An hour after Sandy has made her rounds, all the senior officers meet in the operations room.

“Everypony here…. good, An hour ago I was just hoofed a report that stated that a chief engineer of this project has defected and most likely has given our location and names to the sun goddess herself. Breakaway hour has moved to 2 hours from now, so make all final preparations now and make them snappy. Any questions?” States

Blueshadow. The chief engineer, Solar Frost, speaks up.

“Uh yeah, Captain, I’'m not sure we’ll be able to start-up the engine on that timescale, for one I don't see where we can get the power unless we shunt all the power of canterlot into this thing. That would've as sure as Tartarus that we’d be found out.” she says with an annoyed expression.

“Were already found out, I don't care if you have to shunt all the power of Equestria into it just get it done.” Replies Blueshado

“Aye, sir.”

“Good, you all know your jobs I expect you too ful..” *A pony gallops into the room*

“Captain!, Checkpoint Alpha just went dark, before communications were cut out they reported an entire contingent of royal guards advancing on our position.” The crewman reports.

“Get down there and tell the ponies to blow the tunnels, that should hold them off till we can get up.” Orders Blueshadow, The crewmate nods and gallops away. Blue then looks over all the ponies and griffon in the room. “Alright, I expect the best, go to your stations and get ready to take off.”

“Aye, sir.” They all reply. They all head out of the room, a muffled explosion is heard as the ponies outside were able to collapse the tunnel, trapping the royal guard on the other side. For the next half hour, the ship is buzzing with activity, from the engineering crews diverting all the power of canterlot to the engines to crew boarding the ship. Solar Flare contacts the bridge.

“Engineering to Bridge, I was able to reroute the main power plant in canterlot to give us a boost in energy, it's not as much as we want but it's enough for us to get to space to charge there.” Reports Solar

“Your a miracle worker Solar” He looks at Sandy. “Sandy is everypony aboard?”

She nods. “Aye captain, everyone is accounted for.”

“Good” He replies. “Emerald…take us up.”

“Aye sir” She flips a switch and the ceiling of the dock starts falling apart, the ship ascends on a mechanical lift as it makes its way skyward. The lift stops as we get to the top, revealing the top of the StarSwirl mountain range.

“Yamato….Launch!” Blueshadow orders

“Yamato, Launch” repeats Emerald, she pulls back on the lever and the ship thrusts forward, aerial wings pop out of the sides of the ship as it flies in the atmosphere. On the ground, ponies are yelling and breaking for cover as the guard rushes to their defenses on the fortress.

“Warning! We have lock on from the solar dissipater!” Yells Crimson.

“Evasive maneuvers!” Orders Blueshadow

Emerald pulls the ship to the right, as soon as it angles out of its original flight path a large beam of light shoots past them, leaving a shimmering effect in the air as it passes “Destroy that gun or else we’ll never break atmosphere.”

“Loading type 3 rounds in secondary turrets, turret 5 fire for effect.” Crimson orders into the speakerphone. The secondary gun on the aft of the ship takes aim and fires, two shots miss and hit the rock walls as one hits its mark and produces a glorious explosion. “Dissipater down sir.” Reports Crimson

“Break for high orbit, switch turrets to shock cannon mode asap.” Orders Blue

“ Aye Si… Contact, contact. We have four… no count five bogeys on intercept. Contacts signify as four light-wave Class destroyers and one radiance class Battleship. The radiance is firing.”

The ship rocks as an explosion is heard and 3 yellow beams shoot past the ship. Lights begin to throb as alarms ring out.

“We have 2 holes in starboard aft section, blast doors are in place. I recommend that we engage with type 3.” Reports Crimson as he turns and looks at the captain.”

“Nay,” says Blue. “Type 3’s are meant for short-range, they wouldn't work at those distances. Emerald focus on getting us into orbit quickly.”

“aye,” she says. The ship angles upward even more as they rocket space-ward. Luckily none of the other shots hit as the Yamato reaches high orbit. Engineering contacts the bridge.

“Wave motion engine is fully online, we have full power.” Solar reports and shuts off the link.

“Afirm, Crimson target the Battleship and two of the destroyers.” BlueShadow orders

“Aye, targeting now” says Crimson. The turrets turn to face their prospective targets, the imperial ships show no sign of slowing as the Battleship fires again, striking the middle of the ship and hits the wave motion shield, causing no damage. The turrets of the Yamato fire and arcs to their ships, the shots hit the Battleship, causing three holes to be puncture and go straight through the ship and explode.Shots hit the first Destroyer and split it in half, the third shot misses the second Destroyer and dissipates in the atmosphere.

“Two targets down, one still operational. Radar shows that one of the destroyers is leaving formation and breaking off. Torpedoes have been fired by the remaining two.” Reports Crimson.

“Target the remaining destroyers with Stack Missiles and intercept missiles with AAA.” Orders Blue.

Missile doors open from the “smokestack” of the ship and launch out towards the Destroyer, Pulse AAA begins to fire and eventually hits the two torpedoes. The Missiles race to their targets and hit, causing internal explosions on one and severely damaging the other.

“Direct hits sir, ones breaking off and spiraling towards the planet” reports Crimson

“Captain I'm receiving imperial transmissions….they are gathering a fleet to strike at us.” Reports Toxic Peach.

“Captain, I recommend jumping now to escape further hostility.” Suggests Emerald.

“Agreed, ensign go to warp at your discretion.” Says Blueshadow.

“Captain we're being hailed….it's from the capital.” Reports Toxic

Blueshaodw breathes deeply and nods.

“On Screen”

Everypony looks up as the screen up above them flickers and turns on, revealing a picture of the Solar Empress.

“Why hello captain, it's nice to finally see that you've shown your true colors.” Says Celestia.

Blueshadow stands up and glares, but shows no malice in his voice.

“Hello Empress, and yes I have shown my colors. I just haven't shown them sooner because I was blind to the atrocities the Empire was committing.”

“What you see as atrocities I see as control, with an Empire this large you must take some measure to keep control.” She retorts. “ Now let's cut to the chase shall we, you have committed treason against the empire, if you surrender now I will be so generous as to offer your crew 5 years in prison whereof I would pardon them and they shall be free to remain in the Empire. I will only make this offer once captain.”

”Are you offering us that because of what we stand for? Or is it because you're afraid of what we’all find in the darkness?” He grins as he sees her face contort.

“I offer it because, unlike what you believe, I am oh so generous in my mercy.” She replies.

“Well princess as I speak on behalf of my crew, you may take back your pardon for once I get ahold of it I would feed it to a dog for how much it is worth to me.”

The Empress visibly grimaces then regains her composer and smiles.

“Very well captain, be known that you have just condemned you and your crew to death, now repent for today you die.”

The view screen turns off and as if the gods had sense for timing a ship of immense scale comes out of hyperspace in front of the Yamato.

“Captain unknown ship on a collision course, By Faust it's huge!” Reports Crimson as he gazes at its immense scale

“Emerald get us out of here now!” Orders Blue.

The ship turns away from the monstrosity and jumps a fraction of a second before the other ship fires a shot the size of a mountain, it flies by where the Yamato was and dissipates in the void. The Yamato reappears at the edge of the solar system and powers down weapons. Crimson Ace gets up out of his seat and walks up to the Captain's chair.

“Sir, may I ask what in Tartarus was that.” He asks

“I honestly have no clue.” He says. “I never heard tell of the Empire constructing a ship as big as that. Emerald set course out of the system.” He orders

“Aye sir” she replies

The Yamato angles away from the home Star and slips into the void.

.

.

.

.

In the Canterlot Fortress, Celestia is waiting in her throne room, pacing to and fro as she waits for her captains. The captains come in and stand at attention, holding back worried faces. Celestia trots up and stands in front of the head captain.

“Captain...What were your orders?” She says with a voice full of malice. The head captain swallows a lump in his throat and speaks up.

“T-to capture the crew and the s-ship your highness.” He replies in a shaky voice.

“Now tell me, when that ship flew past my window, was it under imperial control?”

“N-no ma’am, it was not.” He shakes his head and stands straighter, he firms his voice. “I take full responsibility for the mishap ma’am. I promise it won't happen aga-”

He stops as golden magic wraps around his throat and squeezes. Celestia lifts him up and moves him to in front of her as he struggles to get a breath. Celestia smile

“I thank you, captain, for showing some guts at the end, but you failed me and “defeat” is not in the equestrian dictionary.” She squeezes harder and an audible snap is heard as the captain's neck snaps in two, she drops him onto the floor. The remaining captains start quivering.

“The rest of you are lucky, due to him taking full responsibility you all are only getting demoted two ranks, now get out of my sight and take your head captain with you.”

The guards scramble away and one puts the body of the head captain on his back. In a few moments the room in quiet. Celestia chuckles and turns to her personal servant.

“Increase the ex-head captains rank by two ranks and make sure his family is taken care of, also bring me cadence, I need to find a new Head Captain.”

The servant nods and scampers off, Celestia turns to her table and a holographic map of the Galaxy pops up. “Now Captain, where have you gone.”

Author's Note

Sorry that it's been a while since I posted this chapter, but I couldn't think of how I would like to start this chapter and right now I have no Wi fi, but I thank all my readers that they held on and waited.