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Ch 16. The Battle (Part 1)

Gilda felt herself being awoken by rough hooves shaking her."Wake

up!" said a gruff male voice. Gilda opened her eyes. She was lying on a

carpeted floor in a brightly lit room. She felt that she was no longer

in her Robo-suit, and she felt her forelegs, hind legs, and wings were

all bound with iron cuffs. She also felt a throbbing pain in her

forehead.She glanced up at her

surroundings. She was in some kind of elegant throne room on board the

Heart Star. There were two royal unicorn guards standing over her, one

of whom was shaking her body with his hoof. In front of her, sitting

upon a big purple throne, was Princess Celestia herself, and standing

beside her throne was Lightning Dust, who was not bound or restrained in

any way.Gilda remembered what had happened. Lightning Dust had bucked her in the head!"She's awake!" said the guard again."On your feet before Princess Celestia!" spat the second guard.Gilda

felt her body being enveloped in a magical hold and then felt herself

being forcefully lifted up onto all fours by magic. Gilda could see one

of the unicorn guards' horns was glowing with emerald green light,

indicating he was the one levitating her body.She

looked back at Lightning Dust. "Lightning Dust... what the heck?" Gilda

asked her friend, desperate for an explanation as to why she had bucked

her in the head and knocked her out."I'm

sorry," said Lighting, looking away from Gilda with a look of shame on

her face, which was an expression Gilda had never seen on her friend

before.Gilda was shocked.Princess Celestia spoke. "Lightning Dust chose to join our side! She wants to help us, so I've given her the chance."Gilda stared at Lightning Dust in utter bewilderment. "WHY?" Gilda demanded, not convinced that Lightning Dust had just simply 'chose to join Celestia's side' like Celestia had said."She said she would make me a Wonderbolt," Lightning Dust said, still keeping her head turned away from Gilda out of shame.Gilda gaped at Lightning Dust in disbelief.Celestia

spoke again. "I'm helping her out as a favor because she chose to do

the right thing and help us." Celestia extended one of her wings and

wrapped it around Lightning Dust's shoulder, looking down at the pegasus

with a warm smile. "You're our friend now, Lightning Dust. And friends

help each other out." She smiled kindly at Lightning Dust, who,

honestly, looked a little creeped out by the Princess's advances.Gilda's

expression became one of rage. "YOU TRAITOR!" she yelled at Lightning

Dust, trying to leap forward and attack her, but was held back by her

bonds and the unicorn guards' magic. Still she struggled to get at the

pegasus mare. "YOU SELL OUT! YOU TOOL! I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU!""SETTLE

DOWN, YOU!" shouted one of the guards, pulling the enraged griffon back

away from a wide-eyed Lightning Dust, and using his magic to hold her

down against the floor.Celestia looked

down at Gilda. "You also have a chance to do the right thing, Gilda,"

said Celestia. "Join us. Help us do something wonderful for the world."Gilda spat on Celestia's face. "Go buck yourself!" she said."HOW

DARE YOU DISRESPECT THE PRINCESS!" the two guards next to Gilda yelled,

one of them hitting her hard in her side with a hoof. Gilda grunted in

pain as she was knocked onto her side by the blow.Celestia held up a hoof to stop the two guards. "Enough!" she said to them.The two guards stopped assaulting Gilda.Celestia

wiped the spit off her face and looked back down at Gilda. "Very well.

In that case, you can stay and watch the birth of a new world with us. A

world where all living things live together in friendship and harmony."Gilda

growled as she got to her feet and glared at the princess. "I know what

you did!" she stated, then she looked over at Lightning Dust. "You

don't realize what she's done, Lightning Dust. How many lives this bitch

has ruined.""Don't listen to her, Lightning Dust," Celestia said to the pegasus beside her. "She's just trying to confuse you."Gilda

continued. "The spell she's about to use, she used it on a race called

the Flutterponies a long time ago, but the spell went wrong, and they

all ended up turning into changelings because of it!""What?" exclaimed Lightning Dust, actually turning her head to look at Gilda now with wide eyes."That's ridiculous!" said Celestia firmly."There's

more!" said Gilda. "When Princess Luna was going to tell everypony

about what Celestia had done, Celestia put a spell on her to make her go

insane in order to keep her quiet. That's why Luna really became Nightmare Moon! Celestia pretty much lobotomized her own sister!""ENOUGH

OF YOUR LIES, CRIMINAL SCUM!" shouted a guard loudly in Gilda's ear,

hitting her hard in her gut again with his hoof. Gilda grunted in pain

again and fell to the floor.Celestia held

up a hoof to stop the two guards again. "I said enough!" Celestia

raised her voice at them, making them stop assaulting Gilda once again.

Celestia looked back at Lightning Dust. "Lightning Dust, I promise you. None of that is true. I would never harm anypony."Gilda

glared at Celestia. The big white princess was clearly a very skilled

liar. Had Gilda not known the truth, she herself would have believed the

Princess's statements. It was like her sweet motherly voice got inside

your head and made you want to believe the things she was saying. Gilda wondered if magic was involved with that. Then again, Celestia would have to be a good liar in order to still have so many ponies complete blind faith and belief in her after all these centuries."IT IS TRUE!" Gilda shouted at them all. "WE LEARNED IT FROM LUNA HERSELF!""I SAID ENOUGH OF YOUR LIES!" the guard yelled in Gilda's ear again.Celestia

raised her hoof again to calm her guards down before they started

beating Gilda again. Then she looked at Gilda. "Well, Gilda, even if you

won't cooperate, you are still welcome to stay here and watch."Her

throne magically spun around to face a set of closed curtains.

Celestia's horn glowed, and then the curtains were magically pulled

aside, revealing a wide circular window that looked out into space.

Outside she could see the house ship Defiant being chased by the massive battle cruiser Ascendency, both of them firing weapons at each other."We

are going to use the spell on your friends on board their ship, so they

will stop acting foolish, and cooperate," said Celestia.At that, Gilda struggled angrily, but was still held back by her bonds. "NO!" Gilda shouted in anger.Celestia simply ignored Gilda's protests and continued to smile calmly, which infuriated Gilda to no end.Unknown to both of them, Lightning Dust was staring down at the floor, a look of uncertainty on her face...................The Defiant did battle with the Ascendency.Trixie

watched the viewscreen as they fired their rail gun at the enemy ship,

but the blasts just simply bounced off Shining Armor's powerful shield

spell that he had erected around his ship. They kept trying to evade the

powerful energy blasts the Ascendency fired at them every several seconds."What is the status of the Ascendency?" Trixie demanded."It's

sustained some damage to its hull from when it and the other ships were

firing on each other," said Iron Will. "But other than that, it's

completely intact and operational. And Shining Armor's shield spell is

protecting it from taking any more damage.""Keep

trying!" Trixie ordered, her hope in Blueblood and Gilda being pushed

to the limit. "Load the alchemy bombs! Give 'em everything we've got!"The

ships pitched out of control as they took a hit from an energy beam.

They held onto their chairs as they all almost fell out of them."Shields

at sixty two percent!" shouted Sunset after they had recovered from the

blast, having seated herself down at an open computer console.Trixie

cringed. That was almost half their shield strength gone, and they had

only taken one hit! Sunset may have improved their ships systems, but

they still wouldn't hold up very long against the Ascendency's kind of fire power.Their ship banked to the left to avoid another energy beam from the Ascendency...................Shining Armor watched the struggling Defiant

on the viewscreen with satisfaction. "Target weapon systems and

shields," he ordered to his weapons officer. "We want to capture that

ship, not destroy it."On the viewscreen, another dazzling white blast seared from the front of the Ascendency at the tiny house ship, just missing it's target as the Defiant swerved out of the way yet again.Beside him, he heard Rarity speaking softly to herself. "Why don't you give up, Blueblood?" she said. "You know you can't win."Shining

knew it didn't matter. This battle wouldn't take very long anyway. And

then Blueblood and his annoying friends would all be brought to justice.

Of course, knowing Princess Celestia, she would probably want to help

them and rehabilitate them with magic and guidance to make them better

ponies. And although he would never disagree with the Princess's

decision, personally, he would rather they were all just thrown in a

dungeon cell and left to rot.The Defiant

made a pass at them and fired another volley of blasts from it's tiny

gun mounted on it's hull, but Shining Armor wasn't worried in the least

as the blasts simply bounced off his shield bubble protecting the ship,

causing only tiny ripples to appear on the bubble where they impacted."Is that the best you got?" Shining gloated, watching as another white blast shot from his ship at the Defiant..................."Just answer me one thing, your highness," said Gilda to Celestia. Celestia turned back to face Gilda, and she continued. "Why are you trying to make the world a paradise? Isn't the world pretty much already

a paradise as it is? You control the weather, the seasons, and

practically all of nature itself! Practically everyone is a total goody

two shoes who whistles while they work, and breaks into songs about

friendship and love at the drop of a hat! There haven't been any wars in

hundreds of years! There is plenty of food and water to go around,

practically no pollution, or any big problems of any kind! Sure, there

are a few enemies out there, but you can always easily take care of them

with the Elements of Harmony. It can't really get much better than that! Isn't that good enough?""No,

it isn't," said Celestia plainly. "There are still those out there,

like you, who still live unhappily because they don't understand the

happiness that comes from friendship and honest lives.""Okay,

first of all, the only thing making me unhappy right now is YOU!" said

Gilda. "Second of all, SO WHAT!? If they want to live their lives that

way, then that is their choice, and it's their right to choose that if they want! So just LET THEM BE!""NO!" said Celestia, shaking her head. "If I know there are those out there who need help, then I have to help them. It's my duty as a princess.""No, your duty as a princess is to run and defend your kingdom, not to interfere in the personal lives of its citizens! And even so, if you want to help others, then help them by just simply talking to them! Offer them advice if they want it! Don't start casting spells on ponies!""That's

the problem!" Celestia sighed. "I've tried talking to the many

creatures of this world for centuries, but it does little good. So many,

like dragons, diamond dogs, and you and even some of my own little

ponies, just refuse to listen! So they've left me with no choice but to

take more... drastic action.""THAT'S WRONG!" Gilda shouted angrily. "IF THEY DON'T WANT HELP, THEN THAT'S THEIR CHOICE, AND THEIR RIGHT!""I

am their princess, and I know what is best for them! Sometimes you need

to help those who might not realize that they need help, or even want help, and sometimes there are those who need to be made to do things they might not want to do... for their own good."Gilda growled at Celestia. "We aren't your children! We have rights!""Gilda, I consider

you all like my children. And as my children, it's my duty to take care

of you all, and do what is best for you." Celestia smiled. "Just trust

in me, Gilda. This is for the best."Gilda

groaned. There was no point in talking to Celestia. She was clearly

convinced that her intentions were righteous, and there was no

convincing her otherwise. Still, Gilda would have given both her wings

just to wipe that infuriatingly calm smile from Celestia's face.Suddenly,

a pair of double doors at the back of the throne room opened up, and an

Earth pony guard entered the room. "Princess Celestia, I'm here to

inform you that the Heart Star has absorbed enough energy from the plot

hole to use the spell amplifying array now."Gilda's heart sunk, as she knew what that meant."Thank

you," said Celestia to the guard, who bowed his head to her before

walking back out of the room. "The time is finally here!" Celestia said

to them excitedly. "This is my destiny, and Equestria's destiny!" She

pressed one of several buttons on the arm of her throne with her hoof,

which Gilda hadn't noticed were there before. "Deploy the array!" she

said aloud, Gilda supposing she was talking over an intercom to

somewhere else on the space station. "And target the Defiant.""No!" Gilda attempted to leap at Celestia to attack her, but was held back by the two unicorn guards' magic.Celestia's

horn glowed, and a circular panel opened up in the sealing in the room

right above Celestia. Then some sort of machine, attached to a thick

tube and many wires, descended down out from it, settling right above

Celestia's head.Celestia raised her head

upwards and slid her horn up into a small hole in the bottom of the

machine above her head, which was just the right size for her horn. She

then closed her eyes as she began casting her spell to be amplified by

the Heart Star.The machine connected to

Celestia's horn began to glow and pulse with the same golden yellow glow

as Celestia's magic, and then the glow ran up the tubes and wires

attached to it into the open panel in the sealing.Suddenly,

the large circular window in the room flickered with light, and then an

image appeared on it, revealing that it was also a viewscreen.  The

image was a camera view of the outside of the Heart Star. More

specifically, the bottom tip of the heart shaped space station.The

pointed bottom of the heart shaped space station began to slowly fold

open, like a flower's petals opening up, revealing a giant dish antenna

inside. The antenna began to spark and then glow with the golden light

of Celestia's magic. It was apparently being used as a giant, artificial

unicorn's horn.Then, at the tip of the

antenna, a pink heart made of magical energy formed. The pink heart

began to pulsate as more magic was poured into it, making it bigger... and

bigger... and bigger!..................On board the Defiant, and the Ascendency, both crews took notice of the giant pink heart of magic forming at the tip of an antenna that had opened up on the Heart Star."What the heck is that?" asked Hoops fearfully, pointing at the image on the viewscreen."I think that's bad news," said Iron Will.Trixie and the rest of them all agreed with him, all of them gulping nervously, fearing that this was the end..................."Finally!

A perfect world!" Celestia said to herself as she watched the spell

amplifying array readying her spell on the viewscreen, tears of

happiness starting to well up in her eyes.Then

suddenly, there were a few wild sparks of electricity on the antenna,

and then the golden yellow glow around the antenna faded away.

Celestia's smile fell into a frown of confusion as the pink heart of

magical energy stopped pulsating, and then dissipated into nothingness,

and then the antenna began letting off smoke into space.Gilda was pleasantly surprised by this sudden turn of events, and she breathed a sigh of relief."What? What happened?" Celestia said, clearly worried and confused.Gilda

grinned as something occurred to her. "Well, maybe it has something to

do with the fact that, right after I teleported over here, I screwed

around with a bunch of the machines and computers in this place. You

know, blew stuff up, did some damage. Whatever I thought looked

important."As if to confirm this,

suddenly the same Earth pony guard as before burst into the room again, a

panicked look on his face. "Your majesty! A number of the Heart Star's

systems have been damaged and the array is inoperable! Its gonna take a

bit of time to repair them."Celestia

glared down at Gilda furiously, and it looked like the Princess might

actually attack the griffon. Gilda just continued to grin up at

Celestia, happy to see that she had finally been able to get on the

Princess's nerves and upset her."What's the matter, Princess? I haven't made you mad, have I?" Gilda said mockingly.Celestia

took a deep breath, and regained her composure. "Guards, lock Gilda up

with our other... guest. I'm going to assist in repairing the array."

Celestia's horn glowed, and then, in a flash of light, she teleported

out of the room.Gilda was suddenly yanked

by the unicorn guards' magic towards the doors at the back of the

throne room. "COME ON! MOVE IT!" one of them ordered her."Hey,

Lightning," Gilda shouted back over her shoulder at the pegasus mare

while she was being pulled out of the room, getting her attention. "You

realize Celestia's gonna cast that spell on you too, don't you? You're

gonna have your head messed with, just like everyone else! Ya know, in

all the time I knew you, I never took you as a pony who kissed others'

flanks to get ahead in life. I thought you were a rebel, like me, who

didn't take shit from anyone, who didn't act like an obedient little

filly and waited for things to be given to her, but who took what

she wanted. And more importantly, I thought you were my friend,

Lightning! But I guess you caved and became a lame-o tool, just like

Rainbow Dash!"Lightning Dust stood there,

stunned, staring back at Gilda as she was dragged out of the throne

room. Lightning Dust began to think about what Gilda had said, and about

the whole situation...................Princess

Celestia teleported into the Heart Star's engineering area. A number of

engineering ponies' heads turned to look at her sudden appearance.

Celestia could see they were hard at work tried to fix the array, a

great number of them gathered around an area with a large metal tube

running up and down an open shaft in the center of the Heart Star.A

few of them were at a table, looking over a large open book with

blueprints and instructions inside it. Celestia walked over to them."How are the repairs coming?" Celestia asked.They

all turned to look at her, quickly bowing their heads to her. "There

was a lot of damage, your highness," said one of the engineers, an

indigo Earth pony mare with a magenta mane and tail, both of which were

done up in a bun, wearing a white lab coat and lime green glasses. "And

this book is so BIG! This might take a while."Celestia

sighed in frustration, wishing she had Twilight with her to help with

this. "We don't have time for this. Turn on the video tutorial!"

Celestia ordered.Above their heads, a

viewscreen turned on and a video started playing on it. It showed a

bunch of blueprints and instructions on screen. Then she frowned when

she heard a voice start speaking on the video, only it wasn't in

English."Oh no, you got it in FRENCH!" Celestia cried out in dismay. She facehooved. "Darn! The one language I can't speak!""What do we do now, Princess?" the indigo mare asked.Celestia looked down at her. "Find somepony who can speak French!"..................Shining

Armor stared at the image before him on the viewscreen of the

smoldering antenna of the Heart Star, his mouth agape in disbelief. Why

hadn't it worked? "The Heart Star is non-functional! Our fleet is

destroyed! What else could go wrong?!" he groaned loudly.Rarity

suddenly stepped up beside Shining Armor and hit him hard with her

rump, sending him flying across the deck, landing on his side on the

floor with a loud thud."Move aside,

darling!" Rarity said while he gaped up at her from the floor, in total

shock at her actions. "It's clear to me that you are unfit to command in

the emotional state you're in. So... I'm taking command!" She

turned to face the stunned crew. "Maximize power to the engines!

Intensify forward firepower! Target their shields and weapon systems

only! And somepony bring me the complete works of Shakespeare and Herman Melville! I have some quoting to do!"Everyone

on the bridge continued to stare at the scene, not sure what to think,

but soon they all shrugged and began to carry out Rarity's orders.Rarity smiles gleefully as she sees another one of their energy blasts hit the Defiant, sending it hurtling out of control. She laughed out loud. "Ha ha ha ha! From Tartarus's heart, I stab at thee! For hate's sake, I spit my last breath at thee! Ha ha ha ha!!"Shining Armor got up from the floor onto all fours and stared at Rarity in deep concern. Oh yeah, you're not taking this too far at all, he thought to himself..................."SHIELDS

AT TWENTY FIVE PERCENT!" Sunset screamed after Dumbbell and Hoops had

used their gaming skills to get their ship back under control again."Fire alchemy bomb!" Trixie ordered, pounding her hoof down against the arm of her chair.She watched on the viewscreen as one of the tiny metal spheres was fired from beneath their ship, soaring towards the Ascendency

like a rocket. It made contact with Shining Armor's shield and

exploded, creating a blinding white light that lit up their entire

viewscreen. They all have to squint their eyes and put their hooves in

front of their faces from the blinding explosion. Trixie was hopeful

that it had worked, and that the Ascendency had been destroyed, or at the very least, the shield bubble spell had been destroyed.Trixie's hopes were crushed however when the bright light from the explosion faded, and the Ascendency

was still there, completely unharmed, and Shining Armor's shield bubble

was also still around it, shimmering dazzlingly from the residual heat

from the explosion."IT'S NO USE!" Iron

Will shouted furiously. "Shining Armor's shield spell is too strong! The

alchemy bombs aren't powerful enough, and we're running out of them!""DARN

IT!" Trixie slammed her hooves down on the arms of her command chair in

frustration. She was considering just turning the ship around and

escaping to hyperspace. At the moment she couldn't see anyway they could

win this if Gilda or Blueblood didn't succeed in their own missions.

She wondered how they both were doing.Gilda,

what's taking so long? Blueblood, I hope you were right and that you

can find a way to stop the plot hole from the inside. We could use all

the help we could get right now...................Blueblood woke up and opened his eyes. He found that he was lying on his side on... something. Something that he couldn't see, or feel for that matter.He

looked around him. It looked like he was in the vacuum of space, but he

knew he couldn't be, as he was breathing, and not frozen. Yet there

were tiny twinkling stars all around him, and it really looked like he

was lying out in space.He got up and stood on all fours, but he wasn't exactly sure what he was standing on. Magic?"Where the heck am I?" Blueblood asked himself aloud, totally confused. "The Twilight Zone? Wait, am I dead!?"

He lifted his foreleg up to his mouth and bit into his flesh. It hurt.

"Nope. Not dead. So what is this?" Off all the things he had expected

when he had flown into the plot hole... well, to be honest, he wasn't sure

what he had expected to find.It

then occurred to him that he wasn't entirely sure how he had gotten

here. He looked around for the escape pod he had been in, but it was

nowhere to be seen."Hello, Prince Blueblood," said a voice behind him. It was an elderly male voice, and it was somewhat familiar.Blueblood spun around, and he saw, standing there before him, none other than Starswirl the Bearded."Starswirl?"

Blueblood said in amazement. It was indeed him, wearing his trademark

long cloak wrapped around his body, and his pointed hat atop his head.

And they even had the accurate bells on them. This was definitely

Starswirl the Bearded."Yes, Blueblood. It's me," the elderly unicorn said."I thought you were dead.""I

was... but now I have risen." Starswirl's cloak suddenly flew open as if

by some magical wind, revealing two big, feathery wings unfurling from

his sides, which he extended dramatically in full view for Blueblood to

see.Blueblood's mouth gaped open. He

could hardly believe his eyes, even as he stared at those big, feathery

wings coming out of Starswirl's back. Starswirl the Bearded was now an

alicorn! He had actually become an alicorn!"And

you have risen too in a way, I see, Blueblood," said Starswirl. "You

have achieved something few other ponies have ever accomplished! Now,

Blueblood, are you ready?"Blueblood looked at Starswirl in confusion. "Ready for what?" he asked, feeling both excited and nervous.Starswirl continued. "To finally achieve your destiny, Blueblood. Are you ready... to become an alicorn?"