//------------------------------// // Parade // Story: Object XP-84c // by Scourge the yellow cat //------------------------------// Dimension 'Evil' Solar Castle, Cantertrot, Solar Equestrian Empire The Solar Empress looked around her bedroom and snorted flames from her nostrils. The room was a complete mess. Furniture was thrown askew all over. Why was the solar tyrant's private chambers like this? She felt something was a bit...off today, that's why. Frustrated, she lit up her horn in a golden aura, levitating everything back to its original place with ruthless efficiency. Once everything was back in place, she stormed to the massive twin doors that let her leave her chambers. She creaked open one of the doors by a tiny bit, looking through the tiny opening to the hallway. There was no royal guardspony present. Daybreaker was relieved, or was relieved before anger took over. She was relieved that there was nopony was there to see the Solar Empress like this, but rageful that she remembered VERY CLEARLY that she had ordered two guardsponies to guard the entrance of her chambers. Silly? Yes. Obsolete? Of course. Sign of power? Duh. Daybreaker then noticed a source of light coming from the other side of the doors that flickered on and off. She carefully opened the door some more, allowing her to see more of the room. Eventually, she had completely opened the door, allowing her to see what the source of the light was. It was Rein, who had his hoof-cannon activated and was apparently inspecting it. She stared on in curiosity, as she got a good view down the barrel of the hoof-cannon. "I see you are up, mein führer." He said, without looking up at Daybreaker. She paused, reminding herself that Rein had more sensitive senses than an average pony. Daybreaker hesitated for a mere moment before she spoke up. "Rein, do you happen to know where the guardsponies that were stationed here are?" She demanded. "Oh ja, I do actually. I told zem to leave zeir posts." He replied casually. Daybreaker was furious. "YOU. DID. WHAT." She snarled in her R.C.V. as she lurked towards him. How dares he order her guardponies to leave. Who does he think he is?! He shall- "You gave me access, remember?" Rein said as he looked away from his hoof-cannon and shot an irritated look to her. Daybreaker instantly froze as she realized what happened last sleep-day (nighttime has been abolished). She had been so impressed with the changes he had brought for the Solar Empire that her last order before retiring to her chambers was to make him her Executioner. The Executioner does three things: To, well, execute ponies, to execute orders, and to be the personal henchpony to the Empress. "Fine, but then explain to me why. NOW." She demanded. Rein‘s eyes lit up quite literally as he jumped to his hooves, with his hoof-cannon retracting back into a leg. "Excellent! Just follow me, mein führer!" He said in joy as he trotted to a destination only he knew of. Why is he in a good mood? Is he plotting to overthrow me? Wondered Daybreaker as she cocked her head to the side while rushing to catch up with him. "Just what are you planning, Rein?" Questioned Daybreaker. Rein chuckled as he turned his head to face hers. "You’ll zee soon enough." He told her. Daybreaker at this point was getting fed up with his attitude with her. She was NOT some kind of filly that needed to be held by the hoof by its mother. Rein then told her, "Besides, today is Parade Day!" "Parade Day?" Daybreaker said in disgust. "Like with those bucking clowns and floats and balloons and shit?" Rein shook his head in disagreement. "Nien, nien. Not zat type of parade. Rather, a military parade." He replied. This intrigued her. She wanted to know what a military version of the stupid parades that the civilians adore looked like. Was it literally a civilian parade with soldiers? Or perhaps it was a military convoy running over a parade. She had to know. "What's a-" She began, before Rein cut her off. "No time to explain, as it is about to start in fifteen minutes. Ve have to get to your balcony now in order to not miss it." He interrupted as he picked up speed. Daybreaker felt her throat starting to warm up with a forming fireball, but she forced it down. No need to breath fire at him yet, She mentally reminded herself, Wait until he fails you, then roast him. "Ve’re here, girls." Rein called out as the two ponies reached the Balcony of the Sun, which was the name of the Solar Empress’ private balcony that overlooked the main street of the gleaming capital of the Solar Equestrian Empire: Canterlot. Daybreaker looked around to see that the Fearful Five were present on the balcony as well. Lil’ Miss Rarity, who had some kind of red clothing on, was pressed alongside Pinkamena with her head on Pinkamena’s shoulder. The thing was, Miss Rarity and Pinkamena had a crush on one another. Normally, homosexuals would’ve been burned to the steak, but the two had been so loyal to the Empress that she had let them keep both their lives and their relationship. Rainbow Slash and Slaughtershy were to the right of them, with a green duffel bag in between the two pegasi. The cyan pegasus that had the greyed rainbow hair was looking at a Bowie knife that she twirled with her forehooves as she used her wings to hover, as Slaughtershy looked on. The knife was a trophy taken from the so-called 'Great Daring Do', when the two clashed at the Battle of Neigh York City. The two Pegasi had danced a dogfight over the raging battle, up until Rainbow Slash managed to wrestle the knife from her opponent and slit the explorer's throat with it. Finally, there was Twivine Sparkle. She donned a pair of scientist goggles on her forehead, resting on her horn. She was using her magic to levitate a clipboard in front of her face, as well as a pencil. Daybreaker saw what looked to be a set of blueprints, but with her knowing absolutely nothing about blueprints, she had no idea what was on it. Twivine looked at the sheet, frowned, levitated her pencil to the sheet to erase and write something down, levitated the pencil away, and started the process over again. Rein stood there waiting for a response from the Fearful Five, instead, they continued on as if they hadn’t heard him. Daybreaker watched as he raised his left hoof to facehoof himself, before lowering it and trying again. "Ahem." He said. The Fearful Five lifted their heads in unison at him, then moved their eyes to Daybreaker, who was beside him. They quickly straightened themselves and puffed out their chests. All except Twivine, who was still going over the blueprints. "Twivine..." Muttered Rainbow Slash to the purple alicorn. "Hold on a minute..." She replied, half listening. Daybreaker wasn’t mad at her star pupil in the slightest, as she often gets so caught up with her work that she drones the outside world out. It was just then Daybreaker got an idea that made her grin. The Solar Empress snuck up on the unexpecting pony, being careful to not make a sound, leaned in right next to the unexpecting pony’s head, and whispered into Twivine’s ear. "What’s that your working on?" She whispered. Twivine jumped as she recognized her mentor was there. "Mentor, I’m so sorry! I was caught up and there were so much work and things! Please forgive me!" Twivine pleaded to her. Daybreaker was chuckling for the action she had committed. It was boring ruling an empire without anyone else to invade. "No need to apologize, Twivine." Daybreaker told the pony. "Besides, I am wondering what you are working on. What is it? A weapon? Some contraption? What?" "Ze parade, mein führer..." Reminded Rein. Daybreaker then remembered that the parade was going to start in several minutes. How many minutes has passed? One minute? Five? She turned to Rein. "Is it starting now?" She asked him. Rein closed his eyes for a few moments, then opened them up again. "Nien, not until six more minutes, so ve have some time." He responded. Daybreaker had so many questions to ask, but wasn't able to as he continued. "In ze meantime, I can tell you about ze roles I've given your loyal subjects." Daybreaker shot Böse with her unamused eyes. "I'll start right now so I von't be burned to a crisp." He said quickly. Rein then quickly trotted towards Lil' Miss Rarity and Pinkamena, turning around to face Daybreaker while pointing at the pink psychopathic pony. "In war, zere vill be enemy troops captured, ze question is vere do ve put zem? In a prisoner of war camp, of course!" "You can't be serious." Daybreaker told him. Perhaps she had chosen wrong. Perhaps this Böse pony was not what he has claimed who he was. Perhaps she shou- "Now hold on, let me finish." He interrupted her ONCE AGAIN. Daybreaker growled, she hated it when he, or anypony for that matter, interrupts her. If he keeps this up, he'll be a molten pool of melted pony. "Zis is not some ordinary summer camp vere you roast marshmallows over a campfire while you sleep in tents, oh no. It's more like a prison disguised as a site of happiness. "Vhere Pinkamena und Slaughtershy here has volunteered to control zese sites." He finished. Both Pinkamena and Slaughtershy had a massive smile of joy on their faces. Fine, let them waste their time operating these sites, not my problem. Daybreaker thought to herself. She had to admit that she did enjoy the idea of the sites she had just heard about. Then it was Lil' Miss Rarity's turn as Rein began to talk. "Every military, especially empires, need uniforms to distinguish its power and presence. Und to be honest, ze Solar Empire is lacking any." Flames emerged from Daybreaker's nostrils. "Which is why Miss Rarity here has agreed to make some." Rein quickly added. As if on cue, the white unicorn got up to show everypony what she was wearing. It was reminiscent of the drill sergeant attire that was worn by the former Captain Spitfire of the then-Wonderbolts. To simplify things, they both sided the rebels and are now both quite literally barbecue. Back to the present, the uniform Lil' Miss Rarity had on was solar red, had no tie, as well as no puffed collar. "So, I have decided to personally design the uniforms to be both majestic and intimidating, your radiance." Lil' Miss Rarity said as she turned around to let Daybreaker see the entirety of the uniform. The empress was very pleased with the design that the white unicorn came up with. When it came down to clothing, Lil' Miss Rarity did not let her down. "Power. Every civilization in ze entirety of history needs it." Rein continued on, ending the empress' internal rant about clothing. "Power?" She asked, before snarling at Rein. "I have plenty of that! Are you calling me weak?!" Rein‘s eyes widened from the threat. "Err...vat I meant vas more like a power source." He explained to her. Daybreaker mouthed a silent ahh. "I don't see why my empire needs a power source, but go on." She replied. Rein nodded as he went over to Rainbow Slash. "Moving on," he continued. "For a civilization to continue to be in absolute unrivaled control, it needs to be ahead of ze rest. Ze best vay to do that is by advancing its technology, but newer und better tech needs more power to use it. Und to be honest, even vith magical spells, your gamble vas very lucky to have been successful." "My military had an unrivaled victory, Scrap heap." She barked at him. Rein was unfazed. "I don't consider loosing seventy-five percent of your military an 'unrivaled victory', mein führer." He deadpanned. Daybreaker tried to snark a response to him, but found that she couldn't. Did she really lose that much of her military? She remembered that Equestria had a population of about four million ponies and that 3.7 million were conscripted. So if 3.7 million were conscripted, with a seventy-five percent casualty rate, then her total remaining military was... ...nine hundred and twenty-five thousand troops. Daybreaker froze as the shocking truth came to her. Was the Solar Empire that close to defeat? It was extremely lucky for the Empire that all conquered territories were stripped of anything of value, had its inhabitants eradicated, and the land scorched into uninhabitable wastelands. Very lucky indeed. Now that the Solar Empress thought about it, what did she accomplish, to be exact? Besides having literally all of the world's valuable resources and Equestria being the last nation left in the world, her empire has basically made the world a useless rock. "Mein Führer, are you still listening?" Daybreaker was brought back to reality when Rein asked her that question. She nodded, to imply that she was indeed still with them. Her response seemed to satisfy Rein, as he smirked. "Since you most likely already realize zat you have a veak military, I have told Twivine to make a certain veapon for me to show you." Rainbow Slash stopped hovering at that moment and began to open the duffel bag, with the sound of a zipper. Once it was opened, she reached in and grabbed something completely alien to Daybreaker. It looked like a wooden stick that was longer on one end, with metal pointing out of it in several directions. Rainbow Slash, holding on to the object, moved to Rein and gave it to him. "Danke, Rainbow Slash." Thanked Rein to the cyan pegasus, who nodded. He then turned to Daybreaker. "Zis is called a Gewher 98, a long-ranged veapon." He told her, motioning towards the object he was holding. "So like a crossbow, a bow and arrow, or ranged magic spells?" Asked Daybreaker. "Sorta." He acknowledged. "I'm actually surprised you know vat a crossbow is, let alone a bow and arrow since your army only has spears, swords, staffs, und knives." "So besides putting salt on my army's wounds, figuratively speaking, is that thing the best weapon your creators have made?" Daybreaker questioned him, gesturing towards the weapon in his hooves. Rein chuckled at her question. "Far from it," he told her. "Ze most efficient my creators, ze humans, made is probably ze Tsar Bomba, vich is for another time." He had to be making this shit up. Thought Daybreaker. Humans are a well-established myth. If they even existed in the first place, where are the ruins of their civilization? "Ok, so is what you're holding the most advanced weapon the 'humans' equipped their troops with?" Daybreaker asked him. She had decided to play dumb with the militaristic stallion for two reasons. One reason was that he was the only pony she saw that can change his arm into a pipe that shoots out beams of energy. The other, she liked him around. After all, he made all these changes to her empire that she personally enjoyed. Rein shook his head. "Nien. Ven ze Gewher 98 vas deployed in ze year 1898, it vas pretty much useless, even though it vas a decent veapon for thirty-seven years. Plus, society progressed a hundred und eleven ahead, making zis obsolete." He told her. "Then why didn't you make the most modern weapon?" Demanded Daybreaker. "Quite simply, your factories can't create the most modern weapon that humans made. Zeir machinery can't produce ze parts needed for it." Rein replied. "Zat veapon needs a type of technology your factories just don't have. Vat zey can make though is vat I like to consider 'early twentieth-century' class veapons. So I vent vith ze most advanced troop primary veapon." "I think I follow you..." Daybreaker hesitated. "Now, vere vas I?" Rein asked himself, trying to remember. "Something about power." Replied Rainbow Slash. "Ah, Ja! Danke again Rainbow." Thanked Rein to the Pegasus. "As I said earlier, powerful empires need more advanced technology to stay in control, und zat needs more power. So Rainbow Slash has chosen to be responsible for ze management of power." The pegasus straightened up at the mention of her new job. "Commander Slash, what about the Phoenix Corps? Asked Daybreaker to Rainbow Slash, using her rank. Rainbow Slash leads the dreaded Phoenix Corps, the Wonderbolts who sided with the Imperials during the Equestrian Civil War. They were known to dive at enemy forces by using the sun's light to blind their prey, a wildly successful strategy they purely mastered. The other reason they were feared was that when it came down to fighting, they were pure savages. They were so savage in their fighting that if any FEA soldier managed to survive an attack done by the Phoenix Corps (which was very rare), they would call the Phoenix Corps' savagery 'indescribable'. "I'll still lead them, your eternal grace!" Rainbow Slash answered to Daybreaker, saluting her. She then shouted out the motto of the Phoenix Corps: "Alis ad fornacem ignis de victoria!" To the fiery wings of victory! Typical Phoenix Corps pride. Daybreaker did a mental checklist on who Rein had talked about. First were Pinkamena and Slaughtershy, and they will jointly operate 'FUN' P.O.W. sites. Lil' Miss Rarity was next, with her uniform for the empire. And after she was Commander Rainbow Slash, with her managing power for whatever Rein wanted them for. So that only left only one other pony left: her own student, Twivine Sparkle. "Let me guess, you saved the best for last." Guessed Daybreaker. Rein‘s reply was to tilt his head slightly to the right and raised both of his shoulders. This confused Daybreaker until she realized that he was actually shrugging. Ponies shrug just like clapping, they do it in two different ways. One is to awkwardly stand on your hind legs, tilt your head to the left or right, and uncomfortably extend your forelegs to the side. And the other, much more popular version, is to just tilt your head to the left or right and raise both of your shoulders. "I guess." Rein told her, having already put the weapon-Daybreaker-already-forgot-what-it-was-called back in the duffel bag. He stopped shrugging and walked towards Twivine. "Und finally, Twivine," He told Daybreaker, "war is ze driving force of ingenuity, meaning zat if a nation is invaded by a much stronger one, but has plenty of resources, ze weaker nation can actually manage to repel ze invading nation if it is given enough time." "I'm pretty sure that isn't how that works." Said Daybreaker. "You're kinda right." Rein admitted. "It isn't how zat works, but I'm ignoring ze more complex issues, like moral, disasters, et cetra. But at ze core, vat I said vas true." Now that was pretty accurate. "So in order to keep your dominance over ze others, und to unlock newer technology, vat do you do?" Daybreaker hadn't had a clue. "Uh...Steal?" Guessed Daybreaker. Rein tilted his head again. "Zat's one option, but no." Böse responded. "Then what?" Asked the Solar Empress. Rein‘s yellow eyes gleamed. "Ze research und development of newer technologies." He answered. "It upgrades your empire's technology, making it stronger. It increases your empire's capabilities und abilities, making it harder to predict. It grows your empire's knowledge. It makes your empire better." "And I am leading the charge of R&D, my shining teacher!" Beamed Twivine. Of course. Thought Daybreaker. In typical Twivine fashion, of course, she would jump at the chance to lead researching and development. It just came to her about the blueprint she saw Twivine working on earlier. "So, if you're leading research and development, what is that you're working on?" She asked her student. "A dimension hopper!" Was Twivine's reply. Daybreaker was confused by the answer. A dimension hopper? You can't possibly 'hop' between dimensions, right? Also, Daybreaker was a firm believer of only one dimension: this one. "It is extremely hypothetical, mien Führer, but ze intention of ze machine is to pick two quarks und smash zem together to create a wormhole." Said Rein. Daybreaker didn't speak idiot, but she knew that he was talking crazy. "You are aware of the consequences in your machine idea fails, right?" She told him. "Ja, even I zink its crazy. But for some reason, a small part of me zinks it vould work." He admitted. Daybreaker really wanted to ask a flood of questions right now. He then closed his eyes for a moment, then opened them up again. "Any more questions vill have to vait, as ze parade vill starts in T-minus-one minute." Well, so much for that chance. Thought Daybreaker. As the group of ponies approached the railing of the balcony, Daybreaker only had one thought in mind, to see how good this parade was going to be. |¦|¦|¦| The composer for the Royal Band of the Sun was very nervous. Sweat was coming from his furrowed brow and was dripping down from his light gray fur down to his red band uniform. This had to be perfect, for he knew that the alternative was much too horrible to contemplate. He and his band were right underneath the Balcony of the Sun, as to be out of sight and to give the Solar Empress the impression of music coming from nowhere. Separating them and the lane that went adjacent to the balcony was a barrier. He personally had no idea why it was there, but he suspected that the pony that referred himself as 'Rein' was behind it. The suspicion made his blood boil, as he already resented the pony. A random stallion from nowhere suddenly becoming the Solar Empress' personal Executioner within a sleep-day?! There was reason enough to despise him. But what caused the composer to utterly hate him was the fact that Rein tracked them down and gave them a bunch of songs to play for this moment, and that was a few hours ago! So, besides rehearsing like crazy with no breaks, it was almost time to begin for real. As he looked around at the worried faces of the members of the band, he sent a silent prayer to Faust for aid and help. With a reluctant nod, the band began to prepare their instruments. The Tubists hoisted their Tubas up, the Trumpeters quickly went through their notes, the Trombonists tested their Trombones' arms. Once that was all done, they all looked up to the composer, waiting for him to give them the sign to start. With great hesitance, he got on the platform that he would give them cues to start or stop playing. Then, right before he started, in a voice only they could hear, he wished them one last sliver of hope. Under normal circumstances, it would have been considered very clique, but for this moment, they needed as much luck as possible. "Good luck, everypony." Whispered the composer to the band, and they then began to play what could very be their last audition. (Daybreaker, The Solar Empress by Jyc Row)