The power and air both had been knocked out when the boarding pods hit, venting a good bit of the forward superstructure of the Daedalus. The bloody remains of the crew here were a testament to the violence of the act, most having been sucked out into space. But the lack of air, or gravity, did not seem to bother the feral Seraph that scrambled forward, light glowing just in front of their snapping maws. Behind them, loping along smoothly, were a phalanx of blue-armored Seraph, the plasma weapons in their hands glowing a dull purple; they scanned the darkness with enhanced eyes, only moving forward once the ferals had moved past.

Seraph arm-blades could not pierce the metal of the doors in their path, but their united strength slowly began to push it open; the blue Seraph shifted uneasily. No air vented from the corridor ahead- only darkness yawned ahead, a shadow even their eyes seemingly could not cut through. Several ferals skittered into the hallway ahead of the main group, yowling silently into their masks.

Interior cameras tracked the boarding parties, the dozens that began to enter the undamaged parts of the Daedalus’ bow- unmolested. Gunshots did not meet the silently snarling, scampering monsters, only the same, inky darkness. It frustrated the Ferals, who blindly hacked out; lasers flicked out to paint the walls, and burn away panels in showers of sparks that only briefly lit up the maze of hallways and rooms. More than a few Ferals fell silently as a kin’s blade or superheated particle beam cut them down, floating limply through the space, which only added to the confusion.

The intelligent Seraph broke away from the Feral group, seemingly being led towards more important subsystems- in this area, an important power conduit to the broadside torpedo and missile systems, housed in an armored capsule deep within the living area. Plasma shots weakened the door’s frame and electronics, and the enhanced strength of the Seraph began to wrench the weakened sliding doors to one side. Two of the Seraph, the smallest of the group, moved to slip inside- as the darkness was lit by an intense, neon-blue light.

Globules of blood sprayed out in the zero-gravity at high speed, followed close behind by the Seraph; gleaming blades of light were stabbed through their heads, from throat to out of the top of their skulls, and disappeared as they floated free. The same light engulfed the doors, slamming them aside as the other Seraph raised their weapons, plasma glowing ominously as they aimed.

A set of fangs gleamed in the darkness.

Magic and bullets met the Ferals as they entered the vast, multi-leveled Atrium in the heart of the Daedalus’, scrambling over each other in surprised panic at the ambush. Slit-eyed unicorns glowed brilliantly in the darkness, joined together in magical matrices as they enhanced and protected both human and pony. Eyes gleamed in the darkness, allowing the humans to see in the magical gloom- marines had taken firing positions far above the Seraph horde, small caliber weapons spraying down into the aliens. Batponies zipped nimbly through the maelstrom, protected by both armor and magic as they tore through the outer fringes of the horde, bladed wings and legs ripping out throats or disabling limbs. Several were hit by frantically fired particle beams, but few fell from the weak hits to their brother and sisters’ shields.

The horde, panicking, turned to race for the doorways built into the lower levels- and slamming into a line of broad, armored Earth Ponies. Sharp toothed and slit eyed, the dark armored stallions charged into the horde; their bulk and shielded bodies trampled Seraph underneath. More than a few of the Earth Ponies gripped onto Seraph necks with jagged, serrated teeth, tearing them out, while at the same time shoulder-checking the felinoid aliens back into the firing arcs of the humans and unicorns overhead. The defenders were outnumbered, but was the exact reason for the Atrium- a bottleneck before invaders could reach the deeper, more important parts of the carrier.

Heaving against the Earth Ponies below, the horde roared and snarled as one; several Seraph seemed to suddenly burst out of the crowd, bat-like wings unfurling to leap up and power towards the assailants above. Only to be met by the snarling, screeching batponies; the Seraph were larger, but found themselves matched in strength by the flying equines. Several batponies were carried down into the heaving tide of blades and teeth- they did not rise up again. Gunfire sprayed where they fell. For now, the defenders were holding.

“Well this is cathartic.”

The Seraph, his blue armor rent and leaking thick red blood, glared hatefully up at the Princess, panting breathlessly. A silver sword was buried in his chest, having pierced a lung; the wing attached to the weapon twitched slightly, and he coughed, blood spattering to the floor. Luna was smiling down at him, fangs coated red; she licked them clean, and tilted her head just slightly.

“Interesting. Why are you all so different from the others, I wonder…”

The alien allowed himself a strained laugh, blood dribbling from his wounded palette- a kick had destroyed his jaw, though it could be seen knitting slowly back together. The other Seraph had been cut apart, or entirely burned to ash; their weaponry had tested Luna’s personal shielding. She would have to add onto them in the future.

“Earned… this.”

The Seraph croaked out the response in passable Equestrian, blue eyes locked onto the surprised princess, “Armor. Blessing. Earned it.”

Luna was quiet, seemingly considering the words.

And she smiled.

“Yes, I suppose you have.”

The silver blade retracted swiftly, the wing folding back; and a silver-clad hoof stove in the Seraph’s head. Blood sprayed out in thick globules in the zero gravity, the body quickly going still. Luna growled quietly to herself, the slitted eyes staring down at the body before she turned away. It was time to end this.

“Tango One is breaking up!”

Lewis glanced up from watching the fighter squadrons in his screen, baring his teeth in a feral grin; one of the cruisers had started to vent plasma in a superheated cloud after a prolonged boring laser strike from both the Ceres’ Pride and Republica, and the strain had finally seemed to break its supports. Its plasma lances finally died out as the cruiser drifted into three glowing pieces, dead in space. The Daedalus was glad for it; both cruisers had focused their full might on the supercarrier, plasma lances spattering over the EM screens every few moments. Thankfully, the Martian made emitters were top of the line, able to withstand the blasts- barely. But with a boarding action ongoing, and power draining significantly…

At least they had scrambled the fighter wings in time. All ten flights, close to sixty fighters, had formed into a loose formation, letting the cloud of mass impactors from the weaponized asteroid pass through them. All of its weapons seemed to focused on them now, the clouds getting thicker and thicker. Which was good for Equus- but not so much for the fleet. EM shields were rippling from the impacts; a Europe, a Belter-manned called the Nautilus, shattered as three shells punched through its shields amidships, and tore the cruiser into chunks.

‘This is what we get for not modernizing,’ Lewis growled subvocally, ‘My cruiser line is getting demolished.’

At least the frigates were doing better; allowed to move, the remaining Albions had formed into tight wolfpack formations, running under the Seraph vessel in showers of heavy missiles and PD sprays- some managed to punch through the shields to rip into the ventral hull, but it wasn’t doing the damage Lewis would have liked. He filed his ponderings away for a later time. His com lit up, listening in to the CAG and his squadron leaders.

“We’re in range, sir. Starting our run.”

“Fire when ready. Godspeed.”

“All craft… Fox Five.”

A silver-armored Seraph heaved his way out of the Seraph horde with a snarl, gripping one of the Earth Ponies by the neck, and promptly lift-throwing him into his compatriots. Wings beat from his armored back and lifted the alien into the air. A batpony leaped for him- and crumpled with a screech, wing rent by the lightning fast claws and falling limply into the line of his brothers.

Human gunfire met him as he landed, sparkling off his personal shield and ricocheting along the metallic flooring. A marine, too close, reached for his knife- and was clawed in the chest, armor parting like paper. Several of the partially power armored men and women leaped to grapple and try to pin the alien down- only to be flung away with little effort, cartwheeling to the ground or over the edge.

A glowing Seraph plasma weapon snapped into his hand, the purple superheated matter tearing through the humans firing back; a brutal firefight, smoke and dust billowing up to block the sight of both sides. Several humans began to run forward, toggling weapons to full auto- only to find themselves surrounded by the magic of the Night Guard unicorns, holding them back from the dust cloud. Which was no longer flinging plasma back at the defending marines and their allies.

A tall quadrupedal form walked through gloom, grunting as she shoved the limp, headless Seraph off her horn, banishing her gleaming mana-blades with a small flash of her horn. Princess Luna found the human commander and gave a short nod, grinning- for the sake of the soldiers.

“Inform the captain…”

“We took heavy casualties, sir, but the fleet is intact. My remaining ships are maintaining high orbit above Canterlot. The debris from the asteroid weapon were destroyed by Celestia’s ah… magic, from the surface. The remains of the two cruisers are under guard by the fleet- my teams are studying the technology. Any word on the portal?”

Twilight Sparkle was only partially paying attention to the dialogue between Rear Admiral Drew Lewis and the Grand Admiral, an older human male whose name Twilight hardly cared to know. Admiral Lewis was defending her world, and so… she cared. The alicorn’s lips were pursed together as she stared from the armored viewpoint at the swirling maelstrom that was the Portal. The blue-purple mass of magic and condensed space looked the same as it always had, but now… now there was danger. Danger that left her trapped from the majority of her people.

The Princess’ horn glowed a soft violet and she closed her eyes, stretching out her mind. Sensing power was not hard- she was surrounded by it, by other ponies and magical creatures, and the technological power of the starship they were on. It was finding the right source of power that was the true issue. If the portal looked like a maelstrom to the eye, it was a swirling, howling realm of chaos to her magical senses. Determining what energy was what would normally be impossible- but Twilight had long worked with chaos magic, and through the madness, she could just barely sense a more organized, if destructive power. The nuclear weapons.

A victory, but a hard fought one. The Princess of Magic found herself panting shakily, huffing faintly as she felt a hand on her shoulder. She grit her teeth.

‘If just sensing them took that kind of power…’

“Twilight?”

A pair of warm pony bodies pressed to either side of her, and Twilight’s vision was all but filled with warm orange and rainbows. The Captain of the Wonderbolts and her personal guard was looking to her worriedly; Rainbow Dash was nestled under Twilight’s tensed wing, tail wrapped around her back leg. Twilight couldn’t help but blush under the gaze, ducking her head and chuckling faintly.

“I’m alright, I’m fine,” she told them quietly, “Was just testing something.”

She could sense Victoria close by, and twitched a wing up to brush her hand, turning to meet the human’s gaze. Her nigh permanent presence with her herd had become almost normal in the past few months, and she was thankful for it. Hrm.

“Victoria… seems we’ll be here a little longer than we planned. Mind we, ah…”

The young soldier grinned, nodding faintly as she stood to attention, “It will be an honor to host you all, ma’am. I can find us all a place in Terran orbit.”

“As long as it’s close to Luna.”

Twilight grinned at Victoria’s surprised expression, nodding slightly, “I need to make use of their shipyards. Come, all of you.”

An idea was building in her mind, and she set aside the surprised inquiries of the Admiralty as they walked away. ...never again would she lack the ability to act when she was needed. Twilight was going to make absolutely sure of that.

Author's Notes:

And here ends the second main conflict series of chapters! At least for now- believe me, there will be more. The next chapter will be a time jump, and be a big ol' exposition dump. What do you all think so far? Please, let me know!