Celestial Battles: Episode IVby Star NoteChaptersPrologueChapter I: The BadlandsOpeningPrologueIn the vastness of space, a lonely yellow dot sat, suspended around a pair of stars. The barren desert planet, lacking a proper name, known only as the Badlands, was home to no more than a few thousand ponies—though millions of other deadly life forms roamed its uninhabited areas. Drifting past, hundreds of thousands of miles above the planet’s surface, powered by massive, mana-burning hyperdrives, a starship, small only in comparison to the massive Conqueror-class vessel trailing it, bolts of shimmering blue light firing from its many mana cannons. An explosion rocked the small ship as one of the bolts hits home, only the latest of a series of direct hits. The ship was going down. “Oh, we are dead for sure! This is madness…” a prim and proper synthetic voice spoke, the platinum-bodied quadrupedal droid trotting briskly down a gleaming, pristine white hallway. RAR-80, a protocol droid serving under her majesty Princess Cadence of Crystalla, was trying to carry on her job, having been in the middle of a message delivery when the Kingdom’s forces arrived at their flanks. A series of beeps followed the shimmering droid as another trundled along behind her, this one distinctly non-equinoid. A small, tripedal dustbin of a droid, designation SP1-K, followed close behind, having engaged his emergency orders thanks to the attack: Find Princess Cadence, retrieve the stolen plans, and get to an escape pod, touching down safely on the nearby planet. Outside, in the dead silence of space, the Conqueror encroached on the smaller ship, a hatch opening up in its underside. A blue shimmer surrounded the vessel, and it was slowly pulled inside the confines of the Kingdom starship. Rebel warriors, shoulder-mounted blasters charged and ready to fire, stood ready for combat in another hallway. Waiting with bated breath, their hearts pounding in their ears, they eyed the doorway. A doorway which crashed open, shimmering blue bolts of mana firing off from the cloud of smoke which drifted inside, concealing the Kingdom soldiers charging into the small ship. Within seconds, every last soldier was dead, charred marks on their armour, shimmering with residual mana. As the smoke cloud dissipated, the Kingdom’s troops trod out. Every inch of their bodies was concealed in pristine white armour, a sinister, frowning mug of a helmet adorning their heads. And at the center of it all, she trotted in. The Walking Nightmare herself. Luna. A tall, slender alicorn, clad in black armour all over her body, a flowing cape falling along her back, her sharp, magnificent horn poking a hole through the hood covering her head, her wings sheathed at her sides. “Where are the plans.” Her voice was booming, echoing off the walls of the ship. Her question remained unanswered. Trotting closer to the only remaining soldier, a pale-looking pony who had retreated around a corner, hiding back and shaking in his armour, she repeated the question. “Where are the plans?” Her question was answered not by the Rebel pony, but by one of her own soldiers. “They’re not in the ship’s main computer.” The alicorn gave a frustrated scowl, deciding to force an answer out of the terrified pony. A shimmering field of magic enveloped the soldier’s throat, and she lifted him off the floor. His eyes went wide, his forehooves clawing at his throat, the pony gasping for air. “You received a transmission containing confidential plans,” she said, a terrifying calmness in her voice, a glare coming from under her hood, visible only to the pony she was asking. “What did you do with them?” “W-we did nothing of the sort,” he forces out, struggling for breath. “Th-this is a d-diplomatic mission!” “If this is a diplomatic mission,” Luna asks, “where is the Ambassador?” “Sh-she’s…” was all he managed to get out, before the lack of air got to his brain. His eyes roll back, the pony giving a final wheeze before losing consciousness. Throwing his limp body aside, the dark Queen called out to her troops. “Search the ship. Find me those plans,” she ordered. “And bring me the princess. Alive, if you please.” With shouts of “Yes, ma’am,” the soldiers trotted off, splitting up to search the small vessel for the stolen data they needed so desperately. The Queen, meanwhile, stood back, trusting her soldiers to do their jobs. “We are doomed, SP. Doomed!” RAR-80 said worriedly, having given up on following her orders, now desperately trying to find an escape pod and leave the ship. SP1-K, however, was not following her. Hiding away in a small storage space along with a pink-coated mare, the droid beeped curiously at his captor. “Oh, be quiet, you mobile trash can,” she hissed, inserting a small, transparent card into a slot on the droid’s side. “Just get this message and the plans away safely!” Pushing him out of the cupboard, the droid trundled along behind RAR-80, who had successfully located an escape pod. Pressing a button on the side of the door, it opened, and she trotted into the small vessel, a spherical ship barely big enough for one pony, never mind two. “Come along, get inside,” she said. “We're getting out of this place.” With a beep, SP1-K followed her inside. The escape pod detached. “Got an escape pod trying to leave, sir. Requesting orders.” A response hissed through the communication link. “Shoot it down. We can never be too careful.” A bolt of blue mana fired out, and the escape pod spiralled out of control, caught in the nearby planet's gravity. Back on the ship, the pink-coated mare trotted calmly out, towards the soldiers. The only option was to get captured, and take that option she shall. “Take me to your leader.” A blaster bolt fired out, and the mare fell to the floor. The princess, taken. The plans, destroyed. The Rebellion, extinguished. And yet, the brave little droid aboard the escape pod survived… Chapter I: The BadlandsChapter I THE BADLANDS With a thunderous thud and an earthquake that would be felt for many miles around the impact site, the droid-carrying escape pod crashed on the surface of the Badlands. Many moments passed with no commotion, before, with a groan of metal, the door popped open, and the two droids crawled and trundled their ways out. “And so, the dashing RAR-80 makes her daring escape!” the white equinoid dramatised. A series of beeps interrupted whatever she would say next, causing her to turn her attention to the purple celesti-droid, who was wheeling its way along the dune sea, already far from the escape pod. “And where do you think you’re going?” RAR-80 shouted to the droid. “That way’s much too dangerous, don’t you see how rough it is? Besides, I’m sure civilisation is that way,” she added, pointing a metallic hoof in the opposite direction. A long, sighing whistle sounded out from the purple droid as it carried on in the direction it had been going. “Come on, SP. I am not going that way!” RAR-80 complained. After several seconds of silence from her companion, she sighed. “Fine, go without me. If you end up in trouble, it’s your fault!” “Queen Luna,” the pink mare spoke breathlessly, still recovering from the unwanted unconsciousness given to her by the magical blaster. “I should have known! Only you could be so vile as to attack a peaceful, diplomatic—” “Don’t you even dare try to play those mind games with me, Princess,” Luna interrupted her, a scowl on her muzzle. “This was no peaceful mission. Your flight path took you directly through restricted Kingdom systems. Not only that, but you received several transmissions matching Rebel wavelengths. I know what you’re doing here, Princess. You’ve joined their side.” “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she bluffed. “I’m a member of the Kingdom’s elite on a diplomatic mission to my homeworld of Crystalla!” “You are a Rebel and a traitor. Take her away,” Luna ordered to the guards standing at her side, who immediately stepped forward, blasters trained on the princess as they marched her down the hallway and through the broken-down doorway into the larger ship. “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Luna’s second-in-command asked moments after the mare was led away. “Arresting the Princess could brew sympathy for the Rebellion. If word of this gets out, we might see more ponies joining their cause.” “The Rebel spies were traced back to this very ship, and that very mare,” Luna explained. “She is our only link to finding the Rebellion’s secret base.” “You won’t get anything from her,” the uniformed mare spoke, “she’d rather die than tell you anything.” “Leave that to me,” Luna said cryptically, before stating her plans for the small ship she had slaughtered to capture the Princess. “Send out a fake distress signal. Make it seem like all aboard were killed in an accident. No need to let anyone know we’re holding the Princess.” “Queen Luna,” a Kingdom troop trotted to the dark alicorn, “the plans are not aboard this ship! No transmissions were made, either!” “Escape pods,” the Queen spoke, asking a question in only two words. “One was jettisoned, but there were no life forms on board,” the troop explained. “We shot it down just to be safe.” “She must have hidden them there,” Luna reasoned, frowning. “Send a detachment down to find that pod, and bring back whatever rests inside!” “How in the Galaxy did we get into this mess,” RAR-80 lamented as she made her way across the sandy expanse of the Badlands. “I really don’t know how,” she added, with a glare at her companion. She soon turned her attention forward before the small celesti-droid noticed, though. “Are we just made to suffer…” SP1-K beeped and whistled at her. “No, no, I simply can’t keep going. I’m going to fall apart any moment now!” the white equinoid whined. “And look at what all this sand is doing to my pristine coat…” More whistling and beeping, which was swiftly ignored by the purple and green droid’s companion. RAR-80 stopped in her tracks moments later, having a good look around at the desolate wastes. Nothing but sand… I hate sand, she thought. It gets everywhere. But the sand wasn’t the only concern. Where was everypony? Aren’t planets usually bustling with life, no matter how inhospitable? Then why was this place so… so barren. Lifeless. Empty. All that was soon forgotten, though, as her follower seemed to decide it was time to simply leave her. Trundling along in the sand, SP1-K turned and rolled off, taking a perpendicular path. “Where do you think you’re going?” RAR-80 asked. Beep beep whistle. “Well, I’m not going that way,” she huffed synthetically. “It’s far too rocky. This way is much easier.” Bloop whistle beep. “Oh? There are settlements over there?” she echoed. “And just what makes you think that?” Whistle beep boop. “Hmph! Well, if you’re going to be rude—” Beep boop. “Mission? What in the Galaxy are you talking about?” Boop warble beep. “Oh, I’ve just about had enough of you,” the white droid finally said, turning back to the direction she had been going before. “If it pleases you so, then fine. Go that way. You’ll be a pile of scrap by tomorrow.” And, if that mild threat wasn’t enough, she gave a kick to the droid with her back hooves, causing a clang to resound across the wasteland. And, if that wasn’t enough; “Don’t let me catch you crawling back to me for help. You won’t be getting any.” A long, whining beep came from the small droid, before he started his journey up again. “Oh, that little…” RAR-80 grumbled. It had been easily an hour since she had left the smaller droid, and she wasn’t faring very well. She had seen absolutely zero signs of life in the time she had been on this planet. “I bet he’s already found a settlement. He’s probably getting polished and pampered as I speak!” Then, she saw something. On the horizon, a shining light, and as it faded, a shadow against the scorching sky of a large vehicle. “A transport! I’m saved!” Firing off a mana flare from her horn to attract its attention, she began to shout and yell, waving her front legs around. Slowly, the vehicle turned, and headed towards her. OpeningOne upon a time, in a magical galaxy far, far away... CELESTIAL BATTLES Episode IV DAWN OF THE REBELLION Civil war rages throughout the Galaxy. Rebels, fighting from a hidden camp, have won their first major battle against the Equestrian Kingdom. Thanks to this battle, the Rebels have managed to steal the plans to the Kingdom’s superweapon, NIGHTMARE MOON, capable of destroying an entire planet. Chased by the Kingdom’s toughest soldiers, Princess Cadence rushes home, harboring the stolen plans that can save her subjects, and bring harmony to the Galaxy. . . .
PrologueIn the vastness of space, a lonely yellow dot sat, suspended around a pair of stars. The barren desert planet, lacking a proper name, known only as the Badlands, was home to no more than a few thousand ponies—though millions of other deadly life forms roamed its uninhabited areas. Drifting past, hundreds of thousands of miles above the planet’s surface, powered by massive, mana-burning hyperdrives, a starship, small only in comparison to the massive Conqueror-class vessel trailing it, bolts of shimmering blue light firing from its many mana cannons. An explosion rocked the small ship as one of the bolts hits home, only the latest of a series of direct hits. The ship was going down. “Oh, we are dead for sure! This is madness…” a prim and proper synthetic voice spoke, the platinum-bodied quadrupedal droid trotting briskly down a gleaming, pristine white hallway. RAR-80, a protocol droid serving under her majesty Princess Cadence of Crystalla, was trying to carry on her job, having been in the middle of a message delivery when the Kingdom’s forces arrived at their flanks. A series of beeps followed the shimmering droid as another trundled along behind her, this one distinctly non-equinoid. A small, tripedal dustbin of a droid, designation SP1-K, followed close behind, having engaged his emergency orders thanks to the attack: Find Princess Cadence, retrieve the stolen plans, and get to an escape pod, touching down safely on the nearby planet. Outside, in the dead silence of space, the Conqueror encroached on the smaller ship, a hatch opening up in its underside. A blue shimmer surrounded the vessel, and it was slowly pulled inside the confines of the Kingdom starship. Rebel warriors, shoulder-mounted blasters charged and ready to fire, stood ready for combat in another hallway. Waiting with bated breath, their hearts pounding in their ears, they eyed the doorway. A doorway which crashed open, shimmering blue bolts of mana firing off from the cloud of smoke which drifted inside, concealing the Kingdom soldiers charging into the small ship. Within seconds, every last soldier was dead, charred marks on their armour, shimmering with residual mana. As the smoke cloud dissipated, the Kingdom’s troops trod out. Every inch of their bodies was concealed in pristine white armour, a sinister, frowning mug of a helmet adorning their heads. And at the center of it all, she trotted in. The Walking Nightmare herself. Luna. A tall, slender alicorn, clad in black armour all over her body, a flowing cape falling along her back, her sharp, magnificent horn poking a hole through the hood covering her head, her wings sheathed at her sides. “Where are the plans.” Her voice was booming, echoing off the walls of the ship. Her question remained unanswered. Trotting closer to the only remaining soldier, a pale-looking pony who had retreated around a corner, hiding back and shaking in his armour, she repeated the question. “Where are the plans?” Her question was answered not by the Rebel pony, but by one of her own soldiers. “They’re not in the ship’s main computer.” The alicorn gave a frustrated scowl, deciding to force an answer out of the terrified pony. A shimmering field of magic enveloped the soldier’s throat, and she lifted him off the floor. His eyes went wide, his forehooves clawing at his throat, the pony gasping for air. “You received a transmission containing confidential plans,” she said, a terrifying calmness in her voice, a glare coming from under her hood, visible only to the pony she was asking. “What did you do with them?” “W-we did nothing of the sort,” he forces out, struggling for breath. “Th-this is a d-diplomatic mission!” “If this is a diplomatic mission,” Luna asks, “where is the Ambassador?” “Sh-she’s…” was all he managed to get out, before the lack of air got to his brain. His eyes roll back, the pony giving a final wheeze before losing consciousness. Throwing his limp body aside, the dark Queen called out to her troops. “Search the ship. Find me those plans,” she ordered. “And bring me the princess. Alive, if you please.” With shouts of “Yes, ma’am,” the soldiers trotted off, splitting up to search the small vessel for the stolen data they needed so desperately. The Queen, meanwhile, stood back, trusting her soldiers to do their jobs. “We are doomed, SP. Doomed!” RAR-80 said worriedly, having given up on following her orders, now desperately trying to find an escape pod and leave the ship. SP1-K, however, was not following her. Hiding away in a small storage space along with a pink-coated mare, the droid beeped curiously at his captor. “Oh, be quiet, you mobile trash can,” she hissed, inserting a small, transparent card into a slot on the droid’s side. “Just get this message and the plans away safely!” Pushing him out of the cupboard, the droid trundled along behind RAR-80, who had successfully located an escape pod. Pressing a button on the side of the door, it opened, and she trotted into the small vessel, a spherical ship barely big enough for one pony, never mind two. “Come along, get inside,” she said. “We're getting out of this place.” With a beep, SP1-K followed her inside. The escape pod detached. “Got an escape pod trying to leave, sir. Requesting orders.” A response hissed through the communication link. “Shoot it down. We can never be too careful.” A bolt of blue mana fired out, and the escape pod spiralled out of control, caught in the nearby planet's gravity. Back on the ship, the pink-coated mare trotted calmly out, towards the soldiers. The only option was to get captured, and take that option she shall. “Take me to your leader.” A blaster bolt fired out, and the mare fell to the floor. The princess, taken. The plans, destroyed. The Rebellion, extinguished. And yet, the brave little droid aboard the escape pod survived…
Chapter I: The BadlandsChapter I THE BADLANDS With a thunderous thud and an earthquake that would be felt for many miles around the impact site, the droid-carrying escape pod crashed on the surface of the Badlands. Many moments passed with no commotion, before, with a groan of metal, the door popped open, and the two droids crawled and trundled their ways out. “And so, the dashing RAR-80 makes her daring escape!” the white equinoid dramatised. A series of beeps interrupted whatever she would say next, causing her to turn her attention to the purple celesti-droid, who was wheeling its way along the dune sea, already far from the escape pod. “And where do you think you’re going?” RAR-80 shouted to the droid. “That way’s much too dangerous, don’t you see how rough it is? Besides, I’m sure civilisation is that way,” she added, pointing a metallic hoof in the opposite direction. A long, sighing whistle sounded out from the purple droid as it carried on in the direction it had been going. “Come on, SP. I am not going that way!” RAR-80 complained. After several seconds of silence from her companion, she sighed. “Fine, go without me. If you end up in trouble, it’s your fault!” “Queen Luna,” the pink mare spoke breathlessly, still recovering from the unwanted unconsciousness given to her by the magical blaster. “I should have known! Only you could be so vile as to attack a peaceful, diplomatic—” “Don’t you even dare try to play those mind games with me, Princess,” Luna interrupted her, a scowl on her muzzle. “This was no peaceful mission. Your flight path took you directly through restricted Kingdom systems. Not only that, but you received several transmissions matching Rebel wavelengths. I know what you’re doing here, Princess. You’ve joined their side.” “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she bluffed. “I’m a member of the Kingdom’s elite on a diplomatic mission to my homeworld of Crystalla!” “You are a Rebel and a traitor. Take her away,” Luna ordered to the guards standing at her side, who immediately stepped forward, blasters trained on the princess as they marched her down the hallway and through the broken-down doorway into the larger ship. “Are you sure this is a good idea?” Luna’s second-in-command asked moments after the mare was led away. “Arresting the Princess could brew sympathy for the Rebellion. If word of this gets out, we might see more ponies joining their cause.” “The Rebel spies were traced back to this very ship, and that very mare,” Luna explained. “She is our only link to finding the Rebellion’s secret base.” “You won’t get anything from her,” the uniformed mare spoke, “she’d rather die than tell you anything.” “Leave that to me,” Luna said cryptically, before stating her plans for the small ship she had slaughtered to capture the Princess. “Send out a fake distress signal. Make it seem like all aboard were killed in an accident. No need to let anyone know we’re holding the Princess.” “Queen Luna,” a Kingdom troop trotted to the dark alicorn, “the plans are not aboard this ship! No transmissions were made, either!” “Escape pods,” the Queen spoke, asking a question in only two words. “One was jettisoned, but there were no life forms on board,” the troop explained. “We shot it down just to be safe.” “She must have hidden them there,” Luna reasoned, frowning. “Send a detachment down to find that pod, and bring back whatever rests inside!” “How in the Galaxy did we get into this mess,” RAR-80 lamented as she made her way across the sandy expanse of the Badlands. “I really don’t know how,” she added, with a glare at her companion. She soon turned her attention forward before the small celesti-droid noticed, though. “Are we just made to suffer…” SP1-K beeped and whistled at her. “No, no, I simply can’t keep going. I’m going to fall apart any moment now!” the white equinoid whined. “And look at what all this sand is doing to my pristine coat…” More whistling and beeping, which was swiftly ignored by the purple and green droid’s companion. RAR-80 stopped in her tracks moments later, having a good look around at the desolate wastes. Nothing but sand… I hate sand, she thought. It gets everywhere. But the sand wasn’t the only concern. Where was everypony? Aren’t planets usually bustling with life, no matter how inhospitable? Then why was this place so… so barren. Lifeless. Empty. All that was soon forgotten, though, as her follower seemed to decide it was time to simply leave her. Trundling along in the sand, SP1-K turned and rolled off, taking a perpendicular path. “Where do you think you’re going?” RAR-80 asked. Beep beep whistle. “Well, I’m not going that way,” she huffed synthetically. “It’s far too rocky. This way is much easier.” Bloop whistle beep. “Oh? There are settlements over there?” she echoed. “And just what makes you think that?” Whistle beep boop. “Hmph! Well, if you’re going to be rude—” Beep boop. “Mission? What in the Galaxy are you talking about?” Boop warble beep. “Oh, I’ve just about had enough of you,” the white droid finally said, turning back to the direction she had been going before. “If it pleases you so, then fine. Go that way. You’ll be a pile of scrap by tomorrow.” And, if that mild threat wasn’t enough, she gave a kick to the droid with her back hooves, causing a clang to resound across the wasteland. And, if that wasn’t enough; “Don’t let me catch you crawling back to me for help. You won’t be getting any.” A long, whining beep came from the small droid, before he started his journey up again. “Oh, that little…” RAR-80 grumbled. It had been easily an hour since she had left the smaller droid, and she wasn’t faring very well. She had seen absolutely zero signs of life in the time she had been on this planet. “I bet he’s already found a settlement. He’s probably getting polished and pampered as I speak!” Then, she saw something. On the horizon, a shining light, and as it faded, a shadow against the scorching sky of a large vehicle. “A transport! I’m saved!” Firing off a mana flare from her horn to attract its attention, she began to shout and yell, waving her front legs around. Slowly, the vehicle turned, and headed towards her.
OpeningOne upon a time, in a magical galaxy far, far away... CELESTIAL BATTLES Episode IV DAWN OF THE REBELLION Civil war rages throughout the Galaxy. Rebels, fighting from a hidden camp, have won their first major battle against the Equestrian Kingdom. Thanks to this battle, the Rebels have managed to steal the plans to the Kingdom’s superweapon, NIGHTMARE MOON, capable of destroying an entire planet. Chased by the Kingdom’s toughest soldiers, Princess Cadence rushes home, harboring the stolen plans that can save her subjects, and bring harmony to the Galaxy. . . .
