An Imperial Occupationby part time ponyChaptersDiscoveryEscapeSkirmishOperationsBattle of Equestria IBattle of Equestria IIAftermathDiscoveryOnce upon a time in a galaxy far far away. Lord Vader was standing on the bridge of his flagship, The Executor. The ship class was the largest in the Empire, it was an Executor-Class Star Dreadnought being 19,000 meters long, the ship represented the Empire well and the men onboard were not the ordinary crew members of the usual Imperial II-class Star Destroyer but these were highly skilled, picked from the best Admirals like Grand Admiral Thrawn and Admiral Piett. Same thing was for the Stormtrooper Corps onboard, the ship held the remains of the 501st Legion, the only Jango Fett clones still serving the Empire. But the ship also had the elite Shadow Troopers and even deadly the Imperial Royal Guard. The Dreadnought was currently orbiting a planet in the Unknown Regions, not far from the planet of Csilla where the native species called "Chiss" lived, Grand Admiral Thrawn was a one of those and was currently not far from Lord Vader's fleet position. The Dreadnought was a part of a large fleet nicknamed the Death Squadron, it had multiple ships in it's fleet and thousands of ground troops. Notable Crew members included Admiral Piett and General Veers, both veterans to the Empire. The leader of the Death Squadron was none other than Darth Vader as he had the second highest rank in the Galactic Empire and the highest rank in the Military. For him it was just a rank though, Darth Vader used to be a Jedi Knight, a powerful one and had the possibility of being the chosen one, instead he became a Dark Lord of the Sith, he was twisted by the Dark Side and nothing seemed to make him happy. His emotions were hidden behind the dark mask and the only sound he made besides for talking was the breathing. But Darth Vader wasn't completely dead inside, he knew that inside of him was a weakness, that weakness was the light side of the force trying to pull him back to the light side. But Darth Vader had none of it and always won against that weakness. Darth Vader looked at the planet, the planet that he and his fleet had accidentally stumbled upon because of a mistake. But Darth Vader was growing impatient, he had no time to correct the mistake so he had a plan to bypass it. His plan was to invade this planet. The planet resembled a mixture between Aldeeran and Corellia, unfortunately Aldeeran had been destroyed by the also destroyed Death Star thanks to a weakness in the battle station that the Rebel Alliance had exploited. A Lieutenant approached Darth Vader with an anxious look on his face. "My lord, it seems like we have input the wrong coordinates and ended up here." "Lieutenant, how is it possible for the highly skilled crew men to make a mistake?" Darth Vader said with anger in his voice, his master Emperor Palpatine wanted a planet under the control of the Empire for more income and workers which actually would be slaves. "I am sorry my lord, we will input the correct coordin-" The lieutenant was cut off by Darth Vader. "No, We shall take control of this planet. Get me a report of the planet, now." Darth Vader demanded. With that he stormed off and made his way out of the bridge. | - - - - - - - | In Equestria Princess Celestia was observing the night sky before retiring for the day. She was using her brand new telescope that she had received as a gift from her student Twilight Sparkle during her own birthday. She first observed the constellations, being able to spot the Aquila constellation. Then she turned the telescope left and saw something surprising. She could barely make out what she saw but it looked like triangles in orbit, she identified 10 and could even see an enormous one. "Sister!" Celestia shouted for her sister who had just finished lowering the moon. Not long after, Luna burst into the room, seeing her sister on the balcony with the brand new telescope next to her, the sister walked towards her sister to see her with a concerned face, something Celestia rarely had. "What is it sister?' Luna asked in a exhausted voice, she clearly had to use lots of magic to get here so fast which exhausted her. "Take a look." Celestia said and let Luna observe the night that she had risen, she immediately saw the triangles that Celestia had also seen. | - - - - - - - | The information from the probe droids dispatched had sent back information on the planet, information which would be crucial for Lord Vader. "The planet is called Equestria and is home to the intelligent species of ponies and griffons as well as many others." The Lieutenant said reading off a datapad. "It has a strong connection to some sort of magic with one of the species being able to harvest it and use it for their or others own good." By now Vader was back on the bridge. Darth Vader looked at the planet from the bridge, he knew that this one would be a massive help to the rebellion if information of it's existence was to be published, especially since these so called ponies could have a connection to the force. "Order the Interdictiors to engage their Gravity Well Generators, no one leaves this system and suspend all scheduled shifts except for mechanical and maintenance checks." Darth Vader knew that Equestria was too dangerous to be known by the galaxy, even by some Imperials. Especially since lately there have been a lot of double agents inside the Empire, and who knew if Fulcrum was watching Lord Vader or someone onboard the ship with a high rank right know. Darth Vader looked as the Lieutenant walked away to inform the fleet of his orders, he then looked back at the planet. The planet reminded him of something, something he had felt back when he was a ten year old and his old mentor Qui-Gon Jinn was still alive, Vader quickly dismissed those thoughts and went back to his anger, the Dark Side only had anger, power, hate and suffering. Nothing else, it didn't have what the Jedi had, friendship, loyalty and the right choice. But the Jedi was the reason that his wife Padmé Amidala was dead, the dark side was the only thing he had and he wasn't going to let it go. Darth Vader left the bridge and started walking towards his meditation chamber, he needed to connect with the dark side force more and make his power a valid one and one that cannot be beaten. He used the force to open the doors open then using the force to open the meditation capsule open as well. He used the force to close it once he had entered and began meditating, connecting to the force. | - - - - - - - | During the rest of the night in Equestria; Celestia and Luna had ordered for the mobilization of the EUP. Reserves were brought to Canterlot as both sisters knew an invasion was coming. Meanwhile in Ponyville, an unsuspecting Twilight Sparkle was studying late at night once again when she suddenly was surprised when she heard multiple footsteps coming from outside her door. She was even more surprised when two guards entered her bedroom. "Your highness, Princess Celestia requests to see you in person in Canterlot now." One of the guards said. "Oh? I'll be there shortly then." Twilight replied as she closed the book she was reading. | - - - - - - - | Darth Vader would leave his meditation chamber, feeling his dark side power growing, each day the sith grew stronger. He began moving back towards the bridge of the Executor, the massive ship that he owned. Once he got there he saw the same Lieutenant that had informed him of the mistake, but he turned his attention to the Commander instead. "Commander Darren," said Darth Vader attempting to capture the attention of the Commander. The Commander turned around and saw the intimidating man that was Darth Vader. "Yes Lord Vader?" he said. "Commence the invasion at once." Darth Vader said and returned to watching the planet Equestria, trying to learn more by looking at it. The Commander meanwhile turned his attention to the crew members, he complied with Vader's orders and led them forward to the other members of the crew. The elite Imperial Pilots entered their ships, most of them being TIE Fighters with the exception of a few entering TIE Bombers and TIE Defenders. Once they were ready they took off and left the hangar with speed, the TIE's would be visible from the bridge and Darth Vader saw the ships heading down towards the surface of the planet to begin their bombing runs and the destruction of the planet's infrastructure and military presence in preparation for the ground vehicles and the elite Stormtroopers. The invasion of Equestria has begun. Author's Note Thank you all for reading this first chapter of what hopefully will be a fantastic fanfic! I would just like to say that I will post A/N's on my blog instead of here but if I have something important then I will post it here instead. Please feel free to notify me of errors so that I can improve for the next chapter, if you have any constructive criticism then please leave it in the comments or message me. 😉 EscapeHouses, roads and other pieces of infrastructure were destroyed, in pieces from the constant bombing, dead ponies who were unfortunate to be caught in the bombing were dead on the ground. No damage had been inflicted to Canterlot yet, but that was about to happen. TIE Defenders from the Executor ran bombing runs along with the TIE Bombers, destroying the roads of Canterlot and the buildings. Twilight Sparkle was going as fast as she could towards the castle being escorted by 3 guards from the Ponyville Castle Guard. The roaring noise from a TIE Defender was then heard and in the sky it was visible. The TIE Defender was aiming for Twilight and fired a barrage of laser beams. Twilight was standing right in the area where the barrage would hit, if it hit the ground then she'd be dead. To her luck, a guard pushed her out of the way and in doing so sacrificed himself as he had been trained to do in life-threating situations to royalty. The Barrage hit the ground and explosions followed, Twilight was knocked down to the ground and received minor bruises on her body. A guard quickly ran over to the Princess helping her get up, in doing so catching a glance of his now dead friend. "We need to get to the castle Princess!" The guard said as he began to run again, still feeling the pain of losing a friend. But the worse was yet to come. The AT-AT's and AT-ST's had been dropped off by their transports and were now mounting their assaults. Since cities like Manehattan, Ponyville and the Crystal Empire had been destroyed; the only target was Canterlot. Unfortunately for the Empire, Canterlot was situated on a mountain so their heavy vehicles would have a hard time reaching it. As for Cloudsdale, the Empire hadn't attacked yet but Darth Vader had already prepared Imperial Jump Troopers for presumably the attack on Cloudsdale. AT-ST's were then dropped down into the streets of Canterlot by dropships followed by Sentinel-Class Landing Craft filled with the elite trained Stormtroopers. The residents of Canterlot ran from the frightening Stormtroopers, some running to the castle while others to their houses. But no building was a match for the deadly arsenal of weapons on the AT-ST's. The AT-ST's began to walk towards the castle followed by the Stormtroopers. The walkers shot and launched explosives at the EUP which was trying to defend Canterlot with no effect at all. Not a single Stormtrooper had been killed or injured so far. It was at this moment that the Star Destroyer "Behemoth" entered the atmosphere and began to hover above Canterlot to ensure no escape would be made, but even if the ponies had the technology of the Galactic Empire they'd still have a hard time to fight back against the Elite forces of the Empire. Back on the ground, the white armored Stormtroopers marched towards the palace with their blasters aimed at the castle and their eyes looking for any pony still breathing. Fortunately Twilight and her escort had already escaped into the castle where she'd be safe... For now at least. | - - - - - - - | "They're coming sister," Luna said. Even though she was the second highest ranked Princess she was still nervous and scared as Equestria had never faced something like this, no army of this scale had ever invaded them. Especially one this strong and technologically this advanced. "We must hide the Elements of Harmony," Celestia Said as she turned around to face her student and Equestria's newest Princess, Twilight. Twilight took out her book on the Elements of Harmony where she had hidden them and gave it to Princess Celestia. Suddenly though, a large bang was heard from the main entrance. The Stormtroopers had entered the castle. Following this loud bang were blaster shots and the screaming of guards falling to their death. | - - - - - - - | Above Canterlot, a Lambda-class Shuttle was approaching to land, in there was Darth Vader; Lord of the Sith. He was escorted by two Imperial Royal Guards who wore their iconic red robes and their iconic helmet with a simple black line running along where their eyes would be. On first glance, it would look easy to defeat a guard, but under those ropes was some of the strongest armor in the Galaxy, an armor so strong that even some weapons can't penetrate it. The shuttle landed, it's main front door opening with white smoke, presumably steam coming out of it. Following it was Darth Vader, slowly exiting the shuttle as the smoke disappeared. Infront of him was General Veers, a highly rated General who wore his officer uniform on top of armor to defend himself. "General Veers." Darth Vader said with his usual frightening and intimidating voice. "Y-yes Lord Vader?" Veers replied in question. "Order the Jump Troopers to attack the cloud city." "Yes, yes my lord." | - - - - - - - | "TK-762, watch your left!" Were one of the words that could be heard from upstairs followed by more chatter. "Main Entrance secured, find the leaders!" "Yes, sir!" The Stormtroopers began the looking throughout the castle, back in the throne room; the 3 princesses were deciding what to do. "I say we hide the Elements of Harmony in the secret vault North of the Crystal Empire, they'll be safe there for sure!" Luna suggested. "Well, I propose we hi-" Twilight was cut off when the doors to the throne room burst to open. A squad of Stormtroopers entered and aimed their weapons at the guards. The three Princess quickly turned around, seeing their enemy. "Surrender! We're taking you all into custody by the order of Lord Vader!" The Sergeant shouted at the princess while the whole squad had them at gunpoint. "Very well, I surrender," Celestia said calmly. She then turned her head and looked and Luna and Twilight. "You two, teleport out of here and get to the Crystal Empire now. Gather up as many guards as you can and loyal ponies to there as well!" "But!" Twilight gasped. "No buts, GO!" With that the two teleported, but it was hard not to notice that. "Where did they go?" Asked a Stormtrooper. "What do you mean? There's just me, the guards and you in this room." Celestia Said, trying to convince the Stormtroopers that Luna and Twilight never were in the room. "The purple and dark blue creature!" The same Stormtrooper shouted. "Oh, they were um. Just a spell to fool you?" Celestia said again, trying to assure them. Before the Stormtrooper could answer all of them turned facing each other and made space as a tall, dark figure entered the room escorted by two red-colored troopers. The dark man approached Princess Celestia, looking at her, Celestia could now hear the loud breathing from the figure. "What are you?" The dark man asked, looking down at the old alicorn. "I'm Princess Celestia, the ruler of this world," said Celestia. "And who are you?" The dark man raised one of his hands, suddenly Celestia was having troubles breathing. She began to hover above the ground. "I-i .. can't b-breath.." She fell down onto the ground, being able to breathe normally again. "The name is Lord Vader and from now on you are no longer the ruler of this world," Darth Vader started leaving the room before saying. "Take her into custody." The Stormtroopers approached the Princess, two blasters aimed at her to make sure she wouldn't attack them, one had cuffs in his hands while the others held the Princess pinned down against the floor of her throne room. "No way these cuffs are gonna fit in those things," XX-006713 said, referring to the hooves. "Keep it quiet before I send you back to the Cadet Academy on Lothal, Specialist!" Shouted the Stormtrooper with an orange pauldron, indicating he possessed the rank of Commander. | - - - - - - - | The two Princess who shared similar colors on their coats appeared in the Crystal Empire, fortunately, it had not been taken over yet. "I hope Princess Celestia will be okay," said Twilight as she caught her breath. Teleporting a large distance was hard to accomplish and even if you managed to do it you'd often get so exhausted that you'd be unable to walk for the rest of the day, not even the ponies or even alicorns that possessed such strong magic could teleport that far without being exhausted. "I share the same thought as you Twilight, but dark times are upon us. We must fight back this tyranny that has conquered Equestria." Luna looked up and saw the Crystal Castle, she then looked down towards the street. There she saw Shining Armour and Cadence. "We came over as soon as we saw you both!" said Shining. "Canterlot has fallen," Twilight said, then looking behind her to see if the white armored creatures were after, they were not. "We know, the Crystal Empire is the only safe place; the shield should be strong enough to protect us," Cadence said and lit up her aura to bring a letter from Celestia herself. "Read this." 'Dear Cadence I am afraid to say that Canterlot had fallen, this army has taken us by surprise and as I am writing this I feel the suffering of my subjects, especially the innocent ones. I am writing this letter to tell you that the Crystal Empire must not fall, do your best to keep it alive as long as possible. I fear that the Elements of Harmony might not be enough to defeat this tyranny if the Crystal Empire falls. Do whatever it takes to ensure your empire doesn't fall. ~ Princess Celestia.' "We have the elements of harmony with us and we agreed to hide them in the vault north of Empire," Luna said. "That's great, I'll take you there now. The faster we lock them in, the better." Shining began trotting away and was followed by Luna and Twilight. | - - - - - - - | "My lord. The attack on the cloud city was successful but." Lieutenant Menrie couldn't find the word to describe what happened. "But what, Lieutenant?" Darth Vader asked. "Um, we lost 75% of the Jump Trooper Battalion.." "Death is acceptable as long as we remain in control of this planet." Darth Vader walked off to march around the ruined streets of what once was a beautiful city with merchants selling their goods, the wonderful smell from the bakeries or brewing houses and kind ponies greeting each other. That city was now a thing of the past, something which may never return, because of the Empire. The reason for the deaths was quite an obvious one for a pony, the jump troopers weren't Pegasi so they couldn't walk on the clouds which made it harder for them to annex the city as they were jump troopers and not jet troopers. But it didn't take long for them to realize it however and when they did the battle drastically changed from the chance of a pony victory to an Imperial Victory. | - - - - - - - | "You're sure this is the vault right?" Twilight asked her big brother, making sure he doesn't do a mistake. "Yes? I am completely sure.." Shining replied with an obvious voice of uncertainty. Twilight rolled her eyes; but she was sure that Shining Armour was right, he had to be after all. "Ah, here it is!" Shining raised his right hoof and showed them the vault. The vault was covered in thick ice, according to the visitors the door is able to withstand the heat of up to 10,000° degrees Celsius. Which fortunately but unbeknownst to them; made the flame trooper units unable to burn it down with their flamethrowers. "Funny thing, only I have the ability to open this," Shining said and let out a small chuckle after. "No time for jokes, we need to store the Elements for safekeeping," Luna said with annoyance in her voice as she was getting tired of Shining Amour's arrogance. "Right, sorry Luna." Shining stuck his horn inside the lock and lit up the aura to do the correct combination, once he was done he removed his horn from the lock and let the door open itself. Twilight entered in and used her magic to put the book in the vault. "Done, let's get back now." | - - - - - - - | "Lord Vader," Captain Darren approached the dark lord. "Our probe droids have detected a city in the north as the last one remaining of this species." "Prepare the Cold Assualt Stormtroopers for an attack, and have the 6th and 7th Armoured Battalion meet up south of the city." "Yes my lord." Darren walked away to prepare the Cold Assualt Stormtroopers or as they were otherwise known as Snowtroopers. However, this wouldn't be the last attack. Lord Vader still needed to take over the other parts of the planet, not just Equestria. Otherwise, the planet would rebel against the Imperial Occupation with a stronger force than right now which would end this occupation before it could even start. "One more thing, Captain," Darth Vader looked at the Captain as he stopped and turned around. "Have the TIE Scout's explore the rest of the planet to for preparation to invade the other parts of this planet." "But my lord, the fleet has no TIE/sr's." The Captain said. "Then get some." The advantage of the TIE/sr or as it was also known as the TIE Scout was one of the few starfighters in the Imperial Navy that could travel through Hyperspace, the other being the deadly TIE/D Defender and the stealthy TIE/ph Phantom. | - - - - - - - | The Crystal Empire was the last hope for the ponies if it was to fall then the chances to save Equestria would be slim, but this wasn't the only problem to worry about for the Empire. During the Invasion, many ponies had gone to the Crystal Empire for refuge. Now there were too many refugees and causing new problems. Outside the shield, the Crystal Guard performed patrols to make sure the shield would hold and that no Imperials were in the area. But the Invasion was coming, they didn't know, unfortunately. 6 AT-AT's were lined up about 100 Kilometers from the Crystal Empire joined by 4 AT-ST's. The All Terrain Armoured Transport was the workhorse for the Imperial Army, it's strong shields deflected all hand-carried weapons and it could carry an entire platoon of Stormtroopers for Sieges. However, everything has a weakness or two, the AT-AT had two. One was that Ion Bombs from Bombers like the Clone Wars-era Y-Wing Bomber could disable the shields for a short period of time. This was a tactic that the rebellion had used to defeat the Imperials on planets like Sullust and Tatooine. The other weakness was the legs, no they weren't weak but a strong rope or wire could trip the AT-AT and cause it to fall. Something the Imperials hope that the Rebels haven't figured out yet, the question was if the ponies have. In one of the AT-AT's stood General Veers, he was awaiting orders from Darth Vader whether to attack or not, but he knew that the order would be to attack. Suddenly a blue image of Darth Vader appeared on the walker's hologram display. "Lord Vader, all the walkers are in position. We await your order." Veers said. "Commence the attack, have no mercy." Darth Vader disappeared from the display, indicating he was done. "Commence the attack." Veers ordered the pilots. In the air, the walkers were joined by TIE Bombers who were to begin their bombing run on the city to weaken the defenses if there were any. The TIE Bomber's iconic two pods passed by the Walkers in a V Formation. "What a beauty." | - - - - - - - | "See anything?" A royal guard asked his comrade whom he was patrolling with. "No, not even a single snowflake, might as well forget about patrolling if there's no-" The young guard stopped abruptly as he saw the All Terrain Armoured Transports in the distance through the binoculars. "You okay?" "They're here." | - - - - - - - | The heavy stomping sounds of the AT-AT could be heard miles away, even though it was just a step it was still enough to give the toughest pony the chills. Knowing that the ponies were useless against those walkers, Shining had ordered an evacuation of the Crystal Empire but there was one problem, her sister. Twilight was keen that she had a solution to this, she had studied physics enough to figure out a way to possibly destroy the walkers. Her idea was that a strong rope should be able to halt the walker's advance and when it tries to go forward it will trip over and end up destroyed or at least disabled. Even though she kept babbling about it, nopony except for Luna and Cadance agreed with her. The three princesses got their wish finally when Shining Armor realized that the residents wouldn't escape in time and therefore let them handle it and use 6 guards for the task. With that settled, Twilight & Co made their way beyond the city's shields and towards the intimating AT-AT walkers. Every step the walkers took wasn't just a scaring sound but it also made the ground shake, especially with all that heavy equipment onboard. Twilight took out the rope from her saddlebag and used her magic to pass it on to Luna who would run on over to the other side. As she had expected, Luna ran over to the other side with 3 of the guards, holding the rope with her magic as did Twilight. The AT-AT began approaching and due to the cockpit being so high up; the drivers would be unable see the ponies down there. Finally one of the legs made contact with the rope, soon it was the second one and with enough strength, the AT-AT's legs began making the vehicle fall. The AT-AT crashed into the ground, making the snow around the now destroyed vehicle go up 50 meters into the sky before falling back down and covering the 8 ponies in the thick and cold snow. Twilight, being her self; began celebrating as if she was a Hoofball fan and her favorite team had scored a winning goal in stoppage time. But she quickly stopped in a realization that it wasn't enough. Unfortunately, the other AT-AT's had already reached far enough to be in firing range of the Crystal Empire much to the Galactic Empire's favor. It was obvious at this sight that the small group would be unable to destroy the remaining walkers in this little time, the best option was to retreat to the Crystal Empire and hope that Shining Armour had come up with a plan. It was also at this crucial time that Twilight's Ponyville friends, also known as the Elements to the public arrived though admittedly a few hours late. | - - - - - - - | The shield of the Crystal Empire was somehow still hanging on, even if the barrages of heavy laser fire and bombing from the Empire it clearly wasn't enough. By now some of the residents had evacuated to the far northern lands where temperatures can reach a freezing -89° Celcius on the coldest day of the year. Eventually, the shield cracked and with that so did the constant firing from the Empire. The Imperial Snowtroopers entered the city followed by one AT-AT and two AT-ST's, ordering everypony to surrender and gather at the center of the city. As for Twilight and her friends they knew that they needed to leave now, but with strong resistance from Shining. His argument was that he couldn't let the residents of the Crystal Empire suffer and possibly die while he could escape. "Shining, I know you want to stay with the population but without you, we'll have a hard time trying to fight this tyranny!" Twilight said in an attempt to convince her big brother to follow her and help. "I know you care about me Twily, but this is the right thing for me. To stay with my people. Go now while you have the chance, and remember. I'll always love you Twilight." Twilight knew she couldn't do much more, with this some tears came running down her eyes as she approached to hug her big brother. She hugged him and probably clinched onto him harder than she'd ever have done in her life when the hug ended she walked away. After Twilight, came Cadance who shared a kiss with her husband before the alicorn was about to go on a journey to save Equestria. When the kiss between the married couple ended, Cadance shared a last look on Shinin before turning around and joining Twilight, Luna and her friends. | - - - - - - - | Emperor Palpatine in his old office he had when he used to be the Supreme Chancellor during the Republic days. Back when he was manipulating the Jedi Order and the Senate to make his grand plan come true which did. He had always remembered the day Mace Windu entered the same office with three other Jedis to arrest him. They were foolish enough to realize they were walking into a trap and become the first victims of the Great Jedi Purge. After some additional minutes of just thinking he decided to contact his apprentice Darth Vader. The Sith Lord walked into a chamber specially build to call people via holograms, however, he mostly used it to talk with Darth Vader who ran his errands, making sure the galaxy was in check. Author's Note Apologies for the long wait, I had planned this chapter to be released last week but unfortunately due to the number of words in it I had to delay it. Also, I will stop posing the A/N on the blog so it will be here instead. I'll try posting the next chapter by next week but I can't guarantee anything. SkirmishWhile the majority of the Death Squadron was in the orbit of the planet, the Executor and the Behemoth were in the Atmosphere, surveying the landscape for threats. Onboard the Executor was Owyn. Undercover in the Empire and reporting everything back to the Rebellion. Lately, he had nothing to report and the Rebellion was even considering to transfer him to a hit & run squadron but he had found a goldmine of intel. Not only did he discover a new planet for the Rebellion but new species, species that could help the Rebellion. The only question was if Owyn could successfully report it back without getting caught. Owyn was confident he could do it, for the last 2 hours he had been looking for a spot to call the Rebellion but he had no luck. That was until he stumbled upon the Service Hatch for repairs to the engines. Owyn looked left and right to see if there was anyone that could see him, to his luck there was no one. Not even a mouse droid. He crouched down and turned the seal on the hatch towards the left, unlocking the hatch in doing so. He looked around again but there was no one. He lifted the hatch and descended using the ladder, once he was down he closed the catch and went on to find a good spot. The only downside with the service hatch was that it was right next to the engines so he could hear the powerful sound that almost made him deaf. But that wasn't going to stop him from contacting the Rebellion. Owyn looked around the last time before pulling out the hologram display out of his pocket and contacting the Rebellion. He waited a few seconds before a blue imagine was displayed. Owyn knew what he had to say and he knew it was likely that the Empire would find the transmission but it was a risk he had to take. "This is Fulcrum speaking. I am currently onboard the Executor, my cover has been good without any issues. I'm sending this transmission to inform the Rebellion that the Empire has discovered a new system. Equestria. The system currently only has one planet and a moon, but I think it's much bigger. The main Planet Equestria is inhabited by different species, some of them being called Ponies and Griffons," Owyn said. | - - - - - - - | "Lord Vader, we have a transmission currently being transmitted from this ship heading to the rebellion." Captain Darren said. "Locate the transmission's location at once." Darth Vader responded and left the bridge he was on. Using the force he attempted to guide himself towards the transmission, he could see a room, with loud noises being generated from it. No doubt it had to be the Service hatch next to the engines the Sith Apprentice thought. | - - - - - - - | "As for other information it doesn't seem that this planet has the technology that the galaxy posses, but it from what I've heard it is a very clean and beautiful place. I also got information that there are fugitives on the run, apparently high-value targets and having to do with the planet's old monarchy or something. I can't confirm these rumors but I bet they're authentic. I'm afraid my cover has been blown by this transmission, I will see what I can do to escape before I get cau-" Owyn was lifted off the ground by the force. At the same time, he couldn't breathe, he moved his hands upwards towards his throat where he tried to breathe normally but to no avail. Eventually, he was then turned around and to his surprise, he saw Darth Vader and two Stormtroopers with blue markings on their armor. He recognized those markings as the ones that the 501st wear, also known as Vader's fist. He could see the Sith Lord pull out his lightsaber and it illuminating a red light. He knew what was about to happen. Suddenly he felt being pulled by the force towards the lightsaber and then it hit. The lightsaber went right inside, going through his abdomen like it was nothing. He looked at Darth Vader before his eyes switched off. Owyn was dead. Vader switched off his lightsaber and let the body fall down towards the floor. Unfortunately, Vader didn't come in time to stop the transmission from being sent. But at least the Rebellion didn't have the coordinates. Unless they were to track where the transmission came from. | - - - - - - - | "Princess! We've got a transmission from Fulcrum!" A Rebel Officer shouted the Command Center of Echo Base. "Patch it through, we need to know what Fulcrum has to say." Princess Leia said. The Rebel Officer did so, tapping on the buttons on the large hologram display. When the officer was done he pressed a button next to Leia and the logo of Fulcrum appeared on the display. 'This is Fulcrum speaking. I am currently onboard the Executor, my cover has been good without any problems. I'm sending this transmission to inform the Rebellion that the Empire has discovered a new system, Equestria. The system currently only has one planet and a moon, but I think it's much bigger. The main Planet Equestria is inhabited by different species, some of them being called Ponies and Griffons,' said Fulcrum through his distorted voice to cover his identity. 'As for other information it doesn't seem that this planet has the technology that the galaxy posses, but it from what I've heard it is a very clean and beautiful place. I also got information that there are fugitives on the run, apparently high-value targets and having to do with the planet's old monarchy or something. I can't confirm these rumors but I bet they're authentic.' I'm afraid my cover has been blown by this transmission, I will see what I can do to escape before I get cau-' It was at that stop that the transmission ended. "We have no clue why the transmission ended short but our guess is that he was unfortunately caught in the middle of it." The officer said. Leia didn't respond. To her when a rebel died was the almost the same feeling when her homeworld of Aldeeran was destroyed by the Death Star. Over a billion people died on that day, including her adoptive father Prince and former Senator Bail Organa and adoptive mother Queen Breha Organa. She of course still carried the title "Princess". Everyone in the Rebellion used, seeing it as a better title than "Ma'am." | - - - - - - - | Although the Empire never did bomb or attack a civilization at this large scale to bring them into the Empire they did this time as they had no intel if they had any defenses. Not to mention that they learned that the Unicorns had magic which could be used to attack Stormtroopers. But it raised a bigger issue, the bombing runs had done their job. Maybe even overdone it because the Empire now had to rebuild Equestria. Cities like Ponyville lay in ruins, often nopony walking in the streets. But miles away from Ponyville was Twilight, her friends, Luna and Cadance. Running from the Empire. They knew the Windigos and other horrible disasters could come if the Empire wasn't driven away, but they had nothing to match them. Not even something to at least injure a Stormtrooper. Sure they had destroyed an AT-AT but they had been lucky because that AT-AT was very close to not tipping over in fact Their best chance was if someone could help them. In the past, everyone relied on Twilight Sparkle to help them in events like these. But now, all of them including Twilight were hoping for a miracle. Someone to help them. Maybe a defector or another faction that comes from the same place as them but with the intention of helping the ponies instead of enslaving and killing them. Fortunately, the Rebellion was here to help but they didn't know. They didn't know that far far away there as an alliance trying to figure out the location from where the Transmission of Owyn came from. They knew it came from Equestria, but Equestria didn't exist on the map of the galaxy. The Unknown Regions were known for one thing. Its name, everything here was unknown and barely anything of the Unknown Regions was even discovered. Unfortunately for the Rebels, the Empire had likely better maps thanks to Grand Admiral Thrawn who spent his time in the Unknown Regions, exploring and preparing defenses for the Empire. Defenses against an unknown species. Those species were the Yuuzhan-Vong, but Thrawn had no idea about that. Only them and some Chiss knew about them. In truth the Yuuzhan-Vong had prepared to attack the galaxy for more than 20 years, it was a question when and not if it was gonna come. | - - - - - - - | The group of escaping ponies had probably run for an hour straight when they decided to stop when it was time for the lowering the sun and raising the moon, but there was a problem. The sun hadn't been lowered yet which meant the moon couldn't rise. But Celestia wasn't here, she couldn't lower the sun because she was held captive, likely onboard one of the Imperial Ships, even though Twilight had once done the job of raising and lowering the sun and moon it was a challenge for Luna as she didn't have all the Alicorn powers, only her own. But Luna was confident, she always was, she could theoretically do the job with the downside of being extremely exhausted afterward. "Luna, are you sure you're going to be able to lower the sun and raise the moon at the same time? Are you sure you don't want help?" Twilight asked the older Princess. "Thank you Twilight Sparkle for volunteering but I should do this alone, for everypony's safety," Luna responded. She took a few steps forward and positioned herself. Then she lighted up her horn, creating a blue aura around it. The sun began to go down slowly, but it was evident that the Princess was struggling. Sweat could be seen coming from her from exhaustion. The sun came down and now she had to raise the moon with the little energy she had left. Slowly the moon became visible and not long after it was in its right position. With the moon came the stars and the constellations, it always was a beautiful sight but not when elsewhere there were innocent ponies | - - - - - - - | "Lord Vader...." Palpatine said. "Yes my lord?" Darth Vader asked. "I have new orders.. for you.... Move the fleet to the Outer Rim and look for young Skywalker and his puny rebel friends." "But my lord, who shall provide Security here?" "Do not worry about that... Grand Admiral Thrawn is on his way, so is Captain Pallaeon.." The Sith Master disappeared from the display, with that Darth Vader rise up and left the meditation chamber heading to the bridge. The doors to the bridge opened, Captain Darren was on the bridge and looking at the landscape but quickly turned around when he heard Darth Vader's presence. "Captain, order all Imperial Forces except for the ones stationed on the Behemoth to return to their ship now and make the jump to Hyperspace when finished." Darth Vader ordered. "Yes my Lord." Darren quickly went over to a Navigator and got his attention, relaying the orders to the Navigator. | - - - - - - - | Pinkie Pie always saw happiness, even on dark days like these she couldn't stop smiling and jump without stopping. Some ponies considered it unnatural but to her, it was natural and her friends knew it as well. While her friends and the two Princesses were resting at an abandoned lodge, Pinkie did the honors of making sure no Imperials were in the area. That was until she could hear a loud noise coming from behind her. At first, she thought it was an animal but on closer inspection, she saw that the giant dark ship was leaving. The Pink mare quickly ran inside the lodge to alert her friends who thought she was joking. But when they heard the noise they realized Pinkie was right. "Aw yeah! We made those cowards run!" Rainbow Dash said. "Do not jump to conclusions Rainbow Dash. The smaller ship is still here and is not leaving by the looks of it." Luna responded. Even though she didn't know it, Luna was right. The Executor was on it's way to run some of Palpatine's other errands. One of them was finding Luke Skywalker and destroying the new Rebel Base. Suddenly though, sounds could be heard. They were unclear but the group could make it out as words, and it didn't sound like ponies. "I heard something here." After that a sound of something being turned on could be heard, unknowingly it was an E-11 Blaster having it's safety turned off. The group now knew who it was, the Imperials. They quickly hid from them, not wanting to attract attention and having to run again, especially not when some of them were exhausted. Then another voice could be heard, coming from another Stormtrooper, probably a high rank. "Probably just some wildlife, regroup at Sector 7B with Task Force-Bravo." With that, the Imperials went away. One week later The Chimaera along with numerous other Star Destroyers were in orbit of the planet, onboard the Chimaera was none other than Grand Admiral Thrawn. But he wasn't on the bridge overseeing the defenses or commanding troops on the planet. No, he was in his office, an office filled with paintings, artifacts and other pieces of cultural items of different species and native groups. To Thrawn these weren't garbage unlike what the Empire thought, they were valuables, items that he cared about. The reason why Thrawn was one of the smartest if not the smartest in the Imperial Navy and High Command. All his battles ended in victory, except for some encounters with the Phoenix Squadron. This time Thrawn was obviously studying on these new species, the pony. The galaxy had never seen a species such as them so for him it was a priority to get knowledge on them. Thankfully Imperial Commando's and archived books in the libraries were enough for him, to him learning about their magic and their way of life was not just fascinating, but an opportunity to prove to bring this world into Imperial Loyalty, even though his orders were to not let word of this planet come to the public eyes. The only ships from the Death Squadron that were left were the Behemoth, High Admiral Vosh's flagship, even though all the other ships were in orbit the Behemoth was in the atmosphere, hovering above Canterlot. But it was there for a few reasons, one was to be a mobile command center and command the Imperial Forces on the planet. But the more important reason was to show the ponies that the Empire was in control, not some alicorns with powerful magic. By now it had become a normal sight for the ponies, seeing the Imperial-II Class Star Destroyer hovering above what once used to be the home for their rulers On the ground, major repairs had begun in the cities affected by the attacks, fortunately, the ponies were lucky. In the past, the Empire had used depressing grey concrete and built every house together but the fleet didn't have any building materials so the Empire had to recycle it. Along the finished residences, posters were put. To be more specific, propaganda, trying to make the population rally behind the Empire and support them. Unfortunately for the Empire, none of the ponies understood Galactic Basic, this was why the school program was being remade. Ideas of Independence or anything related to Rebellion and Defiance was to be removed, the Empire would need loyal subjects in the future. | - - - - - - - | The screaming noise from a TIE Fighter could be heard, flying above the Ghastly Gorge before quickly pulling up to avoid crashing. While the Empire knew there were some fugitives they didn't know how many or how strong. But to them it was a priority to find them, they could spread ideas of rebellion, defiance, and hope into the new Imperial population. Those thoughts were somewhat what the group of ponies had in mind, their goal was to fight back and not accept the Imperial occupation, but using force would be their last option, their first choice was surprisingly diplomacy, unfortunately, though the Empire doesn't take Diplomacy and results to force as their first choice. "Twilight, A think it be better if we rest, we hav' been walking the whole day and ma hoofs are startin' to hurt." Applejack said.¨ "Rest in the Ghastly Gorge where a rock can fall down on us? Forget that!" Twilight responded, even though she also somewhat agreed with Applejack. Applejack was about to respond back when she realized that Twilight had a point, at any moment a rock could fall and hurt them really bad. The best option seemed like the worst one but it was the safest one and in fact the best one. It maybe took 2 or 3 hours until the group made it out of the gorge but when they did they had an opportunity to rest, to their luck another abandoned lodge was at the end, but instead of being a residence it was the old Gorge Patrol headquarters, it was better than nothing so the group settled there. Being a fugitive meant that you need to run every day and sleep wherever you end up, in this case, an office building. | - - - - - - - | The night shined bright, the moon was visible in the sky, a reminder of the beauty the night provided, together with the stars and the night sky made it a beautiful sight, almost comparable to a painting. But to Task Force-Bravo it didn't matter. The night was just camouflage for them. Their jet black armor was almost impossible to see in the dark. The only part of their armor visible was the green lights under the helmet. A scrambled voice spoke from one of the troopers, a scrambled voice to hide their strategy, to prevent their enemy from learning. A scrambled voice quickly responded and took out binoculars to recon the area. Infront of the trooper was a Gorge, at the end was a lodge with its lights turned on. This had to be the place the trooper thought. He made hand signals, ordering his men to move forward. Towards the lodge. Every step they took could alert the fugitives, every breath they took could too. Anything could, even a pony on a night promenade could. The fearless and deadly Death Trooper Squad moved through the gorge, blasters raised high. One had a rocket launcher with his weapon holstered, one had a sniper rifle, one had a heavy rifle while the other two including the Commander had their standard issue blaster rifle. The Death Trooper was the most elite trooper in the Empire behind the Royal Guard and ahead of the Special Forces. Trained in deadly tactics, they're the most loyal force in the Imperial Military, trained from a young age these soldiers knew everything like the back of their hand. They followed their orders always, never questioned them, even if they had to kill one of their own or kill innocent civilians. They did it for the Empire because the Empire was their home and family. And thanks to the Unit 19 who reported strange noises sounding like speech from a lodge in their patrol area Task Force-Bravo managed to track them down and prove to the Empire how good of a soldier they were. | - - - - - - - | The iconic Millennium Falcon was in hyperspace, surrounded by the blue walls that were spinning around the ship, mixed with a little white here and there. The ship's destination Equestria. Captain Solo or as he preferred to be called: Han Solo was accompanied by his best friend Chewbacca and four rebel soldiers, all of them were elite soldiers, while maybe not special forces they still were much better than the average rebel who was young, weak and had low morale. "We'll be arriving that weird Quest world soon, better hang on." Han Solo said to the four rebels. The four troopers nodded and sat down next to a table. While Han Solo didn't wish to do this mission, he had been forced by Leia, not only had he been forced but these missions he hated the most. Escort missions. His destination was, of course, Equestria, but he was escorting a Blockade Runner, a CR90 Corellian Corvette to be more precise. Of course, he wasn't alone, 3 members of Green Squadron, 3 agile A-Wings. The ship made some noises before eventually a large braking force could be felt, making the ship exit hyperspace. Han Solo was greeted by 6 Star Destroyers he counted along with 2 Victory Class Star Destroyers and 4 Arquintens Class Light Cruisers, not to mention the TIE's patrolling in the sector. "This will be fun." Han Solo thought. The patrolling TIE Fighters then turned around and began heading towards the Millenium Falcon and the three starfighters while the Blockade Runner was going full speed towards the surface of the planet, going unnoticed by the Imperial Pilots. Han quickly pushed a lever and made the Falcon advance towards the planet Equestria. He then pushed a button to activate the afterburners to make his ship go faster hoping to outrun the agile TIEs. The Falcon entered the atmosphere and was immediately met by the Behemoth, in response Han pulled up and avoided a collision, turning off the afterburners at the same time. Chewbacca reached out his arm to activate the lights of the Falcon to help Han in the night. "Let's just find those passengers and get out of here!" Han shouted, hearing a growl from Chewbacca in agreement. What looked like a task that could take days or months to complete was fortunately for Han not needed as apparently today was his lucky day, Chewbacca spotted Imperial Troopers thanks to green lights on their helmet and he immediately informed Han. Han quickly put on a piece of headware to contact the Blockade Runner "Hey! Blockade Runner, I think we found the place!" Han then saw how the Corvette changed direction and headed towards the lodge but not before being spotted by the Death Troopers who began firing, especially the one with the rocket launcher who fired one rocket and nearly hit the corvette's engines. "We can't land unless you take out that Anti-Air Trooper!" the Rebel Commander said. At the same time on the ground, the group had been alerted by the sounds of the ships and the rocket flying past the lodge. Cadance looked out the window and saw the Imperial Death Troopers, in doing so she quickly alerted the other ponies of the discovery. All of them knew that it was risky to go outside, they could easily be shot or captured. Best bet was to wait inside and hope for the best. The Millenium Falcon landed the door opening and the four elite rebels getting out and opening fire at the Death Troopers who had taken cover. The sounds of the A280 Carbine rifle and the E-11D filling the air was just a reminder to the ponies that their doom is coming. One of the rebels ran towards the lodge, opening the door quickly as he entered and seeing the ponies. "Are you the High-Value targets?" he asked. "Uh, what do you mean by High-Value?" Rainbow Dash responded. "Are you the ones having to do something with an old monarchy?" "Yes, that's us," Twilight said. "Alright, just follow me and we'll get you to safety." The Rebel peeked out the door and saw that the Corvette hadn't landed yet but was approaching land. That was when a rocket from the Anti-Air Death Trooper hit the engines, causing them to explode and have fire spreading throughout the ship. The Corvette began going down fast and hit the ground, the cockpit flying away while the rest caught on fire, debris scattered everywhere some survivors struggling to exit the burning wreckage, fortunately, it created some cover for the rebels who had been previously vulnerable. "JUST STAY DOWN!" The rebel yelled and began running towards the Millenium Falcon. The ponies did as told and followed him towards the iconic ship. In the air, TIE's of all kinds were dogfighting the A-Wings, when one TIE Interceptor hit one of the A-Wings in the left engine exhaust and as of result the A-Wing began spinning to the left uncontrollably, headed towards the ground. The A-Wing smashed into the gorge, an explosion following it and the pilot being killed on impact. The Rebel reached the Falcon and stood by the ramp, indicating the ponies to enter the ship which they did, one by one entering the Millenium Falcon. "THAT'S ALL, LET'S GET OUT OF HERE WHILE WE CAN!" The same rebel shouted. Two rebels went inside while one was shot in the back while entering. The last one dragged the injured one inside and pushed a button to close the ramp door. The ship pulled up and blasted off the ground towards space followed by the two A-Wings and TIEs. The ship then began speeding up a lot, and before everyone knew it all ships were in Hyperspace, minus the crashed Corvette and the destroyed A-Wing. But everyone was left with questions, the rebels wondering what those ponies were and the ponies asking themselves what just happened. Did they just get taken by undercover Imperials? Were these defectors? Or was this a rescue operation? Either way, they still were grateful that they got rescued from what could have been the end of their plans to liberate Equestria, a rescue they just might never forget. Han Solo then stepped out of the cockpit, looking at the creatures he had never seen before in his life, wondering what they were. He then saw the confusion that their faces had and knew he had to say something and decided to be honest for once. "Don't you all worry, we're also questioning what just happened." Han Solo said. Author's Note Thank you all for reading the third chapter of An Imperial Occupation. Chapter Four will be uploaded either next week or the week after. I might also be releasing a second story at the same time! OperationsA year would pass since the small skirmish near the Ghastly Gorge, a year Equestria has been under the control of the tyrannical Galactic Empire. The Battle of Hoth had weakened the Rebellion massively, almost destroying the entire ground forces and with some of the rebellion's leaders going missing and presumed to at the gas planet Bespin before escaping at the cost of Captain Solo being captured. Still, to this day he remains captured but the rebels are saying he's been found and a rescue operation has been planned. The group of ponies that had barely escaped their planet of birth, Equestria, were currently onboard a Corvette, a similar one to the one that crashed and almost killed them a year ago. The Corellian Corvette "Admirable II", named after Admiral Juno's Venator 'Admirable' and his heroic crew during the Clone Wars, was currently patrolling the area at The Wheel for Imperial Activity, which had been high lately. Fortunately, the Corvette wasn't alone and was escorted by another Corvette and a squadron of X-Wing Fighters along with three Ace A-Wing Pilots and the small fleet's flagship being a Nebulon-B Frigate 'Aldeeran Sky' which was named in honor of Aldeeran after it's destruction. Twilight and her friends had been giving rooms onboard the Admirable II for as long as they'd be needed, the rooms were quite simple: One bed, a small writing desk, a closet and a washroom, not to mention it was quite cramped but so far all of them had managed it. In command of the small fleet was Commander Fogles, a member of the Twi'Lek species. | - - - - - - - | Ponyville and all the other cities and villages destroyed in the invasion were now rebuilt and looked just like they used to, however the pony population had been fortunate as the Empire usually built grey depressing small huts that usually were about the size of an X-Wing, they didn't this time because the Empire was seeking to keep the system a secret, just like the world of Byss. Therefore it couldn't employ its contractors for building materials. On the marketplace of Ponyville business was back to normal, or so it seemed. In the middle of the marketplace were three Stormtroopers, one of them being a Sergeant. In one of the corners was a hidden AT-ST, waiting for the slightest sight of a rebellious pony. "There's nothing here, move to Sector G17." The Sergeant said. The three Stormtroopers began leaving the marketplace, shortly after the previously hidden AT-ST began moving, following them and at the same time nearly crushing a shop. In another part of town was a red-coated stallion, going by the name of Big Macintosh. He was transporting some apples to the Sugar Cube Corner. Just when he was about to enter the small town that was Ponyville he was stopped by two Stormtroopers, one of them being a Commander. To the left was a flagpole with the Imperial Flag and to the right was a small building and a parking space for speeder bikes. "What's your cargo?" The Stormtrooper asked. Shortly after the Stormtrooper Commander went over the small cart to check what it was. "Apples." The stallion answered with. The Commander looked thoroughly through the cart for any contraband or outlawed items. "He's clear." The Commander said. "Alright, let me see some identification." The Stormtrooper said. Big Mac looked back at the cart and made a gesture with his head. The Stormtrooper looked confused and switching off the safety of his gun just in case. "What are you doing?" "In there." The stallion responded. Still confused, the stormtrooper raised and aimed his E-11 Blaster at the red pony. The Commander, being smart decided to listen to the pony and looked around in the cart again, finding the ID card. "Oh, he meant it was in there." The Stormtrooper lowered his blaster and turned safety back on. The Commander looked at the card to see if the information checked out. Unsurprisingly it did. "Move along, move along." The Commander said. | - - - - - - - | "Alert, A rebel fleet has come out of hyperspace, man your battle stations now. This is a drill." The speakers onboard the Chimaera were saying. Squads of Stormtrooper were running slowly towards their battle stations, which often was either helping the crew or providing security in case the ship was to be boarded. Officers and crew ran at the same time to their posts, which obviously were the command centers onboard, every post had to be fully manned for a successful battle. "Time them," Thrawn said. "Yes, sir." The Lieutenant answered. The Lieutenant quickly pressed a few buttons to start a timer. Thrawn wanted to obviously time how fast it'd take for all the men onboard to reach their battle stations. But this wasn't the only drill planned for today, he still planned for an engine destruction drill and a fire in the main reactor drill. All of this to make sure his crew would be ready at all times and to have them prepared for anything, even when faced with death. "Sir, it took 4 minutes and 37 seconds for all crew to reach mission-critical stations and 5 minutes and 14 seconds to reach all other stations." The Lieutenant said. "Good, but not good enough, schedule a second rebel attack drill for tomorrow," Thrawn ordered. Thrawn would stand up and walk away, away to his personal quarters before stopping abruptly. "On second thought. Prepare for the jump to lightspeed, destination Csilla. Have High Admiral Vosh take over the planet's planetary defense under my supervision while I am at my homeworld. I need to complete my mapping of the Unknown Regions." Thrawn said, walking away shortly after. "Yes, sir." The Lieutenant said. | - - - - - - - | "We should hurry up Twilight, we don't want to miss this," Cadance said to her sister in law. "You're right, don't wanna miss this." the alicorn said in response and began following the older alicorn. What Cadance was referring to was something big, something that they've all been waiting for. A possible liberation of Equestria. Luna and Twilight's friends were already in the briefing room, sitting there and waiting for the two royalties to arrive. In the middle of the room was a hologram projector that projected the live image of Admiral Ackbar. Just when Ackbar was to commence his briefing did the two ponies arrive in the room, they looked for a place to sit down and saw two available spots near Rarity where they would sit down, ready to listen what the Admiral had to say. "Members of the Rebel Alliance, we recognize that the war against the Galactic Empire has slowed down recently, we are at the moment losing wars on crucial planets to the rebellion such as Mon Calamari where the Empire is willing to stop our capital ship production." "But in this time, we are a mobile, mobile enough to avoid the Imperial Navy and start supporting and liberating worlds that don't wish to be under the Empire's control." "I've spoken with Princess Leia and Mon Mothma and we have decided to launch a full-scale assault to liberate the world known as Equestria from the Empire." "But our rebel spies have informed us that Grand Admiral Thrawn may be present, we all know what a deadly commander he is and how he destroys Rebel Fleets for fun." "But we will prevail, we have the strength, the morale, the soldiers to win, and show that we are are a threat to the Empire and defeat them!" "This fleet, commanded by Commander Fogles will be reinforced with capital ships, support vessels and additional starfighters including Y-Wing Bombers to complete this task." "May the force be with you." The hologram projector switched off and up stepped Commander Fogles, the highest ranked rebel in this fleet for what everyone guessed was to be a short speech or a motivational talk, while they were sort of-right it wasn't really what they had guessed. "We will be launching this attack next week, I want you all to be ready because this may a battle bigger than Hoth, Yavin IV or any upcoming battles with the Empire. It will not be easy, there will be death, suffering, and sacrifices. But we shall prevail victoriously." | - - - - - - - | With the announcement of the attack and liberation of Equestria confirmed, there was nothing else to worry about. Equestria was soon to become free and they'd get to return home where they could live in peace and harmony. The day was to come, it had to. What else was there to attack? The Imperial Factories and Refineries on Sullust were too heavily defended for the rebels, the Fondor and Kuat Shipyards had powerful defenses that could rip apart an MC80 Cruiser in mere seconds and Coruscant being the heart of the Empire had at least two Super Star Destroyers and 30+ Star Destroyers guarding it. Equestria only had about 4-6 Star Destroyers guarding it so it'd be a well-matched target for the Rebellion's capable fleet. Equestria's time for liberation has come. Author's Note Apologies for the short chapter, I will make the next one longer, much longer. As for my second story, it's release will have to be delayed so it'll likely come out next week or so. Oh and don't be shy to post constructive criticism, I won't send you to the dungeons for that. One more thing, I've changed the story's picture to better fit the fanfic, it doesn't feel right to have Darth Vader on there but only having him so far in three chapters. Battle of Equestria IA week had passed, the final strategy meeting had taken place, everyone knew what role they'd have during the battle. The ponies had unsurprisingly been given no role at all in the battle, they'd just be observing while the Rebels did the heavy lifting. The fleet was almost at Equestria, only a few minutes and the battle would begin, a battle to liberate the ponies of Equestria. New Intel had unfortunately suggested that the Empire had reinforced the planet with additional support vessels and two Star Destroyers with a few more ships on their way. Rainbow Dash would normally love dangerous moments this would be no exception at first glance, but the young pegasi weren't enthusiastic as she always was, she was curious. What could happen? Will I die? Were some of the questions that floated freely throughout the head. For others like Luna and Cadance, they were only thinking about getting to reunite with Celestia and Shining Armor. But those three weren't the only having thoughts like that. Twilight Sparkle thought about how Equestria had changed over the year, was it just like before? Was it completely new and had high-rise buildings left and right with no sight of vegetation? Rarity was thinking about what clothes people were wearing now, Fluttershy about the animals and hoping to see none of them affected by the tyranny of the Empire, Applejack was thinking about getting to reunite with her big brother and her grandma but also the quiet and beautiful country life. Lastly, Pinkie Pie was thinking about nothing, just parties? The fleet was moments away from exiting hyperspace, moments before it'd engage the enemy fleet: The Imperial Navy. Them it was heard. "All men, man your battle stations. This is not a drill, we will be leaving hyperspace shortly. The announcement said. Following this, footsteps of the Rebel soldiers could be heard, running to their battle stations whether it was a communications outpost or the Ion Cannons. An alarm could be heard as well. It wasn't a loud one like the abandon ship ones but it still was quite loud, probably to inform the listener that battle is coming. | - - - - - - - | The loud noises of the hyperdrive stopped and a strong braking force could be felt, not strong enough to send someone flying but strong enough to inform that you've arrived at the destination. Immediately the sounds of the Corvette's engines running. Its role was to destroy enemy fighters before they could reach the vulnerable parts of the capital ship, the MC80 'Resurgence' The noises of the A-Wings leaving the hangars of the Corvette made it seem like this would be a battle that's going to last for ages, though in reality, it wouldn't. The pilots of the rebellion were often less experienced than their Imperial Counterparts, but the motivation they received and the advanced starfighters made it an even fight. One of those pilots was Takar, an X-Wing pilot flying as Red 6, he defected from the Empire after the Battle of Scarif, seeing the horror that the Death Star could do and not feel right about being on the side that was responsible for the atrocities. "Red Six, reporting in," Takar said. "Alright Red Squadron, let's show the empire what we got! Attack the Shield Generators on that Star Destroyer to the left!" His Squadron Leader said. Takar complied with the orders and turned to his left, following the other X-Wings and preparing for an attack run. Immediately though he was met by thousands of TIEs, including some TIE Phantoms he saw. The Turbo lasers fired at the X-Wing, almost hitting Red Six. But Takar, being an experienced pilot was able to avoid the flak, being able to complete his bombing run and damage one of the Shield Generators. "That's a hit!" His Squadron Leader said. "Yeah, but no damage Red Leader," Takar said. "Still a hit, let's keep hitting and we might get some damage!" Takar chuckled quietly and added additional thrust to the engines, he spotted a TIE Bomber to his right and decided to destroy it. He moved the control stick to the right slightly, then looking at the aim assistant for the target to get into the middle of the screen so he could fire. He watched as the target went right, left, right and left a couple of times on the little screen, but then it steadied and landed right in the middle of the screen. Without further hesitation, Takar pressed a button on the control stick to fire. The shots hit the TIE Bomber with precise accuracy. The left wing began to smoke and then collapsed. The Bomber began going turning sharply to the left and exploded after having traveled almost down to the atmosphere of the planet. Takar pulled up, having his X-Wing head towards the same shield generator he hit earlier. But then a problem occurred... A red warning light began to flash in the cockpit, followed by a rather quiet alarm. "I'm losing engine power!" High Admiral Vosh had been wise, he had placed the fleet inside of the gravitational pull zone of the planet which meant that Takara's X-Wing would be pulled by the gravitational force into the Star Destroyer and die. "R-8, do something!" The T-65B X-Wing began to plummet down towards the Star Destroyer. Takar tried one last time to get his engines running but it was too late. The X-Wing smashed into the Star Destroyer, an explosion coming from the destroyed fighter. Takar was gone. "Red Six is down!" On the opposite side of the battlefield was Jonua, an Imperial Ace pilot flying the dangerous TIE Defender. Jonua had been in the empire for the past 7 years and she had enjoyed all her time in it. She grew up in Vardos, a pro-Imperial world renowned for producing elite Imperial soldiers such as Commander Iden Versio of Inferno Squad. Jonua accelerated her TIE Defender to max speed and spotted two rebel Y-Wing Bombers heading her way. She quickly rolled left, managing to avoid a collision. She then turned her fighter around and was right behind the two bombers, right where she wanted to be. She locked into the left one, firing proton torpedos at the Bomber and witnessing it explode and disappear. She then locked onto the next one and with the powerful and fast firing canons of the Defender she took out the last bomber in a matter of seconds. "Job well done." She said to herself. | - - - - - - - | "Commander, the Imperial Star Destroyer has locked us into its tractor beam!" An officer shouted across the deck. "Poodoo... Get us some fighters to destroy the source so that we can break free!" Fogles responded, before running over to the intercom. "Alert, we've been caught in a tractor beam. I want all Fleet Troopers to secure all entrance points onboard this Corvette, do not let them enter this ship!" Fogles turned it off and ran back to where he was earlier, he looked out the window and could see how the Corvette was nearly inside the hangar of the Star Destroyer. Fogles had to make a decision, he knew that the royalties of the planet were onboard his vessel and was about to be boarded, he had to make a decision and time wasn't on his side. "Get those monarchs into an escape pod towards the planet. We cannot risk their captivity." Fogles ordered. | - - - - - - - | A Rebel Fleet Trooper holding his DH-17 Blaster in one hand was following his friend who held an A280-CFE and the same uniform. The fleet trooper's name was Zinn. The iconic white hat, a black vest, a blue shirt and some dark pants. The Uniform was stood out against all other uniforms and it was no question why. The two soldiers reached the rooms of the ponies, just as they could begin to hear blaster shots from a corridor nearby. The trooper ordered his friend to get the rooms longer down the hallway while he'd get ones here. The young soldier pressed the button to open the door and saw the white unicorn with a purple mane sitting in her bed. "We're getting you out of here, it's an emergency. Come on!" The rebel soldier yelled, but not high enough to alert the Stormtroopers not far from them. The rebel soldier did the same to the other rooms, getting the ponies out and once he saw that he and his friend had all of them they ran towards the escape pods. Zinn soldier checked his corners, seeing that it was clear he told the group and his friend to continue moving and to cross the corridor. Once they got into the escape pods room he closed the door and locked it by doing the classic 'shoot the door control'. "Alright, this is how we'll do it. The tallest of you go into Pod 1, the others into Pod 2, I and my friend will go into Pod 3. Got it?" "Yes, we understand." The dark blue pony answered. All of them did as told, entering the correct pod that they were assigned to. Zinn first checked to see if all pods were correctly sealed before launching them, he checked pod number ones but had to cancel checking the other pod when he saw that the Stormtroopers had destroyed the door leading to the escape pods and began firing at him. (Rewrite this part) Zinn quickly ran into his escape pod and closed the door, once he saw that it was sealed he pressed two buttons that launched all the other pods, he knew that the Stormtroopers would report to the Star Destroyer that he and the ponies had escaped in pods, therefore he launched additional ones in an attempt to lure the Empire into shooting down the wrong ones. The pod shoot out of the ship and began heading down towards the planetary surface. Out of the small window on the escape pod, you could see how close they were to getting obliterated and having their dead bodies left to freeze in the vacuum of space. Though suddenly the front began to heat up, indicating that the escape pod was entering the atmosphere and mere moments from hitting the ground. Zinn pushed a button to slow down the descent of the pod for a safe landing. "I suggest you brace..." Zinn said to his friend. The escape pod carrying Twilight, Cadance, and Luna had already hit the ground with a successful landing. The other one carrying the Main 6 except for Twilight had also already landed but had a rougher landing, fortunately, no one got hurt. Zinn's pod was mere moments from hitting the ground. He looked at his friend one last time before being felt the hard impact with the ground, for him it felt like he was inside a Corvette about to be destroyed. And he had already been in such situation. "Are you okay?" Zinn asked. "Yeah, yeah." His friend Relio, said. "Good to hear, let's get out and see if they're okay." Relio did the honors of opening the door. The escape pod's door began to open, white smoke came out as it was unpressurized. Zinn stepped out and was greeted by the sight of the space battle above, he saw how one of the Nebulon-B Frigates was disabled and started heading downwards towards the planet for a crash. His friend Relio stepped out. A part of the engines fell off and crashed about 200 meters from them, the Frigate hit the ground and a minor explosion followed, Zinn took his micro binoculars and observed the crash site. He witnessed the crashed frigate and saw that it had crashed on a railroad leading up to a mountain where a city laid. Relio looked to his right and saw the ponies. "Glad to know you're all safe, now we better get out of here before the Empire arrives," Relio said. | - - - - - - - | High Admiral Vosh was on the bridge of his Star Destroyer The 'Behemoth'. One of the Empire's many Star Destroyers. He was observing the battle looking for potential targets to weaken the enemy fleet. His second in command, Captain Reeech approached him. "Sir, the..." Reeech was trying to say but was struggling to find the words to describe something. "Spit it out Captain," Vosh demanded. "The Menacer is reporting a loss of hydraulics and critical damage to the Shield Generator. Captain Mapona is requesting fighter cover while they repair, what shall we do?" "Send TIE Fighter Squadron 17, 18 and TIE Interceptor Squadron 6. That should be enough for now, but for safety have the Menacer back up a little so it won't be the main target for the Y-Wing Bombers." Vosh ordered. "Yes, sir." Reeech walked to one of the control pits on the bridge to give the Communications Chief his orders. Then Reeech would supervise the men on the bridge, making sure they were doing their jobs. Vosh looked at the MC80 Liberty Type Cruiser that served as the flagship for the Rebel Fleet. He then looked to the left of the Cruiser and saw the 'Nightwing' taking lots of fire from the MC80 and the Support ships in the enemy fleet. Vosh stepped up and pressed and held a red button to open a communications bridge towards the Star Destroyer. "Commander, move out of the area. You're going to be destroyed within the next few minutes if you don't move." Vosh said. "But sir, we've captured a rebel ship. If we want to get out of fast we'd need to drop it!" The Commander on the other ship argued. "Then let go off the ship at once and regroup with the fleet, we cannot underestimate our enemy." Vosh finished. Vosh looked once more at the MC80 and saw how it was undamaged from this battle. His frustration grew and without hesitation, Vosh ordered all available TIE Bombers to attack the MC80 starting with the shield generator, then the Communications Relay and finally the engines. "I smell victory. And it smells really good." Vosh muttered. | - - - - - - - | Shortly after the Escape pods had hit the ground the FOB not far from the location was scrambling all it's available forces for the intervention of the Rebel escape. Inside of the Command Center was Captain Hutska. Captain Hutska was not an ordinary captain of the Imperial Ground Forces Division. He was a part of the Imperial Security Bureau also known as the ISB. He was currently undercover as Captain Hutska but his real name and rank were Agent Quirks. "The Nightwing reported escape pods launching from the captured Corvette, they believe the pods landed south of the base. Now let's move it and kill whatever escaped!" The Undercover ISB Officer said to his men over the intercom at the Forward Operating Base. The gates of the base opened and immediately two speeder bikes manned by two Biker Scouts were gone from the base. Their destination was south of the base, as orders had said to destroy the escaped rebels and whatever they took with them. The agile and fast speeder bike would get to the location of the crashed escape pods within a few minutes easy, the terrain was mostly flat and there were no obstacles unlike Endor which required you to be extremely careful or you'd end up crashing into a tree and dying. The Speeder Bikes were almost at their destination when suddenly one of the Biker Scouts was shot in the chest and fell off his bike. The scout was hit where his heart was located and therefore he died immediately. In response, the other biker scout began firing at the direction the bolt came from. He made sure to slow down his bike so that the primary guns wouldn't lose their accuracy at the high speed the bike was traveling. The Scout fired a laser barrage before his guns overheated, just in that time the same Rebel who had killed his friend shot again and hit the scout's left pelvic bone. "Gah!" The scout screamed in pain. The Scout looked at the direction where the shot had been taken and slowly saw a rebel soldier holding an A280-CFE in the sniper configuration coming up to him. The rebel aimed his blaster at the scout. "Please don't!" The Biker scout begged. The scout then saw a second rebel followed by a cyan pony that was hovering in the air coming up from a ditch. "Gun down Relio, we need to get out of here before more Imperials come." The other rebel said. "But he might just report our position!" Relio responded. "Well that's a risk we gotta take. Come on!" The other rebel began running towards the forest ahead. The Biker scout would take off his helmet, breathing heavily and looking around to see if reinforcements were approaching. When he didn't see any he decided to contact the FOB to inform them he was injured. "This is TK-9980, I've been badly injured and my squadmate has been killed. I request help immediately." TK-9980 waited for a response... "Copy that TK-9980, we're tracking your homing beacon and are dispatching a Medical Evac to assist," The Officer on the opposite side of the comlink said. | - - - - - - - | "Sir, Moff Raythe is requesting a status report on the battle." The Lieutenant said. "Tell him that I am unavailable at the moment." "Yes, sir." The MC80 Liberty Type Cruiser had begun taking damage, but it hardly wasn't enough to destroy it. The Rebel fighters were doing a darn good job of defending their only capital ship in the fleet. Then a window in the Imperial Defense opened, the Menacer's shield generators were disabled and now was the time to strike. Rebel Y-Wing Bombers began their bombing run and fired their proton torpedoes at the Turbolaser gun emplacements. Though before one of the Y-Wing bombers could release its payload it got hit, the left engine blew up and fell off and the Bomber began going down in a spiral. The Y-Wing began to slowly stabilize itself but it wasn't enough, the bomber crashed into one of the large engines on the Star Destroyer. The result was quite spectacular, the proton torpedo mixed with the explosion from the destroyed Y-Wing was barely enough to cause a chain reaction and have the engines explode. Because the engines were now destroyed the Star Destroyer began to be pulled by Equestria's gravitational force down towards the surface. Darren Vosh looked on in disbelief. The Star Destroyer began to heat up and escape pods could be seen launching from the doomed ship. Then the ship crashed. It hit the ground hard. The front of the ship exploded while the middle section managed to reduce the impact force. The Menacer was now a useless piece of junk lying in the woodlands as a reminder of the space battle that was starting to come to an end. The debris was either going to stay there forever or be salvaged by the Rebellion to preserve Equestria's delicate environment. Back in space Vosh's forces were starting to be depleted. All of his available TIE's were nearly gone with only a few squadrons remaining. The Rebels meanwhile had lost a few squadrons but were still outnumbering the Imperial forces. Although the Empire was losing the Starfighter battle, they were winning the ship to ship battle. The Imperial Fleet still had three Star Destroyers. The Nightwing, The Emperor's Wrath and Vosh's flagship The Behemoth And he, of course, had two more Victory-class Star Destroyers and some support vessels like the Arquintens class Light Cruisers which were dealing damage to the rebel fighters and combating the Corvettes of the Rebel Fleet. Suddenly a second MC80 followed by a third came out of hyperspace to the Empire's surprise. The two ships began to immediately fire at the Imperial fleet and Vosh quickly alerted that the Nightwing was taking heavy damage. The High Admiral wasn't about to let go of the system and give it to the Rebellion. He knew that he had lost, but he wasn't going down without causing damage to the planet. "Order all fighters to attack the capital ships, and prepare all available ships for an orbital bombardment," Vosh ordered. The ship began to tilt as to position itself for the orbital bombardment. Once the three Star Destroyers were in position the High Admiral gave the order to fire. The underbelly gun emplacements began to fire down at the planet. The city of Baltimare was unfortunate to be caught in the orbital bombardment... The city had been flattened, all buildings and residents were no more. Baltimare no longer existed... | - - - - - - - | The Nightwing was gone, the Star Destroyer had been destroyed and the debris came falling down like meteorites. Meanwhile, the Behemoth and the Emperor's Wrath had escaped the system with the Emperor's Wrath being in need of major repairs. The two remaining ships were not alone though. They were followed by two Victory Class Star Destroyers, three Arquintens Class Light Cruisers and one Interdictor Class Star Destroyer that had joined the battle late to change the odds back in the Empire's favor. Equestria's space defense was gone, what remained of the Imperials was on the planet only. Though some of the forces had already evacuated. The time for the ground invasion had begun. But the Rebellion knew it'd be difficult. The Empire's ground presence still outnumbered and outgunned the available rebel forces but the Rebels did have the advantage of aid superiority. The only problems were that an estimated number of 12 Squadrons had made it down to the planet to escape the space battle and support the ground forces. There also was one Victory Class Star Destroyer in the Atmosphere escorted by four Arquintens class Light Cruisers, but the Imperials knew that those ships wouldn't be enough to contain the Rebel Forces. Author's Note Thank you for reading this new chapter. While I did promise it'd be much longer than 'Operations' I had to leave it short for the next Chapter 'Battle of Equestria II' Next chapter will be released before Christmas, but don't expect me to release a new chapter at least a few days after the New Year's celebration. Battle of Equestria IIThe night was young and quiet with only the sound of rain filling the air in. The Rebel fleet was visible from the ground, by the looks of it one of the MC80's had left the fleet, probably to assist in the space battle over Mon Calamari. General Veers who previously was in command was no longer on the planet which meant that Brigadier Drant was in command of all forces on the planet. The Brigadier was at the largest base, Fort Kilo. The fort was south of Ponyville, more specifically south of Sweet Apple Acres. Brigadier Drant, in charge of the planets ground forces, was in his office at the base. Inside the office was the hologram display of Grand Admiral Thrawn and sitting on the opposite side of the table was Colonel Vikel. "Are you telling me that High Admiral Vosh retreated after losing the Nightwing?" Thrawn asked with a slightly angry tone. "Yes, sir. But to defend the High Admiral he was fighting a lost battle once those two Rebel Cruisers came out of hyperspace." The Brigadier said. "Hm. Since I wasn't present at the battle I will have to rely on the information you provided. I shall talk with the High Admiral myself." "But sir, what about us? We're stuck on this planet with no way to evacuate all forces." Colonel Vikel said after having been mostly quiet. "Do not worry about that. Concentrate on keeping the Rebellion out as long as possible. My fleet will come here to open a window of escape," the Chiss officer said. Shortly after he disappeared from the display, Vikel looked at Drant. "Sir, I am worried that we may not have the morale to withstand the rebel invasion until Thrawn's forces arrive. The Colonel asked. "Not to worry Colonel. I looked into the Imperial Archives and I've decided to use a similar strategy to what the Confederacy of Independent Systems used in the Second Battle of Geonosis during the Clone Wars." Drant answered. "Yes but the CIS still lost the battle." "That is true, but the Republic did take a lot of casualties. Especially the 501st Legion and 21st Nova Corps. In other words, I am hoping this will sort of be like the deadly battle of Sarrish for the Rebels." Brigadier Drant stood up from his chair and walked towards the window behind him. He looked out and saw the rain falling down from the sky. "To win a war Colonel you must lose battles. It is as simple as that." Drant said while looking out the window. "I see the Academy on Cardia has taught you well sir," Vikel said. Drant slowly turned around and chuckled as he did so. "Of course. But let's not get ahead of ourselves." "Colonel, can I trust on you leading these men on the frontlines?" "Why of course, I was trained in becoming field officer," Vikel replied. "Yes, but this is your first real engagement with an enemy. The simulations at whatever Academy you were taught at hardly have the same combatants." "But that's because it's a simulation, they're holograms." "Yes, I am quite aware. What I meant is that these rebels don't act the same as they do on the simulations." Drant said. "Oh. I understand now." "Good. Now go, Colonel. I trust you to hold the line against this scum." Drant finished. | - - - - - - - | The GR-75 Medium Transports were dropping out of hyperspace one by one. All of the transports were assembled above the Resurgence, each transport carried about 75 rebel soldiers and their needed equipment. Inside of one of the transport ships was a rookie to the Rebellion who had just joined up. He was wearing his woodland camouflage in preparation. He was in his bunk, holding what seemed to be a necklace and a hologram display on the other hand. The display was projecting an image of a woman, she seemed quite young about in her mid-twenties. The young rebel aged similarly to the woman on the display was talking to her. "I still don't know why I agreed to this dear." The woman said. "It's alright Aper. I'll be back in no time." The rebel said." "But Bani, what if you die or get injured! You know I can't live without you." Aper said worryingly. "Then I'll make sure to come back to a gorgeous woman in one piece," Bani said. The woman giggled at the comment by her boyfriend. "In that case, I'll be waiting for you, Bani..." The woman said in what sounded like a seductive voice. Bani turned off the hologram display, having finished talking with his girlfriend. Just as he did so, two other rebels entered the room. One of them was holding an A280 Carbine with a magazine to the carbine in the other hand. Bani identified the rebel holding the carbine as 'Yarrol' and the other one 'Krish'. "How's it going Bani?" Yarrol asked with his comedic voice. "Oh, you know. Nothing special." Bani replied. "You do know that this your first battle with the Rebellion, eh?" Krish said. "I am quite aware of that..." Bani said. "Don't worry, Bani. You've got two veterans in your squad. Me and Krish!" Yarrol said. "I don't know if a lost battle counts as you two becoming veterans." Bani said. "Ehhh. Dunno and I don't care!" Yarrol said loudly. | - - - - - - - | The trenches outside of Manehattan were full of Stormtroopers, the train that always entered the city with curious tourists was no longer running. Reinforcing the Stormtroopers was a single AT-AT positioned where the railway ran to the city. AT-ST's had been deployed as well. The sun shined bright on a hot day, but the Imperials had managed to work it off. The trenches had been completed and all the planned field projects were also coming to an end. In command of these soldiers was Captain Hutska, who had been instructed to move his regiment and the reinforcements he had got to Manehattan. The reason why the Empire needed this city was that it'd be the only way out. All transport ships leaving elsewhere would be easily intercepted. Manehattan was far from the small Navy group, therefore, the Rebel fighters wouldn't go to Manehattan as they didn't know the transports were there. Theoretically at least. The only bad thing was that the rest of the AT-AT's were in the Crystal Empire or Fort Kilo. While Brigadier Drant had ordered them to move locations it'd take time as all of the Gozanti-class Cruisers but one were destroyed or sent to another system. Because of this the AT-AT's were slowly being transported to Manehattan. The AT-ST's meanwhile was walking because they're faster than the AT-AT. Brigadier Drant himself was already on his to Manehattan onboard of a Lambda-class Shuttle along with Colonel Vikel. "I'm putting you in charge, Hutska will be your second man in case you need him," Drant said. "Good to know, I'll try to hold back the rebellion as long as I can," Vikel replied. "To be honest, why did the Empire even occupy such a useless junk world?" Vikel asked. "Lord Vader was impatient, but you're right. None of the raw materials here can even be used in the refineries on Sullust or the shipyards of Kuat, Fondor, Coruscant or even Mon Calamari that the rebellion possesses." Drant replied. A silence quickly followed after Drant finished, one that wouldn't last for long. "We'll be landing now, please remain seated." The pilot in the cockpit shouted. The Lambda rotated 360° degrees and landed smoothly on the outskirts of the city. The white pressurized air left the ship as the door opened slowly. Captain Hutska and a Stormtrooper Commander stood about 3 meters away from the shuttle standing in attention. Brigadier Drant exited the shuttle first, followed by Colonel Vikel. "Sir!" Hutska said. "At ease, Captain," said Drant. "As you know we'll be leaving this world by the end of the day, all I'm asking for is for a successful defense while we wait for Grand Admiral Thrawn to open a window of escape." "I am aware sir," Hutska said. "In that case, I'll leave you with Colonel Vikel who will take over now, you'll be second in command for the defense." "Yes, sir." "I will now head on over to the city and board one of the Acclamators, I will relay all orders from there." Drant finished and walked off being followed by two Stormtroopers wearing a black pauldron and the DLT-19 Heavy Blaster. Vikel walked into the Command Center accompanied by Hutska who immediately went to sharing something he was concerned about. "How are we going to get the AT-AT's and AT-ST's off the mainland into the island in time to evacuate?" "I don't know, I only know that the Field Engineers have been building a bridge for the past week and will finish it in about an hour or two. Other than that I heard that all vehicles have been rigged to self-destruct in case they're unable to be evacuated." Vikel replied to Hutska's concerns. | - - - - - - - | "We have been walking for the whole day Zinn, don't you think we should take a break?" Relio asked. "No, we need to get to that island city before the Rebel forces arrive," Zinn answered. "Oh, it's called Manehattan, the most beautiful city I've ever seen!" Rarity implied. "Yeah, okay," Relio replied. The group was in Baltimare, or what at least remained of the once large city. Every building was no more and in their place was black ash from the explosive orbital bombardment. "Can this get any worse? They destroyed this entire city!" Twilight said. Zinn stopped. "They can destroy the rest of the planet." Twilight started at Zinn for a while in disbelief. But Zinn was right. If the Emperor wanted to they could destroy this world easily and the rebel fleet in orbit. It'd be easier than saying 1 2 3. "You can't be serious," Twilight said. "You clearly haven't seen what remains of Aldeeran, the Holy City of Jedha or the Scarif Installation. "Are you.. saying they did the same thing to those?" Cadance asked. "Yes, except Aldeeran is no more. The whole planet was destroyed." Relio responded for Zelio. "I didn't know they were able to do something this horrible." Twilight finished. Zinn looked into his bag and grabbed his micro binoculars. While he was grabbing them he decided to reply to what the lavender alicorn said. "Yet they still call us rebels for terrorists." He looked through them and saw the city of Manehattan. Zinn looked at the distance reader and counted about 150 miles to walk. While the young rebel wasn't the smartest in the galaxy he was smart enough to know that he won't make it to the city. "There's no way we'll reach the city, I'm gonna call a pickup." Zinn holstered the micro binoculars. He activated his commlink and said. "Trooper Zinn to Admirable II, do you copy?" The response was unclear at first, but then it improved and could be heard clearly. "W-e c-opy." "Could you send down a transport, could really use a pickup," Zinn asked. "We're going to try to send an Assualt Craft, but it might take time to breach the Atmospheric Defense." The response read. "Understandable... Oh, and by the way, we're in Sector T19." Zinn finished. Two hours later... The Rebel Fleet had entered the Atmosphere and was engaged in combat with the small Imperial Navy group. The Rebels had already managed to destroy 2 Arquintens-class light cruisers and disable one to send it crashing down towards the ground, the destroyed light cruiser laid crashed near the Crystal Empire in the thick snow, about two miles from the city. The Victory II-class Star Destroyer was still standing strong, onboard the bridge of the smaller Star Destroyer was Captain Yeron. Although he had destroyed two Corellian Frigates and damaged one of the MC80's he knew that he was fighting a lost battle. Even though he had sent a distress signal for reinforcements he also knew they wouldn't come, the Empire was abandoning this system as it turned out useless with no raw resources that could be used in the Empire's factories. Suddenly a loud explosion sound was heard, coming from above the bridge. "STATUS REPORT!" The captain yelled after he regained his balance. "We've lost all shields, sir!" An Officer responded. In a battle, shields were crucial to success. Few battles had ever be won with the majority of ships in the winning fleet being unshielded. An unshielded ship could be destroyed within seconds if the opposite fleet had lots of firepowers, fortunately for the Rebel Alliance, the two MC80's were good enough to destroy the Star Destroyer in at least three minutes. "If we're going down we're taking down one of those M80's with us! Target the damaged one!" Yeron ordered. The guns of the Victory II-class Star Destroyer turned towards the damaged MC80 and began firing, barrages of lasers hit the cruiser and small explosions came out of the result. The heavy quad turbo lasers turrets slowly finished their rotation and once in position began firing their lethal and deadly barrage. While the normal Victory II wouldn't be equipped with heavy quad turbolasers, this one the 'Doombringer' was. Yeron was a friend of the Emperor and as a sign of their friendship, the Emperor decided to award the Captain with an upgraded Star Destroyer. The only setback was that the engines and the hyperdrive were slower due to the added weight. The remaining TIE Bombers in the fleet began their bombing runs on the engines, if they were able to destroy them then the cruiser would go crashing down onto the planet. Elsewhere... The Alliance Assualt Craft was approaching the position of Zinn and the group. The group were about 7 miles from Baltimare and were able to witness the small battle happening above them. The Alliance Assualt Craft was actually a LAAT/i, also known as Low Altitude Assualt Transport was a common ship in the Galactic Republic, before Order 66. After that, it was replaced by the Lambda-class shuttle and the Sentinel-class landing craft. The AAC landed right next to the group and the blast doors located on the side opened. Relio entered first, followed by the two pegasi. Zinn stayed on the ground for a while to help them enter. Once everyone was in Zinn entered. The AAC took off. The ship entered the battle taking place above of the small village where Fort Kilo was not far. The AAC entered the hangar of the undamaged MC80. The other MC80 which was damaged began to retreat. The rebel cruiser began going forward and at the same time upwards. Its destination was obviously the orbit. But then, the TIE Bombers managed to disable the engines. The MC80 stopped moving and slowly began to stall. The cruiser was now falling towards the ground at a fast speed. The cruiser crashed into the ground. Fortunately, it had avoided the small village that was Ponyville and instead crashed north of Dodge Junction. The entire back part of the cruiser was destroyed with only the front part surviving the impact. The MC80 Liberty Type cruiser known as the 'Defiant' was gone along with its crew. The Victory II-class Star Destroyer began to retreat, towards Manehattan where it'd evacuate with the rest of the remaining Imperial Forces. The last Arquintens-class light cruiser was also following it with the intention of not wanting to be left behind. The Rebellion let the two go, they needed to reorganize now with the loss of a capital ship. Six hours later... Luna saw how the sun went down slowly. She was glad that she'd get to do her job of raising and lowering the moon again but more importantly to know that her older sister was still alive. The princess of the moon decided to surprise her older sister by raising the moon. She lit her aura and began to raise the moon, this time it was much easier than it was before their rescue by Han Solo. The moon appeared in the sky and shined bright. The next day... Manehattan was the last part of Equestria under Imperial Occupation, the Crystal Empire had been lost overnight and the retreating Imperials including one AT-AT, three AT-ST's and one Snow trooper Regiment were in Manehattan. The only problem was that the Snowtroopers were wearing armor designed for snow combat. For them not being in the north meant that they'd need to sweat like a happabore unless they got replacement armor. Fortunately, for them, the Empire had additional Stormtrooper armor onboard the Acclamators which they'd get to wear. In the city, there was a large park with enough space to hold more than 4 Acclamators. The Galactic Empire had 6 on Equestria, more than enough to evacuate all the forces. The first one, located in the middle was where Brigadier Drant was. The ship itself was actually from the Clone Wars and served as a transport in the 212th Attack Battalion. Elsewhere, Commander Vikel had just finished getting into his field combat armor and so had Hutska. The trenches held about 9000 Stormtroopers and the bunkers outside about 1000, in total the defense was 10.000 men strong supported by 5 AT-AT's and 4 AT-ST's. The rest of the vehicles were inside of the city in case the outer defense would fall. Supporting the vehicles in the city was the 4th Battalion with about 5000 Stormtroopers, 750 of them being Imperial Navy Commandos. Of course, the Empire would never dare to defend or attack without fighter support. Therefore they had 28 TIE Fighters, 10 TIE Interceptors, 4 TIE Defenders and 12 TIE Bombers remaining, all of them were on standby and parked at certain locations throughout the city. The Rebellion was moments away from launching the final attack to liberate the world that is Equestria. The fleet, consisting of one MC80, three Nebulon-B Frigates and five Corellian CR90 Corvettes was visible from the city. The GR-75 Medium Transports could be seen taking the lead followed by X-Wing Fighters. Hutska knew what was about to happend and ordered the anti-aircraft turrets to fire. The missiles fired from the turrets with some firing lasers instead. One missile hit an X-Wing and made it explode in the air. Another as hit by a laser in the left engine and began to plummet down to the ground, crashing about 50 feet from a trench. Although the Gunners were highly skilled and trained, they were unable to stop the Rebel Transports from landing safely. Seeing this, Colonel Vikel ordered the AT-AT's to get into range and to open fire at the transports before they get the chance of deploying their troops and whatever vehicles they had gotten with them. | - - - - - - - | "Zinn, Commander Fogles says it'll be safer if we get you and the monarchs off the ship. We have no idea what the Imperials have in store and since they have brought down one our MC80's it's a chance we don't want to risk." An Officer said to the young rebel. "That's fine sir. I'll protect them." Zinn said. "I know... Good luck." The officer walked off. Zinn told the ponies to start following him, his friend Relio followed as well. The group boarded the same AAC they took earlier to the cruiser. The ship took off and left the hangar. As the ship left, Zinn, Relio and the ponies witnessed the battle taking place outside of Manehattan. Then Luna remembered something. "Wait. We need to go to the Crystal Empire and see if the elements are safe." "The what now?" Relio asked. "The Elements of Harmony, duh! Have you never heard of them? Oh, wait. You're not ponies." Rainbow Dash said. "Whatever that thing is it can't be important?" Relio responded. "Yes, it is!" Twilight said. "Alright, but we don't know where they are," Relio replied. "Yes, but we know. They're in the vaults of the Crystal Empire." Luna said. "I assume that's in the north?" Zinn asked politely. "Why yes, it is." Rarity said. Zinn stepped towards the edge of the AAC. "PILOT! SWITCH DIRECTIONS TO THE NORTH!" He yelled. The pilot raised his arm and gave Zinn a thumbs up and switched directions immediately. Zinn took a step back for safety. "Alright, we're going there now." 45 Minutes later... The Assualt Craft landed on the pavement in front of the crystal castle. Immediately a crowd gathered around the ship, thinking it'd be the Galactic Empire returning to take over the Crystal Empire. But when they saw the three princesses and the two rebel soldiers not wearing Imperial Snowtrooper Armor they backed off. The ponies exited the ship and began heading towards the frozen vaults, followed by Zinn and Relio who had put on warm coats to not freeze. The ponies stopped at a small hill in front of the vault, Zinn wondered why and went up to them. When he got up there he knew why. An Imperial Sentinel-class Landing Craft was positioned right outside the cave with two Snowtroopers guarding the entrance with blasters raised. The door to the landing craft was open and Zinn witnessed two Imperial Flametroopers exiting the ship. The Flametroopers entered the vault and were followed by an Officer in Combat Armor and two Snowtroopers. Twilight was just about to run down and stop them from doing whatever they were going to do when Rainbow Dash grabbed Twilight's tail with her mouth and pulled her back. The rainbow-maned mare went on to say: "Are you crazy Twilight? They can hurt you!" "But I don't want them to take the elements!" Twilight replied. Zinn was about to say something when he heard one of the Snowtroopers walking towards the hill. "I heard something over here, I'm going to check it out." The Snowtrooper said. Zinn heard the blaster cocking. In response, he pulled out his DH-17 and cocked it as well. He made a hand motion telling the others to be quiet. Zinn laid himself on the ground to hide. The Snowtrooper got to the top of the hill and looked over the landscape. Seven seconds passed and the Snowtrooper began going down to the hill to his post. "There's nothing there. Must have been a malfunction in the helmet." The same Snowtrooper said. Relio put his A280-CFE into the blaster configuration and aimed at the Snowtroopers. He put a finger on the trigger but didn't fire. Instead, he looked at his friend Zinn and asked. "Should we fire?" Zinn thought for a moment if they should or not, but he was suddenly distracted when he heard fire and saw yellow-orange lights coming out of the cave. Most likely being the Flametroopers using their Flamethrowers on one of the chambers inside the vault. Zinn thought again, he knew that whatever this 'Elements of Harmony' thing were important to the native ponies. "Go for it," Zinn said. Relio opened fire and hit the first Snowtrooper in the head, the other who immediately heard the blaster fire began firing at Relio, Relio was pinned down and he knew if he was to raise his head for a second he'd get shot and likely die. "I'm pinned, see what you can do!" Relio said loudly. Zinn got out of cover and aimed the DH-17 at the Snowtrooper. He pulled the trigger and out came a blaster bolt heading towards the chest of the Snowtrooper. The Snowtrooper fell to the ground, Zinn fired again to make sure he'd be dead. "Alright, let's move in!" Zinn said. Zinn moved towards the entrance. Relio positioned himself in front and crouched down with his blaster aimed at the door the whole time. The ponies meanwhile followed with caution, except for Fluttershy who couldn't do it. Rarity went to comfort her. Zinn entered the vault, he looked around and saw the officer holding a hologram display and talking to someone. Zinn listened closely. "Yes, sir. We will take whatever valuables we find here." The officer said. "Alright, but hurry up! The Rebels have begun their attack on the city and we need you back here as soon as possible!" The officer on the display said. "We will do our best to return in time, Lieutenant Tereeesh out." The officer walked back to where he was earlier. Zinn slowly moved to a wall and looked around the corner. He saw the same officer, the two Flametroopers and also the two Snowtroopers that had followed them inside. Zinn made sure to check if he had enough ammunition left in his blaster pistol. When he finished he made a hand motion to tell his friend, Relio to move towards him. Once Relio was there Zinn got out of cover and fired his blaster. He hit one of the Flametroopers in the head. Zinn went back into cover and let Relio fire. Relio fired his blaster but failed to hit any of the Imperials. Instead, he got hit in the left arm. "Gah!" He yelled in pain. Zinn pulled his friend to cover and got out of over and to fire. He this time hit the officer in the chest but the armor he was wearing was not enough for the blaster pistol of Zinn's to penetrate and kill him. The young rebel got back into cover and took out a Thermal Detonator. Right, when he was about to activate the countdown he realized that the explosion may make the vault collapse seeing how the supports holding the vault intact were quite weak. The rebel holstered the Detonator and loaded in another magazine of ammo into his DH-17. He peeked around the corner and saw one Snowtrooper being in a vulnerable position. Zinn got out of cover and fired at that Snowtrooper and hit him in the head, seeing how he had more time to fire he fired again. This time at the Flametrooper's fire tanks on his back. The laser bolt was enough to make the tanks explode and cause a small fire. The explosion obviously killed the Flametrooper but also killed the officer. The last Snowtrooper remaining readied his blaster and got out of cover. The Imperial yelled: "FOR THE EMPEROR!" Immediately after he began firing and hit Zinn in the chest, luckily it was not enough to kill him. Zinn being now disabled had little to no strength to lift his blaster and fire at the Snowtrooper who was about to finish him with the E-11 being aimed at his head. But then, a shot came from the left and hit the trooper in the head and made him fall dead to the ground. The shooter was Relio. "I guess that's the second time I owe you," Zinn said. Relio chuckled and followed up by him saying: "You owe me a lot more than that." "Maybe, maybe not. But let's get this Harmony thing and get out of here." Zinn said. With almost no strength left Zinn stood up and shouted towards the entrance for the ponies to enter. Luna came in first, followed by Celestia's faithful student Twilight. "There's just one problem," said Twilight. "Only my big brother, Shining Armor can open the chamber to get the Elements." "You're kidding right?" Relio asked. "I'm afraid she is not," Luna said. "Well, where is he?" Zinn asked. "That's the question, we don't know," Luna replied. "Well I may not be the smartest rebel, but logically the Empire would send political prisoners to Coruscant for execution, but since the galaxy doesn't know about this system they're probably in this planet's capital," Relio said. "Do you think he's in Canterlot?" Twilight asked. "Maybe, but we have no time to get him," Relio said. "Zinn, do you think I can melt the chamber using one of the Flamethrowers that you didn't destroy?" Relio asked his friend. "Possibly. It's worth a try." Zinn replied. "Well, in that case, I'll try." Relio finished. Relio stood up and walked towards the dead Flametrooper who was shot in the head by Zinn earlier. He inspected the body and looked for a switch or button to disconnect the tanks from his back. He found a small lever and pulled it downwards. The tank disconnected from the armor. Relio grabbed the heavy fire tank and took it towards the chamber where the Elements where. He then grabbed the flamethrower and connected it to the tank. Since Relio was too weak to wear the tank on him he put it on the ground. Relio aimed the flamethrower at the chamber where he saw a hole, assuming it was a keyhole. He pulled and held the trigger of the Flamethrower and fire came out of the barrel. The fire did nothing to the ice. "It's not working," Relio said in a disappointed voice. "Well. I do have some Thermal Detonators, though I am afraid it will bring this cave down on us." Zinn said. Relio turned around and looked at the Thermal Detonators his friend held. "It's a risk that I am willing to take." "Alright, catch!" Zinn said. Zinn threw the first Detonator, Relio caught it easily. The second one as well and same with the third one. He looked at the detonators and got an idea. He put the fire tank up against the chamber, on top of them he put the three detonators and rigged all three of them to blow up in 30 seconds. Relio began running towards Zinn and pulled him out of the cave. Luna and Twilight were already out of the vault. A loud explosive sound was heard coming from inside, followed by fire spreading a little. After about 20 seconds it was safe to go back in. To his surprise, Relio saw that the detonators had done the trick. The chamber was open and he saw the book where the alleged Elements of Harmony were kept. He went towards it and grabbed the brown book. He slowly left the cave and held the book of the Elements in his hands. He showed it to the ponies who cheered in joy. Once they finished Relio gave it to Twilight Sparkle. Elsewhere... The Rebel Alliance was making was making progress in the battle, having taken over the first three trenches. While the Alliance Fighters were dogfighting with the Imperial ones above the ground the Rebel soldiers pushed on. One AT-AT had been brought down to the ground and had blown up on impact with the ground. The Stormtroopers began to show signs of losing but just when a Rebel squad was going to attack the fourth trench an AT-ST fired its grenade barrage at them and the squad went flying. The battle on the mainland was almost over, but unbeknownst to the Rebel Alliance, Grand Admiral Thrawn was soon at Equestria. 20 Minutes later The Imperial Fleet of 6 Imperial II-class Star Destroyers and numerous of other support vessels left hyperspace and appeared in Orbit of Equestria. Thrawn had planned for his Star Destroyer going down to the Atmosphere to destroy the Rebel fleet while the other ships would secure orbit and prevent any Alliance ships from escaping. The Chimaera entered the Atmosphere of the planet. It approached the MC80 from behind, clearly, it had an advantage, one that Thrawn wasn't planning on ignoring. The Star Destroyer's Turbolasers and Ion Cannons began to fire at the unshielded rear part of the MC80. The engines were quickly destroyed and the Rebel cruiser began to descend to the surface. The MC80 crashed by the edge of the ocean with the front of the ship submerged. Thrawn targeted the other ships in the fleet and swiftly brought them down. The Rebellion was now without naval support. But that wasn't going to stop them from winning. The Rebels had already taken the mainland, what remained now was the city. Unfortunately, 3 of the AT-AT's had been destroyed and only two managed to make it to the city. Only one AT-ST was fortunate enough to make it back. Once all Stormtroopers had made over to Manehattan, the field engineers blew up the custom-made bridge. The only way for the Rebels to enter the city now was to use the railroad. But they didn't know if the Empire had also rigged it to explode. Commander Fogles ordered his forces to move in using the railroad. Fortunately, the rebels did not have any vehicles apart from Airspeeders with them which meant they didn't need to worry about needing to get them to the city. The first rebels entered the city and left the train station. They were greeted immediately by Imperial Forces, about 50 Stormtroopers and one AT-ST. The Rebel Troopers quickly ran to cover and some inside the station. One of the rebels took his rocket launcher and fired at the AT-ST's port side. The walker was brought down with a small fire appearing on the side where it was hit. With the AT-ST down the Rebels gained additional ground and began to fire at the Imperials. Some began retreating to the buildings for extra cover. After a few minutes, the Imperials stationed at the train station retreated into the city. Some locals came out of the buildings to greet their saviors, aka the rebels. For them, it wasn't much. They often got these type of greetings on worlds they freed that were anti-imperial. On other worlds that were pro-imperial they were always attacked and the Rebellion often let the Empire have the world back if that was the case. The rebels moved on after reinforcements came. 12 hours later, onboard the 'Coruscant Sky' Brigadier Drant was onboard the Coruscant Sky, the Acclamator he, Commander Vikel and Captain Hutska would take. They were only waiting for one AT-AT and one Stormtrooper platoon to board and then they'd be long gone from Equestria. All the other Acclamators had already left being fully filled. In the city, the rebel forces were approaching the park and the last Imperial Forces were mere minutes from the Coruscant Sky, but so were the rebels. "We should just leave them. The Empire cannot afford to lose naval ships for such stupid reasons." Hutska said. "Patience, they will be here soon," Vikel responded. Patience. Patience was, unfortunately, going to cost the evacuation of the Coruscant Sky. Unbeknownst to them, a small rebel strike force had boarded the Acclamator. They were approaching the bridge. The Rebellion had liberated all parts of the city apart from the park. They weren't attacking because the strike force was onboard. But they were going to once they secured the bridge. If they succeed in doing so. In command of these rebels was Major 'Unio' who was a human male from the world of Tatooine. The strike force entered an elevator that leads to the bridge. The elevator moved fast and 20 seconds later they were on the bridge. The door opened slowly. The Stormtroopers guarding the elevator paid no attention as they thought it was an officer or navigator entering. They were wrong as they were quietly killed. Unio moved in holding his A280C with two hands. He instructed Krish to approach. However, the veteran rebel made a mistake and was caught by an Imperial. Krish quickly shot him but in doing so made every Imperial turn their attention to the previously undetected rebels. Bani shot one of the Imperial officers on the bridge in the chest. Captain Hutska was dead. Unio threw a Thermal Detonator at the left side of the bridge and killed two Stormtroopers in doing so. Before more shots could be fired, Brigadier Drant approached the rebels and said: "We surrender." The remaining Imperial Stormtroopers and one Stormtrooper Commander dropped their blasters and put their hands up, followed by the Navigational Crew and Colonel Vikel. The rebels began to gather the captured Imperials to the front of the bridge. Where the moon reflected the light from the sun onto the ship and made it visible inside. Even if the lights were turned on. Unio aimed his blaster at Drant. "What's your name, Brigadier?" he asked. "Drant." Unio lowered his blaster and took a few steps back. He looked at the Navigational officers and said. "Take the navigational officers outside the ship." Two rebels did so and instructed them to move. "Your rebellion will never win," Vikel said. "Is that so?" Unio asked. "Yes, the Empire will bombard this world and kill us all! Because that is the Emperor's wish and he shall bring peace and justice to the whole galaxy!" Vikel said patriotically. "Your arrogance is the reason for why the Empire will fall," Yarrol said. While the rebels thought they'd have won, they couldn't be more wrong. Yes they may have liberated everything in Equestria but onboard the bridge of the Acclamator were two security droids, but they weren't the clumsy B1 Battledroids or weak. They were Imperial Sentry Droids. One keyword from Drant would be enough to activate him, but the wise Brigadier decided to wait for the perfect opportunity. "With due respect sir, can we execute this Commander?" Yarrol asked. "Do it," Unio ordered. Just then, Drant yelled "CORYX". The rebels first wondered why he did so but when they turned around they were greeted by four Sentry Droids. The droids dropped from the ceiling of the ship and began to fire at the rebels. While they were distracted the Stormtroopers that surrendered took their E-11 Blasters from the floor and fired at the rebels as well. The rebels realized they were outnumbered and outgunned quickly surrendered. "Now shall we negotiate your surrender?" Drant asked. "You're pathetic," Unio said. "Am I? Do you think this rebel right here has another opinion?" Just as Drant finished, the Stormtrooper wearing an orange pauldron put the barrel of his E-11 on the head of Yarrol. "His sacrifice will motivate the Rebellion to continue its war against your Empire. If you kill you will just strengthen the fire that is the rebellion." Unio said. Drant ordered the Stormtrooper to fire. And so he did, Yarrol was now dead and his body laid on the cold floor of the Acclamator's bridge. The rebels were now down to 4. Bani, Krish, Turok, and Unio. Drant ordered for the killing of Turok, the same Stormtrooper Commander who killed Yarrol obliged happily and did so. Turok was dead. The last Imperials that Drant was waiting on originally was now onboard. Drant ordered for the taking off of the Coruscant Sky. The loud engines of the Clone Wars-era ship were heard everywhere onboard. The Coruscant Sky was now leaving the city, the last Imperials were gone. Behind the Acclamator was the Chimaera that had waited for it to depart. The Imperial Fleet was in orbit and Thrawn ordered all forces to withdraw from the sector. Equestria was fully liberated from the tyranny of the Galactic Empire and the Sith. The Imperial Flag would never rein again on Equestria. Emperor Palpatine would never be the ruler of this world again. The Monarchy was going to bring Equestria into a new era. An era in which they recover from their occupation and rebuild, for a better world. One Week later. Photographers, Journalists and other media ponies were gathered in Canterlot for a big event. The leader of the rebellion, Mon Mothma was in Equestria to meet the monarchs but to also decide whether the Rebellion should leave the ponies in peace, or maintain their presence. The ex-senator knew it was a risk to maintain her forcer on this planet. The ponies did not want to risk another occupation. The leaders were gathered in the Royal Court. None of them sat in their chairs as this was a moment for respect. A moment in which Equestria couldn't be seen as stronger than the rebellion. A wooden table was in the middle of the room with a map of Equestria. Behind Mon Mothma were two Alliance Fleet Troopers holding their DH-17 blaster pistols. Behind the equestrian monarchs were the EUP guards. "We'd like to live in peace, without the influence of the Empire or your rebellion." Celestia asked. "Your request is my command. The Rebellion does not wish to force systems into our campaign. We will leave first thing tomorrow." Mon Mothma replied. Mon Mothma put pen to paper and with a single signature, the rebellion's influence was gone on this system. The Rebellion was to leave. Equestria would be at peace again. There would be much to rebuild, but if it means for a safe Equestria, it'll be worth it. The End. Author's Note Thank you all for reading the final chapter of 'An Imperial Occupation'. I want to thank you all for all the support I've gotten during my time writing this story and I can't wait until the release of my new story. If you wished that this story would be longer then don't worry. I have thought about making a possible sequel that could be released as early as January next year! Though that is up to you all if you want a sequel. AftermathAuthor's Note (This chapter takes place one year before the events of The Force Awakens) I know I said the last chapter would be the last one but I couldn't resist adding in this chapter to finish it off. I hope you enjoyed it anyway. If you'd like a sequel then please say so, I won't do one otherwise (maybe). Aftermath 30 years would pass since the treaty signed by Celestia and Mon Mothma took place. The galaxy was a new place, but the ponies had no idea. Their last request was to be left in peace and alone. Not wanting to be apart of the war. The rebellion which they once knew was now the New Republic. Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader had been killed in the Battle of Endor. Then the final nail in the coffin happened for the Empire when the Battle of Jakku happened. In which multiple Star Destroyers and even one Super Star Destroyer were destroyed. After that the Empire fully collapsed, it broke up like a piece glass falling to the floor. What once used to be a great thing was now destroyed and laid in pieces. Different Imperial factions appeared on the map. There were the Imperial Remnant and the Greater Maldrood for example. The Imperial Civil War had begun and lasted a few years. After that peace came. A peace that would last until the First Order came out of the Unknown Regions where they had built up to avenge the once-great Galactic Empire. But no one in Equestria knew about it. What danger the First Order possessed. The Imperial Archives contained everything about the galaxy, and those archives happened to be in the hands of the First Order. It was a question about whether the First Order knew about Equestria or not. The debris from the Battle of Equestria remained in the world. They were to become a memory and landmarks of a dark period in Equestria's history. Baltimare, which had been destroyed during the occupation was now rebuilt and looked just like it used to. But the survivors of the orbital bombardment would beg to differ. They'd have been damaged mentally by the Empire's deadly tactics and some of them suffered a lot. Especially the ones who lost loved ones. As for technology, all of it had been banned by Canterlot. They thought that this new technology would ruin Equestria's fragile peace. But that wouldn't stop the black market to sell the equipment they found. From Stormtrooper helmet to a fully-armed E-11 Blaser. While these items were quite rare and cost a lot it didn't matter to Canterlot. The EUP had gotten an increased budget, to also work as a secret police agency. | - - - - - - - | The First Order was expanding in the Western Reaches and the Unknown Regions. Their presence was already known in the galaxy, but they didn't know how big it was. The First Order was building new classes of Star Destroyers, ones that were much bigger than the Imperial II-class. Unfortunately, for the ponies of Equestria, they were about to relieve what happened 31 years ago. The First Order had found every little detail in the Imperial archives, and Equestria happened to be in those archives. Kylo Ren was onboard a First Order Star Destroyer, a Resurgent-class one. The fleet was small yet powerful, it contained one other Star Destroyer of the same class and then, a Dreadnought, a Mandator IV-class one. Armed with deadly underbelly canons able to decimate a city within seconds. For most the sight of the First Order was enough to retreat, but the ponies of Equestria, just like when the Death Squadron arrived; had no choice. The fleet was clearly visible in the sky on the planet. Most ponies thought it was the Rebellion, coming to visit. But they were wrong. Princess Twilight, now much older, taller and mature saw the fleet and alarm bells began to ring inside of her. She had been through this before, but this could be more dangerous. And deadlier. The First Order Dreadnought was only a prototype, fortunately, otherwise, the ponies would have been dead by now. While the orbital guns could still fire they could not go to maximum power and therefore were rendered useless until the ship was finished. Kylo Ren ordered for Troop Transports to head on down to the capital of Equestria, Canterlot. To secure the capital and bring the world into submission. Though the dark-side user didn't know one. That being the planet's raw materials being useless in the factories and the ponies being unable to produce what the First Order needs. But he wasn't having any of it, even though one of his officers tried to convince him it was a bad idea. But it didn't work and the officer paid with his life. The Transports entered the atmosphere, being now visible to everypony. They knew it wasn't the rebellion now. But it wasn't the Empire either. The transports landed on the main street except for two landing in front of the Royal Castle. Out came out the Stormtroopers, most of them carrying F-11D Blaster rifles and some the FWMB-10 heavy repeating blaster. The unarmed ponies quickly surrendered and were gathered up into large groups. Some dared to attack, but their efforts were quickly stopped with a single shot. A platoon of Stormtroopers moved up to the train station to prevent escape while a squad made their way to the air balloon station. The whole capital city was seized. Minutes passed by and the city was completely quiet until suddenly, the gates to the castle burst open from a planted detonator. The two princesses, Celestia and Luna were the newest captives of the First Order. They were taken to the main square where every other resident of Canterlot were. Meanwhile, Flametroopers began to set fire to different buildings, mostly commercial ones. Though all of the sudden a dark ship with long wings pointing upwards was coming from the thick smoke created from the fire. The ship landed and the door opened. A hooded figure with a mask on left the ship escorted by four Stormtroopers. The mysterious person who was Kylo Ren approached Celestia. "Vader?" Celestia asked, thinking it was Darth Vader. The Sith Lord who had almost killed her years ago. "Nobody speaks of his name. Only I do." Kylo Ren responded. "What is your name then?" Luna asked. "I thought you'd know... Kylo Ren," he said. "Whatever you think you're doing is wrong and the Rebellion will come here and help us!" Celestia smashed her hoof into the ground and created a small crack. "The rebellion is no more. We will destroy the New Republic and the treacherous Resistance!" Kylo Ren pulled out his lightsaber and activated it. He swung it towards Celestia but stopped right in front of the Alicorn's neck. "Take them away, put them into custody!" Kylo Ren demanded. Three Stromtroopers approached the two royals, two grabbed them and took them towards one of the transports while the third made sure they wouldn't try anything. Then a Stormtrooper wearing a red pauldron approached Kylo Ren. "Sir. What should we do with the residents?" The Stormtrooper Commander asked. Kylo Ren looked at them. They were gathered into a large circle with Stormtroopers aiming their blasters at them. He looked away at the two princesses being brought onboard a transport and then back at the innocent civilians. He stared for a good few seconds before answering. "Kill them. Kill them all." Kylo said. The Stormtrooper returned to his post and began to countdown. Once it finished the sounds coming from the F-11D's and the FWMB-10's were the only things that could be heard. It wasn't long before the ponies laid on the ground, bodies dead. Another genocide committed by the First Order. Kylo Ren walked back towards his ship. His fleet had to go back to the task of finding the last Jedi. Luke Skywalker... The end... for real this time.
DiscoveryOnce upon a time in a galaxy far far away. Lord Vader was standing on the bridge of his flagship, The Executor. The ship class was the largest in the Empire, it was an Executor-Class Star Dreadnought being 19,000 meters long, the ship represented the Empire well and the men onboard were not the ordinary crew members of the usual Imperial II-class Star Destroyer but these were highly skilled, picked from the best Admirals like Grand Admiral Thrawn and Admiral Piett. Same thing was for the Stormtrooper Corps onboard, the ship held the remains of the 501st Legion, the only Jango Fett clones still serving the Empire. But the ship also had the elite Shadow Troopers and even deadly the Imperial Royal Guard. The Dreadnought was currently orbiting a planet in the Unknown Regions, not far from the planet of Csilla where the native species called "Chiss" lived, Grand Admiral Thrawn was a one of those and was currently not far from Lord Vader's fleet position. The Dreadnought was a part of a large fleet nicknamed the Death Squadron, it had multiple ships in it's fleet and thousands of ground troops. Notable Crew members included Admiral Piett and General Veers, both veterans to the Empire. The leader of the Death Squadron was none other than Darth Vader as he had the second highest rank in the Galactic Empire and the highest rank in the Military. For him it was just a rank though, Darth Vader used to be a Jedi Knight, a powerful one and had the possibility of being the chosen one, instead he became a Dark Lord of the Sith, he was twisted by the Dark Side and nothing seemed to make him happy. His emotions were hidden behind the dark mask and the only sound he made besides for talking was the breathing. But Darth Vader wasn't completely dead inside, he knew that inside of him was a weakness, that weakness was the light side of the force trying to pull him back to the light side. But Darth Vader had none of it and always won against that weakness. Darth Vader looked at the planet, the planet that he and his fleet had accidentally stumbled upon because of a mistake. But Darth Vader was growing impatient, he had no time to correct the mistake so he had a plan to bypass it. His plan was to invade this planet. The planet resembled a mixture between Aldeeran and Corellia, unfortunately Aldeeran had been destroyed by the also destroyed Death Star thanks to a weakness in the battle station that the Rebel Alliance had exploited. A Lieutenant approached Darth Vader with an anxious look on his face. "My lord, it seems like we have input the wrong coordinates and ended up here." "Lieutenant, how is it possible for the highly skilled crew men to make a mistake?" Darth Vader said with anger in his voice, his master Emperor Palpatine wanted a planet under the control of the Empire for more income and workers which actually would be slaves. "I am sorry my lord, we will input the correct coordin-" The lieutenant was cut off by Darth Vader. "No, We shall take control of this planet. Get me a report of the planet, now." Darth Vader demanded. With that he stormed off and made his way out of the bridge. | - - - - - - - | In Equestria Princess Celestia was observing the night sky before retiring for the day. She was using her brand new telescope that she had received as a gift from her student Twilight Sparkle during her own birthday. She first observed the constellations, being able to spot the Aquila constellation. Then she turned the telescope left and saw something surprising. She could barely make out what she saw but it looked like triangles in orbit, she identified 10 and could even see an enormous one. "Sister!" Celestia shouted for her sister who had just finished lowering the moon. Not long after, Luna burst into the room, seeing her sister on the balcony with the brand new telescope next to her, the sister walked towards her sister to see her with a concerned face, something Celestia rarely had. "What is it sister?' Luna asked in a exhausted voice, she clearly had to use lots of magic to get here so fast which exhausted her. "Take a look." Celestia said and let Luna observe the night that she had risen, she immediately saw the triangles that Celestia had also seen. | - - - - - - - | The information from the probe droids dispatched had sent back information on the planet, information which would be crucial for Lord Vader. "The planet is called Equestria and is home to the intelligent species of ponies and griffons as well as many others." The Lieutenant said reading off a datapad. "It has a strong connection to some sort of magic with one of the species being able to harvest it and use it for their or others own good." By now Vader was back on the bridge. Darth Vader looked at the planet from the bridge, he knew that this one would be a massive help to the rebellion if information of it's existence was to be published, especially since these so called ponies could have a connection to the force. "Order the Interdictiors to engage their Gravity Well Generators, no one leaves this system and suspend all scheduled shifts except for mechanical and maintenance checks." Darth Vader knew that Equestria was too dangerous to be known by the galaxy, even by some Imperials. Especially since lately there have been a lot of double agents inside the Empire, and who knew if Fulcrum was watching Lord Vader or someone onboard the ship with a high rank right know. Darth Vader looked as the Lieutenant walked away to inform the fleet of his orders, he then looked back at the planet. The planet reminded him of something, something he had felt back when he was a ten year old and his old mentor Qui-Gon Jinn was still alive, Vader quickly dismissed those thoughts and went back to his anger, the Dark Side only had anger, power, hate and suffering. Nothing else, it didn't have what the Jedi had, friendship, loyalty and the right choice. But the Jedi was the reason that his wife Padmé Amidala was dead, the dark side was the only thing he had and he wasn't going to let it go. Darth Vader left the bridge and started walking towards his meditation chamber, he needed to connect with the dark side force more and make his power a valid one and one that cannot be beaten. He used the force to open the doors open then using the force to open the meditation capsule open as well. He used the force to close it once he had entered and began meditating, connecting to the force. | - - - - - - - | During the rest of the night in Equestria; Celestia and Luna had ordered for the mobilization of the EUP. Reserves were brought to Canterlot as both sisters knew an invasion was coming. Meanwhile in Ponyville, an unsuspecting Twilight Sparkle was studying late at night once again when she suddenly was surprised when she heard multiple footsteps coming from outside her door. She was even more surprised when two guards entered her bedroom. "Your highness, Princess Celestia requests to see you in person in Canterlot now." One of the guards said. "Oh? I'll be there shortly then." Twilight replied as she closed the book she was reading. | - - - - - - - | Darth Vader would leave his meditation chamber, feeling his dark side power growing, each day the sith grew stronger. He began moving back towards the bridge of the Executor, the massive ship that he owned. Once he got there he saw the same Lieutenant that had informed him of the mistake, but he turned his attention to the Commander instead. "Commander Darren," said Darth Vader attempting to capture the attention of the Commander. The Commander turned around and saw the intimidating man that was Darth Vader. "Yes Lord Vader?" he said. "Commence the invasion at once." Darth Vader said and returned to watching the planet Equestria, trying to learn more by looking at it. The Commander meanwhile turned his attention to the crew members, he complied with Vader's orders and led them forward to the other members of the crew. The elite Imperial Pilots entered their ships, most of them being TIE Fighters with the exception of a few entering TIE Bombers and TIE Defenders. Once they were ready they took off and left the hangar with speed, the TIE's would be visible from the bridge and Darth Vader saw the ships heading down towards the surface of the planet to begin their bombing runs and the destruction of the planet's infrastructure and military presence in preparation for the ground vehicles and the elite Stormtroopers. The invasion of Equestria has begun. Author's Note Thank you all for reading this first chapter of what hopefully will be a fantastic fanfic! I would just like to say that I will post A/N's on my blog instead of here but if I have something important then I will post it here instead. Please feel free to notify me of errors so that I can improve for the next chapter, if you have any constructive criticism then please leave it in the comments or message me. 😉
EscapeHouses, roads and other pieces of infrastructure were destroyed, in pieces from the constant bombing, dead ponies who were unfortunate to be caught in the bombing were dead on the ground. No damage had been inflicted to Canterlot yet, but that was about to happen. TIE Defenders from the Executor ran bombing runs along with the TIE Bombers, destroying the roads of Canterlot and the buildings. Twilight Sparkle was going as fast as she could towards the castle being escorted by 3 guards from the Ponyville Castle Guard. The roaring noise from a TIE Defender was then heard and in the sky it was visible. The TIE Defender was aiming for Twilight and fired a barrage of laser beams. Twilight was standing right in the area where the barrage would hit, if it hit the ground then she'd be dead. To her luck, a guard pushed her out of the way and in doing so sacrificed himself as he had been trained to do in life-threating situations to royalty. The Barrage hit the ground and explosions followed, Twilight was knocked down to the ground and received minor bruises on her body. A guard quickly ran over to the Princess helping her get up, in doing so catching a glance of his now dead friend. "We need to get to the castle Princess!" The guard said as he began to run again, still feeling the pain of losing a friend. But the worse was yet to come. The AT-AT's and AT-ST's had been dropped off by their transports and were now mounting their assaults. Since cities like Manehattan, Ponyville and the Crystal Empire had been destroyed; the only target was Canterlot. Unfortunately for the Empire, Canterlot was situated on a mountain so their heavy vehicles would have a hard time reaching it. As for Cloudsdale, the Empire hadn't attacked yet but Darth Vader had already prepared Imperial Jump Troopers for presumably the attack on Cloudsdale. AT-ST's were then dropped down into the streets of Canterlot by dropships followed by Sentinel-Class Landing Craft filled with the elite trained Stormtroopers. The residents of Canterlot ran from the frightening Stormtroopers, some running to the castle while others to their houses. But no building was a match for the deadly arsenal of weapons on the AT-ST's. The AT-ST's began to walk towards the castle followed by the Stormtroopers. The walkers shot and launched explosives at the EUP which was trying to defend Canterlot with no effect at all. Not a single Stormtrooper had been killed or injured so far. It was at this moment that the Star Destroyer "Behemoth" entered the atmosphere and began to hover above Canterlot to ensure no escape would be made, but even if the ponies had the technology of the Galactic Empire they'd still have a hard time to fight back against the Elite forces of the Empire. Back on the ground, the white armored Stormtroopers marched towards the palace with their blasters aimed at the castle and their eyes looking for any pony still breathing. Fortunately Twilight and her escort had already escaped into the castle where she'd be safe... For now at least. | - - - - - - - | "They're coming sister," Luna said. Even though she was the second highest ranked Princess she was still nervous and scared as Equestria had never faced something like this, no army of this scale had ever invaded them. Especially one this strong and technologically this advanced. "We must hide the Elements of Harmony," Celestia Said as she turned around to face her student and Equestria's newest Princess, Twilight. Twilight took out her book on the Elements of Harmony where she had hidden them and gave it to Princess Celestia. Suddenly though, a large bang was heard from the main entrance. The Stormtroopers had entered the castle. Following this loud bang were blaster shots and the screaming of guards falling to their death. | - - - - - - - | Above Canterlot, a Lambda-class Shuttle was approaching to land, in there was Darth Vader; Lord of the Sith. He was escorted by two Imperial Royal Guards who wore their iconic red robes and their iconic helmet with a simple black line running along where their eyes would be. On first glance, it would look easy to defeat a guard, but under those ropes was some of the strongest armor in the Galaxy, an armor so strong that even some weapons can't penetrate it. The shuttle landed, it's main front door opening with white smoke, presumably steam coming out of it. Following it was Darth Vader, slowly exiting the shuttle as the smoke disappeared. Infront of him was General Veers, a highly rated General who wore his officer uniform on top of armor to defend himself. "General Veers." Darth Vader said with his usual frightening and intimidating voice. "Y-yes Lord Vader?" Veers replied in question. "Order the Jump Troopers to attack the cloud city." "Yes, yes my lord." | - - - - - - - | "TK-762, watch your left!" Were one of the words that could be heard from upstairs followed by more chatter. "Main Entrance secured, find the leaders!" "Yes, sir!" The Stormtroopers began the looking throughout the castle, back in the throne room; the 3 princesses were deciding what to do. "I say we hide the Elements of Harmony in the secret vault North of the Crystal Empire, they'll be safe there for sure!" Luna suggested. "Well, I propose we hi-" Twilight was cut off when the doors to the throne room burst to open. A squad of Stormtroopers entered and aimed their weapons at the guards. The three Princess quickly turned around, seeing their enemy. "Surrender! We're taking you all into custody by the order of Lord Vader!" The Sergeant shouted at the princess while the whole squad had them at gunpoint. "Very well, I surrender," Celestia said calmly. She then turned her head and looked and Luna and Twilight. "You two, teleport out of here and get to the Crystal Empire now. Gather up as many guards as you can and loyal ponies to there as well!" "But!" Twilight gasped. "No buts, GO!" With that the two teleported, but it was hard not to notice that. "Where did they go?" Asked a Stormtrooper. "What do you mean? There's just me, the guards and you in this room." Celestia Said, trying to convince the Stormtroopers that Luna and Twilight never were in the room. "The purple and dark blue creature!" The same Stormtrooper shouted. "Oh, they were um. Just a spell to fool you?" Celestia said again, trying to assure them. Before the Stormtrooper could answer all of them turned facing each other and made space as a tall, dark figure entered the room escorted by two red-colored troopers. The dark man approached Princess Celestia, looking at her, Celestia could now hear the loud breathing from the figure. "What are you?" The dark man asked, looking down at the old alicorn. "I'm Princess Celestia, the ruler of this world," said Celestia. "And who are you?" The dark man raised one of his hands, suddenly Celestia was having troubles breathing. She began to hover above the ground. "I-i .. can't b-breath.." She fell down onto the ground, being able to breathe normally again. "The name is Lord Vader and from now on you are no longer the ruler of this world," Darth Vader started leaving the room before saying. "Take her into custody." The Stormtroopers approached the Princess, two blasters aimed at her to make sure she wouldn't attack them, one had cuffs in his hands while the others held the Princess pinned down against the floor of her throne room. "No way these cuffs are gonna fit in those things," XX-006713 said, referring to the hooves. "Keep it quiet before I send you back to the Cadet Academy on Lothal, Specialist!" Shouted the Stormtrooper with an orange pauldron, indicating he possessed the rank of Commander. | - - - - - - - | The two Princess who shared similar colors on their coats appeared in the Crystal Empire, fortunately, it had not been taken over yet. "I hope Princess Celestia will be okay," said Twilight as she caught her breath. Teleporting a large distance was hard to accomplish and even if you managed to do it you'd often get so exhausted that you'd be unable to walk for the rest of the day, not even the ponies or even alicorns that possessed such strong magic could teleport that far without being exhausted. "I share the same thought as you Twilight, but dark times are upon us. We must fight back this tyranny that has conquered Equestria." Luna looked up and saw the Crystal Castle, she then looked down towards the street. There she saw Shining Armour and Cadence. "We came over as soon as we saw you both!" said Shining. "Canterlot has fallen," Twilight said, then looking behind her to see if the white armored creatures were after, they were not. "We know, the Crystal Empire is the only safe place; the shield should be strong enough to protect us," Cadence said and lit up her aura to bring a letter from Celestia herself. "Read this." 'Dear Cadence I am afraid to say that Canterlot had fallen, this army has taken us by surprise and as I am writing this I feel the suffering of my subjects, especially the innocent ones. I am writing this letter to tell you that the Crystal Empire must not fall, do your best to keep it alive as long as possible. I fear that the Elements of Harmony might not be enough to defeat this tyranny if the Crystal Empire falls. Do whatever it takes to ensure your empire doesn't fall. ~ Princess Celestia.' "We have the elements of harmony with us and we agreed to hide them in the vault north of Empire," Luna said. "That's great, I'll take you there now. The faster we lock them in, the better." Shining began trotting away and was followed by Luna and Twilight. | - - - - - - - | "My lord. The attack on the cloud city was successful but." Lieutenant Menrie couldn't find the word to describe what happened. "But what, Lieutenant?" Darth Vader asked. "Um, we lost 75% of the Jump Trooper Battalion.." "Death is acceptable as long as we remain in control of this planet." Darth Vader walked off to march around the ruined streets of what once was a beautiful city with merchants selling their goods, the wonderful smell from the bakeries or brewing houses and kind ponies greeting each other. That city was now a thing of the past, something which may never return, because of the Empire. The reason for the deaths was quite an obvious one for a pony, the jump troopers weren't Pegasi so they couldn't walk on the clouds which made it harder for them to annex the city as they were jump troopers and not jet troopers. But it didn't take long for them to realize it however and when they did the battle drastically changed from the chance of a pony victory to an Imperial Victory. | - - - - - - - | "You're sure this is the vault right?" Twilight asked her big brother, making sure he doesn't do a mistake. "Yes? I am completely sure.." Shining replied with an obvious voice of uncertainty. Twilight rolled her eyes; but she was sure that Shining Armour was right, he had to be after all. "Ah, here it is!" Shining raised his right hoof and showed them the vault. The vault was covered in thick ice, according to the visitors the door is able to withstand the heat of up to 10,000° degrees Celsius. Which fortunately but unbeknownst to them; made the flame trooper units unable to burn it down with their flamethrowers. "Funny thing, only I have the ability to open this," Shining said and let out a small chuckle after. "No time for jokes, we need to store the Elements for safekeeping," Luna said with annoyance in her voice as she was getting tired of Shining Amour's arrogance. "Right, sorry Luna." Shining stuck his horn inside the lock and lit up the aura to do the correct combination, once he was done he removed his horn from the lock and let the door open itself. Twilight entered in and used her magic to put the book in the vault. "Done, let's get back now." | - - - - - - - | "Lord Vader," Captain Darren approached the dark lord. "Our probe droids have detected a city in the north as the last one remaining of this species." "Prepare the Cold Assualt Stormtroopers for an attack, and have the 6th and 7th Armoured Battalion meet up south of the city." "Yes my lord." Darren walked away to prepare the Cold Assualt Stormtroopers or as they were otherwise known as Snowtroopers. However, this wouldn't be the last attack. Lord Vader still needed to take over the other parts of the planet, not just Equestria. Otherwise, the planet would rebel against the Imperial Occupation with a stronger force than right now which would end this occupation before it could even start. "One more thing, Captain," Darth Vader looked at the Captain as he stopped and turned around. "Have the TIE Scout's explore the rest of the planet to for preparation to invade the other parts of this planet." "But my lord, the fleet has no TIE/sr's." The Captain said. "Then get some." The advantage of the TIE/sr or as it was also known as the TIE Scout was one of the few starfighters in the Imperial Navy that could travel through Hyperspace, the other being the deadly TIE/D Defender and the stealthy TIE/ph Phantom. | - - - - - - - | The Crystal Empire was the last hope for the ponies if it was to fall then the chances to save Equestria would be slim, but this wasn't the only problem to worry about for the Empire. During the Invasion, many ponies had gone to the Crystal Empire for refuge. Now there were too many refugees and causing new problems. Outside the shield, the Crystal Guard performed patrols to make sure the shield would hold and that no Imperials were in the area. But the Invasion was coming, they didn't know, unfortunately. 6 AT-AT's were lined up about 100 Kilometers from the Crystal Empire joined by 4 AT-ST's. The All Terrain Armoured Transport was the workhorse for the Imperial Army, it's strong shields deflected all hand-carried weapons and it could carry an entire platoon of Stormtroopers for Sieges. However, everything has a weakness or two, the AT-AT had two. One was that Ion Bombs from Bombers like the Clone Wars-era Y-Wing Bomber could disable the shields for a short period of time. This was a tactic that the rebellion had used to defeat the Imperials on planets like Sullust and Tatooine. The other weakness was the legs, no they weren't weak but a strong rope or wire could trip the AT-AT and cause it to fall. Something the Imperials hope that the Rebels haven't figured out yet, the question was if the ponies have. In one of the AT-AT's stood General Veers, he was awaiting orders from Darth Vader whether to attack or not, but he knew that the order would be to attack. Suddenly a blue image of Darth Vader appeared on the walker's hologram display. "Lord Vader, all the walkers are in position. We await your order." Veers said. "Commence the attack, have no mercy." Darth Vader disappeared from the display, indicating he was done. "Commence the attack." Veers ordered the pilots. In the air, the walkers were joined by TIE Bombers who were to begin their bombing run on the city to weaken the defenses if there were any. The TIE Bomber's iconic two pods passed by the Walkers in a V Formation. "What a beauty." | - - - - - - - | "See anything?" A royal guard asked his comrade whom he was patrolling with. "No, not even a single snowflake, might as well forget about patrolling if there's no-" The young guard stopped abruptly as he saw the All Terrain Armoured Transports in the distance through the binoculars. "You okay?" "They're here." | - - - - - - - | The heavy stomping sounds of the AT-AT could be heard miles away, even though it was just a step it was still enough to give the toughest pony the chills. Knowing that the ponies were useless against those walkers, Shining had ordered an evacuation of the Crystal Empire but there was one problem, her sister. Twilight was keen that she had a solution to this, she had studied physics enough to figure out a way to possibly destroy the walkers. Her idea was that a strong rope should be able to halt the walker's advance and when it tries to go forward it will trip over and end up destroyed or at least disabled. Even though she kept babbling about it, nopony except for Luna and Cadance agreed with her. The three princesses got their wish finally when Shining Armor realized that the residents wouldn't escape in time and therefore let them handle it and use 6 guards for the task. With that settled, Twilight & Co made their way beyond the city's shields and towards the intimating AT-AT walkers. Every step the walkers took wasn't just a scaring sound but it also made the ground shake, especially with all that heavy equipment onboard. Twilight took out the rope from her saddlebag and used her magic to pass it on to Luna who would run on over to the other side. As she had expected, Luna ran over to the other side with 3 of the guards, holding the rope with her magic as did Twilight. The AT-AT began approaching and due to the cockpit being so high up; the drivers would be unable see the ponies down there. Finally one of the legs made contact with the rope, soon it was the second one and with enough strength, the AT-AT's legs began making the vehicle fall. The AT-AT crashed into the ground, making the snow around the now destroyed vehicle go up 50 meters into the sky before falling back down and covering the 8 ponies in the thick and cold snow. Twilight, being her self; began celebrating as if she was a Hoofball fan and her favorite team had scored a winning goal in stoppage time. But she quickly stopped in a realization that it wasn't enough. Unfortunately, the other AT-AT's had already reached far enough to be in firing range of the Crystal Empire much to the Galactic Empire's favor. It was obvious at this sight that the small group would be unable to destroy the remaining walkers in this little time, the best option was to retreat to the Crystal Empire and hope that Shining Armour had come up with a plan. It was also at this crucial time that Twilight's Ponyville friends, also known as the Elements to the public arrived though admittedly a few hours late. | - - - - - - - | The shield of the Crystal Empire was somehow still hanging on, even if the barrages of heavy laser fire and bombing from the Empire it clearly wasn't enough. By now some of the residents had evacuated to the far northern lands where temperatures can reach a freezing -89° Celcius on the coldest day of the year. Eventually, the shield cracked and with that so did the constant firing from the Empire. The Imperial Snowtroopers entered the city followed by one AT-AT and two AT-ST's, ordering everypony to surrender and gather at the center of the city. As for Twilight and her friends they knew that they needed to leave now, but with strong resistance from Shining. His argument was that he couldn't let the residents of the Crystal Empire suffer and possibly die while he could escape. "Shining, I know you want to stay with the population but without you, we'll have a hard time trying to fight this tyranny!" Twilight said in an attempt to convince her big brother to follow her and help. "I know you care about me Twily, but this is the right thing for me. To stay with my people. Go now while you have the chance, and remember. I'll always love you Twilight." Twilight knew she couldn't do much more, with this some tears came running down her eyes as she approached to hug her big brother. She hugged him and probably clinched onto him harder than she'd ever have done in her life when the hug ended she walked away. After Twilight, came Cadance who shared a kiss with her husband before the alicorn was about to go on a journey to save Equestria. When the kiss between the married couple ended, Cadance shared a last look on Shinin before turning around and joining Twilight, Luna and her friends. | - - - - - - - | Emperor Palpatine in his old office he had when he used to be the Supreme Chancellor during the Republic days. Back when he was manipulating the Jedi Order and the Senate to make his grand plan come true which did. He had always remembered the day Mace Windu entered the same office with three other Jedis to arrest him. They were foolish enough to realize they were walking into a trap and become the first victims of the Great Jedi Purge. After some additional minutes of just thinking he decided to contact his apprentice Darth Vader. The Sith Lord walked into a chamber specially build to call people via holograms, however, he mostly used it to talk with Darth Vader who ran his errands, making sure the galaxy was in check. Author's Note Apologies for the long wait, I had planned this chapter to be released last week but unfortunately due to the number of words in it I had to delay it. Also, I will stop posing the A/N on the blog so it will be here instead. I'll try posting the next chapter by next week but I can't guarantee anything.
SkirmishWhile the majority of the Death Squadron was in the orbit of the planet, the Executor and the Behemoth were in the Atmosphere, surveying the landscape for threats. Onboard the Executor was Owyn. Undercover in the Empire and reporting everything back to the Rebellion. Lately, he had nothing to report and the Rebellion was even considering to transfer him to a hit & run squadron but he had found a goldmine of intel. Not only did he discover a new planet for the Rebellion but new species, species that could help the Rebellion. The only question was if Owyn could successfully report it back without getting caught. Owyn was confident he could do it, for the last 2 hours he had been looking for a spot to call the Rebellion but he had no luck. That was until he stumbled upon the Service Hatch for repairs to the engines. Owyn looked left and right to see if there was anyone that could see him, to his luck there was no one. Not even a mouse droid. He crouched down and turned the seal on the hatch towards the left, unlocking the hatch in doing so. He looked around again but there was no one. He lifted the hatch and descended using the ladder, once he was down he closed the catch and went on to find a good spot. The only downside with the service hatch was that it was right next to the engines so he could hear the powerful sound that almost made him deaf. But that wasn't going to stop him from contacting the Rebellion. Owyn looked around the last time before pulling out the hologram display out of his pocket and contacting the Rebellion. He waited a few seconds before a blue imagine was displayed. Owyn knew what he had to say and he knew it was likely that the Empire would find the transmission but it was a risk he had to take. "This is Fulcrum speaking. I am currently onboard the Executor, my cover has been good without any issues. I'm sending this transmission to inform the Rebellion that the Empire has discovered a new system. Equestria. The system currently only has one planet and a moon, but I think it's much bigger. The main Planet Equestria is inhabited by different species, some of them being called Ponies and Griffons," Owyn said. | - - - - - - - | "Lord Vader, we have a transmission currently being transmitted from this ship heading to the rebellion." Captain Darren said. "Locate the transmission's location at once." Darth Vader responded and left the bridge he was on. Using the force he attempted to guide himself towards the transmission, he could see a room, with loud noises being generated from it. No doubt it had to be the Service hatch next to the engines the Sith Apprentice thought. | - - - - - - - | "As for other information it doesn't seem that this planet has the technology that the galaxy posses, but it from what I've heard it is a very clean and beautiful place. I also got information that there are fugitives on the run, apparently high-value targets and having to do with the planet's old monarchy or something. I can't confirm these rumors but I bet they're authentic. I'm afraid my cover has been blown by this transmission, I will see what I can do to escape before I get cau-" Owyn was lifted off the ground by the force. At the same time, he couldn't breathe, he moved his hands upwards towards his throat where he tried to breathe normally but to no avail. Eventually, he was then turned around and to his surprise, he saw Darth Vader and two Stormtroopers with blue markings on their armor. He recognized those markings as the ones that the 501st wear, also known as Vader's fist. He could see the Sith Lord pull out his lightsaber and it illuminating a red light. He knew what was about to happen. Suddenly he felt being pulled by the force towards the lightsaber and then it hit. The lightsaber went right inside, going through his abdomen like it was nothing. He looked at Darth Vader before his eyes switched off. Owyn was dead. Vader switched off his lightsaber and let the body fall down towards the floor. Unfortunately, Vader didn't come in time to stop the transmission from being sent. But at least the Rebellion didn't have the coordinates. Unless they were to track where the transmission came from. | - - - - - - - | "Princess! We've got a transmission from Fulcrum!" A Rebel Officer shouted the Command Center of Echo Base. "Patch it through, we need to know what Fulcrum has to say." Princess Leia said. The Rebel Officer did so, tapping on the buttons on the large hologram display. When the officer was done he pressed a button next to Leia and the logo of Fulcrum appeared on the display. 'This is Fulcrum speaking. I am currently onboard the Executor, my cover has been good without any problems. I'm sending this transmission to inform the Rebellion that the Empire has discovered a new system, Equestria. The system currently only has one planet and a moon, but I think it's much bigger. The main Planet Equestria is inhabited by different species, some of them being called Ponies and Griffons,' said Fulcrum through his distorted voice to cover his identity. 'As for other information it doesn't seem that this planet has the technology that the galaxy posses, but it from what I've heard it is a very clean and beautiful place. I also got information that there are fugitives on the run, apparently high-value targets and having to do with the planet's old monarchy or something. I can't confirm these rumors but I bet they're authentic.' I'm afraid my cover has been blown by this transmission, I will see what I can do to escape before I get cau-' It was at that stop that the transmission ended. "We have no clue why the transmission ended short but our guess is that he was unfortunately caught in the middle of it." The officer said. Leia didn't respond. To her when a rebel died was the almost the same feeling when her homeworld of Aldeeran was destroyed by the Death Star. Over a billion people died on that day, including her adoptive father Prince and former Senator Bail Organa and adoptive mother Queen Breha Organa. She of course still carried the title "Princess". Everyone in the Rebellion used, seeing it as a better title than "Ma'am." | - - - - - - - | Although the Empire never did bomb or attack a civilization at this large scale to bring them into the Empire they did this time as they had no intel if they had any defenses. Not to mention that they learned that the Unicorns had magic which could be used to attack Stormtroopers. But it raised a bigger issue, the bombing runs had done their job. Maybe even overdone it because the Empire now had to rebuild Equestria. Cities like Ponyville lay in ruins, often nopony walking in the streets. But miles away from Ponyville was Twilight, her friends, Luna and Cadance. Running from the Empire. They knew the Windigos and other horrible disasters could come if the Empire wasn't driven away, but they had nothing to match them. Not even something to at least injure a Stormtrooper. Sure they had destroyed an AT-AT but they had been lucky because that AT-AT was very close to not tipping over in fact Their best chance was if someone could help them. In the past, everyone relied on Twilight Sparkle to help them in events like these. But now, all of them including Twilight were hoping for a miracle. Someone to help them. Maybe a defector or another faction that comes from the same place as them but with the intention of helping the ponies instead of enslaving and killing them. Fortunately, the Rebellion was here to help but they didn't know. They didn't know that far far away there as an alliance trying to figure out the location from where the Transmission of Owyn came from. They knew it came from Equestria, but Equestria didn't exist on the map of the galaxy. The Unknown Regions were known for one thing. Its name, everything here was unknown and barely anything of the Unknown Regions was even discovered. Unfortunately for the Rebels, the Empire had likely better maps thanks to Grand Admiral Thrawn who spent his time in the Unknown Regions, exploring and preparing defenses for the Empire. Defenses against an unknown species. Those species were the Yuuzhan-Vong, but Thrawn had no idea about that. Only them and some Chiss knew about them. In truth the Yuuzhan-Vong had prepared to attack the galaxy for more than 20 years, it was a question when and not if it was gonna come. | - - - - - - - | The group of escaping ponies had probably run for an hour straight when they decided to stop when it was time for the lowering the sun and raising the moon, but there was a problem. The sun hadn't been lowered yet which meant the moon couldn't rise. But Celestia wasn't here, she couldn't lower the sun because she was held captive, likely onboard one of the Imperial Ships, even though Twilight had once done the job of raising and lowering the sun and moon it was a challenge for Luna as she didn't have all the Alicorn powers, only her own. But Luna was confident, she always was, she could theoretically do the job with the downside of being extremely exhausted afterward. "Luna, are you sure you're going to be able to lower the sun and raise the moon at the same time? Are you sure you don't want help?" Twilight asked the older Princess. "Thank you Twilight Sparkle for volunteering but I should do this alone, for everypony's safety," Luna responded. She took a few steps forward and positioned herself. Then she lighted up her horn, creating a blue aura around it. The sun began to go down slowly, but it was evident that the Princess was struggling. Sweat could be seen coming from her from exhaustion. The sun came down and now she had to raise the moon with the little energy she had left. Slowly the moon became visible and not long after it was in its right position. With the moon came the stars and the constellations, it always was a beautiful sight but not when elsewhere there were innocent ponies | - - - - - - - | "Lord Vader...." Palpatine said. "Yes my lord?" Darth Vader asked. "I have new orders.. for you.... Move the fleet to the Outer Rim and look for young Skywalker and his puny rebel friends." "But my lord, who shall provide Security here?" "Do not worry about that... Grand Admiral Thrawn is on his way, so is Captain Pallaeon.." The Sith Master disappeared from the display, with that Darth Vader rise up and left the meditation chamber heading to the bridge. The doors to the bridge opened, Captain Darren was on the bridge and looking at the landscape but quickly turned around when he heard Darth Vader's presence. "Captain, order all Imperial Forces except for the ones stationed on the Behemoth to return to their ship now and make the jump to Hyperspace when finished." Darth Vader ordered. "Yes my Lord." Darren quickly went over to a Navigator and got his attention, relaying the orders to the Navigator. | - - - - - - - | Pinkie Pie always saw happiness, even on dark days like these she couldn't stop smiling and jump without stopping. Some ponies considered it unnatural but to her, it was natural and her friends knew it as well. While her friends and the two Princesses were resting at an abandoned lodge, Pinkie did the honors of making sure no Imperials were in the area. That was until she could hear a loud noise coming from behind her. At first, she thought it was an animal but on closer inspection, she saw that the giant dark ship was leaving. The Pink mare quickly ran inside the lodge to alert her friends who thought she was joking. But when they heard the noise they realized Pinkie was right. "Aw yeah! We made those cowards run!" Rainbow Dash said. "Do not jump to conclusions Rainbow Dash. The smaller ship is still here and is not leaving by the looks of it." Luna responded. Even though she didn't know it, Luna was right. The Executor was on it's way to run some of Palpatine's other errands. One of them was finding Luke Skywalker and destroying the new Rebel Base. Suddenly though, sounds could be heard. They were unclear but the group could make it out as words, and it didn't sound like ponies. "I heard something here." After that a sound of something being turned on could be heard, unknowingly it was an E-11 Blaster having it's safety turned off. The group now knew who it was, the Imperials. They quickly hid from them, not wanting to attract attention and having to run again, especially not when some of them were exhausted. Then another voice could be heard, coming from another Stormtrooper, probably a high rank. "Probably just some wildlife, regroup at Sector 7B with Task Force-Bravo." With that, the Imperials went away. One week later The Chimaera along with numerous other Star Destroyers were in orbit of the planet, onboard the Chimaera was none other than Grand Admiral Thrawn. But he wasn't on the bridge overseeing the defenses or commanding troops on the planet. No, he was in his office, an office filled with paintings, artifacts and other pieces of cultural items of different species and native groups. To Thrawn these weren't garbage unlike what the Empire thought, they were valuables, items that he cared about. The reason why Thrawn was one of the smartest if not the smartest in the Imperial Navy and High Command. All his battles ended in victory, except for some encounters with the Phoenix Squadron. This time Thrawn was obviously studying on these new species, the pony. The galaxy had never seen a species such as them so for him it was a priority to get knowledge on them. Thankfully Imperial Commando's and archived books in the libraries were enough for him, to him learning about their magic and their way of life was not just fascinating, but an opportunity to prove to bring this world into Imperial Loyalty, even though his orders were to not let word of this planet come to the public eyes. The only ships from the Death Squadron that were left were the Behemoth, High Admiral Vosh's flagship, even though all the other ships were in orbit the Behemoth was in the atmosphere, hovering above Canterlot. But it was there for a few reasons, one was to be a mobile command center and command the Imperial Forces on the planet. But the more important reason was to show the ponies that the Empire was in control, not some alicorns with powerful magic. By now it had become a normal sight for the ponies, seeing the Imperial-II Class Star Destroyer hovering above what once used to be the home for their rulers On the ground, major repairs had begun in the cities affected by the attacks, fortunately, the ponies were lucky. In the past, the Empire had used depressing grey concrete and built every house together but the fleet didn't have any building materials so the Empire had to recycle it. Along the finished residences, posters were put. To be more specific, propaganda, trying to make the population rally behind the Empire and support them. Unfortunately for the Empire, none of the ponies understood Galactic Basic, this was why the school program was being remade. Ideas of Independence or anything related to Rebellion and Defiance was to be removed, the Empire would need loyal subjects in the future. | - - - - - - - | The screaming noise from a TIE Fighter could be heard, flying above the Ghastly Gorge before quickly pulling up to avoid crashing. While the Empire knew there were some fugitives they didn't know how many or how strong. But to them it was a priority to find them, they could spread ideas of rebellion, defiance, and hope into the new Imperial population. Those thoughts were somewhat what the group of ponies had in mind, their goal was to fight back and not accept the Imperial occupation, but using force would be their last option, their first choice was surprisingly diplomacy, unfortunately, though the Empire doesn't take Diplomacy and results to force as their first choice. "Twilight, A think it be better if we rest, we hav' been walking the whole day and ma hoofs are startin' to hurt." Applejack said.¨ "Rest in the Ghastly Gorge where a rock can fall down on us? Forget that!" Twilight responded, even though she also somewhat agreed with Applejack. Applejack was about to respond back when she realized that Twilight had a point, at any moment a rock could fall and hurt them really bad. The best option seemed like the worst one but it was the safest one and in fact the best one. It maybe took 2 or 3 hours until the group made it out of the gorge but when they did they had an opportunity to rest, to their luck another abandoned lodge was at the end, but instead of being a residence it was the old Gorge Patrol headquarters, it was better than nothing so the group settled there. Being a fugitive meant that you need to run every day and sleep wherever you end up, in this case, an office building. | - - - - - - - | The night shined bright, the moon was visible in the sky, a reminder of the beauty the night provided, together with the stars and the night sky made it a beautiful sight, almost comparable to a painting. But to Task Force-Bravo it didn't matter. The night was just camouflage for them. Their jet black armor was almost impossible to see in the dark. The only part of their armor visible was the green lights under the helmet. A scrambled voice spoke from one of the troopers, a scrambled voice to hide their strategy, to prevent their enemy from learning. A scrambled voice quickly responded and took out binoculars to recon the area. Infront of the trooper was a Gorge, at the end was a lodge with its lights turned on. This had to be the place the trooper thought. He made hand signals, ordering his men to move forward. Towards the lodge. Every step they took could alert the fugitives, every breath they took could too. Anything could, even a pony on a night promenade could. The fearless and deadly Death Trooper Squad moved through the gorge, blasters raised high. One had a rocket launcher with his weapon holstered, one had a sniper rifle, one had a heavy rifle while the other two including the Commander had their standard issue blaster rifle. The Death Trooper was the most elite trooper in the Empire behind the Royal Guard and ahead of the Special Forces. Trained in deadly tactics, they're the most loyal force in the Imperial Military, trained from a young age these soldiers knew everything like the back of their hand. They followed their orders always, never questioned them, even if they had to kill one of their own or kill innocent civilians. They did it for the Empire because the Empire was their home and family. And thanks to the Unit 19 who reported strange noises sounding like speech from a lodge in their patrol area Task Force-Bravo managed to track them down and prove to the Empire how good of a soldier they were. | - - - - - - - | The iconic Millennium Falcon was in hyperspace, surrounded by the blue walls that were spinning around the ship, mixed with a little white here and there. The ship's destination Equestria. Captain Solo or as he preferred to be called: Han Solo was accompanied by his best friend Chewbacca and four rebel soldiers, all of them were elite soldiers, while maybe not special forces they still were much better than the average rebel who was young, weak and had low morale. "We'll be arriving that weird Quest world soon, better hang on." Han Solo said to the four rebels. The four troopers nodded and sat down next to a table. While Han Solo didn't wish to do this mission, he had been forced by Leia, not only had he been forced but these missions he hated the most. Escort missions. His destination was, of course, Equestria, but he was escorting a Blockade Runner, a CR90 Corellian Corvette to be more precise. Of course, he wasn't alone, 3 members of Green Squadron, 3 agile A-Wings. The ship made some noises before eventually a large braking force could be felt, making the ship exit hyperspace. Han Solo was greeted by 6 Star Destroyers he counted along with 2 Victory Class Star Destroyers and 4 Arquintens Class Light Cruisers, not to mention the TIE's patrolling in the sector. "This will be fun." Han Solo thought. The patrolling TIE Fighters then turned around and began heading towards the Millenium Falcon and the three starfighters while the Blockade Runner was going full speed towards the surface of the planet, going unnoticed by the Imperial Pilots. Han quickly pushed a lever and made the Falcon advance towards the planet Equestria. He then pushed a button to activate the afterburners to make his ship go faster hoping to outrun the agile TIEs. The Falcon entered the atmosphere and was immediately met by the Behemoth, in response Han pulled up and avoided a collision, turning off the afterburners at the same time. Chewbacca reached out his arm to activate the lights of the Falcon to help Han in the night. "Let's just find those passengers and get out of here!" Han shouted, hearing a growl from Chewbacca in agreement. What looked like a task that could take days or months to complete was fortunately for Han not needed as apparently today was his lucky day, Chewbacca spotted Imperial Troopers thanks to green lights on their helmet and he immediately informed Han. Han quickly put on a piece of headware to contact the Blockade Runner "Hey! Blockade Runner, I think we found the place!" Han then saw how the Corvette changed direction and headed towards the lodge but not before being spotted by the Death Troopers who began firing, especially the one with the rocket launcher who fired one rocket and nearly hit the corvette's engines. "We can't land unless you take out that Anti-Air Trooper!" the Rebel Commander said. At the same time on the ground, the group had been alerted by the sounds of the ships and the rocket flying past the lodge. Cadance looked out the window and saw the Imperial Death Troopers, in doing so she quickly alerted the other ponies of the discovery. All of them knew that it was risky to go outside, they could easily be shot or captured. Best bet was to wait inside and hope for the best. The Millenium Falcon landed the door opening and the four elite rebels getting out and opening fire at the Death Troopers who had taken cover. The sounds of the A280 Carbine rifle and the E-11D filling the air was just a reminder to the ponies that their doom is coming. One of the rebels ran towards the lodge, opening the door quickly as he entered and seeing the ponies. "Are you the High-Value targets?" he asked. "Uh, what do you mean by High-Value?" Rainbow Dash responded. "Are you the ones having to do something with an old monarchy?" "Yes, that's us," Twilight said. "Alright, just follow me and we'll get you to safety." The Rebel peeked out the door and saw that the Corvette hadn't landed yet but was approaching land. That was when a rocket from the Anti-Air Death Trooper hit the engines, causing them to explode and have fire spreading throughout the ship. The Corvette began going down fast and hit the ground, the cockpit flying away while the rest caught on fire, debris scattered everywhere some survivors struggling to exit the burning wreckage, fortunately, it created some cover for the rebels who had been previously vulnerable. "JUST STAY DOWN!" The rebel yelled and began running towards the Millenium Falcon. The ponies did as told and followed him towards the iconic ship. In the air, TIE's of all kinds were dogfighting the A-Wings, when one TIE Interceptor hit one of the A-Wings in the left engine exhaust and as of result the A-Wing began spinning to the left uncontrollably, headed towards the ground. The A-Wing smashed into the gorge, an explosion following it and the pilot being killed on impact. The Rebel reached the Falcon and stood by the ramp, indicating the ponies to enter the ship which they did, one by one entering the Millenium Falcon. "THAT'S ALL, LET'S GET OUT OF HERE WHILE WE CAN!" The same rebel shouted. Two rebels went inside while one was shot in the back while entering. The last one dragged the injured one inside and pushed a button to close the ramp door. The ship pulled up and blasted off the ground towards space followed by the two A-Wings and TIEs. The ship then began speeding up a lot, and before everyone knew it all ships were in Hyperspace, minus the crashed Corvette and the destroyed A-Wing. But everyone was left with questions, the rebels wondering what those ponies were and the ponies asking themselves what just happened. Did they just get taken by undercover Imperials? Were these defectors? Or was this a rescue operation? Either way, they still were grateful that they got rescued from what could have been the end of their plans to liberate Equestria, a rescue they just might never forget. Han Solo then stepped out of the cockpit, looking at the creatures he had never seen before in his life, wondering what they were. He then saw the confusion that their faces had and knew he had to say something and decided to be honest for once. "Don't you all worry, we're also questioning what just happened." Han Solo said. Author's Note Thank you all for reading the third chapter of An Imperial Occupation. Chapter Four will be uploaded either next week or the week after. I might also be releasing a second story at the same time!
OperationsA year would pass since the small skirmish near the Ghastly Gorge, a year Equestria has been under the control of the tyrannical Galactic Empire. The Battle of Hoth had weakened the Rebellion massively, almost destroying the entire ground forces and with some of the rebellion's leaders going missing and presumed to at the gas planet Bespin before escaping at the cost of Captain Solo being captured. Still, to this day he remains captured but the rebels are saying he's been found and a rescue operation has been planned. The group of ponies that had barely escaped their planet of birth, Equestria, were currently onboard a Corvette, a similar one to the one that crashed and almost killed them a year ago. The Corellian Corvette "Admirable II", named after Admiral Juno's Venator 'Admirable' and his heroic crew during the Clone Wars, was currently patrolling the area at The Wheel for Imperial Activity, which had been high lately. Fortunately, the Corvette wasn't alone and was escorted by another Corvette and a squadron of X-Wing Fighters along with three Ace A-Wing Pilots and the small fleet's flagship being a Nebulon-B Frigate 'Aldeeran Sky' which was named in honor of Aldeeran after it's destruction. Twilight and her friends had been giving rooms onboard the Admirable II for as long as they'd be needed, the rooms were quite simple: One bed, a small writing desk, a closet and a washroom, not to mention it was quite cramped but so far all of them had managed it. In command of the small fleet was Commander Fogles, a member of the Twi'Lek species. | - - - - - - - | Ponyville and all the other cities and villages destroyed in the invasion were now rebuilt and looked just like they used to, however the pony population had been fortunate as the Empire usually built grey depressing small huts that usually were about the size of an X-Wing, they didn't this time because the Empire was seeking to keep the system a secret, just like the world of Byss. Therefore it couldn't employ its contractors for building materials. On the marketplace of Ponyville business was back to normal, or so it seemed. In the middle of the marketplace were three Stormtroopers, one of them being a Sergeant. In one of the corners was a hidden AT-ST, waiting for the slightest sight of a rebellious pony. "There's nothing here, move to Sector G17." The Sergeant said. The three Stormtroopers began leaving the marketplace, shortly after the previously hidden AT-ST began moving, following them and at the same time nearly crushing a shop. In another part of town was a red-coated stallion, going by the name of Big Macintosh. He was transporting some apples to the Sugar Cube Corner. Just when he was about to enter the small town that was Ponyville he was stopped by two Stormtroopers, one of them being a Commander. To the left was a flagpole with the Imperial Flag and to the right was a small building and a parking space for speeder bikes. "What's your cargo?" The Stormtrooper asked. Shortly after the Stormtrooper Commander went over the small cart to check what it was. "Apples." The stallion answered with. The Commander looked thoroughly through the cart for any contraband or outlawed items. "He's clear." The Commander said. "Alright, let me see some identification." The Stormtrooper said. Big Mac looked back at the cart and made a gesture with his head. The Stormtrooper looked confused and switching off the safety of his gun just in case. "What are you doing?" "In there." The stallion responded. Still confused, the stormtrooper raised and aimed his E-11 Blaster at the red pony. The Commander, being smart decided to listen to the pony and looked around in the cart again, finding the ID card. "Oh, he meant it was in there." The Stormtrooper lowered his blaster and turned safety back on. The Commander looked at the card to see if the information checked out. Unsurprisingly it did. "Move along, move along." The Commander said. | - - - - - - - | "Alert, A rebel fleet has come out of hyperspace, man your battle stations now. This is a drill." The speakers onboard the Chimaera were saying. Squads of Stormtrooper were running slowly towards their battle stations, which often was either helping the crew or providing security in case the ship was to be boarded. Officers and crew ran at the same time to their posts, which obviously were the command centers onboard, every post had to be fully manned for a successful battle. "Time them," Thrawn said. "Yes, sir." The Lieutenant answered. The Lieutenant quickly pressed a few buttons to start a timer. Thrawn wanted to obviously time how fast it'd take for all the men onboard to reach their battle stations. But this wasn't the only drill planned for today, he still planned for an engine destruction drill and a fire in the main reactor drill. All of this to make sure his crew would be ready at all times and to have them prepared for anything, even when faced with death. "Sir, it took 4 minutes and 37 seconds for all crew to reach mission-critical stations and 5 minutes and 14 seconds to reach all other stations." The Lieutenant said. "Good, but not good enough, schedule a second rebel attack drill for tomorrow," Thrawn ordered. Thrawn would stand up and walk away, away to his personal quarters before stopping abruptly. "On second thought. Prepare for the jump to lightspeed, destination Csilla. Have High Admiral Vosh take over the planet's planetary defense under my supervision while I am at my homeworld. I need to complete my mapping of the Unknown Regions." Thrawn said, walking away shortly after. "Yes, sir." The Lieutenant said. | - - - - - - - | "We should hurry up Twilight, we don't want to miss this," Cadance said to her sister in law. "You're right, don't wanna miss this." the alicorn said in response and began following the older alicorn. What Cadance was referring to was something big, something that they've all been waiting for. A possible liberation of Equestria. Luna and Twilight's friends were already in the briefing room, sitting there and waiting for the two royalties to arrive. In the middle of the room was a hologram projector that projected the live image of Admiral Ackbar. Just when Ackbar was to commence his briefing did the two ponies arrive in the room, they looked for a place to sit down and saw two available spots near Rarity where they would sit down, ready to listen what the Admiral had to say. "Members of the Rebel Alliance, we recognize that the war against the Galactic Empire has slowed down recently, we are at the moment losing wars on crucial planets to the rebellion such as Mon Calamari where the Empire is willing to stop our capital ship production." "But in this time, we are a mobile, mobile enough to avoid the Imperial Navy and start supporting and liberating worlds that don't wish to be under the Empire's control." "I've spoken with Princess Leia and Mon Mothma and we have decided to launch a full-scale assault to liberate the world known as Equestria from the Empire." "But our rebel spies have informed us that Grand Admiral Thrawn may be present, we all know what a deadly commander he is and how he destroys Rebel Fleets for fun." "But we will prevail, we have the strength, the morale, the soldiers to win, and show that we are are a threat to the Empire and defeat them!" "This fleet, commanded by Commander Fogles will be reinforced with capital ships, support vessels and additional starfighters including Y-Wing Bombers to complete this task." "May the force be with you." The hologram projector switched off and up stepped Commander Fogles, the highest ranked rebel in this fleet for what everyone guessed was to be a short speech or a motivational talk, while they were sort of-right it wasn't really what they had guessed. "We will be launching this attack next week, I want you all to be ready because this may a battle bigger than Hoth, Yavin IV or any upcoming battles with the Empire. It will not be easy, there will be death, suffering, and sacrifices. But we shall prevail victoriously." | - - - - - - - | With the announcement of the attack and liberation of Equestria confirmed, there was nothing else to worry about. Equestria was soon to become free and they'd get to return home where they could live in peace and harmony. The day was to come, it had to. What else was there to attack? The Imperial Factories and Refineries on Sullust were too heavily defended for the rebels, the Fondor and Kuat Shipyards had powerful defenses that could rip apart an MC80 Cruiser in mere seconds and Coruscant being the heart of the Empire had at least two Super Star Destroyers and 30+ Star Destroyers guarding it. Equestria only had about 4-6 Star Destroyers guarding it so it'd be a well-matched target for the Rebellion's capable fleet. Equestria's time for liberation has come. Author's Note Apologies for the short chapter, I will make the next one longer, much longer. As for my second story, it's release will have to be delayed so it'll likely come out next week or so. Oh and don't be shy to post constructive criticism, I won't send you to the dungeons for that. One more thing, I've changed the story's picture to better fit the fanfic, it doesn't feel right to have Darth Vader on there but only having him so far in three chapters.
Battle of Equestria IA week had passed, the final strategy meeting had taken place, everyone knew what role they'd have during the battle. The ponies had unsurprisingly been given no role at all in the battle, they'd just be observing while the Rebels did the heavy lifting. The fleet was almost at Equestria, only a few minutes and the battle would begin, a battle to liberate the ponies of Equestria. New Intel had unfortunately suggested that the Empire had reinforced the planet with additional support vessels and two Star Destroyers with a few more ships on their way. Rainbow Dash would normally love dangerous moments this would be no exception at first glance, but the young pegasi weren't enthusiastic as she always was, she was curious. What could happen? Will I die? Were some of the questions that floated freely throughout the head. For others like Luna and Cadance, they were only thinking about getting to reunite with Celestia and Shining Armor. But those three weren't the only having thoughts like that. Twilight Sparkle thought about how Equestria had changed over the year, was it just like before? Was it completely new and had high-rise buildings left and right with no sight of vegetation? Rarity was thinking about what clothes people were wearing now, Fluttershy about the animals and hoping to see none of them affected by the tyranny of the Empire, Applejack was thinking about getting to reunite with her big brother and her grandma but also the quiet and beautiful country life. Lastly, Pinkie Pie was thinking about nothing, just parties? The fleet was moments away from exiting hyperspace, moments before it'd engage the enemy fleet: The Imperial Navy. Them it was heard. "All men, man your battle stations. This is not a drill, we will be leaving hyperspace shortly. The announcement said. Following this, footsteps of the Rebel soldiers could be heard, running to their battle stations whether it was a communications outpost or the Ion Cannons. An alarm could be heard as well. It wasn't a loud one like the abandon ship ones but it still was quite loud, probably to inform the listener that battle is coming. | - - - - - - - | The loud noises of the hyperdrive stopped and a strong braking force could be felt, not strong enough to send someone flying but strong enough to inform that you've arrived at the destination. Immediately the sounds of the Corvette's engines running. Its role was to destroy enemy fighters before they could reach the vulnerable parts of the capital ship, the MC80 'Resurgence' The noises of the A-Wings leaving the hangars of the Corvette made it seem like this would be a battle that's going to last for ages, though in reality, it wouldn't. The pilots of the rebellion were often less experienced than their Imperial Counterparts, but the motivation they received and the advanced starfighters made it an even fight. One of those pilots was Takar, an X-Wing pilot flying as Red 6, he defected from the Empire after the Battle of Scarif, seeing the horror that the Death Star could do and not feel right about being on the side that was responsible for the atrocities. "Red Six, reporting in," Takar said. "Alright Red Squadron, let's show the empire what we got! Attack the Shield Generators on that Star Destroyer to the left!" His Squadron Leader said. Takar complied with the orders and turned to his left, following the other X-Wings and preparing for an attack run. Immediately though he was met by thousands of TIEs, including some TIE Phantoms he saw. The Turbo lasers fired at the X-Wing, almost hitting Red Six. But Takar, being an experienced pilot was able to avoid the flak, being able to complete his bombing run and damage one of the Shield Generators. "That's a hit!" His Squadron Leader said. "Yeah, but no damage Red Leader," Takar said. "Still a hit, let's keep hitting and we might get some damage!" Takar chuckled quietly and added additional thrust to the engines, he spotted a TIE Bomber to his right and decided to destroy it. He moved the control stick to the right slightly, then looking at the aim assistant for the target to get into the middle of the screen so he could fire. He watched as the target went right, left, right and left a couple of times on the little screen, but then it steadied and landed right in the middle of the screen. Without further hesitation, Takar pressed a button on the control stick to fire. The shots hit the TIE Bomber with precise accuracy. The left wing began to smoke and then collapsed. The Bomber began going turning sharply to the left and exploded after having traveled almost down to the atmosphere of the planet. Takar pulled up, having his X-Wing head towards the same shield generator he hit earlier. But then a problem occurred... A red warning light began to flash in the cockpit, followed by a rather quiet alarm. "I'm losing engine power!" High Admiral Vosh had been wise, he had placed the fleet inside of the gravitational pull zone of the planet which meant that Takara's X-Wing would be pulled by the gravitational force into the Star Destroyer and die. "R-8, do something!" The T-65B X-Wing began to plummet down towards the Star Destroyer. Takar tried one last time to get his engines running but it was too late. The X-Wing smashed into the Star Destroyer, an explosion coming from the destroyed fighter. Takar was gone. "Red Six is down!" On the opposite side of the battlefield was Jonua, an Imperial Ace pilot flying the dangerous TIE Defender. Jonua had been in the empire for the past 7 years and she had enjoyed all her time in it. She grew up in Vardos, a pro-Imperial world renowned for producing elite Imperial soldiers such as Commander Iden Versio of Inferno Squad. Jonua accelerated her TIE Defender to max speed and spotted two rebel Y-Wing Bombers heading her way. She quickly rolled left, managing to avoid a collision. She then turned her fighter around and was right behind the two bombers, right where she wanted to be. She locked into the left one, firing proton torpedos at the Bomber and witnessing it explode and disappear. She then locked onto the next one and with the powerful and fast firing canons of the Defender she took out the last bomber in a matter of seconds. "Job well done." She said to herself. | - - - - - - - | "Commander, the Imperial Star Destroyer has locked us into its tractor beam!" An officer shouted across the deck. "Poodoo... Get us some fighters to destroy the source so that we can break free!" Fogles responded, before running over to the intercom. "Alert, we've been caught in a tractor beam. I want all Fleet Troopers to secure all entrance points onboard this Corvette, do not let them enter this ship!" Fogles turned it off and ran back to where he was earlier, he looked out the window and could see how the Corvette was nearly inside the hangar of the Star Destroyer. Fogles had to make a decision, he knew that the royalties of the planet were onboard his vessel and was about to be boarded, he had to make a decision and time wasn't on his side. "Get those monarchs into an escape pod towards the planet. We cannot risk their captivity." Fogles ordered. | - - - - - - - | A Rebel Fleet Trooper holding his DH-17 Blaster in one hand was following his friend who held an A280-CFE and the same uniform. The fleet trooper's name was Zinn. The iconic white hat, a black vest, a blue shirt and some dark pants. The Uniform was stood out against all other uniforms and it was no question why. The two soldiers reached the rooms of the ponies, just as they could begin to hear blaster shots from a corridor nearby. The trooper ordered his friend to get the rooms longer down the hallway while he'd get ones here. The young soldier pressed the button to open the door and saw the white unicorn with a purple mane sitting in her bed. "We're getting you out of here, it's an emergency. Come on!" The rebel soldier yelled, but not high enough to alert the Stormtroopers not far from them. The rebel soldier did the same to the other rooms, getting the ponies out and once he saw that he and his friend had all of them they ran towards the escape pods. Zinn soldier checked his corners, seeing that it was clear he told the group and his friend to continue moving and to cross the corridor. Once they got into the escape pods room he closed the door and locked it by doing the classic 'shoot the door control'. "Alright, this is how we'll do it. The tallest of you go into Pod 1, the others into Pod 2, I and my friend will go into Pod 3. Got it?" "Yes, we understand." The dark blue pony answered. All of them did as told, entering the correct pod that they were assigned to. Zinn first checked to see if all pods were correctly sealed before launching them, he checked pod number ones but had to cancel checking the other pod when he saw that the Stormtroopers had destroyed the door leading to the escape pods and began firing at him. (Rewrite this part) Zinn quickly ran into his escape pod and closed the door, once he saw that it was sealed he pressed two buttons that launched all the other pods, he knew that the Stormtroopers would report to the Star Destroyer that he and the ponies had escaped in pods, therefore he launched additional ones in an attempt to lure the Empire into shooting down the wrong ones. The pod shoot out of the ship and began heading down towards the planetary surface. Out of the small window on the escape pod, you could see how close they were to getting obliterated and having their dead bodies left to freeze in the vacuum of space. Though suddenly the front began to heat up, indicating that the escape pod was entering the atmosphere and mere moments from hitting the ground. Zinn pushed a button to slow down the descent of the pod for a safe landing. "I suggest you brace..." Zinn said to his friend. The escape pod carrying Twilight, Cadance, and Luna had already hit the ground with a successful landing. The other one carrying the Main 6 except for Twilight had also already landed but had a rougher landing, fortunately, no one got hurt. Zinn's pod was mere moments from hitting the ground. He looked at his friend one last time before being felt the hard impact with the ground, for him it felt like he was inside a Corvette about to be destroyed. And he had already been in such situation. "Are you okay?" Zinn asked. "Yeah, yeah." His friend Relio, said. "Good to hear, let's get out and see if they're okay." Relio did the honors of opening the door. The escape pod's door began to open, white smoke came out as it was unpressurized. Zinn stepped out and was greeted by the sight of the space battle above, he saw how one of the Nebulon-B Frigates was disabled and started heading downwards towards the planet for a crash. His friend Relio stepped out. A part of the engines fell off and crashed about 200 meters from them, the Frigate hit the ground and a minor explosion followed, Zinn took his micro binoculars and observed the crash site. He witnessed the crashed frigate and saw that it had crashed on a railroad leading up to a mountain where a city laid. Relio looked to his right and saw the ponies. "Glad to know you're all safe, now we better get out of here before the Empire arrives," Relio said. | - - - - - - - | High Admiral Vosh was on the bridge of his Star Destroyer The 'Behemoth'. One of the Empire's many Star Destroyers. He was observing the battle looking for potential targets to weaken the enemy fleet. His second in command, Captain Reeech approached him. "Sir, the..." Reeech was trying to say but was struggling to find the words to describe something. "Spit it out Captain," Vosh demanded. "The Menacer is reporting a loss of hydraulics and critical damage to the Shield Generator. Captain Mapona is requesting fighter cover while they repair, what shall we do?" "Send TIE Fighter Squadron 17, 18 and TIE Interceptor Squadron 6. That should be enough for now, but for safety have the Menacer back up a little so it won't be the main target for the Y-Wing Bombers." Vosh ordered. "Yes, sir." Reeech walked to one of the control pits on the bridge to give the Communications Chief his orders. Then Reeech would supervise the men on the bridge, making sure they were doing their jobs. Vosh looked at the MC80 Liberty Type Cruiser that served as the flagship for the Rebel Fleet. He then looked to the left of the Cruiser and saw the 'Nightwing' taking lots of fire from the MC80 and the Support ships in the enemy fleet. Vosh stepped up and pressed and held a red button to open a communications bridge towards the Star Destroyer. "Commander, move out of the area. You're going to be destroyed within the next few minutes if you don't move." Vosh said. "But sir, we've captured a rebel ship. If we want to get out of fast we'd need to drop it!" The Commander on the other ship argued. "Then let go off the ship at once and regroup with the fleet, we cannot underestimate our enemy." Vosh finished. Vosh looked once more at the MC80 and saw how it was undamaged from this battle. His frustration grew and without hesitation, Vosh ordered all available TIE Bombers to attack the MC80 starting with the shield generator, then the Communications Relay and finally the engines. "I smell victory. And it smells really good." Vosh muttered. | - - - - - - - | Shortly after the Escape pods had hit the ground the FOB not far from the location was scrambling all it's available forces for the intervention of the Rebel escape. Inside of the Command Center was Captain Hutska. Captain Hutska was not an ordinary captain of the Imperial Ground Forces Division. He was a part of the Imperial Security Bureau also known as the ISB. He was currently undercover as Captain Hutska but his real name and rank were Agent Quirks. "The Nightwing reported escape pods launching from the captured Corvette, they believe the pods landed south of the base. Now let's move it and kill whatever escaped!" The Undercover ISB Officer said to his men over the intercom at the Forward Operating Base. The gates of the base opened and immediately two speeder bikes manned by two Biker Scouts were gone from the base. Their destination was south of the base, as orders had said to destroy the escaped rebels and whatever they took with them. The agile and fast speeder bike would get to the location of the crashed escape pods within a few minutes easy, the terrain was mostly flat and there were no obstacles unlike Endor which required you to be extremely careful or you'd end up crashing into a tree and dying. The Speeder Bikes were almost at their destination when suddenly one of the Biker Scouts was shot in the chest and fell off his bike. The scout was hit where his heart was located and therefore he died immediately. In response, the other biker scout began firing at the direction the bolt came from. He made sure to slow down his bike so that the primary guns wouldn't lose their accuracy at the high speed the bike was traveling. The Scout fired a laser barrage before his guns overheated, just in that time the same Rebel who had killed his friend shot again and hit the scout's left pelvic bone. "Gah!" The scout screamed in pain. The Scout looked at the direction where the shot had been taken and slowly saw a rebel soldier holding an A280-CFE in the sniper configuration coming up to him. The rebel aimed his blaster at the scout. "Please don't!" The Biker scout begged. The scout then saw a second rebel followed by a cyan pony that was hovering in the air coming up from a ditch. "Gun down Relio, we need to get out of here before more Imperials come." The other rebel said. "But he might just report our position!" Relio responded. "Well that's a risk we gotta take. Come on!" The other rebel began running towards the forest ahead. The Biker scout would take off his helmet, breathing heavily and looking around to see if reinforcements were approaching. When he didn't see any he decided to contact the FOB to inform them he was injured. "This is TK-9980, I've been badly injured and my squadmate has been killed. I request help immediately." TK-9980 waited for a response... "Copy that TK-9980, we're tracking your homing beacon and are dispatching a Medical Evac to assist," The Officer on the opposite side of the comlink said. | - - - - - - - | "Sir, Moff Raythe is requesting a status report on the battle." The Lieutenant said. "Tell him that I am unavailable at the moment." "Yes, sir." The MC80 Liberty Type Cruiser had begun taking damage, but it hardly wasn't enough to destroy it. The Rebel fighters were doing a darn good job of defending their only capital ship in the fleet. Then a window in the Imperial Defense opened, the Menacer's shield generators were disabled and now was the time to strike. Rebel Y-Wing Bombers began their bombing run and fired their proton torpedoes at the Turbolaser gun emplacements. Though before one of the Y-Wing bombers could release its payload it got hit, the left engine blew up and fell off and the Bomber began going down in a spiral. The Y-Wing began to slowly stabilize itself but it wasn't enough, the bomber crashed into one of the large engines on the Star Destroyer. The result was quite spectacular, the proton torpedo mixed with the explosion from the destroyed Y-Wing was barely enough to cause a chain reaction and have the engines explode. Because the engines were now destroyed the Star Destroyer began to be pulled by Equestria's gravitational force down towards the surface. Darren Vosh looked on in disbelief. The Star Destroyer began to heat up and escape pods could be seen launching from the doomed ship. Then the ship crashed. It hit the ground hard. The front of the ship exploded while the middle section managed to reduce the impact force. The Menacer was now a useless piece of junk lying in the woodlands as a reminder of the space battle that was starting to come to an end. The debris was either going to stay there forever or be salvaged by the Rebellion to preserve Equestria's delicate environment. Back in space Vosh's forces were starting to be depleted. All of his available TIE's were nearly gone with only a few squadrons remaining. The Rebels meanwhile had lost a few squadrons but were still outnumbering the Imperial forces. Although the Empire was losing the Starfighter battle, they were winning the ship to ship battle. The Imperial Fleet still had three Star Destroyers. The Nightwing, The Emperor's Wrath and Vosh's flagship The Behemoth And he, of course, had two more Victory-class Star Destroyers and some support vessels like the Arquintens class Light Cruisers which were dealing damage to the rebel fighters and combating the Corvettes of the Rebel Fleet. Suddenly a second MC80 followed by a third came out of hyperspace to the Empire's surprise. The two ships began to immediately fire at the Imperial fleet and Vosh quickly alerted that the Nightwing was taking heavy damage. The High Admiral wasn't about to let go of the system and give it to the Rebellion. He knew that he had lost, but he wasn't going down without causing damage to the planet. "Order all fighters to attack the capital ships, and prepare all available ships for an orbital bombardment," Vosh ordered. The ship began to tilt as to position itself for the orbital bombardment. Once the three Star Destroyers were in position the High Admiral gave the order to fire. The underbelly gun emplacements began to fire down at the planet. The city of Baltimare was unfortunate to be caught in the orbital bombardment... The city had been flattened, all buildings and residents were no more. Baltimare no longer existed... | - - - - - - - | The Nightwing was gone, the Star Destroyer had been destroyed and the debris came falling down like meteorites. Meanwhile, the Behemoth and the Emperor's Wrath had escaped the system with the Emperor's Wrath being in need of major repairs. The two remaining ships were not alone though. They were followed by two Victory Class Star Destroyers, three Arquintens Class Light Cruisers and one Interdictor Class Star Destroyer that had joined the battle late to change the odds back in the Empire's favor. Equestria's space defense was gone, what remained of the Imperials was on the planet only. Though some of the forces had already evacuated. The time for the ground invasion had begun. But the Rebellion knew it'd be difficult. The Empire's ground presence still outnumbered and outgunned the available rebel forces but the Rebels did have the advantage of aid superiority. The only problems were that an estimated number of 12 Squadrons had made it down to the planet to escape the space battle and support the ground forces. There also was one Victory Class Star Destroyer in the Atmosphere escorted by four Arquintens class Light Cruisers, but the Imperials knew that those ships wouldn't be enough to contain the Rebel Forces. Author's Note Thank you for reading this new chapter. While I did promise it'd be much longer than 'Operations' I had to leave it short for the next Chapter 'Battle of Equestria II' Next chapter will be released before Christmas, but don't expect me to release a new chapter at least a few days after the New Year's celebration.
Battle of Equestria IIThe night was young and quiet with only the sound of rain filling the air in. The Rebel fleet was visible from the ground, by the looks of it one of the MC80's had left the fleet, probably to assist in the space battle over Mon Calamari. General Veers who previously was in command was no longer on the planet which meant that Brigadier Drant was in command of all forces on the planet. The Brigadier was at the largest base, Fort Kilo. The fort was south of Ponyville, more specifically south of Sweet Apple Acres. Brigadier Drant, in charge of the planets ground forces, was in his office at the base. Inside the office was the hologram display of Grand Admiral Thrawn and sitting on the opposite side of the table was Colonel Vikel. "Are you telling me that High Admiral Vosh retreated after losing the Nightwing?" Thrawn asked with a slightly angry tone. "Yes, sir. But to defend the High Admiral he was fighting a lost battle once those two Rebel Cruisers came out of hyperspace." The Brigadier said. "Hm. Since I wasn't present at the battle I will have to rely on the information you provided. I shall talk with the High Admiral myself." "But sir, what about us? We're stuck on this planet with no way to evacuate all forces." Colonel Vikel said after having been mostly quiet. "Do not worry about that. Concentrate on keeping the Rebellion out as long as possible. My fleet will come here to open a window of escape," the Chiss officer said. Shortly after he disappeared from the display, Vikel looked at Drant. "Sir, I am worried that we may not have the morale to withstand the rebel invasion until Thrawn's forces arrive. The Colonel asked. "Not to worry Colonel. I looked into the Imperial Archives and I've decided to use a similar strategy to what the Confederacy of Independent Systems used in the Second Battle of Geonosis during the Clone Wars." Drant answered. "Yes but the CIS still lost the battle." "That is true, but the Republic did take a lot of casualties. Especially the 501st Legion and 21st Nova Corps. In other words, I am hoping this will sort of be like the deadly battle of Sarrish for the Rebels." Brigadier Drant stood up from his chair and walked towards the window behind him. He looked out and saw the rain falling down from the sky. "To win a war Colonel you must lose battles. It is as simple as that." Drant said while looking out the window. "I see the Academy on Cardia has taught you well sir," Vikel said. Drant slowly turned around and chuckled as he did so. "Of course. But let's not get ahead of ourselves." "Colonel, can I trust on you leading these men on the frontlines?" "Why of course, I was trained in becoming field officer," Vikel replied. "Yes, but this is your first real engagement with an enemy. The simulations at whatever Academy you were taught at hardly have the same combatants." "But that's because it's a simulation, they're holograms." "Yes, I am quite aware. What I meant is that these rebels don't act the same as they do on the simulations." Drant said. "Oh. I understand now." "Good. Now go, Colonel. I trust you to hold the line against this scum." Drant finished. | - - - - - - - | The GR-75 Medium Transports were dropping out of hyperspace one by one. All of the transports were assembled above the Resurgence, each transport carried about 75 rebel soldiers and their needed equipment. Inside of one of the transport ships was a rookie to the Rebellion who had just joined up. He was wearing his woodland camouflage in preparation. He was in his bunk, holding what seemed to be a necklace and a hologram display on the other hand. The display was projecting an image of a woman, she seemed quite young about in her mid-twenties. The young rebel aged similarly to the woman on the display was talking to her. "I still don't know why I agreed to this dear." The woman said. "It's alright Aper. I'll be back in no time." The rebel said." "But Bani, what if you die or get injured! You know I can't live without you." Aper said worryingly. "Then I'll make sure to come back to a gorgeous woman in one piece," Bani said. The woman giggled at the comment by her boyfriend. "In that case, I'll be waiting for you, Bani..." The woman said in what sounded like a seductive voice. Bani turned off the hologram display, having finished talking with his girlfriend. Just as he did so, two other rebels entered the room. One of them was holding an A280 Carbine with a magazine to the carbine in the other hand. Bani identified the rebel holding the carbine as 'Yarrol' and the other one 'Krish'. "How's it going Bani?" Yarrol asked with his comedic voice. "Oh, you know. Nothing special." Bani replied. "You do know that this your first battle with the Rebellion, eh?" Krish said. "I am quite aware of that..." Bani said. "Don't worry, Bani. You've got two veterans in your squad. Me and Krish!" Yarrol said. "I don't know if a lost battle counts as you two becoming veterans." Bani said. "Ehhh. Dunno and I don't care!" Yarrol said loudly. | - - - - - - - | The trenches outside of Manehattan were full of Stormtroopers, the train that always entered the city with curious tourists was no longer running. Reinforcing the Stormtroopers was a single AT-AT positioned where the railway ran to the city. AT-ST's had been deployed as well. The sun shined bright on a hot day, but the Imperials had managed to work it off. The trenches had been completed and all the planned field projects were also coming to an end. In command of these soldiers was Captain Hutska, who had been instructed to move his regiment and the reinforcements he had got to Manehattan. The reason why the Empire needed this city was that it'd be the only way out. All transport ships leaving elsewhere would be easily intercepted. Manehattan was far from the small Navy group, therefore, the Rebel fighters wouldn't go to Manehattan as they didn't know the transports were there. Theoretically at least. The only bad thing was that the rest of the AT-AT's were in the Crystal Empire or Fort Kilo. While Brigadier Drant had ordered them to move locations it'd take time as all of the Gozanti-class Cruisers but one were destroyed or sent to another system. Because of this the AT-AT's were slowly being transported to Manehattan. The AT-ST's meanwhile was walking because they're faster than the AT-AT. Brigadier Drant himself was already on his to Manehattan onboard of a Lambda-class Shuttle along with Colonel Vikel. "I'm putting you in charge, Hutska will be your second man in case you need him," Drant said. "Good to know, I'll try to hold back the rebellion as long as I can," Vikel replied. "To be honest, why did the Empire even occupy such a useless junk world?" Vikel asked. "Lord Vader was impatient, but you're right. None of the raw materials here can even be used in the refineries on Sullust or the shipyards of Kuat, Fondor, Coruscant or even Mon Calamari that the rebellion possesses." Drant replied. A silence quickly followed after Drant finished, one that wouldn't last for long. "We'll be landing now, please remain seated." The pilot in the cockpit shouted. The Lambda rotated 360° degrees and landed smoothly on the outskirts of the city. The white pressurized air left the ship as the door opened slowly. Captain Hutska and a Stormtrooper Commander stood about 3 meters away from the shuttle standing in attention. Brigadier Drant exited the shuttle first, followed by Colonel Vikel. "Sir!" Hutska said. "At ease, Captain," said Drant. "As you know we'll be leaving this world by the end of the day, all I'm asking for is for a successful defense while we wait for Grand Admiral Thrawn to open a window of escape." "I am aware sir," Hutska said. "In that case, I'll leave you with Colonel Vikel who will take over now, you'll be second in command for the defense." "Yes, sir." "I will now head on over to the city and board one of the Acclamators, I will relay all orders from there." Drant finished and walked off being followed by two Stormtroopers wearing a black pauldron and the DLT-19 Heavy Blaster. Vikel walked into the Command Center accompanied by Hutska who immediately went to sharing something he was concerned about. "How are we going to get the AT-AT's and AT-ST's off the mainland into the island in time to evacuate?" "I don't know, I only know that the Field Engineers have been building a bridge for the past week and will finish it in about an hour or two. Other than that I heard that all vehicles have been rigged to self-destruct in case they're unable to be evacuated." Vikel replied to Hutska's concerns. | - - - - - - - | "We have been walking for the whole day Zinn, don't you think we should take a break?" Relio asked. "No, we need to get to that island city before the Rebel forces arrive," Zinn answered. "Oh, it's called Manehattan, the most beautiful city I've ever seen!" Rarity implied. "Yeah, okay," Relio replied. The group was in Baltimare, or what at least remained of the once large city. Every building was no more and in their place was black ash from the explosive orbital bombardment. "Can this get any worse? They destroyed this entire city!" Twilight said. Zinn stopped. "They can destroy the rest of the planet." Twilight started at Zinn for a while in disbelief. But Zinn was right. If the Emperor wanted to they could destroy this world easily and the rebel fleet in orbit. It'd be easier than saying 1 2 3. "You can't be serious," Twilight said. "You clearly haven't seen what remains of Aldeeran, the Holy City of Jedha or the Scarif Installation. "Are you.. saying they did the same thing to those?" Cadance asked. "Yes, except Aldeeran is no more. The whole planet was destroyed." Relio responded for Zelio. "I didn't know they were able to do something this horrible." Twilight finished. Zinn looked into his bag and grabbed his micro binoculars. While he was grabbing them he decided to reply to what the lavender alicorn said. "Yet they still call us rebels for terrorists." He looked through them and saw the city of Manehattan. Zinn looked at the distance reader and counted about 150 miles to walk. While the young rebel wasn't the smartest in the galaxy he was smart enough to know that he won't make it to the city. "There's no way we'll reach the city, I'm gonna call a pickup." Zinn holstered the micro binoculars. He activated his commlink and said. "Trooper Zinn to Admirable II, do you copy?" The response was unclear at first, but then it improved and could be heard clearly. "W-e c-opy." "Could you send down a transport, could really use a pickup," Zinn asked. "We're going to try to send an Assualt Craft, but it might take time to breach the Atmospheric Defense." The response read. "Understandable... Oh, and by the way, we're in Sector T19." Zinn finished. Two hours later... The Rebel Fleet had entered the Atmosphere and was engaged in combat with the small Imperial Navy group. The Rebels had already managed to destroy 2 Arquintens-class light cruisers and disable one to send it crashing down towards the ground, the destroyed light cruiser laid crashed near the Crystal Empire in the thick snow, about two miles from the city. The Victory II-class Star Destroyer was still standing strong, onboard the bridge of the smaller Star Destroyer was Captain Yeron. Although he had destroyed two Corellian Frigates and damaged one of the MC80's he knew that he was fighting a lost battle. Even though he had sent a distress signal for reinforcements he also knew they wouldn't come, the Empire was abandoning this system as it turned out useless with no raw resources that could be used in the Empire's factories. Suddenly a loud explosion sound was heard, coming from above the bridge. "STATUS REPORT!" The captain yelled after he regained his balance. "We've lost all shields, sir!" An Officer responded. In a battle, shields were crucial to success. Few battles had ever be won with the majority of ships in the winning fleet being unshielded. An unshielded ship could be destroyed within seconds if the opposite fleet had lots of firepowers, fortunately for the Rebel Alliance, the two MC80's were good enough to destroy the Star Destroyer in at least three minutes. "If we're going down we're taking down one of those M80's with us! Target the damaged one!" Yeron ordered. The guns of the Victory II-class Star Destroyer turned towards the damaged MC80 and began firing, barrages of lasers hit the cruiser and small explosions came out of the result. The heavy quad turbo lasers turrets slowly finished their rotation and once in position began firing their lethal and deadly barrage. While the normal Victory II wouldn't be equipped with heavy quad turbolasers, this one the 'Doombringer' was. Yeron was a friend of the Emperor and as a sign of their friendship, the Emperor decided to award the Captain with an upgraded Star Destroyer. The only setback was that the engines and the hyperdrive were slower due to the added weight. The remaining TIE Bombers in the fleet began their bombing runs on the engines, if they were able to destroy them then the cruiser would go crashing down onto the planet. Elsewhere... The Alliance Assualt Craft was approaching the position of Zinn and the group. The group were about 7 miles from Baltimare and were able to witness the small battle happening above them. The Alliance Assualt Craft was actually a LAAT/i, also known as Low Altitude Assualt Transport was a common ship in the Galactic Republic, before Order 66. After that, it was replaced by the Lambda-class shuttle and the Sentinel-class landing craft. The AAC landed right next to the group and the blast doors located on the side opened. Relio entered first, followed by the two pegasi. Zinn stayed on the ground for a while to help them enter. Once everyone was in Zinn entered. The AAC took off. The ship entered the battle taking place above of the small village where Fort Kilo was not far. The AAC entered the hangar of the undamaged MC80. The other MC80 which was damaged began to retreat. The rebel cruiser began going forward and at the same time upwards. Its destination was obviously the orbit. But then, the TIE Bombers managed to disable the engines. The MC80 stopped moving and slowly began to stall. The cruiser was now falling towards the ground at a fast speed. The cruiser crashed into the ground. Fortunately, it had avoided the small village that was Ponyville and instead crashed north of Dodge Junction. The entire back part of the cruiser was destroyed with only the front part surviving the impact. The MC80 Liberty Type cruiser known as the 'Defiant' was gone along with its crew. The Victory II-class Star Destroyer began to retreat, towards Manehattan where it'd evacuate with the rest of the remaining Imperial Forces. The last Arquintens-class light cruiser was also following it with the intention of not wanting to be left behind. The Rebellion let the two go, they needed to reorganize now with the loss of a capital ship. Six hours later... Luna saw how the sun went down slowly. She was glad that she'd get to do her job of raising and lowering the moon again but more importantly to know that her older sister was still alive. The princess of the moon decided to surprise her older sister by raising the moon. She lit her aura and began to raise the moon, this time it was much easier than it was before their rescue by Han Solo. The moon appeared in the sky and shined bright. The next day... Manehattan was the last part of Equestria under Imperial Occupation, the Crystal Empire had been lost overnight and the retreating Imperials including one AT-AT, three AT-ST's and one Snow trooper Regiment were in Manehattan. The only problem was that the Snowtroopers were wearing armor designed for snow combat. For them not being in the north meant that they'd need to sweat like a happabore unless they got replacement armor. Fortunately, for them, the Empire had additional Stormtrooper armor onboard the Acclamators which they'd get to wear. In the city, there was a large park with enough space to hold more than 4 Acclamators. The Galactic Empire had 6 on Equestria, more than enough to evacuate all the forces. The first one, located in the middle was where Brigadier Drant was. The ship itself was actually from the Clone Wars and served as a transport in the 212th Attack Battalion. Elsewhere, Commander Vikel had just finished getting into his field combat armor and so had Hutska. The trenches held about 9000 Stormtroopers and the bunkers outside about 1000, in total the defense was 10.000 men strong supported by 5 AT-AT's and 4 AT-ST's. The rest of the vehicles were inside of the city in case the outer defense would fall. Supporting the vehicles in the city was the 4th Battalion with about 5000 Stormtroopers, 750 of them being Imperial Navy Commandos. Of course, the Empire would never dare to defend or attack without fighter support. Therefore they had 28 TIE Fighters, 10 TIE Interceptors, 4 TIE Defenders and 12 TIE Bombers remaining, all of them were on standby and parked at certain locations throughout the city. The Rebellion was moments away from launching the final attack to liberate the world that is Equestria. The fleet, consisting of one MC80, three Nebulon-B Frigates and five Corellian CR90 Corvettes was visible from the city. The GR-75 Medium Transports could be seen taking the lead followed by X-Wing Fighters. Hutska knew what was about to happend and ordered the anti-aircraft turrets to fire. The missiles fired from the turrets with some firing lasers instead. One missile hit an X-Wing and made it explode in the air. Another as hit by a laser in the left engine and began to plummet down to the ground, crashing about 50 feet from a trench. Although the Gunners were highly skilled and trained, they were unable to stop the Rebel Transports from landing safely. Seeing this, Colonel Vikel ordered the AT-AT's to get into range and to open fire at the transports before they get the chance of deploying their troops and whatever vehicles they had gotten with them. | - - - - - - - | "Zinn, Commander Fogles says it'll be safer if we get you and the monarchs off the ship. We have no idea what the Imperials have in store and since they have brought down one our MC80's it's a chance we don't want to risk." An Officer said to the young rebel. "That's fine sir. I'll protect them." Zinn said. "I know... Good luck." The officer walked off. Zinn told the ponies to start following him, his friend Relio followed as well. The group boarded the same AAC they took earlier to the cruiser. The ship took off and left the hangar. As the ship left, Zinn, Relio and the ponies witnessed the battle taking place outside of Manehattan. Then Luna remembered something. "Wait. We need to go to the Crystal Empire and see if the elements are safe." "The what now?" Relio asked. "The Elements of Harmony, duh! Have you never heard of them? Oh, wait. You're not ponies." Rainbow Dash said. "Whatever that thing is it can't be important?" Relio responded. "Yes, it is!" Twilight said. "Alright, but we don't know where they are," Relio replied. "Yes, but we know. They're in the vaults of the Crystal Empire." Luna said. "I assume that's in the north?" Zinn asked politely. "Why yes, it is." Rarity said. Zinn stepped towards the edge of the AAC. "PILOT! SWITCH DIRECTIONS TO THE NORTH!" He yelled. The pilot raised his arm and gave Zinn a thumbs up and switched directions immediately. Zinn took a step back for safety. "Alright, we're going there now." 45 Minutes later... The Assualt Craft landed on the pavement in front of the crystal castle. Immediately a crowd gathered around the ship, thinking it'd be the Galactic Empire returning to take over the Crystal Empire. But when they saw the three princesses and the two rebel soldiers not wearing Imperial Snowtrooper Armor they backed off. The ponies exited the ship and began heading towards the frozen vaults, followed by Zinn and Relio who had put on warm coats to not freeze. The ponies stopped at a small hill in front of the vault, Zinn wondered why and went up to them. When he got up there he knew why. An Imperial Sentinel-class Landing Craft was positioned right outside the cave with two Snowtroopers guarding the entrance with blasters raised. The door to the landing craft was open and Zinn witnessed two Imperial Flametroopers exiting the ship. The Flametroopers entered the vault and were followed by an Officer in Combat Armor and two Snowtroopers. Twilight was just about to run down and stop them from doing whatever they were going to do when Rainbow Dash grabbed Twilight's tail with her mouth and pulled her back. The rainbow-maned mare went on to say: "Are you crazy Twilight? They can hurt you!" "But I don't want them to take the elements!" Twilight replied. Zinn was about to say something when he heard one of the Snowtroopers walking towards the hill. "I heard something over here, I'm going to check it out." The Snowtrooper said. Zinn heard the blaster cocking. In response, he pulled out his DH-17 and cocked it as well. He made a hand motion telling the others to be quiet. Zinn laid himself on the ground to hide. The Snowtrooper got to the top of the hill and looked over the landscape. Seven seconds passed and the Snowtrooper began going down to the hill to his post. "There's nothing there. Must have been a malfunction in the helmet." The same Snowtrooper said. Relio put his A280-CFE into the blaster configuration and aimed at the Snowtroopers. He put a finger on the trigger but didn't fire. Instead, he looked at his friend Zinn and asked. "Should we fire?" Zinn thought for a moment if they should or not, but he was suddenly distracted when he heard fire and saw yellow-orange lights coming out of the cave. Most likely being the Flametroopers using their Flamethrowers on one of the chambers inside the vault. Zinn thought again, he knew that whatever this 'Elements of Harmony' thing were important to the native ponies. "Go for it," Zinn said. Relio opened fire and hit the first Snowtrooper in the head, the other who immediately heard the blaster fire began firing at Relio, Relio was pinned down and he knew if he was to raise his head for a second he'd get shot and likely die. "I'm pinned, see what you can do!" Relio said loudly. Zinn got out of cover and aimed the DH-17 at the Snowtrooper. He pulled the trigger and out came a blaster bolt heading towards the chest of the Snowtrooper. The Snowtrooper fell to the ground, Zinn fired again to make sure he'd be dead. "Alright, let's move in!" Zinn said. Zinn moved towards the entrance. Relio positioned himself in front and crouched down with his blaster aimed at the door the whole time. The ponies meanwhile followed with caution, except for Fluttershy who couldn't do it. Rarity went to comfort her. Zinn entered the vault, he looked around and saw the officer holding a hologram display and talking to someone. Zinn listened closely. "Yes, sir. We will take whatever valuables we find here." The officer said. "Alright, but hurry up! The Rebels have begun their attack on the city and we need you back here as soon as possible!" The officer on the display said. "We will do our best to return in time, Lieutenant Tereeesh out." The officer walked back to where he was earlier. Zinn slowly moved to a wall and looked around the corner. He saw the same officer, the two Flametroopers and also the two Snowtroopers that had followed them inside. Zinn made sure to check if he had enough ammunition left in his blaster pistol. When he finished he made a hand motion to tell his friend, Relio to move towards him. Once Relio was there Zinn got out of cover and fired his blaster. He hit one of the Flametroopers in the head. Zinn went back into cover and let Relio fire. Relio fired his blaster but failed to hit any of the Imperials. Instead, he got hit in the left arm. "Gah!" He yelled in pain. Zinn pulled his friend to cover and got out of over and to fire. He this time hit the officer in the chest but the armor he was wearing was not enough for the blaster pistol of Zinn's to penetrate and kill him. The young rebel got back into cover and took out a Thermal Detonator. Right, when he was about to activate the countdown he realized that the explosion may make the vault collapse seeing how the supports holding the vault intact were quite weak. The rebel holstered the Detonator and loaded in another magazine of ammo into his DH-17. He peeked around the corner and saw one Snowtrooper being in a vulnerable position. Zinn got out of cover and fired at that Snowtrooper and hit him in the head, seeing how he had more time to fire he fired again. This time at the Flametrooper's fire tanks on his back. The laser bolt was enough to make the tanks explode and cause a small fire. The explosion obviously killed the Flametrooper but also killed the officer. The last Snowtrooper remaining readied his blaster and got out of cover. The Imperial yelled: "FOR THE EMPEROR!" Immediately after he began firing and hit Zinn in the chest, luckily it was not enough to kill him. Zinn being now disabled had little to no strength to lift his blaster and fire at the Snowtrooper who was about to finish him with the E-11 being aimed at his head. But then, a shot came from the left and hit the trooper in the head and made him fall dead to the ground. The shooter was Relio. "I guess that's the second time I owe you," Zinn said. Relio chuckled and followed up by him saying: "You owe me a lot more than that." "Maybe, maybe not. But let's get this Harmony thing and get out of here." Zinn said. With almost no strength left Zinn stood up and shouted towards the entrance for the ponies to enter. Luna came in first, followed by Celestia's faithful student Twilight. "There's just one problem," said Twilight. "Only my big brother, Shining Armor can open the chamber to get the Elements." "You're kidding right?" Relio asked. "I'm afraid she is not," Luna said. "Well, where is he?" Zinn asked. "That's the question, we don't know," Luna replied. "Well I may not be the smartest rebel, but logically the Empire would send political prisoners to Coruscant for execution, but since the galaxy doesn't know about this system they're probably in this planet's capital," Relio said. "Do you think he's in Canterlot?" Twilight asked. "Maybe, but we have no time to get him," Relio said. "Zinn, do you think I can melt the chamber using one of the Flamethrowers that you didn't destroy?" Relio asked his friend. "Possibly. It's worth a try." Zinn replied. "Well, in that case, I'll try." Relio finished. Relio stood up and walked towards the dead Flametrooper who was shot in the head by Zinn earlier. He inspected the body and looked for a switch or button to disconnect the tanks from his back. He found a small lever and pulled it downwards. The tank disconnected from the armor. Relio grabbed the heavy fire tank and took it towards the chamber where the Elements where. He then grabbed the flamethrower and connected it to the tank. Since Relio was too weak to wear the tank on him he put it on the ground. Relio aimed the flamethrower at the chamber where he saw a hole, assuming it was a keyhole. He pulled and held the trigger of the Flamethrower and fire came out of the barrel. The fire did nothing to the ice. "It's not working," Relio said in a disappointed voice. "Well. I do have some Thermal Detonators, though I am afraid it will bring this cave down on us." Zinn said. Relio turned around and looked at the Thermal Detonators his friend held. "It's a risk that I am willing to take." "Alright, catch!" Zinn said. Zinn threw the first Detonator, Relio caught it easily. The second one as well and same with the third one. He looked at the detonators and got an idea. He put the fire tank up against the chamber, on top of them he put the three detonators and rigged all three of them to blow up in 30 seconds. Relio began running towards Zinn and pulled him out of the cave. Luna and Twilight were already out of the vault. A loud explosive sound was heard coming from inside, followed by fire spreading a little. After about 20 seconds it was safe to go back in. To his surprise, Relio saw that the detonators had done the trick. The chamber was open and he saw the book where the alleged Elements of Harmony were kept. He went towards it and grabbed the brown book. He slowly left the cave and held the book of the Elements in his hands. He showed it to the ponies who cheered in joy. Once they finished Relio gave it to Twilight Sparkle. Elsewhere... The Rebel Alliance was making was making progress in the battle, having taken over the first three trenches. While the Alliance Fighters were dogfighting with the Imperial ones above the ground the Rebel soldiers pushed on. One AT-AT had been brought down to the ground and had blown up on impact with the ground. The Stormtroopers began to show signs of losing but just when a Rebel squad was going to attack the fourth trench an AT-ST fired its grenade barrage at them and the squad went flying. The battle on the mainland was almost over, but unbeknownst to the Rebel Alliance, Grand Admiral Thrawn was soon at Equestria. 20 Minutes later The Imperial Fleet of 6 Imperial II-class Star Destroyers and numerous of other support vessels left hyperspace and appeared in Orbit of Equestria. Thrawn had planned for his Star Destroyer going down to the Atmosphere to destroy the Rebel fleet while the other ships would secure orbit and prevent any Alliance ships from escaping. The Chimaera entered the Atmosphere of the planet. It approached the MC80 from behind, clearly, it had an advantage, one that Thrawn wasn't planning on ignoring. The Star Destroyer's Turbolasers and Ion Cannons began to fire at the unshielded rear part of the MC80. The engines were quickly destroyed and the Rebel cruiser began to descend to the surface. The MC80 crashed by the edge of the ocean with the front of the ship submerged. Thrawn targeted the other ships in the fleet and swiftly brought them down. The Rebellion was now without naval support. But that wasn't going to stop them from winning. The Rebels had already taken the mainland, what remained now was the city. Unfortunately, 3 of the AT-AT's had been destroyed and only two managed to make it to the city. Only one AT-ST was fortunate enough to make it back. Once all Stormtroopers had made over to Manehattan, the field engineers blew up the custom-made bridge. The only way for the Rebels to enter the city now was to use the railroad. But they didn't know if the Empire had also rigged it to explode. Commander Fogles ordered his forces to move in using the railroad. Fortunately, the rebels did not have any vehicles apart from Airspeeders with them which meant they didn't need to worry about needing to get them to the city. The first rebels entered the city and left the train station. They were greeted immediately by Imperial Forces, about 50 Stormtroopers and one AT-ST. The Rebel Troopers quickly ran to cover and some inside the station. One of the rebels took his rocket launcher and fired at the AT-ST's port side. The walker was brought down with a small fire appearing on the side where it was hit. With the AT-ST down the Rebels gained additional ground and began to fire at the Imperials. Some began retreating to the buildings for extra cover. After a few minutes, the Imperials stationed at the train station retreated into the city. Some locals came out of the buildings to greet their saviors, aka the rebels. For them, it wasn't much. They often got these type of greetings on worlds they freed that were anti-imperial. On other worlds that were pro-imperial they were always attacked and the Rebellion often let the Empire have the world back if that was the case. The rebels moved on after reinforcements came. 12 hours later, onboard the 'Coruscant Sky' Brigadier Drant was onboard the Coruscant Sky, the Acclamator he, Commander Vikel and Captain Hutska would take. They were only waiting for one AT-AT and one Stormtrooper platoon to board and then they'd be long gone from Equestria. All the other Acclamators had already left being fully filled. In the city, the rebel forces were approaching the park and the last Imperial Forces were mere minutes from the Coruscant Sky, but so were the rebels. "We should just leave them. The Empire cannot afford to lose naval ships for such stupid reasons." Hutska said. "Patience, they will be here soon," Vikel responded. Patience. Patience was, unfortunately, going to cost the evacuation of the Coruscant Sky. Unbeknownst to them, a small rebel strike force had boarded the Acclamator. They were approaching the bridge. The Rebellion had liberated all parts of the city apart from the park. They weren't attacking because the strike force was onboard. But they were going to once they secured the bridge. If they succeed in doing so. In command of these rebels was Major 'Unio' who was a human male from the world of Tatooine. The strike force entered an elevator that leads to the bridge. The elevator moved fast and 20 seconds later they were on the bridge. The door opened slowly. The Stormtroopers guarding the elevator paid no attention as they thought it was an officer or navigator entering. They were wrong as they were quietly killed. Unio moved in holding his A280C with two hands. He instructed Krish to approach. However, the veteran rebel made a mistake and was caught by an Imperial. Krish quickly shot him but in doing so made every Imperial turn their attention to the previously undetected rebels. Bani shot one of the Imperial officers on the bridge in the chest. Captain Hutska was dead. Unio threw a Thermal Detonator at the left side of the bridge and killed two Stormtroopers in doing so. Before more shots could be fired, Brigadier Drant approached the rebels and said: "We surrender." The remaining Imperial Stormtroopers and one Stormtrooper Commander dropped their blasters and put their hands up, followed by the Navigational Crew and Colonel Vikel. The rebels began to gather the captured Imperials to the front of the bridge. Where the moon reflected the light from the sun onto the ship and made it visible inside. Even if the lights were turned on. Unio aimed his blaster at Drant. "What's your name, Brigadier?" he asked. "Drant." Unio lowered his blaster and took a few steps back. He looked at the Navigational officers and said. "Take the navigational officers outside the ship." Two rebels did so and instructed them to move. "Your rebellion will never win," Vikel said. "Is that so?" Unio asked. "Yes, the Empire will bombard this world and kill us all! Because that is the Emperor's wish and he shall bring peace and justice to the whole galaxy!" Vikel said patriotically. "Your arrogance is the reason for why the Empire will fall," Yarrol said. While the rebels thought they'd have won, they couldn't be more wrong. Yes they may have liberated everything in Equestria but onboard the bridge of the Acclamator were two security droids, but they weren't the clumsy B1 Battledroids or weak. They were Imperial Sentry Droids. One keyword from Drant would be enough to activate him, but the wise Brigadier decided to wait for the perfect opportunity. "With due respect sir, can we execute this Commander?" Yarrol asked. "Do it," Unio ordered. Just then, Drant yelled "CORYX". The rebels first wondered why he did so but when they turned around they were greeted by four Sentry Droids. The droids dropped from the ceiling of the ship and began to fire at the rebels. While they were distracted the Stormtroopers that surrendered took their E-11 Blasters from the floor and fired at the rebels as well. The rebels realized they were outnumbered and outgunned quickly surrendered. "Now shall we negotiate your surrender?" Drant asked. "You're pathetic," Unio said. "Am I? Do you think this rebel right here has another opinion?" Just as Drant finished, the Stormtrooper wearing an orange pauldron put the barrel of his E-11 on the head of Yarrol. "His sacrifice will motivate the Rebellion to continue its war against your Empire. If you kill you will just strengthen the fire that is the rebellion." Unio said. Drant ordered the Stormtrooper to fire. And so he did, Yarrol was now dead and his body laid on the cold floor of the Acclamator's bridge. The rebels were now down to 4. Bani, Krish, Turok, and Unio. Drant ordered for the killing of Turok, the same Stormtrooper Commander who killed Yarrol obliged happily and did so. Turok was dead. The last Imperials that Drant was waiting on originally was now onboard. Drant ordered for the taking off of the Coruscant Sky. The loud engines of the Clone Wars-era ship were heard everywhere onboard. The Coruscant Sky was now leaving the city, the last Imperials were gone. Behind the Acclamator was the Chimaera that had waited for it to depart. The Imperial Fleet was in orbit and Thrawn ordered all forces to withdraw from the sector. Equestria was fully liberated from the tyranny of the Galactic Empire and the Sith. The Imperial Flag would never rein again on Equestria. Emperor Palpatine would never be the ruler of this world again. The Monarchy was going to bring Equestria into a new era. An era in which they recover from their occupation and rebuild, for a better world. One Week later. Photographers, Journalists and other media ponies were gathered in Canterlot for a big event. The leader of the rebellion, Mon Mothma was in Equestria to meet the monarchs but to also decide whether the Rebellion should leave the ponies in peace, or maintain their presence. The ex-senator knew it was a risk to maintain her forcer on this planet. The ponies did not want to risk another occupation. The leaders were gathered in the Royal Court. None of them sat in their chairs as this was a moment for respect. A moment in which Equestria couldn't be seen as stronger than the rebellion. A wooden table was in the middle of the room with a map of Equestria. Behind Mon Mothma were two Alliance Fleet Troopers holding their DH-17 blaster pistols. Behind the equestrian monarchs were the EUP guards. "We'd like to live in peace, without the influence of the Empire or your rebellion." Celestia asked. "Your request is my command. The Rebellion does not wish to force systems into our campaign. We will leave first thing tomorrow." Mon Mothma replied. Mon Mothma put pen to paper and with a single signature, the rebellion's influence was gone on this system. The Rebellion was to leave. Equestria would be at peace again. There would be much to rebuild, but if it means for a safe Equestria, it'll be worth it. The End. Author's Note Thank you all for reading the final chapter of 'An Imperial Occupation'. I want to thank you all for all the support I've gotten during my time writing this story and I can't wait until the release of my new story. If you wished that this story would be longer then don't worry. I have thought about making a possible sequel that could be released as early as January next year! Though that is up to you all if you want a sequel.
AftermathAuthor's Note (This chapter takes place one year before the events of The Force Awakens) I know I said the last chapter would be the last one but I couldn't resist adding in this chapter to finish it off. I hope you enjoyed it anyway. If you'd like a sequel then please say so, I won't do one otherwise (maybe). Aftermath 30 years would pass since the treaty signed by Celestia and Mon Mothma took place. The galaxy was a new place, but the ponies had no idea. Their last request was to be left in peace and alone. Not wanting to be apart of the war. The rebellion which they once knew was now the New Republic. Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader had been killed in the Battle of Endor. Then the final nail in the coffin happened for the Empire when the Battle of Jakku happened. In which multiple Star Destroyers and even one Super Star Destroyer were destroyed. After that the Empire fully collapsed, it broke up like a piece glass falling to the floor. What once used to be a great thing was now destroyed and laid in pieces. Different Imperial factions appeared on the map. There were the Imperial Remnant and the Greater Maldrood for example. The Imperial Civil War had begun and lasted a few years. After that peace came. A peace that would last until the First Order came out of the Unknown Regions where they had built up to avenge the once-great Galactic Empire. But no one in Equestria knew about it. What danger the First Order possessed. The Imperial Archives contained everything about the galaxy, and those archives happened to be in the hands of the First Order. It was a question about whether the First Order knew about Equestria or not. The debris from the Battle of Equestria remained in the world. They were to become a memory and landmarks of a dark period in Equestria's history. Baltimare, which had been destroyed during the occupation was now rebuilt and looked just like it used to. But the survivors of the orbital bombardment would beg to differ. They'd have been damaged mentally by the Empire's deadly tactics and some of them suffered a lot. Especially the ones who lost loved ones. As for technology, all of it had been banned by Canterlot. They thought that this new technology would ruin Equestria's fragile peace. But that wouldn't stop the black market to sell the equipment they found. From Stormtrooper helmet to a fully-armed E-11 Blaser. While these items were quite rare and cost a lot it didn't matter to Canterlot. The EUP had gotten an increased budget, to also work as a secret police agency. | - - - - - - - | The First Order was expanding in the Western Reaches and the Unknown Regions. Their presence was already known in the galaxy, but they didn't know how big it was. The First Order was building new classes of Star Destroyers, ones that were much bigger than the Imperial II-class. Unfortunately, for the ponies of Equestria, they were about to relieve what happened 31 years ago. The First Order had found every little detail in the Imperial archives, and Equestria happened to be in those archives. Kylo Ren was onboard a First Order Star Destroyer, a Resurgent-class one. The fleet was small yet powerful, it contained one other Star Destroyer of the same class and then, a Dreadnought, a Mandator IV-class one. Armed with deadly underbelly canons able to decimate a city within seconds. For most the sight of the First Order was enough to retreat, but the ponies of Equestria, just like when the Death Squadron arrived; had no choice. The fleet was clearly visible in the sky on the planet. Most ponies thought it was the Rebellion, coming to visit. But they were wrong. Princess Twilight, now much older, taller and mature saw the fleet and alarm bells began to ring inside of her. She had been through this before, but this could be more dangerous. And deadlier. The First Order Dreadnought was only a prototype, fortunately, otherwise, the ponies would have been dead by now. While the orbital guns could still fire they could not go to maximum power and therefore were rendered useless until the ship was finished. Kylo Ren ordered for Troop Transports to head on down to the capital of Equestria, Canterlot. To secure the capital and bring the world into submission. Though the dark-side user didn't know one. That being the planet's raw materials being useless in the factories and the ponies being unable to produce what the First Order needs. But he wasn't having any of it, even though one of his officers tried to convince him it was a bad idea. But it didn't work and the officer paid with his life. The Transports entered the atmosphere, being now visible to everypony. They knew it wasn't the rebellion now. But it wasn't the Empire either. The transports landed on the main street except for two landing in front of the Royal Castle. Out came out the Stormtroopers, most of them carrying F-11D Blaster rifles and some the FWMB-10 heavy repeating blaster. The unarmed ponies quickly surrendered and were gathered up into large groups. Some dared to attack, but their efforts were quickly stopped with a single shot. A platoon of Stormtroopers moved up to the train station to prevent escape while a squad made their way to the air balloon station. The whole capital city was seized. Minutes passed by and the city was completely quiet until suddenly, the gates to the castle burst open from a planted detonator. The two princesses, Celestia and Luna were the newest captives of the First Order. They were taken to the main square where every other resident of Canterlot were. Meanwhile, Flametroopers began to set fire to different buildings, mostly commercial ones. Though all of the sudden a dark ship with long wings pointing upwards was coming from the thick smoke created from the fire. The ship landed and the door opened. A hooded figure with a mask on left the ship escorted by four Stormtroopers. The mysterious person who was Kylo Ren approached Celestia. "Vader?" Celestia asked, thinking it was Darth Vader. The Sith Lord who had almost killed her years ago. "Nobody speaks of his name. Only I do." Kylo Ren responded. "What is your name then?" Luna asked. "I thought you'd know... Kylo Ren," he said. "Whatever you think you're doing is wrong and the Rebellion will come here and help us!" Celestia smashed her hoof into the ground and created a small crack. "The rebellion is no more. We will destroy the New Republic and the treacherous Resistance!" Kylo Ren pulled out his lightsaber and activated it. He swung it towards Celestia but stopped right in front of the Alicorn's neck. "Take them away, put them into custody!" Kylo Ren demanded. Three Stromtroopers approached the two royals, two grabbed them and took them towards one of the transports while the third made sure they wouldn't try anything. Then a Stormtrooper wearing a red pauldron approached Kylo Ren. "Sir. What should we do with the residents?" The Stormtrooper Commander asked. Kylo Ren looked at them. They were gathered into a large circle with Stormtroopers aiming their blasters at them. He looked away at the two princesses being brought onboard a transport and then back at the innocent civilians. He stared for a good few seconds before answering. "Kill them. Kill them all." Kylo said. The Stormtrooper returned to his post and began to countdown. Once it finished the sounds coming from the F-11D's and the FWMB-10's were the only things that could be heard. It wasn't long before the ponies laid on the ground, bodies dead. Another genocide committed by the First Order. Kylo Ren walked back towards his ship. His fleet had to go back to the task of finding the last Jedi. Luke Skywalker... The end... for real this time.
