Inevitable Destiny
The Moon drew closer to the west, Luna showed great distress, and she felt her sister's agony and pain. She gasped and groaned in sorrow quietly, she felt her eyes well up with tears. 'NO! I-I have to be strong for them!' Luna said under her breathe as she forced the Tears out of her eyes and quickly wiped them before Twilight or one of her friends saw it. 'Only one last Piece of the Elements of Harmony remains, Please Tia hold on a bit longer."
They appeared in the final place where the last Element of Harmony landed. Just outside of Mane Point, a Small neighborhood a 12 miles west of Canterlot.
"This is where High Teck was born wasn't he?" Pinkie Pie asked.
"I believe so sugar cube..." Applejack replied. "Quite quaint here... you wouldn't have expected a Techno wiz like HT would be born in a place like this." Applejack added.
Twilight's eyes scanned around for it, her eyes now well adapted to the darkness, hoping Luna's moon's light will help her. 'It has to be around here somewhere."
Luna closed her eyes and concentrated, her horn glowed and like a bloodhound it guided her to the Element's location. "There! In that building!"
The six ponies led by Princess Luna ran to a building, a sign on it said 'Mane Point Town Water Filtration & Irrigation Facility' they went inside and began looking unfortunately due to the darkness of the room and the roaring of the water it made it near impossible to avoid bumping into something or somepony.
"Ah it's so dark in here!" Rainbow Dash yelled over the loud noise of the water.
"Yeah I can't even see anything three inches from my muzzle!" Applejack yelled in agreement.
Twilight thought for a moment before coming up with an idea, her horn charged and shot out a flare of pure light from its tip the light reached out illuminating the building's interior allowing the Ponies to see.
"Excellent thinking, Twilight Sparkle!" Luna said.
Twilight mealy smiled in response before turning to Fluttershy, "Okay Fluttershy, Let's find your Element, We Don't Have Much Time!"
Fluttershy nodded and began looking with the others. The search took a few minutes before-
"I FOUND IT!" Pinkie said pointing down at the Element piece.
It layer wobbling at the edge of a ledge, below was a drainage pool with rushing water. Fluttershy flew over to it but the raging water scared her to the point she feared she would fall in.
"Come On Fluttershy! You can do it!" Pinkie Pie Cheered
"That's It Sugar Cube! You're Almost Got It!" Yelled Applejack.
The More her friends cheered her on the closer she got, however by the time she got an inch away from the Element of Kindness a crow flew from the window, Eying the piece for quite some time, until now it has decided to claim its prize. The Crow flew down Cawing and screeching at Fluttershy scaring her back before it grabbed and flew off with the Element of Kindness.
"AFTER THAT BIRD!" Rainbow Dash yelled as she rocketed out of the Water Filtration facility
the others followed suit, Rainbow Dash closing in on the Crow with her Lightning speed. Unfortunately for her, the Crow was as quick as he was clever! She did not even notice the Power Line Poll the crow was flying to.
The Crow Banked hard right while her eyes fallowed him her peripheral vision caught the wood of the Poll coming in fast, by the time she realized it however it was too late and all that is heard then was a loud 'SMACK!'
Twilight's eyes widened and her jaw dropped. "RAINBOW DASH! Are you okay!"
The Rainbow maned Pegasus didn't respond, just slowly slid down the poll and drop to the ground with a noticeable 'Plop'.
Luna walked up and waved her hoof at the Pegasus trying to see if she'll be okay. "Miss Dash, are you alright?"
Rainbow Dash sat up, her head spinning, her eyes barely able to keep track of anypony. Then all she uttered was "May All Your Dreams Be Bright!"
Luna cringed a bit before looking around and noticed somepony was missing.
"Where is your Pegasus friend Fluttershy?"
The girls all looked around, and saw neither hair nor feather of the Pegasus. They looked around for quite some time before they noticed the long pink tail of their lost friend. They then notice the convocation.
"Yes well you really shouldn't take things that aren't yours Mr. Crow. It's not very nice." Fluttershy explained to the crow before flying out of the tree and walks up to the others her Element of Kindness Necklace.
Twilight was about to ask before Luna stops her. Twilight looks around at all her friends, she can't help but smile. "We have them all now. We-"
"Wait!" Applejack interrupted. "Spacetwilight has your Element of Magic tiara. Without that the rest of the elements are useless"
"Whoa, she's right!" Rainbow Dash added. "And there's only one way you can get it back from her."
Luna sighed and nodded in agreement. "They are right Twilight Sparkle. There's no other way, you have to fight Spacetwilight."
Twilight's face turned from a smile to a horrified and sad expression. She never had to fight before, sure she charged Nightmare Moon but she teleported out of her Path before she ran her through though. "Oh I don't know I never had to fight anypony before, not like you or Princess Celestia can. I-I'm not a fighter! I can't-"
"Yes you can Twi!" Applejack said. "I'm sure you can kick that Space Mare's Flank till next fall of the Leaves!"
"YEAH!" Pinkie Cheered "And You won't be alone either!"
"You Got It!" Rainbow agreed.
"I'm not going to let some Marelien come along and hurt any of my friends!" Fluttershy nodded. "I'll help out as best as I can."
Rarity walked up to them and stomped her hoof. "Why we won't let no ruffian come along and lay waste to our land sitting down!" She said with a confident smile. "Why we Defeated Nightmare Moon and Discord and they threw everything they could dish out at us and we prevailed!"
Twilight was taken aback by her friend's agreement to help her fight her evil clone, though the more she thought back the more emotionally empowered she became.
"You're Right!" Twilight said in agreement. "We can't sit back and let Spacetwilight win. We owe it to everypony, Celestia, Luna too. And what about the other worlds Spacetwilight has in her sight? It is up to us to stop her once and for all!"
The six friends cheered and embraced in a group hug. Luna smiled, this gave her hope, hope that this nightmare will soon end, and that all will be back to normality. Twilight looked at Luna and smiled confidently.
"Let's do this! Princess Luna, Take us back to Canterlot!" Twilight said her friends all nodded.
Luna nodded and raised her wings, her horn glowed brightly, and she cast the Teleportation spell one last time before the six ponies were engulfed by the light from the Princess's horn and vanished. Leaving a smoking crater in the place they once stood.
Meanwhile at Canterlot Castle;
Spacetwilight grinned as she stalked the Princess lying on the ground. Her grin wide as her head stayed low, like a prowling predator sizing up her pray before she landed the final blow. Celestia lay on the ground. Her breathing shallow occasional coughing up more blood as each time she breathed in her broken ribs protested, cutting into deeper. 'Is this it?' the solar Princess thought, unable to speak from her exhaust. 'Is this how my end will come? I am eternal, a goddess, yet I die like-like this? Weak helpless?'
Spacetwilight laughed. "Ah, you finally see it now. You know your end has come." Her horn begins to glow, building up with much intensity, drawing the energy from everything around her. "Now... Prepare for the end... PREPARE TO DIE!" Spacetwilight lowered her horn pointing at the Princess's head, Celestia shut her eyes, and what could she do but to accept her end?
A loud Bang is heard, Celestia winced but she felt nothing, only the pain in her broken ribs. She heard another Bang, fallowed with the roar and hiss of an engine. She opened her eyes and looked up; hovering in the air over the edge of the castle's wall edge was High Teck's gunship. Celestia couldn't help but smile.
Spacetwilight gave out a Whinny of rage at the attacking gunship. She fired her electro-beam at the craft but missed each time as the gunship dodged the beam.
In the Cockpit, High Teck took aim at Spacetwilight and focused the crosshairs displayed on the screen.
"I Got A Welcome Gift For You, Spacetwilight. HERE ENGJOY!" High Teck yelled as he fired the gunship's barrage of rockets.
Spacetwilight tried desperately to dodge the rockets, but their speed and splash damaged caused her to Hesitate before getting hit by more of them. She cried out in agony from the force of the blast, being thrown back several miles and crashing into the side of the mountain the Castle was built on. Spacetwilight could only grunt and scream as she felt rock, stone, and other debris smash into her back as her body is smashed through the mountain, being buried by the new cave her body has made from the impact as rocks and boulders closed up the opening.
Celestia looked up as she saw the gunship land. And a few seconds later High Teck trots out of the cockpit door. He looks around for a brief moment before he sees Celestia lying on the ground.
"Oh Faust, Princess Celestia!" he yelled as he rushed to her. He nearly tripped and rolled when he passed her up. He got down to her eyelevel and began looking her over. "What have she done to you?"
Celestia coughed a couple of times. "Everything... *coughs* what of the... Ponies of Canterlot? Are they-"
"they're fine." High Teck interrupted as he pulled out a Medical First Aid Box from his saddle "But right now, we need to worry about you."
"Uh... You shouldn't have come here." Celestia said. "But I'm glad you did. Thank you."
High Teck smiled. "Just rest, you have some broken ribs, I need to get you to the gunship so I can treat you."
"No, No. S-Spacetwilight would just hunt us down." Celestia Protested.
High Teck sighed but shook his head. "I'm sorry Princess, but I can't just leave you here. I can't leave you to die."
Celestia smiled as she tried to get up wincing and yelling from the pain. "Then... help me. I... AH! Have to at least cast a healing spell. I have to give Twilight and her friends more time."
High Teck sighs and nods he helped the Princess up and walked her to the gunship, they hear the faint demonic Neigh of Spacetwilight as the rubble from the rock slide begins to move slightly.
"We don't have much time." High Teck says in a whisper.
Moments later, High Teck lays Princess Celestia down on the medical stretcher.
"Alright, now, what do we need to do?" High Teck asked, Machines he knows, Medical stuff he knows, but Magic and spells he knew nothing about. Never could understand it even while his mother was a unicorn.
Celestia shook her head as her horn began to glow. "I can handle this, don't worry."
High Teck could only nod in response. He looked over to the rockslide as it was starting to move more. He looked down to his hooves then back at Celestia, shaking his head before stomping his hoof the floor paneling, which under it had a button that he just tripped. The wall next to him pulled back two feet before opening like a slide door, revealing a vast armory.
Celestia saw this as the healing spell began to take effect, her ribs starting to heal back and occasional pops and cracks can be heard. "What are you doing?"
High Teck trotted to the weapons on display, he gave out a labored sigh and shook his head before picking up a weapon resembling that of a 12 gauge shotgun rifle. Though the handle modified to accommodate that of a hoof instead of a hand. Celestia could only watch as he grabbed the rifle and began to quietly load it with ammunition.
"High Teck?" She asked again.
The Only response was heard was the loud cocking of the shotgun in High Teck's hooves. 'Click Chick!'
Celestia blinked once and laid back. "I see... Its true then I guess, what they say about a Pony's Destiny. A Descendent of an ancient Warrior group the Praetorian Spec Ops Soldiers, the Folly of Luna and I." the injured Alicorn said on the stretcher. "As masters of our own fate, we often find we in fact have no choice."
High Teck Reared up on his hind legs and gave out a snort. "And as it is, I have no choice either, I am a Praetorian, and I am a soldier. And now, it is time I did my duty. I am a warrior, Let the Battle be joined."
Celestia looked at High Teck, she was unsure if he was joking or actually being serious. It was until she saw the determination in his face, it was no doubt he was as serious as a heart attack. Celestia slowly shook her head. She was about to object to this but for some reason her mouth wouldn't do as it was being told. She just stared at the Stallion's eyes. They had the fire that only one other she knew had. She couldn't help but smile the smile turned into a worried frown as she watched High Teck walk out of the airship through the back loading ramp. He looked back at her and gave her a 'trust me' smile. A smile that disappeared as the ramp came back up and blocked Celestia's view of him. She closed her eyes and laid her head back. She felt the spell healing her well, but now it was not her body that pained her, it was the thought that there will indeed be a life lost this day.
High Teck stood in front of the pile of rubble. Watching it as it stirred and crumbled waiting for Spacetwilight to lung out at him.
(To Be Continued)