Shadow Wars: Dawn of a New Empire

As soon as they arrived at the main fleet, Princess Luna quickly rushed her student to the medical bay. Several doctors and nurses began to examine him using their magic to scan him for any injuries. Once, they were satisfied, a doctor turned to the moon Princess and told her, "He should be fine, we found several indications that he had been choked, including bruising around his throat. I recommend plenty of rest and no activities that could make him lose his breath."

Luna nodded, glad that her student was going to recover from his injuries. She then made her way towards the bridge, where she told the captain, "Get us out of here, we need to inform my sister about our defeat."

The captain nodded and saluted but as he was about to turn the ship towards the direction of Manehatten a unicorn, who was the ship's navigational officer, gasped, "Our warning systems are picking up several UFOs heading towards our position."

Luna cursed, as she realised that the Imperials must've found them. Realising that if they were to make contact with the enemy APIs, they would be completely destroyed, she began to quickly form a plan. Walking out onto the deck, she ordered, "Everypony get your battle stations!"

Now standing in the middle of the ship's deck, her horn began to glow, blue as all around the fleet the ships began to glow blue with alicorn magic before completely vanishing from view, along with the sailors on board. They were now invisible.

"Hold your fire, Do not engage," Luna said, the invisibility spell draining her energy. Luna strained, the spell growing difficult to hold up as the sounds of the Advanced Pegasus Interceptors filled the air.

Three APIs roared overhead and Luna managed to get a good look at the flying menaces. From what she could see, Luna knew that the ships were being powered by four rocket boosters that had been attached to the back of the ships, while on the front, four cannons could unleash destructive magic bolts.

Everypony breathed a sigh of relief as Luna released the invisibility spell before collapsing from magical exhaustion.

"PRINCESS! GET ME A MEDIC, NOW!" the captain screamed at his crew, kneeling down at the alicorn's side.

"Captain, there is no need to worry, I am fine the spell merely took its toll, I should be fine after some rest. But Captain, it will only be a matter of time before the Empire realises, the stunt that we pulled. We need to get back to Manehatten."

"Of course, Princess." The captain said as several medics helped Luna back towards her quarters.

***

Emperor Nightwing was beginning to grow impatient as all of his scout teams came back to report the same thing: They could find no trace of the Equestrian fleet. The Emperor had planned for the droid army, to only be temporary, until he could begin to use basic conscripts as his main force.

Nightwing wanted to be rid of the Droid Soldiers as soon as possible, however, if he was to have a conscript army then he would need ponies and to get ponies, he would need cities.

Nightwing examined a map as he searched for potential targets. Nightwing needed to know where Celestia's secret base was, however he had no way of gaining that information.

Growling in frustration, Nightwing left to war room so that he could admire another new invention that he had been working on. While he may not have the ponypower to use a conscript army, he had been preparing for one.

When he entered his workshop, he walked over to a glass cabinet and smiled at the suit of armour that was on display. His new suit of armour was nothing like the gold armour of the Equestrian Royal Guard. The Imperial armour was made up of a black, temperature-controlled skintight suit. This suit provides comfort and flexibility while offering some degree of protection. On top of the suit were several plates of plastic composite, which had proven effective against unicorn magic. The plates covered the main body along with the legs and hooves, there was also a helmet that comprised of the same material as the plates. The helmet completely covered the head and had two black lenses that could tell the soldier, data about the battle along with their vital signs, it also had night vision. The helmet also filtered out smoke and dust. The suit was also painted black, making them almost invisible to the enemy at night and intimidating during the day. While Celestia would have the Royal Guard, he would have the Shadowtroopers.

***

Celestia, Luna and Defender were sat in the war room, where they were discussing their next moves. "We need our own form of air support, one that can stand up to the Empire's APIs."

"How do you expect us to get that," Cerberus exclaimed.

Luna smiled, "Simple, We take the fight to the Imperial Empire and steal Nightwing's plans. Once we have stolen them, then we can create our own variations."

"Luna as much as I would love to attack the Imperial Empire, there is just one slight problem, nopony knows where he keeps his plans," Cerberus said.

"I believe his plans will be in Canterlot most likely his old workshop," Luna stated.

"I'm sorry Luna but the Empire is too strong, If we even want a chance of defeating his forces then we will need to find some blasters of our own," Celestia explained in frustration.

Defender then spoke up and said, "I may have an answer to this. Several scouts reported that within the Everfree Forest, they noticed a strange structure, that closely resembled a factory within the forest. The scouts told me that they managed to get a closer look and that they could see Droid Soldiers being stowed into boxes before being transported onto a container ship of some kind. If we attack this factory, then we could steal their own blasters."

Blaze rubbed his chin in thought, "This would be very risky. With Canterlot, being so close you could have hundreds, if not thousands of Droid Soldiers fighting you."

"Not if we use a distraction," Luna said.

"If you have a plan that could work, then I say that we should do it. Taking these blasters could be a turning point in this war." Star Swirl agreed.

Eventually, Celestia and Cerberus both reluctantly agreed to the plan. With everypony in agreeance, Princess Luna and Defender left to gather the troops and prepare for the assault.

"How do we know if this factory contains blasters