Chapter 32: The Capture

The stained glass windows behind Princess Celestia and Princess Luna exploded into a million pieces along with chunks of stone as the HMP Droid Gunship's missiles smashed into the side of the throne room.

Guardsponies burst through the door ready to defend their princesses from the attack, as the 3 Droid gunships hovered into the large room, and began to deploy droids from the racks on their bottom.

The droid gunships angled their chin turrets and began to effortlessly mow down the guards, as a shuttle also approached, opened its doors and began extending its boarding ramp as a series of thin black figures with glowing white eyes became visible.

The sound of blaster fire filled the room.

"Go Princesses! Take the prisoner! We'll hold them off!" One guard shouted

Celestia and Luna sprinted for the door levitating TF-1726's body with them.

The sound of blaster fire grew louder as the door to the throne room was flung open by a group of B1 and B2 Battle Droids

"Look! There's the target! Get him!" One shouted

Celestia turned around for a moment to fire a beam of magic, cutting down the droids before continuing to run.

The Mane 6 all stepped out of their room, along with Cadence who was across the hall.

Guards rushed past to defend to the castle.

"What's happening?" Cadance asked a guard

"The castle is under attack! The enemy has launched an aerial attack on the throne room!" The guard shouted before continuing on his way.

Cadance and the Mane 6 ran after them to help defend the castle, running into Celestia and Luna in the hall.

"Princess Celestia!" Twilight exclaimed "are you alright?"

Celestia nodded, moments before an explosion was heard down the hall and the bodies of several guards flew across the room.

Around the corner corner out of the dark came the thin silhouettes of the Commando Droid Squad, only becoming illuminated in the moonlight once they stepped towards the windows.

"Look out!" Twilight shouted and fired a magic blast at the droids, only for them to evade the attack entirely as if it was nothing to them.

The droids charged them, leaping off of the walls and performing various acrobatics as they fired their blasters in a fury.

The Princesses began blocking their shots with their own magic, when Luna looked to Cadence

"Taketh the machine! We must unravel its secrets!"

Cadance nodded and began to run the other direction carrying TF-1726's body with her magic, as Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie followed.

The Commando droids began to concentrate their fire on Celestia, knowing that she couldn't block from all angles at once while they moved.

Luna and Celestia began to combine their magic to generate a protective bubble around themselves and Twilight, as Twilight shot through the bubble at the Commando Droids, hitting several and destroying them in a single hit each.

Rainbow Dash darted into one of the Commando droids, sending it flying out a window where it would inevitably meet its demise at the ground far below, before bucking another into one of its fellow droids.

The droid shoved its broken comrade off its body, setting its blaster to full auto and aimed it at Dash's chest for a kill shot, before a rope lassoed around its wrist and yanked, wrenching the blaster from its grip right as it fired. 5 shots burned through Dash's left wing, and she fell to ground injured but alive, Applejack's actions saving her from being killed.

The droid looked over to see Applejack gripping the rope in her mouth, before tossing the blaster away. Looking for another weapon to use, the droid reached down, grabbed the body of its destroyed ally and threw it at her. This proved to be a fatal mistake as Applejack bucked the droid body back at it, and the droid was sent sliding down the hall from the impact.

The droid began to slowly get up before a blue aura appeared around its neck, and its head was suddenly torn from its body.

Rarity winked at Applejack

"Thanks for the help!" She said, continuing to fight the other droids.

There were now only 3 Commando Droids left, one being the captain of the squad who carried an E-5C Heavy Blaster. The droids back together against the shattered window, as Celestia, Luna and Twilight charged attacks to destroy them.

Right as they fired, the droids jumped through the air, backflipping out of the shattered window.

"Did they just… kill themselves?!" Rarity exclaimed

The sound of a HMP Droid gunship engines was heard and the ship hovered up, revealing that the droids had landed on top of it as it flew away.

"After those fiends!" Luna shouted, before the sound of a B1's high pitched voice echoed through the hall

"Hey! Ponies! Blast em'!" The droid said as it led to the remaining garrison of its droids through the castle. Evidently the throne room guards had failed to stop them.

The group became engaged in combat once more…

Cadance, Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy stepped out of the castles front doors, being escorted by the guards they had found the way. A circular shadow from overhead was suddenly cast down on them. They looked up just in time for Cadance to raise a magic shield to block the laser blasts from the approaching Droid Gunship, which was followed closely by a Sheathipede Class shuttle.

The gunship landed in front of them and 3 Commando Droids leapt off the top, who killed the 6 escorting Guards ponies in a quick time of 1.8 seconds thanks to the Captain's heavy blaster.

Fluttershy cowered behind Cadance, while Pinkie retrieved her Party Cannon from nowhere one more and set it to maximum setting. She fired it, and a tremendous amount of cake was launched at the gunship, splatting the barrel of it's chin turret. The turret made a sputtering noise, as if clogged by the cake, before the gunship considered its other option.

The gunship turned to left and fired its remaining barrage of rockets into the nearby castle tower, which collapsed and landed on Pinkie Pie, burying her in it's rubble.

This left Princess Cadance and Fluttershy alone against the 3 droids. The Droid Captain and his 2 fellow BX Commando Droids trained their blasters on Cadance.

"Surrender the droid." The captain demanded in its deep emotionless voice.

Cadence uttered one word to Fluttershy

"Run."

Fluttershy didn't need to be told twice, or even once for that matter as she lept into nearby bushes.

Cadencd charged her magic to create final magic barrier to cover Fluttershy's escape, before her sheild collapsed under the combined firepower of the Commando Droids.

Right as it popped she took flight, attempting to fly away; the Commando Droid Captain flipping a switch on its weapon.

Cadence's flight was cut short as a blue ringed pulse impacted her body, which was accompanied by a loud "WYZZZzzz" sound.

Cadance dropped to the ground, all of her senses in a haze as everything she could see faded to black…

Fluttershy watched from the bushes shaking in fear as the droids dragged her limp body and the captured droid onto their shuttle, before it took off.

There was silence for a few moments before a pink hoof suddenly burst from the pile of rubble, followed by the rest of Pinkie Pie's body. Pinke left down from the pile and shook herself, chunks of debris flying from her mane as she called out

"Fluttershy? Cadance? Is anypony there?"

Fluttershy slowly emerged from the bushes shaking in fear. Pinkie bounced over and enveloped her friend in a hug, the 2 ponies standing alone in the light of the moon.