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Ch 18. The Battle (part 3)

"Why is this taking so long?" Rarity demanded in annoyance back on the bridge of the Ascendency.Their tactical officer shook his head in frustration. "The Defiant is flying too close to our ship, and too fast! I can't target them!" he responded to Rarity.Rarity stamped her hoof on the hard floor in irritation! "THEN FIRE IN EVERY DIRECTION AT ONCE!" she ordered."We can't," said the tactical officer plainly. "The ship isn't designed to do that."Rarity growled loudly in anger as she tried to come up with something to solve this annoying problem."Can I make a suggestion?" asked Shining Armor, still sounding annoyed at Rarity for taking command away from him.Unable to come up with anything herself, Rarity sighed and turned to him. "Yes, Shining?""Ram them with our ship," he said to her.Rarity thought for a few seconds, and then smiled at the idea. "Ram them with our ship!" she ordered aloud...................Trixie's eyes widened in horror as the Ascendency suddenly banked sharply in their direction. There was no way for them to have avoided getting hit.Their ship rocked and tumbled through space violently as they were hit hard by the shield bubble around the Ascendency. They all screamed as they were hurled out of their seats onto the floor. Sparks burst from the controls and red lights began flashing. A few fires ignited in various spots on the bridge.Seeing the flames, Trixie closed her eyes and lit up her horn with magic, and, in a flash of light, she conjured up a fire extinguisher in midair in front of her. She levitated it over to the spots of the bridge that were on fire and began putting out the flames with it.They all quickly hurried to get back up onto their hooves and get their ship back under control again.Trixie looked around her at the smoke filled bridge as she sat back down in the command chair. As the ship stopped it's tumbling and steadied out thanks to Dumbbell and Hoops working the helm controls, Trixie wondered how badly they were damaged.She didn't have to wait long to find out."OUR SHIELDS ARE GONE!" Sunset shouted fearfully while coughing a bit from the smoke still lingering in the air. "WE'RE COMPLETELY DEFENSELESS!"Trixie hung her head in despair.Suddenly, Flim and Flam burst onto the bridge, coughing as well. "Bad news, everypony!" Flam said urgently. "Our engines are blown and our power core is damaged!""He's right," said Dumbbell at the helm. "The thrusters aren't working. We're sitting ducks!"That was it. Trixie knew they had no choice now. Sorry, Gilda and Lightning Dust. "Can we use the improbability drive to escape?" she asked. She didn't want to leave her friends behind, but with the situation as hopeless as it was, they didn't have any other choice.Flim and Flam shook their heads sadly. "We don't have enough power left for that."And now Trixie felt utterly helpless. That strategy of staying close to the enemy ship so that it couldn't hit them had been the best she could think of, and it had failed. It was obvious they were all in way over their heads here. And now they couldn't even escape if they wanted to. Their ship was crippled. This was it. They were done.On the viewscreen, they could see the Ascendency moving away from their ship, and then turning around so that it was facing them. They all gasped silently in terror when they saw the main cannon on the front of the Ascendency was beginning to glow with white light again, indicating the massive battle cruiser was about to fire another blast at them."What do we do?" whimpered Upper Crust."There's nothing we can do," Entomala growled, apparently having begrudgingly accepted their fate. "We're dead."No! Trixie thought to herself, standing up from her chair and facing the viewscreen defiantly. I, the great and powerful Trixie, refuse to go down this way! The enemy ship was about to fire on them, and she knew if she didn't do something, they were dead. Squeezing her eyes shut tight and gritting her teeth, she began pumping magic into her horn, focusing only on protecting the ship, herself, and her friends. Her horn ignited with a burst of violet magical energy.Everyone in the room turned to look at Trixie in surprise at what she was doing. Her body had begun to tremble as she concentrated as hard as she could. Trixie somehow found strength she never knew she had deep inside of her, and then her eyes flew open, and were glowing with bright white light. "Is she going super saiyan?" asked Hoops.On the viewscreen, the Ascendency fired its powerful beam weapon at them, the white blast soaring across the space between their ships straight towards them.Trixie let out an angry scream, and then a powerful violet beam of magic shot out of her horn. The beam passed through the walls of their ship, and created a huge shield bubble all the way around the entire Defiant.The blast from the Ascendency struck Trixie's shield spell, and on the bridge of the Defiant, everyone squinted their eyes from the blinding light on the viewscreen. When the light faded, they were overjoyed to see that the shield bubble Trixie had cast had actually held up to the attack.They all let out a cheer.However, they could then see the bubble start to crack, and then it collapsed, dissipating into magic sparkles in space, and then into nothing. But that didn't matter. Trixie had saved them!Trixie, however, failed to notice this as a wave of dizziness and exhaustion overtook her just then. She wobbled on her legs, and then collapsed to the floor. The spell had completely drained her. It had taken everything she had had in her. Her world was spinning, and she wasn't entirely sure what was going on anymore. She wasn't even aware of all of her friends on the bridge gathering around her in a panic and seeing if she was okay."TRIXIE, ARE YOU ALRIGHT!" Upper Crust asked.The dizziness started to where off and her vision came back into focus. She looked around at all of her friends around her, kneeling over her with concerned looks on their faces. "W...what happened?" she groaned."Trixie, that was amazing!" Hoops said."You saved us!" said Sunset. "You cast that shield spell around the entire ship and protected us from the blast!""You really are great and powerful!" said Iron Will.Trixie smiled up at them. "Trixie... has been practicing," she said weakly. It was true. She had been practicing spells, before they had gone on this adventure into space, including shield bubble spells. Ever since Princess Luna had agreed to tutor her in magic, Trixie had really improved, but she had never been able to cast a spell that powerful before on her own. Yet somehow, this time, knowing that she and her friends were all in danger, she had found the strength.Just then, Entomala spoke up. "Um... I'd hate to ruin the moment, but the Ascendency looks like its getting ready to fire again!"They all looked at the viewscreen. To their dismay, the Ascendency was indeed getting back into position for another attack.Trixie frowned. "Trixie is to exhausted from that last spell to cast another one!" she groaned."Doesn't anyone have any bright ideas??" asked Dumbbell in a panic."Sorry I'm late, everypony!" a British male voice suddenly said over the intercom.Suddenly, something caught their attention on the viewscreen. Something was materializing in between their ship and the Ascendency. It was tiny, and it was blue, and it was box shaped."IT'S THE TARDIS!" Flim shouted joyfully.Indeed, it was Doctor Whooves' trademark time machine, appearing directly ahead of their ship. They all felt an overwhelming sense of relief right then.Suddenly, the image on the viewscreen changed to show the inside of the TARDIS's main control room. And standing center screen was the legendary Time Pony himself, Doctor Whooves."All right, everypony, now we've given them something else to shoot at," the Doctor said, a happy grin on his face.Suddenly two more creatures ran onto the screen beside the Doctor. A griffon and a Pegasus mare they all recognized. "Hey, guys!" they both said."Gilda! Lightning Dust! You're okay!" exclaimed Score happily.Suddenly Lightning Dust looked horrified and pointed at them. "GUYS! THERE'S A CHANGELING THERE WITH YOU!"They all looked at Entomala, who was rolling her eyes, and then back at Lightning Dust."It's okay, Lightning. She's with us," said Iron Will.Lightning Dust still looked at them in confusion. "Iron Will? When did you get out here?""Why does everypony keep asking me that?" Iron Will said, shrugging his arms into the air. "I've been here the whole time! Don't you remember?"On the screen, Gilda turned to Lightning Dust and put a reassuring paw on the pegasus mare's shoulder. "It's a long story. I'll fill you in later," she said to her.Lightning nodded and relaxed....................On the bridge of the Ascendency, Rarity watched as the TARDIS appeared on the viewscreen, settling in directly between their ship, and the Defiant.She smirked confidently. "Ah. The game's afoot, eh?" She pointed at the TARDIS with her hoof. "FIRE!"She watched as a their ship sent a white energy blast at the TARDIS. The blast hit the TARDIS dead on, sending the small blue box spinning wildly through space."CRY 'HAVOC!', AND LET SLIP THE DIAMOND DOGS OF WAR!" Rarity shouted out loudly with glee....................The TARDIS shook as it was hit by the Ascendency's blast. The Doctor, Gilda, and Lightning Dust all held onto the control console to keep from falling over."WOW! THAT'S SOME FIREPOWER!" the Doctor exclaimed. Then he grinned at Gilda and Lightning Dust. "But I've encountered better!""You sure this... ship... can hold together against them?" asked Gilda."Are you kidding?" the Doctor laughed. "This old girl can stand up to Dalek attacks." He then began pressing buttons on the control panel. "But first, I'm going to give them the chance to surrender."He pressed one last button, and then the elegant bridge of the Ascendency appeared on the TARDIS's viewscreen. A surprised looking Rarity was standing front and center in the image, and behind her in the background were dozens of crewponies at various computer stations, as well as Shining Armor.The Doctor spoke. "Ascendency, this is the Doctor. I'm giving you this one chance to surrender and stand down."Rarity burst out laughing. "Surrender? Us? You must be joking! Our ship is way bigger and way more powerful then yours. You're the ones who should be surrendering!""Ah, see that's where you're wrong, miss Rarity," the Doctor shot back. "You forget who you're dealing with. I'm the Doctor. I'm a Time Pony. I'm from the planet Gallopfrey in the Constellation of Kasterborous. I am nine hundred and six years old, and I'm the pony who is gonna take you, and your entire ship, down, unless you surrender right now. Any questions?"Rarity looked back behind her at her tactical officer. "Fire," she said calmly, just as the transmission ended and the TARDIS's viewscreen switched back to the view outside in space, showing the Ascendency charging it's main cannon, and then promptly firing it at them.The blast hit the TARDIS again. The control room of the TARDIS shook and Gilda, Lightning Dust, and the Doctor once again held onto the control console to steady themselves.The Doctor shook his head. "They never listen," he said in disappointment, then he instantly became serious. "Okay, I have a plan." He pressed a button on the intercom for the Defiant. "Doctor to Defiant! Be ready to fire when I give you the signal. We're gonna punch through their shields for you."He then began working the many controls on the control panel, and the TARDIS began flying right at the Ascendency..................."What's he doing?" Rarity thought to herself aloud as she watched the TARDIS on the viewscreen flying towards them."Lady, Rarity," said one of the crewponies. "Our computers show the TARDIS is on a collision course for us.""What?" Rarity gaped in confusion. "Is he insane?"But Shining Armor was more worried, and his eyes widened in terror as he realized what the Doctor was doing."FIRE EVERYTHING!" he shouted at the top of his lungs at his crew.But it was too late. The TARDIS made contact with Shining Armor's shield bubble, and the shield bubble instantly shattered against the TARDIS's much more powerful Time Pony forcefields, the pieces of the shield bubble dissipating into magic sparkles in space, and then fading into nothing.Then the TARDIS began to dematerialize, fading away into nothing before it could make contact with the actual hull of the Ascendency...................Back on the bridge of the Defiant, the Doctor's voice suddenly came up on the intercom again. "Doctor to Defiant. You're all clear! Now strike while you have the chance!"Trixie, who was now back up on her hooves, looked over at Iron Will. "Do we have any alchemy bombs left?""Just one," he said.She looked back ahead of her at the now shieldless Ascendency. "FIRE!!!"Iron Will quickly leaped over to his tactical station and pressed the fire button for the Alchemy bomb launcher.On the viewscreen, they all watched as their last alchemy bomb soared out from beneath their ship, heading straight for the Ascendency...................On the Ascendency, everyone on the bridge all noticed the Defiant fire the alchemy bomb, and were now watching the bomb heading right towards them.Rarity turned to Shining Armor. "SHINING, RECAST YOUR SPELL!!! QUICK!!!" she screamed in a state of panic."THERE'S NOT ENOUGH TIME! ITS TOO LATE!" Shining Armor shouted, grabbing Rarity with his front hooves and pulling her backwards with him, away from the front of the bridge.Less than a second later, they were both deafened by the ear popping sound of an explosion behind them.....................The alchemy bomb detonated on impact with the Ascendency, causing another blinding explosion of light. Everyone on the Defiant squinted their eyes as they watched the explosion on the viewscreen.When the light from the explosion faded, they could see the Ascendency was now a burning wreck, it's hull now scorched and darkened from the explosion. Smaller explosions riddled the ship's hull all over it, sending red-hot pieces of shrapnel hurling off of it into space.The Ascendency then began drifting through space, completely out of control. It was on a direct course for the Heart Star...................Princess Celestia smiled as she heard the loud hum of the spell amplifying array powering back up in the Heart Star's engineering bay after the mechanics and scientist ponies finally completed repairs well enough for it to work."Excellent!" she said joyfully. She walked over to a computer consol and attempted to contact the Ascendency to let them know. She pressed the communications button. "Shining Armor, this is Princess Celestia." She paused, waiting for a response, but all she got was static. "Shining Armor?" she asked again several seconds later. "Rarity? Anypony?"Puzzled, Princess Celestia suddenly became aware of the sound of screaming all around her. She looked up from the computer controls in front of her, and glanced around the area. She was confused when she saw all of the ponies in the room screaming and running towards the exit door into the corridor.Curious, she turned to look at what all the ponies were running from. Her ears fell flat against her head, and her eyes widened in terror when she did. There was a large window against a wall on the far side of the area she was in, and through that window, she could see the Ascendency, scorched and heavily damaged, flying out of control right towards the part of the Heart Star she was currently in.As the rest of the ponies all ran for their lives, Celestia stoad there on the spot she was in, frozen in utter shock."...Oh, it's just as my fortune cookie predicted," she whimpered to herself, just as her horn began to glow with golden yellow light.....................On the bridge of the Defiant, they all watched as the Ascendency crashed into the side of the Heart Star, smashing right through the giant, heart shaped space station's outer hull, sending tons of debris hurtling out into space.They all let out a big sigh of relief. It was over. They had not only survived. They had actually won.They all heard a mechanical whining drone in the room, and then saw the TARDIS materialize on the bridge with them. The door opened, and The Doctor, Gilda, and Lightning Dust all walked out.Both Gilda and Lightning Dust's eyes widened when they looked at the viewscreen, and saw the aft section of the Ascendency sticking out of a giant smoldering hole in the Heart Star."Whoa! I guess I joined the right side in the end!" Lightning Dust said to Gilda with a grin.The Doctor glanced around at their house ship, a look of astonishment on his face. "Blimey! So you lot made a space ship out of a house?" he said to all of them."Impressed?" asked Trixie, she and everyone else all holding their heads up proudly.The doctor looked at her like she was crazy. "Impressed?! It's a miracle this thing is still in one piece! What were you thinking going into space with this death trap?!"They all glared at the Doctor in irritation."So where is Prince Blueblood?" asked the Doctor, seemingly oblivious to their annoyance. "I don't see him anywhere?"Trixie flinched at that question."Yeah, where the heck is Blueblood?" asked Jet Set, him and everyone else remembering that their Prince friend had been missing since before the battle. "We just fought a whole battle, and didn't see him ONCE!""I swear," said Upper Crust angrily. "If I find out he was hiding in his room cowering this whole time, or something like that, I'm going to kill him!""Actually..." Trixie spoke up, scratching the back of her head with her hoof awkwardly. She decided she might as well tell them now. "...Blueblood took the escape pod to go into the plot hole."They all stared perplexedly at Trixie."I'm sorry, what?" said the Doctor after several seconds.Trixie continued. "Before the attack, Blueblood took the escape pod and flew off to go into the plot hole because he had a vision telling him there might be a way to stop the plot hole from destroying the universe inside it."Again, they all stared at Trixie."You're joking right?" asked Gilda.She shook her head, and they all gaped at Trixie in shock."So you're telling us Blueblood is inside that plot hole right now?" exclaimed Flam, pointing at the image on the viewscreen of the giant swirling vortex of in the distance in space.She nodded. "Yes... er,r well, Trixie hopes so. And she also hopes he's alive."Before anything could be said any further about that, Sunset Shimmer suddenly spoke up over everyone."Hey, everyone!?" Sunset shouted to them. She was still sitting at her computer station, staring at her screen. They all looked over at her, and she continued. "I'm detecting a dangerous build up of energy from within the Ascendency. "In a blink of an eye, the Doctor leaped over to her side and looked over her shoulder at the screen. "She's right. Their magic power core is going critical! It's gonna explode, and the blast will be big enough to take out both it, and the Heart Star with it." Then a grave expression appeared on his face. "And there's still life form readings onboard both of them."They all looked at each other, each of them considering the same question in their heads."Should we help them?" asked Hoops, shrugging his hooves into the air.Queen Entomala stuck up her nose. "I say let Celestia die!" she said coldly.The Doctor glared at the changeling angrily. "That's not my way!" he said to her. "Besides, there's more ponies over there then just Celestia!""It would be the right thing to do," said Flim, and his brother nodded in agreement beside him."Yeah, you're right," Trixie said, knowing it was true. At the moment, the idea of helping her enemies infuriated her, but she knew it would be wrong to not try to save all those ponies from dying. She sighed. "Darn it, why am I such a nice pony? Alright, lets go rescue-"Before Trixie could finish her sentence, the Ascendency suddenly exploded with a blinding light, the blast taking a huge chunk out of the Heart Star with it, sending smoldering debris and shrapnel hurtling off into space in all directions. The force of the Ascendency exploding caused a chain reaction of explosions all throughout the Heart Star. The massive hull of the heart shaped space station began to crack and split neatly in two as a series of explosions ran down the middle, exposing dozens of decks and debris into space, and making it resemble, ironically, a broken heart.Several seconds later, after a few more smaller explosions flashed from within the Heart Star, the giant space station blew apart in one final blinding explosion, which lit up the viewscreen with white light. When it cleared, there was nothing left of the Heart Star but a massive cloud of tiny, smoldering debris and shrapnel, whirling through space in all directions.They all just stared at the image of the field of debris on the viewscreen for a long moment, mortified. All those ponies... dead. Rarity, Shining Armor, Princess Celestia. They were all dead."Oh," Trixie said awkwardly, finally breaking the eerie silence. "Oh well. Nothing we can do for them now." She immediately felt a twinge of guilt inside her for not wanting to help them earlier.At least it was over now. All they needed to do now was either wait for Blueblood, presuming he was still alive, or try to get him back themselves and figure out what to do about the plot hole. Fortunately, they didn't have to hurry because they had plenty of time to do all that.Suddenly, Hoops spoke up, and pointed at the viewscreen with his hoof, fear and uncertainty in his voice. "Guys... something weird is going on with the plot hole!"