Fallen Knights

There were few things Twilight Sparkle enjoyed more than sitting down, and learning from yet another great book from the royal library. However, a close contestant was star gazing. It was a fascination she had inherited from her father. His love for the stars had rubbed off on her, and he had taught her a lot. Like using a telescope.

The night sky was beautiful, but moreover, it was the mystery of the universe that attracted the teenage filly the most. There was so much to learn about how their universe functioned, so many mysteries to unlock.

She smiled to herself, and adjusted the large telescope she had placed near her window. she was levitating a pen with her magic, using it to take notes if she should sight anything of note. A tiny yawn caught her attention, and when she looked back she noticed the tiny baby dragon in his tiny bed.

Spike was his name, and not so long ago, the little dragon had started talking and holding conversations with her. Dragons were an amazing species! She'd read that dragons could live for hundreds of years, and their physical age was slower than their mental age.

She drew her attention back to the telescope, but was interrupted yet again as the door to her room opened.

"Twilight?"

A gentle and almost motherly voice said as light from the corridor spilled into he dark room. In walked Celestia, dressed in one of her simple, yet beautiful white dresses. Twilight herself was only wearing her pajamas, as she was technically supposed to be asleep by now.

As the door opened, she clumsily stumped away from the telescope, half moving to her bed, and half hesitating doing so. Seeing her mentor's slightly disappointed, and yet amused look, she decided to just give half a smile, and face the music.

Celestia eyed the little dragon, still blissfully asleep. The princess of the day smiled a little, and then slowly made her way to the telescope. "What are you doing up so late, Twilight?" She asked, and sat down on one of the pillows Twilight had placed there for comfort.

"I, uhm..." Twilight looked down at her hooves, moving it around in a circle. "I wanted to watch the stars." Twilight was 14, almost 15 in just a few days, so she didn't really have bedtimes like she did before she was a teenager. Still, it was well past midnight, and that was stretching it, even for her.

Celestia chuckled, her voice so warm and comforting. "They are beautiful aren't they?"

Twilight looked up at her mentor. "They are, but I was hoping to discover something new, to learn about them."

"I see." Celestia said, not sounding surprised at all. "There is much to be learned from studying," she nodded. "But it's important to appreciate the beauty of life too."

Twilight frowned, she didn't understand what her mentor meant by that. Wasn't that what she was doing already? Her confused expression made Celestia chuckle again. Twilight was a very bright filly for her age, and her thirst for knowledge was commendable. But at times, Celestia worried that Twilight would lose appreciation for the world around her.

But that was a discussion for another time. "Nevertheless," Celestia then said. "It's late, Twilight, and you should be in bed."

Twilight opened her mouth to plead for just another ten minutes, or even five, but as id on cue, she yawned. "Mmm, I'm not..." Seeing her mentor's raised eyebrow, Twilight decided not to plead her case, and then nodded. "Yes, Princess."

Celestia smiled, and reached out with her hand and stroked Twilight's cheek. "The night sky will be here tomorrow evening, Twilight. I promise."

Twilight couldn't help but smile at that. Princess Celestia had always been so kind, and nurturing. She was almost like a second mother to her. She was so intelligent and wise, but not without a certain sense of humor. Twilight glanced towards the telescope.

"One more look?" She asked, her eyes pleading with her.

Celestia made a mock stern face, and then rolled her eyes. "One quick one, but then it's time for bed."

Twilight beamed. "Thank you, Princess."

As Twilight quickly stepped up to the telescope, Celestia rose from her seat once more, and started to walk to the door. She'd barely gotten halfway, when Twilight gasped. She stopped, and for a moment thought Twilight was going to ask her to stay up longer because she thought she had seen something.

"Princess Celestia, come quick!"

The volume and the alarm in her voice startled Celestia, just as it made the young Spike jerk awake. The solar Princess turned towards her student, for a moment considering being more stern with her. Any such thoughts came to a complete stop as she saw Twilight's expression.

She was truly startled, her eyes wide with alarm and a hint of fear. "Twilight? What's wrong?"

The unicorn filly pointed to the sky. "Something is up there! Something big!"

For a short instant, Celestia felt a primal fear rise within her, but she quickly forced it from her mind. It was impossible, it was too soon for, her, to return. It had to be something else. Seeing the urgency in Twilight's eyes, she made her way back to the telescope, and looked into it.

It took Celestia a second to fully grasp what she was looking for, or at. Instead of the focused night sky, she instead saw something grey and red. She adjusted the optics, and as she fully understood what she was looking at wasn't the sky, she let out a gasp.

She wasn't sure what exactly she was looking at, but big was hardly the word Celestia would have used. The object far above them was massive, shaped like the tip of a spear, and was lit up by hundreds, if not thousands of tiny lights.

"I-It just appeared out of nowhere, Princess. What is it?" Twilight said, her voice sounded both panicked and fascinated.

Celestia stood, moved to a glass door that led to a balcony. Twilight followed, with the young dragon crawling out of his bed to clumsily follow. As Twilight came up beside her mentor, she looked up at the sky to see if she could see the massive object in the sky.

It took her a moment, but then she saw it. It was just about visible, but not clearly yet. At least until there was a bright orange glow around it. Twilight gasped again, putting her hands over her mouth. It took her a moment to figure out what was happening, but when she did she looked at her mentor with a distressed look in her eyes.

"Princess, it's entered the atmosphere! It is coming down!"

Celestia's eyes narrowed as she looked up at the objects coming down. "Stay in your room, Twilight." She knew it would unlikely she could get Twilight to sleep now, although she hoped she would. "Look after Spike."

Twilight wanted to protest, and beg her mentor to take her with her, but Celestia turned around and walked back inside before she got the chance. She was about to follow, when she felt the tiny arms of Spike hug her legs. Twilight looked down at the little dragon, who looked back up at her with those big green eyes of his.

She heard the door close, and she knew any chance she had to follow Celestia was now gone. Besides, she would probably only get in the way, and she was right. She had to look after Spike, but that didn't mean she couldn't watch from her room.

Liam stood on the bridge of the Venator, or at least he tried. The shaking made it have to remain standing, although his master seemed to manage much better than he did.

The mood on the bridge was confusion, but not panic. Unlike before when they were under attack, there was a more controlled response, as the bridge crew tried to get the ship under control. Another shake rumbled through the hull, and Liam could see the orange glow crawl over the bow.

"General, we are entering the planet's atmosphere."

His master quickly turned his attention to the helm officer. "Engage engines, and slow us down."

The officer acknowledged, and for maybe a minute he and the rest of the crew tried everything they could to stabilize the ship. "We're slowing down, general." The helm officer said, sounding just as relieved as Liam felt.

"Can you take us back into space?" Allusis asked, walking closer to the officer's station.

It took maybe a minute or two before the officer responded, the light tone slightly more grim now. "No sir, I don't think the ship can pull away."

Master Allusis nodded grimly. "Can you make a controlled emergency landing?"

The clone considered for a moment, then nodded. "It will be tricky sir, but I think we can do it. But she won't fly again."

"Do it." Allusis said without hesitation, and the helm officer nodded again, calling commands in his headset that was quickly acknowledged by the other stations. "Are the sensors picking anything up on the planet's surface?"

"Yes sir, we are picking up weak energy signatures that suggest minor settlements." The sensor officer replied briskly.

"Compute our vector, and steer us clear of any settlements. Com, send out an emergency broadcast." Allusis commanded. "If anyone can pick up the signal, then hopefully they can get anyone below us clear of us."

Again, Liam had to admire his master's calm and ability to see the larger picture. Liam hadn't even thought about anyone living on the planet, although in hindsight, he knew that he should.

"Padawan," Allusis then said.

"Yes, master?"

"We need to prepare for the worst. Get to an escape pod, I will alert the rest of the ship to do the same."

Liam frowned. He didn't want to leave the bridge without his master, and more importantly, they had thousands of clone troopers onboard, many of them were survivors they had saved during the evacuation. Then there was Talek Thren, a padawan like Liam, but older, and closer to becoming a knight than he was.

He'd been badly wounded, and had lost his master in the process. Liam didn't want to lose his master too, let alone leave Talek on the ship. He wanted to express all of this, but as he looked up into the eyes of his master, he knew he had all of this in mind, and this wasn't the time to argue.

"I will do as you ask, master."

Allusis nodded. "Good. Liam, if you have to launch, make sure to keep calm, trust in the Force, and your men." He nodded towards the end of the bridge. "Now go."

"Yes master, I will not fail you."

With those final words, Liam hurried down to the escape pods. As he did, the announcement came for personnel to get to their muster stations, but not launch unless ordered to do so.

The large hallways of the Venator were buzzing with activity. Crew and clone troopers alike moving about to their different tasks and stations. How many of those were heading for the escape pods? Liam didn't like to think about how some of these men might die when the Venator hit the ground.

'Stop it. You're thinking of events outside of your control. Focus on the here and now. Your master has given you a task, you have to do it.' Liam thought to himself, and with a renewed conviction, he sped up, and ran to the station he was assigned in case of him having to go to the escape pods.

As he arrived at the many rows of escape pods, he saw clones already running into them and strapping down. Unlike him, they didn't hesitate. Without a second thought, Liam hurried to one of the pods, and got inside. Three clones were already seated and strapped in.

"Good to see you kid." One of the clone troopers greeted.

Liam gave a small nod, and a small smile back. A second clone gave the thumbs up. "Don't worry, commander. It's going to be a bit bumpy, but we've survived worse!"

He was just about to reply to their friendly banter, when a blue spark near the entrance to the pod caught his attention. The hatch slammed shut, sealing itself. The clones looked at one another, their helmets making their expressions unreadable to Liam, but he had the same bad feeling as they did.

The third clone, who sat at the small steering station, pushed some buttons and called back to them. "Lucky, the hatch, I can't get it open!"

The clone, apparently named Lucky, looked back at the other. "Keep trying, Dex. Our orders are not to launch before giving the go-ahead."

The third clone, who sat in the seat next to Liam, took a hold of his straps and let out a laugh. "This is where the fun begins!"As if on cue, the sound of safety clamps released, and with a powerful force, the pod shot out of the side from the Venator, and flew towards the planet below.

Liam took a hold of his own straps too, trying to keep himself calm as the pod shot through the air. The clone named Lucky turned toward their pilot. "Get us down, Dex!"

"We don't have much of a choice in that!" Dex called back over his shoulder, grunting as he tried to keep the escape pod steady.

The clone next to Liam let out a cheer, while Liam tried not to throw up. The pod shook and turned, and as Liam tried to keep calm, he found his world fading, as he slowly lost his consciousness. Faintly, as the world turned black, Liam thought he could hear Lucky call out for him.

Then, everything went black.

To any pony who happened to be awake at this late hour, the sight must have been frightful. The sheer scale of the Venator, and the fact it seemed to almost float down to the surface, although far it might be from any settlements.

To those who saw it, it looked like luck that the ship would crash far from any farms and settlements. Of course they did not know it was the work of the Clones, and their General that saved many of the towns, and skillfully made an emergency landing.

In the distance, in view of a few towns, and in view of Canterlot. The ship laid on its stomach, towering over any building they might have built. Its many lights cast a faint glow at the horizon. In the moments that followed, it was like all of Equestria became quiet, just for a moment.

Their world suddenly seemed small, and the universe suddenly much bigger. To Princess Celestia, she knew she would not let anything happen to her subjects. Her mind raced, as she considered her options, and the potential dangers. While she didn't know what the Venator was, she knew someone had built it.

She just hoped that whoever was in there would be peaceful...