Cloudsdale

Chapter Two: First Contact

Ponyville Outskirts, Equestria
3:27 A.M.

Rainbow Dash laughed as she flew circles around the dragon that had so foolishly decided to threaten Equestria. No creature would ever hurt anypony while she, the captain of the Wonderbolts and the fastest pegasus – no, fastest anything – ever, was protecting the kingdom! She ended the hilariously one-sided battle with a sonic rainboom-powered stomp to the top of the gigantic reptile’s head, sending it to the ground in a daze. Landing on top of it, she posed for the dozens of cameras flashing, and accepted the praise of her crowd of loyal admirers with exceptional humility.

“Yeah, I know. I’m awesome. It’s nothing, really. I was just born like this.”

She smiled as she spotted Princess Celestia flying towards her, no doubt with yet another medal. At this rate, they were going to have to start inventing new awards to give to Equestria’s greatest hero before the end of the year. The princess opened her mouth, but to Rainbow’s shock, the sound that came out was not words of congratulation, but instead a horrifying shrieking noise. As the pegasus mare recoiled, an indistinct shadow almost as big as the dragon passed by her, accompanied by a powerful wind. And suddenly, she was falling.

She awoke to find herself knocked out of bed onto the floor of her Cloudominium, which was shaking in the slipstream of a close miss by a massive object moving at high speeds. Flying out her window, she was able to make out the rapidly receding object by the stars it hid. She didn’t have any idea what sort of creature it was, but there was no way she was just going to let it buzz her home and then fly off without a confrontation.

By Celestia, it was moving fast. Not as fast as she could fly, even without going to rainboom speeds, but there were very few other things that actually made her have to push herself in order to catch up to them.

It was a weird creature, she saw as she closed the distance. Its body was composed of a large, gray sphere, and its black wings – or at least, what she assumed were wings – were several times the size of its body and seemed fixed in place. Try as she might, she could come up with no idea how it was staying in the air, much less moving so quickly. I guess I could ask Twilight. I bet she could figure it out… No, bad idea. The egghead would probably get this crazy look in her eyes, pull out a chalkboard covered in math and weird symbols, and go on forever about Sir Isaac Neighton or something.

She finally managed to pull up alongside it, and saw that its skin was made out of a hard, metal-looking material. “Hey, you… you… whatever you are!” she yelled at it. “That was my house you just flew by! I don’t know what it’s like where you’re from, but here it’s quite rude to… Are you listening to me?!” She cut herself off as the creature continued to make its deafening noise.

She reached out to jab its wing with her hoof, then pulled back at the coldness of it. This thing didn’t just look like it was made of metal, it actually was! She gulped, but, gathering her courage, she flew to the front of the thing, ready to confront whatever snarling, robotic visage it might have. What she was not ready to find was a window, looking in on a creature that looked sort of like a smaller, hornless version of a minotaur, or Twilight’s description of the humans that lived on the other side of the Crystal Mirror. The creature was almost entirely black, even what looked like its eyes. The only exceptions were some white symbols on either side of a ridge on its head, and blue rectangles on a box on its chest. The box was attached to two tubes that stretched up to the bottom the creature’s face, where its mouth should have been.

The creature was clearly just as surprised to see her as she was to see it, jerking back in its seat and simultaneously pulling on a device in its hands. Seeming to respond to the creature’s actions, the object, which Rainbow Dash realized had to be some strange sort of vehicle, also pulled away. She indulged in a short laugh. Did that thing really think it could get away that easily? When she caught back up to it, she landed on the top of the sphere and climbed over so she could stick her head down in front of the window.

“I’m baaa-aack!” she taunted with a grin, then stuck her tongue out at the creature, who visibly jumped in its seat. She started laughing, then yelped and grabbed onto a ridge on the sphere as hard as she could as the creature yanked the device in its hands in all directions, sending the vehicle into a dizzying set of maneuvers that would have made anypony except a skilled stunt flier like Rainbow Dash empty the contents of her stomach. Suddenly, the creature seemed to figure out that its current tactics weren’t working, and it angled its vehicle straight up into the sky. They quickly passed beyond the highest point Rainbow had ever flown to, and kept going. As she started to find it impossible to breathe, she realized: It’s going all the way into space! Even this revelation wasn’t enough to make her let go of her own free will, but she could feel her grasp slipping as her vision grayed at the edges. The last things she saw before she passed out were the creature making some weird gesture at her with two of the fingers on its right hand raised, and twelve strangely shaped mountains floating above her.

Rainbow Dash regained consciousness with a bump, not with the splat that would be expected of an organic being hitting the ground after falling all the way from the upper atmosphere. With a groan, she managed to force her eyes halfway open, allowing her to see a blurry lavender blob carrying her across the sky. “Twi… Twilight?” she managed to say.

“Don’t worry, you’re going to be fine. Just rest.”

“How’d you find me?”

“When I saw that… thing… headed toward your house, I just knew you wouldn’t avoid confronting it, even if – no, especially if it seemed dangerous.”

“Well, duh. Danger is my middle name, after all.”

Twilight chuckled. “I know, Rainbow Dash. I know. Now rest. I’ve got to get you over to Ponyville Hospital so they can make sure you’re not hurt.”

The pegasus started to comply, then remembered something important. “Hey, egghead?”

Another chuckle. “Yes, Rainbow?”

“Please, please don’t tell Scootaloo about this.”

System: E-9015 (TEMPORARY: AWAITING OFFICIAL DESIGNATION)
Coruscant Standard Time: 16:07

Admiral Gavrisom suppressed a sigh as he reviewed the report from the last TIE pilot to check in. He had hoped to settle this without any bloodshed. Spacing a member of the native species and leaving its body to fall through the atmosphere and splatter on the ground as an unidentifiable mess of charred flesh and bone was not going to make diplomacy any easier – if it was even possible to begin with, considering the freakish assortment of non-humanoids the planet seemed to hold. Well, that wasn’t the entire picture – there were two humanoid species on the planet, but one looked like the offspring of Mandallian Giants and nerfs, the other looked like large, bat-winged Svivreni, and their small populations made it quite evident that somehow, they weren’t the dominant species. No, that position was taken by a species of diminutive equines – not equinoids, just equines. They seemed to be divided into three subspecies: one that appeared fairly similar to the horses of Dathomir, albeit scaled down to an average of only about one and four-tenths meters; another that took the same shape and added some strangely small wings, which nonetheless seemed to allow for quite remarkable flight capacities; and a third with the same base shape that instead had a single horn on their foreheads, likely a tool for self-defense. And they all came in a headache-inducing variety of pastel colours. When Gavrisom got the first report back, his initial assumption was that the pilot had been indulging in spice use before going out, but all later reports had given the same description. He didn’t know how a species that lacked a grasping appendage had achieved sapience, but that would be something for the scientists to bicker over later.

He turned his attention back to the holotable in his command room. Captain Cortess was standing beside him, and along his side of the table were holograms of the other three Captains of the Line in charge of sections of his squadron. Across the table were holograms of their counterparts in the Imperial Army line corps assigned to their force: four High Colonels and Major General Davar Aerin.

“So, gentlemen,” Gavrisom began, “all of our fighters have returned safe, if not necessarily sound, and I believe we have all of the intelligence that we’re going to get. Let’s review. We appear to have identified this planet’s dominant species as a form of small equines. We don’t know how they managed to build anything without hands of some sort, but I doubt we’ll figure it out from orbit. Their technology level appears to be just before achieving space travel, though many inland locations seem to be lagging far behind the steel and glass construction we see in their coastal cities, and we have yet to see any signs of active, large-scale industry. It appears that at least some of their electricity comes from hydroelectric plants, though we have only seen one dam, and it couldn’t possibly provide all the electricity that’s being used.

“We have determined two probable locations for their capital, based on the apparent wealth they possess and the decorative nature of their architecture. One is an entire city made out of some sort of crystalline substance. Judging by the massive tower in its center, it is clearly the wealthier of the two locations, but it’s located in the middle of an arctic wasteland in the planet’s far north. Somehow, they’ve managed to keep the city and its immediate surroundings temperate, but none of our instruments are able to detect any environmental manipulation technology. The other possible location, further to the south, is smaller and mostly constructed from ordinary stone. However, while it is slightly less grandiose, it’s still clearly a center of wealth, being full of overly-elaborate architecture and covered in gold embellishments. It, too, is in a somewhat inaccessible location, as it is partially built out of the side of a mountain. The environment there is naturally temperate, though, so it’s a bit more habitable.”

General Aerin bent forward, resting his hands on the table he was transmitting from. “We have more than enough forces to make an adequate display of strength at both locations. I shall take a line regiment and half of our stormtrooper battalion to the southern location, while Colonel Alder will take an armor regiment and the other half of our stormtroopers to the northern location.” He looked around at the other officers with his one good eye, looking for any dissent. Some of the less courageous among them looked away, though Gavrisom wasn’t sure whether they were more intimidated by the burn scars that covered the right half of the General’s face, or the look of utter loathing he had adopted at the prospect of dealing with non-humans.

When nobody voiced any complaints, he pulled back from the table with a smile of grim satisfaction. “It’s decided, then.

“Let the conquest begin.”

Author's Note

Yes, the two-finger salute does exist in the Star Wars universe. For your delectation:

Chapter Four: Base Delta Zero Effect

Ponyville Hospital
5:58 A.M.

Princess Celestia instinctively closed her eyes and turned her head away from the hundreds of energy blasts falling out of the sky toward her, even though her conscious mind knew that would be an utterly futile gesture against an attack capable of devastating the Everfree Forest in a matter of seconds. As she expected, light soon forced its ways past her eyelids, and she heard the sounds of explosions. However, the light wasn’t the red and green flashes she had anticipated, nor did the explosions bring waves of heat and the feeling of shrapnel tearing into her. Instead, she saw a rainbow-colored glow and felt suddenly rejuvenated. Tentatively opening her eyes, she was greeted by the sight of the transformed Element-Bearers floating in the air, projecting a light across all of Equestria that shielded it from the Imperial assault. Beyond the barrier, the sky was hidden by a roiling mass of fire, and the shield rippled from constant impacts.

Luna hurried next to her. “I don’t think these attackers intend to give up any time soon, and even the Elements cannot protect us forever. We must take the fight to them.”

Celestia hated taking the offensive, but she had to agree with her sister. These “humans” clearly only cared about causing as much destruction as possible. They had to be stopped, no matter what it took. Leaving the hospital and casting shields around themselves, the Royal Sisters flew upward, passing through the barrier, the cloud of fire, and the hail of energy continuously falling from space.

As they left the atmosphere, they expected to find hundreds of enemies about the same size as the white objects that had brought the humans to Equestria’s surface. Instead, they were faced with twelve massive constructs. The four smallest of them were taller than twenty-story buildings and longer than the Crystal Castle was tall. The two largest ones were well over twice that size. The two alicorns saw that only four of the larger objects were firing on the planet, and they flew in to attack.

System: E-9015 (TEMPORARY: AWAITING OFFICIAL DESIGNATION)
Coruscant Standard Time: 18:19

Admiral Gavrisom frowned as he watched the orbital bombardment. “Base Delta Zero” was the Imperial Navy code for the total annihilation of a planet’s surface – every single lifeform killed, every natural resource destroyed, the oceans boiled, and the soil melted. Against an unshielded planet, it would take his squadron’s four Vindicators less than a standard day, and that was what he had planned for. As powerful as this world’s inhabitants clearly were, he had not even imagined that they might have been able to produce a Force shield that could protect the entire planet. Still, he had an entire year’s worth of supplies, and he was sure that their shield would collapse in a week, at the most. After all, it wasn’t as if they had a planetary defense fleet that could –

“Admiral!” The shout came from his radar operator. “We have two Bogeys inbound from the planet’s surface!”

Of course they did. That was just the sort of karked-up day this had been. “Switch that designation to ‘Bandit,’ Lieutenant. Launch our fighters and have Captain Fanir move his line to intercept. All craft, raise shields. You are cleared to engage.”

Luna noticed the intensity of the energy coming from the four attackers decrease just before she let loose with her first beam of magic. A blue bubble of energy appeared around the leading object, blocking her attack, and then her sister’s. As the sisters unleashed more of their power against the shield, they noticed the four smallest objects turning towards them, and dozens upon dozens of the vehicles that had flown over Equestria the night before streaming out of openings at the bottom of the objects attacking the planet. They were forced to break off their offensive as hundreds of energy bolts converged on them. They managed to evade most of the shots, but enough hit their shields to threaten to break through and end the battle immediately.

The two sisters quickly found themselves driven away from the large objects in a desperate fight for their lives. But the alicorns were hardly helpless, even in the face of such overwhelming odds. Luna managed to position herself behind four of the vehicles and swept a beam of magic across them. To her surprise, they didn’t seem to be protected by the same energy that shielded the large objects, and they exploded quite spectacularly when the beam touched them. To her left, another of the vehicles exploded as Celestia made the same discovery. Five down… almost two hundred to go…

System: E-9015 (TEMPORARY: AWAITING OFFICIAL DESIGNATION)
Coruscant Standard Time: 18:37

Gavrisom forced himself not to let his tears fall as a twenty-seventh point of green light indicating a TIE/LN starfighter disappeared from his tactical display. He knew that the fighters and their pilots were essentially disposable, and that losses were inevitable in warfare, but he still cared about each and every one of the men under his command, even if it was impossible for him to actually get to know all of them. The fact that he was throwing good men against a foe that so clearly outclassed them made the pain even worse. After the Battle of Ogoth Tiir, he personally knew how much it hurt lose a son. It had been almost a decade, and he was proud of Tam’s sacrifice, but the ache never quite disappeared. As yet another light – yet another life – blinked out of existence, he resolved to personally write all of the letters of condolences to their families.

His comm officer walking over brought him out of his introspection. Usually, the young lieutenant just shouted out any pertinent information, or had him come over to look over at the screen. “Sir,” the boy said quietly, “you have a maximum-priority message awaiting you in the holocomm room. Sir, it’s…” The young man swallowed, then managed to finish,

“It’s the Emperor.”

Chapter Five: Pacem Appellant

System: E-9015 (TEMPORARY: AWAITING OFFICIAL DESIGNATION)
Coruscant Standard Time: 18:41

Gavrisom struggled to control his breathing as he hurried to the Implacable’s holocomm room. The Emperor personally contacting a military official who didn’t wield any political power was a rare occasion indeed. It usually ended up with said officer becoming either very powerful, or very dead – the latter far more commonly than the former. Still, making His Excellency wait would hardly increase his chances of survival, and there wasn’t any place in the galaxy where he could hide. He just wished he knew what he had done to deserve execution.

Entering the dark chamber, he sealed the doors behind him and kneeled before the holoprojector. A few moments later, an enormous image of the Emperor’s head appeared above it. He made sure not to allow any of his disgust to show on his face. As loyal as he was, he hated the Emperor’s overblown ego. Plus, looking at all of the deformed man’s wrinkles and scars at a hundred times life size was a less-than-pleasant experience. Putting on his most subservient expression, he asked, “What is your will, Your Majesty?”

“I have heard of your actions against these… ‘ponies,’” the Emperor replied. Gavrisom reeled. How could the Emperor have found out so quickly? The decision to carry out a Base Delta Zero operation was a major one, and he had sent a report detailing his reasons to Imperial High Command. But he did that less than an hour ago! Those bureaucrats shouldn’t have even gotten around to reading it yet, much less decided that it was important enough to forward to the personal desk of the Emperor!

Seeming to not notice – or, more likely, not care about – the admiral’s shock, the Emperor continued. “You will stop your attack immediately. I want that planet and a… sustainable… number of its inhabitants taken willingly and intact, Admiral. I believe that they will prove to be most useful assets to the Empire. I am making you that system’s governor, and granting you full authority to take whatever measures you deem necessary in order to accomplish that task. Do I make myself clear?”

“I, uh…” Gavrisom stammered for a moment. “Um… Yes! Of course, Your Majesty! As you will it, it shall be done!”

The Emperor’s visage twisted into a cold grin that showed his yellowed teeth. “Very good, Admiral.” Then his expression turned fierce. “Remember that I will not accept failure.”

The transmission cut off, and the newly-appointed governor released a sigh of relief. He noticed that he was sweating profusely, even though the temperature in the room seemed to have dropped by ten degrees.

Sector: The Imperial Sector
Planet: Coruscant
Location: The Imperial Palace
Time: 18:43

Dark Lord of the Sith Darth Sidious leaned back in his chair and steepled his fingers with a smile. He had sensed a disturbance in the Force as soon as the task force had emerged in-system, and he ordered any reports from that sector of space immediately sent to him. Reading the description of the natives, it had not taken him long to see the potential. An entire planet of Force-users, untouched by Jedi philosophy, ready for him to mold in his own image… Oh, yes, this was going to be very good, indeed…

Low-Earth Orbit
6:31 A.M., Canterlot Time

The Royal Sisters flew into the opening in the leading object that the strange vehicles had escorted them to. They had been surprised when both the objects and vehicles had stopped their attacks, and flat-out stunned when one of the vehicles flew up to them and the human inside made gestures indicating that it wanted them to follow it. They were suspicious, of course, but if this was an opportunity to end this conflict quickly and without further bloodshed, then they had to take it.

Landing in a massive chamber far bigger than the Canterlot Castle throne room, the sisters were almost immediately surrounded by a platoon of the white-armored humans with weapons trained on the alicorns. Luna snorted in disdain. It would take far more than that to even have the slightest chance of bringing down just one of them. Still, if it made them feel safe, she was willing to tolerate their presence. A moment later, the humans parted to let through another one of their number in a gray-green uniform and cap. The sisters recognized him immediately – Admiral Sturm Gavrisom.

He stood there awkwardly for a moment, rubbing the back of his neck with his left hand and not making eye contact with them. Then he shook himself, straightened his back, put his hands into the same clasped-behind-the-back position he had used during their earlier conversation, and looked steadily at the Royal Sisters. “Well then,” he said, still sounding rather nervous, “welcome aboard the Implacable. I’m hoping we can put all of this unpleasantness behind us and recommence negotiations?”

“Unpleasantness?!” Luna echoed back, outraged. “You threatened us, and then you tried to kill everypony!”

“And you have caused thirty-two families the horrible pain of knowing that one of their loved ones is dead and there isn’t enough left of him to bury,” the human retorted. “We all do what we think is necessary to protect those who depend on us, regardless of how distasteful it is.”

“Our actions aren’t remotely similar, and you know it,” Celestia said, joining the debate. “You came to our world, attacked somepony without reason, ordered us to submit to your tyrannical rule, and tried to massacre innocents when we refused. We simply did what we had to in order to stop those atrocities.”

“No,” Gavrisom replied, “I simply think on a far larger scale than you do. Remember, I’m responsible for the safety of over one hundred quadrillion beings. To me, a few hundred million civilian casualties is, while significant, within the boundaries of the price that I’m willing to pay in order to eliminate a threat to a population that is as many times larger than yours as your planet has individual inhabitants. And your displays of power in the Force, both on the planet’s surface and during the space battle, reveal that you most certainly are a threat to us. Plus, I’d hardly call General Aerin siccing his stormtroopers on that yellow pony ‘attacking without reason.’ From what he told me, she – I presume it was a she? – tried to use a mind trick on him. It was purely self-defense, totally justified.”

Celestia frowned in confusion. “A ‘mind trick’? You mean the Stare? And what’s ‘the Force’? Is that what you humans call magic?”

Gavrisom rolled his eyes. “Ah, yes, you primitives do often call the Force ‘magic.’ And if ‘the Stare’ involves using the Force to suppress someone’s free will, then yes, it is a mind trick.”

“We are arguing over semantics, here,” Luna cut in. “We are not a threat to anypony. At least, not until you made us a threat by unjustly attacking us!”

The human shrugged. “A gram of prevention is worth a kilo of cure. Besides, that’s in the past now. You seemed to manage to throw up that planetary shield in time, so I highly doubt our attack did any real damage. And the Emperor himself has contacted me with an order to preserve your species. So, now that we’ve both gotten our grievances out of the way and established that neither of us have any further plans to attack the other, perhaps we can now work on creating a treaty that actually does benefit both parties?”

“How can we trust you?” Celestia asked. “This could all just be a trick to get us to trust you before you stab us in the back.”

“True,” Gavrisom admitted, “but if I wanted to do that, I could have just flooded this hanger with poison gas or vented it into space instead of meeting with you. We then could have destroyed your planet at our leisure. Oh, by the way, your planetary shield dropped a few seconds after we stopped firing, so I’m guessing it has a quite limited power source that needs to be conserved. The Force reserves of your people, perhaps? I’m quite certain that would run out long before our hypermatter supplies did.”

Celestia decided that she didn’t want to tell him about the Elements of Harmony, and she didn’t bother to ask what hypermatter was. Instead, she took his words to be evidence that he really wasn’t planning any treachery – at least, she accepted it for now. There was no way that she would instantly and totally trust somepony who had just tried to wipe out all of Equestria. “Alright,” she said. “Let’s negotiate.”

“WHAT?!” Luna exclaimed. “Sister, you cannot truly be giving in to this, this murderer, can you?”

Celestia extended a soothing hoof. “Calm yourself, Luna. I said that we’d negotiate, not that I’d give them whatever they want.”

“Very well,” the dark alicorn muttered. Then she looked the human right in the eyes. “But be warned – I will be watching carefully, and I will stop you if you show even the smallest sign that you still intend to harm us.”

“Then I will do everything in my power to give you no reason to do so,” he replied smoothly. He turned back to Celestia, having obviously come to the conclusion – and not a very incorrect one, Luna had to grudgingly admit to herself – that the Princess of the Sun was the only one to wield any actual decision-making power. “Hopefully,” he said, “my first proposal will be one that you can agree to without much bargaining. It would greatly serve the Empire’s interests, both in this system and beyond, to establish a base of operations here. I would like your permission to send the forces who would garrison the base to your planet’s surface. We can provide our own temporary housing, but I’d like them to have a week of unrestricted exploration of your world before deciding on a location to construct a permanent headquarters. This location would be restricted to a place that is neither privately owned nor has any previous construction upon it, so any historical landmarks will be preserved. In exchange, our medical personnel will assist your doctors and provide you with unrestricted access to all of our medicines and medical technology. How does that sound?”

“It sounds like you take me for a complete fool,” Celestia shot back. “Allowing you to send soldiers into Equestria in exchange for a little medicine intended for a totally different species? How could that possibly be considered a fair deal?”

Gavrisom smiled. “I suppose I shouldn’t have expected you to guess the true scope of our medical capabilities. Our medics are quite capable of operating on species other than humans, and I assure you they would learn how to properly treat your species quite quickly. Bacta has almost miraculous results, and it works on almost every species in the galaxy. Let me give you an example of just how amazing bacta is.

“I’m sure you haven’t forgotten the rather sad state of the right side of General Aerin’s face. Well, what you might not have guessed is that under his gloves and uniform, that entire side of his body looks the same, or worse. And he’s damned lucky that it does, too. You see, a few years ago, he got caught in a missile blast – you probably don’t know what missile is, do you? Well, suffice to say that it really messes you up if it hits you – as in, a ‘tears your limbs off and paints whatever remains of the walls with a paste of your innards’ sort of messes you up.

“Fortunately for him – or unfortunately, depending on how you want to look at it – he didn’t receive the full force. He didn’t get turned into giblets, but his guts were all torn up by shrapnel, and the only reason he didn’t bleed out before the medics got to him was because the heat of the blast cauterized most of his arteries. The left side of his body was covered in second-degree burns, and his right was charred and flayed down to his shattered bones in many places. Most people wouldn’t survive that, but he had two things going for him – the man’s more stubborn than a meat-fed bull reek in mating season, and he was only a few dozen meters from a bacta tank.

“He stayed in there for over a month, hooked up to an artificial heart and lungs and given his nutrition by IV while we grew replacement organs for him. The eye didn’t take, unfortunately. His optic nerves were too borked up for us to fix without years of reconstructive surgery, and he wanted to get back to the front lines as soon as possible. Still, we not only saved his life, but we restored him to a point where he could go back on active duty. For any society that didn’t have bacta, the only humane thing the medics could have done would be to shoot him in the head and end his misery. But we saved him. That is what our medicine can do for you.”

The two sisters had started looking incredibly sick at his description of what happens to someone who took a direct hit from a high explosive, and they didn’t seem to have recovered much. Celestia managed to swallow down her nausea long enough to admit, “Yes, those certainly are… impressive medical abilities.”

Gavrisom’s smile grew. “Does that mean that we have a deal?”

Celestia couldn’t shake the feeling that she was still getting the far worse end of the deal, that there was something very important she was forgetting to find out, and that she was giving them something almost as valuable as permission to wander Equestria and build a base, but she was too preoccupied with keeping down last night’s cake to devote too much energy to figuring it out. Instead, she just nodded.

“Deal.”

Chapter Six: Unexpected Developments

System: Celes (OFFICIAL NAME BY ORDER OF IMPERIAL GOVERNOR STURM GAVRISOM)
Planet: Celes-III
Location: Ponyville
Local Time: 09:48
Coruscant Standard Time: 22:07

Clone Lieutenant CL-7382 was not amused. His platoon of stormtroopers had been ordered to scout the area, make contact with the natives, and retrieve any potentially exploitable information about pony culture, history, and government. So far, the only thing they had learned that might be of any use was that the forest outside of the town, which he had seen burn with his own eyes, had somehow been totally restored, as if by magic. Most of the ponies totally avoided him and his brothers, and those that didn’t shot them hateful looks. Wherever the clones went, the village turned into a ghost town.

He couldn’t really blame the aliens, of course – their world was almost reduced to a lava pit less than four hours ago, after all. Didn’t mean that he wasn’t annoyed by their lack of cooperation. He was used to being feared, but that fear was supposed to bring obedience. Unfortunately, he wasn’t in the Empire anymore, and the general had made it clear that the troops couldn’t do anything that might lead to the outbreak of war, so roughing up the creatures to make them talk was out of the question.

As he led a squad of his brothers down yet another abandoned street, a quiet voice came from a shadowy alleyway. “Hey, you there!” it called. “Humans, right? Come here, I want to talk to you.”

He turned and headed into the alley, middle finger on the trigger of his E-11 rifle. This had to be a trap, but if there was the slightest chance he could get something out of this creature, he had to take the chance.

When he was out of the line of sight of any windows, the alien started speaking again. “I wish we could talk normally, but everypony seems to hate you. I think that’s kinda unfair. Just ‘cause your bosses aren’t nice, doesn’t mean all of you aren’t. I mean, my bosses are always unhappy, it’s like they take pride in it. But I try to be friendly to everypony. Hey, I just realized – we say everypony, but you’ve never even met ponies before. Do you say ‘everyhuman,’ or –”

“Everyone,” he cut the creature off, “or everybody. Works for all species. Look, as nice as it is to finally meet someone who’s willing to talk to us, if you haven’t got anything important to say, I’ve got to go. The general’s expecting me to find out more about your society, and he won’t be happy if my report says I wasted my time with idle chatter.”

“Oh, right!” the alien exclaimed, putting a forelimb to its face. “That’s what I wanted to talk to you about! I think everypony will accept you more if you were to learn about Equestria, and I guess you thought of that, too! Since nopony else seems willing to talk to you, I guess I’ll have to be your teacher. If you want, that is.”

The lieutenant chuckled. It looked like this wouldn’t be a waste of time, after all. “I’d like nothing more.”

Location: Canterlot Castle
Local Date: 12/11/3
Galactic Standard Calendar Date: 28:3:32
Local Time: 11:32
Coruscant Standard Time: 23:51

The maroon-cloaked human strode down the ornate halls, a glint of metal occasionally showing on his left hip between the cloak and the black robes beneath. He didn’t need to know the castle’s floor plan to get to his targets – their presences in the Force blazed like suns. A long trail of Royal Guardsponies followed him, insisting that he wasn’t allowed to be there and the Princesses were not to be disturbed. He ignored them. None of them had actually tried to physically restrain him yet, though he wasn’t sure if that was because of their apparent natural revulsion towards violence, or because they sensed his power and what would happen to them if they tried.

He came to a stop outside the doors to the throne room. The two guards standing in front of them seemed more insistent that he stop, levelling their spears at him. How amusing. He doubted they could even actually fight with those things without falling over. Not that they posed any real threat to him, even if they could use their weapons.

“Halt!” one of them commanded. “This is the Royal Throne Room! Nopony is allowed inside without an appointment!”

“Well then, it’s a good thing I’m not a pony, isn’t it?”

The guard scowled. “You aren’t going in. Now get lost.”

The Inquisitor sighed. As much as he would like to draw his lightsaber and fill this corridor with lightning, dismembered bodies, and the wonderful stench of burning flesh, his Master had specifically ordered him not to harm any of the natives unless it would put the Empire into a stronger negotiating position or he deemed it necessary for his own self-preservation. R&R would have to wait until he got back to his training droids. Instead, he waved his hand in front of the guard’s face. “You will let me in.”

The pony adopted a strange, glazed-over expression. “I will let you in.”

The other door guard gaped, then turned on the human in a fury. “What have you done to hi–?!”

Another wave of the hand. “You will accept your fellow guard’s decision.”

“I will accept his decision.”

The left corner of the Inquisitor’s mouth curled into a smirk. These creatures were so weak-minded, he almost felt sorry for them. Almost. He walked through the doors, then slammed and held them shut with a gesture, cutting himself off the company of guards that had tried to impede him.

Standing before the two alicorns, he had to change his opinion of them. The raw power bleeding off of them made him feel like he was caught between two supernovae. They weren’t Force-users, they were aberrations; more entities of the spiritual plane than beings of the physical one. Intriguingly, though, their Force signatures held the same lack of refinement that he would expect from a first or second-year Padawan. Clearly, for all their innate power, they were severely held back by their species’ lack of the tens of thousands of years of study and practice that had created the modern Jedi and Sith Orders. They even still called the Force ‘magic,’ for the Emperor’s sake! He was starting to feel quite confident that he could handle them in a fight, should it come to that.

As the reports had predicted, the dark sister reacted first to his rather abrupt intrusion. “What is the meaning of this?! Do you not reali–?!”

Her voice was cut off as the Inquisitor made a pinching motion with his left thumb and forefinger, squeezing her windpipe shut. Again, he was struck by the creatures’ lack of even the most basic of skills. They seemed to possess no more passive resistance to telekinesis than the totally Force-blind. “Quiet, whelp,” he snapped. “I want to talk to the one that’s actually important.” He turned toward the white sister. “I am High Inquisitor Malen Valerious. I speak with the full authority of His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Palpatine. By Imperial edict, all Force-users in the galaxy must –”

He stopped when the squad of Royal Guardsponies in the room finally recovered from their shock and surrounded him. Took them long enough. If this was the Emperor’s throne room, I’d be dead several times over already. He pushed his hands outward, knocking the creatures through the air with a Force Wave. He couldn’t do any permanent damage, unfortunately, but an appropriate display of his superior might should put the locals in their place. He returned his attention to Celestia. “Now, as I was saying –”

His reflexes and skill in Shien saved his life as Luna, released from his grip, unleashed a blast of pure Force energy toward him. He managed to ignite his lightsaber and interpose it between himself and the beam just in time, but the sheer power behind the attack ripped it out of his hands and sent him and his blade flying in different directions. Exar Kun would be proud. If it hadn’t been for his Force-enhanced durability, he had no doubt that the attack would have ripped his arms off at the sockets and kept going. As it was, both of his shoulders were dislocated, and he had to bite back a scream as he used the Force to wrench them back into place. Just in case he survived this, he made two resolutions:

1. Learn Soresu.
2. Don’t underestimate Force entities, you dumb schutta!

He rolled over onto his back to find Celestia standing over him, a furious look on her face. His little flight had knocked back his hood, revealing his own face. He had skin that was so pale as to almost be white, dark brown eyes, black hair that was slicked back in the front and near-shoulder-length in the back, in the classic Jedi style, and chiseled features that would have been handsome on a marble statue, or anyone whose expression wasn’t totally devoid of even the slightest trace of good-will.

Celestia spoke, barely-contained rage rippling through her voice. “You’ve made a grave mistake, attacking my sister. I suggest you give up now, but I almost hope you don’t.”

Author's Note

"Nobody expects the Imperial Inquisition!"

-Fa'Zoll

Happy Star Wars Day! Yes! I got this one out in time! May the Fourth be with you! (Or, since I've got a Dark Jedi but no normal Jedi in this right now - May the Fourth serve you well!)

Chapter Seven: How to (Not) Kill Goddesses

Location: Canterlot Castle Throne Room
Local Time: 11:54
Coruscant Standard Time: 23:53

Inquisitor Valerious propped himself up on one elbow, shoulders protesting against the movement. Staring up at the two furious Force entities before him and hearing the guards pounding on the doors, he realized that he couldn’t afford to drag this out. “All right, all right,” he said, raising his hands in surrender. “I yield to your superior might.” He started to slowly lower his hands, then suddenly extended them toward the white alicorn and spread his fingers. Celestia, not educated in the abilities granted by the Dark Side of the Force, was caught off-guard and sent flying across the room by the burst of lightning, smashing through her throne.

He quickly rolled out of the way of the inevitable retaliatory strike by her sister, turning the movement into a cartwheel and landing on his feet. His lightsaber flew into his outstretched hand. The double-length hilt gave him a leverage advantage over opponents with a standard saber, though he had to make it out of expensive phrik in order to prevent attacks against it. One end was capped in the common Jedi conical pommel shape, while his scarlet blade emerged from a very Sithly emitter, surrounded by four triangular metal blades.

A burst of Force Speed brought him within range of Luna before she could fire another beam at him. She barely dodged his first strike, and he kept up the pressure with a relentless Ataru offense. After an overhead swing, he used his momentum to twist into a kick that caught her in the throat with an audible crunch. She fell to the marble floor – the alicorns might not have needed to breathe, but getting her windpipe crushed still hurt like all Chaos.

Malen flipped his lightsaber over in his hand and prepared to finish off his fallen enemy, but he was forced to jump out of the way of a beam of golden energy launched by the recovered Celestia. A gesture shattered the thrown room’s stained glass windows, and another sent the razor-sharp shards hurtling towards the sisters. While Celestia managed to throw up a Force shield to protect herself, the Inquisitor smiled broadly at the sight of half the fragments embedding themselves in the prone Luna.

Of course, this also had the side effect of throwing Celestia into a screaming rage. He desperately dodged the flurry of beams directed toward him, putting all of his Force energy into his precognition and augmenting his agility. When an opportunity presented itself, he leapt over one of the beams and lunged for his foe, only to be knocked back by a Force Repulse. As he rolled to his feet, the door finally broke open, and guards streamed into the room.

He knew that he had no hope of winning this fight. His Force reserves were draining, and the sheer number of guards would have posed a near-insurmountable challenge even at his full strength. However, he would not surrender. He had enough power left for one last trick.

Before becoming an Inquisitor, he had been a Shadow: a member of the Jedi Order’s officially nonexistent branch of assassins. The Shadows had many obscure skills intended to aid them in their quest to destroy anyone or anything the Council of First Knowledge decided was corrupted by the Dark Side. He had found one of those abilities particularly useful.

With a wave of his hand, he disappeared in a Force Cloak. Celestia looked around in shock for a moment, then turned to her guards. “Scour the castle grounds and put Canterlot on lockdown! He couldn’t have teleported far.”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” they responded as one, then hurried out of the room.

Malen was confused. Force Cloak was a rare ability outside of the Jedi Shadows and the old, disbanded Sith Assassins, but teleportation was hardly much more common. For her to come to the immediate conclusion that he had teleported, at least one of two things had to be true: either teleportation was an unusually common skill here, or cloaking was entirely unheard of. Still, whichever it was, he was grateful for her inaccurate conclusion.

If teleportation worked here like it did in the rest of the galaxy (not necessarily a safe assumption, based on what he already knew of this world), teleportation was restricted to locations the practitioner could see, at the very best. Most users of the skill couldn’t travel more than a few meters. The guards would probably heavily reinforce the highest towers to deprive him of a good vantage point for a long-distance teleport in case he was one of the ability’s masters. However, what he’d actually be looking for would be lower locations in the wall, where he wouldn’t have to divert too much of his energy from the Cloak to cushion his landing.

He was drawn from his musings by some unexpected movement in his peripheral vision. Turning toward the activity, he almost lost the concentration needed to sustain the Cloak when Luna staggered to her hooves. Impossi- No, quite possible. Remember the second resolution. These are Force entities. They’re only marginally constrained by the laws of physics. Their physical forms are probably highly malleable. In all likelihood, they’re shapeshifters, too. Anything less than an instantly killing blow will be insufficient to do more than momentarily incapacitate them. He wasn’t even slightly surprised when she pulled the shards of glass out of her body and her wounds began healing before his eyes.

She stumbled over to her sister and spoke in a voice that was gratifyingly strained. “I think we ought to pay the humans a little visit.”

Chapter Eight: One Last Chance

Location: Everfree Imperial Encampment
Local Date: 12/11/3
Galactic Standard Calendar Date: 28:3:33
Local Time: 12:27
Coruscant Standard Time: 00:26

Major General Davar Aerin was in the middle of overseeing preparations for the establishment of the permanent garrison when the alicorn sisters arrived. It hadn’t taken the Imperials long to realize that the Everfree Forest was the only place they could establish a base and enforce an exclusion zone. Their unwittingly traitorous informant had given them significant insight into this planet. Some of it was obvious falsehoods that were no doubt the result of being fed nothing but propaganda since birth – suns decidedly do not orbit planets, for example – but most had proven factual, even as outlandish as it seemed.

Equestria’s environment and weather were highly controlled for the inhabitants’ benefit through an innate Force ability of the flying subspecies that somehow allowed them to interact with clouds as if the loose collections of water vapor and particulates were individual solid objects. However, this forest seemed to have some sort of superstition surrounding it, and it had been allowed to go unregulated. Since few of the natives dared enter the place, establishing the base there would allow them to operate without alien supervision.

Now, however, it was starting to seem unlikely that they would even get the chance to begin laying down the foundation. Noticing Celestia’s scorched fur and the shards of glass tangled in Luna’s mane and tail, he had been tempted to joke that they looked like they’d lost a fight with a vidscreen. He had been dissuaded from that course of actions by the facts that they wouldn’t have known what a vidscreen was, and that they already looked murderous.

“Would you like to explain, General,” Celestia asked, cold fury in her voice, “the assassination attempt we just survived?”

“Assassination attempt?” he echoed back, genuinely confused. “What in Chaos are you talking about?”

“Do you expect us to believe that this ‘Inquisitor Malen’ isn’t associated with you?” Luna snapped. “He was one of you humans!”

Aerin groaned. “That wasn’t supposed to be – you know what? I hate diplomacy.” He looked over his shoulder, back toward the camp. “Zem! Zem, get over here!” A blue-eyed, blond-haired human in a brown variant of the Imperial uniform walked over. “Introduce yourself, and let these two know what the Inquisitor was supposed to be doing. I don’t want to deal with this.” The general stormed off.

The new human watched him for a moment with an annoyed look on his face, then turned back to the alicorns. “Well, then. I’m Captain Zem Orramas, Imperial Diplomatic Service. I’m… not sure what this is all about, but High Inquisitor Malen Valerious was assigned to ensure that an Imperial edict mandating the establishment of a database of all Force-sensitives in the Galaxy was properly carried out on this planet. Judging by the looks on your faces… I’m guessing something went wrong?”

“Went wrong?” Celestia exclaimed in a rage. “The very first thing he did was to try to strangle my sister using magic!”

Orramas frowned. “Surely he isn’t that stupid. You can live without oxygen, can't you? I seem to recall something about a thousand-year banishment to this planet’s moon?” A sudden look of distress crossed his face. “Oh, no. You didn’t kill him, did you? The Emperor really doesn’t appreciate his most elite operatives dying.”

Celestia responded with a negatory shake of her head. “He teleported away before we could subdue him.” Her expression got even darker. “And how do you know of Nightmare Moon?”

He crossed his arms. “Oh, we have our sources. Some of your subjects have lips that’re a bit looser than maybe they should be. You should probably look into that – or don’t. It sure makes our lives a hell of a lot easier. Anyways, I don’t think the Inquisitor was trying to kill your sister; I think he was trying to intimidate you. They’re used to being feared everywhere they go. If you showed him anything other than absolute, terrified deference, I’ll bet he was furious. No-one defies an Inquisitor, not if they want to keep their heads.”

The two sisters looked horrified. “Keep their heads?” Celestia whispered. “They kill pon– people – just for being a little disrespectful?”

He laughed humorlessly. “Or if they’re just in a bad mood and want a little stress relief. It’s not like anyone can stop them, after all.”

“But they’re under your command!” Luna exclaimed. “Order them not to, and throw them in the dungeon if they disobey!”

He gave her a sad smile. “No, they’re not under military control at all. The only ones they’re beholden to are the Grand Inquisitor, Lord Vader, and the Emperor himself. The rest of us just have to do what they want and hope we don’t end up in body bags.”

“That’s an awful position to be in,” Celestia admitted, “but if anything, it just proves how evil your Empire is, if such people can gain so much power and be held utterly unaccountable. I think it’s time for all of you to leave, now, and never come back.”

“No! Please!” Orramas begged. “You’ve seen the worst of the Empire – the brutality of the military, the corruption in places of power – but surely your nation isn’t perfect either! And even if it is, there are other nations in this world that aren’t, and you’re willing to work with them! You’ve gotten a bad first impression, but the Empire isn’t all like that. We’ve got scientists, doctors, engineers, inventors, merchants! Quadrillions of normal citizens just trying to make a living. We’re a complex society like any other. Please, just give us one more chance.”

Celestia looked away, torn between the crimes she had already seen the Empire commit and her desire to believe that there’s good in everypony. Eventually, her kindness won out over her suspicion. “All right. One more chance. One. But first – what was that about a list of… ‘Force-sensitives’?”

“Ah, yes. Twelve years ago, a group of Force-users called the Jedi who were sworn to protect the Galactic Republic – the Empire’s predecessor state – used the chaos near the end of a war to try to assassinate the Republic’s leader and take power for themselves. That betrayal led to the Republic being reorganized into the Empire in order to better protect against rebellion, the Jedi Order being declared illegal, and the Jedi being hunted down and either killed or forced to swear allegiance to the Emperor. As a part of the efforts to prevent anything like that from happening again, all Force-sensitives – those with the potential to use the Force – are to be identified, placed on a watch list, and, if necessary, either recruited or put down before they can pose a threat. It’s harsh, I know, but the people are sick of war, and they’re willing to accept any measures necessary to keep them safe.”

“Put down.” Celestia repeated, disgusted. “War. How can you talk about killing so casually?”

“It’s how the universe works, Your Highness. I’m sorry, but it’s true. That war I mentioned lasted for three years and killed trillions. Due to the sheer size of the galaxy, over twenty million beings die every second. Most people have just learned to accept it.”

“I won’t let you ‘put down’ any of my little ponies.”

“Of course not, Your Majesty,” Orramas replied, making a placating gesture. “I’m sure none of your subjects would take any action that you would oppose, so there won’t be any need for such… drastic actions. Still, with your permission, we’d still like to have that list… just in case.”

“No. I’m letting you stay. Don’t push your luck.”

“Ah. Of course, Your Highness. I’m sure we’ll manage without it. It’s been a pleasure to make your acquaintance. I hope we can talk again later under less… unpleasant… circumstances.”

“I said, don’t push it, Captain. I expect that you humans will be on excellent behavior from now on. For your sake, I hope we never have to speak again.” Still scowling, the two sisters flew off.

“Well done, Captain.” Inquisitor Valerious emerged from his Cloak next to the officer. “They didn’t even demand my execution. I trust those rather… unflattering remarks about the Inquisitorious were only made to placate them?”

A bead of sweat appeared on Orramas’s forehead. “Of course, Inquisitor. I would never even dream of questioning my superiors.”

Malen gave his cold grin. “Of course you wouldn’t. You were far too well selected and trained for that. Now, let’s see what we can do to cause some revolution.”

Chapter Nine: Imperial War Council

System: Celes
Location: Indomitable command room, in orbit over Celes-III
Local Time: 14:43
Coruscant Standard Time: 02:42

Inquisitor Valerious was the last one to enter the room. All of the highest-ranking officers in the task force were seated around the holotable. They started to rise, but he waved them back down. He could sense that they feared him, and that was enough. He was a practical man, and didn’t need all the pomp and ceremony that the Moffs and the Emperor loved to surround themselves with. “Let’s get this meeting over with. Governor?”

Gavrisom cleared his throat. “Now that we seem to have cemented our presence here,” he gave Orramas an appreciative nod, “it’s time for us to see what courses of action are open to us. The Emperor himself has ruled out orchestrating a strategic extinction, so we have to find a more subtle way of removing the unfriendly current regime. I believe you’ve already started on a plan, Inquisitor?”

“Indeed. Their army poses no significant threat – they outnumber us by more than twenty-to-one, but they’re hardly equipped to handle a modern military force, and their entire species seems to have a strange aversion to actually spilling blood. We could probably defeat all of them with a single regiment. The real dangers that we’ll have to eliminate are their leaders and ‘heroes,’ plus the near-total approval they enjoy among their subjects. I’ll deal with the latter myself – these creatures are so weak-minded, filling their heads with traitorous thoughts would be trivially easy. I could probably convince half of them to murder their best friends if I wanted to. I’ll have to limit my influence to subtle emotional manipulation, though; the one called “Luna” is reputed to be a highly skilled telepath, so I’ll need to be careful not to cause any overt alterations to their minds that could be traced back to me. On that note: their VIPs. Captain Orramas?”

Orramas keyed a few commands into the holotable, and an image of the dark alicorn appeared above it. “Since Inquisitor Valerious mentioned Princess Luna, we’ll start with her. Name: Luna. Gender: female. Subspecies: alicorn. Titles: Princess of the Night. Aliases: Nightmare Moon. According to our informant, the official story is that Nightmare Moon was actually a separate entity that possessed the princess. However, we have no way of determining the truth of the matter. Current residence: Canterlot Castle, Canterlot. General description: as Princess Celestia’s closest known relative, she’s first in line for the Equestrian throne if anything should happen to the current monarch. A small segment of the population has actually suggested that Celestia should abdicate in favor of her sister. Most of the advocates of that course of action are on the fringes of pony society – pariahs, cultists, and even some of the closest beings this planet has to major criminals, who hope she’d give them pardons in return for their service. She’s publically denounced the idea of a coup, but we may still find some use for these fanatics. The superstitious locals also believe her to have the power to move this planet’s moon – Lun, I believe you decided to call it, Governor?”

Gavrisom nodded as Malen spoke up. “Don’t immediately dismiss it as all superstition, Captain. She is a powerful Force entity, and this entire system is absolutely inundated in the Force. It wouldn’t surprise me much to find out that she actually does play some role in regulating Lun’s orbit.”

General Aerin spoke up. “What are you saying, then? That we can’t kill her without the moon losing its orbital velocity and crashing down on the planet?”

The Inquisitor shrugged. “Quite possibly. Or maybe it would lose its angular acceleration and fly off into deep space, which would be catastrophic in its own way. Unfortunately, we also can’t afford not to kill her. I mentioned her telepathic abilities – she apparently has the ability to enter the mind of any of her subjects whenever she wishes, as long as that pony is asleep. She doesn’t seem to have figured out how to access the human mind yet, but we can’t take the risk that she someday might. We’ll have to find some way to assassinate her without causing a massive public outcry and getting war declared.”

“Wonderful,” Orramas intoned, rolling his eyes. “Psych profile: she’s exhibited impulsive tendencies and is usually the first of the alicorns to suggest solving a problem through violence. Similarly, she seems to have significantly less of a problem with employing lethal force than her sister, accounting for sixty-two-point-five percent of our casualties during the space battle on 28:3:29. Based on what we’ve been told by our informant, she may be suffering from borderline personality disorder. She displays a pathological need for the approval of others, tends to devalue those who don’t give it to her, and has engaged in self-harming behavior out of an extreme sense of guilt over actions she’s taken as a result of that devaluation. That we might be able to exploit her instability should go without saying. Next subject.”

He tapped on the holotable again, and the image changed to the white alicorn. “Name: Celestia. Gender: female. Subspecies: alicorn. Titles: Princess of the Sun, Princess of Equestria. Aliases: none. Current residence: Canterlot Castle, Canterlot. General description: according to local legend, she’s been the absolute ruler of the ponies for over a thousand years. She’s also said to cause the star Celes to orbit Celes-III.” He turned to face Inquisitor Valerious, an eyebrow raised.

Malen rubbed his chin for a moment. “Well, the local perception is provably false – we know this planet orbits its star and rotates on its axis. Perhaps she’s involved in maintaining that rotation? Of course, that’s not to say she doesn’t have some sort of connection with this system’s sun – a few legendarily powerful Force-users have manipulated stars before. I just have no idea what that relationship might be, if there even is one.”

“Tidal locking – that would certainly ruin this planet’s value as an agriworld,” Orramas muttered under his breath. “Psych profile: she’s said to be benevolent and incredibly wise. Some of her more fanatical supporters even claim that she’s omniscient – that’s a laugh. While she’s known to be a skilled combatant who is willing to engage in violence in order to protect her subjects, she also has a reputation for only employing lethal force if given absolutely no alternative. Her few opponents accuse her of behavior that would suggest possible antisocial personality disorder – lack of empathy, a love of cruel tricks, total disdain for social norms, and grand-scale manipulations. We don’t have nearly enough evidence for a conclusive diagnosis, though. Next.”

The image changed to the pink alicorn. “Name: Mi Amore Cadenza. Gender: female. Subspecies: originally pegasus, somehow mystically transformed into an alicorn. Titles: Princess of Love, the Crystal Princess, Princess of the Crystal Empire. Aliases: Cadance. Current residence: the Crystal Castle, the Crystal Empire. General description: Celestia’s ‘adopted niece’ and ruler of the Crystal Empire by heredity. She’s married to the Captain of the Canterlot Guard, Shining Armor. She has one child with him, a newborn alicorn – female, of course – named Flurry Heart.”

“I’m starting to see a connection between gender, subspecies, and positions of authority,” Aerin interrupted. “These creatures aren’t, by any chance, speciesist misandrists, are they?”

Orramas nodded. “Yes, they are. Their rulers would deny it, of course, but many ponies think of non-ponies as little more than animals, there’s some considerable posturing between the three primary subspecies, alicorns are all female and are considered inherently superior to all other beings, and females fill most positions of authority, with males being primarily, though not exclusively, restricted to roles requiring extensive physical exertions.”

The general’s face twisted into an ugly sneer. “Considering aliens and women superior to humans and men? How disgustingly backwards. I can’t wait to disabuse them of those ridiculous notions, preferably by way of public mass executions.”

Gavrisom glared at him. “Not on my watch, Dav. We won’t be winning any hearts and minds through slaughter.”

“Blast ‘hearts and minds’!” Aerin shouted, rising from his chair. “Terror is a fine motivator everywhere else, it will work here! I say we round up their leaders and riddle them with so much blasterfire they end up looking like hunks of overcooked nerf! We should level their cities, burn their fields! Put the fear of the Emperor into them! If these aliens think they can defy the Empire, then we –!”

“That’s enough!” Gavrisom roared. All the other officers in the room stared at him in silent shock. The kind-hearted grandfather never raised his voice unless it was absolutely necessary in order to be heard over the din of battle. For him, yelling was a sign of nothing less than absolute rage. “Sit down, General! I know how much you lost at the hands of the Wookiees, but that doesn’t give you an excuse to just murder every single alien you come across! I will not have your unthinking hatred compromise this mission! By my authority as Imperial Governor of this system, I’m constraining you to the main base for any and all time you spend planetside. You are not to come into contact with any of the natives without my express permission. Do I make myself clear?”

Aerin wanted to argue, but he just nodded. “Yes… sir.” He could have claimed that Admiral Gavrisom didn't have the authority to decide how ground operations would be run, but he couldn’t say the same about Governor Gavrisom.

“Good.” The old man leaned back in his chair and squeezed his eyes shut, breathing heavily. The veins on his neck stuck out, and the tension in his shoulders revealed that he had his fists clenched under the table. There was an uncomfortable silence as everyone waited for him to regain his composure. Finally, he straightened up and opened his eyes. “Go on, Captain.”

“Of course. Now, where was I…? Ah, right, Cadance. She’s a powerful empath and telepath, and is known for extensively altering her subjects’ minds to fit her concept of the ‘ideal’ emotional state. Bizarrely, no ponies seem to consider this a bad thing. Instead, it’s viewed as her natural right as the ‘Princess of Love.’ I’d recommend, Inquisitor, that you avoid doing anything to her so-called ‘crystal ponies.’ She’d likely be able to undo any of your work.”

“Suggestion noted.”

Orramas coughed. “Yes, well… Anyways, psych profile: she’s obsessed with making ponies feel love, and doesn’t seem to particularly care whether those feelings are natural or artificially induced. She’s said to be exceptionally kind and caring, though that’s probably more the result of her mass brainwashing techniques than anything else. Next.”

A hologram of a white unicorn stallion with a blue mane. “Name: Shining Armor. Gender: male. Subspecies: unicorn. Titles: Captain of the Canterlot Guard, Prince of the Crystal Empire. Aliases: none. Current residence: the Crystal Castle, the Crystal Empire. General description: probably the most respected male in all of Equestria, he’s the husband of Princess Cadance and brother of Princess Twilight Sparkle. His fame comes primarily through his connections to royalty, though he is also said to be Equestria’s greatest soldier, not that that means much. Psych profile: he puts on a stern, uncaring demeanor when operating as a soldier. However, he’s known to be very kind and excessively emotional when not in his armor. Next.”

The lavender alicorn. “Name: Twilight Sparkle. Gender: female. Subspecies: originally a unicorn, transformed into an alicorn upon her coronation. Titles: Princess of Friendship, Princess of Ponyville, Bearer of the Element of Magic. Aliases: none. Current residence: the Castle of Friendship, Ponyville. General description: the first of Equestria’s six greatest heroes, she’ll be central to any pony war effort. She’s believed to have the greatest potential in the Force of any being on the planet, even more than Celestia and Luna. She was raised as much by Celestia as by her parents, so she’s fanatically devoted to the monarch. There are even rumors that she’s being groomed to be Celestia’s successor. Psych profile: she’s well known for being mildly neurotic and obsessed with being constantly in control of her situation, with tendencies toward obsessive compulsive disorder. She also has a rather extreme commitment to learning, possessing an insatiable desire for greater knowledge.”

Malen’s face twisted into a malicious grin. “Does she, now? I’m amazed she hasn’t fallen yet. She must have a remarkably strong will, especially for a pony. I think I’ll enjoy overcoming it. Don’t worry about her, gentlemen. She’ll be serving the Empire before the month is out.”

“The Empire, or you personally?” a mutter came from the far end of the table.

“What was that, Captain Fanir?” the Inquisitor asked innocently, his smile not wavering.

“N-nothing, my lord!” the officer stammered, sweating profusely.

“Oh, really? Because I’m sure I heard an insinuation that my will is not the will of the Emperor, that work done in my service is not work in the Empire’s service. And that, Captain, is treason.”

“No, my lord! Plea- AAARRRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!” His pleas were cut short as lightning arced across the table, causing him to writhe in agony. Nobody else moved as smoke started to rise from him. His screams finally choked off a full ten seconds later, but the lightning kept coming until his body stopped twitching. Throughout it all, Malen never stopped smiling.

“You may continue, Captain Orramas.”

The nervous officer licked his lips, and opened and closed his mouth several times before he could make any sound come out. “Next subject,” he finally managed. The image switched to a cyan-furred, rainbow-maned pegasus mare. “Name: Rainbow Dash. Gender: female. Subspecies: pegasus. Titles: Bearer of the Element of Loyalty. Aliases: none. Current residence: the ‘Cloudominium,’ Ponyville outskirts. General description: she’s another one of the six pony heroes. Recently inducted as a member of the ‘Wonderbolts,’ a semi-military stunt-flying group. She’s famous as the ‘best flier in Equestria,’ and is capable of reaching supersonic speeds in an event known as a ‘sonic rainboom.’ She also belongs to the Ponyville weather patrol, the pegasi responsible for regulating that town’s environment. Psych profile: she’s arrogant, hotheaded, violent, and extremely competitive. Unfortunately, as her title suggests, she’s also just as fanatically loyal to the current regime as Princess Sparkle, so I don’t foresee any successful attempts to suborn her. Next.”

An orange Earth pony mare. “Name: Applejack. Gender: female. Subspecies: Earth pony. Titles: Bearer of the Element of Honesty. Aliases: none. Current residence: Sweet Apple Acres, Ponyville outskirts. General description: another of the six heroes. She works as a simple farmer, and lives with her elderly grandmother, older brother, and younger sister. Intriguingly, despite her status as a hero of the realm, she seems to be in perpetually dire financial straits. Psych profile: she’s almost as competitive and violent as Rainbow Dash, with whom she maintains a semi-friendly rivalry. She also has very ‘country values,’ placing great importance on a strong work ethic, loyalty to one’s friends and family, simple living, and, as per her title, honesty. I recommend sending a few of our Corellian Army troops to offer to help her around her farm. I expect she’d bond quite well with them, perhaps splitting her loyalties. If we can get Rainbow Dash to denounce us, or maybe even provoke her to violence against us, we may be able to play off their rivalry to put her firmly in our camp. Next.”

A white-furred, purple-maned unicorn mare. “Name: Rarity. Gender: female. Subspecies: unicorn. Titles: Bearer of the Element of Generosity. Aliases: none. Current residence: the Carousel Boutique, Ponyville. General description: yet another hero. A self-proclaimed fashionista, she produces her own highly successful clothing line and works as Ponyville’s resident seamstress – in more ways than one, according to some of the darker rumors, though we have yet to find any concrete evidence to support such claims. Psych profile: she’s extremely vain, far greedier than her title would imply, and known to use seduction to achieve her goals. Some of the ISB agents have suggested narcissistic personality disorder, but I don’t think her behavior is that extreme. Possibly histrionic, but not narcissistic. She’ll probably be the easiest to win over. I expect we’ll be able to convert her to our side with simple flattery and bribes. Next.”

A pink Earth pony mare. “Name: Pinkamena Diane Pie. Gender: female. Subspecies: Earth pony. Titles: Bearer of the Element of Laughter. Aliases: Pinkie Pie. Current residence: Sugarcube Corner, Ponyville. General description: another hero. She works as a baker for the Cake family – yes, really, she’s named Pie, her employers are named Cake, and they’re all bakers. She’s also a ‘party pony,’ meaning that she gets government funds with which to throw parties at her discretion, a trait she totally lacks. She possesses several abilities that the other ponies consider bizarre and indicate that she’s a powerful Force-user despite not being a unicorn, such as teleportation, personal levitation, precognition, and limited shapeshifting. Psych profile: totally insane. She’s almost totally incapable of focusing on anything for any significant period of time, she has a near-absolute fixation on parties, and is known to talk to people who aren’t there. Frankly, she’s too karked in the head for us to pin exactly what it is she has, but whatever it is, it’s bad. Some of the guesses have been attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, paranoid schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and dissociative identity disorder. Personally, my credits are on schizoaffective disorder, but I’m not a psychologist. Regardless of what it is, though, she’s too messed up for it to really be worth our time interacting with her. Next.”

The yellow pegasus Aerin had ordered shot. “Name: Fluttershy. Gender: female. Subspecies: pegasus. Titles: Bearer of the Element of Kindness. Aliases: none. Current residence: a cottage on the edge of the Everfree Forest. General description: the last of the six heroes. She doesn’t seem to have a steady job. Instead, she cares for a large variety of animals, occasionally accepting ‘bits,’ the local currency, in exchange for looking after other ponies pets. Most of the animals living at her home are undomesticated, but she has a strange ability to communicate with them like they’re people. Psych profile: she suffers from several phobias, such as mild acrophobia, mild nyctophobia, and moderate-to-severe anthropophobia – 'equinophobia,' I suppose – or possibly social anxiety disorder. She’s also as overwhelmingly nice as you’d expect from her title. I’ll personally make contact with her. If I can convince her that we aren’t all murderous psychopaths,” his gaze wandered around the table, pausing momentarily on Aerin, Malen, and Fanir’s corpse, “then I’m confident that I can get her to not take any hostile action against us, though I doubt she’ll be willing to outright turn against her friends. Finally, the reason we’re having this meeting here, instead of at our base on the planet’s surface.”

The image switched to the strange being whose appearance had prompted the Base Delta Zero order. “Name: Discord. Gender: male. Species: draconequus. Titles: Lord of Chaos. Aliases: None. Current residence: an alternate dimension. The closest thing he has to a permanent home in this dimension is Fluttershy’s cottage. General description: he –”

“I’ll handle this one, Captain,” Malen interrupted. “You don’t have any experience with Force entities. He’s not quite the most powerful being I’ve ever heard about, but he certainly deserves an honorable mention. He also seems to have recently developed a formidable allegiance to the current regime, despite having once been one of their worst enemies. Even if we did somehow manage to convince him to switch sides, we wouldn’t be able to trust him not to turn on us for his own amusement. His favorite tactic is psychological warfare, though he can turn to his vast array of Force abilities if that fails. Those abilities include shapeshifting, telekinesis, extremely powerful mind tricks, and even transmogrification of his environment and opponents at will. He is extremely difficult to kill, having survived total dismemberment with ease. It’s theorized by the locals that the only way to kill him permanently is to somehow strip him of his powers and execute him while he’s helpless. There is a Force power that can strip someone of their connection to the Force, but unfortunately, I don’t know how to do it, and even if I did, I doubt that I’m powerful enough to successfully employ it against him. Instead, we’ll have to rely on surprise and overwhelming force – ‘force’ with a small ‘f.’ I’ve got the ISB working on the problem.

“Psychologically, well, doing normal psychoanalysis on a Force entity is… less than effective, though according to our ISB agents, an ordinary being with his behavior would probably be diagnosed with antisocial personality disorder and sadism. He’ll do anything in his significant power to break you mentally and make your life hell, just for his own twisted amusement.” He paused, the silence hanging heavy in the air. Several moments passed. “What, nobody wants to say, ‘Just like you, Inquisitor’? I’m disappointed! I was so looking forward to exercising my power again.” A few of the officers shot furtive looks at Captain Fanir’s charred corpse.

After several more seconds, he spoke up again. “So, I’m sure you all noticed the ‘Elements’ Captain Orramas mentioned. These ‘Elements of Harmony’ are six gems that have been heavily imbued with the Light Side of the Force. Together, they operate as a superweapon, and are Equestria’s first and last effective line of defense. They seem to be capable of whatever the current situation demands, from banishing Force entities, to encasing them in stone, to brainwashing, to – as we’ve seen – projecting powerful Force shields and repairing damage to the ponies and their environment. Fortunately, they’re only effective when working in conjunction, and they require suitable pony ‘Element-Bearers’ in order to function. If we manage to convince just one of those six ‘heroes’ to not work against us, we disable their biggest ace-in-the-hole. Of course, if we can find and destroy the Elements themselves, that would be even better.”

Orramas nodded. “In order, our priorities are the Elements, Discord, and Luna. None of the others present any threat that can’t be overcome through liberal applications of firepower. A final point. If we play our cards right, we might not be fighting alone when things almost inevitably collapse into warfare. As I mentioned before, most of the ponies don’t have very high opinions of the other sapient species that live on this planet. This has led to quite a bit of mutual resentment developing. The ponies have made significant efforts to improve relations in recent years, but the ISB is working on methods to undo that progress and present us as liberators from the tyranny of the ponies. You’ll be advised upon the finalization of any such plans. If nobody else has anything to add…? Then this meeting is adjourned. Long live the Emperor.”

“Long live the Emperor!”

Chapter Ten: The Fires of Industry

Fluttershy’s Cottage
12/12/3
7:14 A.M.

“No… no, I can’t believe it. How could they? How could anypony do that?”

The squirrel was insistent. Fluttershy had already suffered the worst at the hands of the Imperials – if the Elements of Harmony hadn’t healed her, she’d still be in the hospital – but she hadn’t thought that even they would do something so pointlessly cruel. She had to see this for herself. As she entered the Everfree Forest, she tried desperately to come up with an explanation. Maybe he saw it wrong. Maybe something happened to them, and they’re just defending themselves. Surely nopony could do that without a good reason. But Tirek had, seemingly out of pure spite, and the humans had already proven themselves to be even more willing to do damage than him. Ahead, she heard wood cracking and strange groans and hisses. She pushed forward…

…and emerged into a scene from a nightmare. Where there had once been dense forest, there was now a massive clearing. All around her, huge metal creatures tore up trees and placed them in devices that seemed to do nothing but belch out smoke and ash. In the center of the clearing, a vast patch of the soil had been stripped down to the bedrock in a roughly hexagonal shape. The pit had a metal framework within it, which was being filled with concrete. There could be no justifying such devastation.

“Hey! What are you doing here?!” A human in a white uniform and a black cap ran over to her. “This is a restricted area. You aren’t authorized to be here.”

“Wha-what? Restricted? Not authorized?” Fluttershy’s fury overcame her fear. “Nopony owns the forest! This used to be a home for hundreds of animals! What are you doing here?!”

The human crossed his arms over his chest. “As a matter of fact, we do own this forest, or at least this part of it. Princess Celestia gave us one week to decide on the location for our base, and we’ve decided on here. We have to clear this area to make room for the garrison. Now, get lost. This is our land now, and you’re not allowed on it without a prior invitation.”

“I don’t believe that Celestia would allow you to do something so horrible!”

“Well, she didn’t say we couldn’t,” he replied with a lopsided grin. “This isn’t a protected historical site, and as you said, it wasn’t previously owned, so our agreement lets us build here. If she didn’t want us clearing the forest, she should’ve said so. Now are you going to leave on your own, or am I going to have to call over some CompForce psychos to throw you out?”

Fluttershy didn’t know what “CompForce” was, but the way he said it made it sound very unpleasant. Still, she couldn’t just give up and let this travesty continue without at least trying to stop it. She ran over to one of the metal giants as it wrapped its claws around another tree. “Please, stop. Can’t you see what you’re doing is wrong? If… if you don’t stop this right now, I… I’ll have to use the Stare to make you stop, and… and I don’t want to –”

She stopped as the creature ripped the tree out of the ground and dumped it in one of the smoking machines, seeming to not even notice her pleas. The human laughed. “It’s really no use arguing with a droid, at least not those cheap labor models. They’ll only realize you’re there if you’re physically stopping them from carrying out their programming – and maybe not even then. There’s an old story about a binary loadlifter programmed to stack crates in a multistory warehouse. Unfortunately, the floor under the pile wasn’t properly designed, and gave out under the weight. The droid just kept trying to stack the crates, dropping box after box down the hole.”

“Droid? Programming? Binary loadlifter? I… I don’t understand…”

The human made a noise that was somewhere between a groan and a sigh. “Primitives. Why do we even bother with you creatures? Look, droids – these things –” he banged on the giant’s leg, “they aren’t actually alive. They’re just machines, designed to do things that we can’t do, or don’t want to do, ourselves. And if you’re not on the list of people it’s been told it can take orders from, it won’t pay any attention to you. ’Cause it’s not smart enough to, get it?” His expression turned very dark. “And this is the third time I’ve told you to get lost. I recognize you – we already shot you once before, didn’t we? You really want to get a reminder of what that feels like? ’Cause I can arrange that. This is our land, and here, our rules apply. SO BEAT IT!”

With a soft shriek of fear, Fluttershy fled the horrific scene. As the sounds of the destruction faded behind her, tears began rolling down her face.

Fluttershy’s Cottage
7:52 A.M.

Fluttershy was inconsolable. Angel Bunny and all her other animal friends were crowded around her and doing their very best to cheer her up, but this was far worse than her fear of being in the public eye. All those innocent animals with their homes destroyed… it was more than she could bear.

She heard a knock on her door. “Go away,” she whimpered. “I… I can’t… It’s too horrible!”

“Miss Fluttershy?” It was a male voice, one she didn’t recognize. “I came to give you an apology.”

“An… an apology?” She wracked her memory. The only apology she could imagine being owed was… “You – you’re one of those awful humans!”

The voice sighed. “Yes, I’m a human. But we aren’t all ‘awful.’ Please, would you give me a chance to try to explain our actions?”

“How could there be any explanation? You’re all so… so mean. You destroyed all those animals’ homes, and then you… then you…”

“Yes. Agent Tanis threatened you. And he’ll be properly disciplined. Those Security Bureau people have barely more tact than Army goons. Look, may I please come in? It’s a bit awkward holding a conversation through a door.”

“You… you aren’t going to hurt me, are you?”

The voice laughed. “No, of course not. Besides, even if I wanted to, I wouldn’t be stupid enough to anger Discord by doing so.”

That wasn’t exactly comforting, but she was always willing to think the best of everypony. She opened the door. Before her was a human in a brown uniform. His face was hidden by a large box he held in his hands. “Ah, thank you. This was getting rather heavy.” He placed the box on her table. “I know this isn’t anywhere near adequate compensation for everything you’ve been put through, but it’s the best I could do with only a few days’ notice.” He started pulling items out. “I’ve heard that you like tea, so I got you a Shalui teapot and a set of matching cups. I also got you some tarine tea and sweet-sand cookies. I hope you enjoy them – I don’t really know how the pony sense of taste differs from the human one.”

“Oh, well, that’s very nice, Mister…”

He turned around, slapping a hand to his forehead. “Of course! How discourteous of me. Captain Zem Orramas.” He dropped his hand from his face and extended it to her. “But you can just call me Zem – that’s what my friends do. Or Captain Orramas – I’d hardly expect you to be at the point where you can call me a ‘friend.’”

Cautiously, Fluttershy reached out a hoof and shook his hand. “Well, Captain Orramas, I appreciate all this, but…”

“The animals? I’ve already arranged for a nature reserve to be established on the edge of the forest. We’ll plant the area, and do what we can to move the displaced animals there. It’s not a perfect solution, I know, but I’m doing everything I can to reduce the effects of this tragedy.”

“But why build there at all?! There are open fields everywhere, but you go to the Everfree instead? Why?”

Orramas sighed again. “It’s one of those fundamental differences between ponies and humans. For you, a totally managed and safe environment is normal, and the uncontrolled danger of the Everfree is… unnatural, disturbing. For humans, it’s exactly the opposite. Most of the galaxy isn’t controlled like that. To us, a nature that’s under sapient control just… isn’t nature. We feel more at home with the chaos and monsters of the Everfree than the safety of Ponyville. That’s probably why most of us seem so mean to you. We have to be harsh, violent. In much of the galaxy, being nice gets you dead. It’s awful, if you think about, but things have been like that for so long, it’s just part of who we are now. I realize that probably makes you dislike us even more, but I wanted to let you know, to give you an idea of why we’re the way we are. I felt like it’s the least you deserve, after everything we’ve put you through.”

Fluttershy gave a tentative smile. “I… I understand. You’ve had a hard past. You just need friends to help you understand that there’s a better way.”

Orramas smiled back. “I hope you can help us do just that. So… do you think we can be the first of those friends?”

“Friends… Zem.”

Chapter Eleven: The Ecstasy of Gold

The Carousel Boutique
9:17 A.M.

Rarity was interrupted in the midst of designing her newest dress by the jingling of the doorbell downstairs. “I’ll be with you in just a moment, darling!”

“Of course. There’s no rush.”

She cocked her head. That wasn’t the voice of one of her regular customers, and the accent – pure Canterlot! Why would a Canterlot pony come here, instead of to Canterlot Carousel? Had one of the nobles come all this way just to have her personally design his clothes? She started panicking. Did she look presentable enough? She was always the epitome of high fashion and beauty for Ponyville, but at the moment, she was woefully unkempt by Canterlot standards. She briefly considered several hats and dresses – but no, with her mane, fur, and hooves the way they were, any attempts at sprucing herself up would be obvious as last-minute acts of desperation. She had to remain cool and confident, and hope that this noble was more accepting than most of a lower-class appearance.

“My deepest apologies for the delay,” she called, trotting down the stairs. “I didn’t expect to have the honor of serving – huh?!”

Standing there was not a well-to-do stallion, like she had expected, but instead a group of ten humans. Nine of them wore light gray battledress with black belts, knee-length boots, and elbow-length gloves, dark gray helmets, and opaque goggles, and they held those strange weapons in their hands. The last one, clearly their leader, wore the same gray-green dress uniform she had seen on the humans’ leaders, though her sharp eye for details noticed that he had fewer squares over the left side of his chest. She registered most of this only unconsciously. Her conscious mind had gathered only that there were humans in her shop and that nine of them had weapons before it froze up, anticipating the awful heat and pain that Fluttershy had eventually been persuaded to describe.

However, the pain didn’t come. Instead, the leader of the humans gave an extravagant bow. “The lovely Miss Rarity, I presume. I’m Lieutenant Kendoh, a lord of the Noble House of Girard. It is my great pleasure to make your acquaintance. The pictures really don’t do you justice.”

“A… a lord?”

“Oh, yes. We’re a minor house, but we still merit some degree of honor from the other houses.”

Rarity didn’t know what this “houses” business was about, and she really didn’t care about human nobility, but she decided that it would probably be best to at least try to act respectful. “Well, it’s… quite nice to meet you. Soooo… What can I do for you?”

The human smiled broadly. “We’ve heard that you’re the best tailor in all of Equestria, and we’d like to have you on commission. Our uniforms experience quite a bit of wear and tear, you see. Normally, we’d just ship in replacements, but we’ve decided it would help relations to stimulate the local economy a little. Of course, it certainly helps that we have someone with such talent available.”

Rarity gave him her best smile. “Oh, you’re such a flatterer.”

“Is it really flattery if it’s true?” the human replied, his grin getting even bigger.

“As much as I’d love to help you… you don’t have any bits to pay me with.”

“No, but I believe we can work out an… alternate form of payment.” The lieutenant reached into a pouch on his belt and pulled out a sliver of metal, eliciting a gasp from Rarity. It was unlike any metal she had ever seen before. As the human held it up, it reflected every color of the rainbow. “This,” he said with a note of pride, “is aurodium, one of the most rare, and therefore, valuable, materials in the entire galaxy. On most worlds, this small shard would sell for an amount that would let you never have to work again in your life. Of course, since this isn’t most worlds, and you have no proof that what I’m saying is true, we’ll let you have this piece to take to an appraiser and determine its value in bits. High Command’s decided that establishing good relations with your people is worth whatever price you decide on. Since the value of our credits is based on aurodium, this should also facilitate the establishment of a standard exchange rate. So, would you be willing to work with us? We’ll provide you with all the materials you’ll need, of course.”

“Well…” The aurodium was beautiful, and their fancier uniforms were quite fabulous. What harm could there be in a little tailoring? “Alright. But my other customers come first.”

The human smiled, but the body language and facial expressions of the other nine became strangely tense as she used her magic to take the aurodium. “Of course, m’lady,” their leader said, giving her another bow. “I’m just pleased we could come to an understanding. Please, let us know what value you decide upon for the aurodium.” With that, the humans walked out.

When the door closed, Rarity sniffed in disdain. “Him? A noble? Who does that brute think he’s fooling?”

Kendoh muttered his own true thoughts to the squad’s sergeant. “Disgusting low-born alien filth.”

Sweet Apple Acres
3:07 P.M.

“What the hay do you want?”

The human at Applejack’s door grinned sheepishly and ran his hand down the back of his helmet. He, as well as the other eight humans milling around in front of her house, wore the battledress of the Imperial Army. In defiance of the standard dress code for on-duty NCOs, however, their goggles were pulled up over their helmets, revealing their entire faces. “Nothin’, really,” the man replied. “The guys up top wanted us to offer y’all our help in tendin’ yer crops. Shows what they know ’bout workin’ on a farm. Winter’s comin’, ain’t it? You ain’t got any crops to tend. Heh, not that most of these boys know much better. Just ’cause we’re all Corellian don’t mean we’re all farmers. Hell, just me, Jaster, and Haken. Bevel, Cole, Zak, and Ran are city boys, and Rogan and Lancer were born and raised on the orbital stations. They wouldn’t know a well-plowed field if it reared up and bit ’em in the ass.”

Applejack, despite her suspicion, couldn’t help but laugh at that. She understood the feeling perfectly. Lots of so-called “upper class” ponies just didn’t seem to get that proper farming actually took some intelligence, and wasn’t just a case of randomly throwing seeds everywhere in the spring, lots of physical labor, and gathering the plants in the fall. There was a lot of physical work, of course, but you couldn’t be brain-dead and still be a successful farmer. “So, ya said everypony else’s name. What’s yours?”

His smile turned more comfortable, and to Applejack, it seemed genuine. “Bren. Bren Malo.” He gave her hoof a firm shake. “Nice to meet someone who don’t want to kill me, for a change. Trilon’s full of nothin’ but thugs and drug dealers. Hell, I ain’t seen a farm – a real farm, mind you, for food, not spice – for, shit, three years, now?” He glanced around, chuckling. “Feels like I’m right back at home, like Jessa’s gonna come outta the kitchen with a fresh pie, and li’l Tal’s gonna run up and hug my leg.” His face turned somber. “Not so little now, I reckon. I’ll bet he’s big enough to help his ma in the fields. Bless him, I miss the boy.”

Applejack frowned. “Ya left your family? What the hay for?”

“Farm weren’t doin’ so well,” he replied with a sigh. “It was either this, or sell, move to the city, and work in a factory. And I ain’t givin’ up the farm.” He forced a smile back on his face. “’Sides, Army’s not too bad a job. Officers can blow me, buncha stuck-up nobles, but the long hours ain’t anything new, and we don’t see much real action. Not like those stormies. Police work, mostly, breakin’ up the gangs.”

Applejack rested a sympathetic hoof on his leg. Forced to either give up the farm or be separated from her family for years… she had no idea what she’d do in such an awful situation. Actually, she did know. “Couldn’t your friends help ya?”

Bren laughed grimly. “Help? Help how? Loan me money? They barely had enough creds to keep their own farms afloat, and I’d never be able to pay ’em back. No, this was the only choice. I got five more years, then I’ll finally be able to go home. Well, assuming the farm starts doin’ better and I don’t have to reenlist.”

A sad silence extended between them. It couldn’t have lasted more than a minute, but to Applejack, it felt like hours. It was broken when Apple Bloom came down the stairs. “Who’re you talking to, sis?”

Applejack stepped to the side, though the human’s height meant that he was already clearly visible. “This here’s Bren. He’s a human, but he seems nice enough.”

Bren smiled and kneeled down as she came up to the door. “Howdy there, missy. What’s your name?”

“I’m Apple Bloom! Say, where’s your cutie mark? Do you not have it yet? I can get my friends. We’ve helped lots of ponies get their cutie marks. It’s our special talent!” A thought came to her. “Oh. Do humans not get cutie marks? Griffons don’t. I think that’s kinda sad. Not that there’s anything wrong with it! It just seems awful to never learn what your special talent is.”

Bren turned to face Applejack, giving her a weird look. “I’m sorry, but… ‘cutie mark’?” Strangely, he sounded like he was trying hard not to laugh.

“It’s a… well, a mark every pony gets on their flank when they discover their special talent.” She showed him hers. “My talent’s working the apple farm, Rarity’s is finding gems, Twilight’s is doing magic, that sorta thing.”

“Huh. I figured those were dye or something. Naw, we don’t get those. Closest thing we have are these.” He pulled off his helmet and showed them the back of his neck, which bore a strange black shape that was identical to those on his sleeves.

“What’s that?” Apple Bloom wanted to know. “What’s it mean?”

Bren stood up, putting his helmet back on. “It’s the Imperial Crest. The symbol of the Galactic Empire and our service to it. A couple of guys in boot camp managed to pressure me into getting it. Hurt like hell.”

“But… if that’s not a cutie mark… what is it?”

“A tattoo. It’s… well, I’m not exactly sure how it works. I think the pen they use gives you a shallow cut and fills it with ink. But like I said, I don’t rightly know. Anyway. Command’s not expecting us back ’til sundown, so… got anything we can help with?”

Applejack grinned. Ordinarily, she didn’t like having other ponies outside her family and close friends working on the farm – it made her feel like she wasn’t doing her share of the work. But if he was really so eager… “I’m sure we can find something for y’all to do."

Chapter Twelve: The Invitation

The Castle of Friendship
12/16/3
8:32 A.M.

To Her Royal Highness Twilight Sparkle, the Princess Ponyville,

We humbly request the honour of your presence at the Everfree Imperial Garrison at noon tomorrow. We wish to provide you with a tour of our facilities and limited access to our archives to aid in the establishment of trusting relations between our peoples. We are ready and willing to accommodate any companions you may desire to bring with you. Please let this messenger know your decision and the size of your retinue so that we might make the necessary preparations for your arrival.
Sincerely Yours,
Malen Valerious
High Inquisitor of the Galactic Empire

Twilight looked up from the scroll to the Imperial officer standing at attention in her doorway. He had made Spike interrupt her studies, claiming that he had orders to give his message to Twilight directly, and she thought she knew why. The demand for an immediate response meant that she couldn’t take the time to carefully think out her decision.

One thing about the letter stood out to her. “If this is some kind of trap, it’s a really bad one. I know that name – that’s the jerk who attacked the Princesses! How dumb do you think I am?”

The human shrugged. “I don’t know the exact content of the letter, Your Majesty, merely that it’s an invitation and that I am to receive your response. Am I to assume that you decline?”

“Yes!… Actually, no. I accept. Let the High Inquisitor know that I’ll be bringing five other ponies with me.” Nothing could overcome her when her friends were by her side. If he tried to fight the Elements of Harmony, he’d learn the true power of the magic of friendship.

“Very good, Your Majesty.” The human bowed, then walked off toward the Everfree.

Watching him go, Twilight’s eyes were inevitably drawn to the Imperial base. Its dark walls towered over the treetops, and its central spire reached almost half as tall as the Crystal Castle’s. On its six outer corners, and on three shorter towers surrounding the center, there were strange turrets with tubes sticking horizontally out of them that bore a disturbing resemblance to massive versions of the “blaster” weapons the humans carried. Around the main structure, the tops of smaller guard towers could be seen at regular intervals. According to Fluttershy, those towers were on a huge fence just shorter than the trees that surrounded the entire complex. Anything that touched the fence would receive a nasty electrical shock, and a raised walkway behind it was constantly patrolled. The only gap in the fence was bordered by guard towers and blocked by a red magical shield that was only lowered when Imperials were entering or leaving the base. Or maybe it wasn’t magical – the humans’ technology had accomplished many things Twilight had thought only alicorns and the most powerful unicorns could pull off. If what they said about travelling the galaxy were true, it could even do things she had considered flat-out impossible.

All in all, the base was an entirely unpleasant, and somewhat intimidating, symbol of Imperial permanency and might.

She shuddered, then went back inside, not wanting to think about what she might find in that fortress of evil. “Spike! Take a note.”

11:09 A.M.

“And you agreed to that?!” Rainbow Dash shouted. “You do know this is a trick, don’t you?”

“Of course I do. But I have to go. Think of how much we might learn about them!”

The Element-Bearers and Royal Sisters were arranged around the dining table. The four other Element-Bearers and Luna had looks of trepidation on their faces, while Celestia remained stoic.

“I have complete faith in you, Twilight,” she interjected serenely. “If you think this is a good idea, then you should go.”

Rainbow Dash was still adamant. “You go if you want, but I’m not getting anywhere near that place.”

Applejack piped up with a grin. “What’s the matter? You’re not scared, are ya?”

The cyan pegasus glared across the table. “I’m not scared of anything! And who’re you to talk? It’s not like you’re going!”

“Says who? Twi’s my friend, and I’m not gonna let her go into danger without me. But that’s alright. I’m sure there’s nothin’ wrong with the Element of Loyalty not helpin’ her friend.”

Rainbow fell back into her seat, defeated. “I wasn’t actually going to stay behind.”

“Sure you weren’t, sugarcube.”

“I wasn’t!”

“That’s enough, you two.” Twilight looked around the table. “Does anypony else have any problems with this?”

“Well,” Fluttershy replied meekly, “I was going to have Zem over for lunch tomorrow…”

Everypony else gaped at her.

“… but I’m sure he won’t mind if I reschedule it,” she quickly finished. “I’ll just… leave a note on the door, I guess. He’ll understand. I hope…”

The three alicorns exchanged a concerned look. Finally, Twilight gave voice to what they were all thinking. “They’re trying to break us apart.”

Celestia nodded. “Yes, it would seem so. But your friendship has survived every challenge so far. I know it will survive this one, too.”

Luna seemed less confident. “Be cautious, Twilight. I have not been able to see their dreams, and Discord has been acting most difficult, refusing to go into their base to watch them. I think he believes they pose no threat to him, so he finds our fear of them amusing. I have also detected traces of a new, dark presence in the dreams of many ponies. It always leaves just as I arrive, so I have not been able to determine who or what it is. However, the timing is far too coincidental. It would be foolish to assume that the humans have nothing to do with it.”

Twilight bit her lip. “I hate to suggest this, but could it be…?”

“No.” Luna shook her head with almost violent certainty. “The Tantabus is no more. This is something new. And, perhaps, no less dangerous.”

Celestia gave her sister a sympathetic smile, then glanced around the table. “Prepare yourselves, my little ponies. I do not know what will happen tomorrow, but know that if you trust in each other and the magic of friendship, you will prevail.”

Location: Lun
Galactic Standard Calendar Date: 28:3:35
Coruscant Standard Time: 23:57

The smoke from the blaster cannon on the right gauntlet of captain CC-9483’s spacetrooper armor floated off into space as the last of the strange creatures collapsed to the ground in the strangely slow and peaceful way that beings killed in low gravity fell. He checked his helmet’s HUD. All of the team leaders were reporting mission success. Right on schedule. He opened a comm channel. “CC-9483 to the Implacable. CC-9483 to the Implacable. The moon has been sterilized. You may proceed with the next phase of the operation.”

Chapter Thirteen: To Thine Own Self be True

Everfree Imperial Garrison
12/17/3
11:54 A.M.

The Element-Bearers gazed up at the energy field blocking their path. They had all known the scale the humans’ base, of course, but it was something else entirely to be standing right in front of it. The size itself wasn’t particularly impressive, but that they had managed to construct such a place in only a few days certainly was.

From the guard tower to their left, an Imperial Army trooper called down to them. “So, you’re the precious pack of prancing pony princesses, are you?” He chuckled at his own alliteration. “Well, you better be real karkin’ appreciative of all the poodoo we’ve had to go through for this.”

Twilight frowned. Nopony understood the actual meanings of the strange words the humans scattered throughout their speech – few ponies wanted to talk to such violent creatures enough to figure it out, and many of the humans seemed to consider associating with ponies as somehow beneath them – but the way they were used made the gist of them pretty clear. “Is something wrong? We didn’t do anything, did we?”

“Hah! ‘Something wrong?’ Yeah, that’s one way of putting it. All the CompForce troops are locked up in their barracks to keep ’em from running into you. Normally I’d be happy about something that keeps those bleedin’ psychos away from me, but we have to keep this place fully guarded. So now, we’re all pulling double duty while those schuttas sit on their arses doing kark all!”

Fluttershy hesitantly walked up to Twilight and whispered to her, “That other human a few days ago, the one I told you about that was mean to me, and chased me away? He said something about ‘CompForce psychos’ too.”

Twilight’s frown deepened. She had thought these humans to be totally at ease with even the most brutal violence. What could they possibly consider psychotic? “What’s this ‘CompForce’ you’re talking about?” she shouted up to the guard.

He laughed, and Twilight noticed out of the corner of her eye that the dark ripple to his chortles made Pinkie look decidedly ill. “They’re bloody fanatics, is what they are,” he replied. “The military arm of COMPNOR – that’s ‘The Commission for the Preservation of the New Order.’ What COMPNOR does is, they take a bunch of indoctrinated boys who’re just out of school, torture ’em a few months, and the ones that survive mostly intact? They’re CompForce. Tough as Wookiees and ten times as crazy. You want to know their motto? ‘Two die for every one that gets through.’ Twice as many of ’em are flat-out killed by the ‘training’ as actually end up passing it. Phrase describes how they fight, too. You’ve never seen a true act of mass suicide until you’ve watched CompForce attack an enemy position. They can’t shoot straight, they refuse to take cover, and they just won’t stop charging. Heh. And people say I’m kill-crazy.”

All the ponies were now as sickened as Pinkie. It sounded like something Sombra would have done. As if sensing their thoughts, a figure just as dark and powerful approached from the Imperial side of the gate. “I think, Private,” the hooded man said quietly, “that the whole point of sequestering CompForce was to keep the ponies from learning about them.” The guard turned around, his complexion turning waxy and a look of panic spreading on his face as the Inquisitor continued. “What you just did was incredibly idiotic, bordering on traitorous. And you know what happens to idiots and traitors, don’t you?”

The hapless trooper barely got a chance to open his mouth before a burst of lightning caught him in the chest, knocking him out of the tower. Tumbling fifty feet, he struck the ground hard and didn’t move again. The sight of a pool of blood slowly spreading from the body tipped Fluttershy and Rarity over the edge, causing them to lose their lunches. Based on his smile, this seemed to amuse the Inquisitor. He made a gesture, and the shimmering wall between them disappeared. Walking forward, he asked, “Is something the matter, my little ponies?” The way he said that phrase was decidedly mocking, in sharp contrast to Celestia’s motherly inflection.

It took Twilight a few moments to find her voice, but when she did, it was full of outrage. “That human told us about the horrible things you do, and for his honesty, you… you…”

“You murdered him!” Applejack finished for her. There. It was out in the open. Murder. A word that hadn’t needed to be used in Equestria for centuries. An unthinkable crime for a pony to commit, it didn’t appear to faze the human any more than putting on his cloak.

“It’s not murder if I have full legal authority to do it,” he replied with an indolent grin. “Lest you forget, I’m a High Inquisitor. I can do anything I want. Including, by the way, overturning a decree that no ponies are to be allowed on the base or meet with its commander. You’re only here at all because I so choose. You’d do well to remember that before –”

He was cut off by a voice emerging from the forest. “Miss Fluttershy? Miss Fluttershy! I saw your note, and I hurried back as fast as I – By the Emperor!” Captain Orramas walked into view and came to a sudden halt, noticing Fluttershy still staring at the corpse of the guard. He broke into a run, then kneeled down next to her. “Fluttershy? Fluttershy, please, say something!” He gave her a soft shake, breaking her out of her stupor. She collapsed, sobbing. The captain turned and glared up at Malen. “You… you monster. What have you done to her?!”

The Inquisitor’s smile grew. “‘Monster’? Now that is a serious accusation, Captain. I’m hurt. How can you say something like that?”

With a roar, Orramas lunged at the Inquisitor, grabbing the front of Malen’s black robes. “Don’t you dare joke about this!” he shrieked. “What. Have. You. Done?!”

The mirth disappeared from Malen’s face. “Take care, Captain,” he said quietly. “Your particular skillset may afford you some degree of immunity from my wrath, but recall that nobody is indispensable to the Empire. Do not push my tolerance.”

The fire in Orramas’s eyes faded, and he let go of the Inquisitor’s clothes with a look of fear. Malen’s cruel smile returned. “You seem to have a strange concern for that alien, Captain. You don’t have any… deviant… tendencies, do you?”

Twilight, who was watching their conversation with a mixture of interest and simmering anger, noticed that Orramas’s pale face turned almost the same color as Pinkie’s fur. “I… No! No, of course not, my lord!”

“Good. Make sure it stays that way.” Malen turned away from him and back to the ponies. “Now, shall we have our tour?”

“No.” Twilight shook her head in barely restrained fury. “There’ll be no more talking, no more diplomacy, no more lies. Foalnapping and torturing children into becoming disposable soldiers? You can’t claim to just be ‘a different culture’ or ‘thinking on a larger scale’ to justify that. That’s evil. Pure evil. You humans aren’t going to be doing anything else in Equestria except leaving. I wish we could take your entire Empire apart and free everypony who suffers under your rule, but what we can do is stop you from spreading your tyranny here. Get off our world.”

“Haven’t we been here, before? Multiple times, in fact? You ponies really need to stop jumping to conclusions. The private was engaging in hyperbole. All CompForce troopers are adults, if fairly young ones, and they’re all volunteers. They all know what they’re getting into when they join up, so it’s not torture. They’re patriots, who are willing to endure extremely brutal conditions in order to become some of the best troops in the galaxy.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow in disbelief. “And you expect me to trust you? After everything you’ve done? You’re even crazier than I thought.”

“If you don’t trust me, trust – Captain! Get away from her!” Orramas had sat down next to the still-sobbing Fluttershy and was stroking her mane.

He stood up hastily and walked over to stand by the Inquisitor. “He’s…” He threw the Inquisitor a nervous look. “He’s… essentially telling the truth. CompForce is made out of adult volunteers, and their casualties during training are well-known. However, nobody outside of the CompForce itself actually knows exactly what happens during the training, and to say that they’re any sort of quality troops would be fallacious. They’re used for three reasons: they’re totally loyal to the Emperor, traumatizing people costs less than giving them proper training, and fanatics will fight and die for next to no pay. It’s a disgu– er, rather unpleasant practice, but as long as the Emperor cares more about loyalty than competence, than it’s unlikely to stop.”

Malen glared at him, but didn’t make any move to kill him. Instead, he turned to address Twilight. “Yes, well… Look, are you going to go on the tour or not?”

She remained skeptical. “This is all too convenient. We see all sorts of evil inside your Empire, and then Fluttershy’s new human friend just happens to show up in time to defend it? She might trust him, but I don’t.”

The Inquisitor hissed, making both Twilight and Orramas leap away from him. “Fine,” he snarled, rancor in his voice. “You can interview some of the CompForce troopers yourself, if that makes you feel better. But don’t be surprised if they’d rather kill you than talk to you.”

She hadn’t expected such a concession. “Well… I guess that would be enough. But why would they want to kill us? Are they really that crazy?”

Orramas nodded. “Crazy, mixed with a large helping of fanatical. COMPNOR teaches that humanity’s twenty-five thousand years of dominance is empirical evidence that we’re inherently more fit to control the galaxy than all other species, and that it’s our duty as humans to rule over them for their own good. Combine this belief in their own superiority with the rather excessively violent tendencies the training tends to instill, and you get some rather strong speciesist opinions, sometimes bordering on xenocidal. It’s not universal – many of them simply believe in the exact teachings of COMPNOR – but it’s widespread enough for it to be a fairly common stereotype.” The ponies were once again appalled, and Malen once again glared at him. “What?” he protested. “They would have found out when they talked with them, so I might as well tell them why they’re like that.”

Rainbow Dash flew up to the captain and looked him dead in the eyes. “So! You come to Equestria – our home – and then say you’re better than us? You want to get bucked in the face, mister?”

“Ah, no thanks,” he quickly replied. “I much prefer my head on my neck, not several meters away. Look, not everyone believes that sort of thing. It’s just that humanocentrism is really common in the Core Worlds, and since that’s where Imperial Center is, the opinions of the locals and the government get sort of… confused sometimes. It’s not official policy – the Emperor himself has decried speciesism! Lord Amedda and Lady Moore are both nonhumans!”

Malen shoved Rainbow Dash out of the way and took her place directly in front of Orramas. “Hey!” she protested. “What do you think you’re –”

He silenced her with a stare. His face wasn’t twisted into a visage of anger – in fact, he looked quite passive. But there was a glint in his eyes that indicated a total loss of patience, that even the smallest thing could set him off. The information of the Inquisitor’s fight with the Princesses had been hidden from most of the public, but the Royal Sisters had told the Element-Bearers all about it, and Rainbow recalled how he had held his own against both of them at the same time. Once, she had confidently gone up against a full-grown dragon on her own. Since then, however, her friends’ more down-to-Earth influence had helped her come to terms with the fact that she couldn’t win every battle, and they had helped her learn which ones she should and shouldn’t fight. While she still often struggled with her arrogance, she got the distinct impression that this fit into the latter category. She glared at him, but backed off.

He gave her an indulging smile, as if to say, “Smart choice, weakling.” He then turned to face the other human. “Captain,” he said softly, his voice brimming with the threat of violence, “you aren’t helping. In fact, you’re just making us sound worse every time you open your mouth. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were trying to sabotage us. Be. Quiet. I’ll handle the talking from here on. Return to your quarters.”

Orramas opened his mouth to argue, then seemed to think better of it. He gave a sharp salute, then turned and walked toward the main building. After a few steps, he paused for a moment to send a sad glance in the direction of Fluttershy, who was finally managing to regain her hooves, before hurrying off.

Sighing, Malen returned his gaze to Twilight. “Now, Your Highness: the tour?”

Twilight’s conversations with the CompForce troopers went just as Malen and Orramas had predicted. Many of them responded to her presence with hateful glares and what she assumed to be obscenities. The rest pitied her, talking down to her like she had no more intelligence than a first-year schoolfilly. However, the few who were willing to answer her questions confirmed that yes, they were all volunteers, their training was absurdly brutal, and they were all fanatical lunatics – or as they put it, all of the regular Army troops were almost treasonously apathetic.

She tried not to think about them as Malen led her and her friends through what he called “an IM-455 ‘Peacekeeper’ modular garrison.” The idea that these places were mass produced was a frightening one, to say the least. As the Inquisitor talked, she began to suspect that the purpose of the tour was less to build good relations, and more to scare her. He went into great detail about the capabilities of all the Imperials’ vehicles and destructive power of their weapons. Nonetheless, it was all very useful information to have – suspiciously so, in fact. Either he didn’t care that he was giving her a better idea of how to fight back, or he was spreading misinformation. She also noticed that there was a large section of the base he wasn’t showing them. As they once again passed by sealed door without him even mentioning it, she finally spoke up. “What’s through here? This is the fifth time we’ve walked past unmarked doors, and by my estimation, there’s almost of quarter of this place that you aren’t showing us.”

Malen’s eyes flickered away from her. “You noticed that, did you? That’s the detention center. It’s mostly empty – just a few troopers who got a bit too drunk and rowdy. Unless things turn… unpleasant between us, there’s no reason for that place to concern you, and I think you’ll understand why we might not want to let outsiders know how our tightest security procedures work.”

It made sense, but judging from everything else she knew about the Empire, she got the feeling that the real reason for his sudden discretion was that the living conditions were totally unpony.

“Before we finish the tour with the TIE fighter hangers,” Malen continued, “I’ve arranged for you to have a little chat with the base commander. Admiral Gavrisom didn’t approve, but he really couldn’t do anything about it. Come to think of it, the commander wasn’t very pleased either. Oh well. I’m sure you’ll have an… interesting conversation.”

He made it sound less like an intellectually stimulating debate, and more like a hate-filled shouting match. That was another thing about humans, Twilight noticed. They seemed to use a lot of fairly mild words, but say them in a way that implied something far, far worse. “Euphemisms,” she believed they were called – a far cry from the straightforward, honest speech most ponies preferred. Then again, ponies rarely had a reason to discuss the sorts of awful things the humans seemed to consider just a part of daily life. But maybe this mysterious “commander” would more open to learning about the magic of friendship than most of the other Imperial leaders she knew of. At the very least, he probably couldn’t be much worse. “All right, let’s talk to him.”

Author's Note

Sorry about how painfully dry this chapter is. I'm guessing most of you started reading this anticipating epic pony vs. Imperial warfare, so I'm trying to get the characters set up as quickly as possible. If it's any consolation, this was probably almost as hard to write as it is to read.

Chapter Fourteen: The Nature of a Hero

Everfree Imperial Garrison
1:47 P.M.

“You?!”

“Naturally. Who else would be in command of all Imperial ground forces on the planet?” General Aerin gave the shocked Element-Bearers a sardonic grin from the seat behind his desk. “Welcome to my domain. Can I get you some refreshments? Water? Brandy? Cheese and crackers?” The ponies silently shook their heads. “Suit yourselves. So tell me, what do you think of our living arrangements?”

“Oh, they’re absolutely dreadful!” Rarity exclaimed. “Everything’s so cramped, and the colors! Black everywhere! I think the only things I saw that weren’t a shade of gray were those red banners! The lighting’s almost as bad. It’s either too harsh or too dim. You could really use a proper interior designer. Now, I know it isn’t really my field of expertise, but I know some truly gifted ponies who –”

“This is a military base,” Aerin snapped, dropping all pretenses of politeness. “It’s not supposed to be elegant. It’s designed to store troops and their supplies in the most efficient manner possible, allow for easy deployment of those troops, protect important technical systems and command rooms, and be cost-effective. ‘Looking nice’ doesn’t appear anywhere on the list of requirements. It’s functional, not fancy.”

Rarity responded with an indignant humph. “If you didn’t want an honest answer, than you shouldn’t have asked. Besides, it’s not like something can’t be beautiful and still work well.”

“No, but that costs extra. The Imperial coffers may be deep, but they’re not infinite. At least this place is clean and safe. Hell of a lot better than the Coruscant underlevels.” He murmured the last sentence to himself, almost inaudibly. Then he gave his head a small shake. “Anyways, the place does what it has to, and that’s all that matters. Making it cheerful would be unnecessary at best, and counterproductive at worst. We don’t need our troops getting all happy and soft. Make them feel too comfortable, and they won’t be ready to face the brutal hardships of war.”

Pinkie Pie gave him a confused look. “You… don’t want to be happy?”

“NO!!!” His unexpected outburst caused the ponies to leap back, eliciting a low chuckle from the Inquisitor, who was standing off to the side. “I don’t want to be happy! It’s not my place to be happy! It’s not any of our places! We’re military. It’s our job to suffer, to die, so that others don’t. We’re karking heroes. And happiness has no place in the life of a true hero.”

Twilight spoke up nervously. Aerin was clearly unstable, but then, so was Discord, and they had managed to reform him. “Heroism isn’t about suffering, it’s about working together and helping others. On our own, none of us would have been able to defeat Nightmare Moon, Discord, or Tirek. But together, we can overcome any challenge. We get our strength from our friendship. If you would just –”

In an extraordinary display of agility and speed, Aerin threw himself over his desk and tackled her to the floor, fastening his hands around her neck. “Don’t you dare talk about those things!” he practically spat in her face. “Heroism? Friendship? You alien filth don’t know the meanings of those words!” Her friends stepped forward to defend her, but were cut off by a hum and a blood red beam of energy appearing between them and the general. The room was filled with tension for several seconds before Aerin stood up, breathing heavily, and sat back down in his chair.

Malen deactivated his lightsaber and stepped aside to let the Element-Bearers run to Twilight’s side. Shakily, she got to her hooves with a series of wracking coughs. “What…” she began, only to almost collapse in another coughing fit. Almost half a minute passed before she managed to fully regain her capacity for speech. “What do you mean?” she asked in confusion. She would have been furious about the unwarranted attack, but she was even more curious about the human’s strange reaction. “What do you think they’re about?”

His gaze met hers. She expected the hatred in his eye, but she was shocked to find a great deal of sadness there, too. “Heroism and friendship – true heroism, and true friendship –” he said quietly, “come from the exact same thing: a willingness to take on the pain of others. You can’t eliminate pain – happiness is a zero-sum game. The mark of a hero and a friend is that he intentionally and uncomplainingly accepts the pain himself, so others can have the happiness. The difference between a hero and a friend is that a hero bears the suffering of those he doesn’t know, while a friend helps those he does know. All soldiers are heroes, and many of us are friends.” He sighed heavily. “I had a good friend once.”

Reaching into his right sleeve, he pulled out a letter opener with a golden handle. He turned it over in his hands. “He gave this to me when I was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel. A family heirloom. Said it brought him good luck, and that I’d need it more than him. In four hours, he was dead. See, my promotion was done in the field. This corps was assigned to Kashyyyk, to help keep the Wookiees in line. Damned beasts rebelled again while we were there, and it fell to us to contain them until the stormtroopers could arrive. Colonel Harkin got torn up by a berserker; as his division’s First Major, I got his position. I made Duron captain of my security company, so he was with me in the FCC.” His single eye defocused, staring off into nowhere. “They killed one of our shock troopers, got his launcher. Dur saw the smoke – just him. Instead of trying to save himself, he jumped on me. I lived, barely. I was the only one. Got another ‘promotion’ after that – here, to Major General and this desk. Without my eye, I couldn’t fight alongside my men anymore. I was a liability. But I still serve, making the hard choices, deciding who lives and dies in order to bring about the greater good.”

He slipped the knife back in his sleeve, and locked his stare on Twilight again. “That’s what heroes do. They sacrifice. But you aliens don’t do that. You think only of yourselves! What have any of you lost for your ‘heroism’? A little of your oh-so-precious time? Hah! You give up nothing, and you get everything you ever wanted!” He pointed a finger at Rarity. “You’re an up-and-coming socialite and commercialist, with prospects that are only improving!” The accusing appendage shifted to Rainbow Dash. “You got a spot in your precious stunt group, and their explicit admission that you’re better than them!” Finally, Twilight. “And you. You were elevated into royalty. You’re the only one in your whole group of hedonists that’s lost anything – a house you had lived in for less than three years. And you got a giant palace in return! None of you are heroes. You don’t deserve the title. All any of you aliens do is take! That’s why humans will always rule. Because we’re willing to make the sacrifices, to give up everything for a greater cause. And you ponies are even more vile than most. You don’t even kill in your ‘battles’! Never do any of you think, ‘No, I won’t give up just because I’ve been beaten senseless. The cause I fight for is more important than my life. I won’t stop until they’re forced to kill me.’ By Chaos, you don’t even cripple! None of you keep fighting when the battle is hopeless. You just give up. ‘Oh, I’ve been overcome, I’ll just sit out the rest of the battle while my brothers-in-arms fight on around me!’ There are no glorious last stands for you, only cowardly surrenders. I know about the Siege of Canterlot. And I know that there wasn’t a single damned casualty. Not a single pony fought so fiercely that they killed a changeling, or that the changelings were forced to kill them. They were all captured. You creatures are disgusting. Get out of my sight.”

Twilight couldn’t believe it. He thought he had a position of moral superiority because he killed? “We don’t kill because we care about our opponents. They’re still –”

“I said get out!” He seized a bottle off his desk and hurled it at her. His rage threw off his aim and it shattered behind her, filling the office with the scent of alcohol. Obviously, he had become totally unreasonable. The Element-Bearers quickly hurried out of the room before he could turn even more violent, followed by Malen. Staring at the door as it hissed shut, Twilight wished she knew how to make him see how self-destructive the path he had chosen was – before it was too late.

Chapter Fifteen: Allure of the Dark Side

Everfree Imperial Garrison
1:59 P.M.

Twilight stared at the door. For some reason, she felt a shiver run down her spine as she thought about entering the room. A shiver of fear…

…but also of anticipation. It was as if somepony was calling to her, inviting her to join in a rousing study session, but she heard nothing. And another voice seemed to be saying, “Run away. There’s nothing here for you but pain.” It was a curious sensation.

“Uh, Twilight? Are you alright?” Applejack studied her friend, giving her a good once-over. The alicorn had been standing outside the door with a conflicted look on her face for more than ten seconds. Applejack wasn’t too fond of the idea of entering the Inquisitor’s room, either, but he had insisted that it was the best place to access the Imperial archives. Twilight had agreed to visit it, accepting his story that he had the most authority – and therefore, security clearance – of any of the humans. Applejack, however, could tell that he was hiding something, and Twilight’s expression suggested a deeper conflict than just having sudden doubts.

“Huh?” Twilight blinked several times. Somehow, she had forgotten that there was anypony else there with her. “Oh! I’m fine. Really. Just… thinking about something.” She returned her attention to the door. There was definitely something unusual on the other side. She didn’t know how she knew it, but she did. Beyond that, the room was a mystery – and she couldn’t just leave a mystery unsolved. She had to go through the door.

Malen, who had been watching her from beside the door, smiled. It sent another chill down her back. He must have seen the determination resolve itself on her face, but the way he seemed to intuitively understand everypony’s emotions and decisions was decidedly creepy. In fact, he almost seemed to feed on them. Twilight briefly wondered if he had some sort of connection to the changelings, then immediately dismissed the idea as ridiculous. Even as big as the galaxy was, the chances of the series of events that led to the creation of the changelings being replicated anywhere else were absurdly thin. It must have “just” been another one of the abilities of his that separated him from the other humans.

He pushed a button on the panel next to the door, and it hissed open. Twilight led her friends into the utter blackness beyond.

Except, no – it wasn’t quite black. A faint red light gleamed by the back wall. As Twilight stepped closer to it, it got brighter and brighter. Soon, it was illuminating the whole room, and its form was clear to see. The light came from a pyramid about half the size of a human head that sat on the bed stand. It was made of gold, a strange black metal, and glowing red crystal. When Twilight came to a stop in front of it and the sound of her own hooves striking the metal floor faded from her ears, she realized something else.

It was whispering to her. It spoke in a language she didn’t know, but somehow, she understood the meaning. “Open me. Learn my secrets. Use my power.”

She took a step back, and the light dimmed a little. She laughed nervously. “Hehe. Ah, does… does anypony else hear that?”

“No, they can’t,” Malen responded for them, walking up beside her. “It calls to you through the Force – to its rightful owner.”

“What? ‘Rightful owner’? Wait, you don’t mean… me?”

“Yes. It is a Sith holocron. It’s drawn to the strong, to those who are both willing to learn its secrets and capable of using them. I may not be a true member of the Order of the Sith Lords, but I have possessed it for many years, and learned much through studying it. Now, however, it senses your greater potential, and it seeks to instruct you.”

“There’s something… wrong about it.”

“Right and wrong are labels invented by the weak and fearful. ‘Right’ simply means that it makes them feel safe; ‘wrong’ that it scares them, challenges them. Holocrons hold nothing but knowledge. They cannot hold ‘good’ or ‘evil,’ for such things do not exist outside of one’s own perceptions. The teachings of the Sith widen those perceptions, and make people realize how limited their views of the universe were before. The holocron feels ‘wrong’ to you because it threatens your preconceived notions, the societal norms that you’ve been conditioned to think of as fundamental absolutes of reality. It scares you because it will make you grow – and growth isn’t a painless process.”

Twilight backed away from him and towards her friends. “No… No! That’s not right! There is good! There is evil! Good is when you’re helping others. Evil is when you only look out for yourself, without caring about whether or not you hurt somepony else in the process. What you’re saying… Look, if somepony attacked your friends…” She reconsidered her example. She was pretty certain he didn’t have any friends. “If somepony attacked you for no reason, hurt you, and laughed about it, wouldn’t you call that evil?”

“Might I call that evil? Perhaps. But that’s because it would be I who was being hurt. I’m sure he wouldn’t consider it evil, and if our roles were reversed, I wouldn’t either. As I said, evil exists only in the mind, merely a word used to describe things that threaten us. It’s entirely subjective. Are your definitions of good and evil conclusions that you came to yourself, or merely the ideas your society has indoctrinated you into believing? Good and evil are not like trees and rocks. If I point to a tree and say, ‘This is a rock,’ I can be proven wrong by scientific facts. If, however, I point to an action or philosophy and say, ‘This is good,’ you can debate with me as much as you wish, but you will never be able to scientifically prove otherwise. You are correct about one thing, though – from your perspective, what I’m saying isn’t ‘right.’ It isn’t safe, it makes you question what you’ve always believed. But it calls to you anyway. You know that what I’m saying is true; you want to expand your perceptions, to gain greater knowledge. All you have to do… is ask the holocron.”

“I… I…”

“Now you hold on, there,” Applejack broke in, stepping up beside Twilight. “You may be able to mess with Twi’s head with all that nonsense, but not me. Some folk call me simple, an’ I reckon that’s true in ways. I got simple values – my family taught me what’s right an’ wrong, an’ I’m stickin’ to it. All yer fancy talk won’t do nothin’ to me, an’ you can be sure that I’ll do everything I can to make sure you don’t hurt her, either.”

“Yeah!” Rainbow Dash flew up to join her. “Twilight’s my friend, and whatever it is you’re doing to her, I won’t let you! I’ll always be there to help her, no matter what!”

With various sounds of assent, the other three Element-Bearers also stepped forward. Twilight looked back at them, a relieved smile breaking through on her face. “Thanks, girls. I know you’ll never let me down.” She turned to the Inquisitor, whose expression had tightened into a rictus of fury. She couldn’t tell for certain in the scarlet tint the holocron’s glow gave everything in the room, but his eyes seemed to have somehow changed from their usual dark brown to a sickly yellow. “You see, Malen? This is what good is. It’s standing up for each other, giving other ponies strength when they’re feeling weak, helping them when their situations seem hopeless. My friends are always there for me, and I’m always there for them. Together, we’ve spread friendship and harmony to countless ponies across all of Equestria. But you’ve shown that you don’t care about those things. You use your power to hurt others, even… to kill them. You don’t care about anypony except yourself. If you really think we’re ‘weak’ for believing in goodness, then by all means – show us how much stronger you are. Prove us wrong.” She tensed, preparing to call upon the power of the Elements as soon as he responded with violence.

The expected attack didn’t come. Instead, Malen squeezed his eyes shut for several seconds, breathing deeply through his nose and clenching and unclenching his fists. Finally, he opened his eyes and looked straight into hers. Though they were back to their normal color, it was still one of the most unsettling things she had ever seen. Aerin’s gaze had borne similarities to Starlight Glimmer’s, before her reformation – full of pain and loss that drove somepony who might have once been good into carrying out evil acts in a desperate and misguided attempt to remove the cause of the pain. The depths of Malen’s eyes, however, held no such hope for redemption. They showed nothing but hatred and a love of destruction, a lust for power and a reveling in all things dark and corrupted. If there had been a good person in there once, it had been driven so far beneath the surface that it might never come back again. He was a combination of the worst of the villains that had plagued Equestria – Tirek’s callous disregard for others, Sombra’s cruel tyranny, Discord’s twisted delight in sadism, and Chrysalis’s heartless scheming and manipulation.

He spoke, his calm tone belied by the barely-contained rage on his face. “You can believe whatever you wish. As the Sith Code says, ‘The Force shall set me free.’ You can do, say, or think anything you want, so long as you have the power to crush those who would try to cause you to do otherwise. I won’t attack you now – it would be foolish to walk into so obvious a trap. No, I can play the long game. If there was anything my time as an assassin or my foolish Consular of a Master taught me, it’s the value of patience. You will come around to my way of thinking eventually. In the meantime…” He turned his attention to a strange contraption on the wall. “You wished to access our archives, did you not?”

Twilight was caught off guard, both by the remarkable self-restraint he showed for a villain, and by this seeming non-sequitur. It took her a moment to remember that the archives were, indeed, the entire reason they had gone to his room in the first place – or at least, that was what he had intended her to believe. But she had no intention of staying near that “holocron” any longer. “No,” she replied, “I think we’ve imposed on your hospitality long enough. Come on, girls, let’s get back to Ponyville.”

“Very well.” Malen pressed a button on the wall. “Lieutenant Orgus, please send down a security team to escort our guests off the premises.” Taking his finger off the button, he grinned at her. “Can’t have you wandering off on your own and getting lost, can we?”

Frankly, she didn’t have any intentions of spying. She just wanted to get out of that place and leave its evil taint behind.

To her surprise, the human troops didn’t try to kill her. Instead, they simply led the Element-Bearers out of the building and past the fence, though their blasters made it clear what they intended to do if anypony stepped out of line.

Back at her castle, she spent the next ten hours writing down everything she remembered about the base, the humans, and their weapons, finally collapsing into bed well after midnight.

And in her tormented dreams, she saw the broken body of the guard, the fierce looks in Aerin and Malen’s eyes, and the red pyramid. And she once again heard its chilling call.

“Open me. Learn my secrets. Use my power.”

Chapter Sixteen: The Voice of Their Blood is Crying to Us from the Pool

Location: Ponyville
Local Date: 12/18/3
Galactic Standard Date: 28:4:2
Local Time: 11:07
Coruscant Standard Time: 23:06

“That will be twenty-three bits, sir.”

Lieutenant CL-7382 couldn’t keep the glare off his face as he dug a fistful of chips worth seventy-four credits out of his uniform’s pocket and slapped them down on the café table. It was nothing short of robbery. On the galactic market, credits would be worth so much more than bits it wouldn’t be funny. The gold that bits were forged from might be immensely valuable on a pre-spaceflight world, but for a galactic civilization that regularly strip-mined entire planets and worked on an aurodium standard, gold was only important and because it was used in computer parts and could be made into fairly nice jewelry and sculptures. It was easy to get by grinding up a few asteroids – scarcity wasn’t a problem. Here, however, things were just the opposite – aurodium was a pretty but otherwise useless bauble, whereas gold was the most expensive material around.

It gave him some small consolation to know that the waiter was just as displeased with having to take Imperial credits as the Imperials were with having to pay such absurd prices. The ponies didn’t seem to get the concept of money that wasn’t made of a precious metal. While they had agreed to the exchange rate, they considered the credits essentially worthless.

CL-7382 slowly started eating his meal as he surveyed the square. Salad wasn’t much of a main course, and he didn’t particularly like it, anyways. He wouldn’t have been here at all if he wasn’t supposed to be meeting with the informant. The commanders had encouraged some of the more moderate troops – not hardliners who wouldn’t be able to hide their disgust for nonhumans, but also not softies who might become attached to the aliens and defect if war broke out – to become “friends” with ponies, so he was able to meet openly with the informant without drawing too much attention. While occasional pieces of useful information could be gleaned from those other “friendships,” most of what those ponies talked about was gossip and rumors. Conversely, the informant seemed to have taken on the role of self-appointed guide to Equestria and apparently had some very good connections and access to government information. So he had to keep coming to this madcap village. Ah. There.

He waved to the informant, who came and sat down on the pile of hay opposite him – another thing he hated about this place. No chairs. “Hi, Colicoid!” the alien greeted him cheerily, using the nickname he had introduced himself with. He didn’t think the creature would understand that clones had designations, not names.

“Hello, ____. How’re things going?”

The informant sighed. “Oh, alright, I guess. My best friend’s been getting all up on my flank about our conversations. She thinks I shouldn’t talk to you, that you humans are dangerous.”

“She’s perfectly justified in thinking that. We didn’t exactly have a smooth first contact.” He grinned. “And is that the only reason she’s been ‘getting all up on your flank’?” Ugh. Making dirty jokes about alien mating habits to break the ice. Why did I have to be the one to meet this creature?

The informant laughed, not the least bit ashamed or uncomfortable. Of course, the aliens did walk around totally naked all the time, so they clearly had little to no sense of modesty. “Don’t you think that’s something of a… private matter?”

Somebody please blast me.

He opened his mouth to make another “witty” reply when the informant’s ears twitched and the alien turned to look down the street, huge eyes lighting up with glee. All around them, the other aliens did the same. He followed the informant’s gaze and struggled to pick up whatever the creature was listening to. After a moment, he heard, faintly –

“Come on everypony, smile, smile, smile! Fill my heart up with sunshine, sunshine!”

Oh, by the Emperor, no.

He ducked beneath the table as the aliens rushed off to join the parade. These things seemed to happen almost every day. If the ponies hadn’t been so consistently uncomprehending of the reactions humans had to them – ranging from blank stares, to running as fast as they could, jeers and curses, and, once, slugging the offending pony in the face – he would have suspected that they did it just to annoy the Empire into leaving.

When the ridiculous display finally ended, the aliens went back to their business as if nothing had happened. He extracted himself from under the table and sat back down on his pile of hay as the informant returned. The creature gave him a confused, and somewhat sad, expression. “Why don’t you humans ever join in on the fun?”

“Humans don’t break into random song and dance routines. In the Empire, that wouldn’t be called ‘fun.’ It would be called ‘disturbing the peace’ and would earn you a hefty fine and a few days to weeks in prison, depending on how big the disturbance was, your role in it, and how the judge was feeling that day.” He sighed. “I’m just glad most of you are most subdued than Miss Pie.”

The informant chuckled. “Yeah, Pinkie can get a bit wild at times. Just be glad you weren’t here for the Mirror Pool incident.”

“Excuse me?”

“Oh, yeah! I never told you about that, did I? A while ago, Pinkie wanted to hang out with everypony at the same time, so she made a bunch of copies of herself at the Mirror Pool, out somewhere in the Everfree Forest. But they started causing all sorts of trouble, so Twilight rounded ’em all up and sent the fake Pinkies back to the pool. Celestia, was that a crazy day.”

Copies. Fake. He felt a cold hardness settle into the pit of his stomach. He hadn’t had much of an appetite before, but it was totally gone now. “What do you mean, ‘sent them back to the pool’?”

The informant waved a forelimb dismissively. “Oh, I don’t know. Just that, really. Twilight cast some spell at them, and they exploded into magic and flew off to the pool. Why?”

He stood up, his meal forgotten. It didn’t take much to make him violently angry – he was nicknamed “Colicoid” for a reason, after all – but he was sure his brothers would have the exact same reaction he did to this news. “I have to go.”

He ignored the informant’s questioning calls as he marched towards the Everfree. There would be bloody, well-deserved retribution today.

The Castle of Friendship
1:13 P.M.

At first, Twilight had hoped that she was just hallucinating from the lack of rest she had gotten from her nightmare-riddled sleep. But the scene playing out before her was all too real. Hundreds of stormtroopers were marching purposefully towards her castle, roughly shoving aside anypony who got in their way and waving their blasters around threateningly. She backed away from balcony as they reached her doorstep. The one in front banged on her door.

“Twilight Sparkle! Come on out, or we’re coming in after you!”

She hurried over to Spike. “Send a letter to Princess Celestia,” she whispered. “I think we’re going to need all the help we can get.”

Chapter Seventeen: The Sentencing of a Murderer

The Castle of Friendship
1:14 P.M.

“Come out! We know you’re in there! If you’re not out here in one minute, we’re blasting down the door!”

Spike blew fire on the hastily-written letter, sending it off to Princess Celestia. Hopefully, she’d get to Ponyville before the stormtroopers broke in. The next minute passed in tense silence.

“Alright, you had your chance! Brothers! Blast this door –”

Twilight cast the spell she had been preparing, covering the castle in a purple bubble.

“You think a shield will stop us? Make your peace with whatever gods you may worship, you monster! We’ll get to you, even if it takes us a whole month!”

Had she heard that right? They thought she was the monster? What could have possibly made them believe that?

As energy bolts began slamming into the shield, she decided that it didn’t really matter. They wanted to kill her, and from what she had seen of humans so far, she doubted she’d get anywhere by trying to talk to the violent creatures.

The dome quickly began to crack and splinter under the immense power of hundreds of military-grade blaster rifles. It took less than five minutes for the determined assault to cause the shield to shatter and evaporate, knocking Twilight to the ground in exhaustion. Before the stormtroopers could turn their weapons on the door, however, a new shield appeared around the castle. This one wasn’t purple, but instead light blue. Twilight looked up to see Starlight Glimmer, her horn glowing brightly and her face contorting from the strain. “Wha–?” Twilight rasped out. “Starlight? What are you doing? They’re just here for me; you should be hiding!”

Starlight’s grimace turned into a thin smile. “Come on, Twilight. I may be new to this whole ‘friendship’ thing, but I understand it well it enough to know that a friend doesn’t abandon somepony who needs her help.”

Twilight smiled back. “Thanks. You are a good friend.” Nothing else needed to be said.

Starlight’s shield didn’t hold any longer than Twilight’s, and the collapse of the shield and unicorn was shortly followed by a crash as blasterfire ripped the door off its hinges. A few moments later, nine stormtroopers burst into the room. Starlight and Spike each had three blasters leveled at their faces, and two of the troopers hoisted Twilight onto her hind legs, tightly gripping her forelegs. The last human pointed his blaster at her with one hand and raised the other to the side of his helmet. “Commander! We’ve got the murdering slime at my position. She didn’t put up any further resistance. That Force shield must’ve really taken it out of her. We also have two other prisoners, her unicorn student and infant dragon assistant.”

What?! “Murdering”?! What the hay is he talking about?!

In short order, the room was packed from wall to wall with stormtroopers. One of them stepped forwards, the trooper aiming at Twilight stepping to the side to let his commander stand directly in front of her. A few seconds of silence passed before the human spoke. “Twilight Sparkle. I’m CC-8156. I’ll be your judge, my brothers will be your jury, and CL-7382 has requested the honor of being your executioner, should you be found guilty. You stand before me today accused of several tens of counts of murder. Unfortunately, we lack an exact number for how many innocents you’ve slaughtered, but it’s more than enough to damn you. How do you plead?”

CC-8156? CL-7382? I know humans have weird names, but those don’t even sound like names at all! “Not guilty, of course! Not that it’ll mean anything in this sham of a trial. I’ve never killed anypony, and you know it.”

“Really? Because we have testimony for your role in the Massacre of Neighvember Eleventh, in the First Year of Harmony. Do you, then, dispute the claim that you had many clones of Pinkamena Diane Pie herded up, and that you then personally took their lives?”

“Excuse me?! That’s what this is about? They didn’t have lives to take! They were just copies!”

A dark murmur rippled through the crowd of humans. “Are you saying,” CC-8156 asked slowly, “that ‘they weren’t real ponies’?”

Twilight didn’t like the tone of his voice. “Umm… Yes?”

She guessed by the armored hand that struck her across the face and the shouts of rage and hate that erupted from the stormtroopers that she had said exactly the wrong thing. “You self-righteous filth!” he shouted at her. “You don’t even like killing incredibly dangerous animals, but clones don’t receive so much as a second thought?! You heartless monster.”

“I don’t see why you care. Even assuming they were real ponies, it’s not like you humans seem to be very bothered by mass killing.”

“Ordinarily, that would be true. But this happens to be an issue that’s quite near and dear to our hearts. Brothers! Show her your face!”

Twilight had about half a second to wonder about that strange phrasing before the stormtroopers reached up as one and pulled off their helmets. Her jaw practically hit the floor. All humans still looked basically the same to her, and there were certainly some variations among the ones currently standing in front of her – many hair colors and styles, slight differences in skin tones, and a staggering assortment of scars and misshapen noses – but it was obvious that they were all copies of the same human. Their basic head shapes were identical, and they all had the same brown eyes – eyes that now held looks of absolute loathing.

“We’re all clones, too, you schutta. Are you going to fight back now? Slaughter us without mercy or the slightest hint of regret? We aren’t ‘real people,’ after all, so why should our deaths weigh on your conscience? There may be hundreds of us, but why should even that number bother you if we don’t deserve to exist in the first place?”

“But I… But they… No! They weren’t real ponies! They couldn’t have been! They… They didn’t have personalities! They weren’t like you at all!”

“Oh, really? And how long did these clones live before you killed them?”

“I didn’t kill anypo–”

“Just answer the damned question!”

If Twilight hadn’t been held in place, she would have scurried away from him. She had first thought she had encountered the greatest possible extent of human hate when she listened to General Aerin’s ranting. She thought the same thing again when she looked into Inquisitor Valerious’s eyes. Now, she started to think that humans had no limit to their hatred at all. “A few hours,” she whimpered.

The expressions on the clones’ faces morphed into utter shock and horror. For a long moment, CC-8156 just stared at her, gaping. Then his jaw set and his eyes narrowed. “I’ll just assume, for your sake, that they emerged fully grown, and you weren’t murdering children. Did they have any implanted memories or knowledge?”

“What? No, I don’t think –”

“Then of course they didn’t have personalities! They didn’t have any experiences to shape their personalities from! You might as well have been slaughtering newborns, you sick kark! People are more than just their genetics, scumbag. They’re shaped by their lives – lives you didn’t give them the chance to have. I think we’ve heard enough. Apparently, the clones were making a nuisance of themselves, and if that was how you normally dealt with nuisances, we wouldn’t care so much. But it wasn’t. You responded especially brutally just because they were clones and you considered them unworthy of life. And we’re not going to just accept that. So what say you, my brothers? Are you ready to hand down your verdict?”

“GUILTY!” came the cry from the crowd.

He nodded once, apparently satisfied. “The jury has spoken. Before I hand down your sentence, do you have any last words for this court?”

“I… I’m sorry. Can you forgive me?” Twilight begged, tears streaming down her cheeks.

He was unmoved. “No. ‘Sorry’ won’t bring back the dead.”

“Killing her won’t, either!” Spike protested from the side.

CC-8156 glanced in his direction. “No, it won’t,” he admitted, “but it will bring a sense of closure, a knowledge that a horrible being has faced justice for her crimes.” He turned back to Twilight. “CL-7382 had some… creative… ideas of what we should do to you, but I’ve decided that you don’t deserve to be treated like anything special. You’ll receive the usual punishment for mass murder. Twilight Sparkle, I hereby sentence you to death by firing squad. You shall be bound and taken from this place into the town square, where your crimes shall be read aloud for all the people to hear. You shall then be stood against a wall, whereupon a specially-chosen squad shall fire into you until you are dead. Thus is the judgement of this court.”

Two tall figures walked up behind the stormtroopers. While Twilight couldn’t see them clearly through the tears in her eyes, she recognized the regal – and quietly furious – voice perfectly. “You will do no such thing. Let. Her. Go.”

Chapter Eighteen: Slaughterhouse

The Castle of Friendship
1:32 P.M.

“Princess Celestia! Oh, thank you!”

Celestia gazed over the heads of the stormtroopers to look at her distraught student. The fur on Twilight’s face was matted with tears, her right eye was blackening, and a small rivulet of blood flowed from her mouth. Celestia’s eyes narrowed, and she fixed a stare full of cold fury on the leader of the humans. “You hurt her. You’re going to regret that.”

He met her gaze, totally unafraid. “Yeah, we hurt her. And we’re going to do a lot worse to her. You too, if you interfere.”

Luna stepped forwards. Not as tall as her sister, her eyes were approximately level with the human’s nose, though her lack of even Celestia’s minimal attempt to hide her rage made her just as intimidating a figure. “Do you not realize with whom you deal? We are the Royal Sisters, rulers of all of Equestria, immortal sovereigns of the Sun and Moon, slayers of many beasts, overthrowers of tyrants, the most powerful –”

“Yes, yes, you’re incredibly strong Force-users who aren’t used to being defied. We’ve killed your kind before. You’re also outnumbered by more than a hundred to one, and that’s if you count our prisoners as assets for you.”

“That,” Celestia replied, “is where you’re wrong. Please, look out a window.”

The sea of troopers parted to let him do so. Gazing outside, he saw the sky crowded with Royal Guard pegasi, and a cloud of dust on the horizon indicated the approach of the land-bound guardsponies. He turned back from the window. “Certainly an impressively large force, but your ponies just aren’t psychologically cut out for warfare. Most of them are absolutely incapable of bringing themselves to kill, and they’re too cowardly to face an enemy willing to slaughter them en masse.”

“They don’t need to kill you in order to defeat you,” Celestia said. “And they aren’t cowards. They’re loyal, and they will fight you if you leave us no other choice.”

Finally, the commander’s expression changed from his unconcerned glare. But it didn’t become full of fear, like the Royal Sisters had expected. Instead, he adopted a look of resignation. “We knew we wouldn’t survive this. Even if you didn’t stop us, the general would probably have us executed for all the diplomatic trouble we caused. We all accepted that we would die when we chose to do this. We decided that getting justice for the victims of this murderer you’ve created was more important than our own lives. We will get that justice, no matter what.”

“‘Murderer’? What are you talking about?”

“Don’t act like you don’t know! There’s no way her massacre of the Pinkie Pie clones escaped your notice.”

Celestia was now even more confused. “That wasn’t murder. Those were duplicates, not actual ponies.”

The commander’s face twisted into a visage of hate. “So. It all flows down from the top. I should have known. You spent too long indoctrinating her for her to hold any morals you disagree with. Helmets on, brothers! It’s time for us to sell our lives dearly!”

The movement drew her attention to the members of the human force, and she realized with a start that it wasn’t only their helmets that were identical. “You –! You’re –?”

“For our fallen brethren!” The commander turned his blaster towards Twilight, but Celestia got off the first strike. Strangely, the humans’ armor seemed totally incapable of protecting them, and she felt sickened when her magical blast tore a large swath through their forces, totally disintegrating the commander and several others behind him and tearing large chunks out of any unfortunate enough to be partially caught in the beam. The other humans seemed frozen with shock for half a second, giving the Royal Sisters just enough time to reach Twilight, Starlight, and Spike and throw up a joint shield before they were engulfed in a storm of blasterfire. Less than two seconds later, the windows shattered and the intensity of fire directed towards the shield lessened as the pegasi guardsponies rushed in to defend the Princesses.

The sisters lashed out with their magic, tearing apart large groups of humans. The pegasi who had broken into the room were quickly gunned down, and stormtroopers started firing out the windows. Screams, smoke, and blood filled the air, soon joined by the thunder of thermal detonators thrown into the unicorns and Earth ponies that arrived and were forced into the bottleneck of the castle’s one entrance. Moments later, guardsponies who managed to slip by the plasma and explosions began trickling in though the room’s door. As stormtroopers fell, this trickle became a flood. Firepower was diverted from the windows to the door, and pegasi gained a hoofhold in the windows. The stormtroopers were forced into a ring around the Royal Sisters’ shield, firing both into and out of their formation. Finally, the last trooper fell, knocked down by a buck from an Earth pony and stomped on until he finally stopped struggling.

The whole affair took less than five minutes.

The First Battle of Ponyville

Belligerents:
Equestria:

Initial Strength: 1,778 E.U.P. Guards

Commanders: Princess Celestia, Princess Luna
The Galactic Empire:

Initial Strength: 596 Stormtroopers

Commander: Clone Commander CC-8156 †

Casualties:
Equestria:

WIA: 853

KIA: 487

MIA: 216
The Galactic Empire:

WIA: 74

KIA: 393

MIA: 129

Result: Equestrian Victory

Chapter Nineteen: Such a Quiet Thing

Ponyville
12/20/3
3:54 P.M.

Twilight absently looked around the unusually quiet town, her eyes bloodshot. While the battle two days ago hadn’t tipped the situation into full-scale war thanks to the Royal Sisters’ forbearance, everypony was on edge. To most, it had become clear that war was inevitable. Captain Orramas had met with the Princesses later that day, insisting that the stormtroopers didn’t have permission for their actions and offering the Empire’s deepest and most sincere apologies. In the end, despite Luna’s significant protests, the Imperials weren’t ordered to leave Equestria – yet. Celestia had been the first to kill in the battle, and while the stormtroopers had made their intentions quite clear, she felt like she would have been responsible if war broke out. This time, however, the Imperials didn’t get away totally unpunished. They were forced to give a public apology to all of ponykind and pay severe reparations, and strict limitations were placed on their activities.

Ten million credits were paid into the Equestrian treasury, and fifty thousand credits were paid to the family of each pony who died. Any Imperials who wished to leave the Everfree Forest now had to ask for permission in advance and leave their weapons behind. Those few who did get permission almost universally shot looks of hatred at every pony they saw, and received the same. They were allowed to retrieve their dead for whatever burial rituals humans engaged in, but they didn’t even bother trying to get their wounded returned to them. The surviving stormtroopers were now imprisoned in Canterlot Castle, where Luna was spending most of her time trying to figure out how to access their dreams. Also held in Canterlot were their weapons and armor, which were being examined eagerly by some of Equestria’s greatest scientific minds. Twilight would have been there with them if she wasn’t too exhausted to think straight. Almost dying, and seeing all those other ponies and humans dying around her, had shaken her deeply. But that wasn’t the reason she hadn’t been sleeping well.

“Open me. Learn my secrets. Use my power.”

The voice had filled her dreams every night since she had first seen the holocron.

“Open me. Learn my secrets. Use my power.”

She had torn through her library looking for something that would make it go away, and found nothing.

“Open me. Learn my secrets. Use my power.”

The night before last, she had asked Luna for help.

“Open me. Learn my secrets. Use my power.”

When she woke up, an extremely concerned Luna had informed her that her mind was somehow closed off.

“Open me. Learn my secrets. Use my power.”

She had tried gathering her friends and calling on the power of the Elements, but even they had no effect.

“Open me. Learn my secrets. Use my power.”

After that, she had started hearing the voice even when she was awake.

“Open me. Learn my secrets. Use my power.”

And it was getting more insistent.

“Open me! Learn my secrets! Use my power! Open me! Learn my secrets! Use my power! OPEN ME! LEARN MY SECRETS! USE MY POWER!”

On the edges of her perception, Twilight noticed that she had stumbled all the way outside of Ponyville and collapsed to the ground, but most of her mind was preoccupied with the voice shrieking in her head.

“OPEN ME! LEARN MY SECRETS! USE MY POWER! OPEN ME! LEARN MY SECRETS! USE MY POWER!”

“Fine!” she screamed. After three nights without any rest, and over a full day of the voice constantly speaking in her head, she couldn’t take any more. “I’ll do it! Just stop!”

The voice faded back to its original whisper, but didn’t disappear.

“Open me. Learn my secrets. Use my power.”

Everfree Imperial Garrison
11:47 P.M.

Twilight examined the Imperial base from just inside the forest. It wouldn’t be difficult to get past the fence, as the base didn’t seem to be designed with defense against flying creatures in mind. Unfortunately, it also didn’t have any windows, so she’d have to go in through the main door. She recalled that it required some sort of code to unlock, but she didn’t recall what it was. Well, one step at a time – she could worry about the door once the fence was dealt with.

She spread her wings and flew over the fence as fast as she could. Landing next to the wall, she held her breath, hoping none of the guards had seen her lavender form against the dark blue sky. After several tense seconds, she finally let out a sigh – and promptly smacked a hoof to her face. I could have just teleported over! Nothing she could do about it now. At least she hadn’t been spotted, and remembering now would make the rest of her break-in easier.

As if on cue, the door hissed open and a trooper strolled out. She had no idea what he was doing going outside at this time of night, but it gave her the perfect opportunity to teleport inside. The door shut just after she rematerialized, and she quickly took in her environment. No guards. Good. Carefully, she crept through the halls towards the central turbolift. Strangely, she only had to hide from a patrol once, and the lift was as unguarded as the front door. This was starting to feel very wrong – and not just because she was taking orders from a voice in her head that she was fairly certain was malevolent.

The door hissed open to deposit her on the floor that held the officers’ rooms. Still no guards. Why? She didn’t waste much time thinking about it. This close to the holocron, she could feel its pull almost like a physical sensation. The voice in her head had fallen silent now, and for a moment, she thought about leaving. But she knew that if she didn’t see this through, the voice would just return, even louder than before. At last, she came to Malen’s room. She hesitated. If she was going to be caught, it would be here. Mustering her courage, she used her magic to press the button that opened the door. She peered inside. His bed was neatly made, and she didn’t see him anywhere. It concerned her to think of what evil he might be up to, but her goal was now in sight.

Once again, the holocron glowed more brightly as she approached, and one last time, she heard in her head, “Open me. Learn my secrets. Use my power.” Strangely, the voice sounded somewhat different this time than it had been in her dreams and over the last day-and-a-half, though she couldn’t quite put her hoof on what had actually changed.

She examined the object for a few moments, trying to figure out how to open it. She eventually decided to pick it up and give it a closer inspection. As soon as it was in her telekinetic grip, however, she felt a wave of fear and anger wash over her. Or perhaps not over her, but through her. The sides of the pyramid split near the top and folded down, revealing a black crystal inside. The crystal glowed with a strange light, and an image of a human appeared over it. The human seemed vaguely female, though the shapeless black cloak, disheveled white hair, and decidedly ugly facial features made it hard to tell for certain.

“Greetings, acolyte,” the image said, in the same voice that had spoken in Twilight’s head just moments ago. “I am Sorzus Syn, Lord of the Sith.”

In a foul swamp, a small green creature dropped his cane and clutched at his chest as a ripple of shadow swept through the galaxy, threatening to overwhelm his failing heart. In a vast desert baked by two suns, an old man started off towards the nearest homestead at remarkable speed, then slowed to a halt when he realized that it wasn’t an immediate threat to his young ward that had filled his soul with dread. And in a towering palace, a laugh darker than the center of a black hole echoed through the halls.

The image disappeared, and Twilight’s purple, green, and black magical aura faded from around the holocron. She backed away from it, feeling unsteady on her hooves, and bumped into something behind her.

“I knew you wouldn’t be able to keep yourself away. A lust for knowledge has been the downfall of innumerable Jedi before you.”

“Malen!” She snarled, and her horn bubbled with power. “What has this thing done to me?!”

He smiled at her fury. “Oh, very little, I assure you. Far less than you believe. In fact, until a few minutes ago, it had done nothing at all.”

“LIAR! I heard it! It made me come here!”

“I? A liar? Well, guilty as charged. But not in this particular case. I’ve been watching you, Twilight Sparkle. Watching far more closely than you would have thought possible. And I’ve been listening. Not just to your words, but to your thoughts. I must say, the capacity of the mind to deceive itself never fails to impress me.”

She seized him with her telekinesis, ready to tear him apart. If anything, his infuriating smirk only grew. “Stop lying to me!” she demanded. “What’s happened to me?”

“Why, only what you chose to do to yourself. This is a powerful holocron, steeped heavily in the Dark Side of the Force, but even it isn’t able to cause the torment you’ve gone through. You’ve only heard its call in your mind twice, both times when you entered my chambers. All the other times? That was your voice, Twilight. You wanted to come back. But you couldn’t justify it to yourself. So instead, your subconscious made up a justification of its own. You traumatized yourself into returning. All those attempts you made to remove the voice failed because it wasn’t some foreign spirit possessing you, and because, on some level, you wanted them to fail.”

Her grip fizzled out. “No… no, that’s… that’s crazy. I’d never…”

The Inquisitor laughed. “Oh, my dear, dear Princess. The Dark Side lurks within all of us, just looking for a way to break out, to take control. And indeed, it’s looking. It has a will all of its own, and it desires to draw all things down into itself. All it needs to spread its influence is a small crack in your defenses. Your desire for knowledge and control provided that opening, and the seductive pall that surrounds every Sith holocron widened it into a gaping chasm. But make no mistake – the holocron may have sped up the process, but you would have fallen on your own one day. The levees around your spirit were already leaking. This just provided the final push needed to break them. And as Master Yoda would always tell us, ‘Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny.’ You belong to it now, and not even your precious ‘Elements of Harmony’ can save you. You belong to me… my new apprentice.”

Twilight collapsed to the ground, moaning as darkness swirled at the edges of her vision. “No… no… no…”

For the first time, the Dark Jedi’s expression shifted to something that might loosely be called compassion. “In the immortal words of one Dark Lord, ‘It is such a quiet thing, to fall. But far more terrible is to admit it.’”

Chapter Twenty-One: Empire over Cards and Brandy

Location: Everfree Imperial Garrison
Local Time: 09:01
Coruscant Standard Time: 21:00

“Why do I keep playing with you?”

Aerin grinned at his Navy counterpart. “Because you’re drunk and have more credits than you know what to do with.”

“Smart-arse.”

Aerin’s smile grew.

“Just deal us in, ya thief,” Gavrisom muttered.

“Yessir!”

Aerin passed the cards out to himself, Gavrisom, and their seconds-in-command, High Colonel Marl Himner and Captain of the Line Ulan Cortess. Throughout the base’s cantina, the troops and lower-ranking officers left their own games and drinks to watch. The weekly sabacc match held by the task force’s commanding officers was always drew a big crowd, largely because they often talked openly about classified operations in their drunkenness.

The first three hands passed mostly in silence, discounting occasional curses as Aerin’s pile of credit chips grew. Finally, Gavrisom spoke up. “Alright, Dav. Say it.”

“Say what?”

“That we shouldn’t be appeasing the ponies. That we should slaughter them wholesale, publically execute their leaders, and mount their heads on pikes.”

“Well, I wasn’t going to say that, but yeah, that just about sums up my feelings on the matter.”

Gavrisom sighed. “Look, I don’t like it either. We all know that the whole idea of the Empire is that we don’t have to concede to the demands of pissant factions. But do you really want to challenge the Emperor on this?”

“Ha! I’m furious, not suicidal!”

“Well, then, play along. Think of it as delayed gratification. Just think about how satisfying the baradium blast will be.”

Aerin chuckled darkly. “Oh, now that will be a sight to see. Do you think Engineering’s made the place convincing enough?”

“I can’t imagine otherwise. Even he isn’t omniscient, and the boys have really thrown their all into this one. Negative twenty-one.” He showed his hand. Queen of Air and Darkness, Endurance, and Balance. The other players groaned, and Gavrisom scooped over the pile of chips in the center of the table. “You know, I think I might actually win the sabacc pot this time.”

“Whoa, there, old man!” Cortess laughed. “I think you might’ve had a bit too much brandy!”

“Heh. Probably. Say, usually Zem’s the one to burst my bubble. Where is that silver-tongued scoundrel?”

Himner snorted in disgust. “Getting ready for his lunch date with the bolt sponge. I realize that he has to get on aliens’ good sides to do his job, but does he really have to enjoy it so much?”

“Says the man who spent his last leave on Zeltros,” Aerin snapped.

“Hey! At least Zeltrons are Near-Human! Not like these ugly schuttas.”

“I don’t know, I think they’re kinda cute.” All traces of sound in the cantina suddenly cut off as everyone turned to stare at Major Tannis Regnuff, who was standing in the front of the crowd. Aerin’s right hand slipped off his wineglass and below the table. “Not like that!” Regnuff hastily clarified. “I mean, cute in the sense that I think my daughter would love to have one as a pet!” The atmosphere in the room relaxed. Aerin’s hand came back up to his glass, which he emptied in a single gulp.

“Oh, yeah!” Himner exclaimed. “How is Sera, anyways? Oh, twenty, gentlemen. I’ll take those credits, thank you very much. She turns seven in, what, a month and a half?”

Regnuff beamed. “One month, two weeks, three days…” he checked his chrono. “Eight hours, and twelve minutes. And she’s doing well, according to Suyin’s last message. She’s started writing things other than her own name. She misses daddy, of course. I can’t believe it’s been over four years since I’ve seen her in person.”

Gavrisom got a wistful look on his face. “Ah, to be a young father again. I’ll make sure you get enough bandwidth priority on her birthday to give her a holocall.”

“Thank you, sir.”

“Don’t mention it. Got to keep up with the family, after all. Erai’s graduating in two months, you know. Damn. I hope this mess is cleared up by then. I’m supposed to give his commencement speech!”

“Yeah, we know, sir.”

“I’ve got to make it! He never even knew Tam! I’ve got to be a good father figure for him!”

Aerin reached across the table and placed his hand on Gavrisom’s shoulder. “Sturm, you’re like a father to all of us. You’re the best damned grandfather that kid could have. Relax. It’ll be fine. We’ll whip these vermin into line, and then you’ll have plenty of time to spend back on Anaxes.”

Gavrisom gave the general a skeptical look. “You’re never sentimental, Dav. What cards are you hiding?”

“Wouldn’t you like to know.”

“Right, kark that. I’m folding.” The other two players quickly did the same. With a smile, Aerin showed his hand. Negative one. Everyone in the cantina shouted, either in outrage or mirth, as he raked in the pot with the second-worst score he could possibly have.

“Oh, you are so dead,” Himner snarled.

Aerin raised his solitary eyebrow. “Literally, or metaphorically? Not that it really matters. You know I could beat you just as easily in a fight as I can in cards.”

“No, you karking can’t! You’re a karkin’ cripple for the Emperor’s sake! I’d beat you so bad, people would think you were a Wroonian!”

“Care to put that theory to the test?”

Gavrisom sighed. “Gentlemen, please…”

“You’re damned right, I would!”

“Very well.”

The two Army officers stood up, and Himner lunged. Aerin merely stepped to the side and held out his left arm, clotheslining his adversary. “Medic,” he said calmly, sitting back down.

Gavrisom gestured to two troopers, who pulled the gagging Colonel to his feet and carried him out of the cantina. “Seeing as we’re down a player, would you care to join us, Major?”

Regnuff chuckled. “Ah, why the hell not.”

“That’s the spirit!” Aerin cheered, slapping him on the back as he sat down. “We could use some fresh blood in this game.”

Cortess smiled. “I believe what you meant to say was ‘fresh credits,’ General.”

“That too.” Aerin dealt the cards again. “So, Sturm. How’re things going on Lun?”

“Well enough. Any construction in an environment without an atmosphere takes longer than usual, of course. I’m just glad we didn’t have to invent all that stuff ourselves. That would’ve added at least a decade to the project. As it is, we should be done in about a month. Frankly, I’m sort of relieved I don’t have the security clearance to know what those things were originally designed for. I mean, what the hell other sort of project could possibly require them?”

“Like you said, probably best not to ask.”

“Heh, right. Any progress from the ISB?”

“You expect me to know? You know how cagey those schut– err, guys are.”

“Worth a shot. I suppose I probably know better than you do. They had an Exploration team brought in, plus a big shipment of nova crystals. Bribes, you think?”

“What else? Emperor’s black bones! First aurodium, then millions of credits, now nova crystals? At this rate, we’ll bankrupt the entire Empire! No idea what they could want an Exploration team for, though. I wish we got all that intel from the informant, not just ISB. What’s happened with that creature, anyways?”

“Dropped off the face of the galaxy, presumably out of shame over causing a massacre. Zem’s trying to reestablish contact.”

“Karking aliens.” The cards randomized, and Aerin’s face brightened. “Well, my friends, it looks like I win again.” He showed his hand. Six of Sabres, Commander of Staves, Five of Sabres.

Chapter Twenty-Two: A Very Imperial Hearth’s Warming

Ponyville
12/24/3
7:54 P.M.

It was incredibly somber for Hearth’s Warming Eve, Twilight reflected. Though most of the guardsponies who had come to defend her almost a week ago were from Canterlot, several Ponyville families had lost loved ones. Fortunately, both the guardsponies she cared about were in the Crystal Empire and hadn’t been at any risk.

Throughout the town, ponies engaged in the typical festivities, singing, drinking, chatting, and exchanging gifts. But the conversations were subdued, the songs were quiet and shaky, and the drinking was much heavier than usual. The recent deaths put a significant damper on the mood, and the dark, looming tower of the Imperial base, resolutely cleared by its inhabitants of any snow that might soften its jagged lines, was a constant reminder that more suffering was a near-inevitability. Bizarrely, Twilight found that she was eager for it. After a moment’s contemplation, she dismissed the feeling. She simply wanted to get rid of the humans and have life return to some semblance of normality, that was all.

It wouldn’t be long. Two weeks more, maybe three, and she would be strong enough to defeat Malen. She had almost begun to look forward to the Inquisitor’s nightly summons. She hated every single moment she spent with him, of course, but once he went to sleep, she got an excellent opportunity to examine his holocron. She loved imagining the look that would appear on his face when he discovered, moments before he died, that she had surpassed him. Her little project would be a particularly great surprise. And according to the holocron, an apprentice who killed her Master would inherit his rank. Since he was the highest-ranking human on the planet, she would be able to order the Imperials to leave once she took over.

With a start, she noticed two humans walking towards each other at the edge of the town square. She was about to blast them with her magic for violating the treaty when she recognized them – Fluttershy’s friend, Captain Orramas, and Apple Bloom’s friend, Sergeant Malo. Instead of shredding them, she crept up and listened to their conversation from around a corner.

“Well, now! I didn’t expect to see another human face in this town! Whatcha doin’ here, Cap? I never took you for the partying type.”

“I’m not. Miss Fluttershy wanted me to come, though. She thought it’d help Imperial-Equestrian relations if I socialized with more ponies than just her. Like hell. I don’t know why she suggested it, really – it’s not like she’s some social butterfly, despite those tattoos on her arse. I’d bet my week’s salary that her friends put her up to this.”

“Cutie mark.”

“What?”

“They’re not tattoos. They’re called cutie marks, and the ponies are magically given them when they figure out their special talents.”

“I know that! How in the name of the Emperor do you?! And why are you even allowed here, Sergeant…?”

“Bren Malo, sir. I learned ’bout cutie marks when my squad was assigned to help out the Apple family at their farm. I got along pretty well with ’em, ’specially the littlun, so they got me an’ my boys permission to come here for the party. Reminded me of Life Day, so I decided to check it out.”

“Ah, yes. Sergeant Malo. I thought you looked familiar. I was the one who nominated your squad for that role.”

“Huh. Well, I reckon that shouldn’t have surprised me. I gotta thank you, sir. Those Apples are some mighty fine folks. Dang near feels like they’re family, at times.”

“Oh, really? Well, I’m glad more than one of us is getting along with the locals.”

“Yessir. Sure is nice to be around friendly folk, for a change.”

“What, as opposed to your fellow Imperials?”

“Oh! Of course I’m not saying anything bad about them, sir. I meant in terms of natives.”

“I know. I’m just karking with you.”

“Oh. Eh, heh-heh. Right. Karkin’ with me. You. Ah, good one, sir.”

“Relax, Sergeant. I’m hardly going to turn you in for fraternizing with aliens when I specifically requested for you to do just that. Besides, I’m doing the same.”

“Yeah, but you’re an –”

“You don’t want to finish that sentence.”

“Heh. Ah, no, of course not.”

“Now, if you’ll excuse me, I just saw someone else I need to talk to. Do try to drink less, Sergeant. It’s bad for your health.”

Twilight heard the unmistakable thumping cadence of booted human feet marching away. At the risk of being noticed, she peeked around the corner. The gray-uniformed human was leaning against a wall, sweating profusely despite the wintery chill and staring vacantly at a bottle in his hand. The brown-uniformed human strode into the crowd and started talking to somepony, though she couldn’t make out who it was or what he was saying. After a few moments, Orramas and his still-concealed pony compatriot walked into an alleyway, and Twilight moved to follow them.

“Hey, Twilight!” She grimaced as Rainbow Dash and Applejack flew and ran up to her, respectively, plastered smiles on their faces. “Why aren’t you hanging out with everypony else?”

“Yeah, Twi! Everypony’s wondering where you are!” Applejack noticed the human standing in the shadows. “Howdy, Bren.” She cocked her head and frowned. “Are you alright?”

He jumped slightly. “Wha?! Oh, it’s you. Yeah, I’m… I’m fine. I just… had a bad conversation with a superior officer, is all. Just… just give me a minute.” He took a deep swig from the bottle.

The clock tower struck eight, and at that moment, a flash of light came from the Everfree Forest, followed by a thunderous boom and a column of black smoke. The celebration came to a screeching halt, and many ponies screamed and ran in all directions as more explosions echoed from the forest and lit up the evening sky.

“Come on, girls!” Twilight commanded. “We’ve got to get the others! It looks like the Imperials are up to no good.”

Bren looked up from his drink. “Please don’t. The rifles may be set to stun, but those explosions are quite real. I don’t want you to get hurt.”

“What the hay are you talking about?!”

“You weren’t told? The general’s having us wargame tonight and all day tomorrow to take our minds off the festivities. He’s not fond of us observing alien holidays at the best of times. What with everything that’s been going on, he’s in an even worse mood than usual. I’ve got to get back there before ten for my company’s exercise, or I’ll be on KP duty for a month. Hell, I might get it anyways if Lieutenant Girard realizes I’ve been drinking. Uptight schutta.”

“So… they aren’t attacking?”

“Sure, they’re attacking. It’s just that they’re attacking spotter droids and each other, not you.”

“Huh.” It seemed perfectly benign, or at least, as benign as the Empire got, but the Hearth’s Warming Eve party was ruined. And that, the Element-Bearers suspected, was the whole point.

Chapter Twenty-Three: Fowled Foreign Relations

The Castle of Friendship
12/26/3
9:12 A.M.

Twilight looked down at the Cutie Map with Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie. The two pranksters were once again being called to Griffonstone.

“I wonder what sort of problem Gilda’s having?” Rainbow asked aloud.

“Well, we’re not going to find out just standing around!” Pinkie replied cheerfully. “Come on. Dashie! I bet she can’t wait to see us again!”

Griffonstone
3:47 P.M.

The two ponies stared up in horror at the dark walls being raised around the city. Overhead, griffons patrolled the sky. Most were dressed in gold and carried spears, but some wore armor that was the same gray metal as the walls and gripped blasters in their talons. On one completed tower, a human could be seen directing a team of griffons in the installation of a weapons emplacement.

“Hey! You ponies aren’t welcome here!” Several of the griffons flew down and leveled their weapons and Rainbow and Pinkie.

“Since when?!” Rainbow Dash shot back. “And what are all these humans doing here?”

“Back off, colors. We don’t have to answer to you. Run on back to Equestria and tell your princesses that the Griffon Kingdom’s back, and we’re not going away again anytime soon.”

“Hang on,” another griffon interjected. “I recognize these two. They’re Gilda’s ‘friends.’”

“Oh, yeah!” The first griffon stepped aside to open the path to the gate. “King Gruff wanted to talk to you if you showed up.”

“King Gruff?” Rainbow and Pinkie chorused.

“You deaf? Yeah, I said ‘king.’ Come on, ponies. We’re taking you to the palace.”

As they were escorted through the city, the ponies saw that it was in the process of being restored. The rubbish had been cleared out of the streets, which were repaved with new cobbles. Many of the dilapidated buildings had been torn down and half-rebuilt. Throughout the city, uniformed humans worked alongside griffons to move blocks of stone and thatch roofs. The griffons who weren’t involved in the construction walked and flew around with their heads held high and lofty expressions on their faces. Rainbow, Pinkie, and the guards came to a stop at the center of the huge tree. Once more, the tower of Griffonstone Castle dominated the city.

“Wait here, ponies,” the leader of the guards commanded, then went inside. The two looked around with awe. Aside from the durasteel, blasters, and turbolaser towers, they were finally seeing what Griffonstone looked like during the height of its power. After about a minute, the guard came back out. “Alright. King Gruff will see you now. Make sure that you treat him with the respect the king of the griffons deserves.” They made their way up to the castle’s throne room, and gasped at what they saw. Gruff was sitting on the throne as expected, a golden sash across his chest and a crown on his head instead of his usual fez. But what truly took their breath away was what was sitting on the alter in front of the throne.

“The Idol of Boreas,” Rainbow whispered.

“Indeed.” A human walked up beside Gruff. “Recovered from the very bottom of the Abysmal Abyss as our gift to the esteemed griffons.”

“Yeah, right. It’s a fake, isn’t it? There’s no way you could find it all the way down there. Not in a million years!”

“Yeah!” Pinkie agreed. “I bet it’s made out of papier-mâché! Here, I’ll prove it!” She started to move towards it, but got immediately tackled by three guards.

“That idol will not be touched by any species except griffons ever again!” Gruff proclaimed in the loudest shout his gravelly voice could make. “I tested it myself. It’s real. Lieutenant Ilo and his humans have helped us more in less than a week than you ponies have in centuries.”

“You let Pinkie go!” Rainbow took a threatening step towards the elderly griffon, and the rest of the guards tensed.

“Let her up, Grampa.”

Rainbow whirled around, both surprised and relieved. “Gilda!”

Gruff scowled. “I told you to stay in your room.”

“You don’t want me to challenge you for that throne, do you?”

The griffon king muttered to himself, but conceded. “Guards! Let her up.”

The griffons got off Pinkie, and she bounced to her hooves. “I don’t get it,” she said. “How could you find the idol all the way at the bottom of that canyon? It’s really deep. Like, really, really deep.”

The human smiled. “It’s not so hard when you have the proper scanning equipment.”

“But what about the wind?” Rainbow wanted to know.

“If you think this place has the most extreme weather in the galaxy, you’re crazy. That canyon’s nothing compared to Sevarcos. Trust me, the Imperial Exploration Corps is quite well equipped to handle anything this planet has to throw at us.”

“Gilda… how could this happen? I thought you were going to spread friendship to Griffonstone!”

“I was! But that sort of thing doesn’t happen overnight! There’s just one of me. It takes some time, and –”

“And we gave them actual opportunity, not just empty platitudes,” the human interrupted. “Friendship’s all well and good – it’s a great thing, in fact. But you can’t build a functioning nation on goodwill alone. And that’s not what your ‘help’ was actually all about, was it? You wanted to turn Griffonstone into a copy of Equestria, engage in a little cultural imperialism in order to get a new, subservient ally.”

“What?!” Rainbow couldn’t believe her ears. “No! That’s not true at all! That’s what you’re doing!”

“Oh, really? Well, if we are, we’re being a lot nicer about it than you were. Now, I’m no political scientist, but I don’t think it’s really possible for a ruler to simply not notice the total collapse of her nation’s biggest rival. If Celestia actually cared about the griffons, she would’ve sent them some sort of aid as soon as the idol was stolen. But she didn’t. Apparently, you ponies didn’t even know about the griffons’ misfortune, which I find rather hard to believe. But let’s give you the benefit of the doubt. You really didn’t know, somehow. It’s been over a year since your last visit. I’m not seeing any Equestrian money and supplies flowing in to help the griffons rebuild. Nope, just a load of bantha poodoo about how ‘the magic of friendship’ will fix everything.”

“But it does!” Pinkie exclaimed. “I don’t remember any problem that couldn’t be solved by somepony being a better friend to somepony else.”

“If that was the case, there wouldn’t be war, or murder, or rape, or organized crime.”

“They wouldn’t exist if the ponies who did them were more friendly to everypony else!”

“Enough!” Gruff snapped. “I didn’t let you come here so you could say a bunch of nonsense about friendship. I did it so you could tell your princesses exactly what’s happened. We have the Idol of Boreas back, the Griffon Kingdom is on the rise again, and we won’t be playing second fiddle to Equestria this time. Guards! Take my granddaughter back to her room and throw these ponies out of Griffonstone!”

“Don’t worry, loser,” Gilda said as the guards surrounded them. “I’m not giving up this easy. I’ll spread friendship to everygriffon, you’ll see.”

“I know,” Rainbow replied with a grin. “You’re just too bucking stubborn not to.”

Author's Note

Yeah, I know the new episode contradicts the thing about the map, but I'll be damned if I'm rewriting this chapter for that.

Also, my deepest apologies for the awful pun in the title.

Chapter Twenty-Four: Bug Hunting

Location: Equestrian Badlands
Local Date: 12/28/3
Galactic Standard Date: 28:4:11
Local Time: 04:17
Coruscant Standard Time: 15:16

Malen flew across the wastes on his speeder bike, followed by a squad of four of the Empire’s elite, black-armored storm commandos. The ponies may have had a constant cordon of guards around the Everfree Forest, but they had no real way of watching all of Equestria at once. A black shuttle coming down in a desolate region during the middle of the night was almost guaranteed to avoid notice. His unfortunately scheming apprentice must have been suspicious that he was up to something when he failed to materialize in her room and summon her to the base like usual, but she would have no way to guess what that something actually was.

He cast around with his Force senses, trying to find a large number of presences that differed from the various lizards, snakes, scorpions, hawks, and small mammals that called this rocky desert “home.” This would normally be an easy task – the amount of sapient minds clustered together that he was looking for would stand out like a beacon among the scattered, extremely limited intelligences possessed by most desert creatures. However, creatures so naturally skilled in illusions were also usually quite good at suppressing or altering their Force signatures.

Plus, it was a big desert.

They had been scouring the red sands and mesas for six hours. Even travelling at the 74-Z’s top speed of five hundred kilometers per hour, he estimated they had covered only a few hundredths of one percent of the place, if that. Of course, they hardly needed to turn over every grain of sand. The Manka and the Nexu had performed scans of the area and provided them with rough maps of the area’s caves and underground tunnels. Any that wouldn’t be able to hold at least a few hundred pony-sized creatures packed together like military ration packs were ignored. Working from north to south, Malen and his commandos had explored about one-fifth of the formations that fit the criteria.

The next cavern was the largest. Approaching it, he felt a chill run up the back of his neck. Ordinarily, his danger sense going off would be cause for at least a little concern, even though he hardly disliked the idea of going into combat. Now, though, it brought him only relief. He really hadn’t wanted to spend more than a day here.

Sergeant Kal Dorin, his squad’s tech specialist, confirmed his suspicions. “Sir, sensors are picking up life signs that match the description. Maybe a regiment’s worth.”

Malen would have killed most people for addressing him as “sir” instead of “Inquisitor” or “m’lord,” but he understood that a one-syllable title was the most efficient, and commando teams valued efficiency more than anything else. As it should be.

A regiment… probably not enough to make a significant impact on the pony military… but then again, considering how pathetically the ponies did the last time they had to face these “changelings” in open combat, perhaps it is. Besides, it’s more than I expected.

The Imperials dismounted outside the entrance to the cave. “Rogan, Kal,” Lieutenant Bor Sadic directed. “Get that T-21 set up.” Sergeant Rogan Fadith unslung his heavy rifle, while Dorin pulled the portable generator that allowed the power-guzzling weapon to fire in fully-automatic mode off the back of his bike.

“Taan, with me,” Malen commanded.

Sergeant Hora Taan nodded and drew his DL-44 heavy blaster pistol. There wasn’t much technology on this planet that he could use his primary skillset on, but an important part of being a saboteur was the ability to move stealthily. Not as stealthily as someone who could Force Cloak, of course, but still impressive in its own way. There was a short, electronic buzz as Taan switched his scout helmet’s display to infrared vision. Then he followed the Inquisitor into the cave.

The first room was empty, as expected. Malen motioned for Taan to stay back, then waved a hand in front of himself, disappearing into his Cloak. A minute later, there was a tapping on Taan’s chest plate. He crept forwards, making sure to stay behind rocks whenever possible. Around a corner, he saw a faint, sickly green light up ahead. Peeking over a rock, he disabled his infrared vision. He wouldn’t need it in here. A green slime coated the walls of the massive cave, giving off the unnatural glow he had seen. Insectoid creatures flew and crawled around the cavern, or rested in translucent pustules in the ooze. At the base of the far wall, he could just make out a creature much larger than the others laying on the ground, its teal – was that hair? – draped over its forelimbs.

He activated his helmet’s advanced targeting system and holstered his pistol, unslinging his E-11s sniper rifle. Most storm commando saboteurs would be equipped with the standard E-11 as their primary weapon, but he had been recruited from the scout troopers, not the normal stormtroopers. As a result, he supplemented his technical expertise with one of the best aims in the galaxy, and he served as his squad’s marksman. He fixed his sights on the changeling queen’s eye and nodded, indicating to the Inquisitor, wherever he might be, that fire support was ready.

A few seconds passed. Without warning, Malen appeared right in front of the queen, sending the changelings into a shocked frenzy. The air was quickly filled with the buzzing of insect wings. Unsurprisingly, the creatures’ first instinct was to attack. Taan held his fire. The Inquisitor didn’t need any help yet.

Malen’s lightsaber whipped around in several circles, and four dismembered changelings collapsed around him. A pushing motion with his left hand sent a half dozen hurtling into one of the walls, where their bodies broke with crunches and sprays of green blood. The lightsaber flew out of his hand and cut apart three of the airborne creatures. While it was still carving its path, he cast out his hands to both sides and let loose with a furious barrage of lightning, frying another eight. His weapon landed in his hand again, and he rapidly struck down three more.

It was a miniscule number, compared to the two thousand or so changelings in the cave, but they weren’t used to fighting an enemy that was just as brutal as they were. Seeing two dozen of their number die in just over five seconds caused them to back off, none of them wanting to be the next to face this violent and powerful intruder.

In the nervous silence, Malen spoke. “Chrysalis! Queen of the changelings! I wish to parley with you.”

“And why,” she asked, stepping forwards, “would I want to do that after you killed so many of my minions?”

“Oh, don’t give me that!” Malen snapped back. “You just called them ‘minions,’ for the Emperor’s sake! You don’t care about them any more than I care about the average human Army grunt.”

“No,” she admitted, “I don’t. But you’re not a changeling. And do you know what happens to any non-changelings we get our hooves on?”

“You drain them of their love and leave them as empty husks,” he replied matter-of-factly. “And to that, I say: go ahead. Try me. Here, I’ll even make it easy for you.” He threw back his head and opened his mouth as far as it would go.

Chrysalis was, of course, suspicious – her meals didn’t usually offer themselves to her willingly. Still, food was food. She opened her own mouth, and a few small wisps of green smoke floated from his mouth to hers.

He chuckled. “Well, now. I didn’t think I had any love left. You have my thanks for removing it for me.”

Chrysalis blinked several times. The amount of love she had drained from him wouldn’t even count as a light snack for one of her drones. And he was thanking her for taking it from him? She smiled. This was a creature just as cruel and twisted as she was. “Very well, …”

“High Inquisitor Valerious.”

“Alright, Valerious, what did you come here for?”

“I wish to propose an alliance between the Galactic Empire and the Changeling Hive. Your changelings would infiltrate the ponies, sabotaging their defenses and feeding us information on their plans. In return, you would be allowed to have your way with any prisoners we take once we finish interrogating them.”

Chrysalis sneered. “You don’t seem to be offering anything we can’t do ourselves.”

Back at the entrance to the room, a black-armored hand pushed Taan’s rifle to the side. “Wha-?!” A fist caught him in the helmet, making him loose his grip on the rifle and sending him staggering. He caught the next blow and responded in kind, knocking his opponent back. He now saw that his enemy was a humanoid dressed in identity-concealing storm commando armor. His foe seemed unsteady on its own two feet, still reeling from what had been a glancing blow to the chest, as if badly drunk. He took this opportunity and tackled his assailant to the ground, then grabbed his attacker’s head and slammed it repeatedly into the ground until he heard a crack. The humanoid disappeared in a gout of green flames. A changeling appeared in its place, a pool of blood spreading from the crater in the back of its head.

Looking up, he saw himself surrounded by more “storm commandos.” He whipped out his pistol and began firing, quickly but precisely, into the crowd. In half a second, he got off three headshots before the blaster was kicked from his hand. Grabbing and twisting the offending leg, he threw the disguised changeling to the ground. He turned and lunged to his feet, pushing through the hands that grasped weakly at him, their owners not properly understanding how to use their new appendages. He snatched up his rifle by its barrel, then swung it in front of him, breaking one changeling’s skull and knocking down two more. One of the creatures broke off and rushed for the front room, but he couldn’t do anything about that now, as another changeling grabbed him from behind. He dropped his rifle and grabbed the creature, throwing it over his head. Dropping to a crouch, he swept out a leg, sending one of them flying off its feet.

Malen, not looking away from Chrysalis, raised his hands in fists and twisted them. Taan’s last two opponents who were still standing collapsed and reverted to their changeling forms, their necks broken. “It’s very impolite to impersonate and attack my associates while still engaging in diplomacy with me,” the Inquisitor pointed out mildly. Chrysalis merely hissed in response. “Taan, head back outside. I’ll finish up here.”

Taan saluted and picked up his weapons. At the entrance to the cave, he stepped over the mangled remains of the changeling that had tried to take his place. They could copy his physical form, but they couldn’t replicate his armor’s IFF transponder signal.

“Hey, Hora,” Sadic called. “How many notches on your rifle?”

“None on the rifle, unfortunately. Well, unless smashing a head with the butt gets me a notch. Killed five in total. That one with the rifle, three with my pistol, and one with my hands.”

“Only five?” Fadith adopted a tone of mock reproof. “Hora, I’m so disappointed in you! You’ve got to spend more time practicing!”

Taan punched his friend in the arm. “Ah, shove it, Rogan. I’m only seeing one out here. Doesn’t that mean you should be the one practicing?”

“Hey! I hit every target that presented itself. You could’ve spent three seconds blind-firing in there and still gotten more kills than you actually did.”

“Yeah, but that wasn’t the point.”

“Sorry to interrupt,” Sadic broke in, “but where’s the Inquisitor?”

“Still inside. Said he could handle this himself.”

“Hmph. Even his ‘Force’ can’t take on an entire regiment, not even one as primitive as this.”

“He didn’t seem worried. Has he ever guessed wrong before?”

Sadic muttered to himself a little, but he didn’t reply.

A few minutes later, a maroon-cloaked figure walked out of the cave, a smile on his face. “Well, it looks like we have a de– ksshhh!”

A red lightsaber blade erupted from the figure’s chest. Malen watched the changeling collapse and revert to its true form with a scowl. “If they don’t learn to stop doing that, we might have to take corrective action.” He looked up. “Nevertheless, what the creature was saying was true. We provide them with intel on targets for replacement and access to any prisoners that we’re done with, and they focus their efforts on those targets that are most advantageous to us and pass on anything their infiltrators learn.”

“Can we trust them, sir?” Sadic asked.

“Of course not. We’ll probably have to whip them into line several times before they learn not to cheat us. But once they’re properly cowed, they’ll make excellent tools. Now, come. Let’s get back to the shuttle. I want to spend as little of the daytime in this desert as possible.”

Chapter Twenty-Five: The Day of Change

The Castle of Friendship
12/31/3
11:49 P.M.

Hidden away in a windowless room, Twilight put the finishing touches on her secret project. Malen had been summoning her less and less frequently. It seemed likely that he was growing wary of how powerful she had become and sought to limit her access to the holocron. No matter. She was already stronger than him. She gave her project a quick test, and smiled. It worked perfectly. Malen would be in for a big surprise. Sitting back on her haunches, she indulged in a little fantasy. She imagined the look of shock on his face when she revealed it to him; his desperation as he tried futilely to resist her might; his horror shifting into resignation as he collapsed at her hooves, waiting for the final blow to fall. It wasn’t just hopeful dreaming – deep inside, she knew it would happen. She could feel it, somehow.

No, not “somehow.” It was the Dark Side. It was granting her a vision. She was the fabled Sith’ari spoken of in the holocron. There could be no other. Her control over the Force was without match, and only growing. She felt almost as strong now as she had when she was channeling the energies of all four alicorns. To think, she had once considered Celestia and Luna almost incomprehensibly powerful! They were nothing. After the humans were annihilated, she would show those two fools exactly what true power was like. They were well-meaning fools, but fools nonetheless. She wouldn’t kill them, of course, or even hurt them any more than was absolutely necessary to get the point across – she was no monster, after all. But they still needed to be taught a lesson. They would come to thank her, in due time. And then she would use the humans’ own technology to pursue them to the stars. She would chase them all the way to Coruscant, slay their pathetic Emperor, and take his place. The humans considered themselves so high and mighty. But their time was over. The age of ponies was upon the galaxy. She, Empress Twilight Sparkle, would rule over it, and once the Royal Sisters taught her the secret to their immortality, she would ensure that it never came to an end.

A knock on the room’s door shook her from her reverie. She hastily hid her creation amongst a pile of rubbish on her workbench. “Come in,” she called.

Spike stuck his head in, looking nervous, not to mention tired. All of Equestria was staying up late to welcome in the new year. “Hey, Twilight? Applejack’s here, and she brought her human friends. She said they have something important to talk to you about.”

A deep scowl crossed her face. How Applejack could possibly consider any humans her ‘friends’ was beyond Twilight’s comprehension. There was nothing redeemable about any of them. The very best cared about nopony but themselves, and the worst were downright sadistic. Even an Earth pony should’ve realized that associating with those foul creatures was beneath her.

A dark thought slithered its way into her mind. Was Applejack planning treason? She could hardly believe she was even entertaining the idea. The apple farmer may have been simple-minded, but she was also completely trustworthy. Perhaps it was just to spite Rainbow Dash. Rainbow had been the second-most vocal advocate of driving the humans out of Equestria by force, right after Luna. Twilight felt a rage come over her. How dare Applejack jeopardize everything I’ve worked so hard for over her petty rivalry! She would have to be dealt with, in due time. Such disloyalty couldn’t be allowed to go unpunished. For now, though – perhaps some useful information could be wrung out these monsters. “Send them in, Spike.”

“Okay…” His voice was drawn out and worried. “Twilight, if you don’t mind me saying this – you look awful. Get some more sleep, would you? For me? Please?”

She smiled. She just couldn’t stay angry around the baby dragon, no matter how hard she tried, and no matter how badly or frequently he bucked up in the worst way possible. There was something about his foalish subservience and eagerness to please that always brought a warm glow to her heart. If he was simply more competent in his service, he would be a perfect example of how all ponies should treat the Princesses. “Oh, alright, Spike. For you.”

He got a sheepish grin on his face, and she chuckled as he left to get the visitors.

Right. The visitors. The humans. The thought quickly brought back her foul mood. Applejack led them in a few moments later. They glanced around nervously, as if they could still see the bodies and the scorch marks on the walls that the guards had worked so diligently to remove, still smell the blood and smoke. Good. They should be scared. “This had better be important, Applejack. I mean, what were you thinking, bringing humans here?!”

“Now that was just plain rude, Twi! Bren and his friends ain’t like most of the other humans. They’re nice, they’re hard-working, and near as I can tell, they’re honest. And they want to help us.”

Twilight gave them a critical stare. “Is that right?”

Malo nodded. “We can’t do much – we ain’t captains and majors. But we have the codes for the front door, we can teach you how our gear works, and we’ll pass on anything we do learn. For example – did you know that a droid company’s been sent to guard the Temple of Discord?”

“‘Temple of Discord’?” Twilight repeated with a frown. “I’ve never heard of it.”

He looked just as confused as she was. “Really? I… I’m pretty sure that’s what he said… Yeah, yeah! I know that’s it! ‘Temple of Discord’! That’s what he said!”

“That’s what who said?”

“Captain Orramas. We been talkin’ a lot recently. There ain’t many other guys in the Seven-Thirty-Fourth who actually like you ponies. Most of ’em would just as soon shoot you as look at you, ’specially after you killed all those stormies. Not to say we liked the bucketheads – clones are freaks – but you scare ’em now. I sure as hell wouldn’t want to be facin’ you on the field.”

Captain Orramas. Fluttershy’s “friend.” He seems to be popping up a lot. “And you’re sure he’s reliable?”

Malo let out a rippling belly laugh. “’Course he karkin’ is! He’s Intelligence! He knows everything!”

That certainly peaked her interest. “What do you mean, ‘he’s Intelligence’? I thought he was a diplomat!”

“He is! DiploServ is part of Intel. I don’t think a DiploServ guy usually would be given all the clearance he’s got, but he’s the most blue-blooded guy on the planet. Human, that is. Not sayin’ he’s more noble than you Princesses, of course.”

“Of course,” Twilight murmured to herself. She knew what “Intelligence” usually meant. “Do you really expect me to take the word of a spy?”

“Is that aimed at me, or Cap?”

“Either! Both!”

“Cap ain’t no spy. Hell, DiploServ are some of the most trustworthy guys in the whole damned Empire. They do exactly what their title says: diplomacy. The other branches do all that cloak-and-dagger stuff. For me, well… I guess you’ll just have to trust your friend.”

But how could she do that? Applejack was associating with humans. Her morals were clearly failing her. She was probably a willing part of whatever insidious scheme they were cooking up. Sure, she represented the Element of Honesty, but Discord had proven that her friends could be turned against their Elements. She still didn’t know how much of that was Discord’s magic and how much was her friends’ own free will, but even without his corruption, she knew Applejack could still lie. She was terrible at it, but she still could. Nopony was fully above suspicion.

Twilight sighed. She had to believe her friends weren’t abandoning her. She had to. It was foolish, but if she stopped trusting in the Magic of Friendship, she was no better than the humans. “Fine. Tell me where this temple is, and I’ll check it out.”

“It’s built into the northern face of Mount Saint Haylens. Be careful. The forces there may be droids, but they’re still nothin’ to sneeze at. Purge troopers, XR-85 tanks, dwarf spiders, even some ZQs. Plus, I’m sure you know Haylens is a volcano. Apparently, there’ve been some rumblings, which is why Command brought in droids for the job.”

“I’ll be care-”

“Ooh! A temple in my honor?” The draconequus peeked in the door. “I’m flattered! Wait here a bit, Twilight. I think I deserve the right to be the one to check it out first.”

“Discord, wait!”

“Ta-ta!”

Discord disappeared back around the corner, and when Twilight ran out into the hall, he was gone.

Mount Saint Haylens
11:57 P.M.

Discord glanced at the sparking head of a purge trooper in his hand. “To be, or not to be. That is the question. Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take arms against a sea of troubles, and, by opposing, end them.” He threw the head over his shoulder onto the huge pile of scrap metal behind him. “Bah. Wrong scene.”

He turned his attention to the cave entrance in front of him. Two limestone pillars held up a flat, square canopy of the same material. The pillars had once been carved to look like him, but most of the fine detailing had been weathered away. Moss and grass sprouted out of the cracks between the blocks that composed the canopy. Two thick, heavily rusted and pitted iron doors engraved with various scenes of chaos lay on the ground in front of the mouth of a tunnel. Discord couldn’t tell whether they had been forcibly pulled off, or if their equally-decrepit hinges and simply given out under the weight.

He didn’t recall ever having any followers who could have built a temple for him, and it certainly hadn’t existed before his imprisonment one thousand years ago. Of course, being trapped in stone severely limited one’s cognitive abilities. It may have simply been constructed after his defeat. After all, if that pathetic wanna-be villain Ahuizotl had a cult, then surely the Lord of Chaos deserved one.

He flew through the tunnel, examining the walls as he went. Tool marks were still evident here and there. Clearly, the interior hadn’t been subjected to the rigors of nature nearly as much as the outside structure, so the doors must have come off fairly recently. Only about one hundred feet down the tunnel, he was confronted by another door. This one was a huge disk made of stone. Around it, six busts of his head were mounted on the wall. As he approached it, their eyes lit up a deep red.

“Acolyte,” one spoke in a voice that sounded nothing like him. Instead of his constant chortle, the head had a deep, echoing boom. “To pass into the antechamber and petition for the blessing of Chaos, you must prove your adherence to its ideals. We shall speak, and you shall answer. When all the truth does is make your heart ache…”

Discord glared at it. “I don’t want to waste my time finishing my own old rhymes.” He snapped his talons, and the stone rolled out of the way.

Location: Everfree Imperial Garrison
Local Time: 23:59

Aerin glanced over the ISB agent’s shoulder at the vidscreen, which displayed the image from a holocam hidden inside the “temple.” All the pieces had fallen into place perfectly. The whole operation was a shining display of the very best of Imperial military efficiency. A pity the details would probably be classified for decades to come. It would make excellent material for a cross-service activities training manual or a propaganda piece. Intelligence had come up with the perfect plan and the perfect unwitting executioners, the Exploration Corps had found the perfect location, the Engineering Corps had created the perfect fake temple, and…

Discord appeared in the image, and Gavrisom spoke a single word. “Go.”

The agent pushed a button. The screen turned to static as Discord, the temple, and half the mountain disappeared.

Aerin turned to another screen showing security footage from the top of the sensor tower. A few moments later, the mushroom cloud rose high enough to come into view, even from all these kilometers away.

… and the Department of Munitions Resource Development had brought them the perfect bomb.

He raised his glass of Alderaanian brandy. “I’m pleased to present the Galactic Empire’s contribution to tonight’s fireworks display. Happy Equestrian New Year, everyone. Now, let’s all go get piss drunk.”

Mount Saint Haylens
1/1/4
3:07 A.M.

“Discord?! Discord!!”

Twilight and her friends scoured the edge of the crater, getting as close as they dared to the lava bursting out of the volcano. The heat blackened their fur and seared their skin, they coughed on the cloud of ash that choked the sky, and they were all starting to feel a bit queasy, presumably from noxious gases released in the eruption. They had been searching desperately since they had made it to what remained of the mountain just over two hours ago, to no avail.

“Discord!” Twilight called again, but her attempts were starting to become half-hearted. As powerful as Discord was, even he couldn’t match the shear violence of such a large volcanic eruption. She felt very little desire to stay in this horrific environment to engage in a hopeless search for somepony she didn’t even like.

A human emerged from the smoke beside her. He was dressed in a peculiar silver version of the familiar stormtrooper armor, and he was making a rapid chittering sound. “Your Majesty,” he said, the chittering not stopping while he spoke. “We must get you out of here. This place isn’t safe for you.”

Twilight grimaced. She was starting to get a headache. As much as she suspected he was trying to trick her somehow, he was clearly telling the truth. An erupting volcano was no place for ponies. “Girls!” she called. “We’ve got to go!”

“But… but we haven’t found Discord!” Fluttershy whimpered.

“And we’re not going to,” Twilight responded firmly. “Either he’s fine and he’ll show up whenever he wants, or he’s… dead. Either way, we’re not going to help him by staying here and killing ourselves.”

“No! We’ve got to –!” Fluttershy’s protest was cut off by a violent coughing fit. At the end of it, she threw up. “Oh… Oh, dear. I… I guess you’re right.”

The other Element-Bearers, all in similar condition, quickly assented. As they made their way down the mountain, Twilight glared at the human. She couldn’t help but feel that they were somehow responsible.

Chapter Twenty-Six: The Other to Crave It

Everfree Imperial Garrison
1/7/4
3:01 A.M.

Twilight strode down the halls of the garrison, humans pressing themselves against the walls to let her pass. Most of the highest-ranking officers and their bodyguards had learned that she had been “converted,” and they let her go wherever she wished, clearing those areas of anyone without the security clearance to know about her “defection” before she arrived. That would be their downfall. She had been given access to their repair facilities and armory, letting her acquire all the parts she needed for her secret project. Well, all the parts except one, but that had been easy to get with a letter to her brother and sister-in-law. They had been confused, of course, but she had explained that she needed it for magical research, and they had accepted it. Now, her secret weapon (and quite a lot of lost coat hair) hidden beneath the black cloak she had gotten from Rarity, she was ready to destroy her erstwhile Master.

She could sense him inside his room, sleeping. This would almost be too easy. She pressed a button on the panel with her hoof, and the door hissed open. She tensed for a moment, but the lump in the bed, barely visible in the dark room, remained unmoved. A thin smile crossed her lips. “Goodbye, ‘Master,’” she said, quieter than a whisper. “Rot in Chaos.”

Malen sensed his apprentice approaching, murder in her heart. The fool thought he had been arrogant enough to fully relax around her. He hadn’t slept since he had arrived on this planet. Meditating on the Dark Side provided him with sufficient energy, though it wasn’t something he’d want to do for more than a month. It had also been difficult to go into a proper meditative state while in a bed without falling asleep. The hardness of Imperial military bunks, even those of officers who couldn’t afford to purchase beds off of the civilian markets for their quarters, helped in that regard.

The door opened. After a moment, his heightened perceptions picked up, as clearly as if she had spoken directly into his ear, “Goodbye, ‘Master.’ Rot in Chaos.”

He had absolutely no intentions of doing so – or at least, not yet. Dressed only in his trousers, he leapt out of his bed a tenth of a second before a Force blast utterly annihilated it. Calling on all his might in the Dark Side, he pushed her back out into the corridor and pinned her to the wall. His lightsaber flew into his hand as he lunged out after her and slashed across her chest, intending to end the fight immediately. Instead, he carved a deep gash in the wall when she blinked out of existence. His combat precognition let him know exactly where she would reappear a brief instant before she did so, and he brought his lightsaber down in an arc that split her head in two.

Or at least, it would have if another scarlet beam hadn’t intercepted his own. His breath escaped from between his teeth with a hiss. She has a lightsaber?! How?! He disengaged from the saber lock and gestured at the door panel. The dim nighttime lighting in the hall was immediately replaced with a painful red glare, and a claxon blared throughout the base. He didn’t have time to gloat as the tip of his foe’s blade flicked out like a striking viper, faster than he could parry. He threw himself out of the way, but a searing pain flared up across his chest. He stumbled into the wall, barely managing to throw up a guard against the next flurry of attacks.

A lull followed as both combatants took stock of the situation. Twilight smiled to herself. Her vision was rapidly becoming reality. She found it hard to believe that this insignificant creature had once fought both Royal Sisters to a standstill or tossed her around like a bratty foal with a toy he was discontent with. She could practically taste the fear rolling off of him.

Malen briefly glanced down at his wound. It was shallow, and the cauterizing effect of lightsabers meant it wasn’t bleeding anywhere near enough to put him at risk of dying. Then he looked to his enemy. It was hard to tell for certain, but he was fairly sure that she was using a form of Makashi altered for telekinetic lightsaber combat. That was bad.

In his training, he had tried to prepare himself for just about any situation he might encounter, developing a respectable amount of proficiency in Shii-Cho, Ataru, Shien, and Niman. Unfortunately, none of those forms provided any advanced techniques in defense against lightsaber attacks. While he was a Jedi, the chances of him encountering another lightsaber wielder in combat was next to nil. As an Inquisitor, he was mostly dispatched against Padawans and lower-level Knights, none of whom posed any real challenge to him. Most of them had used one of the two most popular forms, Ataru and Niman, and had defensive skills that were even more lax than his own.

Makashi had been rendered dead by its total lack of any form of blast deflection, and the number of beings alive during the Clone Wars who had achieved a significant amount of skill in it could be counted on his fingers. What Makashi truly excelled at was lightsaber duels against a single opponent – exactly the situation, Malen noted grimly, that he found himself in right now. He was only still alive because Twilight’s application of the form was strictly novice-level. However, he still had a chance. Makashi had one weakness in lightsaber combat – it couldn’t hold up against a powerful offense. The ideal form to exploit this was Djem So, but against such a raw initiate to the fencing style, Ataru would be sufficient.

With a roar, he threw himself at her. He had to push the limits of his skill in the Force augmentation of his speed in order to outpace her parries and keep her on the defensive, but gradually, he pushed her back. Both combatants struggled to control the distance between them. Ataru had a heavy focus on the integration of strikes with the hands, feet, elbows, and knees, whereas Makashi was all about fine point control. Right now, they were fighting at a medium distance, most of their strikes colliding at the middle of their blades. If he could get into grappling range, the fight would be his. But if she managed to reestablish her distance from him, she’d cut him to ribbons.

He had only this one chance at victory, these next few clashes of the blades. Ataru was a weapon of last resort, quickly exhausting even the most youthful and athletic of practitioners. Makashi, by contrast, was well-known as an extremely energy-efficient style. Its greatest master, Darth Tyranus, had been able to keep up long duels with the likes of General Grievous without tiring. If Malen was to win the duel, it would be within the next thirty seconds. Otherwise, he was doomed.

A door at the end of the hall hissed open, letting in a squad of CompForce troopers. It distracted Twilight for less than a quarter of a second, but that was all Malen needed. He pushed her blade out of the way and took his left hand off his own hilt, striking her across the face. Considering how absurdly resilient ponies had proven to be, he suspected that it hurt him more than her. Still, it accomplished his objective. The sudden pain caused her to lose the intense concentration needed for telekinetic lightsaber combat, and the aura around her hilt disappeared.

He snatched her lightsaber out of the air and went at her with both blades as the troopers opened up. He knew that he had actually just made her more dangerous, not less. Lightsaber combat was something she had no skill with, and something he could conceivably beat her in. But now she was freed of the distraction of having to control her own blade. If he allowed her to regain her concentration, she would tear him apart with her Force powers. His objective now was to keep her focused on the sheer terror of a Jar’Kai practitioner and the growing number of troopers responding to the alarm.

Unfortunately for him, he failed miserably. A Force shield blocked all the incoming attacks, and he had to lunge out of the way of a Force blast that cleared the hall of troopers. He charged at her again, only to have both sabers ripped out of his hands and thrown to the side. Continuing to advance, he struck out with his left hand towards her throat, and was met with pain as her teeth closed around it.

Channeling his agony into power, he unleashed a burst of lightning into her mouth. Unfortunately, her paroxysms only made her jaws clench harder, and he roared as he felt his little finger come off. He abandoned his lightning, and instead slammed the side of his right hand into her carotid artery. That caused her to back off, opening her mouth in a silent scream of pain and letting his hand, quite a lot of blood, and his removed finger fall out.

He summoned his lightsaber back to his hand, but his vision swam and turned gray at the edges when he tried to wrap what remained of his left hand around the hilt. He stumbled towards her, then found himself seized in her telekinetic grip. Feeding off his rage and pain gave him enough strength to avoid being crushed outright, but he was unable to protect himself from being smashed through the half-meter-thick durasteel ceiling, nor regain enough control over himself to land on the roof instead of plummeting ninety meters to the ground outside. It wasn’t the worst beating a Force-user of his caliber had ever survived, but it was far beyond what he was prepared to keep fighting after.

Twilight flew down and stood before her helpless adversary. How pathetic. Somehow, Malen rose to his feet, but he was no threat. His first step resulted in him falling to his hands and knees, and then his side as his mangled hand refused to hold his weight. He coughed up blood, and a huge, red-stained smile spread across her face. Her vision was complete.

Chapter Twenty-Seven: The Way of Sion

Everfree Imperial Garrison
3:05 A.M.

Twilight smiled down at what would soon become her very first kill as he coughed up more blood and vainly tried to get back to his feet. “So, ‘Master,’” she sneered. “What does it feel like to die? You’ll have to tell me, seeing as I won’t ever be experiencing it myself. And please – spare no detail.” She used her telekinesis to make him look up at her. “I want to hear every excruciating gasp, every scream of unbelievable agony. I am an intellectual, after all, and I don’t have much information about human anatomy. You can help me by filling in exactly where you have the most nociceptors.”

Malen spat out yet more blood, plus several teeth. “Go ask… a torture droid… you schutta. I… won’t give you… the pleasure.”

“Tsk, tsk! That language is hardly appropriate for such a high-ranking official, now is it?”

“Go… to… Chaos.”

Twilight sighed. “I see you intend to be difficult. Oh well. Might as well get on with the tests anyways. First up, how does it feel…” she shifted her grip and squeezed, eliciting a high-pitched shriek from the helpless Inquisitor. “To not be able to have foals?” She drank in his gasps and squeaks for a few moments. “Extremely painful, I see. You did so enjoy those particular organs, didn’t you? Well, don’t worry. It won’t hurt for too much longer. Next, why don’t we…”

She trailed off as a mixed platoon of CompForce and Army troops rushed around the corner and leveled their blasters at her. She turned to them with a glare. “Stay back, you pathetic apes! Can’t you see that I’ve defeated your leader? I am your High Inquisitor now.”

They exchanged confused looks, and bizarrely, through all his pain, Malen laughed. “You fool. That’s Sith philosophy, not Army chain of command. You haven’t taken over – you’ve signed the death warrant for your entire species! Any who don’t renounce you will die. And you’re quite popular, aren’t you? How many ponies do you think will still be alive when we’re done? One hundred? Two?”

Twilight redirected her scowl at him. There was something very… wrong… about the way he said that. His voice sounded both more and less strained than before. “So what?” she snapped. “Do you really think your troops can stop me? I could tear them apart before they even managed to leave the Everfree, much less kill everypony!”

He smiled back at her, and suddenly, she heard a variety of creaks, hisses, and rumbles come from the wall behind him. “Perhaps the infantry. But how do you think you’ll fare…” The “wall” lifted up, revealing a small horde of AT-STs, several AT-PTs, an A5 Juggernaut, and another half-platoon of troops. “Against an entire armor company? Give it a few minutes, and you’ll have a couple dozen fighters on you, too. And have you somehow forgotten about our fleet in orbit? We don’t need to kill you before we destroy your world.”

She hissed. Her entire plan had revolved around the humans either falling into line or scattering in terror once she defeated the Inquisitor. After all, they were too afraid to challenge him, so why wouldn’t they be too afraid to fight somepony stronger than him? Their priorities and sense of self-preservation were clearly erratic. “I’ve killed you. Why. Are. You. Gloating?!”

Malen laughed again. “Oh, my wayward, arrogant, stupid apprentice. For all your power in the Dark Side, you’ve failed to grasp one of its central tenants – a failure you share with many Darksiders before you. You see, the Dark Side feeds off of fear and pain, as you’ve oh-so-eagerly proven that you know. But what don’t seem to realize is that those don’t have to be your enemy’s emotions. The Dark Side is the path of survival, of self-preservation. Fear and pain – the realization that you may lose your life and the sensation of it slipping away – are merely reminders that you still have a life to preserve. If you accept those feelings in yourself, nurture them, you feed the Dark Side’s power, and it rewards you by channeling some of that power back to you. So if you want to kill a Darksider, you’d better do it quick. Because as long as we’re alive, we can use our injuries to make ourselves stronger. And I’m not. Dead. Yet!” His eyes flashed yellow, and he raised his mangled hand, a torrent of lightning spilling from it.

It splashed off the shield she raised, as did the hail of rifle and autocannon bolts. But the sheer kinetic energy knocked her through the air, and as soon as she was more than five meters away from any Imperials, there were thirty-four resounding thwumps as vehicle-mounted grenade launchers unleashed their payloads. Her shield shattered under the assault, and she was sent tumbling, stunned and bleeding, into the Everfree Forest.

Malen pushed himself to his feet with a roar of agony, his already-light skin adopting a deathly pallor. “Chase her down!” he commanded. “Don’t let her escape!” He lifted his right hand, and his lightsaber flew into it. As the vehicles and troops flooded into the forest, Lieutenant Sadic ran up to him.

“Sir! You must let us get you to a bacta tank! There may still be time to reattach –”

“Don’t presume to tell me what I ‘must’ do. I’m following her. If I lose my finger as a result, then so be it. She cannot be allowed to go unpunished, or to tell anyone what’s happened to her over these past two-and-a-half weeks.”

“Ah. Yes, sir. I’ll assemble the squad, and then we can –”

“No. You’re staying here, Lieutenant. I want the storm commandos to remain a secret weapon.”

“Understood, sir.”

Malen stalked off into the forest, following the trail of destroyed vegetation, the sounds of explosions, and his apprentice’s unmistakable Force signature. He could feel the fractures in his legs grinding with every step, but he accepted the unspeakable agony. It made him stronger. And Twilight Sparkle would pay for hurting him.

Chapter Twenty-Eight: Revanchism

Fluttershy’s Cottage
3:10 A.M.

Fluttershy was awakened by what she at first thought were peals of thunder. But there was no storm scheduled for tonight, and the booms came far more rapidly than any thunder she had ever heard before. Nervously, she glanced out her window. The Everfree Forest was lit up by constant flashes of light. And they were headed towards Ponyville.

Twilight turned briefly to blast off the leg of one of the Army troopers. Another one nearby dropped his rifle and ran over to the injured human, squeezing his hands around the stump in a desperate attempt to stop the spray of blood that was rapidly painting the snow crimson.

She may have been pushed into a retreat, but she was still learning, still planning, still thinking. She had realized very quickly that it served her purposes better to injure the Army troops than to kill them. If they were wounded, at least one of their fellow soldiers would stop to help them. At this point, only about half a dozen of them still chased her, out of the twenty or so who had initially entered the forest. The CompForce troops were a different story. When she maimed them, their comrades didn’t spare them a second glance, they didn’t scream, and they kept dragging themselves after her even as they bled out. She had to simply kill them, and she had already done exactly that to about thirty of them. The infantry, of course, weren’t the real problem.

She pulled up short as the tree directly in front of her exploded into huge splinters. An AT-ST came up behind her and opened up with the rapid-fire anti-infantry cannon mounted on its left side. The bolts just deflected off the shield she threw up, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t a threat. Her shield couldn’t hold up indefinitely, and the walker’s grenade launcher and chin-mounted main guns packed almost as much punch as a magical beam from one of the Royal Sisters. Less than a month ago, it would have had a notable, if less-than-favorable, chance of beating her. Now, it was just a pest. But in large enough numbers, even the smallest pest could bring down the largest house.

Just as her retaliatory attack blew the walker’s cockpit to smithereens, three more pushed their way through the trees and opened fire. It would take her but a moment to destroy them, too, but she could hear the hissing and clanking of more metal legs and feet, and in that moment, the odds against her would get even worse. Instead of fighting, she pushed herself faster towards Ponyville. Her friends would help her kill these fools. And if they didn’t, well…

An Empress had to know how to deal with traitors.

Luna shook Celestia awake. “Sister,” she said quietly, sadly. “It’s started.”

Twilight burst out of the forest, ten walkers hot on her tail. She didn’t know where the rest had gone – she had only destroyed seven. But she was happy to have fewer pursuers. As she approached the edge of town, she saw something out of the corner of her eye, and she smiled. Turning, she blasted four of them with her magic. The other six fired at her, but not for long. A powerful buck bent a durasteel leg and sent the crippled walker toppling into another, which in turn knocked down a third. A flash of rainbow light smashed through two cockpits and dumped their dazed occupants in the snow an instant before the walkers’ ammo supplies detonated. A ball of pink bounced up to the top of the last walker and squeezed into its viewport. A moment later, it stopped firing and Pinkie emerged from the access hatch.

“Oh, Twilight!” Fluttershy rushed over, fear and concern etched on her face. “You’re hurt! What happened? Why are they doing this?”

Twilight didn’t have a chance to respond before two dozen TIE fighters shrieked overhead and the rest of the human forces emerged from the trees. The four AT-APs, each guarded by two AT-STs, deployed their third legs. The A5 crushed a new path through the trees, flanked by the last seven AT-STs and thirteen infantrymen.

“Princess Sparkle!” a voice came over the A5’s loudspeaker. “This is Captain Marsen. You will surrender immediately. If you do not comply, we will employ maximum force.”

Twilight snarled. “Go ahead. Try it. There won’t be enough left of you for your families to cry over.”

“Umm… Twilight, darling?” Rarity asked hesitantly. “Isn’t that a bit… extreme?”

“These monsters only understand violence. I’m just speaking their language.”

Applejack sighed. “Twi, how many times do I have to tell ya? Not all humans are like that. These humans might be, but Bren and his friends are as good as any pony.”

One of the Army troopers took a few steps forwards. “Were,” he called to her, his voice shaking. “We were good. Now Bren and Cole are nothin’ but dead. All the rest ’cept me an’ Lancer were maimed by this schutta. Might not make it. Me? I just wanna get me a new rug.”

Applejack’s eyes widened, and her jaw hung loose. She was silent for a few moments. “You…? He…?” She turned to Twilight, a haunted look on her face. “Twi… is this true?”

Twilight shot an annoyed glare at her. “How should I know? They all look the same in those helmets. Besides, why should you care? They’re just humans.”

The other Element-Bearers were taken aback by the utter lack of empathy in her voice. “Look, Twilight,” Rainbow said, flying up to her. “I don’t like these humans either, but this? This isn’t you. What’s happened to you?”

“I’m fine. Now, help me kill these monsters before they hurt anypony else!”

“I can’t do that. Sure, I want ’em gone, but I’m not gonna kill ’em. Not when there’s any other choice. And the Twilight I know wouldn’t, either.”

“How dare you defy me! I am your Princess, and you are supposed to be the Element of Loyalty! You will do what I tell you to do. Or you will suffer the consequences.”

A stunned silence stretched between the ponies. It lasted only a few seconds, but it felt like an eternity. Finally, Rainbow spoke, her voice sad yet determined. “Yeah, I’m loyal. Loyal to Twilight. My friend. But you aren’t her. I don’t know who you are or what you did to her, but you. Aren’t. Twilight. And I won’t let you drag her name through the mud like this.” The other Element-Bearers crowded around her, resolved to fighting whatever shapeshifter or possessing spirit had taken the place of their friend.

“All of you?” Twilight hissed. “You all would betray me? So much for friendship. You’re nothing but traitors. And there’s only one punishment for treason.” Her horn glowed as she prepared to destroy her former friends along with the invaders.

Fluttershy stepped out of the huddle to stand directly in front of her. “I won’t defend myself. If this is really you, Twilight, if there’s any trace of my friend in there, I know you won’t hurt me, or any of us. Please, Twilight. Stop this. Let us help you.”

Twilight hesitated. Am I really going to do this? Am I really going to kill Fluttershy?

A voice somewhere between her own and Sorzus Syn’s spoke in her head. Yes! Kill her! Strike her down! Destroy them all! They are nothing but an impediment to you, keeping you from claiming the power you deserve.

But they’re my friends!

No! They betrayed you. They’re stopping you from doing what’s best for ponykind. They deserve to die.

There has to be another way! There has to be a peaceful solution!

Peace is a lie.

I… I can’t…

You must!

I…

A crack broke the silence, and Twilight collapsed. As tough as she was, her skull wasn’t harder than phrik. Malen emerged from his Cloak, his deactivated lightsaber clutched in his one good hand. He would have preferred to simply cut her head off, but even fueled by the Dark Side, he was in no condition to engage in the major battle that would inevitably cause. The ponies recoiled at the sight of him. His hair was disheveled and he was almost naked, showing pallid skin, a blackened and oozing gash across his chest, and hundreds of bruises and small cuts. His yellow gaze travelled across the Element-Bearers. When they didn’t immediately attack him, he turned and began walking away, showing crushed bones sticking out of the knuckles of his left hand and blood spurting out where his little finger used to be.

Applejack ran after him. “What the hay do you think you’re doing?! You think you can just attack Twilight like that and get away with it?!”

He whirled on her. “Me?! You think I’m ‘getting away with it’?! Look at me! This is what your ‘friend’ did to me. She attacked me while I lay in bed, mutilated me, tried to kill me! Your ‘friend’ is an attempted murderer. You should be happy that I didn’t finish her off. It would be nothing more than she deserves.”

“Ri-ight. That’s real funny, comin’ from you. And don’t you go givin’ me some load of horse apples ’bout you being ‘allowed’ to do it. You’re the murderer, no two ways about it.”

A melodic voice from the sky broke into their conversation. “We’ll handle things from here.” Celestia flew down, accompanied by Luna and a squad of Night Guards. “Go make sure Twilight is alright.”

“Of course, Your Majesties.”

Celestia turned her attention to Malen. “As for you, Inquisitor.” His eyes narrowed, and his thumb slipped over his lightsaber’s activation stud. “You will never again leave your base. If you were wise, you’d leave Equestria entirely. If anypony ever sees you again, I will consider it an act of war. I’m willing to forgive the presence of you humans outside of the Everfree Forest this one last time. But I’ve reached the limit of my patience. The next threatening action that any of you take towards my little ponies will be your last. Am I understood?”

“Perfectly,” he snarled.

“Good. Now, get out of my sight.”

With a sneer, he stalked back into the forest. The other Imperials followed him, pausing only long enough to retrieve their disoriented and concussed comrades from the walkers Applejack had knocked over. As the sound of footpads in the snow and huge wheels crushing trees receded, the only sounds became the whistling of the wind and the crackling of the six burning walkers.

Luna turned to her sister. “You let them off far too easily. We should have never agreed to that peace treaty. Every time you allow them to stay, they become harder to eventually remove. And you know we will have to fight them.”

“That may be. But I won’t be the one to start the war.”

“Then perhaps somepony else should,” Luna muttered under her breath. Celestia gave her a disapproving glance. “Oh, relax, Celie. I’m not going to do anything foolish. Come. Twilight may need our help.”

Twilight was lying in the snow, her breathing steady and a bump rising on the back of her head.

“Sweet Celestia,” Rarity whispered. “What could have done this to her?”

Luna stepped forwards. “I do not know. But we will find out soon enough. Let us bring Twilight back to her castle. We shall discover the cause of Twilight’s unusual behavior together.”

The Castle of Friendship
03:28

Unseen in his Force Cloak, Malen watched from outside a window as seven strands of white light extended from Luna’s horn to the sleepers. He was no fool. The ponies seemed to naturally tend towards the Light Side of the Force. It was almost a given that they would be able to “redeem” his erstwhile apprentice.

When the string touched Twilight’s head, he sensed her mental barriers shatter. It would allow Luna – and, presumably, the other beings in the Force Meld – to access her innermost thoughts. But most Force Melds were the result of the combined effort of all participants. This, however, was more like a forced invasion. Instead of strengthening the minds of the participants, it weakened them. The dark one from the strain of entering the minds, the others from the destruction of their mental defenses. Not that they normally had any such defenses worth speaking of. Erecting them was a skill his apprentice had struggled mightily at, which suited him just fine. The ponies’ minds were open to any being capable of telepathy. Such beings were bizarrely rare here, he had learned, so it likely had never been a problem before. But he was a telepath, and he smiled as he extended his consciousness into Twilight’s. He was also a very sore loser. He had no doubts that they would be able to undue all the changes the Dark Side had made to her mind.

But would they be able to restore what he razed to the ground?

The Royal Sisters and Element-Bearers gaped as they looked around Twilight’s mindscape. Instead of the library they were expecting, they found themselves in a cavernous chamber of dark gray stone. Wind could be heard howling somewhere outside, and red sand trickled down from cracks in the roof far above. The walls were lined with statues of kneeling ponies, the sealed door behind them was carved with runes in a totally foreign language, and two huge statues of Twilight, ten times life size, stood against the far wall. But the thing that really stood out was the towering megalithic structure that dominated the center of the room.

“Ain’t that the holocron? I knew he was lyin’ about it not being evil!”

Celestia circled it warily. “So this is the source of the corruption. I’ve never seen an object quite like this before. Still, I can tell that it’s a powerful artifact of dark magic. We must find some way to free Twilight from its grip.”

“Who says I want to be freed?” The door rumbled open, and Twilight strode in. Her coat and mane were gray, her eyes yellow and bloodshot, and she was dressed in a black cloak, with gold jewelry adorning her forehead, neck, and legs. “Who says I’m not already free? In fact, I’m more free now than I’ve ever been before!”

Celestia didn’t try to hold back her tears. “Oh, Twilight! Can’t you see what this thing has done to you?”

Twilight showed her teeth in a smile that was totally without humor. “Yes. It’s given me the strength to drive the humans out of Equestria, the power to destroy any who might threaten us again! It’s let me achieve victory.”

“But at what cost, Twi?” Applejack pleaded. “How is it a victory if ya have to give up your friendship to get it?”

“My ‘friendship’ with you was a chain, holding me back from achieving my true potential. I’ve broken it.”

“Okay, I know you don’t really think that,” Rainbow Dash scoffed. “I mean, the Princess of Friendship giving up on friendship? As if!”

“You don’t want to do this,” Luna said quietly. “I can see it in your eyes. We’re all here for you, Twilight. We’re your friends. We want to help you. You just need to let us.”

Twilight’s eyes started watering. “I… I have to do this. It’s the only way to be powerful enough to stop the humans!”

“If darkness, ambition, and a desire for power were what truly made a pony strong,” Celestia reminded her, “Equestria would now be ruled by Nightmare Moon, or Discord, Chrysalis, Sombra, Sunset Shimmer, Tirek, or Starlight Glimmer, or any number of other tyrants. But it isn’t. Your friendship has always overcome, even when things looked their bleakest and your foes seemed invincible. Hatred and anger can never defeat kindness and love. Not as long as good ponies like you are willing to hold onto those values no matter the circumstances. So, my dearest student – will you take a stand for friendship?”

Twilight hesitated, then broke down in sobs. “Oh, Celestia! What have I done? How could I hurt all of you like this?” Her normal colors returned, while the cloak and jewelry turned gray and crumbled to dust. Her friends swarmed her, nearly smothering her in comforting hugs.

“I knew you’d come back to us, Twi!”

“Well, duh! Of course she did! She’s almost as awesome as me! There’s no way somepony that cool could stay bad!”

“I’m just glad you’re back to normal.”

“Indeed! Those really weren’t your colors, darling.”

“Hey! I think it’s time for a ‘Congratulations on Not Being a Big Ol’ Meany-Pants Anymore’ party!”

They stayed wrapped in the embrace for almost a minute. When they finally separated, Celestia sighed. “I truly hate bringing this up so soon, Twilight, but… what happened to you?”

Twilight grimaced. “It’s okay. You need to know. I guess I should start with the holocron. I told you all about the voice. Well, it started getting worse, and –”

“No!” a deep, rippling male voice roared from all around them. “Forever bound!” The giant pyramid in the center of the room shattered, revealing a roiling cloud of dark purple mist. Twilight was ripped off her hooves and pulled into the cloud before anypony could react. It sunk into her, and a blood-red glow surrounded her. She opened her mouth and spoke in the dark voice. “Bogan takes this spirit!”

“Release her!” Celestia commanded. “Whatever you are, if you hurt her, you’ll regret it!”

“Hahaha! Suffering. Torment. Anguish. Death.”

“We know where you live,” Luna pointed out. “What will happen to you if we destroy the holocron?”

“Fool. Bogan is darkness. Death. Bogan has no physical form. Power is channeled through avatars and minions. No pony can destroy.”

Celestia pondered for a moment. “If you’re really so powerful, why didn’t you do any of this before? Why now?”

“Violence. Suffering. Death. Bogan feeds on the fallen.”

“So many spirits that get stronger when ponies hate. But we’ve defeated them all. What makes you think that you’re any different?”

“Despair. Hopelessness. Death. Corruption spreads. Ponies. Humans. Twisted. Broken.”

“You may have much to feed on, but no amount of sadness and hate can overcome the friendship of even a few. We will stop you, and we will save Twilight.”

The Element-Bearers chorused their assent and stepped forwards as one, starting to glow.

“No! Violation. Defilement. Extinction. This must not be!” A beam of dark power shot from Twilight’s horn, only to be blocked by a shield raised by the Royal Sisters.

“Twilight!” Celestia called out. “Your friends need you! Even now, you still hold the Magic of Friendship inside of you!” For a few seconds, nothing seemed to change as the Royal Sisters struggled to hold back the attack. Then, under the red aura, a faint purple light started to glow.

“No! Die! Despair! Suffer!” The voice no longer came from Twilight’s mouth. The beam from her horn cut off and a cocoon of rainbow light surrounded her. The voice screamed, and a huge flash of light forced everypony to close their eyes. When they opened them again, they found themselves back in Twilight’s bedroom in the Castle of Friendship.

Luna smiled. “Welcome back to the land of the wakened, everypony.”

A groan escaped Twilight’s lips. “What… what happened? What are you all doing here? What am I doing here? I was going to the forest, and then… Did I pass out?” A sudden smile crossed her face. “The voice – it’s gone!” She looked around eagerly. “How’d you do it?” The other ponies stared at her with concern. “What?” she asked, frowning. “Was it something I said?”

Celestia cleared her throat. “Twilight… What’s the last thing that you remember?”

“I was just about to enter the Everfree Forest. The voice… it got so bad. I couldn’t think of any other way to stop it. I… I was going back to the holocron.” Her frown deepened. “But that’s crazy! There’s no way going back to the cause of the voice would make it get better. What was I thinking?”

The others exchanged worried glances, and Celestia released a heavy sigh. “My dearest Twilight. There are… many things we must discuss.”

Malen hid himself against the wall of the castle as best he could. His Cloak had collapsed, but fortunately, it was the middle of the night and most ponies had all the perceptiveness of a permacrete block. His breathing came in ragged gasps, he was drenched in sweat, and his bleeding had picked up. He had withdrawn from her mind just in time. He slumped down, trying to catch his breath. Once he had finally calmed down enough to form coherent thoughts, he indulged in a slight smile. He hadn’t been able to totally ravage her mind like he had hoped, but he had managed to scrub her mind of all memories of her fall and tutelage under him. Some things, once trained, came instinctively and could never be unlearned. But she would have lost the vast majority of her newfound power.

They still knew that her fall was his fault, of course, but his invention of an evil, possessing spirit would help deflect at least some of their wrath. Access to ancient histories was truly a great boon at times. Besides, they already knew that he was a sociopath. If they hadn’t declared war after he fought their leaders and killed that guard right in front of them, this probably wouldn’t be quite enough to push them over the edge. The situation may not have been optimal, but he had succeeded at his most basic objectives.

Coruscant

Inquisitor Valerious had failed. Darth Sidious hissed as he waved his hand through the dark cloud, dispelling the image. He had finally found a suitable replacement for his broken machine of an apprentice, and the Inquisitor had thrown it all away. He didn’t care if tens of thousands of expendable troops had to die for it, or, for that matter, if Valerious had to. Such powerful and easily corruptible beings were extraordinarily rare. The Inquisitor should have done everything in his power to drive her to more violence, more hate, more rage, more sorrow. Instead, he had given her a convenient out, allowing her to go back to her everyday life with the comforting misconception that she had been possessed, and thereby not responsible for her actions. She could be corrupted again, of course, but there was absolutely no reason to undo her first corruption.

All in all, the Dark Lord of the Sith was very displeased. The Inquisitor was still a useful tool, and would be allowed to live – this time. But his punishment would be painful, and Sidious would not grant such mercy a second time.

Author's Note

Su cuy ni! Well, for now, at least. My apologies for this unforgivably long break between uploads. Writer's block's a bitch. Plus, I realized I had written myself into a corner - I have a few other things I want to do before this collapses into full-scale war, hence the massive ass pull. But don't worry, her little brush with the Dark Side is going to have consequences (well, unless my Writing by the Seat of My Pants methodology screws me over again).

Chapter Twenty-Nine: Revolution and Revelation

Canterlot
1/10/4
11:48 A.M.

A VOTE FOR LUNA
IS A VOTE FOR WAR

Twilight could still read the graffiti, despite the best efforts of the Guardsponies scrubbing at the wall. Based on the words alone, it could have belonged to either of the two gangs that were rampaging through the streets of every city, though the blue paint and crescent moon and star symbol betrayed it as belonging to the faction that wanted to depose Celestia and install Luna in her place. They called themselves the “New Lunar Republic,” though critics pointed out that they were simply calling for the installation of a different absolute monarch, not the abolishment of the royalty and holding of free and open elections. In an attempt to paint Celestia as a human puppet, they had dubbed the current regime the “Solar Empire.” Celestia’s supporters had instead adopted the name with pride, viewing it as an indicator of her strong and capable leadership.

Somehow, it had been leaked to the general populace that Luna was a constant advocate for driving the humans out by force, whereas Celestia continued to seek a peaceful resolution. And once a few firebrands started throwing around their rhetoric, pony nature ensured that they would find large crowds of all-too-willing followers hanging on their every word.

Shouting and crashes could be heard from an alleyway. “Your Highness, are you sure you want to be out here?” Twilight’s escort asked, casting a nervous glance into the shadows. “There’s plenty of good food available in the castle.” A squad of guards flew past on their way to quell yet another riot.

Twilight stamped her hoof on the ground. “Yes, I am sure. I Pinkie Promised to Rarity and Pinkie that I would check out this new restaurant they were talking about, and that’s exactly what I’m going to do.” She chuckled. “You don’t want Pinkie finding out that I broke a Pinkie Promise, do you? Who knows what she might do.”

“But think of what it’d do to me if you got hurt on my watch!”

She nuzzled him. “Aww, is big bad Lieutenant Flash Sentry worried about me?”

He smiled at her. “No, I’m worried about me. Your big brother writes my paychecks, remember?”

They shared a laugh over that. It was, Twilight reflected, the first time she had laughed since she awoke three days ago. The thought that she had killed, even under the influence of an evil spirit, horrified her, though not as much as the realization that more killing would probably occur soon. Last she could remember, the situation with the humans had been… tense, to say the least. Now, things were a hair’s breadth away from all-out war. The thing that made her the most sick to think about, however, was that ponies had died defending her from a group of humans gone mad. It was their duty, she knew, but she didn’t consider herself worth as much as over half a thousand other ponies. She had managed to avoid thinking about it too much by pouring all of her energy into studying the captured human technology. But even that had failed to prove relaxing.

Their handheld weapons – E-11 blaster rifles, if she recalled Malen’s tour correctly – weren’t powerful enough to kill a pony with a single energy beam, but they would injure horribly, and as the battle at her castle had proven, three beams was sufficient to kill, even through guardspony armor. Most of the humans didn’t wear armor at all, aside from their helmets, and it wasn’t hard to see why.

Tests had shown that the white pieces of plastic-like armor the stormtroopers had worn barely had any effect on their weapon’s beams, so why they wore it at all confused her. It had proven quite resilient to physical attacks, with many powerful strikes by an Earth pony’s hooves being needed to knock an armored human out and spears being totally worthless unless thrust through the armor’s joints, but the humans used weapons that imitated a beam spell. Unless they expected to be fighting enemies who possessed the same level of weaponry as the Royal Guard on a regular basis, why wear it? Surely it only slowed them down and made them more vulnerable? And if they did expect to be doing that, why not give all their troops that armor? It didn’t make any sense.

The stormtroopers’ helmets defied logic even more than their armor. A short-snouted and small-headed mare had managed to squeeze into one, and she had reported that she was barely able to see out of it at all. Human eyes were much smaller and located slightly closer together than pony eyes, so the fact that it cut off most of her field of vision was hardly a surprise. However, the material that they apparently saw through, which seemed to also be some form of plastic, was almost totally opaque. Anything more than fifty feet away turned completely black. Human eyes didn’t seem built for unusually good night vision, so their helmet would practically blind them. It utterly confounded her.

Also found on the armors’ belts were advanced human medical supplies, some truly disgusting excuses for food, hoofcuffs, small black squares that were apparently necessary for the blasters to function, “comlink” communication devices that, for some reason, didn’t seem to work, and “thermal detonator” weapons that the researchers could find no way to activate. The degree of non-functionality that plagued the humans’ equipment was astounding. Didn’t they care about their soldiers’ lives? She knew that they weren’t nearly as bothered by death as ponies were, but giving their soldiers such awful gear was insane! If they didn’t care enough to ensure quality, why bother giving it to them at all? Spending Celestia-knows how many bits on all of that equipment, only for it to either be useless at best or actively hindering at worst? What idiot decided that was a good idea?

Work on the captured walking vehicles was going painfully slowly. While the humans spoke Equestrian, they didn’t write it. All of the controls were labeled with strange symbols, and after random button-pressing had resulted in the destruction of a lab and the scorching of quite a few manes and tails, new facilities were being built for the vehicles’ containment. Until those were done, few ponies wanted to get anywhere near them.

“Princess? Are you okay?”

Twilight snapped back to the present. She had stopped in the middle of the sidewalk with a scowl on her face. “Oh, sorry, Flash. I was just thinking about… well, about everything that’s been going on.”

He wrapped a wing around her. ‘Hey, stop that. All you’ve got to be thinking about right now is how lucky you are to be taking me out to lunch.” He gave her a lopsided grin, letting her know that he was joking.

She pushed his wing off, but returned the smile. “I think you’ve got that backwards. You’re the lucky one. I am a Princess, after all. You’re hitting way above your weight. Oh, and you’re the one taking me out. The food’s coming out of your pay.”

“Wha-? Hey!”

She laughed again. Her friends had taught her that even as all of Equestria seemed to be collapsing around her, she needed to be able to enjoy herself once in a while.

Location: Everfree Imperial Garrison
Local Time: 11:53

“… but they’re being kept in the caves under the castle until the new rooms are done. And that’s all I know. Now, will you please tell me why I’m talking with you, and not Zem?”

Gavrisom hauled himself up from behind his – actually Aerin’s – desk and walked over to the cabinets at the side of the room. “He’s currently engaged with another pony who has proven more receptive to us than most.” He opened the door of one of the cabinets, and let loose a short laugh in a mixture of amusement and mild derision when he found it totally filled with Alderaanian brandy. He pulled out a bottle and examined the label. 943 ARR. A good year. Putting the bottle back in its place, he closed the door and moved on to the next cabinet. Finding what he was looking for, he walked back to the desk with a sheet of flimsiplast, an ink pen, and a red ribbon. “Also, I have something special for you, as a means of saying ‘thank you’ for all the help and kindness you’ve given to us. It would be just as valid coming from Zem, but I thought you might be more impressed with it if it came from someone of a technically higher rank.” He pressed the tip of the pen to the flimsi, saying the words out loud as he wrote them.

“Let it be known that on this date, 28:4:24, I, Sturm Gavrisom, by the power vested in me by His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Palpatine, as Imperial Governor of the Celes System and an Admiral in the Imperial Navy, hereby bestow full Imperial citizenship, the status of Honorary Human, and all associated rights and privileges upon the alien Lyra Heartstrings (Species: Pony; Subspecies: Unicorn; Gender: Female) for commendable activity in the service of the Galactic Empire. Long live the Emperor.”

He rolled the sheet into a scroll and tied it shut with the ribbon. “Congratulations, my dear, on being the first inhabitant of this planet to receive this honor. You truly are a credit to your species.”

She levitated the scroll over to herself with a look of almost religious joy on her face. “Th– thank you!”

“Of course, Miss Heartstrings. You’ve very much earned it. Unfortunately, this planet is under Imperial quarantine until our… situation… with the local government is resolved. Once it is, however, rest assured that I will ensure that you are provided with transportation to any planet in the galaxy that you so choose. For now, good day, Miss Heartstrings. Oh, and do try to keep this a secret, would you? I ask this for your own safety – there are many ponies who would be less-than-pleased to discover your connections with us.”

Fluttershy’s Cottage
11:55 A.M.

“You what?!”

Fluttershy frowned. She thought she had spoken quite clearly. Then again, ponies often had difficulty understanding her, so she repeated herself, a little louder and slower. “I said that, after lunch, I’d like you to come with me to the Ponyville Day Spa. I think you’d enjoy it.”

Orramas rubbed his eyes. “I thought you said that. Look, I’m willing to do a lot of degrading things for the sake of foreign relations, but this isn’t one of them. Spas are for women and deviants, and in case you somehow hadn’t noticed, I’m neither of those things.”

“‘Deviants’?” she repeated, her face scrunched with confusion. “What do you mean?”

Orramas lowered his hands from his face and shot her a look that implied that she had been dropped on the head as a filly. “Exactly what it sounds like I mean, of course! People who engage in deviant behavior!”

Fluttershy tilted her head. “Sooooo…. going to a spa is considered unusual where you’re from?”

Orramas’s expression turned blank. “You really don’t get it?” She shook her head, and he sighed. “In this context, it means ‘sodomites.’” She remained just as confused as before. Orramas struggled, but he managed to force the word out of his mouth. “Homosexuals!”

Understanding flooded onto her face, then just as quickly receded. “How is that ‘deviant’? It’s perfectly normal.”

Orramas’s jaw dropped. “‘Normal’?! It’s abhorrent! No infertile relationship has any place in the galaxy!”

Fluttershy stared at him with disapproval. “Now, Zem! That’s very closed-minded! Nopony can determine who somepony else will love.”

“Yes, we can! The whole purpose of love is to ensure the creation and protection of the next generation! Any feelings of attraction that don’t aid in that goal aren’t love – they’re mental illness!”

“Even if you think that, it doesn’t hurt anypony, so how can you justify outlawing it?”

“We outlaw tons of things that don’t overtly harm anyone! Our goal isn’t individual happiness, it’s the well-being of the general galactic populace! Order and the greater good must be upheld, no matter how many personal freedoms have to be restricted to do so! Otherwise, the galaxy will collapse into anarchy, and far more people will suffer than ever would under even the most restrictive totalitarian dictatorship.”

“Princess Celestia doesn’t do that, and Equestria has been at peace for a thousand years!”

“Yeah, well, Celestia can rely on non-overt threats to enforce order. Unlike you, we’re not ruled by a near-deity. Our leader is chosen based on competence, not power. Emperor Palpatine isn’t some immortal, nigh-omnipotent sorcerer. He’s just a man, much like any other. And he’s getting old. If he was in perfect health, he’d have thirty, maybe forty years left. But he isn’t. Numerous assassination attempts and the sheer stress of leading the entire galaxy for twenty-five years have gotten to him. Frankly, I’d be surprised if he makes it another fifteen before he burns out. And when he does, a new Emperor will be elected by the Imperial Senate. We revere the Emperor, but he’s hardly god-like. We have to use force to rule.”

“Ponies don’t follow Celestia because she’s ‘more powerful’ than anypony else! They do it because she’s kind, and wise, and she loves everypony!”

“Says who?”

“Wha- What?”

“You heard me. Says who? Who says that Celestia is kind, or is wise, or loves?”

“Everypony!”

“But based on whose standards? Celestia’s. She’s ruled you for a thousand years. When’s the last time you had a dissenting opinion that wasn’t immediately ignored? She’s controlled you for so long that your entire system of logic and morality is based solely around her whims! ‘Why does Celestia rule?’ ‘Because she’s good.’ ‘How do we know what good is?’ ‘Because Celestia told us.’ ‘Why does she get to tell us what’s good and bad?’ ‘Because she’s our ruler.’ Your reasoning is totally circular!”

“You just don’t know her like we do!”

“No, we don’t. So we’re able to form objective conclusions that you can’t. You’re too close to the issue. You look at her and see a loving deity. We look at her and see a powerful being with far too much influence and control. We know what it’s like to be in that situation. It’s almost destroyed us, before.”

“Celestia isn’t a goddess! She’s an alicorn!”

“And the difference is…?”

“We don’t worship them!”

“No, you’re just utterly servile to your oh-so-perfect Princesses.”

“We know they aren’t perfect! They’re just wiser than anypony else.”

“By. Their own. Standards.”

“By everypony’s standards!”

“Which are shaped by a thousand years of Celestia’s absolute, unquestioned control.”

“And why do you think almost nopony opposed her?!”

“Because they weren’t stupid enough to fight her and end up six feet under.”

“Celestia wouldn’t do that!”

“Several hundred caskets marked with the Imperial Crest would say otherwise.”

“You didn’t give her any choice!”

“‘I had no choice.’ Words used to defend many atrocities.”

“Oh, is that something you Imperials have a lot of experience with?”

Orramas stood up. “This is going nowhere. Neither of us is in a good mood, and I can see things are degrading into pointless mud-slinging. Before either of us do something we might regret, I’ll be leaving. Goodbye, Miss Fluttershy. I’ll see you again tomorrow, hopefully under more pleasant conditions.”

Fluttershy scowled at his back until he shut the door, and continued glaring at it for several minutes before letting go of her anger with a sigh. Everything she had said was true, of course, but she wouldn’t change his mind about anything by shouting at him.

Change his mind…

A sudden realization chilled her to the bone. His accusations about Princess Celestia had filled her with righteous anger, which pushed her into the Stare.

He had met her gaze without flinching.

Location: Everfree Imperial Garrison
Local Time: 11:57

Aerin entered his office moments after the informant left. “How can you defend working with such a foul creature?” he demanded.

Gavrisom poured himself a glass of brandy. “Yes, yes, I know. You hate aliens. You’re wasting your breath, Dav. I’ve heard this all before.”

“Not just that! It’s also a deviant!”

“Which has absolutely no bearing on whether or not her information is valuable. Oh, and I suggest you work on your pronouns. She’s a ‘she,’ not an ‘it.’”

Aerin glared at him. “It doesn’t deserve to live, much less be granted citizenship!”

“I’ll repeat myself. She is a useful informant, and her deviancy doesn’t affect that in any way.” He sipped some brandy. “You’re even more angry than usual. You’re going through withdrawal, aren’t you?” He got up and walked to the cabinet, pulling out another wineglass. Aerin looked at it, then at Gavrisom, and raised his eyebrow. Instead of taking the glass, he seized the bottle off the desk and chugged down several mouthfuls. Gavrisom shrugged and replaced the glass. If his friend wanted to be put in the position of needing yet another cloned liver, well, it was none of his business.

The door hissed open again, and Malen strode in. The two officers grimaced, then quickly bowed. There had always been something subtly off about the Inquisitor, but now, it wasn’t even remotely subtle. He had never regained his normal complexion after his battle with Twilight Sparkle, and he looked like a cadaver entering the first stages of decomposition. Gavrisom suspected that the Emperor’s orders hadn’t helped. For Malen’s ill-defined “failure,” the Emperor had forbidden the use of bacta to treat the Inquisitor’s injuries. Without bacta, his finger couldn’t be reattached, his scars couldn’t be fully healed, and metal braces had to be implanted in him to ensure his bones grew back together properly. The Emperor had also decreed that the operations be performed without any anesthetics.

“Put me in contact with Chrysalis,” he ordered Gavrisom. The governor nodded and typed a code into the desk’s holocomm. It beeped for almost a minute before the image of the Changeling Queen appeared over it.

“Oh, what do you wa–” She cut off, choking, as Malen raised his hand in a fist.

“Don’t keep us waiting,” he hissed. “Your infiltrators have proven useful in sowing discord, but you hold no power over us. Remember your place, creature, or be punished.”

He lowered his hand, and she collapsed, gasping for air. “Un… understood,” she rasped out.

He nodded once. “I have another target for you. A very… special… target. I’ll need your best infiltrator.”

Canterlot Caverns
1/12/4
3:24 P.M.

In the impromptu dungeon, the glow faded from around Princess Luna’s horn, and she let out a laugh of joy and relief. She flew up to the throne room, where Celestia was slogging through that day’s paperwork. “Sister!” she exclaimed, a broad smile on her face. “I’ve done it!”

Chapter Thirty: Tabula Rasa

Canterlot Castle
3:26 P.M.

“And what, dear sister, do you mean by ‘it’?” Celestia asked, raising an eyebrow.

“I’ve unlocked the humans’ dreams!”

Celestia’s paperwork fell to the ground, immediately forgotten. “You have?! What have you learned?”

Luna grimaced. “So far? All they think about, all they have ever known, is violence and cruelty, even since… Well, not ‘birth’ like you or I would think of it, but instead… No, I can’t describe it. Perhaps it would be best if I simply showed you. But I warn you, their minds are truly horrifying.”

Celestia sighed. “I would expect nothing else.”

The Royal Sisters made their way back down to the caves beneath the castle, coming to a stop in front of one of the cells. Inside, a naked, legless human snored. Luna turned to her sister. “Are you certain you wish to go through with this?”

Celestia nodded. “What better way is there to learn about them?” She lay down on the stone floor, and despite the lack of comfort, she was soon breathing deeply and evenly.

Luna concentrated, and beams of light stretched out from her horn to her sister and the human. The alicorns found themselves in the dining room of the Castle of Friendship. The sight they were greeted with sickened them. The room was filled with stormtroopers, who were chatting, laughing, drinking, and singing off-key. At first glance, it seemed like a normal party, aside from the fact that all of the party-goers had the same face. It didn’t take long to notice, however, that one of the humans was using Celestia’s mutilated corpse as a footrest, another had Luna’s tail draped over his shoulder, and Twilight’s head was the centerpiece of the table. Celestia’s spoke in a whisper. “Is this really what they dream about?”

“Poodoo!” one of the seated troopers shouted, noticing them and catapulting to his feet. “How?! We killed you! Your bodies are right over…” The dreamscape wavered. “Oh, no. This is a dream, isn’t it?” The party disappeared, replaced with an endless field of white, and the stormtrooper crossed his arms across his chest. “Go ahead – torture me. Show me the worst horrors you can imagine. I won’t break. My loyalty is absolute. I’ll give you nothing.”

Celestia shook her head. “How dreadful that your first thought is that we’re here to torture you. Ponies are better than that. We’d never do something so barbaric.”

“Ah, in a way, sister,” Luna said, “we are. If this human holds to the pattern the others have established, there are few things that we could show him that are worse than his own memories.”

“Making me relive my battles, eh?” The human chuckled grimly. “Go right ahead. I already do that every single night. Come on, hit me with it.”

Luna’s horn shone, and the alicorns were suddenly in a skyway with a gleaming black and white floor and glass walls and ceiling. Huge glass pillars were crowded outside. Celestia took in the scenery with a skeptical eye. “These humans certainly enjoy their stark aesthetics, don’t they?”

Luna nodded. “From what I have seen, this city holds the most pleasant architecture they have.” She turned to the closest pillar. “I told you that they are not born in the same way as ponies. They are not even hatched in the same way as griffons. Look closely at this column. What do you see?”

Celestia studied it. At intervals along its height were black rings studded with glass cylinders. The cylinders were filled with a light blue liquid, and floating inside the liquid…

“Are those… human foals?”

“It would appear so, yes. Not born or hatched. Instead, perhaps the best way to describe it would be to say that they are grown.”

Celestia looked around at the forest of columns. “There are hundreds, thousands of them!”

“I have glanced at the dreams of several of these creatures,” Luna said grimly. “This is but a small portion of the humans being grown. There are millions, in just this city. Who knows how many other places they have like this.”

“How long does it take for them to be… grown?”

“Ten years, I have heard. Of course, we do not know how long a human year is when compared to an Equestrian year.”

Celestia nodded, somewhat absently. “This is a memory, isn’t it? Where’s the human whose mind we’re in?”

Luna concentrated, and the sisters were teleported to a different hallway. This one looked down on a large, white room filled with humans. Three dozen were dressed in white armor, though not quite the same as that worn by the stormtroopers. The design of the plates was different, and, more obviously, the helmets barely resembled the ones the alicorns knew. Instead of scowling visages, these helmets were essentially cylinders with domes and fins on the top, sunken cheeks, and black visors that resembled headless humans with their arms and legs outstretched. The other humans, perhaps a hundred of them, were all dressed in identical blue clothes, and were noticeably shorter than the humans they had encountered so far. All of the humans held blasters in their hands.

“Older foals,” Celestia murmured, “and already armed.”

Luna grimaced. “All five minds I’ve accessed have had the same memory of this place. If this is what I think, then –”

A loud explosion cut her off, and a door at the side of the room flew inward, slamming into the crowd. Blue energy beams lanced out from the blasters into the cloud of smoke obscuring the doorway, and red beams came back. Humans fell with smoking holes in their chests – and to Celestia’s horror, it wasn’t just the adults dying. Tan, skeletal bipeds emerged from the smoke, the red beams now clearly from their own blasters. The creatures were cut down in droves, but they kept coming. Dozens, a hundred fell, but still they marched into the room at their steady pace. And human casualties were mounting. Almost half of the armored humans were dead. Celestia couldn’t bring herself to look at the foals’ bodies long enough to count them.

The terrible slaughter continued for several agonizing minutes. Finally, to Celestia’s relief, the tide of creatures stopped. The fading of the blasterfire allowed her to hear the moans and screams of the wounded. She turned to Luna, sickened. “How could they just kill foals like…” She trailed off. Her sister was still staring at the doorway, a look of dread on her face. “Luna?”

“Just watch,” she rasped.

Celestia looked back to the room, apprehension mounting. A few seconds later, the fighting started again. This time, however, different creatures entered the room. These were bulky, neckless, dark gray bipeds as tall as Celestia without her horn. The blue beams that slammed into them barely slowed them down unless multiple beams hit in the same spot. The few remaining adult humans were quickly cut down, and the creatures turned to the human foals, slaughtering them mercilessly. Celestia’s stomach churned.

Just as the last foals seemed about to fall, a hail of small spheres flew through the doorway and landed in the midst of the creatures. Blue bubbles emerged from the spheres. Any of the creatures caught in the bubbles collapsed with arcs of electricity coursing over their bodies. The remaining creatures turned back to the doorway and were swiftly felled by a huge quantity of blue beams. More of the armored humans rushed into the room, and one looked down at the surviving foals. “You’ll be okay now, cadets,” he said in a soothing voice. “We’ll keep you safe.”

Celestia barely registered that the humans apparently referred to their young as if they were being trained for military service. She was too appalled by the awful massacre she had just witnessed to do much of anything. “If this is the sort of lives their foals have… Oh, by Star Swirl’s beard…”

Luna nodded, her mouth in a tight line. “Yes. Their lives do not get much better.” Her horn glowed again…

A vast network of platforms above an endless sea. Hundreds of clones are arrayed in battle formation, their rifles held vertically at their left sides and their helmets tucked under their right arms. No sun, moon, or stars can be seen through the raging storm, but when lightning flashes, their armor gleams. As one, they lift their helmets to their heads, turn, and board their transports, flying off beyond the clouds…

A dense jungle. Their armor no longer shines. It is deeply scarred, covered in burns and ground-in dirt. In the distance, flames soar over the tops of the trees, filling the sky with smoke. Screams can be heard from all around. Monsters from the worst nightmares of madponies emerge from the trees, their powerful jaws crushing armor and their massive claws ripping men apart. The clones push forwards, desperately trying to escape the river they are caught in. It is a torrent of their own blood…

A barren desert. A thick cloud of dust and smoke obscures almost everything. Almost. The cloud is illuminated by constant streams of blue and red energy. A rocket explodes nearby, throwing the few visible clones to the ground – all but one, who catches the full force of the blast and is shredded. His gore speckles the armor of his friends. It’s a different armor, somewhere between the two styles the Royal Sisters have already seen, but it’s already marred from heavy use. The men pick up themselves and their shorter rifles, and they continue their advance. One falls with a small black circle on his helmet. Others aren’t so lucky. They are cut in half by automatic weapons, or their legs are torn off by mines. Only three make it to their destination. A wall of stone extends high above them. They start to climb. As the ground fades into the cloud, one takes a bolt to the hand. His screams are mercifully drowned out by the roar of weaponry before they can be cut short at the bottom of the cliff…

A scorched, flat plain. Once, it might have been green. Now, it is a field of gray and brown, interrupted only by towering war machines. A human female in a brown cloak leads the clones, her blue lightsaber deftly reflecting all the red bolts that come near her. The troopers suddenly tense, and their rifles change their targets from the wall of tan on the horizon. The female’s eyes widen, but she has barely begun to turn when the blue bolts tear into her. She falls, and the bolts keep coming. When she is no longer recognizable, the clones aim back at the horizon. On their way to the enemy line, many step over the charred remains…

A cavernous room of dark metal. Lines of clones dressed in red uniforms and holding their armor walk up to other men, who take the armor and give new sets to them. One trooper hesitates, examines his old gear one last time. Every gouge, every stain is a memory – a fallen brother. But he turns it in. The armor he receives has a helmet that returns his scowl…

A forest of trees the size of mountains. One clone holds another’s hand as he bleeds out, his stomach armor ripped off and his innards exposed. The hand loosens, then slips to the ground. The survivor stands up. He stares at his friend for a while, then abruptly turns and marches deeper into the forest. A human in a gray uniform stops him. “You, there!” he calls. “The battle’s over. Go clean that mess off yourself. You’re an Imperial stormtrooper. You have a proper appearance to maintain.” The clone looks down at himself. His lower legs are painted a darkening red from the pool he had moments ago been kneeling in. In previous battles, many clones had their armor colored the same way and never washed it off. But things have changed…

Celestia gasped as she returned to wakefulness. In only a few minutes, she felt like she had lived several thousand more years. She also felt a heaving deep inside, and she lost her lunch. She had known that the humans were willing to engage in mass slaughter, but the sheer brutality of their warfare was far beyond anything she could have possibly imagined.

Luna waited patiently until her sister managed to haul herself to her hooves. “I thought you should see all of that,” she said, “so you know why I am going to do this. After I get all of the information that I can out of them, I am going to help them. I believe that these memories are what have made them the way they are. What you and I have seen is only a small sample of their experiences. Nopony could remain sane after seeing things like that for their entire life.”

“You’re going to wipe their memories.” It wasn’t a question.

“Yes.”

Celestia was torn. She agreed with her sister’s assessment – traumatic experiences were certainly capable of changing somepony for the worse, and human lives seemed to be nothing but one such experience after another. It wasn’t even the general methodology she opposed – she herself had found, on rare occasion, that the best way to help a traumatized pony was to make them forget the trauma. The thing that bothered her was the extent. What Luna was suggesting wasn’t removing a few minutes, or even a few days. It was years, perhaps decades. Perhaps even their entire lives. She sighed. “Let Twilight and her friends try to heal them with the Magic of Friendship. If that doesn’t work, then…” She bowed her head and sighed again. “Go ahead.”

Chapter Thirty-One: Reformation

Canterlot Castle
7:42 P.M.

Seventy-four naked humans were assembled in one of the castle’s many large chambers. Most had their hands tied behind their backs, though some were missing one or more limbs and were allowed to simply mill about. Under heavy guard, of course. Even the crippled ones had made it perfectly clear that they had no intentions of being well-behaved during their internment. A few, upon the opening of their cells, had tried to fight through the guards and escape – with absolutely no success.

They had all lost weight, their once-pronounced musculatures fading away. The oatmeal, apples, and salads they had been fed didn’t seem to have done much more than stave off starvation. A veterinarian had been brought in, and she had recommended supplementing their diet with meat. The fish seemed to help a little, but without knowledge of the humans’ normal diets, nothing more could be done for them. The humans, in a shocking display of disregard for their own lives, had steadfastly refused to give up that information. When they spoke, it was only to hurl abuse at the guards.

The ponies, for their part, only interacted with their prisoners at feeding times. They were just glad that the humans had started willingly eating after the first week. At first, the humans had to be force-fed, as they refused to so much as touch what they called “an insultingly karking obvious attempt at giving us truth serum,” whatever that was. They had eventually given up when their attempts proved utterly futile – human jaw muscles weren’t as strong as the telekinetic grip of a unicorn.

The room’s doors creaked open, admitting the Royal Sisters and the Element-Bearers. Twilight took in the looks of hatred in the humans’ dark eyes. They disturbed her to no end. Luna had given a brief overview of the clones’ memories, and Twilight now imagined the humans wearing these same expressions under their emotionless helmets as they both committed and experienced countless atrocities.

One of them glared directly at her. “Hello, Princess Murderer,” he sneered. “Enjoying the show, you blasted psychopath?”

She grimaced. Even though she knew he wasn’t in his right mind, his accusations still hurt. The thought that she might be a bad pony, that she might even have done something that justified her being totally condemned as evil, paralyzed her for an imperceptibly brief instant.

“So, what’s with all this?” a second clone asked. “You deciding which of us get the ‘honor’ of serving in your harems and which of us get thrown to the nexu?”

“What’re we doing here for, then?” a legless trooper retorted.

“Hey, you think it’d be because they’d actually find us satisfying? Naw, it’s a power thing, and you guys are even more powerless than the rest of us.”

“You guys are sick,” a fourth human growled. Twilight briefly thought that he might not be quite as crazy as his colleagues, but his next words dashed those hopes. “What they’re really gonna do is, they’ll pull one of us out at random, torture him to death in front of the rest of us, and keep picking new ‘demonstration assistants’ ’til they either kill all of us or get it through their thick skulls that we ain’t talking.”

“Hah! If any thought gets that far, it’ll just fall out the other side of their heads!”

“That’s enough!” Celestia snapped, ending their repulsive theorizing. “Twilight and her friends are here to help you. They –”

“We don’t want any of your karkin’ ‘help’!”

Celestia sighed. The humans were driving her to do that a lot, she noticed. Her horn glowed, and all of the humans’ jaws clenched, wrapped in a pale golden light. “Now, as I was saying, Princess Luna has discovered the horrors you have lived through. We realize now that you aren’t truly evil creatures, but instead have been twisted by your experiences. Twilight and her friends wield the Magic of Friendship, which can mend even the most broken pony. They’ll heal you, help you understand that holding on to your hate and pain can only lead to a downward spiral of misery and self-inflicted torture. I’m truly sorry we didn’t help you sooner. We couldn’t fully grasp what had shaped you into the pon– ah, people – you are now without seeing it ourselves. But I promise you, we will do everything in our power to ease your pain and help you adapt to a peaceful life. Go ahead, Twilight.” She stepped aside, though she kept their mouths sealed – she had a feeling that any words they intended to say would be less-than-polite.

As the Element-Bearers lined up, the humans did the same, forming themselves into eight rows, six with nine people in them and two with ten. The humans who couldn’t stand on their own supported themselves on those on either side of them, lifted so that their heads were on the same level as the others’. The Magic of Friendship surrounded the Element-Bearers, lifting them into the air and changing them into forms better able to channel its power. The clones stared up at them, their chins held high and fierce determination on their faces. They were then concealed by a huge blast of rainbow light. A few seconds later, the light faded and the Element-Bearers floated down to the floor, returning to their normal forms. Everypony held their breaths as the humans looked around in confusion. Had it worked? Celestia released her grip on their jaws. “How are you feeling?” There was silence for a few seconds, then one clone spoke.

“What the buck was that?”

“That,” Celestia replied, “was the Magic of Friendship. Are you feeling better now?”

“I…” He gave a hesitant smile. “Yes, I… I think I am. The pain’s still there, but it’s… it’s lesser, somehow.”

All the ponies cheered, and Twilight returned his smile. “That’s because you have friends to help you through it – friends who will always be there for you, no matter what.”

“I… I don’t know what to say.”

“You don’t have to say anything. You needed our help, so we gave it to you. It was just the right thing to do.”

Pinkie started bouncing. “I think this calls for a party!”

Applejack rolled her eyes. “You think everything calls for a party, Pinkie. But… yeah, I reckon this is party-worthy.”

“Yippee!”

At that moment, a guard burst into the room. “Your Majesties! The NLR is attacking the castle! They took the perimeter guards by surprise and are pushing across the courtyard! There’s too many of them! We can’t stop them!”

Celestia quickly turned to her sister. “Luna! Try to talk them down!” The Princess of the Night nodded and flew out just before another guard rushed in.

“The SE has risen in a counter-riot! There’s open warfare in the streets! The city’s burning, and with all our forces defending the castle, there’s nothing we can do about it!”

“I’ll be there at once. Twilight, you and your friends should stay here and protect the humans.”

“Oh, come on!” Rainbow protested. “If there’s a fight, I want to be out there kicking flank!”

“This isn’t a battle against the forces of evil,” Celestia admonished her. “These are ordinary ponies, driven to extremes out of fear. Harming them isn’t the way to solve this. They must be shown kindness and love, not anger and violence. Now, remain here. This shouldn’t take long.” With that, she flew off.

“Your Majesty,” the clone who had spoken before asked of Twilight, “is there anything we should do?”

It was weird, having a human address her as “Your Majesty” without any sarcasm in his voice. “No, Celestia told us to stay here, so that’s what we’re going to do. And you can just call me ‘Twilight.’”

“Of course, Your Maj– er, Twilight.”

“Oh! I almost forgot! Let’s get those ropes off of you.”

“Uh, Twilight?” Applejack asked nervously, “are ya sure that’s a good idea? I mean, they did try to kill ya, after all, and they haven’t exactly done anything to prove we can trust ’em.”

“Indeed!” Rarity concurred. “The humans that I’ve dealt with have all been quite brutish. Are we sure they’ve actually changed that much?”

“Hey! You say I’m brutish. Does that mean you don’t trust me?” Rainbow accused.

“No, of course not, darling! But your brutishness is only part of who you are. There’s quite a respectable mare in you, somewhere. I’m not so certain that’s true for the humans.”

“I don’t know if that’s a bigger insult to them, or to me.”

“I was giving you a compliment.”

“Girls! Cut it out!” Twilight scolded them. “We’re the first true friends these humans have ever seen, and what are we doing? Bickering and being distrustful. Is that really the example we want to set for them?”

The three looked down and muttered apologies. A rose-colored aura surrounded the ropes, and they fell off the humans. The clones chorused their appreciation and started rubbing their wrists.

A third guard hurried into the room. “Your Majesty! Princess Luna requests your immediate assistance!”

Twilight hesitated, torn. Celestia had told her to stay here, but if Luna needed help, she couldn’t just abandon her, could she? It only took her a moment to make up her mind. She’d have to apologize to Celestia later. She turned to her friends. “Come on, girls! We –”

Suddenly, the clones’ spokesman seized a spear out of the hooves of the closest guard and slammed it into the side of her head. The other fifty-seven clones who still had all their limbs fell on the other Element-Bearers with their hands and feet, quickly overwhelming them by way of surprise and sheer force of numbers. They then turned to the guards.

“No need to be hasty,” the newest guard said. “We’re on your side.” Waves of green fire flowed across the guards, revealing black, twisted creatures.

“What the kark?!” exclaimed one of the clones. “What in Chaos are you?!”

“Changelings,” the clone spokesman answered. “Apparently, my pony ‘friend’ has a job hunting them. Which doesn’t answer the question: why are you helping us?”

“Because your ‘Inquisitor’ held his light sword thing to our queen’s throat,” it replied, its voice now an insectoid chitter.

A ripple of laughter ran through the assembled clones. “Yeah, that would do it, alright,” their spokesman chortled. “I’m guessing this ‘riot’ is a fabrication?”

The changeling gave something resembling a chuckle. “No it’s real. Of course, we might have had something to do with it…”

“Nice. You do have a plan to get us past the rest of the guards, don’t you? Or have they all been replaced?”

“Just the ones posted in strategic locations. We’re going back down to the caves. We’ll get you your armor back, then head to the escape tunnel.”

“You dug a tunnel through Emperor-knows-how-much rock in less than a month? And without anyone noticing?”

“Just over a day, actually. And we had nothing to do with the tunnel. Apparently, you humans have been busy finding everyone who doesn’t like the ponies and getting them to work for you.”

The clones’ spokesman had no clue what the creature was referring to, but he wasn’t going to question his good fortune. “Okay, we’ve wasted enough time chatting, let’s go.”

“Hey, Colicoid!” one of his brothers called to him. “What about our wounded?”

That brought him up short. In a full retreat situation, official policy was to kill any injured troops who couldn’t keep up on their own. The entire force couldn’t be sacrificed in a futile attempt to save the wounded, and it was better to die by a quick bolt to the head and surrounded by friends than to fall into enemy hands and be tortured. Not to mention that dead men couldn’t give the enemy valuable intel. He himself had looked good friends in the eye and pulled the trigger. As the highest-ranking surviving officer from his battalion, it was his duty to give the order. But he just couldn’t make himself do it – not now, not after everything they had gone through together. “Carry them,” he ordered. “We’re all getting out of this.”

7:58 P.M.

The Royal Sisters stumbled back into the room, exhausted. The rioters had been less-than-reasonable, even when confronted by the Princesses they claimed to support. Most had, eventually, been persuaded to return to their homes and help put out the fires, but some had to be arrested. Unfortunately, the ringleaders of the groups had somehow managed to slip away.

The alicorns had taken a few steps into the room before what they saw fully registered. The Element-Bearers were lying unconscious on the ground, covered in bruises and bumps, and the humans and guardsponies were gone. The sisters quickly galloped over to the battered heroes, reviving them with their magic.

They groaned as they got to their hooves. Twilight shook her head a few times to clear it. “Ce… Celestia?”

“I’m here, Twilight. It’s okay. You’ll be alright.”

“Oh, Celestia… I’m so sorry. I… I guess the Magic of Friendship didn’t help them after all. I don’t understand. How could it fail?”

Celestia looked around at the other Element-Bearers. “On the contrary, Twilight. I think it did quite a lot of good for them.”

“You… you do? How?”

Celestia raised an eyebrow. “You’re all still alive.”

Author's Note

Chapter Thirty-Two: Aggressive Negotiations

Everfree Imperial Garrison
8:46 P.M.

“‘The first duty of any prisoner is to escape.’ Or do you not have that in your military doctrine?” Aerin’s arms were crossed over his chest, and he glared at the Royal Sisters, Element-Bearers, and guardsponies assembled in front of the fence’s gate. As if he was the one who had been wronged. Beside him stood Gavrisom, who looked nervous, and Orramas, who just seemed resigned.

“I thought we had agreed that they were criminals, not prisoners of war,” Celestia reminded him. “Unless, of course, you mean to say that we are at war?”

“That doesn’t give you free rein to do whatever you want to them! They told us everything! You starved them! Deprived them of clothing! Tried to brainwash them!”

“So you admit you defied our treaty to break them out?” Luna demanded.

“Damn the treaty! Damn the peace! And most of all, damn you. These are my men we’re talking about. I’ll send them all to their deaths if need be, even personally execute them if they do something deserving of it, but I won’t leave them to suffer in the grip of alien monsters like you.”

Gavrisom cleared his throat. “Now, Dav, let’s try to be civil about this…”

“What is there to be civil about?! They tortured my boys. Doesn’t that deserve retribution?”

“Hardly ‘boys,’ Dav. Biologically, they’re almost as old as you are.”

“They’re still my responsibility! I’m not going to abandon them to these creatures!”

Celestia again sighed, and she shook her head in disbelief. That the humans could hold such hatred in their hearts and engage in such violence, yet still consider ponies the monstrous ones, continued to baffle her. Their sense of morality was truly twisted. “We cared for them to the best of our ability. Any privations they may have experienced are only due to the fact that they refused to work with us, even for their own benefit.”

Aerin looked back to her, and he smiled his chilly grin. “I’m glad to hear they upheld the codes of conduct.”

Celestia was stunned. “You don’t let your soldiers care for their own wellbeing?”

“Answer no questions. Give up no information. Continue to resist in every way possible. Accept no special treatment. Attempt to escape and aid others in escaping. It’s our code for prisoners of war – not that we ever expect to be taken alive. We have standing orders to fight to the death.”

“We weren’t trying to get any of your secret plans from them; we just wanted to know what they needed to survive!”

“If you know what keeps us alive, then you know how best to kill us.”

“We wouldn’t do that!”

“How tiring. Should I read you the names? I think I will.” He pulled a small datapad off his belt and pressed a few buttons. “Ahem. Commander CC-8156, a.k.a. ‘Coldcase.’ Captain CC-8448, a.k.a. ‘Doubles.’ Captain CC-8616, a.k.a. ‘Horns.’ Captain CC-8765, a.k.a. ‘Downer.’ Captain CC-9483, a.k.a. ‘Mynock.’ Lieutenant CL-7131, a.k.a. ‘Nek.’ Lieutenant CL-7343, a.k.a. ‘Sparks.’ Lieutenant CL-7531, a.k.a. ‘Odds.’ Lieutenant CL-7820, a.k.a. ‘Atto.’ Lieutenant CL-7824, a.k.a. ‘Dev.’ Lieutenant CL-7911, a.k.a. ‘Fuzz.’ Lieutenant CL-7986, a.k.a. –”

“Enough!” Luna cut him off. “Would you like to hear the names of every pony your soldiers murdered?”

He met her gaze and put away the datapad. “Go right ahead. If you intend to watch me cry, however, then I’m afraid I’ll have to disappoint you. I don’t mourn over dead aliens.”

“General, please,” Orramas begged. “Don’t talk like that. You’re only driving us closer to war.”

“Good. I prefer the maneuvers of war to those of peace. I’d rather buy this planet with blood than kind words.”

Celestia shook her head. “You can insult us as much as you wish. But breaking into Canterlot, freeing our prisoners, and abducting ponies is going too far. Release them back to us immediately.”

“Or what?” Aerin sneered. “You’ve proven time and again that you’re too much of a coward to declare war.”

“I have struck the first blow before, if my little ponies were in danger. And there is no greater danger than falling into your sadistic clutches.”

Aerin grinned again. “I’m flattered, Your Royal Failure!”

Luna flared her wings, her horn and eyes glowing. “Silence, fool! You will do as we say, or you will face the rage of an alicorn!”

Gavrisom’s eyes narrowed. “That sounded like an ultimatum. The Galactic Empire does not give in to ultimatums.”

“Are you saying,” Celestia asked quietly, “that you won’t let my ponies go?”

“Yes.”

“And that’s your final answer?”

“Here’s my answer, schutta!” Aerin shrieked, pulling his pistol out of its holster and aiming it at Celestia. A guardspony threw himself in front of her just in time to catch the bolt in his chest. The other ponies watched, paralyzed with horror, as he dissolved to ash, his scream of agony fading as his remains were swept away in the wind.

At the behest of a sudden, inexplicable urge, Twilight leapt on Celestia, tackling her to the ground. Less than an instant later, she felt heat on the back of her neck, and she looked up to see the tip of Malen’s lightsaber where Celestia’s head had just been. Luna dove out of the way of his follow-up slash in time to avoid losing her head, but not her left ear.

The scene dissolved into chaos. The company of guardsponies charged at the would-be assassins. The red energy field reappeared in the gate, cutting off the three Imperial officers from the battle starting outside, and the troopers in the towers and on the walkway opened fire. Malen hacked apart the first seven guards to reach him, then pulled a second lightsaber from under his cloak and went on the offensive.

Twilight stared at the second blade, transfixed. There was something about it, something familiar. It was almost as if it called to her, asking her to… reclaim it? That couldn’t be it; she never had such a weapon before. Even if she learned how to make one, it was far too lethal to ever be used, as Malen demonstrated by cutting another pony in half with it.

Aerin raised a finger to his earpiece. “Raise the shields!” Malen did a high backflip over the fence just before a translucent blue dome appeared around the Imperial base. As Twilight clambered off Celestia, the base’s heavy cannon turrets unleashed their power, ripping huge gaps into the mass of ponies.

“Fall back into the forest!” Celestia ordered. She wasn’t actually ready to fight – the Imperials had always seemed just as desperate as her to prevent war from breaking out, and she had expected that they would concede to her demands like usual. Apparently, something had changed. When the gates disappeared in the trees and the beams finally stopped coming, she looked around at the ponies with her, and her heart broke. Of the one-hundred-and-sixty guardsponies she had brought with her, only twenty-seven had made it back.

“Oh, Luna!” Twilight called sadly. “Your ear!”

Luna glanced up at the stump. “It will grow back.”

“Huh?”

“Do you remember my first Nightmare Night? How I scared the foals by taking the form of Nightmare Moon? My sister and I have rather… fluid bodies. It may take a few hours, but I will heal.”

“Oh, thank Celestia!”

The Princess of the Sun smiled. “I had nothing to do with it. It’s just how we are.” Her expression turned far more serious. “Twilight, you and your friends should return to Ponyville. I suspect it will be in need of its heroes soon. Take the guards with you. Luna and I will return to Canterlot, and send out messengers to warn the other cities. War has returned to Equestria, and I fear it will be the worst our fair land has ever suffered.”

Location: Everfree Imperial Garrison

The base was a flurry of activity. Troopers dragged dead and injured ponies inside the shield, to either the morgue for dissection or the holding cells for interrogation. The base was only protected by a ray shield, not a particle shield, so physical objects passed through freely. It wouldn’t defend them at all from ponies just charging through it, but sometimes the illusion of strength was just as good as its actual presence.

Aerin tossed his pistol to Orramas. “Here’s your disruptor back. Sorry I didn’t hit the target.”

“No worries. Here’s your blaster.”

Gavrisom had his finger to his ear. “Implacable. Implacable, put me in contact with the Line Captains.” He went silent a few moments. “Gentlemen, we are now in a state of war with the Kingdom of Equestria. Captain Cortess, I want their rail lines bombed. Captain Rann, support Captain Cortess’s assault, then blockade Cloudsdale. If anything tries to fly in or out, kill it. But don’t level it just yet; you try it, and you’ll draw the alicorns in. Your Carracks can’t handle that, and I’m not committing our Vindicators to in-atmosphere engagements. Captain Cenik, focus your surveillance on the Canterlot, Ponyville, and Crystal Empire regions. That’s where their forces are concentrated, and that’s where their attacks will come from. Captain Hurada, stand by to land troops once I’ve consulted with General Aerin and our native allies.”

Malen bent down and picked something off the ground. He stared at it for a moment, then marched into the garrison building.

Planet: Coruscant
Location: The Imperial Palace

Palpatine finished reading the report, then set down the datapad on his desk, a smile growing on his face. It was now abundantly clear that none of the alicorns would become his apprentice by choice. But perhaps he no longer needed them…

Chapter Thirty-Three: Skirmishing

Ponyville Town Hall
9:08 P.M.

“Don’t panic, everypony,” Twilight tried to reassure the nervous crowd. “We have the Royal Sisters and the Magic of Friendship protecting us. The humans won’t be able to win any more than Tirek could.”

Normally, this would be more than enough to assuage the ponies’ fears. They had great faith in their Princesses. The citizens of Ponyville in particular had total certainty that their resident heroes would always be able to protect them. But they remembered the terrible slaughter the Imperial stormtroopers had inflicted on the Royal Guard three weeks ago. Sure, the forces of good had won in the end – that was inevitable. Good was inherently stronger than evil. But the awful cost the humans had taken! Over seven hundred ponies dead. Over eight-and-a-half hundred wounded, almost a tenth of whom were maimed for life. This was already nothing like any threat they had ever seen before. They couldn’t even imagine the humans winning, but the invaders were a terrifying threat. The Princesses were the most powerful beings in the world, but the return of Nightmare Moon and the Siege of Canterlot had proven that they weren’t invincible. Might the humans kill one of them? The humans’ very first actions displayed their willingness to hurt innocents; how many civilians would die?

“I know you’re all scared, but you’ve got to stay strong. I promise you, I won’t let these humans do anything to –”

She was cut off by a familiar shriek, one she remembered from the middle of the night over a month ago. The shriek of TIEs. Three dozen black dots flew overhead, and above them, four vast gray slabs darkened the sky. Twilight exchanged a silent glance with Rainbow Dash. With some twenty pegasi, they took off to engage the attackers. As they ascended, Twilight did some mental calculations based on the rate at which the large objects increased in size. She came to the horrifying conclusion that they were bigger than the Crystal Castle. She recalled the Royal Sisters saying something to that effect after their first battle with the humans, but seeing it herself made her realize just how advanced the humans were. Working together, all the Princesses might be able to hold an object that size off the ground and not burn out. But the humans had four of them, and a few more calculations revealed that they were moving at nearly Wonderbolt speeds. Only a few of the pegasi, all Wonderbolt cadets, managed to make progress towards them; the rest were left behind.

As the TIEs came into detail, hundreds of red beams lanced downwards from large craft. The pegasi were forced to make evasive maneuvers, driven away from the TIEs. The humans’ accuracy at this range was astonishing. They must be using telescopes, Twilight thought. This far away, we should just look like specks to them. The beams, missing their intended targets, smashed into Ponyville, tearing apart homes and businesses in huge balls of fire. Twilight’s heart sank and her stomach churned as she watched the devastation below. I was in the middle of promising to protect them. How many of them are dead?

A near miss scorched her mane and drew her attention back to the human craft. The TIEs split into pairs and flew off in all directions. Twilight noticed that these TIEs didn’t look like the ones she had seen that very first night. These had a doubled body and bent wings. She recalled seeing some of them during the tour of the human base. What had Malen called them? ‘Bombers’?

Glowing blue spheres emerged from two of the TIEs and plummeted towards the ground. Twilight and Rainbow Dash pushed themselves to the breaking point in a desperate attempt to intercept the human attack, but they were slowed by the need to dodge the constant hail of fire. They were still almost a mile away when the spheres hit the ground near the railroad tracks connecting Ponyville and Canterlot. Searing flashes momentarily blinded them, and they were buffeted by a scorching wind. When they had blinked the spots out of their eyes, looming columns of smoke were rising from overlapping craters where the tracks used to be. More spheres fell on other rail lines, obliterating them in bursts of light.

Staring at the aftermath of the humans’ weapons, it took the ponies a few moments to notice that the red beams had stopped. Looking back to the large human craft, they saw the vessels turning to the northwest of Ponyville.

Turning towards Cloudsdale.

Location: Everfree Imperial Garrison
Local Time: 21:14

The Imperial force’s four leaders stood on one side of the command room’s holotable. On the other side, three nonhumans flickered one by one into existence. The first was a bizarre cross between an avian and a feline with a bald head and milky left eye. The second was a heavy-lidded canine that rather reminded Aerin of a Geelan that had been starved to the brink of death – a memory that brought a faint smile to his lips. The last was a tall monstrosity that looked like some mad scientist had crossed Celestia with a Tethan hunting fly and then shot his creation with a scattergun.

“Good evening, gentlebeings,” Gavrisom said. “My apologies for contacting you at such a late hour, but matters are pressing. First things first, however; let’s get introductions out of the way. You’re already acquainted with myself, Major General Aerin, Captain Orramas, and High Inquisitor Valerious. In case you don’t know each other – King Gruff of Griffonstone. Chancellor Jim of Dimondia. And Queen Chrysalis of the Changeling Hive.”

Gruff leaned away from Chrysalis’s image as if she could attack him over the holocomm. “Are you mad?! She’ll drain us all!”

Gavrisom made a placating gesture. “Be at ease, Your Majesty. I assure you, we have her well under control. And remember – war makes strange bedfellows.”

A sly smile crossed her face. “Bedfellows, eh? I didn’t know you thought of me that way, Sturm.”

He glared at her. “A poorly-chosen expression for unsavory alliances formed out of the necessities of war. And you will refer to me as Governor Gavrisom.”

“Come now, Sturm, we’re closer than that, aren’t we?”

“Absolutely not. You are a useful tool, nothing more. If you turn on us, or attempt to elevate your position, or even continue to disrespect us, you will be punished most severely.”

“Ooh, so that’s what you’re into? Well, I usually prefer to be the one doing the punishing, but if that’s really what you –” Malen cut her off by raising his hand, his thumb and forefinger pinching the air.

“If one more innuendo emerges from your throat,” he hissed, “I will rip it out and have it braised for dinner – your dinner.” He turned his hand parallel to the ground, and her legs buckled. When he lowered his arm to his side, she shakily got to her hooves. He cast his yellow eyes around the table, daring anyone else to anger him. Humans and aliens alike shrank back from the barely-restrained bloodlust they saw in his gaze.

After almost a minute of nervous silence, Gruff cleared his throat. “I’m sorry, but did you say… ‘war’?”

“Yes, I did. Early today, Inquisitor Valerious and General Aerin launched a successful mission to rescue two platoons of our soldiers the ponies were holding for interrogation. Queen Chrysalis and Chancellor Jim are already aware of this, and their forces played vital roles in… Mister Chancellor, please stop trying to touch the holograms and pay attention. This information is incredibly important.” Jim dropped his paw, an embarrassed look on his face. “Thank you. Now, as I was saying, the changelings and diamond dogs were essential to our men’s safe return, for which we thank you. Unfortunately, the ponies have seen fit to declare war over this operation. As our allies, your nations are also now at war with Equestria.”

“Wait just a minute!” Gruff protested. “We griffons had nothing to do with your scheme! Why are we being dragged into this?”

“You signed the mutual defense agreement. We provided you with your national treasure, a rebuilt capital, and a modernized military, and until now, we have asked for nothing in return. I think it’s quite fair for us to expect you to hold up your end of the treaty. Besides, I thought you wanted to see Equestria humbled?”

“Not by war! By economics, and culture! I wanted to watch them squirm as our wealth and influence surpassed their own! I didn’t want to fight them!”

“Despite having a population little more than half the size of Equestria’s, you’ve built up your military to be almost as large. Plus, you accepted our weapons. I’d say that sounds like preparing for war.”

“In case they attacked us!”

“Oh, please. Princess Celestia relies on being viewed as a paragon of undistilled kindness in order to maintain her unquestioned rule. She wouldn’t attack you unless she could come up with a good excuse.”

“Then why should we care about your war? She doesn’t have any reason to go after us, so why should we provoke her?”

“By the Emperor, you really didn’t understand what you were signing, did you? You’re our ally, and she knows it. That’s all the reason she’ll need, all the reason any leader would ever need. Now, with the bridge between you and Equestria bombed, you don’t need to worry about a land invasion, but –”

“The bridge is what?!”

“Bombed. Blown to bits. Utterly destroyed. They won’t be able to march an army across to attack you, but you’ll still need to deal with –”

“When did this happen?! And how?!”

Gavrisom’s eyes were thin slits as he turned to Malen. “Shut him up, would you, Inquisitor?”

The Dark Jedi’s lips curled into a thin smile. “Gladly.” He raised his hand again, this time in Gruff’s direction, and the griffon king started gasping for breath.

“Thank you, m’lord. Now, Your Majesty, I’ll answer your questions, but I expect not to be interrupted again. The ‘when’ is a few minutes ago, when we destroyed all of Equestria’s railroads. The ‘how’ is with our bombers. And I’ll give you a freebee. The ‘why,’ since you clearly wouldn’t be able to figure it out for yourself, is to cut their supply lines and hamper their troop movements. As I said, the destruction of the bridge means that you won’t be attacked by their army, but their navy and air force are still threats.

“More concerning for all of us, however, is their largest ally – the dragons. I anticipate that they will attack the griffons as soon as they learn of the outbreak of war. Our informant within their ranks will alert us to any large-scale deployments, but he’s already a pariah, so we won’t learn of the objectives of any small covert ops teams until they’re already striking. Of course, we’ll know that they’ve been deployed – our radar can’t help but pick up objects that large and irregularly-shaped.

“I don’t believe the ponies are aware that you two –” he addressed Chrysalis and Jim “– have also allied to us, giving us a significant advantage of surprise. I intend to keep you hidden until we can make a decisive blow – neither of you has sufficient military might to withstand a committed attack by all of Equestria. Frankly, I anticipate that the griffons will actually be handling the bulk of the fighting. On that note, King Gruff, General Aerin and I concur that your first target… King Gruff?”

The griffon’s eyes were bulging, and just as Gavrisom spoke to him, he collapsed. The Imperial governor spun to face Malen. “Inquisitor! Let him go!”

“Uh-uh-uh, you didn’t say ‘please,’” Malen replied in a singsong voice.

“I won’t have you killing a foreign leader without cause! Release him immediately!”

“You didn’t use the magic word.”

Gavrisom snarled. “Please, Inquisitor.”

“It’s, ‘please, High Inquisitor.”

“Gah! Please, High Inquisitor.”

“Please do what?”

“Please release your telekinetic grip on King Gruff.”

“Now, I’m sure I just corrected you on the proper form of address.”

“Please, High Inquisitor; release your telekinetic grip on King Gruff!”

“Now, now. It’s not polite to shout.”

“Please, High Inquisitor; release your telekinetic grip on King Gruff.”

“Why, of course, Governor!” He dropped his hand, and an agonized, drawn-out wheeze followed. Malen cocked his head, his mouth in an innocent smile that didn’t nearly reach his gleaming eyes. “You see? Was that really so hard?”

Jim glanced between Malen and Gruff, his face a mask of horror. Chrysalis just smiled, happy that someone else was the sadistic Inquisitor’s victim this time. Quiet once again reigned at the holotable as the leaders waited for Gruff to recover from his near-death experience. Once he had mostly regained his breath, he shot Malen his best glare, though he wisely decided not to say anything else.

“My apologies for the… overzealousness of the Inquisitor, Your Majesty,” Gavrisom said with a shallow bow, silently cursing both Malen, for his horrid love of inflicting suffering, and himself, for not expecting the Inquisitor to cause as much pain as he could, diplomatic consequences be damned. “As I was saying, I recommend that you quickly mobilize your army and recapture the Griffish Isles. General Aerin?”

Aerin nodded. “Thank you, Governor. Our starfleet has their pegasi rather occupied at the moment, so you should be able to cement your control before they can rally any significant response. Most likely, you’ll be facing a fleet out of Manehattan. We don’t have much in the way Maritime Division forces, but we can provide you with a few Aquadons to destroy their Trottingham fleet and hold off their reinforcements. If we sufficiently cripple their navy, we can turn our attention to neutralizing the dragons – unless they have less collective intelligence than a gonk droid, the ponies won’t dare pull forces away from their own cities to attack us without an adequate way to fight you.”

Gruff continued to glare, but he gave a curt nod.

Gavrisom took over the conversation again. “Excellent. Do you know if Princess Luna can access your dreams?”

“What?” Gruff was caught off guard by this seeming non sequitur. “Nooooo… I don’t think so…”

“That isn’t good enough. Lieutenant Ilo, are you there?”

A hologram of a human appeared beside the griffon king. “Of course, Governor. What do you need?”

“Make sure His Majesty and his generals take stims until we can deal with her. I don’t want them to get so much as five minutes of sleep.”

“Understood, sir.”

“What?!” Gruff screeched. “You want to kill me by exhaustion? I’m not doing it!”

“Sacrifices must be made in war, Your Majesty. I, General Aerin, Lieutenant Ilo, this base’s command staff, all COs above the rank of captain, any men on secret missions, and all bridge crews will be doing the same. The stims will keep you alive for two, maybe three weeks. It won’t be pleasant, but then, having Princess Luna rip information out of your mind would, I suspect, be even less so. Don’t worry, we have a plan to deal with her.”

“And that is…?”

“Restricted information.”

“Just who do you think you are?! I’m the king of the griffons! You’re just some random officer.”

“You’re the king because we made you the king. Never forget that. Also remember that while I may indeed be ‘just some random officer,’ I’m an officer with a fleet that possesses enough power to melt your planet.”

“Are you threatening me?”

“Merely reminding you of the power dynamics at play here. Your newfound strength comes entirely from us. Refuse to work with us, and you have nothing. Now, Mister Chancellor. I want you to focus your tunnelers on –”

A lieutenant marched up to him. “Sir, report from Captain Cenik. A force of pegasi from Canterlot is heading for Captain Rann’s line. Estimate about a battlegroup’s worth.”

“What?! I told him not to attack Cloudsdale!”

“He hasn’t, sir, just established the blockade.”

“Don’t they understand a hostage situation when they see one?!”

“It would appear, sir, that this is retaliation for civilian casualties the ponies took during skirmishing around Ponyville when several of its inhabitants tried to intercept our bombers.”

“Ah. That would explain it. This isn’t Celestia showing legitimate concern for her subjects; it’s her taking petty revenge for us breaking a few of her favorite minion’s toys.” Gavrisom rubbed his eyes. “Excuse me, gentlebeings. I need to oversee the first battle of the war.”

Chapter Thirty-Five: No Time to Rest

Wreck of the Ardent
10:32 P.M.

“So, what are we even looking for?”

Major Steel Heart glared at the guardspony who had spoken. “Weren’t you listening to the Princesses? Survivors, and anything that might tell us how the human constructs work.”

“Yeah, I get that, but how are we supposed to know what’s important in this thing? It’s not like we know what any of this stuff is.”

Steel Heart slammed a hoof into his face. “Look,” he snapped, “just tell me if you see anything unusual.”

“This whole place is unusual.”

“More unusual than the rest of it!”

“Wow, no need to yell.”

“GET LOOKING!”

The guardspony trotted off, shaking his head. “Jerk.”

“Bucking reservists.”

The battalion continued their slow sweep of the debris field, picking over chunks of twisted, partially-melted metal as they worked their way inwards to the Ardent. Every few yards, they uncovered a corpse, shattered by either the impact with the ground or the shock wave from the crashing ship. Steel Heart sighed as he closed the eyes of a cream-colored mare with a purplish-pink mane. He couldn’t tell what her cutie mark was, as the entire rear half of her body was gone. So many dead ponies… enough to fill a small graveyard. And that was just the ones who were intact enough to be identified. The cruisers’ anti-fighter lasers had left behind very little of those they hit directly. Ponies caught in the blasts of heavy turbolasers simply vanished.

“Sir! I think I found something!”

Steel Heart ran over to what at first seemed like a small, strangely-shaped hill. On closer inspection, however, it was revealed to be a metal cylinder that had been mostly buried by the ejecta from the impact. Banging and muffled speech could be heard from inside. “Okay, everypony,” the major called, “let’s get this thing uncovered. Be careful – if there are humans in this, they’ll probably be violent.” Under his breath, he muttered, “No reason for them to suddenly change now.”

As the dirt was cleared off, seams became visible on the side of the cylinder. Then, suddenly, the metal plate bordered by the seams started slipping down. A voice came from behind it. “Thank the Emperor! We thought we’d die in there! Let’s get out of here before any of those damned ponies… show… Oh, no.” The hatch fully opened to reveal six humans in rumpled gray uniforms. At the sight of the guardsponies, they let out various exclamations of dismay and pressed themselves to the interior wall of the cylinder opposite to the hatch. The one who spoke earlier started whimpering. “Oh, by the Emperor, please, don’t kill us! We’re just mechanics! We’re not even armed!”

He would never admit it out loud, but Steel Heart felt no small pleasure at seeing the humans terrified and humbled. After everything they had done, they deserved far worse. He was sorely tempted to order their arms and legs broken, ostensibly to prevent their escape. But he was a pony, and a member of the Royal Guard. He was better than that, better than these monsters. He turned to his troops. “Get them out of there, and watch them carefully. If they act up, or try to escape… do whatever you have to.”

In the distance, unbeknownst to him, a human in black battledress lowered a pair of macrobinoculars from his eyes and waved to a group of humans laying on the ground behind him.

Canterlot Castle
10:41 P.M.

Luna lowered herself to her knees and attempted to calm down. She was trying to dream walk, but the events of earlier that evening had put her on edge and were preventing her from concentrating. She tried to focus on the humans’ dreams, but all she could think about was the horror she had participated in. She knew casualties – sometimes, even civilian casualties – were a sad reality of warfare. Or at least, they had been, back before her banishment to the moon. Apparently, that had changed during her thousand year exile. She even knew before the battle that the humans were just as brutal as the changelings, so she had accepted that many guardsponies wouldn’t be coming back. But the losses the humans had inflicted, and the speed with which they had done it, shook her. It wasn’t warfare the humans were doing – it was murder.

Her sister was occupied with finding housing for the refugees and figuring out how to manage the weather without Cloudsdale, Twilight was… relieving her stress, and the guards were all frantically trying to prepare for whatever the next human attack would be. Which left her all alone in her room, with nopony to talk to, nopony to help her come to terms with what she had seen. Not that I need it, she told herself. I’m the loner, the Princess as solitary as the moon I control. Wait…

That was it! The Moon! She could contact the nyx! They would be busy with crafting ponies’ dreams, she knew, but she was sure that they would take the time to talk to her. They hadn’t spoken for a while now, not since before the humans’ arrival – there simply hadn’t been time for her to fly up just to talk. But at this point, she could use their company. The humans would probably try to stop her, of course, but they had lost a lot of resources since that first day, they would be disorganized after the battle, and she was confident she could get past them. Stepping out onto the balcony, she spread her wings and took off for her old prison.

Wreck of the Ardent
10:42 P.M.

“Empty, sir. Just like all the others.”

Steel Heart looked around, nervous. His ponies had found several more cylinders as they scoured the debris field, but none of them except for the very first had held humans inside. Instead, they all had been opened already, and he suspected that there were human survivors wandering around. “Everypony be vigilant – we have no idea how many of these there are. If they all held humans, there could be hundreds of hostiles wandering around.”

No sooner had he said this than a red bolt of energy flew by his head, scorching the crest on his helmet and slamming into another pony’s face. He whirled around to see a wave of humans rushing over a hill. Some wore black, some wore gray, and most held either a rifle or a pistol in their hands. His prisoners threw themselves to the ground as energy bolts lanced into his battalion. He had the numerical advantage, just barely, but he wasn’t about to throw his troops against the humans with so little to be gained. If the humans lost, he knew they’d kill many ponies before they were stopped – perhaps enough that he wouldn’t be able to keep the prisoners in line. If they won, he’d have killed his troops and failed to alert the Princesses that humans had survived. “Fall back! Get back to Canterlot!”

His battalion took to the sky, but just after he took off, he felt a searing heat in his left wing, followed by numbness, and he fell to the ground. He landed hard, bounced, and rolled to a stop on his side. He heard one of the humans say, “We don’t have the resources to handle prisoners. No survivors.” Blaster shots rang out sporadically as the humans executed the wounded ponies. The voice spoke again. “Lieutenant Damarcus to Base, Lieutenant Damarcus to Base. Last of the escape pods is accounted for. Five hundred and thirty-six crewmen recovered, all others presumed dead. Encountered pony scouts; unfortunately, most escaped. Expecting significant retaliation. Request immediate evac. Over.”

Steel Heart smiled as one of the humans walked over and aimed his rifle. At least most of the others got out. I just wish I had a chance to tell Spring Breeze that –

Location: Everfree Imperial Garrison
Local Time: 22:43

“Roger that, Lieutenant. Dispatching the Intrepid to recover you. Out.”

“Belay that order,” Gavrisom told the comm officer. “The Manka is reporting one of the alicorns headed for Lun. We can’t risk her finding out about our operations there. All space forces are moving to intercept. The lieutenant will have to hold out on his own until she’s neutralized or repulsed.” He leaned over the comm station and pressed the button to transmit. “Lieutenant, this is Admiral Gavrisom. We can’t reach you. Dig in, and we’ll try to break through. Over.”

“Roger, Admiral. We’ll give those bastards a fight to remember. Out.”

Author's Note

No, not that damned alicorn filly OC. These nyx:

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.”

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.

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Evening the Odds

Location: Fillydelphia
Local Date: 1/15/4
Local Time: 08:09

“Everyone clear the area!” Sergeant Darian threw himself behind a dumpster, then popped up to fire a few bolts in the general direction of the insurgents hurling spears and knives at his squad as the few nonviolent ponies in the area fled.

There had been resistance from the civilian populace ever since the start of the invasion, but after the pony garrison commander had surrendered, rioting had consumed the city. Half of the industrial district was on fire, and the other half had been placed under total lockdown to protect the factories as they were converted into repair facilities for Imperial tanks. The residential and commercial areas, like the one Darian was in, were even worse.

“Dracen! Put a det in that building! Third floor, second window from the left! Garn, Krik, give him cover!” The three privates emerged from their makeshift cover and unleashed death against the enemy, but just before the thermal detonator erupted in nuclear flames, a shiv planted itself in Krik’s shoulder. “Medic! Medic!”

Cold Steel frowned as a human in a light blue uniform ran out into the open, carrying a white briefcase marked with a strange symbol that vaguely resembled the red plus sign that signified the Equestrian medical services. But surely that was just a coincidence – there was no way this was some sort of doctor. Bringing medical personnel onto the front lines was insane. There was no way they could be kept safe. And the human had one of those strange “pistol” weapons at his side, so he clearly wasn’t a non-combatant.

No, Cold Steel decided, this had to be yet another of the humans’ specialized soldiers. He didn’t know what was in that briefcase, but he really didn’t want to wait to find out. Taking careful aim, he sent his makeshift spear flying, and was rewarded with the sight of the human clutching at his chest and collapsing.

It made him sick. He had convinced himself that he had to kill, that it was that only way to save pony lives. But as he watched the human’s blood pool in the snow, he realized he couldn’t do it again. His stomach heaved, and he added more steaming mess to the churning, filthy slush underhoof. He turned, unwilling to contribute any more to the slaughter. Then, he felt an intense heat blaze in the side of his chest.

“You karking murderer!” Darian sprayed a few bolts at the source of the spear, then ducked back down when he felt something bounce off his helmet. Hal fell with a knife in his eye. A burst from Corporal Traken’s rifle took down three more ponies, but there seemed to be an infinite number of them. “Third Squad! Fall back!”

Darian was perfectly content to throw himself against hundred-to-one odds when he had as huge of a technological advantage as he did on this planet, but thousand-to-one was far too much. He wasn’t even supposed to be here – assault regiments were intended to take enemy positions, then move on and leave the mopping up to a line regiment. But Imperial forces were spread thin across the planet, and there had been no time to bring in another regiment. The Intrepid had left, along with the troops onboard, for another operation as soon as the official surrender had occurred.

Garn hauled Krik to his feet, and the surviving Imperials fled for their lives, abandoning yet another block to the ponies.

Celestial Sea
4:37 P.M.

Admiral Heavy Gale looked out over the combined forces of Equestria’s Second, Third, and Fourth Fleets. One hundred and eighty ships, led by three of the largest ships in history – the H.M.S. Victory, the H.M.S. Royal Decree, and the H.M.S. Neighagra. Though none were quite as large or nearly as expensive as the Royal Princess, they were all formidable craft, and the Neighagra was actually better armed, with one-hundred-and-twelve ballistae. After the debacle that was the Battle of Trottingham, Celestia wasn’t taking any chances. He didn’t show it, but Admiral Gale was worried that it still wasn’t enough. The exhausted pegasi who managed to escape the battle had described how the griffon ships had been armed with human weapons, spewing waves of energy that tore apart the pride of the Equestrian Royal Navy in a matter of seconds. The ballistae-armed pony ships simply couldn’t compete.

Judging only by the number and classes of ships at play, the coming battle should have been an easy Equestrian victory. The entire Griffon Royal Navy consisted of only the one-hundred-and-thirty-eight-gun H.M.S. Eagle of Griffonstone, ten thirty-two-gun frigates, five eighteen-gun sloops, and four eight-gun corvettes. In contrast, the three Equestrian fleets had fifty-one ships-of-the-line with eighty or more ballistae, ninety-nine frigates, nine sloops, and twenty-one corvettes. But the griffons’ human-supplied weapons surpassed the destructive power of all but the most powerful unicorn battlemages. It would be a hard-fought battle. Still, if the Griffon Royal Navy was destroyed here, the griffons would lose the ability to engage in offensives against Equestria.

A shout came from the lookout. “Admiral! There’s something out there!”

Admiral Gale shot a glare up at the pegasus in the crow’s nest. “‘Something’? Give a useful report, or don’t report at all, you enlisted puke.”

“I… I’m sorry, sir, but… I have no idea… I’ve never seen anything like it.”

With a heavy sigh, Admiral Gale lifted his telescope in the direction the lookout was staring, and promptly almost dropped it overboard. In the distance was an island that looked like it was made of gray metal. No, not an island, he realized as it turned towards his armada. A ship. He could barely make out the huge letters on its side – INTREPID. Surrounding it were twenty small dots, one of which was just large enough to be identifiable as a ship-of-the-line. He turned to his signalpony. “All ships! Ten degrees to starboard! Full sail!”

The pony had barely begun to swing the signal flags when beams of red energy crashed into the Equestrian armada. Mighty vessels splintered and erupted in flames. Beams that missed boiled the water and hid the ships from each other with a thick cloud of steam, mixed with the smoke of burning vessels. Pegasi took to the air and flew at top speed towards the enemy ships. Many fell to the Intrepid’s point-defense weapons or griffon blasters, but hundreds survived long enough to land on the griffon ships. In the hoof-to-talon fighting, a pony and a griffon were essentially equally matched, and the ponies had superior numbers. As the few surviving pony ships entered ballista range, the Griffon flag fell from the Eagle of Griffonstone’s mast, and the ponies turned the humans’ own weapons against them.

Local Time: 17:03

Captain Odan Dor watched the last of the primitive wooden vessels sink beneath the waves as a couple dozen or so pegasi fled over the horizon. The Griffon ships had been armed with E-Webs – anything larger would have required a centralized reactor. His Acclamator-class assault ship had never been at any risk. The battle, on the surface, was an overwhelming tactical victory, but he took no pleasure from it. He had failed to secure the strategic objective. The Griffon Royal Navy was gone. His heart was in his throat as he commed base. He wouldn’t end up dead for his failure – “Grampa” Gavrisom was far too kind for that sort of punishment – but he would certainly be given an admiral’s mast. The picture flickered to life. “Admiral, Sir. I… regret to inform you that the Griffon Royal Navy has been lost, with all hands.”

“Irrelevant, Captain,” Gavrisom said, shocking Dor. “Return to Griffonstone immediately. The dragons have attacked, and we’re losing. Badly.”

Griffonstone
5:12 P.M.

Twilight dodged an energy beam, then retaliated in kind against the griffon-operated weapon. After helping Ember draw up the battle plans – such plans as dragons needed, at least – she had decided to accompany the dragons in their attack instead of heading back to Equestria. As a Princess, she felt like it was her duty to be actively involved in the war effort. And, while she would never admit it, even to herself, she felt an urge deep inside to take revenge on the Empire for all the suffering they had caused.

Around her, Griffonstone burned. The sky was thick with dragons. Most were teenaged, but some fully-grown members of the species had answered the Dragon Lord’s call. Those titans shrugged off all but the most powerful beams. A large component of the damage blasters dealt was heat, and even crust-melting temperatures were nothing to creatures that spent much of their time lounging in volcanos. Two of the giant lizards lay dead on the ground, crushed in their own scales by the sheer kinetic energy of turbolaser volleys that found their marks on the dragons’ relatively soft bellies, but the three Carracks and dozens of TIE fighters the humans had deployed mostly kept to the edges of the battle, unwilling to directly face such mighty foes. The sole exception was a giant triangle that sat directly in the middle of the dragon horde. The letters on its side identifying it as the Dauntless had been torn and melted away, providing a way for the dragons to invade the ship. So far, all of their advances had been repulsed by thousands of humans and their armored vehicles. This craft was far better guarded than the vessel that had been nearly captured during the Battle of Cloudsdale. But it couldn’t hold out forever. According to the dragons, the humans had lost over a thousand troops, dozens of two-legged walkers and floating vehicles, and one of their six-legged walkers.

A second triangle appeared on the horizon, and Twilight noticed three dozen of the white, three-winged Imperial craft emerge from its belly and swoop towards Griffonstone Castle, the TIEs coming in to escort them. Just over half managed to land. Twilight flew in to investigate, and she saw humans and griffons frantically scrambling aboard the vessels. Moments later, their ramps rose and they took off again, though only seven made it back to their mothership. Immediately, the human craft fled the battle – the Carracks, TIEs, and the new arrival into space, and the Dauntless towards Equestria. Seeing their allies abandoning them, the griffons and remaining humans promptly surrendered. When Twilight and Ember entered Griffonstone Castle, Gruff and the Idol of Boreas were nowhere to be found, and Gilda was declared the new Queen of the Griffons.

Location: Fillydelphia City Hall
Local Date: 1/17/4
Local Time: 12:07

“Make ready!”

Darian lifted his DLT-19 rifle so its barrel was resting on his shoulder. It wasn’t a weapon or position he was comfortable with. He was mostly experienced with the short, standard-issue E-11.

“Present!”

He shifted the rifle to firing position. The DLT-19 was large, heavy, and hard to field strip. However, it was also much more powerful than the E-11, capable of taking down lightly armored vehicles. For what he was doing, firepower was far more important than ease of use.

“Fire!”

His finger tightened on the trigger, the heat from the bolt melting the dusting of snow that had already built up on the barrel since his last shot. The pony in front of him jerked violently as a hole was burned through her chest. He and his squadmates lowered their rifles, and other troopers ran up to unshackle the corpses from the wall. More ponies were hauled up and locked into the clasps.

“Firing squad! Make ready! Present! Fire!”

He carried out the lieutenant’s shouted orders for the third time since the public executions began at noon. Firing squad duty was Darian’s least favorite part of service in the Imperial Army. He could stomach killing a few high-ranking traitors, but this assembly line style of execution made him feel more like a mass murderer than a soldier. He had no idea why they were even going through the formality of using firing squads. After all, it wasn’t as if the ponies could watch the executions live on the HoloNet. Just shoot them in their cells and be done with it.

“Firing squad! Make ready! Present! Fire!”

Darian’s rifle clicked, and he muttered a curse from behind his respirator mask. It wasn’t just snow falling from the sky. He went through the slow process of field stripping the DLT-19, doing his best to shield the parts with his body as he cleaned the ash off of them. Fillydelphia was less a city, and more a firestorm. After losing almost half the occupying division, the Imperials had given over most of the city to the rioters and flames, focusing their efforts on saving the factories and government buildings. Surrounding the safe zones were borders of rubble three blocks across, where the Engineering Corps had detonated buildings to serve as firebreaks and deny cover to attacking forces.

Behind Darian, a Sentinel-class landing craft touched down in the bulldozed park that had been converted into a makeshift spaceport. Shuttle traffic had been a constant ever since his division had seized control of the city center. At first, they had been bringing defensive emplacements to assist the beleaguered troops. Now, they brought durasteel panels, which were shaped in the few operational factories and sent back up as repairs for the Dauntless. Still, it was nice having a capital ship floating overhead again, even if it was badly damaged. Its heavy guns imparted a badly needed sense of security. After the repairs were done, his regiment might even get relieved by one of the eight carried onboard – or seven now, after the casualties it had sustained during the battle two days ago.

He finally replaced the last part of his rifle and aimed it at the squirming prisoner in front of him. Before he could fire, however, a shout came from one of the guard towers. “Incoming hostiles! From the north!” The prisoners forgotten, he rushed to one of the makeshift pillboxes that lined the barricades. Blasterfire poured into the attackers as they struggled to make their way through the debris. A few pegasi tried taking to the air, but the rubble that slowed the ponies was also their only cover, and those that revealed themselves were quickly cut down. After half a minute of blasting away at the enemy, the voice of another sentry crackled over his comm. “Hostiles incoming from the south!” He ignored the message. Attacks from multiple directions at once were far from unusual, and his division still had over a thousand men in fighting condition – much more than enough to defend both sections of the wall. Another voice alerted him to an attack on the east wall, and a few men ran off to assist in its defense. The next report shocked him. “The prisoners have escaped! The west gatehouse is open!”

He couldn’t believe it. All the proper precautions had been taken – the unicorns’ horns were amputated, the pegasi’s wings were pinioned, and the Earth ponies’ calcaneal tendons were cut. Still, he rushed to the area. If the lieutenant died, he was the next-highest-ranking officer who had been in charge of the prisoners. He didn’t want to have their escapes considered his fault. Unfortunately, things were exactly as had been reported. The prisoners were running amok to the best of their ability, the lieutenant’s corpse was laying on the ground, ponies were flooding through the open gate, and the men on the wall had abandoned their blasters and were fighting the ponies with vibrodaggers. He shot several ponies, desperately looking around for whatever could have caused things to go so horribly wrong. Suddenly, he saw them – ten ponies dressed in all black were sneaking up the ramp of the shuttle that had landed just a few minutes earlier. He lifted his rifle to gun them down, then felt a stab of pain in his back. He pitched forwards as the pain blossomed into full-blown agony. The shuttle’s ramp rose, the pain turned to numbness, and the world went dark.

Shadow Runner pushed the dead human pilot out of the chair and looked over the control panel. Thanks to the human diplomat’s cooperation and a memory spell, he knew how to read the humans’ strange alphabet – “Aurebesh” – and how to operate this bizarre contraption. He threw the switch for the “repulsorlifts,” and the “shuttle” rose into the air. His copilot settled into the most comfortable position she could in the seat beside him, and the gunners took their places. He activated the main engines, and the shuttle rocketed into the air.

“Incoming fire from the Dauntless,” Sweet Talk informed him. He sent the bulky craft into a series of evasive maneuvers that anyone not acquainted with the Sentinel-class wouldn’t have thought the bulky craft could pull off, and the few shots that struck their target were absorbed by the shield. The shuttle quickly passed out of the large transport’s effective range and passed into open space. “Two minutes until we’re beyond the gravity well,” Sweet informed him. “I’m setting the navicomputer for Alderaan.”

Two minutes. And then, if the diplomat was telling the truth, Equestria would be well on its way to getting the help it so desperately needed.

“Lieutenant, if you don’t shoot down that shuttle before it jumps to hyperspace, I will personally rip your heart out of your chest with an hydraulic gauntlet, crush it before your very karking eyes, and fill the cavity with bantha poodoo before you die! Do I make myself clear?!”

Even Aerin had to recoil at that threat. Gavrisom wasn’t like that at all – he never screamed, he never cursed, he never threatened his troops with death for failure, and he certainly was never vulgar. But there he was, doing all those things, plus being totally red in the face. If anybody needed any convincing that it was absolutely vital for the shuttle not to escape, they had it.

“Y-yes, Admiral. Of course.”

“Then karking do it, you damned son of a schutta! Kill them!”

“One minute, twenty-three seconds. We’ve got a squadron of TIEs on our tail.”

“Striker, get those weapons going. We just need a little more time.”

Two of the TIEs in Lieutenant Jax’s squadron exploded, and a third fell behind with half of its port solar array missing.

“Kark! How’d they get to be such good shots?!”

“Stow it, Three! Take down those shields and the aft guns! We don’t have much time!”

The shuttle shook from the impacts, and something detonated loudly in the back.

“Striker got two more, but the shields are down and they took out our rear weapons. Slip and Tracker are gone.”

“Just five more seconds…”

Jax’s targeting computer beeped, telling him he had a lock on the shuttle’s engines. With a grin on his face, he depressed the triggers.

“We’re clear!”

Shadow gripped the lever in his jaws and yanked it with all his might.

Gavrisom stared at the blank space on the tactical display where a shuttle had been just an instant ago. Slowly, stiffly, he turned to the base’s comm officer. “Recall Lieutenant Jax’s squadron to the Indomitable. And prepare my shuttle.”

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Retribution

Location: The Indomitable
Local Time: 12:13

Gavrisom shucked the gore-covered gauntlet off his hand and threw it down on Jax’s corpse. He turned to the flight officer standing at attention by his side. “Clean this mess up,” he snapped.

The officer, his uniform stained with sweat, gave a sharp salute. “S– Sir!” he croaked out.

Gavrisom stormed off to the turbolift. He was getting too soft in his old age, he decided. It was time to show the ponies the Tarkin Doctrine. As distasteful as he found that decrepit, politically-appointed psychopath and his absurd love of superweapons, there was something to be said for the power of fear.

An eleventh of his ground forces were dead, one of his capital ships was destroyed and another too badly damaged to leave the atmosphere, and a full half of his TIE fighters were gone. In total, he had four thousand, two hundred twenty-seven dead, two thousand, seventy-two wounded, and three hundred fifty-nine missing in action, presumed dead or captured. Pony casualties were, by sheer quantity, far worse. An exact number was impossible to determine, but his analysts had calculated that the ponies had lost somewhere in the neighborhood of fifty thousand soldiers, either killed or wounded, and about as many civilians. That meant the ponies had lost approximately fifteen of theirs for every one of his. It wasn’t nearly enough. If the casualty ratio remained constant, there would be less than one million pony casualties before his entire force was wiped out. He needed to turn the tide, to put some fear into the populace, to make them learn precisely why the Empire’s rule was unquestioned in all the galaxy.

The turbolift opened on the bridge, and he immediately walked to his comm officer. “Sir!” The young man saluted. “Status update from Fillydelphia. The base has been completely overrun. Banok is trying to force his way out of the city with his armor battalion. Estimate half an hour before they break through into the countryside. The rest of Second Assault has been wiped out. Dinn tried to send Third CompForce to assist them, but he only had enough shuttles left after the evacuation of Griffonstone to land one battalion at a time. The first group got slaughtered immediately, and the ponies seized the shuttles. Cortess took the liberty of deploying our TIEs to destroy the shuttles before they could take off.”

Gavrisom seethed. He had to adjust his casualty assessment. He had now lost over a ninth of his ground troops. It was absolutely unacceptable. He was certain of what was necessary. It would probably make Dav very happy – rarely a good thing – but action had to be taken to remind the ponies exactly what they were dealing with. “Pull the Dauntless back to Everfree Base. As soon as Banok’s clear of Fillydelphia, have our Vindicators target the city. I want it reduced to a sheet of glass within ten minutes of his escape.”

The lieutenant’s eyebrows shot up. “Forgive me, Sir, but… aren’t we not supposed to be eradicating their civilians?”

“The Greater Fillydelphia Metropolitan Area has a population of less than six million. They can take the hit.”

“Aye, Sir. Oh, Captain Cenik is waiting to speak with you, Sir.”

“Put him through.” The very worried face of the commander of Gavrisom’s reconnaissance forces appeared on the vidscreen. “This had better not be more bad news, Captain,” Gavrisom warned. “I’ve already got to explain to the Emperor that I’ve just lost more men in a single week than I lost in an entire year on Rattatak, that we barely managed to smuggle our main local ally off-planet and lost over eighty million allies, and that a top-secret species is about to reveal itself to the galaxy at large. I don’t think I can tolerate anything more.”

“Err, not exactly bad, Sir – at least, it’s not confirmed bad yet. Just… unusual and concerning.”

“Well? Spit it out!”

“Ever since Luna’s death and the destruction of Project: Moonbeam, we’ve detected a vastly increased number of moonquakes. At first, we dismissed them as aftershocks caused by the explosion of Lun Base, but they haven’t subsided. Furthermore, we’ve also picked up a surge in the number of solar flares. Nothing that will cause any disruption to our communications or electronics, but above the average for a typical star its size – which is especially confusing because it previously had abnormally low numbers of flares. Something seems to have disrupted both bodies, and I can’t help but think it might have been Luna’s death.”

Gavrisom snorted. “I find it very unlikely that one being’s death, no matter how powerful that being might have been, could disrupt the functioning of an entire star system.”

“Of course, Sir. It’s highly improbable. However, we haven’t been able to come up with any other possible explanations. And once you’ve eliminated the impossible, then –”

“I know the quote, Captain.” Gavrisom thought for a moment. It seemed absurd, but even Inquisitor Valerious had expressed concern over the potential consequences of the alicorns’ deaths. It wasn’t something that could be dismissed out of hand, at the very least. “Keep an eye on it, and alert me if there are any further changes. And do not release this information to anyone else, do you understand? Morale’s already at a critical low, and I don’t want the men to start thinking the system’s about to fall out from under them.”

“Understood, Sir.”

Gavrisom cut the transmission and walked to the viewport to watch Celes-III shift beneath him as his ships moved into position.

Fillydelphia countryside
12:48 P.M.

Twilight pushed herself as fast as she could. A messenger from Celestia that had arrived in Griffonstone yesterday told her that Fillydelphia had been captured by the humans and the battle to retake the city would begin at noon today. She was already unpardonably late, but there was only so much she could rush the process of getting Gilda crowned and working out the formal surrender of the Griffon Kingdom.

The city appeared on the horizon, and she felt sick at the sight of it. A thick cloud of smoke hung over it, and large sections of the skyline were simply gone. The cloud glowed with a fierce orange light, almost as if the city was experiencing one of Celestia’s most stunning sunsets. Still, after the destruction of Cloudsdale, she had feared even worse. She came to a stop at the crest of a hill as a convoy of human vehicles burst out of the city and fled at top speed, filling her heart with a surge of hope. The casualties had been horrific, but at both Griffonstone and Fillydelphia, he humans had been thwarted. They had been denied both their only ally and their only conquest. They had brought war to Equestria, but like all those who had tried to enslave ponies before, they were finding the bonds of friendship and unrelenting goodwill that filled Equestria to be insurmountable. For a moment, Twilight dared to believe that this suffering was almost over.

But then a chill came over her. She looked up, and she saw beams of energy falling from the sky like torrents of rain. She suddenly remembered that very first day, when the humans had just arrived from the stars. They had claimed to have the power to destroy all of Equestria, and they had demonstrated their ability by burning the Everfree. Faced with a power they couldn’t overcome, they tried to destroy what they couldn’t control. They were doing the same thing again. And this time, Twilight didn’t have her friends by her side. She was helpless to do anything but watch as Fillydelphia melted away in front of her.

Deep Space

The Sentinel-class landing craft Chanlon dropped out of hyperspace. It was missing its top wing, its aft was charred, and one of its engines was dim. Slowly, it crept through the void.

Inside, Shadow Runner was knocked from his hooves by the violence of the reversion to realspace, landing on Silent Stalker’s corpse. With a groan, he got back up. “Sorry, old buddy,” he whispered to the ruined body. Only he and Sweet Talk, safe in the cabin, had survived when the TIE’s fire had scorched the back of the shuttle just as it made the jump to hyperspace. The shuttle was still airtight, but overloaded electrical components had sent shrapnel flying and ignited fires. “What the hay just happened?!” he called back to Sweet.

“Looks like the hyperdrive’s destroyed.”

“There’s a backup, isn’t there?”

“Sure, but it’s wrecked, too, so unless you know how to fix them…”

His heart climbed to his throat. “Are you saying we’re gonna die out here?”

“Umm… No, I don’t think so… The computer says we’re six months away from… Cerea? ‘The Cerean system is a trinary star system located in Grid Sector I-16. Its only planet, Cerea, is a temperate, undeveloped world orbited by a single moon and inhabited by the humanoid Cerean species. The Cereans are a highly conservative species, choosing to eschew technology to live in harmony with nature. Offworlders are restricted to Outsider Citadels, which are polluted, crime-ridden cesspits. Most Cereans are pacifists, and they pose no threat to the Galactic Empire. Only a small surveillance force is required to ensure that Jedi and terrorists do not use the planet as a base of operations. Some Cereans are willing to actively work with the Imperial Security Bureau in order to ensure that no further Imperial forces are assigned to their world. Cerea holds no resources considered important to the Galactic Empire. The current Cerean population is estimated at approximately four hundred fifty million.’ Not great, but we don’t have any other choice.”

“Six months? You think we’ll make it that long?”

“Remember what that human told us? This thing holds enough military rations for fifty-four humans for a month. We can’t eat all of it, but it’ll be more than enough. I’ve already set the autopilot to take us there.”

Shadow made his way back to the cockpit and slumped into the pilot’s chair. “Great. Six months. So, what do we do in the meantime?” Sweet gave him a sly grin, and he let out a long sigh. “Oh, all right.”

Location: Everfree Imperial Garrison
Local Time: 14:15

“Nice light show, Sturm. Didn’t think you had it in you.”

Gavrisom’s hologram met Aerin’s lopsided grin with a steely glare. “I didn’t give that order for your amusement, Major General Aerin.” Aerin winced at the overly formal means of address from his best friend. “I did so because I thought it necessary. Unlike you, I want to keep this war’s body count to a minimum. If you don’t have any strategic advice beyond ‘kill ’em all,’ then I see no reason for us to talk with each other.”

“Hey! Those are my boys dying out there! Your naval forces have lost one thousand, two hundred twelve men. All the other human lives lost are on my conscience. Don’t act like things have been easy for me.”

“Human lives. You couldn’t care less about all the millions of aliens who just died.”

“No, of course not. Human lives are the only ones that matter.”

“I’m never going to convince you of how unhealthy that mindset is, am I?”

Lieutenant Hawkins, the head of the base’s ISB contingent, coughed pointedly. “Gentlemen, let’s please not get into an ideological debate here. Now, we all agree that the main problem is their civilian populace, not their military. We can – and do – slaughter them in traditional battles. Our primary objective should be preventing the rise of partisans.”

“It’s too late for that,” Aerin snapped. “They’re already partisans. We just have to wipe them out.”

“There are other ways than killing to deal with civilian dissent.”

“As much as I hate to agree with the General about any aspect of military strategy,” Gavrisom said slowly, “I don’t see any way we can convert them to our cause at this point.”

Hawkins shook his head. “I’m not talking about getting supporters. These ponies may be willing to die for their rulers, but how much, do you think, are they willing to subject their loved ones to suffering?”

Aerin rubbed his chin. “So… You’re saying, round up the families of suspected resistance fighters, and torture them until the partisans give themselves up? I like it.”

“Confirmed resistance fighters,” Gavrisom stated firmly. “We aren’t sadists. More importantly, torturing the families of innocents will just make them hate us more.”

“You’re both think too short-term, too small-scale. Think about it. The ponies control every aspect of the growing season on this planet. Pegasi control the weather, and Earth ponies have special connections to the soil that make crops grow better.”

“Yes, and?” “Your point?” Gavrisom and Aerin asked at the same time.

“Don’t you see? The ponies haven’t had to worry about famine for over a thousand years! Their harvests have always been reliable. Sure, they need to preserve produce for transport to areas those plants don’t grow in, and for the time between harvests, but that’s about it. They have no long-term food reserves. If we destroy their farms and annihilate their control over the weather, they’ll all starve in a year!”

“And then we’ll have millions of emaciated pony corpses,” Gavrisom scoffed. “We might as well just melt all their cities. The body count will be the same, but the war will be over in a day instead of a year.”

“But if we go the orbital bombardment route, they can at least console themselves that the deaths of their loved ones will be quick and relatively painless. My way, they have to watch their children die slowly. Unless they make a huge murder-suicide pact, of course, but I don’t think even they have the commitment for that. And as they starve, we remind them of the Empire’s resources. We can import food for them if they surrender. Otherwise, they all die.”

“And if they still refuse to surrender?”

“Then we never had any hope of conquering them at all.”

Gavrisom’s lips tightened into a thin line, but he gave a short nod. “Very well. I’ll order our fighters to target the weather patrols and put in a request with Imperial Supply for herbicide bombs.”

Malen spoke up. “Chrysalis had agents in Fillydelphia who must have died in the bombardment. I doubt she’ll be happy about that.”

Aerin pounded a fist onto the holotable. “Chrysalis can rot in Chaos. Her agents didn’t tell us the ponies had learned how to use shuttlecraft. In fact, they haven’t done anything useful since they helped our stormtroopers escape Canterlot. Let this be a reminder to her that we only need her alive so long as she’s serving our interests. And if she gets uppity, you can always pay her a visit.”

Malen grinned cruelly. “Just so.”

“This is all well and good,” said Major Regnuff, the second highest ranking officer permanently assigned to the base, “but you’re all ignoring the bantha in the room. How do we deal with the dragons? They pose an actual military threat.”

Hawkins chuckled. “Oh, don’t worry. I’ve got a plan for them, too. I’ve been in contact with my handlers, and they’ve authorized me to inform you of a Separatist weapon we’ve recently managed to recreate. A very ironically named weapon. Governor, General, you served during the Clone Wars, so perhaps you’re already aware of Project: Dragon’s Breath…?”

Chapter Forty: In the Halls of Traitors

Canterlot Castle
5:39 P.M.

Twilight staggered into the castle, barely staying on her hooves. Her flight from what was once Fillydelphia had been a long one, but the sight of all those innocent ponies dying had taken a far greater toll on her. A guardspony rushed up to support her as she stumbled down the main hall.

“Your Majesty, are you all right?”

“I… I have to talk to Celestia.”

“Of course, Your Majesty. I’ll alert her that you’re coming. Barrel Chest, Strong Back, get over here and help the Princess!”

Two Earth pony guards came over and lifted her onto their backs. Once he was sure Twilight wasn’t going to fall, the first guard rushed off towards the throne room. The Earth ponies followed him, carefully measuring their steps so as to not jolt the VIP they carried. Normally, Twilight would have objected to such deferential treatment, but she was too shaken to mind. The doors were opened for her, and Celestia came up to them as quickly as she could while still looking regal.

“Oh, Twilight! What happened to you?”

“Fillydelphia… It’s… It’s gone. They’re all dead.”

Celestia’s mane and tail went limp. “No… You can’t mean…”

“All six million ponies, just… gone. One minute, I was on a hill, watching the humans run from the city. The next…” She squeezed her eyes shut and went silent for a long moment. “I think I’m the only survivor.”

Location: The Indomitable
Local Time: 20:14

Gavrisom left the holocomm room, wiping the sweat off his brow with his sleeve. Remarkably, the Emperor had made no mention of any “envoys” coming to “remedy the situation.” Even more shocking, he hadn’t seemed upset or even that surprised to learn about the stolen shuttle. Of course, the withered old man could be remarkably enigmatic when he so chose, but he rarely decided to hide his displeasure. It almost made Gavrisom more nervous than if he had been told that a squad of Royal Guards would be arriving with the special weapons in three days.

He headed for the command room, intending to call Aerin and discuss what to do with the troops. The men loved, or at least respected, their commanding officers, but having them sit around for months with neither action nor leave until the ponies were starved into submission was a sure way to incite mutiny, even in such a well-disciplined group. There needed to be an actual campaign to keep them busy, not just a bit of skirmishing around the crash site of the Ardent for salvage. That wasn’t even real action – any pony force small enough to slip past orbital surveillance was no match for the battalion encamped there. The boys needed a morale boost, a city to capture and actually hold this time.

Just as he was about to enter the room, he was stopped by an ensign. “Sir, a message from the High Inquisitor. Our surveillance team reports that Chrysalis is pulling her agents out of their positions en masse, and she isn’t picking up her holocomm. The Inquisitor is requesting a company of troops to assist him and his commandos in, and I quote, ‘sending a message.’”

Well, it was something, at least.

Location: Equestrian Badlands
Local Time: 20:53

Malen strode down the ramp of the first of four shuttles to land and disgorge CompForce troopers, followed by his storm commandos. He could feel the troopers’ eagerness to kill. They had been on a planet full of hostile aliens for over a month, and yet the Empire’s most rabidly anti-alien forces had first seen combat earlier today. Adding to the bloodlust was a desire to take revenge for that humiliating defeat. Their vengeance wouldn’t be exacted against the same species that had annihilated the Imperial troops at Fillydelphia, but to CompForce, aliens were aliens.

Chittering noises and the buzzing of wings issued from the cave. Intelligence suggested that the Imperial company would be outnumbered by a factor of about fifteen to one. An acceptable amount, especially considering that the Inquisitor was worth at least forty changelings all by himself. The narrow corridors of the cave network, intended to assist the changelings in defending against the far larger Equestrian Army, would work against them, further tipping the balance of power in the Imperials’ favor.

The troops spread out in a semicircle around the mouth of the cave as the noises from inside went silent. Malen was just about to order his men into the cave when a single changeling came out. The creature’s monochrome eyes made it difficult for the Imperials to fully understand its facial expression, though Malen sensed a mix of haughty disdain and fear. “Her Majesty, Queen Chrysalis, demands that you leave immediately,” it said. “Such a large force risks drawing the attention of the ponies.”

Malen shook his head, a cruel grin on his face. “It isn’t the ponies you should be worried about… Your Majesty.” Bolts of lightning arced out from his hands, sending the changeling smashing into the valley wall above the mouth of the cave. Still sparking, it fell to the ground and reverted to its true form. Blasters blazing, the storm commandos and CompForce troopers moved into the cave system as the Inquisitor knelt in front of the gasping Changeling Queen. His smile had disappeared. “You broke the terms of our treaty, Chrysalis. Why? What Dread Master could have possibly driven you to it? What spell of madness could have even begun to make you think that was a good idea? Talk! Answer me!”

Chrysalis groaned, but managed to rasp out a response. “That human… He told… Ponies found my drones… No choice… All over anyways…”

“And you thought the ponies’ vengeance would be worse than ours?! You mindless fool!”

Chrysalis tried to regain her hooves, but Malen’s telekinetic grip forced her back down. She hissed. “What do you think… my drones would do… if I left them there… to be discovered? I had to keep… my power…”

Malen shook his head, his smile returning. “And look where it got you. Your slaves will die, and you with them. Goodbye, Chrysalis.” He pressed the hilt of his lightsaber to her head.

“Wait!” she hissed desperately. “Your special project! You still need us!”

Malen chuckled, an unnatural and chilling sound. “Oh, I’m afraid you’re mistaken. I already have what I wanted, and with war breaking out anyways, they’ll just assume we killed her. If you won’t infiltrate for us, then you’ve outlived your usefulness.”

“No! I was wrong! It was a mistake! I can make it –!”

The crimson blade passed through her skull, silencing her. “No, you can’t,” Malen said to the body as he stood up. “I have no use for unreliable agents.” He stepped over the body on his way into the cave, then paused. As an afterthought, he wrenched her head off her body and crushed it against the canyon wall. Without further hesitation, he progressed into the caverns, his lightsaber casting flickering shadows on the walls.

Location: Everfree Imperial Garrison
Local Time: 23:17

“You said you were going to send a message!”

Malen dispassionately met Gavrisom’s bloodshot, furious holographic gaze. “And I did,” he said. “I sent a message that you never, ever betray the Empire.”

“She hadn’t betrayed us! She wasn’t working with the ponies, she was failing to do her duty! She needed to be set straight, not murdered!”

“Please, keep yelling at me, Governor. I’ll enjoy the result.”

Gavrisom’s flushed face went pale, but he continued his complaint at a lower volume. “You committed speciecide, Inquisitor. How are we going to keep our allies, or win other ones, if they think you’ll just murder them if they make even the smallest mistake? Massacres don’t make people like you.”

Malen scoffed. “I didn’t wipe out the entire species. There are changelings who weren’t in that cave. As for the allies, you yourself ordered the deaths of six million civilians today – far more than I killed.”

Gavrisom rested his head in his hands. “We can’t hide this from the diamond dogs. Fortunately, there was no love lost between them and the changelings, so maybe we can maintain our alliance. I’ll contact Chancellor Jim in the morning. Cut transmission.”

The hologram disappeared, and Malen made his way to the secret chamber. The very air in the room was saturated with Dark Side energies from the two artifacts sitting on a table in the center. Again, he looked at the tiny dots in the test tubes. Five months. Faster cloning methods had been developed, to the point where the clones grown for the Stormtrooper Corps were brought to full maturity in only one year instead of ten. But the faster the cloning process was, the more degraded the clones became, and the Emperor wanted these clones to be completely perfect replicas of the original. So the old Kaminoan process, at twice the normal rate of development, was the one being employed. Five more months, and I can begin their training…

Canterlot Castle
1/18/4
12:00 P.M.

In one of the castle’s many conference rooms, Celestia met with the Element-Bearers, Twilight’s close associates, Equestria’s top military officers, a few influential nobles, politicians, and businessponies, and one highly unusual being.

“Ah still don’t trust him,” Applejack muttered, sending a glare in Orramas’s direction.

“I wish I could say I felt differently,” Twilight said, “but I saw firsthoof what these humans are willing to do. Are we sure he’s not still loyal to the Galactic Empire?”

“I am,” he told her. “I wish it well in all its other operations. Just not here.”

“Oh, that’s just amazing,” Shining Armor growled. “Why are we letting this guy see our strategies?”

“I think I’ve proven myself,” Orramas responded stiffly. “Teaching you how to read Aurebesh and fly a shuttle isn’t exactly in the Empire’s best interests on this world.”

Blueblood threw his head back and gave a derisive humph. “We don’t need this animal’s help. Send him back into that horrible forest where he belongs.”

“Hey,” Rainbow Dash spoke up, “I don’t trust him either, but I do trust Fluttershy, and if she says we should accept him, then we should.”

“Not exactly a ringing endorsement, but I’ll take what I can get,” Orramas said with a small smile.

Murmurs erupted around the table, most of them still skeptical. Celestia pointedly cleared her throat, silencing the grumbles. “Captain Zem, why don’t you tell everypony a bit about yourself? It might help reassure them.”

He raised an eyebrow. “If you really think so…” He looked around at the assembled ponies. “I was born twenty-six years ago to a wealthy family on Coruscant, the capital of the galaxy. My parents were vocal supporters of the Republic, donating hundreds of thousands of credits to it during the Clone Wars. When I was fourteen, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine declared himself Galactic Emperor. My parents continued to support him, and for their loyalty, they were given a home on a newly-discovered world the Emperor turned into his personal resort.” His expression turned nostalgic. “Byss is a beautiful, temperate planet, with green fields, sparkling lakes and rivers, and stunning plateaus and canyons. The night sky is illuminated by five moons, and the sun gives off a strange but enchanting blue-green light. The world’s single city holds every luxury a person could ever want. In a word – paradise. But as the years passed, I started to feel… Well, I felt guilty. I hadn’t done anything to deserve living there, and my parents had done little more. They were so rich off of our two-millennia-old shipping company, even hundreds of thousands of credits was no great loss to them. I wanted to earn a life of peace and comfort, and I decided that the best way to do that was to make life as peaceful as possible for as many beings as I could. When I was eighteen, I applied for the Diplomatic Services. I passed the exams, and I’ve spent the past eight years helping the Empire come to peaceful resolutions of conflicts with Outer Rim governments. My handlers assigned me here when the Emperor demanded your species’ peaceful assimilation into the Empire, thinking my experience dealing with nonhumans would improve our chances of avoiding war, or at least splitting your loyalties. But then I met Miss Fluttershy, and, well, here I am.”

Hoity Toity grinned and stage whispered to him, “Well, congratulations on your fine catch, Mr. Orramas. She’s a lovely piece of flank. Had a short career as a model, you know.”

All of the other upper-class ponies looked scandalized, Fluttershy sank under the table, and Orramas turned bright red. “Moving swiftly on!” he pronounced loudly. He unrolled a map of Equestria on the table. “Now, our – that is, the Empire’s – original plan was to, after establishing our control over Fillydelphia and annihilating your Navy, land another assault division outside Baltimare and take over that city as well, eliminating any chances of an assault from the rear against either our main base or the Fillydelphia garrison. We would then coordinate with the Griffon Royal Navy to launch an attack on Manehattan. They would blockade the port with the assistance of our few Maritime Division forces, while our last two assault divisions would attack by land. We would then have a firm grip on your east coast. Our next priority would be to reinforce our holdings and deal with the last two hostile forces to the east, the dragons and the Saddle Arabians. The Saddle Arabians were dismissed as a non-threat, and we agreed to let the griffons handle them. As for the dragons, we planned to have a collaborator, a dragon named Garble, cha–” A loud groan rose from the Element-Bearers and Spike.

Orramas nodded, smiling thinly. “Yes, we’re aware of your, shall we say, less-then-positive prior experiences with him. That’s why we chose him to challenge Princess Ember for the throne, justifying it by saying she’d allied herself with a weak and failing nation. We’ve been supplying him with nova crystals, and we believed the power those gems hold within them would, when consumed, give him the strength he needed to defeat her. With our hold on our captured cities secure and the dragons on our side, we would land our entire Fourth Battlegroup outside the Crystal Empire. Not to capture it, mind you, but to cause as much damage as possible, forcing you to reduce your forces down here to aid Princess Cadance. Once you were there, our cruisers would destroy the passes leading to the Crystal Empire, trapping most of your army there and allowing us to easily mop up any remaining resistance and capture Canterlot with the assistance of the changeling infiltrators we planted in your ranks. Any survivors from Fourth Battlegroup would be evacuated, and we’d simply rely on dwindling food and morale to force you to surrender. It was all supposed to take no more than a month.

“But with the griffon surrender and the unexpected resistance in – and, according to Princess Sparkle, destruction of – Fillydelphia, that plan’s ruined. We… sorry, the Empire can’t afford to ignore the Saddle Arabians, the remarkable amount of resistance you’ve put up destroys the justification for the dragon coup, and cities can no longer be expected to fall within a day. I suspect the assault on Baltimare will go ahead as planned, but beyond that, I can’t be certain. What I do know is that there aren’t enough Imperial troops to constantly police everywhere. Less than fifty thousand ground troops can’t enforce martial law on over one hundred and forty million civilians. In order for this invasion to succeed, one of three things must happen. The Empire sends large amounts of reinforcements, a propaganda campaign swings a majority of the population to the Imperial cause, or the population experiences a sudden and massive reduction. Seeing as the Emperor hasn’t seen fit to do the first yet, I don’t see it happening at all. The second is an absurdity. Even if your civilians were still susceptible to Imperial propaganda at this point, I doubt Governor Gavrisom or General Aerin would be willing to carry it out. They’re both from the old school of officers, preferring to fight their enemies head-on instead of subverting them through psychological warfare. Which just leaves the last option. Princess Celestia, I hate to say this, but you’re going to have to be ready for a mass extermination campaign.”

The room went silent, ponies exchanging horrified or despondent glances. Finally, after over a minute, Shining Armor spoke. “So, does anypony have some good news?”

Orramas’s eyes brightened. “As a matter of fact, yes. A few of the salvage teams sent to the Ardent – that’s the starship you boarded during the Battle of Cloudsdale, by the way – managed to bring back a few slabs of durasteel and some electrical components from the escape pods. Not enough to make anything out of, and there’s really no way for you to entirely reverse-engineer all of our advancements within such a short amount of time, but under my direction, your scientists managed to complete an old project they’ve been working on. If you would all come with me?”

The confused committee followed him down to a large room on the ground floor, and they gaped at what they saw there. A huge grin on his face, Orramas turned to Twilight. “I’m sure you recall that you and your friends fought some of our light armored units during your time under that ‘Bogan’ entity’s influence and retained the wrecks for inspection. Well, Your Highness, how would you like to be the first pony on the other side of those cannons?”

Chapter Forty-One: Hemorrhaging, Information

Canterlot Castle
12:16 P.M.

Celestia frowned at the walker. “How did this happen? I didn’t authorize rebuilding any of these.”

Orramas’s broad grin turned crooked. “I’m a diplomat, Your Majesty. I can be very convincing when I want to be.”

“I don’t want my little ponies to be using tools of mass murder. It’s disgusting, it’s immoral, it’s –”

“Absolutely necessary,” Orramas cut her off. “I’m sorry, Your Majesty, but it’s true. You can’t win this war with spears. And even if you do, I’m not sure how many of your subjects will still be alive at the end of it. Like it or not, you’ve been dragged into the modern galaxy, and you must either adapt or die.”

Celestia continued glaring at the AT-ST, but Twilight circled it enthusiastically. “I can’t believe it! A real, working walking machine to study! I can’t wait! How do you humans come up with these things?”

Orramas chuckled. “Our species has had civilization for over two hundred thousand years. I’m sure you’d have invented such things by that point, too. Now, before we start, I’ll give you a brief overview of the All Terrain Scout Transport. I know the Inquisitor introduced you to most of our vehicles during your tour of the base, but I want to make sure you know everything you need to. Designed on Rothana during the Clone Wars and mass-produced on Balmorra, the AT-ST is the primary armored vehicle used by Imperial peacekeeping forces. It can reach a velocity of ninety kilometers an hour on even terrain, though it has to move considerably slower on uneven ground to maintain its balance. Its weaponry consists of twin chin-mounted laser cannons with a maximum range of two kilometers, an E-Web heavy repeating blaster on the port side with a maximum range of seven hundred fifty meters, and a Dymek DW-3 concussion grenade launcher on the starboard side with a maximum range of three hundred seventy-five meters. At eight point six meters tall, it has a significant height advantage over infantry, and its 9095-T8511 grade durasteel armor protects it from all small arms fire. However, it’s vulnerable to heavier weapons, relegating its use to anti-infantry operations and support for larger, more durable vehicles. The cockpit holds room for two hundred kilograms of cargo, a commander, a pilot, and a gunner, though the normal crew consists of only the pilot and gunner. The pilot sits on the starboard side and controls the legs and head, while the gunner sits on the port side and controls the weapons systems. I, of course, will be taking the position of commander for this inaugural test. Do you wish to be the pilot or the gunner, Your Majesty?”

It didn’t take her long to decide. “The pilot,” she replied. She was far more interested with how the thing worked than its killing potential.

“Of course, Your Majesty.” Orramas looked up at the walker’s head. “Ahoy, Toy Box! Away the ladder!”

The AT-ST crouched down, the top hatch opened, and a red-brown unicorn with a lab coat and a mad grin on his face popped his head out as a rope ladder tumbled down. “Welcome aboard, Princess!” he called.

With an almost childlike look of fascination, Twilight flew up to the hatch and followed him inside the walker. As Orramas pulled himself up the ladder, Celestia told him, “I still don’t like you teaching ponies to use such lethal weapons.”

He slipped in the opening and grabbed the hatch. “Duly noted,” he replied before sealing it. Celestia turned away, shaking her head.

Twilight looked around the cockpit, clapping her hooves together in glee. “Oh, this is so exciting! A chance to finally learn how your technology works!”

“Settle down, Your Majesty,” Orramas chuckled. “You don’t want to accidently hit a switch and level the castle, do you?”

She went rigid. “I could do that?”

“Well, no. The weapons all have their safeties on. But it got you to sit still, and there’s plenty of other ways you could kark us over by bumping into something. The only reason I’m willing to get in here with two untrained crewmen is because I know you can grab the walker with the Force and keep us from falling if you mess up the leg controls.”

Twilight laughed nervously. “Thanks for the vote of confidence, I guess.”

Orramas pointed to various things in the cockpit. “Okay, so this gauge shows you the gyroscopic stabilizer that lets the walker stay upright with only one foot on the ground. If it goes into the red in either direction, we’ll tip over, so you can’t let us sway too much. These two gauges show the pressure on each leg. Again, don’t let them go into the red, or the hydraulics will break. The control column to your right controls the right leg, and the left column, the left leg. The displays in the center show –”

“Wait a minute,” Twilight interrupted with a frown. “I thought you were a diplomat. How do you know so much about this?”

“Diplomacy is just my specialization, remember? Imperial Intelligence likes to train its operatives for any and all contingencies. We aren’t exactly easy to replace, you know.”

“Oh. I guess that makes sense…”

“So, as I was saying…”

3:37 P.M.

“I must admit, I’m impressed,” Orramas said, climbing out of the AT-ST. “It takes most people three months to learn to pilot an AT-ST, not three hours. And those guys walk on two legs all the time!”

Twilight chuckled as she followed him out the hatch. “Well, I have some practice. I had to learn how to walk on two legs when I was in the human world.”

Orramas raised an eyebrow. “The human world?”

“Yeah. Though I guess you wouldn’t call it that. Really, the humans there aren’t much like you – or, most of your type of human, at least. They act a lot more like ponies. Look a bit more like us than you do, too. They aren’t all tan, and they’ve got bigger heads and eyes.”

“I wasn’t aware you had interplanetary travel,” Orramas said, looking perplexed, “much less interstellar travel. And I fail to see why visiting a world inhabited by near-humans would require you to walk on two legs.”

“Interdimensional travel,” Twilight clarified. “It’s magic-based, not technology-based. When somepony goes through the Crystal Mirror, they get turned into a human. That universe’s version of a human, that is. I… don’t actually know why. Just one of those weird aspects of switching what laws of physics you’re working with, I guess.”

Orramas paused halfway down the ladder, his eyes wide. “You can travel interdimensionally?!”

“You mean, you can’t?”

“Well, yes, we can – it’s how we subvert the light speed barrier, by going to a parallel universe where it doesn’t apply.” He climbed the rest of the way to the ground. “But every civilization we know of that’s developed interdimensional travel in the past has been a galactic superpower. Still, considering your power in the Force, I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised.”

“What I don’t understand,” Twilight replied as she followed him back inside the castle, “is why you call magic ‘the Force.’ ‘Force’ is an entirely separate physics concept, whose value is found by multiplying an object’s mass by its acceleration.”

Orramas gave an extravagant shrug. “How should I know? Force-users do and say what they will. They use all sorts of strange terms. Ashla, Bogan, Potentium…”

Twilight stumbled, her eyes wide. “Wait, did you say ‘Bogan’?”

Orramas frowned. “Yes, I –” His expression morphed to mirror Twilight’s. “Oh. Oh.”

“What do you know about it?”

“Not much, I’m afraid.” Orramas’s face contorted in concentration. “We don’t really pay much attention to Malen’s rants about the Force. None of it matters to us beyond the fact that he kills anyone who acts disrespectful, so we all just nod and look thoughtful. He knows we’re faking it, of course, but he doesn’t care so long as we play his little game.” He went silent for several seconds. “Bogan… I recall him saying something about ‘the dark moon’ and ‘the ancient dark,’ but that’s about it. I’m sorry. I never thought I’d ever need any of his ramblings.”

Twilight sighed. “It’s fine. At least it’s something to go on. I haven’t been able to find anything about it in even Star Swirl’s books. Now I know for certain that Malen brought it here, and that it was intentional.”

The two came to Orramas’s room, and he gave her a sharp salute. “Your Majesty, if you don’t mind, I’d like to freshen up. The close quarters of a cockpit don’t exactly promote a nice aroma.”

“Oh, sure. I could probably use a bath, too. Let me know if you remember anything else, okay?”

“Of course, Your Majesty.”

Orramas closed the door and stood still until the sound of hooves on marble faded away. Then he let out a long sigh. “You can come out now, Malen. I know you’re here. I may not be Force-sensitive, but I recognize that chill in the air, the lengthening shadows. Just get this over with.”

A cruel laugh rippled through the room. “So eager to meet my blade, are you?”

“It’s not as if there’s anything I can do to stop it. I knew what would happen when I came here.”

“And yet, you still chose to do so.”

“There was no ‘choice.’ This was the only thing I could do. You know that.”

The room again echoed with laughter. “Ah, the foolishness of the Force-blind. It is only the weak who allow their destinies to be of anything other than their own making. The strong choose; the weak obey.”

“Really? I was under the impression that you serve the Emperor.”

“He is the strongest; therefore, I obey… for now.”

“I’m sure he’d be interested to hear that.”

“You think he doesn’t know? It is the way of the Dark Side. But small, weak men like you… you are nothing but pawns, to be used and discarded as whim and necessity demand. You are nothing.”

“Enough!” Orramas snarled. “I won’t stand here and be insulted. We both know what you’re here for. Do it. I’m ready.”

“Very well. But there is someone else who wishes to speak with you first.”

“What in Chaos are you –?” Orramas’s holocomm started chirping. He answered it, and the image of a man flickered to life.

“Hello, you disgusting traitor.”

“Dav! Wha–?”

“Don’t ‘Dav’ me, filth!” Aerin spat. “We aren’t friends. Not anymore.”

“Sir, please, I –”

“Shut up! I’m not interested in your excuses. How many good men have died because of you? How many widows and orphans have you made?”

“Dav, I had to! Fluttershy is my –”

“I said shut up! I can’t believe you’d betray the Empire and humanity itself for some vile nonhumanoid schutta. You make me sick. But I’m not calling to tell you exactly what a sorry excuse for a person you are. I just wanted to see the look on your face as you died.”

“Dav, you don’t –” Orramas was once more cut off as an agonizing heat erupted in his gut. A voice dripping with dark pleasure hissed in his ear.

“The Emperor sends his regards.”

Chapter Forty-Two: Rematch

Canterlot Castle
3:43 P.M.

Twilight frowned as she walked to her room. There was something very wrong about the human, but she couldn’t quite place her hoof on what. She had always been wary of him – what she had seen of the humans had almost universally been violent, xenophobic, and unempathetic, and Zem had known far more than she suspected a simple diplomat should have known. But this was different, somehow. It was as if there was a second shadow following him around today, and getting darker and darker as time went on. There wasn’t anything in particular she had noticed to cause this heightened concern; it was more just a gut sensation. All she knew for certain was that she had a very bad feeling about him.

Suddenly, the gnawing worry erupted into a sensation of full-blown panic. It was still totally incomprehensible, but it reminded her of the urge she got to tackle Celestia during the last negotiations with the Imperials. Her instincts had led her well then, so she wasn’t going to question them now. She turned and made for the human’s room at top speed. As she entered the guest hall, she heard a horribly familiar snap-hiss. Opening the door to his room revealed the dark figure of the Inquisitor leaning over Zem’s shoulder. The diplomat held his active holocomm in his hand and was staring blankly at the crimson beam sticking out of his abdomen.

“Damn,” he muttered. “It hurts just as bad as I thought.”

Malen pulled his saber back, and Orramas tipped forwards onto the ground, his holocomm clattering down beside him. Malen’s yellow eyes then locked on Twilight. “Well, now,” he chuckled. “It looks like I get two kills for the price of one.”

“That isn’t your mission,” Aerin’s still active hologram snapped. “Get back to base. You have to –”

With a wave of Malen’s fingers, the holocomm shut off. “So, my erstwhile apprentice,” Malen said, “I see the Force has drawn us together again. But this time, you don’t have the Dark Side to help you, and the Emperor no longer needs you alive. Time to die, pony.” With that, he launched himself over Orramas’s still form, his lightsaber raised to deliver a brutal downward cut.

As he reached the peak of his arc, his cloak flapped away from his side to show a flash of silver. Almost instinctively, Twilight snatched the second lightsaber off his belt and activated it, deflecting his attack and forcing him back with a quick riposte. She couldn’t remember having used the weapon before, but somehow, it just felt right.

Malen threw back his head and laughed. “You think you can outduel me? You couldn’t do so before, and I made sure that you forgot everything you knew. Just lay down and die, child. It will be easier for both of us.”

“What do you mean, ‘you made sure I forgot’?” Twilight growled. “What did you do?! What was Bogan?!”

Malen simply replied with a knowing smile and a shake of his head. “I could tell you… but information’s of no use to the dead.”

He charged at her again, but she took flight while simultaneously slashing at his legs. He somersaulted over her blade, spinning his lightsaber around his body in a wide clearing slash to keep her from goring him with her horn. Upon landing, he quickly spun about to face her again and swept his lightsaber across the floor to block a cut aimed at the back of his knees, leaving a long gouge in the marble and sending sparks flying through the air. Taking his left hand off his hilt, he extended it towards her, unleashing a barrage of lightning that merely splashed off the shield she raised. The stream of electricity cut off, and he lifted his hand in a grasping motion, then turned it parallel to the ground and dropped his arm to his side. With a loud crack, a large section of the ceiling collapsed on top of her, forcing her to the ground. It didn’t break her shield, but the rapid and unexpected movement left her momentarily stunned. As she stood back up, she felt an icy claw seize her throat, cutting off her air and forcing her back to her knees. Her shield shimmered and faded away as shadows clouded the edges of her vision.

“Foolish child,” Malen hissed. “Did you really think you could defeat me alone?”

“But she is not alone,” came a voice from behind him. Malen spun to see Celestia standing in the doorway, with the other Element-Bearers, Shining Armor, and a platoon of Royal Guards behind her.

With a snarl, Malen cast his hand out to his side, slamming Twilight into the wall, then went into the Shien opening stance. He saw Rainbow Dash go into a crouch, and his eyes narrowed as he focused on enhancing his perceptions. She launched herself at him, faster than the human eye would ordinarily be able to track. But that was the normal speed at which duelists of his caliber usually fought, and she was moving in a straight line, clearly not understanding the extent to which the Force allowed him to augment his physicality and intending to simply tear him in half with sheer velocity. Distantly, he heard a distinctive drawl shout for Rainbow Dash to wait, but she was already too close to him. He stepped to the side and made a single, downwards-arcing slash as she blasted by him. The world returned to normal speed, and there was a loud and a soft thump as Rainbow Dash and her left wing hit the ground separately.

There was a short quiet, the only sounds being the moans of the wounded and the humming of the lightsaber. Then the Guardsponies charged into the room. The first two Earth ponies to reach Malen had the heads of their spears cut off. There wasn’t even enough time for looks of shock to fully form on their faces before their own heads followed suit. A burst of lightning knocked three pegasi out of the air. A unicorn collapsed with his horn and front legs amputated. A pegasus trying to take Malen from above was cut lengthwise in two, and another had his belly sliced open. Half of a unicorn’s face impacted a wall. An Earth pony stumbled backwards, his muzzle crushed by a Force-augmented kick. Two unicorns fell with deep gashes in their chest armor, and a third with a hole through his eye socket. A pegasus fell out of the air with all six limbs removed. An Earth pony’s head split vertically in half. A unicorn gaped as his spear seemed to take on a life of its own, ripping itself out of his grasp and impaling a pegasus before turning on its original wielder. Four more ponies fell in various states of dismemberment.

His blade less than an inch from another pony’s head, Malen suddenly froze in place, surrounded by a pale gold aura. Ponies fell back from Celestia, terror on their faces. Her eyes, mane, and tail blazed with fire, and she wore an expression of pure rage. “That’s enough!” she roared, making the room shake and more rubble fall from the edges of the hole in the ceiling. “You and your kind have caused so much suffering and death. Cloudsdale, Phillydelphia, Rainbow Dash, Twilight… Luna… It ends here, now.”

Her horn flared, and Malen’s arm started bringing his lightsaber up towards his own throat. A look of panic crossed his face, soon replaced by one of anger as he struggled to break free of her grip. The blade moved slowly but inexorably towards its target. His face contorted in greater and greater paroxysms of rage and turned even more pallid as he tried to avoid his approaching doom, but he couldn’t even move his thumb to deactivate the blade. His skin began to blister and crack from the proximity of the crimson beam. Then his eyes locked on Celestia’s. His lips drew back to show tightly locked teeth and bloody, receding gums. He took a deep breath, then unclenched his jaws. What came from his mouth was the horrific shriek of a wounded and cornered animal, but far louder than even the Royal Canterlot Voice, making ears bleed and shattering the room’s window. Even Celestia recoiled, losing her grip on him. Panting, he turned and leapt out the window.

Celestia hurried to the opening and looked down, but Malen was nowhere to be seen. Then she gazed into the distance. On the edge of the horizon, a dark point marked where the Imperial base’s spire towered over the treetops. Her horn flared again, melting away the wall, and she took flight.

Chapter Forty-Three: Firestorm

Location: Everfree Imperial Garrison
Local Time: 15:47

Aerin glared at his holocomm, tuning out the normal buzz of the command room. The Inquisitor was becoming increasingly unmanageable. He had always been psychotic and totally outside the chain of command, but at least he hadn’t done anything objectively stupid before. Still, maybe this would finally get him killed and out of the way.

A shout from one of the sensor officers tore him from his musings. “What the –?! Incoming fire! Raise the shield!”

Aerin rushed over to the warrant officer as alarms went off. “What do you mean, ‘incoming fire’?! We’re the only ones with long-range weaponry on this planet!”

“Apparently not, sir,” the man replied. “We’ve got one incoming energy signature from Canterlot, five and a half thousand degrees and moving at twelve hundred kph. Expect impact in fourteen minutes.”

“Object is four meters long,” a radar operator reported.

Aerin frowned. The reports sounded about right for an artillery-grade plasma cannon, but such weapons, while far more powerful than turbolasers of similar size, were hampered by incredibly short range. They weren’t the sort of weapon you could use for striking at a target three hundred kilometers away. Not to mention the fact that the ponies were much too primitive to have created such a weapon. “Get me a visual,” he commanded. A moment later one of the screens was filled with the image from one of the security cameras mounted on the base’s sensor tower. A streak of flame could be seen arcing across the sky towards the base.

“That doesn’t look like a plasma pulse,” Aerin muttered. Those had a very distinctive appearance – a white-hot ball followed by a colored helical trail. In fact, this didn’t quite match any of the weapons systems he had seen before, and serving in the Outer Rim exposed a person to all sorts of exotic armaments. If the range was shorter, he would think it was a burst from a flamethrower, but no liquid fuel in the galaxy could burn both as long and as hot as the incoming fire. “Zoom in as much as you can while maintaining this resolution.” The image focused in on the tip of the flame. There was a strange distortion there, as if there was an object in the fire, obscured by its light. “Reduce brightness by fifty percent.” The distortion came into clearer view, and Aerin squinted, trying to figure out what it was. There was definitely an object wrapped in the flames. That looks like… No, that’s not possible! “Tannis, Seth,” he called, his even voice masking his fear. “Get over here. What’s this look like to you?” Major Regnuff and Lieutenant Hawkins left their stations overseeing internal security and intelligence, respectively, and peered at the image. A moment later, their eyes simultaneously widened.

“By the Emperor,” Regnuff murmured, dumbfounded. “Is that…?”

“Celestia,” Hawkins snarled.

“I thought so,” Aerin said, a sinking feeling in his stomach. “Tannis, bring the laser cannons online and prepare to fire as soon as it enters range. Have the tractor beam crews lock it there. We’ll see how well it survives without any maneuvering ability.”

“Yes, sir. Should I give the order to Fifth and Sixth Companies?”

“No, for two reasons. One, so long as the traitor didn’t reveal their presence, the ponies don’t know about them. If we use them now, we lose the element of surprise. Two, their shells would just melt against something that temperature. No, the base defenses can handle this.”

“Yes, sir.” The command room went quiet for the next few minutes, aside from the radar operator’s regular updates. “Target is two hundred klicks out… One hundred klicks… Ninety klicks… Eighty klicks… Seventy klicks… Sixty klicks… Fifty… Forty-five… Forty… Thirty-five…” And finally, “Target is thirty klicks out!”

Regnuff gave the order. “All laser cannons, fire!”

The Imperial base still looked small to Celestia when the first beams flashed around her. But she was unconcerned. In the form of the avatar of the sun, nothing could stop her. Dragons, ursa majors, and entire armies had fallen to her rage. She wove through the crisscrossing bolts of energy, leaving a trail of fire in her wake and sublimating the snow off the trees beneath her. Suddenly, she was gripped by an invisible force that held her in place. She struggled, her flames growing even larger and hotter in her anger, but she couldn’t free herself. Then her vision filled with red.

“Six direct hits!” Regnuff crowed. “We got… her?” The triumph disappeared from his voice as the explosions faded. The white alicorn was gone, but an alicorn of pure flame floated in its place. Regnuff slumped back in his chair, his eyes wide and staring off into nowhere. “Emperor preserve us,” he said, his voice a whisper cracking in defeat.

“The tractor beam projectors are overloading!” one of the warrant officers reported. “We’re losing –!”

The alicorn of fire shot across the screen, continuing towards the base.

Celestia cut through the sky, the forest below her igniting as she passed. The raw physical impact of the human weapons hurt, but they were fools to think they could stop her with such hot weapons. In fact, each bolt that hit her felt like they were bringing a portion of the sun to her, revitalizing her far more than the kinetic impact hurt her. Not since she had to defend the burgeoning nation of Equestria on her own after Nightmare Moon’s banishment a thousand years ago had she felt like this. Enemies had quickly learned that it was futile to resist her, and in the ensuing peace, she had driven away her rage and forced down this power. When the ancient threats had returned, the Elements of Harmony had chosen new bearers, and she never needed to summon her true power. But the humans had caused many times more deaths in only a few days then she had seen in all the wars of her long life. And they had killed her sister. She was done with mercy. The humans had to be exterminated.

Finally, she came in range of the base. She called on all the power of the sun, and the dark fortress disappeared in a wave of fire.

“Shield at ninety percent! Seventy! Sixty…”

Aerin whirled to Regnuff, not making any attempt to conceal his panic. “Contingency Orenth Seven! Now!”

Out of the blazing inferno came beams far larger than those first directed at Celestia. But she wasn’t their target. The Imperials had revealed their desire for isolation from the ponies and a wilder environment than existed in most of Equestria when they built their base in the Everfree Forest, but its exact placement was the result of a far crueler reason. One hundred kilometers away, Ponyville was just within the range of the Imperials’ turbolasers. Homes and businesses disappeared in a hail of fire from weapons designed to cripple frigates in only a few shots.

Taken by surprise, Celestia broke off her attack. The flames died down, revealing that the land around the base had its grass scorched away and was pitted with craters. Large sections of the fence were melted, and the guard towers and walkways were littered with charred corpses. The base itself displayed a faint, dark red glow.

Celestia’s growing rage quickly overcame her shock, and she looked away from the destruction of Ponyville to resume her attack. But before she could summon the fire again, a squad of Imperial troops rushed out of the base, armed with long rifles with strangely wide barrels. When they fired, it wasn’t blaster bolts that came out, but metal cylinders. They shattered around her, spraying her with a pale blue liquid that sucked away her heat. In only a moment, she had been caught in the blasts of three dozen cylinders. She lashed out with her magic and slew the Imperials, but her attack was her normal energy, not fire. The vehicle bay opened, and three AT-STs walked out, their grenade launchers buffeting Celestia with shockwaves and shrapnel. They, too, were quickly dispatched, followed by the three turrets firing on Ponyville. But Celestia had lost the strength to penetrate the base’s walls, and more and more troops and vehicles were pouring out to oppose her. She couldn’t fight an entire battalion by herself, not in this state. “I’m sorry, Luna,” she whispered, tears pouring from her eyes, as she turned back to Canterlot.

The Imperial command room was filled with a mix of cheers and sobs of relief. Regnuff was bent over his station, clasping his pendant in shaking hands and stammering quiet prayers to the Cosmic Balance. Aerin wiped sweat from both terror and heat from his forehead and lifted his canteen to his lips, chugging down several mouthfuls of brandy. Hawkins gave Aerin a nervous grin. “I told you keeping Caspels with CryoBan cylinders near the front door was a good idea.”

“Kark off, Seth,” Aerin muttered, leaning heavily on the holotable. After several long minutes, he stood straight again, though his eye refused to focus on anything and his voice shook. “Okay… Okay… Let’s, let’s try to identify all the dead. And, uh, get a damage rep– report.” He swigged more brandy. “Someone tell Sturm what just happened. I… I…” Not finishing his sentence, he stumbled towards the door. He didn’t make it out of the room before throwing up and collapsing face-first into his vomit.

Chapter Forty-Four: Wounds

Canterlot Castle
4:09 P.M.

Celestia landed on the balcony with her head low and tears soaking the fur on her cheeks. She had badly hurt the Imperials, but in their normal fashion, they had responded by inflicting even greater harm on innocents. Their actions demanded righteous and violent retaliation, but that would just result in them increasing the scale of their murder even more. There was only one way to win this war, she realized. The humans had to be utterly crushed, and soon, or there wouldn’t be many ponies left.

She forced herself to look strong and confident as she walked through the halls on her way to the infirmary. Seeing her broken and defeated would destroy what little morale the Royal Guard had left. The Guardsponies silenced their whispers as she passed, but she knew what they were talking about. They were shocked by the Inquisitor’s ability to infiltrate the castle and the damage he had done, frightened by the rage and power their Princess had displayed, and horrified by the humans’ retaliation. Ponyville could be seen from the ramparts, and word of its devastation had spread before her return. Fillydelphia was far enough away that some ponies could avoid thinking about it, but Ponyville was a different story. Everywhere Celestia looked, Guardsponies had fear and resignation in their eyes. A few wore expressions of hateful resolve, but she could tell that most were only still willing to fight because she was ordering them to. They had lost the will to resist.

The infirmary was a far different scene from the quiet halls. Maimed ponies screamed around her. Most weren’t actually being operated on – the Inquisitor’s lightsaber had cauterized the wounds it made, so only the most serious injuries were immediately life-threatening. Celestia winced and looked away from one bed, having noticed the condition of its inhabitant’s head just before it was covered with a sheet. She made her way to the back of the room. In one bed, Twilight had her left legs and wing in casts. She didn’t seem to even notice Celestia, instead being intently focused on the lightsaber hilt laying on the bed stand. Rainbow Dash was similarly unresponsive, though she was simply staring off into the distance. Celestia’s eyes lingered for a moment on the bandaged stub that was all that remained of Equestria’s greatest flier’s left wing. The next bed surprised her. A captured human, one wearing a light blue uniform, was working feverishly on the patient in it. This patient was quite aware of his surroundings, and was cursing at the human doctor, complaining of shoddy handiwork, questioning the validity of the doctor’s medical license, and threatening the doctor with a court-martial and a variety of punishments that ranged from the horrifying to the downright nonsensical. “Zem?!”

The patient broke off his tirade and gave the Princess a jaunty wave. “Oh, hello, Your Majesty. Apologies for the language, but Torsin here has absolutely no bedside manner.”

“Bah,” the human doctor muttered. “I’m a medic, not a pediatrician. Besides, you’ve only got yourself to blame. If you didn’t keep moving, these sutures wouldn’t tear.”

“Yeah,” Orramas chuckled, “but what’s the fun in doing everything the doc says?”

“You’re a real schutta, you know that?”

“Course I am! Everyone’s a schutta to his superior officers.”

The medic responded with a snort. “Yes, yes, and when you’re wounded, the medic always outranks you. Now shut up and let me fix this hole in your abdomen.”

Celestia shook her head in amazement. “I can’t believe you’re still alive, much less awake and making jokes.”

Orramas smiled. “Yeah, well, I’m one damn tough ba–” The cheerful expression on his face vanished, and he inhaled sharply. Then, almost immediately, his smile returned. “–stard. I don’t die so easily.”

“Oh, please,” came the medic’s rejoinder, “your toughness has nothing to do with it. You’re just lucky lightsabers cauterize their wounds and he didn’t stab you anywhere vital.”

“I don’t think luck has anything to do with it, either,” Orramas replied quietly. “I think he wanted me to suffer before he finished me off.”

The medic was silent for a long moment as he worked. “Well,” he finally said, “your spinal column is intact, so you’ll be able to walk again. Biggest concern is infection. Got a lot of dust in there from the ceiling collapse, and intestinal leakage is… nasty. The cephalosporin injections will help, but I’m not used to working with so little bacta. Your intestines should heal fine, but without a bacta tank, your damaged abdominal muscles aren’t coming back. You’ve probably noticed some difficulty breathing. You’re going to have to live with that the rest of your life. You’ll also have difficulty with urination and defecation, and you’ll never stand straight again. I’m sorry, but without Imperial medical technology, there’s nothing else I can do.” He turned to face Celestia. “And speaking of Imperial medical technology, I suppose this is a good time to tell you that –”

Orramas reached up and grabbed the medic’s arm. “Let it go, Torsin.”

The medic looked shocked. “But, sir –!”

“Let. It. Go.”

“I… Oh. Y-yes, sir.”

Celestia frowned. “Somehow, I get the feeling this is something I need to know. Please, continue, Doctor.”

“I… Well…” he stammered, looking between her and Orramas.

“It’s fine, I’ll tell her,” Orramas said with a sigh, causing a look of relief to appear on the medic’s face. Then Zem fixed Celestia with a fierce glare. “But you have to promise not to tell Fluttershy.”

“Oh?” Celestia raised an eyebrow. “And why would that be?”

“I want to tell her myself, later. When I think we’re both ready.”

“What are you talking about, Zem?”

“Just promise me!”

Celestia nodded slowly. “Very well, I promise.”

“Good.” Orramas closed his eyes and lowered himself back onto the bed, going quiet for a few seconds. “I have Kanju’s disease,” he finally said, in a voice barely louder than a whisper. “It’s a genetic disorder, affecting the lungs. When alveolar cells die, they’re replaced with scar tissue instead of lung cells. In the Empire, it’s treatable with a monthly injection that makes the lungs repair properly. But without that injection, it’s fatal. I’ve got thirteen days before I’d normally get my next shot. After that, my lungs will begin deteriorating. In about half a year, I’ll start coughing a lot. Two or three months later, the coughs will have blood in them, from the scars tearing at the still-healthy tissue. That speeds things up. Once the bleeding starts, I’ll be dead within a month.”

Location: Everfree Imperial Garrison
Local Date: 11/19/4
Local Time: 09:00

Aerin stood to the side of a Sentinel-class shuttle’s boarding ramp, his hand to his brow in a salute. Facing him on the other side of the ramp was Gavrisom, who was in an identical posture. Two lines of saluting officers and troopers with long rifles extended from them to the base’s main door. It hissed open, letting out a procession of officers pushing hoversleds. Each one carried a white casket marked with the Imperial Crest. Aerin hoped none of the families those caskets were going to insisted on looking at their loved ones. Imperial morticians were quite skilled at covering blaster burns with synthskin, reattaching or replacing limbs, and shaping faces into peaceful expressions, but there was very little that could be done to pretty up the blackened husks that were all that remained of First Company.

As the first casket approached him, Aerin could suddenly see inside it. The body wasn’t some charred skeleton. Much of it was, indeed, burnt, but it was also torn and bloody, missing most of its right side. The semi-intact half of its head bore a face Aerin knew all too well. It turned to look at him, meeting his one-eyed gaze with its own. It couldn’t have spoken, not with its throat ripped out, but it did anyways. “Why, Dav?” it rasped. “Why did it have to be me, not you?” It let out a wet cackle. “I guess that old heirloom really did have all my luck in it. Are you happy, Dav? You took my luck to save yourself. You killed me.”

Aerin wrenched his eye off the casket as it went up the ramp and looked instead at the dark forest. It became even darker as he stared, the trees growing at an incredible rate, until they were the size of Coruscant skyscrapers. Between him and the imposing trees was not a collapsed, half-melted watchtower but the blazing ruins of a forward command center. He wasn’t screaming, but not for lack of trying. The blood pouring from his mouth choked any sound he made. Medics’ hands grasped at him, trying to get a firm grip and carry him away, but his skin peeled off wherever they touched him. His roasted flesh, the shards of durasteel in his right eye and all throughout his body, and the blood running into his left eye were agonizing, but the wound that hurt the most was on his right forearm, where the deepest burn was in the shape of a thin knife.

A hand suddenly rested on his shoulder. “Dav?”

Gavrisom’s face was filled with concern. The procession was over, and the men involved were gathered around in a large circle. Aerin didn’t know how long he had been standing there at rigid attention, and he didn’t really care. He seized Gavrisom in a vice-like hug. “Don’t let go, Sturm,” he sobbed. “Please, by the Force, don’t let go.”

Chapter Forty-Five: Dragon's Breath

Location: ISS Intrepid
Local Date: 1/20/4
Local Time: 09:01

Ensign Wenn snapped to a nervous salute as the shuttle’s ramp lowered. A CompForce squad descended, blasters at the ready. After confirming the hanger was clear of threats, their sergeant gestured for the rest of the shuttle’s occupants to unload their cargo. Four large men in the white uniforms and black hats of the Imperial Security Bureau gingerly carried down a crate with the same dimensions as those used to transport an Acclamator’s proton torpedoes. However, this one’s label was different from the normal explosive hazard warning. Carefully, Wenn leaned in to read the sticker.

Warning: Contains 2.0kg of trihexalon gas at a concentration of 2.5kg/m^3. Trihexalon has an LCt50 of 191.7μg-min/m^3 for humans. Handle with extreme caution.

Now sweating even more heavily, Wenn pulled away from the crate – not that it would actually do him any good. If the shell was ruptured, anyone in the hanger would be dead in seconds. And the shuttle was packed full of the crates.

The ISB agents loaded the weapons onto hoversleds, and Wenn led them to the torpedo bay.

Ponyville
9:36 A.M.

“Come on, guys, hurry!”

Ponyville’s few remaining pegasi were trying desperately to whip up a downpour to fight the inferno that blazed through the parts of the town that hadn’t been completely reduced to rubble, but making clouds without the Weather Factory was an incredibly difficult task, and between the skirmishing when the rail lines were bombed and the attack by the Imperial base, most of the normal weather patrol had died. Plus, at these temperatures, getting rain instead of snow was almost impossible.

A rumble of thunder brought a smile to Clear Skies’s lips. Maybe they’d be able to save at least some of the homes and businesses. But another sound made his grin disappear. A flight of TIE fighters shrieked down from the sky, their cannons ripping into the pegasi. A dozen fell before most even knew what was happening. Just as abruptly as they appeared, the TIEs turned around, making a strafing run on Sweet Apple Acres’ fields and soaring back into space.

The Dragon Lands
9:58 A.M.

Ember looked over the battle plans Gilda sent her, spread out on a rock with a map that had ironically been stolen from Griffonstone a few years ago. They seemed good, so far as she could tell. One force of griffons would rebuild the bridge between the Griffon Kingdom and the Crystal Empire, another would take passage on the Royal Saddle Arabian Navy, and a third would ride in carriages designed to be towed by dragons. The first group would combine with a special forces team from the Crystal Empire and travel south to meet up with the main Equestrian army in Canterlot. The second group would travel west, upriver from Horseshoe Bay, along with a division of the Saddle Arabian Army. The last group, dragons and griffons, would move north from Appleloosa. All three would meet in a combined assault on the Imperial base in the Everfree Forest.

It was a risky plan, to be sure. The humans seemed to know everything that happened on the planet and respond within minutes. A miles-long bridge, the entire Saddle Arabian navy, or a huge army of dragons would never escape notice on their own. It was simply hoped that all of them happening at once would either draw the humans’ attention to just one or two of them or divide their forces so much that at least some would slip through to Equestria.

Ember sighed as she rolled up the plans and map. Against the humans’ power, wave tactics seemed to be the only thing that worked, even with the most elite soldiers. Well, that or the Equestrian Princesses, but even they were suffering attrition. It was hard to believe. Until the humans had arrived, many dragons had difficulty grasping the concept of their own deaths. It just didn’t happen to dragons very often. Very little could kill a dragon, and their natural lifespans were incredible. Her father had ruled the dragons for a thousand years, and he still had a good bit of life left in him. Seeing dead dragons for the first time during the liberation of Griffonstone hadn’t been easy for her. She could hardly imagine what it must be like for the ponies, to have someone they considered truly immortal die so suddenly and with so little fanfare.

Still brooding, she took flight for a volcano, where blacksmiths were busy making armor for the hundreds of dragons milling about in the surrounding craters and scorched plains. As she flew, she saw something fall from above the clouds towards one of the craters. She thought it was a teenage dragon that had been knocked out in one of the regular fights until it landed and a green cloud started billowing out from its point of impact. More objects penetrated the clouds in a slow but steady rain. At first, she though the humans were using some kind of poison gas, but the green filling the craters and spilling out onto the plains wasn’t the same muted tones that could be found in Equestria’s darker swamps. This gas was a vibrant hue that glowed with an unnatural inner light.

An adult dragon swooped too close to one of the growing clouds, and the tip of its wing entered the cloud. The dragon let out an agonizing howl and plummeted to the ground. Ember saw with horror that its scales and flesh had melted away, and the revealed bones were dripping. Then the maimed giant was fully engulfed in the cloud. Ember flew higher, soaring above the creeping gas. A TIE bomber swooped down towards her. Instead of dropping a bomb, it fired a missile. She dodged it, but instead of flying off to explode in the distance, it shattered beside her, and more gas spilled over her.

Garble heard the screams of dying dragons, those that survived long enough to scream, and saw the spreading cloud. A sinking feeling in his stomach, he scrambled to his hiding place, pulled out his comlink, and pressed the button to call the Imperial base. “Answer me, you… you… pony!” he snarled as it chirped. Finally, the image of Lieutenant Hawkins appeared, a look of disdain on his face.

“What do you want?” he asked, sounding more annoyed than anything else.

“What do I…” Garble was dumbfounded. “You’re attacking us!”

“Yes.”

“But I’m still here!”

“We only needed you as a tool to get control over the dragons,” Hawkins explained, his voice devoid of emotion. “Now that we’ve given up on that plan, we have no further use for you. You, of all dragons, should understand that.”

“But how do I get out?!”

“You don’t. Die with the rest.”

“Seth? Seth?” Garble called, his voice breaking, but the channel had already been closed. He looked up to see that the cloud had blocked out the sky and was descending into his crater. There was no escape.

Author's Note

If any of you know how to put in actual subscripts and superscripts in this format, please let me know.

Chapter Forty-Six: The Desolation of the Dragons

The Dragon Lands
1/21/4
12:48 P.M.

Colonel Gaston could feel that there was something wrong as he led his regiment of griffons through the Dragon Lands. He had never been there before, but he could tell there was something missing. Just before he crested a hill, he realized what it was. Noise. Aside from the constantly rumbling volcanoes, the Dragon Lands were silent. There was no roaring of dragons or their fire. And when he reached the top of the hill and looked down on the plain where the dragons gathered, he could see why. There wasn’t a single living thing to be found. Even the sparse brush was completely gone. Instead of dragons, the plain was covered in a black substance.

Gaston led his regiment down the hill, the chatter of soldiers fading away as they saw the barren landscape. Hesitantly, Gaston dipped his right claw into the substance, and it flowed around his talons. It was water, but thick and tainted with a substance he couldn’t identify. He decided not to press his luck by tasting it. Holding his claw up, he noticed that the water wasn’t a pure black, but had a faint green tint to it. He shook it off with a grimace. “Spread out,” he ordered. “Try to find out what happened here.”

After only a few seconds, he heard a crow of shock as one of his scouts flew over the largest crater. A crowd had already gathered by the time he reached it, and he immediately saw what all the commotion was about. The skeleton of a huge dragon filled the crater. It was bleached white, clearly having been there a long time. He flew nearer to examine it, scratching idly at an itch on his right claw. This close, he could tell that something unnatural had happened to the skeleton. The bones were much too thin for a dragon that size, and a soft poke revealed that they were also far too spongy.

“Well,” he thought aloud, ignoring the worsening pins and needles in his claw, “even if we can’t find the dragons, we can bring back one of these bones. Maybe the scientists can make something of it.” He flew down to where one of the claws lay half buried in the filthy water. “Gustav, Gilbert, help me pick this thing up.” Once they were in position, he said, “Okay, on the count of three, lift. Ready? One, two, thre-AAARRRGGGHHH!!!”

He stumbled backwards, collapsing on his back in the muck. He raised his right claw and stared at it in horror. His talons had been completely sheared off. But what was somehow even worse was that it wasn’t just blood pouring from his stumps, but a dark slurry. One very similar, some corner of his mind realized, to the one he was currently laying in.

Canterlot Castle Infirmary
1/22/4
3:04 P.M.

Twilight wished she could feel horrified as she read Gilda’s letter, but unfortunately, it seemed all too ordinary now. Another massacre. More innocents dying horrible, meaningless deaths. A new, sicker way of killing. It just seemed to be in the humans’ nature. Every time it seemed like they couldn’t get any worse, they committed another atrocity. She had long ago given up on trying to plumb the depths of their hatred, and now she did the same for their cruelty and inventiveness when it came to developing new methods of slaughter. Not that there was any conclusive evidence that this was the humans’ doing, but things like this just didn’t happen naturally, not in Equestria.

She floated the letter over to Celestia, who was standing at the foot of the bed. The letter may have just been addressed to Twilight, but everypony knew that an urgent message from the newly-crowned Queen of the Griffons to one of Equestria’s Princesses, especially during a time of war, would be important for all of them to see. Now, though, that meant just Twilight and Celestia. Cadance was still in the Crystal Empire, protecting it while her husband was managing Equestria’s entire army from Canterlot (to the great unhappiness of both Princess and Prince), and Luna was… Twilight didn’t like to think about that.

A look of sorrow spread over Celestia’s face as she read the letter. It slipped from her telekinetic grasp and floated to the ground, and Celestia squeezed her eyes shut, tears welling from the corners. For a few minutes, the only sounds coming from the two alicorns were Celestia’s muffled sobs. Fortunately, the moans of the other ponies in the infirmary kept anypony from hearing their ruler breaking down. When she finally recovered, she turned to Twilight. “I’m so sorry,” she whispered.

Twilight didn’t meet her gaze. “I’m fine,” she said, her voice cold and distant. “Everypony’s lost friends. Ember and I weren’t that close. At least I didn’t have to watch this time.”

Celestia sighed. “That… that wasn’t what I meant. Twilight… I have to go back to the human castle. This has to end.”

“Good,” Twilight snapped. “Finish them off, this time. They deserve it. I just wish I could be there to help you.”

“No, Twilight, you don’t…” Celestia sighed again and took a moment to gather herself. “Twilight?” She waited until her student finally looked at her. “I’m surrendering.”

Chapter Forty-Seven: Resurgence

3:08 PM

“WHAT?!”

Heads throughout the infirmary turned towards the sudden noise, and Celestia frowned at her student’s outburst. “Twilight…” she murmured, reproach in her voice.

Twilight glared at her mentor, but her horn glowed, creating a bubble of silence around the two alicorns. “How can you do this?!” she continued at full volume.

“You saw the letter,” Celestia said. “They massacred the dragons.”

“Yes! Which is why we have to keep fighting them! All they care about is murdering us, and if we don’t stop them, that’s all they’ll continue to do! They’ll kill and kill and kill until there’s nopony left! The only way to stop them is if we kill them first. Can’t you see that?”

Celestia shook her head. “Killing is never the only option, and very rarely is it the best one. We can’t fight them anymore, Twilight. I know it hurts, but I also know that deep down, you know it too. What they did to the dragons, and what happened to those griffons… I won’t let something like that happen to my little ponies. I have to protect them, no matter what.”

“We don’t even know how they did that!” Twilight protested. “I know we can defend against it somehow. Hay, we don’t even know if they can do it again! Maybe they could only do something like that once.”

Celestia smiled ruefully. “Oh, Twilight…”

“Okay, fine. But we can’t just give up! They’re monsters! Worse than monsters! At least the monsters of the Everfree don’t really understand that what they’re doing is wrong!”

“The humans don’t know that, either,” Celestia reminded her quietly.

“Don’t call them ‘humans!’” Twilight snapped. “They aren’t! Humans aren’t evil! They’re flawed, sure, but they aren’t murderers! These… fiends… aren’t worthy of being called ‘human.’”

Celestia sighed. “Be that as it may, they’re only going to keep killing until they take over, and even if we somehow won, it wouldn’t be worth the cost. I won’t take a course of action that will result in almost all ponies being killed.”

“They’ll do that anyways! They’re cruel, vindictive murderers! If we’re all going to die no matter what, then we might as well take as many of them with us as possible!”

“I won’t condone such pointless killing,” Celestia replied as firmly as she could through her tears. “And I don’t think you really want that, either. There’s a chance the humans will restrain themselves, and a slim chance is better than most ponies will have if we keep fighting. I’m sorry, Twilight, but this is the best option left.” She dispelled the bubble and turned to leave, then stiffened.

“No,” Twilight snarled. “We aren’t surrendering.” She turned Celestia around to face her. The alicorn of the sun was trying desperately to speak, but all that came out of her mouth was a faint rasp.

In the next bed over, Rainbow Dash moved for the first time since the battle three days ago, looking at her friend. “Twilight…” she whispered. “Your eyes… they’re… yellow…”

A look of shock spread across Twilight’s face, and she snatched up a mirror from the bed stand. She looked into it just in time to see the last golden specks fade from her irises. “What… what happened?” Celestia drew in a long, rattling gasp, and Twilight looked at her in concern. “Celestia? Are you okay?” A wave of realization rolled over her. “Did… did I do that?”

“In your dream,” Rainbow Dash told her gently, “you looked like that when that Bogan monster was controlling you.”

“And the Inquisitor’s eyes used to be brown,” Twilight whispered to herself. “Now they’re yellow, too.”

Celestia cleared her throat. “Another reason to end this war without further bloodshed. Clearly, Bogan wasn’t entirely destroyed when we fought him in your mind, and he’s using the hate and killing to grow stronger. We can’t allow that to happen.”

“But…” Twilight started to protest, then she lowered her head and closed her eyes. “You’re right,” she admitted, almost silently.

“I’m sorry,” Celestia told her one final time, and turned to leave, trying not to listen to Twilight’s quiet sobs.

Location: Everfree Forest
Local Time: 15:42

“So, what’s the difference between a Trandoshan and a pair of boots?”

Private Harkun lowered his hands from where they had been protecting his face from the winter air just long enough to respond. “A taxidermist,” he growled. “Get some new jokes.”

Private Dren took a long, thoughtful pull on his cigarette, then smiled. “Okay, how ’bout this one? A Seppie, a Vigo, and an ISB agent walk into a cantina. The agent looks around and says – BY THE EMPEROR!” he shrieked, pointing down the snowy path they were guarding.

Harkun groaned, not looking up. “Yes, Dren, ISB agents say that a lot. Where’s the karkin’ joke?”

“No, I – I –” Dren stammered, then gave up trying to talk and just aimed his rifle where he had just pointed.

Harkun suddenly realized that this wasn’t part of a really bad joke, and he stared down the path to see none other than Celestia at the next bend. His own scream was wordless, and it choked into silence while still half-formed. He fumbled for his own rifle, which he had tucked under his arm, but it slipped out of his gloved fingers. He lunged for it, only to end up with handfuls of snow as it was wrapped in a golden light and flew away. Above and behind him, he heard two shots ring out, and then Dren’s blaster went silent. He braced himself for death. Oh, Taria, I’m so sorry. I’m so, so sorry. I’m so, so, so sorry. I’m so, so, so, so, so… still alive. Why am I still alive? He looked up from where he lay in the snow to see that Celestia held both rifles in her telekinetic grip, but she was making no move to attack. Instead, she asked, “Would you please bring me to your base? I wish to surrender.”

Chapter Forty-Eight: Peace Talks

Everfree Forest
3:44 P.M.

Celestia carefully kept all traces of anger or resentment off her face as she watched the dark cloak sweep through the forest in front of her. But the hooded figure seemed to somehow sense her animosity. He looked over his shoulder to meet her gaze with sickly yellow eyes and give her a matching grin. He slowly raised the small cylinder in his left hand and brushed his thumb over the button on top of it. He didn’t press the button, but the motion was enough to redirect some of Celestia’s attention to the device attached to her neck. Even in its passive state, it made her mane stand even more on end from the electricity running through it, and the sergeant in command of the CompForce troopers that made up the rest of her escort had made certain that she knew exactly what would happen if the “shock collar” was activated.

“Do these people think you’re still Malen Valerious?” she asked the figure ahead of her. “Or do they realize what’s really controlling that body… Bogan.”

A confused expression crossed his lurid face, but his cruel smile quickly reasserted itself. “Oh, Celestia. For all your innate power, your understanding of the true nature of the Force is quite pathetic. Me, Bogan? Not at all. But perhaps, if you survive long enough, I’ll have the pleasure of introducing you to it.”

They emerged into the clearing surrounding the Imperial base. The humans’ progress in restoring it was remarkable for the short time they’d had since Celestia’s attack, but as she looked around, it was clear that they were having their own difficulties. Earthen ramparts, a moat, and the beginnings of a wooden palisade had replaced the chain-link fence and guard towers, the spikes on the top of the main spire had been removed, and some of the craters that had been formed on the base’s grounds during her attack still hadn’t been filled in. Where one of the huge cannons that destroyed Ponyville had once been, a group of humans were arguing over a replacement that looked like it had been thrown together out of mismatched spare parts in less than a day. A dusting of snow over everything showed that keeping up their standards of sterile cleanliness had fallen off their list of priorities. All around her, shivering Imperials looked up from their work and stared at her with looks of hate and fear – and, in a few cases, a faint glimmer of hope. But as bad as the situation looked for the humans on the ground, Celestia knew the war couldn’t be won so long as the Imperial fleet was still in orbit.

The procession came to a halt in front of the base’s front door. The sergeant turned to her and explained, “The governor’s coming down from his flagship to accept your surrender personally.” After a few minutes, a squadron of TIE fighters screamed overhead, followed by a shuttle touching down in the clearing. The shuttle’s ramp dropped, and after the steam cleared, Gavrisom emerged, flanked by two Navy troopers. He approached Celestia and gave her a shallow bow.

“Your Highness. My apologies for the collar, but I have to put the safety of my men first. I hope you understand.”

“Of course,” she graciously replied. The collar didn’t pose any real threat to her, as she could escape from it faster than it could be activated. Her objection was the principle of it, and she knew by now that the humans didn’t care about “principle.”

Gavrisom led Celestia and her escort into the base. As they walked through the halls, humans poked their heads out of doorways. Most were silent, watching her with the same emotions on their faces as the humans outside. Some jeered at her, shouting human profanity and short but explicit descriptions of what they wanted to do to her corpse. A few cheered. One pair of humans broke down in sobs and hugged each other. After the procession ascended a turbolift and walked down a hallway that felt much longer than it likely was, a thick, metal door slid open in front of them, revealing a large room filled with electronic equipment. And standing in the doorway was Aerin, flanked by two officers, one in gray and one in white. He didn’t have the usual hateful scowl on his face that he usually wore when interacting with ponies. Instead, much more disturbingly to Celestia, his mouth was contorted into a sick grin. “Hail the Emperor,” he said, raising his right arm in front of him. The humans beside him repeated the gesture.

“Hail the Emperor! Hail the Emperor! Hail the Emperor!”

Celestia walked into the room, her head held high.

Canterlot Castle
3:47 P.M.

“Your Majesty, you’re in no shape to –”

“I’m fine, Flash,” Twilight interrupted. “I might not be able to fly yet, but I can walk and use my magic. It’s enough.”

“I… Of course, Your Majesty. As you say.”

Twilight sighed. “Look, Flash. I know you’re worried about me. And I appreciate it, really I do. But with everything that’s happened… Well, this is something I just have to do.”

“At least let me gather your friends. They can help you.”

“How?” Twilight retorted. “Pinkie, Rarity, and Fluttershy aren’t fighters. Rainbow Dash has barely moved since she lost her wing. And Applejack left to be with her family when she heard Sweet Apple Acres had been attacked. Even if I could convince her to leave them to help me, it would take too long to go there first.”

“A battalion of Royal Guards, then.”

“No. You know the humans always seem to realize whenever we move more than a company of Guards at a time. Besides, they would just slow me down. No, this is something I have to do myself. With Toy Box’s help, of course.” She looked up. “Ready, Toy Box?”

“Ready, Princess!”

Everfree Imperial Garrison
7:03 P.M.

Celestia groaned internally as she lowered her teacup from her lips, making sure her external expression remained courteous. Four hours of pleasantries, dissimulation, and minutiae. All a normal part of politics, of course, and normally something that didn’t bother her much. In fact, things were moving much quicker than she would expect, given the sheer scale of the treaty being drawn up. However, the topic being discussed – not to mention the beings she was discussing it with – made it unusually galling. Aerin’s sickeningly cheerful smile had twisted into a disgusted grimace as soon as the first round of tea was served, and it hadn’t changed since. Celestia wasn’t quite sure whether that was because he hated tea, or because Gavrisom had chosen that moment to assure her that the Imperials had no intention of carrying out punitive massacres. Gavrisom’s own expression had remained pleasant, while that of the white-uniformed officer was totally inscrutable. The eyes of the last officer in gray had glazed over half an hour into the talks, and he kept taking excessively long glances at his rather ostentatious gold pocket watch. Malen watched from the side of the room, his ever-present sadistic grin never wavering.

Gavrisom had just finished explaining how the Empire planned to manage Equestria, which did nothing to allay Celestia’s suspicions that the “Empire” was nothing but a military dictatorship despite all human claims to the contrary. Everything was “military governor,” “reorganization and nationalization of Planetary Security Forces,” and “subordinate to Imperial High Command.” Any time pony civilian government was mentioned, it was either to say it would be abolished or to say which Imperial officer the civilian government would answer to. But the removal of important pony officials in the higher levels of government raised a very important question, one Celestia couldn’t just ignore any longer. “What will happen to myself, Princess Twilight, Princess Cadance, and Prince Shining?”

Gavrisom and Aerin looked at each other. Gavrisom’s lips set into a thin line, while a glint appeared in Aerin’s eye and a hint of a smile grew at the corners of his mouth. “Will you tell it, or can I?” the general asked.

“Her,” Gavrisom corrected him, seemingly automatically. “And… I’ll tell her.” The two faced Celestia again, and Gavrisom sighed before replying, “I regret to inform you, Your Highness, that standard Imperial policy is that all higher government officials on a conquered world who did not collaborate with Imperial forces are to be… executed. And in monarchies, that means all members of the royal family. I’m sorry.”

Celestia was silent for a long moment. It was exactly the response she’d expected, of course. Mercy wasn’t a trait these humans seemed to possess. But some small part of her had held out hope that maybe, just maybe, their time in Equestria had changed them for the better. The hope, it seemed, of a madpony. “I… understand,” she finally said. “But I’ll have to talk with them before I sign the treaty. I can’t make an agreement that will result in their deaths without asking their permission first.”

“Go ahead,” Gavrisom replied. “I realize this can’t be easy for any of you. I wish there was some way around it, but that decision was made at a much higher paygrade than mine. Still, I’m sure they’ll realize that their sacrifice will save lives. In the meantime, I propose a one-month ceasefire so you can talk to them, and so you can all prepare yourselves.” He held out his right hand. “Agreed?”

Celestia slid her right hoof out of its shoe and gave him a hoofshake. “Agreed.” She turned to give Aerin a hoofshake, but she hesitated. His hand was extended, but it was still enclosed in a black glove.

Gavrisom glanced at Aerin. “General…” he said softly, reproach and a hint of warning in his voice. Aerin muttered something that Celestia guessed was probably obscene, but he removed his glove and shook her hoof. As he did so, Celestia noticed that his hand lacked fingernails and was just as scarred and blistered as the corresponding side of his face. She also noticed that he didn’t put his glove back on after the hoofshake, instead tucking it into his belt, and that he kept his hand well away from his side.

“With that settled,” Gavrisom said, “I’ll alert all Imperial forces to our ceasefire. I trust you’ll do the same, Your Highness, though I understand your rather… underdeveloped… communications technology means it will take some time for the message to reach your farthest outposts. Good night, Your Highness. I’m glad we could come to –”

He stopped as an officer got up from one of the machines filling the room and walked briskly to the group. “Excuse me, Governor, but there’s something of vital importance I need to tell you. You too, General.” The officer looked over at Malen. “Inquisitor, if you don’t mind, I think this will also be of interest to you.”

Gavrisom bowed to Celestia. “Excuse me. This should only take a moment.”

The four humans walked over to the machine the officer had been sitting at and started talking in hushed tones. After a moment, Aerin let out an outraged-sounding, “I should’ve guessed!” and spun towards Celestia, but Gavrisom immediately pulled him back into the huddle. They whispered for a minute longer. Then Gavrisom’s shoulders heaved in a clear sigh, and he gave a short nod. Celestia ripped off the shock collar and hurled it across the room less than half a second before it lit up with crackling fingers of electricity. She looked back at the humans just in time to receive Aerin’s right hook directly to her muzzle. He immediately followed it up with a left hook that blacked out the right side of her vision. The durasteel toe of his jackboot slammed into her stomach, making her gasp in pain. Before she could recover, she had been dragged to the floor, her good eye at the bottom so she could only see gray metal. Something came down on her head with a huge amount of force, and she would have screamed if she had the breath to do so. She blindly pushed out with her magic and was met with a shout and the sound of shattering glass. Then her half-blackened vision was replaced for an instant with a field of white agony.

As her sight slowly restored itself, she heard Malen’s low chuckle. “Would you look at that,” he said, his voice laced with dark humor. “It looks like I get the chance to introduce you to Bogan after all.” Then her vision turned white again, before finally being replaced with merciful black nothingness.

Location: Wreck of the Ardent
Time: Moments ago…

“Hey, Maj, we got a chicken incoming, four o’clock.”

Major Dril frowned. “What are you on about, corporal? We aren’t getting reinforcements.”

“Yeah, well, it’s coming anyways. Seven klicks out and closing.”

“You know what the punishment for spice use is, corporal.”

“Hey, you wanna see for yourself, fine with me,” the corporal said, shrugging and holding the macrobinoculars out to Dril. He accepted them and looked in the direction the corporal pointed.

“Huh. So it is. By the Emperor, look at how it’s walking! Is the pilot drunk? What’s he even doing here?” He lowered the microbinoculars and shouted over his shoulder. “Nok, hail that schutta, ask him why he’s here, and give him an earful ’bout what a disgraceful pilot he is.”

“Yes, sir.” Over a minute passed before the comm officer spoke again. “Sir, he isn’t responding to attempts a communication.”

“Keep trying.”

“Still nothing, sir.”

Dril frowned and raised a finger to his ear. “Major Dril to Base, Major Dril to Base. Come in, Base. Over.”

“We’re reading you, Major. What is it? Over.”

“We’ve got an AT-ST inbound at full speed, east southeast. It isn’t responding to our hails. What’s going on? Over.”

“Major, we have no walkers active in that area. You are cleared to engage on your discretion. Over.”

“Understood, Base. Out.” He switched to his battalion’s channel. “All forces, we have hostiles inbound. Get to the fortifications.”

The crash site went strangely quiet as Imperials dropped the tools they were using to cut sheets of durasteel off the wreck and rushed to the trenches. There was a palpable sense of dread in the air as the AT-ST came into view. The Imperial battalion had only been equipped to fend off small numbers of infantry – the possibility of the ponies getting their hooves on a working armored vehicle had never been considered. The only weapons the battalion had which stood even the slightest chance of disabling an AT-ST were two E-Webs and their grenades. The Imperials never even got a chance to use them. The AT-ST’s chin cannons far outranged the E-Webs, and the walker’s own E-Web cut down any troopers who tried to rush it from the trenches.

The battle barely lasted ten minutes.

Author's Note

Yes! It's not dead! Not yet, at least, though I should've labeled it as on hiatus for a while. It's been a tough semester. Sorry.

Chapter Forty-Nine: Morale

Location: Everfree Imperial Garrison
Local Time: 19:24

Aerin didn’t make a sound as the medic pulled the shards of transparisteel out of him. Gavrisom briefly considered a few explanations as he watched. Perhaps the general’s nerves hadn’t grown back quite right after his flesh had burned off, and he didn’t feel pain like most humans did. Maybe the hate that was clear on his face was acting as some sort of natural painkiller. Or maybe he just didn’t want to show any weakness in front of the object of his gaze. The admiral followed it to the prisoner. Her legs were bound together with six sets of stun cuffs, a new shock collar was wrapped around her neck, two CompForce troopers pointed heavy repeating slugthrower rifles at the back of her head, and the Inquisitor had summoned his four MagnaGuard training droids, which now held their electrostaffs scant millimeters from her spine. She was as secured as she could be in the command center, but Gavrisom suspected he wouldn’t feel comfortable until the Prisoner Retention Protocols – the PRPs, or “Perps,” as the men had taken to calling them – were enacted on her. Preferably, as far away from him as possible. Unlike his Army counterpart, he didn’t feel any desire to torture her for torture’s sake. However, it was abundantly clear that it was impossible to be too careful when it came to restraining her, and he didn’t want to be in the same room as her if all precautions failed. But as of now, that wasn’t an option. Her presence was still needed.

The technicians finished replacing the tactical display just a few minutes before the medic extracted the last shard of transparisteel from Aerin’s back and started wrapping his torso in bandages. Gavrisom never would have said so aloud, but he was relieved to see his friend’s chest disappear under the bacta-soaked cloth. The general’s face was almost inhumanly pale, and his body was even more so, placing his scars and blisters in particularly sharp relief. A gesture summoned a lieutenant with a bowl of soapy water and a towel forwards, and Aerin rubbed his right hand raw before dismissing the lieutenant with another gesture. Gavrisom let out a long-suffering sigh as the young man walked away. A waste of a perfectly good bowl and towel in his opinion, not to mention the water, but Aerin had insisted that they all be incinerated once he was done with them, and it was hardly such a big waste that the admiral was willing to press the issue in front of the men.

Still glaring daggers at the prisoner, Aerin pulled on his replacement uniform, transferred his letter-opener to his new sleeve, and motioned for another lieutenant to take the tattered remnants of his old tunic away – also to the incinerator, of course. Then he walked up to Gavrisom, his mouth twisting into a cruel grin. “I think it’s time to send these creatures a message.”

The admiral sighed, but nodded and turned to his comm officer. “Patch us through.”

Canterlot Castle
7:29 P.M.

Twilight landed on a balcony and immediately turned to one of the two guards standing at attention in front of the large glass doors leading into the castle. “I need to talk to Princess Celestia immediately. Is she back yet?”

“No, Your Majesty.”

Twilight frowned, her eyes narrowing into slits. “The humans have done something to her. I just know it.”

The other guard cleared his throat. “If you’ll excuse me, Your Majesty. Zem’s haulo… hole-o… his talking disc started making noise just a few minutes ago, and it hasn’t stopped. He said it’s probably a message intended for you.”

That certainly didn’t alleviate her concerns. “Where is he?”

“The Throne Room, Your Majesty.”

“Thank you.” She hurried down the halls to the Throne Room, where she found her brother, a few members of his command staff, and Orramas gathered around the dais. Upon noticing her, they all bowed.

“Your Majesty.” Orramas straightened as much as he could, wincing and placing his right hand over his gut. In his other hand, he held out his chirping holocomm. “Seeing as my fellow Imperials believe me dead – or I assume they believe that, as there have been no further assassination attempts – I presume this call is for you. I fear it has something to do with Celestia’s diplomatic mission… and perhaps whatever it was you were doing with that AT-ST?”

“Probably,” she replied, ignoring the implied question, and levitated the device out of his hand. “How do you use these things?”

He smiled faintly. “Let me get out of range first. Don’t want them to see me, after all.” He walked over to a pillar and leaned against it. “Just press the yellow flashing button to answer it. Press the blue button right below it to cut the signal. And make sure you do that even if you stop receiving, or you’ll keep transmitting.”

“Is that it?”

“Hmm… Don’t take a bath with it.”

“Good to see you haven’t lost your sense of humor,” Twilight muttered. She sighed, took a deep breath, and pressed the button. A translucent, blue-tinged image of Gavrisom, standing tall and with his hands clasped behind his back, appeared above the disk. He stared at her with a deep frown for a moment, then looked at someone or something off to the side.

“Cut through this interference,” he snapped. He looked back at her, and after a few seconds, his frown shifted into a somewhat sardonic grin. “Really, Your Highness? Did you really think that shining a light on the sensor would be enough to block out our image of you?”

“What are you talking about? I’m not… Oh.” She looked at the aura surrounding the holocomm, and at the same time, Gavrisom noticed the aura around her horn.

“‘Oh,’ indeed. No matter. I must say, Your Highness, your recent behavior very much confounds me. Your psychological profile indicates that you are a being of not insignificant intellect. But sending a walker to attack my men while Celestia was inside our base? Incredibly foolish. Tell me, did you think that she had already left? Or that we wouldn’t find out before she escaped? Or were you really so overconfident that you thought she would be able to fight her way out?”

Twilight’s eyes narrowed. “What have you done to her?”

“At the moment, she is our prisoner, and largely unharmed. How long she remains that way depends entirely upon you. If you wish to save her from a slow death by torture, you will immediately offer us Equestria’s unconditional surrender.”

“I don’t believe you. There’s no way you could capture Celestia.”

“I thought you would say that.” He stepped to the side, his image disappearing. In his place stepped forward two tall, gray, skeletal creatures with glowing red eyes and what Twilight could only assume to be third eyes on their chests. Each held a staff with both ends emitting a purple light. And in between them they dragged forward their tightly bound prisoner.

“Celestia!” Twilight couldn’t keep herself from calling out.

Celestia looked up at Twilight and gave her a small, sad smile. “Twilight, I –” She cut off with a scream as arcs of electricity coursed over her body. An agonizingly long second later, the electricity faded away, and the skeletal creatures dragged her off again. Gavrisom returned to his original position.

“As you can see, Your Highness, we are both willing and capable of putting your old mentor through a great deal of pain. I know you don’t want that to happen, and I don’t want to give that order. So please, do both our consciences a favor and surrender. I promise that if you do, we will not cause her any more pain.”

Twilight stared at him, silent, for almost a minute. “No,” she finally said, shaking her head. She heard the gasps of shock from the other ponies in the room, but she ignored them. “You won’t keep your word. And even if you did, I can’t just stand by and let you take over Equestria. I’ll fight you to the end, no matter the cost.”

Gavrisom seemed just as surprised by her response as the guardsponies. “I see we will have to update your profile. Your prior actions indicated that you would do anything to save those you consider your friends, even if you condemned countless others to death by doing so. Clearly, that is no longer the case. Very well. I’m afraid, then, that Celestia will find her time in our custody most unpleasant. Should you ever wish to change that, you know where we are. Farewell, Your Highness.” The image disappeared, and Twilight barely remembered to press the blue button. She looked up from the disc to see the guardsponies in the room staring at her with horror.

“Well? Don’t you all have something to be doing?” Except for her brother, the guardsponies saluted and hastily returned to their posts. Shining approached her, a worried look on his face.

“Twily… You aren’t acting like… Well, like you.”

“And it isn’t like Equestria for aliens to invade, kill Luna and millions of other ponies, and capture and torture Princess Celestia! None of this is normal!”

“I know that. But we can’t let them get to us, Twily. We can’t let them make us act like they do.”

Twilight sighed. “I know. If we stoop to their level, then we’ve already lost. But it’s hard not to hate them for… Well, for everything.”

“I feel that way sometimes, too. If you ever need to talk about it…”

“You’ll be here for me. I know. And I appreciate it. Really.” She gave him a small, sad smile. Then her expression turned serious. “But what I need now is for you to get a company of our fastest pegasi together and send them to the crash site. Toy Box can’t hold it by himself.”

Shining’s shoulders fell an almost imperceptible degree, but he saluted. “Right away, Your Majesty.”

“Oh, don’t be like that, Shiny.”

“Sorry, Twily.” He started to leave, then came to a sudden stop. “Oh, right! There’s somepony very important here to meet with Celestia. Since she isn’t here anymore…”

Twilight exhaled heavily through her nose. “Right. Well, send him in. Who is it?”

Shining adopted a small, hopeful smile.

Location: Everfree Imperial Garrison
Local Time: 19:29

“Well, damn.”

Aerin smirked at Gavrisom’s reaction. “I could’ve told you that wasn’t going to go well.”

“Oh, you had another one of your ‘hunches,’ did you?”

“No, I only get those in combat. But aliens always make themselves the greatest nuisance possible.”

“Wait, really? Then how do you always win our sabacc games?”

“Son of a mercenary and a whore? Raised in Coruscant’s undercity? I’ve been playing sabacc against professionals ever since I could count high enough.”

“Oh. Right.”

“Excuse me, sirs,” the comm officer interjected. “The Manka picked up a sudden surge of solar activity approximately two and a half minutes ago. I thought I should let you know that our comm connection with the fleet will be down for a few seconds in about six minutes when the electromagnetic radiation reaches us.”

“Thank you, Lieutenant,” Gavrisom replied, then narrowed his eyes and rubbed his chin.

Aerin glanced at the admiral, his solitary eyebrow raised, and then turned to the two troopers guarding Celestia. “Okay, haul this thing down to the cell block, implement the Perps, strap it into a nerve rack, and get a neural disrupter tuned to its brainwaves. I don’t want to take any chances with it.”

“No.”

Aerin whirled on Gavrisom. “What!? Have you completely lost it!?”

“She is not to be harmed in any way. We treat her as an honored guest.”

“Right,” Aerin sneered. “So we just rely on it to cooperate out of the goodness of its heart?”

“No, we lock her in one of the VIP dorms, and rig a system that will flood the room with trihexalon if the temperature ever rises more than twenty degrees above normal, or at any time we choose.”

Aerin waved a hand dismissively. “Great. But can I at least get a neural disrupter on it?”

“Sorry, but I can’t allow that, either. I don’t want her ability to use the Force to be interfered with in any way.”

“Okay, that seals it. You’ve gone completely mad.”

“I assure you, Dav, I have a perfectly good reason for this.”

“Yeah? Care to share any of that aristocratic wisdom with us common folk?”

“Sorry, Dav. You don’t need to know that right now. Just know that my reasoning is good, and if you defy this order, I’ll have you shot.”

“Oh, please. You can’t really expect me to believe that.”

“That my reasoning is sound, or that I’d have you shot for disobeying me?”

“Either works.”

“I haven’t gone crazy, and the Inquisitor can vouch that she hasn’t placed some spell on me. I know what I’m doing. And…” Gavrisom drew his pistol and levelled it at Aerin’s stomach. “In this case, I’d shoot you myself.”

Aerin stared at the blaster for a moment, his eye narrowed, before gesturing to the guards. “Do as he says.” He shifted his gaze to Gavrisom’s face. “We need to have a little chat. In private.”

“Of course. Your office?”

“Please.”

Gavrisom holstered his pistol, and the two walked to Aerin’s office. Aerin closed the door, then turned around to find Gavrisom pulling a bottle of whiskey out of the cabinet. “I think I’d like an explanation before I let you drink my salary.”

Gavrisom sighed. “You aren’t going to like it. Or probably even believe it.”

“Try me.”

Gavrisom slumped heavily into Aerin’s chair. “After Luna’s death, the Manka detected a large increase in moonquakes. That solar activity it just picked up coincided with Celestia’s electrocution.”

“You think it might knock out our comms as revenge.”

Gavrisom was silent for a moment, frowning. “You know, it would be a lot easier to understand you if you used ‘she’ when talking about Celestia.”

“Not going to happen.”

Gavrisom sighed again. “Figures. But no, that’s not what I think. I think she involuntarily causes it when she’s in intense pain. And I shudder to think what might happen if she were to die.”

“If we can’t kill it, then what’s the point of rigging the room with trihexalon?”

“She doesn’t know we can’t kill her, now does she?”

“Ah. Which is why you couldn’t tell me this in the command center.”

“Precisely.”

“Okay, fine. You’re right, I don’t like it. But you can take that bottle.”

“Thank you.” Gavrisom popped the cork and poured himself a glass, while Aerin pulled out another bottle and broke the neck off on the edge of the desk. “So, how’re the men holding up?”

“Not well. There was some hope when we dragged Celestia in, but I’d wager anything that that’s basically gone now. They don’t like how things are going.”

“They can’t beat our strategy. They hardly have the ability to fight TIEs. Not now that we have both of the older alicorns dead or in custody.”

“Maybe not, but you know just as well as I do that the men don’t care much about strategy. They care about winning battles. And we haven’t exactly been on a winning streak.”

“And what would you suggest, then?”

“Move up the timetable on the Baltimare operation.”

“The diamond dogs won’t like that.”

“The diamond dogs be damned.”

“How’d I know you’d say that?”

Aerin snorted. “Maybe you’re the one with the hunches now.”

“Very funny.” They both drank in silence for a little while, before Gavrisom exhaled heavily. “Hey, Dav?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you ever forget your first time?”

“Never had a ‘first time.’ You’re the one with kids.”

“Not what I meant, Dav.”

“Really. Well, you’re also the one with a degree, why don’t you tell me what you meant?”

“Your first time… killing someone.”

A thin smile crossed Aerin’s face. “Well, I certainly haven’t. I’ve told you that story, haven’t I?”

“On multiple occasions. But when I said ‘you,’ I meant… Well, people in general.”

Aerin thought for a moment. “Not most people, I don’t think. But why are you asking me this now? You’ve been in the service and killing people for as long as I’ve been alive.”

“Longer, actually. But… I’d never actually… you know, killed before. Up close, and personal. It’s always been from my bridge before.”

“Huh? When did you… Oh. This is about that lieutenant, right? That pilot who let the shuttle escape?”

“Jax Stodiz.”

“Yeah, him. Was that really your first execution?”

“You sound so surprised.”

Aerin shrugged. “I’ve had to carry out three of them, and I’ve been serving for a lot less time than you have.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not exactly a model officer by Imperial standards.”

Aerin grinned. “Which is why you’re stuck out here with a nonhuman like me, instead of commanding a battlecruiser somewhere in the Core.”

Gavrisom rolled his eyes. “Oh, not this again. Dav, you’re human.”

Aerin’s grin disappeared. “No, I’m not. The average trooper might not realize it, and I’m sure as hell not gonna admit it to them or these aliens, but you know better. You’ve read COMPNOR’s regs.”

“Yeah. They’re a load of bantha poodoo.”

“Oh, come on.” Aerin jabbed a thumb towards his own face. “Take a look at this eye, and tell me if you think I’m ever gonna be showing up on any recruitment posters.”

“That doesn’t matter. You’re human, and more importantly, you’re my friend.”

“Now you’re sounding like the damn ponies.”

“Just because they’re aliens doesn’t mean they can’t be right about some things.”

“Yeah, well, they’re wrong about that. And so are you.” They drank in silence for several minutes before Aerin spoke again. “Sturm, I hope you never forget your first kill. You know why?”

“Because you’re angry with me?”

“No. It’s because, the people who forget? A lot of them, they aren’t really human, either. They look it, sure, but inside… They’re something completely alien. Most aren’t really bad, just… broken, sort of. But some? Well, they’re like colicoids in human skin. Ravenous, caring about nothing but feeding their own bloodlust.” He went silent for a moment. “This is the part where you say, ‘Just like you, Dav.’”

Gavrisom shook his head. “No, it isn’t. Because you aren’t like that. You care about the men under your command. Even if you show it in the strangest ways. I’ve served with some of those people you’re talking about. They aren’t like you at all.”

Aerin smiled faintly. “Thanks, Sturm.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“Okay, I won’t.” Aerin chuckled, but then shook his head, his expression turning serious again. “But I mean it. Real humanity isn’t DNA or appearance, it’s in the spirit. And that human spirit? That’s what really separates us from the monsters we fight. Whenever you feel guilty about executing that boy, just remember – that guilt is how you know you’re still a good person. When you stop feeling guilty in this line of work, that’s when you don’t deserve to command anymore.”

Gavrisom stared into his glass. “I think I finally get it. All this alcohol… It isn’t for the burns, or even the stress, is it?”

“Of course it is. I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Sure, Dav. Whatever you say.”

The two finished their drinks in silence.

Chapter One: Initial Reconnaissance

Canterlot Castle, Canterlot, Equestria
12/8/3
2:17 A.M.

Princess Celestia awoke screaming. When Princess Luna charged into the royal bedchambers with several guardsponies, she did not find some horrifying monster of shadows and chaos like she expected, but something even worse – her sister shuddering on the bed with a look of utterly helpless terror on her face. Luna walked up to her sister – slowly, in order to not startle her – and put a comforting foreleg around the distraught Princess of the Sun. “Sister…” she whispered. “What is wrong? What has happened?”

Celestia took a moment to compose herself, then looked up into her sister’s eyes. “I have had a most terrible dream. I think we are about to encounter the worst threat Equestria has ever faced… and this time, I’m afraid we won’t be able to protect everypony…”

Galactic Grid Coordinates: G-14
System: E-9015 (TEMPORARY: AWAITING OFFICIAL DESIGNATION)
Date: 28:3:29
Coruscant Standard Time: 14:36

“Admiral on deck!”

The bridge crew of the Vindicator-class heavy cruiser Implacable snapped to attention at the stormtrooper’s announcement, just before the turbolift doors hissed open to reveal a tall man in a grey-green uniform and black boots. He quickly returned the salutes he received, bringing his hand up to the edge of his receding, near-white hair. A fatherly grin crossed his lightly-lined face as he surveyed his men.

“At ease.”

Admiral Sturm Gavrisom strode across the central walkway between the two crew pits with a slight spring in his step as the officers turned back to their work. He may have been almost seventy years old, but he was still in excellent shape and had about a third of his life left – provided he didn’t go down with his ship anytime soon, of course, but that seemed incredibly unlikely. No major Separatist holdouts had been discovered for years, and while there was always the occasional group of malcontents and terrorists to put down, the chances of his squadron encountering any hostiles in the Trilon Sector more powerful than a pirate frigate were vanishingly slim, seeing as it was a backwater even for the Outer Rim. Of course, his expeditionary group wasn’t in the Trilon Sector anymore, but the Empire’s allies, the Chiss Ascendancy, had quite a watchful eye on the Unknown Regions. Any species with hyperspace capabilities would have surely been encountered by now, and any that had not yet reached that level of technological development would be no threat to the might of the Empire.

The reason for his presence on the bridge seemed to fit that theory nicely. The discovery of a new planet was always a cause for cheer, especially one as seemingly hospitable as this one. While he only had a very preliminary report, indications were that it was a temperate world with an atmosphere breathable for humans, a fairly standard gravity, one large moon, and no orbital defenses – ripe for colonisation. As he reached the viewports, his second-in-command, Captain Ulan Cortess, handed him a datapad.

“Sir, the Manka and the Nexu have just entered reconnaissance positions, and should be transmitting detailed scans of the planet momentarily.”

“Excellent, Captain.” Sure enough, information began scrolling across the screen almost immediately. Average planetary radius of a little under six and a half thousand kilometers; average orbital distance of one AU from the system’s single star; orbital speed of thirty kilometers per second; rotational speed of four hundred and sixty-five meters per second; mass of just under six billion exagrams; elemental composition of about thirty-two percent iron, thirty percent oxygen, fifteen percent silicon, thirteen percent magnesium, and no more than five percent any other individual element; average surface temperature of fourteen degrees; atmosphere composed of seventy-eight percent nitrogen, twenty-one percent oxygen, and one percent various other gases, none of which were toxic enough to pose any significant threat to humans in such small quantities; surface gravity of one g; about three quarters of the planet covered in water, most of it salty; a varied geography including forests, mountains, plains, deserts, ice caps, tropical jungles…

Hang on…

Strangely geometric and orderly shapes; large quantities of surface metal, even though any metals exposed to the atmosphere should have oxidised millions, if not billions of years ago; consistent electrical flows…

There was civilisation on this planet! Strange, though. No sign of any radio signals, or of any of the inevitable waste products of industry. Still, the other signs were certain. There was definitely a sapient species with some level of technological ability on that planet. Gavrisom handed the datapad back to Cortess and walked over to the communications officer. “Are we picking up any recognisable signals from the planet?”

“Ah, no, sir,” the young lieutenant replied. “If you think we should, I can run a diagnostic on the instruments.”

“No, I’m sure our comm systems are operating just fine.” Hmm… Telepathy could explain the absence of radio communications, but what about the lack of industry? Gavrisom came to a decision. “Prepare to send an un encrypted audio message across all channels.”

“Yes, sir.” The officer worked at his station for a moment, then turned back to the admiral. “All ready, sir. Just give the word.”

Gavrisom spent a few minutes mentally preparing a short speech, then motioned for the lieutenant to begin the transmission. “Greetings, inhabitants of this unknown world. Please do not be alarmed. I am Admiral Sturm Gavrisom of the Galactic Empire, the government recognized as the rightful rulers of the galaxy by almost all sapient beings. We wish to establish peaceful and mutually beneficial relations with you. If you are receiving this message, please respond in whatever way you can. Again, we do not bear you any ill intent. We simply want peaceful coexistence. Please respond to this message.” He nodded to the lieutenant, who cut the signal.

Cortess walked up to his superior officer's side. “Do you really think they’ll buy it?”

“Not if they have anything even resembling intelligence, no – and that’s even assuming they understand Basic. Still, if they don’t start scrambling every military asset they have, there are only two particularly likely options: either they’re too technologically underdeveloped to have radios, or they’ve got some form of trap already laid out for us. The first is beneficial for us, as it indicates that the natives will either fight poorly or immediately realise their helpless position and just give up. As for the latter… well, that’s what TIEs are for.”

The comm officer looked away from his station and up at Gavrisom. “Sir, we are receiving no response to your message.”

Cortess checked the data still flowing in from the recon ships. “No changes to the readings. It would appear that the inhabitants have failed to receive your communiqué.”

Gavrisom nodded. “Lieutenant, transmit to all hanger crews – launch all fighter elements to scout the planet.”

“Yes, sir.”

Castle of Friendship, Ponyville, Equestria
3:24 A.M.

Princess Twilight Sparkle pulled away from her telescope with a frown on her face. She had been up late doing some research when she noticed twelve new stars appear in the sky a little over an hour ago. They had moved in a strange, unpredictable pattern for a few minutes, then came to a stop. Any change in Luna’s night sky was a major event, but what really bothered Twilight was that she couldn’t find anything about this in any of her books! She was fairly certain Luna would have alerted all of Equestria if this was a planned event – the Princess of the Night did so love having other ponies look at the beautiful designs she made with the stars. But if this was a sign of some important event, why wasn’t there anything about it in her books? The movement of the stars that had heralded the return of Nightmare Moon had been predicted, so what could the lack of prophecies regarding the appearance of new stars mean?

She sighed. She didn’t want to wake Spike in the middle of the night just to make him send a message, but as much as she didn’t like to admit it, she clearly wasn’t going to solve this mystery by herself. She needed the help of the Royal Sisters, and she got the feeling this was too important to wait until morning – aside from the obvious fact that the stars wouldn’t still be there in the morning, of course. Starting to leave the balcony, she froze, her sensitive ears picking up an otherworldly noise: faint, but growing louder. She got back to the railing in time to see two huge, black and gray… things… fly over Ponyville at a speed that would impress the Wonderbolts and emitting a screech that sounded like all of the worst monsters of the Everfree Forest rolled into one. As lights came from houses all across town, the ponies inside startled awake by the infernal noise, Twilight looked over at Canterlot. Against the night sky, she could just make out two dark dots flying above it. With a sinking feeling in her stomach, Twilight realized that she had just discovered what those new stars meant.

Chapter Three: Blastboat Diplomacy

Northeast of Ponyville
5:21 A.M.

Twilight Sparkle forced her way through the crowd that was had gathered in the fields facing Canterlot. The doctors at Ponyville Hospital had assured her that Rainbow Dash would make a full recovery, though it would be a few days before her scorched wing feathers healed and she could fly again. Fortunately, she wouldn’t have to spend those days in the hospital this time. Since getting up to the Cloudominium was clearly out of the question, she would be staying in the Castle of Friendship until then. Unfortunately, Rainbow’s misadventure wasn’t the most pressing issue at the moment.

Over the past ten minutes, large, white vehicles had been coming down from the sky about half a mile away. Upon landing, they’d release either a group of alien bipeds or what Twilight could only assume to be various sorts of other vehicles, and then they’d fly off again, out of sight. The last flying vehicle had disappeared just under a minute ago, and now the thousands of aliens were forming orderly groups and turning to face Canterlot. Music reached the ears of the ponies in the crowd. For some reason she couldn’t quite put her hoof on, the wordless tune filled Twilight with dread.

Dum, Dum, Dum, Dum-te-dum, Dum-te-dum…

Beside her, Spike belched dragonfire that resolved into a scroll. Knowing that it could only be about the new arrivals, Twilight frantically opened and read the letter.

My faithful student Twilight Sparkle,

Princess Luna and I are coming to meet these aliens face-to-face. I request the presence of you and your friends alongside us as the Princess of Friendship and the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony. This will be the greatest test you have ever faced, but I am confident that you will perform admirably.
Princess Celestia

Crystal Empire Outskirts
5:27 A.M.

Princess Mi Amore Cadenza stood in front of the huge ten-wheeled vehicle, with her husband and a platoon of Royal Guards by her side. The thing was massive, over seven times as tall average pony and over twenty-two times as long. Another identical vehicle was behind it, along with many smaller vehicles. Some had two legs like a minotaur, though their metal surfaces and lack of any other identifiable body parts made it clear that they were, indeed, vehicles, not living things. The rest floated above the ground, but they didn’t have wings, and Cadance couldn’t see any magical auras holding them up by telekinesis.

A clanking sound came from the side of the first vehicle. Craning her neck, she saw a hatch open and a group of bipeds about a third of a foot shorter than Celestia come down a ladder. Most of them carried strange metal objects in their hands and were entirely covered in a white, plastic-like substance. Except for their solid black eyes, they had no facial features, or even discernible necks. Based on the last creature to emerge, however, Cadance assumed that their appearance was due to some unusual sort of armor. That one looked remarkably like how Twilight had described humans, though it had differences in body proportions that couldn’t be explained by a slightly inaccurate description and a mental picture twisted by even the wildest imagination. It was dressed in gray and black clothing and had peach-colored skin, small eyes with brown irises, and short black hair. To Shining Armor, the design of its clothing, the hard look in its eyes, the cut of its hair, and its purposeful stride marked it as an obvious military officer.

It came to a halt less than three feet away from them, surveyed the ponies with clear disdain, and spoke in a male voice and perfect Equestrian.

“I don’t suppose any of you pitiful creatures speak Galactic Basic Standard?”

Northeast of Ponyville
5:32 A.M.

Twilight swallowed nervously. Diplomacy with the other species that ponies had been in contact with for years was difficult enough; developing good relations with an entirely new species might be almost impossible. Differences in culture and biology could result in either group doing something that they thought was perfectly normal and respectful, but that the other would consider an act of war. She knew the Royal Sisters would be totally willing to forgive any initial offenses that might be committed, but she couldn’t be sure if the newcomers would be so understanding. Just in case, she had made the other Element-Bearers Pinkie Promise to not interact with the aliens unless absolutely necessary – well, all of them except Fluttershy. She made her promise not to run away.

From a distance, Twilight had thought that the aliens might be humans. However, as the Equestrian leaders and heroes approached them, she realized that that couldn’t be the case. Not just because of their weird proportions or strangely brown-based hair and skin colorations, though those certainly contributed. No, what truly convinced her was the looks on their faces. Most of the ones whose faces she could see had cold, dead eyes and set jaws, no kinder than the unsettling helmets worn by a few hundred of them. But the worst one was their leader. He – or at least, Twilight assumed it was male based on her previous interactions with humans – gave off a sense of pure malice beyond anything she had ever experienced before, even from Tirek or the pre-reformation Discord. Some of the humans had been mean, sure, but she was certain that they could all be made to understand the true magic of friendship with enough time and patience. This alien, however, had a look of sheer hatred that she couldn’t imagine being worn by anything other than a being of pure disharmony. She got the distinct impression that he was only barely holding back an urge to throw himself at the closest pony in a bloodthirsty rage. His horrifying facial expression was not in any way softened by the dark red ripples and blisters that marred his head’s right side, nor the piece of dark metal that concealed his corresponding eye socket.

He approached the Equestrian delegation with two of the white-armored aliens, glared up at Celestia with his one eye, and began to speak. “I am Major General Davar Aerin of the Army of the Galactic Empire. I have already been informed by my subordinate, High Colonel Kell Alder, that you creatures speak a butchered dialect of Galactic Basic Standard, you call yourselves ‘ponies,’ and, based on the description given to him by a certain ‘Princess Cadenza’ to the north, you are Celestia, this planet’s dictator. The man in charge of this expedition, Admiral Sturm Gavrisom of the Imperial Navy, demands to speak with you.”

Luna snarled at the obviously intentional lack of the respect being shown to her sister. She took a threatening step towards the aliens and made her displeasure known with the Traditional Royal Canterlot Voice. “HOW DAREST THOU SPEAK TO OUR SISTER IN SUCH A MANNER! SHE IS THE PRINCESS OF THE SUN, AND THOU SHALT TREAT HER WITH DUE RESPECT! OTHERWISE, WE WILL BE FORCED TO –”

Celestia coughed into her hoof. “That’s quite enough, sister,” she said mildly. Luna muttered an apology and stepped back. Celestia continued, speaking to General Aerin. “I am indeed Princess Celestia. I’m pleased to make your acquaintance, and I would of course be willing to meet with your leader. However, as Princess Luna was trying to say, I am not a dictator, nor do I rule this entire planet. I am a Princess, and would prefer to be addressed as such. The only place I directly govern is this fair land of Equestria. While every living thing on Earth does depend on me, it is not because I rule over them with an iron hoof, but because I am responsible for the movement of the sun.”

That last statement earned her a harsh laugh from the general. “You say you’re not a dictator in one breath, then claim to be a goddess in the next! Spare me your propaganda; it won’t work on beings who are scientifically advanced enough to actually know how the universe works.”

Celestia frowned. This alien was testing the limits of even her great patience. “I’ve made no claim to be a deity, and I most certainly don’t want to be thought of as one. I must admit, I’m confused by your reaction to the fact that I move the sun, but your acceptance or denial of reality is not the main issue here. I believe you said your leader wishes to speak with me? I would appreciate it if you would go get him, or tell me where he is so that I can go to him.”

General Aerin responded with a snort that was half amusement, half disgust. “You know, you sound like you really mean it. I think you’ve actually managed to condition yourself to believe your own lies. You will indeed speak with the admiral, but he is not ‘my leader.’ Technically, ‘Admiral’ and ‘Major General’ are equivalent ranks, though it’s traditional for the highest-ranking naval officer to take command of mixed-branch operations. No, the only one who I would truly call ‘my leader’ is His Imperial Majesty, Emperor Palpatine – and he has far more important issues to deal with than negotiations with some primitive non-humanoids on a beyond-backwater planet in the Unknown Regions. The admiral will speak with you right here, right now. There is no need for either party to go anywhere.”

Twilight could tell that Pinkie Pie was struggling to hold back an outburst of enthusiasm at the word “party,” but what captivated Twilight’s attention was the metal disk the alien pulled out of a pouch on his belt. He pressed a few buttons on it, and a sky blue ray of light shot out from it and passed over the pony diplomats with a hum. Twilight wasn’t sure what it had done, though she didn’t think it had hurt her in any way. Then, the device buzzed, and a foot-tall, blue-tinted image of another one of the aliens appeared, standing on the top of the disk with his back straight, feet slightly spread, and hands clasped behind him. The expression on this one’s face could hardly have been more different than General Aerin’s sneer. He bore a faint smile, and his eyes were slightly widened, giving him a look of amiable curiosity.

“Ah, greetings,” the image said. Twilight realized with excitement that the disk must somehow be instantaneously transmitting sounds and images to and from an unknown location. If she could somehow get her hooves on whatever spell or technology it was using and figure out how it worked, it would revolutionize Equestrian society!

“I am Admiral Sturm Gavrisom,” the image continued. “As the head of this expeditionary force, it is my duty and my pleasure to represent the Galactic Empire. You, I presume, are Princess Celestia, ruler of the ponies?”

Celestia smiled at this far more cordial greeting. “You are mostly correct, though I don’t rule Equestria alone. Princess Luna, Princess Cadance, and Princess Twilight Sparkle help me greatly.”

“A quadrumvirate, then,” Gavrisom replied. “Very well. I presume that the ‘Princess Mi Amore Cadenza’ that Colonel Alder encountered at the city to the north is one and the same as the ‘Princess Cadance’ that you mentioned, and the two beings beside you are the Princesses Luna and Twilight Sparkle?”

Celestia nodded in confirmation. “This,” she said, lifting a hoof to point to her right, “is Princess Luna, Princess of the Night and my loving sister. And this –” she shifted her hoof to point left “– is Princess Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship and my faithful student.”

Twilight noticed that the alien’s pleasant expression had faded, and he was starting to look annoyed. “My, what interesting titles you have,” he said sardonically. “Now that the pleasantries are out of the way, I believe it’s time to get to business. What do you have to offer in return for favorable terms of entrance into the Galactic Empire?”

Celestia’s smile inverted itself. “What makes you think we want to join your ‘Empire’? We don’t even know anything about it. In particular, I find your claims about it being ‘Galactic’ quite hard to believe. Are you truly claiming that your nation rules the entire galaxy?”

The admiral gave a satisfied grin. “Well, not quite. We’re allies of the Chiss Ascendancy, the Corporate Sector and Hutt Space pay us tribute in exchange for their autonomy, and the vast majority of worlds simply don’t have anything on them that makes them worth controlling. However, we rule seventy million of the galaxy’s one billion inhabited star systems, containing the vast majority of the galactic population – over one hundred quadrillion beings.”

The Princesses were stunned. Equestria only held about one hundred and fifty million ponies. The next largest nation on their world was the Griffon Kingdom, with a population of about eighty million. If what Admiral Gavrisom was saying was true, then every single living thing on the planet could die the very next day and have absolutely no significant effect on the galaxy’s total population numbers.

No. It had to be a trick, a lie. Celestia refused to think that everything she and all other ponies had ever known and built could possibly be considered so insignificant. “I don’t believe you,” she stated firmly. “As you just said, the galaxy is huge. Nopony could travel the entire galaxy, even if they lived for millions of years.”

This time, it was General Aerin who replied, not attempting to prevent a tone of smug superiority from entering his voice. “You’re right. No pony could. But we humans have been capable of faster-than-light travel for over twenty-five thousand years.”

That statement shook Twilight more than any other the aliens had made. “No, no, you can’t be humans! Humans don’t look like you, for one, and none of the humans I’ve met ever said anything about ruling the galaxy!”

Gavrisom turned toward her with a look of pity. “Well then, my dear, whatever creatures you encountered that called themselves humans were lying to you. I assure you, every single member of our task force is human, and we are quite representative of our species. Well, aside from an above-average level of fitness and a gender ratio heavily skewed in favor of men. We are military personnel, after all.” He turned back to Celestia. “Now, as to your first question: why would you want to join the Empire? Well, think of everything we have. An industry that can support the sort of military that you see before you. The ability to travel the entire length of the galaxy in a matter of days. Medicines that are most certainly far more effective than anything you can provide for your people. Instantaneous communication with other worlds thousands of lightyears away. All the scientific progress of a society that has been colonising other planets for twenty-seven and a half thousand years, while yours has yet to leave its homeworld. Millions of sapient species and the diverse array of cultures that entails. Do you really want to deny your people this bounty?”

Celestia thought for a moment, then shook her head. “You asked what we have to offer in return for ‘favorable terms of entrance.’ All of those things you described sound wonderful, assuming you are actually capable of providing them, but I can’t help but feel like you’re just looking to exploit us.”

Gavrisom looked hurt by this accusation, though Twilight noticed a glint of amusement in General Aerin’s eye. “Well, of course we’re looking to establish a relationship that benefits us, not just you,” the admiral said. “Resources are limited, and unless you do something to help us, I doubt the Imperial Senate will be willing to redirect any of them from other, more-esteemed worlds to help you.”

Celestia shook her head again, more firmly this time. “No. You sound like you want me to turn over the care of my little ponies to a government that only cares about what it can get from them. And that is something I absolutely will not do.”

Gavrisom sighed, looking truly disappointed. “If that’s your final decision, then that’s the way we’ll play things. Let the record show that I tried to do this the nice way.” His expression hardened. “I hereby declare this world a protectorate of the Galactic Empire. And the real reason you will accept this is because we have a fleet in orbit that is both willing and able to incinerate every living thing on your planet if I should decide to give that order.”

Every pony in earshot recoiled in horror. None of the various villains and fiends that tried to take over Equestria every few months had ever expressed such a willingness to engage in wholesale murder. Sombra had wanted to enslave them; Chrysalis had wanted to feed on their love; Discord had wanted to torment them for his own amusement; Tirek had wanted to take their magic; Starlight Glimmer had wanted to twist their minds. While the endless night that Nightmare Moon had wanted to bring about would have eventually caused mass deaths due to cold and starvation, that hadn’t been her intent. To hear such a total lack of any concern about killing was something nopony was prepared for. Then came a sound that chilled even the bravest ponies to the bone.

General Aerin threw back his head and laughed. This wasn’t the infectious cheer Pinkie Pie loved to spread everywhere she went, or even the self-righteous disdain that had prompted the general’s previous outburst. This was the laugh of one who saw that his actions caused others fear and pain, and, instead of feeling sorrow, reveled in it.

Luna recovered first. Her response was pure rage. “IF THOU WANTED A FIGHT, CREATURES, THOU HAST GOT MORE THAN THOU BARGAINED FOR! MY SISTER AND I HAVE VANQUISHED MANY A MONSTER AND OVERTHROWN MANY A WOULD-BE TYRANT! THOU SHALT BE NO DIFFERENT!”

This time, Celestia did not try to restrain her sister. Instead, she and the Element-Bearers rallied around the warlike Princess of the Night, their expressions hardening in anticipation of a climactic showdown.

The Imperials seemed absolutely unafraid. General Aerin looked down at the image of Admiral Gavrisom with an amused grin. “They don’t seem to understand how utterly hopeless their position is. May I suggest a demonstration of our capabilities?”

Gavrisom sighed again. “Very well. But I will not indulge your taste for alien blood unless they leave me with no other choice. All craft, move into optimal firing positions for a thirty second spread with a twenty click radius around coordinates plus-thirty-seven-point-five-six, minus-one-oh-seven-point-six-seven and transfer all non-essential power to weapons.” There was silence for a few seconds, then: “All craft – fire.”

The ponies stared in shock as hundreds of green and red bolts of light poured from the sky into the Everfree Forest, setting it ablaze. Twilight was relieved to see that Zecora was in the watching crowd; by the end of the thirty seconds, the forest was a firestorm that nothing could have survived. The crowd was silent as it gazed upon the devastation that the aliens had called down from the sky with seemingly no effort at all. To everypony’s surprise, it was Fluttershy who spoke up first.

“You… you MONSTERS!” she shrieked, looking the two Imperial commanders in the eyes. “How could you so senselessly take the lives of all those poor, innocent animals?! You didn’t even think about them, did you?! ‘Oh, they’re just animals. Why should I care about them?’ Well, let me tell you something, misters: animals are people too! They have feelings, and they care about others, unlike you! Now, you’re going to give me the biggest apology in history, and you’d better make it good!”

Admiral Gavrisom, on the other side of the rather grainy holotransmission, felt some pity for this obviously distraught alien, but he had no real desire to do what she wanted. General Aerin, on the other hand, received the full force of the Stare. At first, he was just amused. Does this alien really think that I’m going to be scared by it? Does it really think it can win a battle of wills with me? Then, however, a worm of doubt wriggled its way into his mind, shortly erupting into full-blown terror. This short, big-eyed, pastel-coloured, furry quadruped was suddenly the most intimidating thing he had seen in his entire life. He felt compelled to give in to her demand, to fall on his knees and beg for her forgiveness, to do anything she wanted just so she’d stop looking at him like that! But then his military instincts kicked in. He never would have made it very far up the chain of command if he panicked and gave in every time he was scared, or defeat seemed inevitable. He may not have been able to make himself take any direct action against her in his current state, but he didn’t need to. That was what his bodyguards were for.

“Blast her, blast her!” he screamed, unable to pull his eyes away from hers. The stormtroopers couldn’t see any threat the creature posed to their commander, but they were trained to always follow orders, even if they didn’t seem to make any sense. By the time the general had finished shouting, two bolts of high-powered, super-heated plasma had slammed into the pony’s chest, sending her flying over a meter and leaving two charred circles at their points of impact. This finally shook the other ponies out of their stupor. The other Element-Bearers immediately rushed over to help their friend, the ponies in the crowd screamed and either ran or fainted, and the Royal Sisters approached the Imperials in a fury, ready to tear apart those who could be so cruel as to hurt the kindest pony in Equestria.

General Aerin, recovering his wits, noticed that the pony he had just ordered shot was whimpering and shuddering on the ground in excruciating pain. “Very… impressive,” he had to admit. “That would have killed a full-grown Wookiee. Still, I believe this serves as an adequate indication of what happens to those who resist the might of the –”

“How dare you!” a voice hissed out of nowhere. “How dare you hurt sweet little Fluttershy!” The Imperials recoiled as Discord appeared with a flash of light. He snapped his talons, turning all of the Imperials’ blaster rifles into roses. The Army troopers started visibly panicking.

Admiral Gavrisom quickly reassessed the situation as the Royal Sisters stepped beside Discord, their eyes and horns glowing with power. He immediately understood how the ponies had managed to create a modestly advanced civilisation without any Industrial-Era technology. He had served alongside Jedi many times during the Clone Wars, had even once met Grand Master Yoda, and of course knew the stories of Darth Vader’s power. But the level of strength in the Force that was on display here was far beyond anything he had ever seen or even heard of before. There was really only one rational response. “General Aerin,” he said, “it appears that we have made a gross miscalculation. We will not be claiming this planet for the Empire. Recall your men.”

“WHAT!?” the belligerent general practically exploded with rage. “I absolutely will not retreat! I don’t care what it takes, these aliens must be shown that nobody gets away with disrespecting –”

“That is an order, General,” Gavrisom cut him off. “I am invoking command code Base Delta Zero. Get back up here. Now.”

General Aerin looked shocked for a moment. “Yes, Admiral,” he replied before shutting the holocom off. Then he gave the non-humans his most sadistic grin. “You are going to regret defying the Empire,” he told them, then turned around and began organising his men for the shuttle ride back into orbit.

Ponyville Hospital
5:57 A.M.

Princess Celestia sighed in exhaustion. It wasn’t even time for her to raise the sun quite yet, but it had already been one of the most difficult days she could remember. Fluttershy was going to survive, it seemed, but it was going to be a long time until she could leave the hospital. It was hard for the Princess to believe how much damage the aliens had caused in their short time in Equestria. She had wanted so badly to wipe them out for all the suffering they had brought, but she couldn’t attack them in good conscience when they were leaving peacefully and of their own free will. Still, at least nopony had died, so things had turned out better than she had feared.

Or at least, that was what she thought until she looked out a window and saw the lights in the sky again, this time coming directly toward Ponyville.

Author's Note

Yes, I'm calling the pony planet "Earth," based on the line from Hearth's Warming Eve about the Earth being round. Granted, it was Pinkie Pie saying that, so the reliability of that statement is somewhat in doubt. If I get enough complaints about it, I can change it to Equus or something like that.

Chapter Twenty: One to Embody the Power

Location: Everfree Imperial Garrison
Local date: 12/21/3
Galactic Standard Date: 28:4:5
Local time: 00:34
Coruscant Standard Time: 12:33

Malen watched Twilight grimace and gasp as she fought an internal battle for her own spirit – one she was doomed to lose. Once someone was touched by the Dark Side, there was nothing they could do to stop it from twisting their heart. Revan, Malak, Tyranus, Vader. Some of the most powerful Sith in history had turned to the Dark Side with the best of intentions. And over time, they had forgotten those intentions. Once noble defenders of the galaxy, they came to be regarded by most beings as monsters. Only Revan had been “redeemed,” and that was just because the Jedi Council of the time had been remarkably hypocritical, apparently seeing no moral problems with brainwashing so long as it was done “for the greater good.” At least the Sith held no such pretensions. To them, an act was justified simply by someone wanting and being able to do it.

She looked up at him, hatred in her eyes. It was quite amusing. She thought she was defying him, but in truth, her fury was just allowing the Dark Side greater control. It thrived off of base emotions and thoughts of violence, turning many of its practitioners into shrieking murderers. Those Sith who succeeded in their goals were the ones who were able to keep their emotions in check and break the Dark Side’s will, making it serve them instead of the other way around. It was a lesson Malen had taken to heart, and one he had absolutely no intention of teaching to his new apprentice. She had a strong will already, and she wouldn’t be driven into gibbering insanity for many years. In the meantime, it would be wise to do everything possible to prevent her from becoming a quiet schemer. He needed a weapon, something he could control and unleash against the ponies at the time of his choosing, not a true apprentice who would be constantly planning his downfall.

“You don’t know… the power of… the Magic… of Friendship.” She rasped out, taking him by surprise. She was putting up a stronger resistance than he expected. Many Jedi, when exposed to a Sith holocron, would fall immediately. After an hour or two of searching the secrets of the Dark Side, even most Masters would give in. She had only barely breached the surface, of course, but her resiliency was nonetheless remarkable.

“Ah, yes, your ‘Elements of Harmony,’” he drawled, as nonchalantly as he could. “Six artifacts of the Light Side, capable of banishing any darkness. Except, if our informant’s account of Discord’s return is correct, for darkness in the hearts of their users. They require their bearers to be of the proper alignment. And you aren’t that alignment anymore. The Dark Side is part of you now, no matter how much you try to resist it.”

“Maybe not… the Elements… but… Cadance…”

“The Crystal Heart only protects the Crystal Empire. And it requires the inhabitants of the city to be filled with positive emotions. How many of those will there be, do you think, if I kill your dear brother and sister-in-law and hang their heads from the castle’s spire?” He got precisely the reaction he wanted.

“No! I’ll kill you first!” Twilight lunged for him, bloody murder written on her face. A wave of his hand sent her smashing into the wall. With a few small gestures, he threw her around the room like a ragdoll until he heard something crack. He heard a muffled shriek emerge from her mouth as she fell to the ground and hugged her left foreleg to her chest. Her horn started glowing, no doubt preparing a Force blast, but he was already sending lightning towards her. This time, she screamed openly, writhing in agony. He doubted the muscular contractions were doing any good for her broken leg, either. When she started to smoke, he cut off the barrage. It wouldn’t suit his purposes to kill her, not yet.

Kneeling down in front of her, he lifted her chin to look into her eyes. In them, he saw pain, hatred, and a trace of fear. Perfect.

“What are you waiting for?” she hissed. “Just trying to prolong my suffering? Get it over with already, you sick bucker.”

These ponies used some truly bizarre euphemisms. “I know you don’t actually want that. Equestria needs you right now. If I kill you, our two nations will plunge into war. And you’ve already seen how far we’re willing to go in the pursuit of victory. If we think we’re going to lose, we’d rather reduce your world to a molten wasteland than give up and leave you alone. Without the Elements of Harmony, I highly doubt you could stop us. But you’re perfectly placed to stop that. You can push your fellow Princesses into allowing us greater freedom, convince your subjects that accepting our rule is in their best interests. I’m going to have our medics fix you right up, and when we let you go, you’re going to help us.

“Now, you’re probably thinking, ‘Alright, I’ll agree to his demands, and when he lets me go, I’ll tell my friends all about this.’ Remember that I was able to watch your activities without your notice before, and I will continue to do so. Tell anyone about this, or defy any of my commands, and I’ll make sure that those you care about suffer before they die. Do I make myself clear?”

She glared at him, her hatred made clear in every centimeter of her expression. Nonetheless, she nodded. She really didn’t have any choice.

“I want to hear you say it.”

“I… understand.”

“I am your Master now, and when we are alone together, you shall address me as such.”

“Yes… Master.”

She despised him like nothing else in the galaxy, and that was good. Every moment of her life from now on would be filled with a desire to see him dead, keeping her in the Dark Side forever.

One threat neutralized. Two to go. But first…

“Once the medics have fixed you up, there should still be a few hours before you have to get back to Ponyville. That should give us more than sufficient time for your first lesson. A lesson in domination and submission.”

The Castle of Friendship
7:58 A.M.

Twilight blinked back tears of hatred and pain. The humans’ medicine was truly remarkable, and the bacta injections had caused the agony in her leg to subside to stiffness and a dull ache. After three hours, they had let her walk out of the medical bay under her own power, simply warning her not to put it under any strain beyond walking for a few days. No, the pain wasn’t physical, but emotional and spiritual. What Malen had subjected her to was… demeaning, to say the least. That he had looked totally at ease right after was even worse. She had been tempted to kill him right then and there, but she doubted that he was foolish enough to actually let his guard down so soon after she attacked him the first time. She would have to wait for him to believe her totally under his control before she struck. In the meantime, she would comply with his demands to the smallest extent possible, while dropping as many hints as she could to her friends that she wasn’t acting under her own free will.

A knock came at her door, and she scowled. She had no idea why. Her friends had been coming over at eight every morning since they had visited the Imperial base together, hoping to distract her from everything she had witnessed there. She had appreciated their efforts, however futile they may have proven to be, and their companionship always helped brighten her day. Now, though, her immediate reaction was annoyance that they were interrupting her planning. She forced the emotion down and opened the door, putting on as cheery a face as she could. “Hi, girls!”

They responded in their separate ways. “Howdy, Twi.” “Hi, hi, hi!” “Hey, Twilight!” “Hi.” “Good morning, darling.” Entering last, Rarity stopped to examine Twilight more closely. “Oh, Twilight, you look even more tired than usual! Is the voice getting worse?”

“It was… pretty bad for a while. But I think it’s gone now.” At least she could give them part of the truth. Until she could figure out how Malen was watching her, she’d have to be careful with what she said.

Her friends heaved a collective sigh of relief. “So how’d you do it?” Rainbow wanted to know. “Did you find some ancient, forgotten spell, or duke it out with a horrifying monster in an epic battle of the wills while you slept?”

She had no idea how close she was to the truth with her second guess. “I… can’t really say.” Not exactly a lie. “It stopped about midnight. That’s all I can tell you.” It hurt taking advantage of her friends’ trust in her like that, but Twilight couldn’t risk Malen finding out if she told them.

As she expected, they took her reticence to mean that she actually didn’t know, not that she was hiding anything. Applejack tapped a hoof to her chin. “Hmm… It’s the winter solstice, so Princess Luna’s at her strongest today. Maybe she managed to do something?”

“Maybe.” Or maybe not.

“Ooh! Ooh! Maybe it’s an early Hearth’s Warming present!”

“Umm… sure, Pinkie.”

“I’m insulted! You’re talking about evil voices in somepony’s head, and you never asked my opinion?” With a flash of light, Discord appeared, wearing a lab coat and stethoscope. “Sorry I haven’t been around for a few days. I was having some truly fascinating philosophical debates with an old friend of mine. Now, let’s have a look at you!” Contorting his body, he looked into her mouth, into her eyes, and underneath her. Modulating his voice into a low, refined tone, he let out an “Ohhhh myyyy.” He returned to his “normal” proportions and sighed. “You know, not a long time ago, I would’ve found this the absolute pinnacle of hilarity.” He sighed again. “Well, I’m confident you’ll be able to get through this yourselves. Magic of Friendship, and all that. Don’t worry, I’ll step in if I think you really need my help. For now, though…” A tub of popcorn appeared in his claws. “I’ll enjoy watching from the sidelines. I’m rooting for you, Twilight. Don’t let me down!” With that, he disappeared again.

“Thanks a lot, Discord,” Twilight muttered.

“Um, Twilight?” Fluttershy had a very confused look on her face, as did the other Element-Bearers. “What was that all about?”

Twilight shook her head. “Nothing you girls have to worry about right now. Come on, let’s talk about something happy. We haven’t done much of that since the humans showed up.”

Chapter Thirty-Four: The Battle of Cloudsdale

Location: Everfree Imperial Garrison
Local Time: 21:26

The alien leaders faded from around the holotable, replaced by an image of the Cloudsdale region. The city itself was represented with simplified geometric shapes. Surrounding it were the four Carracks of Captain Rann’s skirmish line, lit up in green. Approaching from the east were thousands of red dots. Gavrisom activated the comm. “Are you reading me, Captain?”

“Aye, sir. The enemy force is being led by three of the alicorns. Should I pull out?”

“No. I didn’t want this situation, but if we back out now, we’ll look weak. You’re cleared to engage.”

“Understood, sir.”

Rann turned to his comm officer. “Transmit to all ships: fire at will.” The officer nodded and relayed the orders. A moment later, waves of laserfire poured out towards the ponies. His ship was the closest to the incoming horde, and his gunners were racking up an impressive body count. Forty dead, sixty dead, a hundred, two hundred. All within five seconds of the ponies entering firing range. There were so many crowding the sky, every shot was practically guaranteed to hit at least one of them.

Three hundred, four hundred, five hundred. And then the creatures were upon him. In the light of laserfire, he could see the surprise on their faces as they slammed into the Ardent’s particle shield, but they quickly recovered and began a pattern of flying back from the shield and throwing themselves into it again. Glancing at a technical readout, he saw the particle shield was at ninety-nine percent. He gave another order to his comm officer. “Call over the Valourous to clear these scum off our shields. They’re too close for our own gunners.”

The Valourous’s lasers would weaken his ray shield, but that didn’t concern him overmuch. There were all of three ponies in the enemy force that could even affect that shield. Granted, in the few seconds the alicorns had been firing at his ship, they had dropped the ray shield to ninety-four percent, but that was no more impact than he would expect from a heavy turbolaser volley. Even if they did penetrate the shield, a Carrack’s hull was sufficiently reinforced that it would take them a while to break in. During which time they would be subjected to the firepower of his entire line.

He checked the tactical display again. Less than eight thousand red dots remained, out of the over ten thousand at the start of the battle. His cruisers were cutting them to ribbons. By the time the alicorns dropped his shields, they would be nearly on their own. The Valouous arrived and unleashed a broadside against his shields, clearing away a good hundred or so ponies in moments. The rate at which the creatures were dying was falling, simply due to the fact that enough had been killed that they now had room to maneuver. Still, when he checked the display yet again a mere ten seconds later, the ponies’ numbers had dropped to barely more than seven thousand. This “battle” would be over in three minutes, at the most.

Then he heard a thunderous boom, and the night sky outside lit up in rainbow colors. “What the hell was –” Another, far louder boom cut him off, and he was thrown to the deck as the entire cruiser shuddered violently. He scrambled to his feet, a klaxon blaring in his ears.

“Sir!” an officer called. “Particle shields are down!”

“Close the blast shields!” Thick durasteel shudders slammed shut over the viewport just before several ponies would have smashed through.

A voice came over the intercom, along with the sound of blasterfire. “Hull breach on deck twelve! We have boarders! Repeat, we have boarders on deck twelve! All security forces, please respo–” The comm abruptly turned to static.

Rainbow Dash groaned and shook her head, dazed. Whatever these things were made of, it was tough. She had expected to split it in half, not make a seven-foot entrance. The sound of boots pounding on the cold metal floor forced her to hasten her recovery. She had just pushed herself to her hooves when eighteen – or was it just nine? – humans in an all-black version of the Imperial Army trooper uniform rushed around a corner. Noticing her, they skidded to a halt and lifted their blaster rifles. She took off in the other direction as bolts flew around her. She was no coward, but she also wasn’t quite brash enough to charge better-armed enemies in an enclosed space, especially since she still wasn’t quite certain how many of them there were.

The bolts and the thumping of boots followed her, and over the noise, she could hear one of them shouting. “Hull breach on deck twelve! We have boarders! Repeat, we have boarders on deck twelve! All security forces, please respo–”

The sounds of pursuit suddenly stopped, and she turned around. “Twilight!” Smoke was rising from both the tip of her friend’s horn and the backs of the humans spread out on the floor. Twilight stared vacantly at the bodies.

“I… I killed them. I just… They were trying to kill you, and I… I just reacted.”

“Get ahold of yourself! Like you said, they were trying to kill me, first! You didn’t have any time to think about it.”

“No, you don’t understand! I… I could’ve just grabbed them, immobilized them. Or pulled the weapons out of their hands. Or, hay, even just used less power! All of those would’ve been just as quick, just as easy, or more so. But my first instinct… was to kill them. It felt natural, it felt right. What’s wrong with me?!”

Rainbow Dash rested a hoof on Twilight’s leg. “Hey, it’ll be alright. You’ll be okay. Look, we can talk about that later. Right now, there are a few thousand ponies who need our help.”

Twilight gave herself a shake. “Ri– right. Celestia and Luna are in here, too. Let’s try to meet back up with them.”

Rann watched the feed from a security holocam as a blast door was thrown inwards, messily killing most of the squad waiting on the other side. The survivors only got a few shots off before they were wrapped in blue auras and slammed into the bulkheads. He grimaced and turned away from the screen as the dark alicorn walked through the doorway. With that, over three quarters of his ship’s security team was down. There was only one company of Navy troopers aboard – the rest of the crew was gunners, mechanics, engineers, and officers. Those gallant boys had certainly exacted a heavy price in blood from the boarders for every deck lost, killing or incapacitating at least two of the armored ponies for every man. But wherever the alicorns, the blue-uniformed ones, or the one with the rainbow hair showed up, the battle turned in favor of the aliens. The platoon defending the engineering bay, aided by pistol-armed crewmen, had repulsed seventeen attacks, taking down over two hundred armors and even three uniforms before the rainbow showed up with an entire squad of uniforms. That had been the last hope of driving off the boarders. It was clear to him that the ship was lost.

He returned to the comm and pressed the button to transmit to the dirtside base. “Admiral, the Ardent has been boarded and our security personnel are being overwhelmed. I’m requesting permission to destroy the ship.” There was silence for a few long seconds.

“Permission granted. See you on the other side, Captain.”

“Likewise, sir.” He switched to the intercom. “All hands, to the escape pods. All hands, to the escape pods.” Then to his line’s assigned comm channel. “This is Captain Rann. The Ardent is lost. I’m transferring the flag to the Valourous. You are now under the command of Captain Bel. It has been an honor, gentlemen.” Finally, he faced his bridge crew.

“My good friends. You all know what I must do, and you know that I have never shirked my duty before. I do not intend to start now. My task does not extend to you. You are all free to leave without dishonor, to escape this vessel, to return home and see the faces of your loved ones again. I cannot order you to stay. But you also know that a Carrack requires at least two crewmen to control it. So I now ask for a volunteer, to help me ensure that the Ardent completes her final journey. Of course, you will not survive this voyage. If you stay, you will never again feel the warm embrace of a woman, or hear the burbling of a newborn baby, or watch the fiery colors of a setting sun. You will sacrifice your life, and break the hearts of all who care about you. But you will also be denying an enemy a valuable prize and ensuring that this old girl ends her life in honorable service of the Empire. Stay, and you die as a hero. Who will volunteer?”

He smiled when every single officer stepped forward. Still, some of them had moved a fraction of a second later than the others, and he immediately dismissed them as candidates. Out of the rest, he looked for someone who wouldn’t be mourned by a large or dependent family. “Lieutenant Higgs,” he said, choosing an officer with only one son, a recent graduate from the Imperial Engineers Academy who would be able to support his mother. “You’ll stay with me. The rest of you, go. Get to the escape pods.” They all threw him sharp salutes, then rushed out of the bridge. After all but Higgs had left, he walked up to the hatch, shut the blast door, and shot the control panel. He and Higgs then strapped themselves into chairs.

“So, what are we doing, sir?”

“First, we get as many men off this ship as possible. Then, we smash her into the ground. Pull up the holocams leading to the bridge, and let me know if any ponies start making their way here.” He pulled on the security officer’s headset. “I’ll try to keep our boys away from ’em… First escape pods away.”

Twilight leapt backwards as a door clanged shut between her and a platoon of guardsponies. With a snarl, she ripped it out of its frame. This was getting infuriating. That was the seventh time a door had closed for no apparent reason. Somehow, the humans were watching her and doing everything they could to slow her down. Obviously another application of their technology. If it wasn’t such an annoyance, she would be fascinated by it. Maybe, after this war was over, she would have a chance to study it and apply it to uses other than war. Suddenly, that voice came back.

“The last escape pods are away. So long, you alien filth. I hope this takes a few of you with us.”

It had said something about “escape pods” before… and hands? Why did they need to put their hands on these “escape pods”? She had been confused but happy when the voice had first came out of nowhere. Immediately after it had spoken, the humans stopped fighting and ran away – though the blaring noise and flashing red lights that followed were decidedly irritating. Then a revelation came to her. Other words she had overheard the humans saying clicked together. “Hull”… “Deck”… “Boarders”… All terms used by Equestria’s navy.

In recent years, some enterprising unicorns had proposed that airships could be used to allow non-pegasus ponies to fight in the sky, as a sort of flying navy. These ideas had been staunchly opposed by the pegasi officers, and Celestia’s distaste for militarization meant that the idea had never gone anywhere. But if the humans had fully adopted the idea – which they clearly had – then they might be using “hands” in the same way the navy used “hoofs.” And if that was the case, then “All hands to the escape pods” sounded worryingly similar to “All hooves to the lifeboats.” But that was only said when ships were –

The floor beneath her tilted sickening, and she had to take flight to avoid sliding down the heavily polished metal. “Everypony!” she called to the guards. “We have to get out of here!” Panicking, they flew back the way they came. By the time they reached the opening, the Royal Sisters and Rainbow Dash were waiting for her. “Is everypony else out?”

“We don’t know,” Celestia replied as the guardsponies fled, “but we can’t go looking. We have to go, now.”

“But what if there are other ponies trapped in here?!”

“You will not do them any good by staying,” Luna told her gently. “If there are not other ponies still here, you will have stayed for nothing. If there are, it is already too late for you to help them. Look outside.”

She did, and saw the ground rushing up to meet them. She knew they were descending quickly – it was an effort to fly downwards fast enough to keep up with the opening – but she hadn’t realized just how far the vessel had already fallen. “Oh. I…” She sighed. They were right. There was nothing she could do in the time left before impact. “Okay. Let’s get out of here.” They flew out into a sky almost empty of ponies. Many of the surviving pegasi were gathering a short distance from the crashing human ship, but Twilight yelled at them to fly further away. She had done projections for the results of a meteor hitting Equestria, and while this would be a relatively small impact, that just meant that the area of total destruction would be less than two miles. She wanted to be much further away than that.

She had barely passed that threshold when the craft plowed into the ground. She and the Royal Sisters managed to wrap themselves and a few nearby pegasi in a shield before the wave of dust and debris overtook them. The cloud obscured the ponies who weren’t inside the shield, for which she was glad. She knew they would be lucky to only have most of their bones broken. The bubble of protection rode the wave until it petered out three miles away. As the dust settled and debris rained out of the sky, the air cleared to reveal a scene of desolation.

A deep crater marred the rolling hills, which were now covered in a thick layer of dirt and stone. Remarkably, in a testament to over-engineering, the rearmost portion of the craft was still intact enough to be recognizable. The same couldn’t be said of Cloudsdale. Its inhabitants still had some of the temperament of their warrior ancestors, and many had joined in the battle. For this, the Imperials had delivered harsh retribution. Though there were few truly solid buildings in the city, the turbolasers still wrought almost total destruction, their intense heat vaporizing most of the cloud structures. Most catastrophically, the weather factory was annihilated. Twilight had no way of knowing it yet, but almost a third of the city’s population – twenty-six thousand pegasi – had been massacred in the five minutes it took to overwhelm the Ardent’s defenders, and over nine thousand guardsponies had died in the battle. The Wonderbolts had suffered the least, but they had still taken the heaviest casualties of any single day in their history, losing six cadets.

No longer blockading anything of worth, the remaining three human craft turned skyward, slowly disappearing from view. As Twilight took in the horrifying sight, Rainbow Dash flew up to her, a strained expression on her face. “Hey, Twilight?” she said, the pain evident in her voice. “I know I said we’d talk, but…” She glanced at where the Wonderbolts were gathering. “I think I need to go… calm down.”

Twilight looked over the thousand surviving guardsponies, and she was relieved to see a familiar face sticking out among the crowd. “Yeah… Yeah, I understand. I think I’ll be doing the same.”

Author's Note

"I'm not dead!"
"What?"
"Nothing. Here's your nine pence."
"I'm not dead!"
"Here! He says he's not dead!"
"Yes he is."
"I'm not!"

Yeah, I don't have an excuse for the upload gap this time.