I didn’t feel like retyping the entire Canterlot Wedding so just imagine I did. Everything is the same except for two things:
Celestia is not in a cocoon
After the girls got captured byt the changelings, Celestia teleported Twilight to the room where she kept the radio Keyan gave her.
*a few days after Ch.10*
Keyan was currently leaning back in his desk chair, it seemed he was doing alot of that nowadays. Probably due to a lack of things to shoot at lately.
“Auraaaaaaa. I’m boorrreeeddd.” his distressed voice rang throughout his room.
The A.I did not deem a response necessary.
Keyan sighed and his arms dropped to his side. He was getting accustomed to one pony or another calling him at random times. to talk about one thing or another. For the past few days he hadn’t received one call. He wasn’t sure if he should be elated or worried.
“Dammit Aura say something!”
After a few seconds the A.I finally responded,
“Is another combat simulator in order sir?”
“ughhhhh. If I do another simulation I’m, going to shoot something Aura.”
“Isn’t that the point sir?”
Keyan glared at one of the cameras,
“Don’t you use your fancy logic on me Aura.”
Keyan could swear he heard the A.I sigh in disappointment
“So did the probes find a wormhole yet?”
“No sir”
“Could be worse” Keyan said with a shrug,
“The probes did however find some abnormal crystalline asteroid formations.”
Keyan sighed again,
“I don’t care Aura.”
“The formations are extraordinary sir.From the readings they’re nothing short of spectacular. It seems the “magic” present in this system has seeped into it. And---”
“Whoa whoa whoa Aura. What’s going on. I never heard you this excited before. Actually I never heard you excited before.”
The A.I was silent for more than a few minutes, causing the capsuleer a fair amount of worry.
“Sir, It appears my programming has been modified.”
“huh?” Keyan said with a raised eyebrow.
After a few seconds the A,I responded,
“Sir, it seems that the sleeper components in this ship have been interacting with the “magic” in this system. It is unclear what this entails, but being as my A.I core is constructed out of a Sleeper Drone Cerebral Core it may have altered my code.”
“In what way?”
“Unclear sir, I will have to analyze this further.”
“So do I have to worry about you throwing me out an airlock now?” Keyan said with a grin.
“No more that usual sir”
….
“That was a joke.”
…..
“Sir?”
…..
…..
…..
The awkwardness was broken when the ships alarm went off. Thankfully this jump started Keyan’s mind as he immediately jumped up and started walking to the bridge.
“What’s up Aura?”
“Twilight Sparkle has initiated an emergency sir.”
“Put her on speaker.”
A beep was immediately followed by Twilight’s voice,
“Keyan! You have to help! Canterlots being invaded!” Her voice was nothing short of hysterical.
Keyan sat down in his captains chair.
“Aura pull up the camera feeds. Now tell me whats going on Twilight.”
“Changelings! They tricked everypony and we need help!”
The camera feeds leapt into his vision. Keyan was shocked when he saw actual fighting occurring on the peaceful planet. Black insectoid equines were locked in battle with the golden armored Royal Guard.
“What do you need me to do Twilight?”
A banging sounded through the radio,
“They found me Keyan. Just do something please!”
A second crash thundered through. Keyan heard Twilight scream in terror as chattering sounds became louder and louder.
“TWILIGHT!” Keyan shouted helplessly as sounds of fighting escalated. Eventually a there was a great crash and everything fell silent. He heard more chattering and then the line went dark.
Keyan stood up,
“Prep my pod Aura. Lets show them why you don’t mess with a capsuleer’s friends.”
***
Tears slipped down Twilights face as she was roughly ponyhandled back to the throne room. She had managed to knock out a fair portion of the changelings sent after her but in the end there was to many.
She was being levitated by no less than 8 changelings, making it so she couldn’t even move. Another had Twilight’s horn in a rough grip, disrupting any attempt to cast a spell and a strong deterrent not to.
They burst through the throne room doors. Twilight looked up as she entered, seeing her friends being held off to the side. She couldn’t resist as she was shoveled off to join them.
She grunted as she was thrown to the ground next to them. Rainbow was immediately by her side as the others formed a protective circle,
“You okay Twi’?”
Twilight nodded slightly as Rainbow looked at her.
“Did you get a message to him?” She asked
“Yea, I was able to talk to him for a few seconds. I hope he comes.”
Rainbow patted Twilights cheek,
“Hes gonna come Twi’, he wouldn’t leave us hanging.”
Twilight managed a weak smile in return.
The two of them sat back up and looked at Chrysalis as one of their guards roughly jabbed them.
They sat up just in time to hear Chrysalis finish her “conversation” with Celestia.
Chrysalis held one of the Royal Guards in her hooves, her fangs dangerously closed to his neck.
“When you kill a pony, princess, they release enough love to feed a changeling for a year. Those last thoughts of family and loved ones are positively delicious.” Chrysalis said as she dragged her fangs across the guards neck. He did his best not to shake as his skin split, beads of blood flowing down his neck.
“But, you’re lucky your ponies feed us better alive than dead.” She finished as the tosses the soldier to the side. Twilight’s brow furrowed as one of the changelings next to Chrysalis looked… disappointed at that.
Celestia glared daggers at the changeling queen.
“You will be defeated Chrysalis.My little ponies will never bow to you.”
Suddenly a changeling’s hoof whipped out and struck Celestia across the cheek. Chrysalis immediately struck the changeling in turn.
“She is not to be harmed fool!” She thundered.
She turned back to Celestia,
“It seems your proteges escape attempt was for nothing! Why did you use your last shred of magic to teleport her right where we could capture her again?”
Celestia was silent.
“my queen” One of the changelings hissed. “She was talking to somepony through this.”
Keyan’s radio levitated in front of Chrysalis.
“What is that?” She asked Celestia.
Celestia maintained her silence.
Suddenly Keyan’s voice sounded through the radio,
“Whos this?”
Chrysalis backed up slightly in alarm before she regained her composure,
“I am Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings. Who are you?”
“So you’re the one invading Canterlot?”
Chrysalis laughed,
“I am the one controlling Canterlot fool.”
“Well, I hope you won’t mind losing a few windows then.”
As Keyan finished his statement a boom that put ten rainbooms to shame thundered through the sky. The reason why capsuleer’s don’t warp into a planets atmosphere unless necessary is that when the warp bubble around around the ship collapses it lets out a huge amount of sonic energy. In the vacuum of space this isn’t a huge problem, but it an atmosphere its an entirely different story.
A visible shock wave passed through through the city, shattering most, if not all, of the windows in Canterlot. The ponies felt it pass through them as it made its way through the castle, knocking more than a few things off shelves.
All the ponies, and changelings, jaws dropped in awe as they saw what appeared in the skies above Canterlot, no more than 500 meters above the city, even less than that for the castle. Its massive presence hung there, completely silent after its thunderous entrance.
“Thats me” Keyan said, chuckling as he saw the ponies expressions through his cameras. Everypony and Changeling in the city was in a similar state. When Keyan spoke again it seemed to emanate from the entire ship, not his radio.
“Now, “Chrysalis, Queen of the Changelings”, leave. If it were up to me you’d already be dead. But my friends next to you might not feel the same. ” It carried through the entire city.
Chrysalis’ mouth opened and closed a few times in shock.
“My Queen!” The changeling who struck Celestia said, “You can’t be considering surrendering!”
“No no, of course not.” Chrysalis muttered to it before turning back to the ship, “And what if I don’t?”
A mechanical whirring sound pierced the air. The ponies jaws dropped farther as she saw Keyan’s massive armament emerge from the ship. The threat was clear.
Chrysalis bit her lip,
“I...I..I” She mumbled out.
“My Queen, I do this for the good of the hive.” The Changeling next to her said as its horn lit up.
Chrysalis wasn’t able to react in time as a green ball hit her. She collapsed to the ground, her eyes opened wide in shock as tears began to spill from them.
“What did you do!?” Twilight shouted.
A second ball of light hit Twilight sending her crashing to the ground, her limbs were twitching as green electricity danced across her.
“I severed her connection to the hive. We have come to far to give up now!” The changeling shouted in its raspy voice.
He turned to the mass of Changelings surrounding the castle,
“What are you waiting for! Destroy that thing!”
In unison the changeling swam burst into motion. A veritable wall of green balls shot at Keyan’s ship. Twilight and the others bit their lips in worry for their friend. Thankfully, they didn’t have to as the projectiles hit the sphere of Keyan;s shield a fair distance away. A blue wave emanated from every strike but the shield gave no signs of collapsing.
The changelings swarmed around the ship, launching volley after volley but all had no effect.
“I’m sorry Twilight, I tried to do this peacefully.”
Twilight managed a weak smile, she knew what was going to happen next,
“Its okay Key. We understand.”
*****
“Alright Aura, lock targets. Order targets by number, lets not have any civilian casualties.”
Keyan’s gun lit up as they aligned to their targets. Great hunks of lead, capable of tearing armored hulls apart, ripped into the changelings around the city. Wherever there was a changeling in the city alone it soon found itself the proud recipient of a hunk of hot metal to the face.
Keyan couldn’t use the higher caliber autocannons for fear of collateral damage. But it was essentially open season for the smaller ones. Every now and then Keyan would take manual control of a turret, streams of masterfully aimed lead ripping changelings apart.
The changelings began to wise up, having a civilian or two in the middle of a group prohibited Keyan from taking an easy shot.Thankfully they didn't understand the marvels of quantum mechanics as it only took a few more moments for Aura to calculate the trajectory to prevent the loss of civilian life.
Keyan felt Aura adjust the aim of a gun my millimeters so the spread of its impact completely missed a pony by inches. Leaving him with slight scrapes while a few of his guards were eviscerated not a step away from him.
“Launch drones Aura, all of them. Have them clear the skies around me.”
“Very well sir”
25 Hobgoblin light combat drones immediately launched from Keyan’s drone bay. Armed with 2 12.7mm miniguns they are more than capable of shredding frigates with ease.
They broke off in pursuit of the flying changelings. They’re guns lighting up as soon as they were lined up.
Dozens of Changelings began raining from the sky, in some form of dismemberment or another. But even with the vast amount of carnage the drones were reaping on the changelings 2 were replacing everyone that was killed.
Keyan watched as a swarm of Changelings pursued one of his drones. A stream of magic from them followed the drone, spelling out certain death if it managed to hit. 2 drones quickly came in perpendicular to the others flight path, expertly timed as the pursuing changelings flew in front of it.
A flood of bullets leapt from the drones, impacting the changelings with dead-on precision. Entire Changelings were vaporized in the air. WIth nothing but clouds of blood and gore to signify their death. Others were sent plummeting to the ground, unable to fly with missing wings. They impacted the ground below with a splat, spreading changeling muck on the streets below.
Keyan suddenly felt a drone’s connection die. He shifted his focus over in time to see it impact a house. The combined force of the impact, and resultant explosion, sent house collapsing to the ground. Hopefully the ponies inside had fled earlier.
“Aura, if you can have the drones crash away from the city, or at least into Changelings.”
“If possible sir”
Keyan’s focus was suddenly stolen when he saw a green flame envelope a changeling. After a flash of light the flames disappeared, leaving a normal pony in its place.
After making it a little more dead he said,
“Aura, these things can camouflage themselves. You have to find a way around it.”
“It appears that they don’t as much emit infrared light as a pony sir.”
“Good, factor that into your calculations.”
Keyan’s focus shifted again to a legion of city guards advancing up the road to the castle. Their path was blocked by ranks upon ranks of changelings. They’re must have been thousands standing there. A bright shimmering shield surrounded them, shots from Keyan’s guns impacted it. The shield flared brightly but still held.
Keyan smiled,
“Aura, do that speaker thing again I have to ask Twilight something.”
“Very well sir”
“Twilight? does the road to the castle have any significant historical value?”
A camera focused on Twilight,
“Other than being there since the founding of Canterlot? No not really.”
“Good”
*****
Twilight looked at the changeling shield. Thousands of changelings were maintaining it, even Celestia would have a hard time breaking it.
“What are you going to do Key?” Rainbow asked.
“I’m gonna use my 425s, should take care of that shield no problem.”
The group watched as Keyan’s main weapons emerged from his ship. All breaths were being held as the guns aligned with the horde of Changelings.
Now, the world was not silent by any means at this moment. The cries of the injured mixed with the thunder of smaller autocannons. It created a horrific orchestrated symphony of death in the air. But when these guns fired, they could hear it.
Rhythmic booms sounded from the cannons as they opened fire. The shells impacted the shield, the solid hunks of metal exploding into thousands of bits of shrapnel on contact. The second volley caused cracks to appear on the shield. The third made it collapse. The three volleys happened in half a second.
Sadly for the changelings protected by the shield, the sudden collapse allowed the shrapnel through. Like a rain of knives, that were travelling at hundreds of feet per second coincidentally, they cut into the changeling ranks.
The changelings carapaces were capable of stopping a spear thrust but provided no protection against the hail of metal. The shrapnel impacted the changeling bodies, passing through to the other side with little resistance, dragging bits of entrails and organs behind them.
Then the intact shells hit.
They didn’t even have to be aimed really.
Great hunks of earth were torn from the ground, bellowing out in clouds. Rocks and soil rained back down, burying the corpses.
Changelings were thrown of the points of impact, limbs and bodies being torn asunder.
The front few ranks of Changelings engaged with the Royal Guard quickly fell when all their support was ripped apart. Like a river the legion of guards poured towards the castle, the decimated changeling lines giving little resistance.
***
“NO NO NO NO!” The changeling that had zapped Chrysalis shouted. “THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING!”
All of a sudden Twilight felt a breeze and turned to find its source.
Cadence and Shining Armor were surrounded by a pink glow and were floating above the ground.
With a sudden burst of magic a pink sphere exploded from the two. Every changeling in the room was caught on it and sent hurling through the air. The lucky being sent crashing through windows, the unlucky into stone walls.
Chrysalis, who was still weeping on the floor, hardly reacted as she was thrown from the throne room into the sky.
****
Keyan didn’t know what the hell just happened but damn was he thankful. Whatever it was it picked up all the changelings and sent the hurling off into the distance. Fortunately for the ponies it picked up everything changeling, including the bodies and blood. Needless to say, Keyan felt bad for whoever lived where they landed.
He saw a unique figure amidst the monotony of the routed swarm. For a brief second he considered leaving Chrysalis to her fate, but to her credit she did try to stop this.
“Aura, get her in a tractor beam before she gets out of range”
****
The ponies in the throne room were in shock, except for Cadence and Shining Armor who were in a rather heated lip lock.
Cries of, “I’m sorry!” and “I love you so much!” could be heard from both of them. Twilight pointedly looked away from that.
All the ponies were jumping up and down in joy, thankfully they did not have to see the actual gore of the fighting or their attitude would be really different.
Celestia walked up to the radio that was left unattended on the ground.
“Keyan, can you hear me?” She said softly.
“Yea princess, loud and clear.”
“Equestria is in you debt Keyan.”
“Thats the second time now right?” Came the snarky reply.
Celestia continued undeterred,
“If there is anything I can do for you, do not hesitate to ask.”
There was a long pause on the other end.
“Keyan?” Celestia asked.
“Can I come to the wedding Princess? I thinks its time to meet you in person.”
“In Pony!” Pinkie Pie interrupted.
“That doesn’t even make sense Pinkie.” Came the exasperated reply.
Pinkie shrugged.
“Well you would have to ask the bride and groom Keyan.” Celestia said. She turned towards the couple in question, who were still locked in a heated lip and tongue battle.
Shining Armor managed a slight nod.
“Well, that that's a yes then. I look forward to meeting you Keyan”
“As do I Princess. I’ll be there for the wedding”
The radio beeped.
Celestia walked to a shattered window and looked down on the city below. Wisps of smoke wavered up into the sky in a few places. A fair number of houses were destroyed, and craters of Keyan’s guns littered the streets.
The damage would take some time to repair, but it could have been worse.
“Princess?” Twilight said trotting up to her side. Her face opened wide as she saw the city below.
“Do not worry Twilight. The damage could have been worse, believe me. You didn't see Canterlot after the Griffin Wars. This will be fixed in time.”
The two of them turned back to the others and Celestia said,
“Lets fix what we can now, and in a few days we'll try the wedding again."
The ponies nodded.
.
Did he capture Chrysalis after all that attack?
Nice action in this chapter, needs to be edited a little closer though.
I laughed at Aura's bit and I suppose the explanation for snarkieness works pretty well.
I had just a few questions...
Can ships from Eve even fly in an atmosphere?
And 25 drones? Key's drone skill must be through the roof.
425 and 125 mm death raining from the sky, hmm, reminds me of a hot summer day in Russia
3588973
ehh 25 drones is alot cooler than 5. And going from one the DUST 514 trailers there is a Megathron in a planets atmosphere so I assume a Loki can. if neither of those explanations work for you call it creative licence
3588977
lol, remind me not to go to Russia during the summer then.
Hell yeah! That's how we do it in New Eden!
Oh man. As epic as I hoped! Wonder how much damage 1200mm Siege Cannons woulda done... Also, gonna msg my EVE char to ya.
3589006 a 1200mm cannon? would there be anything left of Canterlot?
3589006
sheesh. then you have to imagine 1400? one volley would blow Canterlot clear off its mountain.
Well it was enough badass for me
3589013 ...maybe later then? Cause nothing says love, like a bus sized round tot he face...or city. w/e
Edit: Ment to say 1400mm in the last comment, oops.
3589087
takes "orbital friendship cannon" to a whole new level.
3589084
thanks man! glad to know I can write action decently
3589013
More like the wake would just push canter lot away.
3589115
Yea I must have read about a thousand and one re-tellings of it. I was like screw that noise, i'd rather get on with the plot.
Pure awesomeness! Keep it up!
Keyan should drop-in from 2k feet up in a Caldari Assault suit, arriving in a flaming ball.
3588973 He must be going with the pre-nerfed drone skill
3588973
Strangely, it's run across EVE continuity so we can't even trust canon material much.
Originally, the common hull material you mine for, Tritanium, is said to react explosively with common breathable atmosphere. Unless that stuff is restricted to a ship's outer skin, that original idea means none of the EVE ships should be surviving just with having an atmosphere for the small less than a skeleton crew on board, and yes, even Pod-piloted ships have crews. We'll assume Keyan's T3 (sleeper tech, not your normal 4 empires or pirate factions) ship has no crew, as being a ship made of sleeper tech, surely they must have gotten enough tech that the ship is run by one single person, and a snarky AI. Other ships, you got a crew onboard, though as a capsuleer, we don't really give a fuck if they don't make it off the ship. Just pay less than a single ISK for damages and their families will NOT be contacted.
Now, in the DUST trailer, we do see EVE ships in atmo along side, what we can assume, are atmo-ONLY grade ships. The only restriction then is purely by larger ships. At a certain point, your really big ships are just too massive to go in atmo without causing REAAALLLY BAAAD damage. A titan is the worst offender, the Erebus, for example, is the size of Manhatten,NY,NY,USA, not counting sheer height. farm3.staticflickr.com/2603/3866285507_c6953cd020_b.jpg
An arbitrary line could be capital vs subcapital. So don't park a Charon filled with PLEX too close or you'll create a new crater.
A shuttle, being half the size of a Boeing jumbo jet or less, would be fine, unless the thing was made of degraded neutrons from a neutron star or something. A frigate would be fine as well.
Now, here's the sad part. Unfortunately, EVE ships, sans a few, are pretty terrible in the aerodynamics department. There's no air in space, rather it seems to be, in the game anyway, made of motor oil. They could enter atmo but trying to stay in tact and not plummet would be the hard part. Maybe anti-grav or repulsors, or some tech that needs no lift or thrust system and involve aerodynamics might be in use for Keyan's Loki.
A Rifter is actually viable in maybe flying around but I wouldn't push it.
I Called It!
3589696
wow that took a while to read through. And I don't think if someone parks a battleship above a battlefield for some artillery or something they expect it to really go anywhere, And i'm sure that the empires have some form repulsor/antigrav thing so aerodynamics I don't really see being a problem.
3588949
sry missed your comment before. Yea he did, explained either in either the next or next next chapter, haven't figured it out yet.
3589700
that you did
Very good chapter. I wish I could give more up votes but sadly I can't.
3589757
Yes, I was trying to think about flying the titan or other supercapitals around. Those big massive things would be giant ass flying boats under the steerage of a good pilot. Worse, they fall to the ground because a fresh Goon is flying it at bare minimum skills :P. Now having them parked above just raining apocalyptic hellfire, that's easy.
Now I want to park my Navy Apocalpyse and LAZOR Fillydelphia! :P
Now what would happen if an Erebus DD'd a city?
3589784
What city?
3589778
Thanks, but 106 upvotes is still amazing for me. thats 106 people that think my story is good, boggles my mind.
3589457
25 sounded cooler than 5 so I took some creative licence, And while a drop suit would be pretty cool, it wouldn't quite have the same effect.
3589778
Wow. Such blaste. Amazing. So podding. much Killmail.
Did Keyan get killmail for that stuff?
Hmm, despite not playing, I'd like a character cameo, because I'm weird like that, if you decide yes, I'll do something somethingish.
3589810
What would the total isk loss be?
3591089
check your mail
And oh no! another dislike at least comment why you dislike this so i can possibly fix it.
If your looking for an Industrialist Pilot than I suppose you can use my ALT, Lunamaria Haptism Set her up in a maxed out Retriever or Mackinaw and that will be fine.
3592465
iambrony.dget.cc/mlp/gif/anti-hate-shields.gif
3595958
I'll put your info down, ty.
3596075
Gotta save the link to that. Lol.
3596175
I do that a few times in this story and plan to do it more. Partially because it makes sense a lot of times, and secondly because sometimes it sounds more awesome. Whatever makes the story better.
mmmmm
3596448
sure, i'll be waiting.
Oh bummer, I just send you my own applicant.
Anyway, old Chrysalis is in for a massive anal probing, considering the reputation of aliens.
I just wanna know, if Sansha's Nation will make an appearance. For some reason, an incursion in Equestria sounds kinda interesting.
3598082
It was of the things I flirted with when I was making the rough outline of this story, but I decided against that. Although Sansha's nation will play a big part in the story later on
3596222 I intend to get enemy within, who's gonna argue with a massive mech suit with a minigun?
3598829
A guy with a bigger minigun? or a missile launcher?maybe a tank.?
3598838 The three other guys behind him with plasma cannons and rail guns say otherwise.
I'm actually glad someone finally did that.
Something tells me that lead is not used for the weapons capable of damaging hulls and shields resistant to anti-matter weapons.
Wait, before you said shrapnel came through the changelings. So are you saying one was frag or air-burst and the ones that came after were either explosive or solid? Shrapnel are those small ball-bearings flung around by frag grenades/air-burst/fragmentation shells, etc. Unless you meant debris.
3598838
A guy with a GUNDAM!
8448922
You are both right, and wrong. Minmatar weaponry (good old fashioned ballistics) uses lead more as a ranged anti armor ammunition charge, since it doesn't do EM damage (which shields are usually not as well equipped to handle), but does do kinetic damage. However, there are fusion, EMP, nuclear, and depleted uranium rounds that do some amount of EM damage and/or thermal damage that do more damage against New Eden shield technology, but this is magic were talking about. Magic which seems to be influenced by Sleeper tech (Sleepers are a branch of Jove) so if this shield is Omni resistant (no damage type does more damage than another), but it fell in three hits with medium lead charges, then their combined strength must be pretty shit.
New Eden tech is 27,000 years into the future, give or take, and the Equestrians (and all other magic wielding lifeforms) only relatively recently have gained access to a powerful and mysterious tech masquerading as magic. They know jack shit about fine tuning it against an unknown alien technology.
In other words, the tech is beyond grasping right now. Let's just sit back and let it be badass.