“Courage! Report to the bridge immediately! Repeat! Courage to the bridge”
I was woken up by Luna’s voice echoing through the ship. I looked at the time. I had only been asleep for four hours. My neck was still hurting and I was still really tired.
“Repeat! Courage to the bridge now!”
I got up and threw on my uniform and ran out the door to the bridge. Clearly Discord was making a move.

“I got here as soon as I could Princess. What is it?”
“Welcome back commander. Discord is making his move. He has launched asteroids from planet Ferlek’s asteroid belt. They are heading straight for the ship. Impact in ten minutes. Most of our weapons are still down; we’ll never be able to get them all”
“Can’t we just move out the way?”
“No. Firstly our engines are still down and secondly, if we move then the asteroids will crash straight into the planet; Killing thousands of ponies on the ground”
“I’ve seen this in almost every fucking sci-fi film or T.V series. It’s a clever strategy. Are fighters ready to launch?”
“Yes, why?” she asked in confusion.
“Well in the sci-fis the good guys would use fighters to take out the asteroids. We use missiles to brake them into smaller, less harmful chunks. The shields can handle tiny asteroids right? and anything that passes the ship will just burn up in the atmosphere”
“Alright. You best get down to the hanger then. We’re low on pilots at the moment”
“Alright!” I shouted as I ran out the room. “Have Rainbow join me at the hanger!!”

I ran through the hanger door, not hesitating to yell orders at the pilots.
“Alright! Wonder-bolts load up! We gotta go now!”
Rainbow and the Wonder-bolts all got in their fighters and prepared to launch. I did the same.
“Alright! Every-pony, Launch!”
We all took off and flew out the hanger. We took formation and faced the incoming asteroids. They were still a good six minutes out.
“Remember: We don’t have to get them all so don’t worry too much if you miss one. The Dark Moon still has a few gun batteries ready to take out any we miss” I informed.
“Rodger that” replied Spitfire.
“Alright. Fresh load of missiles. Remember to use your rockets wisely. Machine gun rounds wont do anything to these giant hunks of rock, nor will lasers. Target the biggest first and try to aim for large creators or ditches in the asteroids surface. The deeper we get the missile the more chunks it turns into. Once we pass through them we’ll turn back and make one more run; pick off any stragglers we may have left behind”
“Got it” Rainbow replied.

We approached the asteroids at high speed. We began to slow down and take aim.
“Alright, everyone pick your targets and fire”
“Got it” replied Rainbow.
“Taking aim. Ready on your mark” replied Spitfire.
“Mark!”
We all fired a rocket each, taking out the first few asteroids. They exploded into many smaller chunks, most the chunks actually changing direction away from the planet. We fired more rockets and continued to take out more and more asteroids.
“Well this is calm” stated Soarin cheerfully. “Beats nerve racking dog fights and cruiser assaults”
“Well enjoy it while it lasts. I dare say Discord will be the next thing to head our wa- Woah!”
I was nearly hit by a massive asteroid as I swung round it tightly.
“How did I miss that?” I asked myself. “I’m not use to using these controls”
“That’s right. Blame the ship” Taunted Spitfire.
“No! I’m serious! I don’t know the controls!”
“Sure...” said Spitfire sarcastically, followed by a chuckle.

We made it through the line of asteroids, still many remained heading towards Luna’s ship.
“Alright. Lets turn back around and pick up any stragglers”
We turned back and use up the last of our rockets on the asteroids.
“Courage! This is Luna!”
“Go ahead Princess. Looks like we’re in the clear. All large masses of asteroids have been eliminated”
“We have bigger problems! Hostile Transports are approaching the planet! We need you to intercept them before they make it to the planet’s atmosphere!”
“We’re on it Princess! Wonder-bolts, lets move”

We flew over towards the transports. The purple lights made them easy to spot when we got close. They had a few fighters with them flying in front as guards.
“So much for no fighters” I complained. “Alright, engage right away! Lets move!”
“Rapidfire! Fleetfoot! Take care of those Fighters! Me and Soarin will take out those Transports!” ordered Spitfire.
“Me and Rainbow will cover you!”
We all flew in firing our lasers. We unfortunately didn’t have any missiles left to make this quicker. That might have been Discord’s plan all along. The asteroids were most likely a distraction. We managed to take the enemy convoy by surprise and destroyed a few of them before they reacted. The last of the fighters broke away to engage us and the other four Wonder-bolts engaged them back. Me, Spitfire, Soarin an Rainbow flew straight past for the transports, firing our lasers at them. We managed to take some of them down and the enemy fighters were too distracted to protect them. We were getting uncomfortably close to the planet now.
“C’mon! Lets finish this now!” I commanded.
I was now tail-gating a transport, firing lasers at him. He was strafing side to side to dodge my incoming fire. I managed to hit it once but it didn’t do very much damage.
“C’mon. Almost got you bitch!”
I was really close behind him now to get good aim. I fired a laser shot right into his thruster and it exploded. I barrelled rolled right through the explosion, showing off the others.
“Woo! Yeah!” I cheered.
Soarin then flew up beside me. “Yeah! That’s how we do it Wonder-bolt style!!”
“Alright! Good job every-pony” Congratulated Spitfire. “Lets return to The Dark Moon”
“Well done out there” Luna said cheerfully. “You all did good. Landing lights are on and waiting for your return”

I was back on the ship now. Fluttershy was not happy that I went out without my suit. She wasn’t happy that I went out at all. After a small lecture from her, We all headed straight for the bridge to speak with Luna.
“What’s the situation Princess?” I asked.
“All primary systems are back online. However we have detected Discord’s approach on the sensors. He will be here in less than an hour”
“An hour?” I asked in confusion.
“He’s using his sub-light engines and not his Hyper-drives” she explained.
“Oh right... Anyway, what’s the plan then?”
“I don’t know yet” she replied. “But we need to deal with this before any-pony on the planet finds out about this”
“Find out about what?!?” yelled a loud and disappointed voice behind us. We all gasped as we turned to see Celestia standing in the door way. Every-pony got down on their knees and bowed to her.
“Princess Celestia!!” Twilight gasped in astonishment.
“Sister?!?” Luna Responded. “How... How... How did you get up here”
“What is all this Luna?!?” Demanded Celestia. “Technology? Weapons? A Space Ship? I demand to know what you are up too! because It looks like a plot of some kind”
“Sister... I... I... I can explain!”
Celestia was not happy at all with Luna. She approached Luna and stared down at her.
“You kept this from me?!? Why?!? Was it a plan to over throw me again?!? and Twilight, why are you here?”
Every-pony in the room was either scared or shocked. None of them spoke up. I stood up and walked up to Celestia.
“This isn’t what it looks like” I stated boldly.
“And who are you?” She said lifting an eye brow as I approached her.
“Courage. Courage Tyler”
“Well, this is surprising” she stated, not looking very surprised.
“Listen. Discord is on his way here with ships of his own. We need to stop him now before he reaches Equestria”
“Do you expect me to believe that? He’s a statue in the palace gardens” she argued, lifting her eye brow further.
“No! I don’t. I couldn’t care less what you think!”
Everyone gasped at my words.
“I’m here to save Equestria from the evil of Discord. If you want to stop me then go ahead and try. But I’m not going to go down without a fight. This is Equestria’s last line of defence and we can not afford to let it go down!” I argued aggressively. I was hoping she would respect my determination and strong heart and allow me and the crew to continue our work.
Everyone gasped again.
She looked at me for a few seconds, completely unchanged by my words. She then lowered her eye brow and spoke.
“If you're speaking the truth then I shall allow you to prove it”
“It is the truth Sister! Look a these readings on our sensors!”
Celestia approached the console and observed the screen.
“Six ships? One even has Discord’s head on it. This... This is not possible. His statue still stands in the gardens!” Celestia said in quiet shock.
“You see now Princess. He has already wiped out my planet and he is now on his way here to take his revenge on you. He used my planet and my people to build a huge feet. He was intending on taking your planet with a fleet of over three hundred ships. Luna and Trixie’s fleet brought it down to six”
“This is unbelievable. I’m sorry I doubted you Luna. But you really should have told me about this”
I interrupted them both, “Can we save this for later?!? Discord will be here soon and we need to get ready for his attack”
Boom! The ship was hit by something.
“What was that?!?” Luna asked in shock, looking to her crewman.
“Ma’am, it’s Discord’s fleet. He’s here already”
“So much for an hour” I thought out loud.
“Bring weapons online!” ordered Luna as she approached the main console.
Out the main window we could see all six of Discord’s ships approaching us, firing their main guns at our ship. Luna’s ship returned fire with it’s huge laser cannon and all it’s machine gun batteries. We were taking excessive hits from Discord’s ships.
“Ma’am! Shields are down fifty percent!”
“Re-route power from the Hyper-drive to the shield!”
“Rodger Ma’am. Re-routing power”
“Ma’am! Discord’s ship is braking away from the fleet! He’s going for the planet!”
We continued to take hits. The ship was lurching and jolting heavily as the heavy fire continue to bombard the shields of the ship.
“Shields are down! Twenty Percent!”
“Ma’am! Main gun is offline and four of their ships still remain”
“Get us out of here! Hide us on the other side of the planet! Now!!” Luna commanded.
The ship then turned away and flew, running from Discord’s fleet. We still took a lot more fire from behind us.
“Shields at five percent!”
“Re-route all power from weapons to the engines!”
After the crewman re-routed the power, the ship began to pick up considerable amounts of speed. We managed to get away and hide around the other side of the planet. Discord’s fleet didn’t seem to follow us.

“I want a damage report now!”
“I’m on it Ma’am!”
“What’s the status of those transports?”
Many of the consoles and conduits were still overloading. The ship had sustained heavy damage in the fight. Much of the crew were panicked and rushing around. Lots of shouting and beeping all over the bridge. One pony was putting out the fires with a fire extinguisher.
“Ma’am! I’m getting reports of invading forces in Canterlot! The royal guard are doing what they can to protect and evacuate the civilians but without proper weapons, they don’t stand a chance!”
“We have to do something!!” Twilight said in panic.
“What can we do sister?!?” asked Celestia.
“There’s nothing we can do! Our ship is too badly damaged. We cannot re-engage for some time”
“Girls, Suit up!” I ordered. I turned to my ear piece. “Blades! Major! Prep your gear and prepare the transports!”
“What are you doing?!?” Luna asked loudly.
“Some one's gotta get down there and protect those civilians! I’ll take a few teams and support those guards on the ground. We take the palace as an HQ! Once it’s secure, you send down all your troops and we retake the city block by block”
“It’s too dangerous!” she Argued.
“Luna! We have too! We can’t allow him to get a foot hold in Equestria!”
She stood there, paralysed for a few seconds. “Okay... Go!”
I nodded at her and ran out the room. As I did, she yelled back at me “...and Good Luck!”