//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: Twilight's Tiberium // by Oversight //------------------------------// Before It was a day like any other; ponies enjoying Celestia’s risen sun and the beginning of a new day. Ponies swarming busy streets of Ponyville, each going to and fro to their destinations, as I idly watched them from a balcony of my castle. Myself, I was sipping green tea, already done with my morning routine. That day I was free from tiring royal duty as well, a full day off. All I wanted was peace and probably a good book to accompany my free time alone. “Princess, your tea.” A unicorn guard in beaten purple armor replaced empty mug on my table near the balcony with full one, before leaving me to my thoughts again. Ponyville has grown tremendously since the first day I settled to live here, housing five times more families than then; expanded with multistory settlements and various shops. And a graveyard for those heroes that no longer are with us… Five tombstones within them were very close to my heart: one for Rainbow Dash, one for Pinkie Pie, one for Fluttershy, one for Applejack, and one for Rarity. A tear ran down my cheek. I couldn’t ever forget them, it wasn’t healthy, but they were my first true best friends and ponies that helped me achieve who I was now: an alicorn princess of Friendship and Harmony named Twilight Sparkle. More tears escaped my eyes. “Is something wrong?” guard asked. “No, no, nothing.” I levitated a mug to sip some tea. “I can’t allow myself to ruin such a fine day getting miserable again.” I removed my eyes from graveyard to stare at the sky. The sun was smiling bright, accompanied with green meteorite that rapidly was enlarging as it approached. I released the mug off of my levitation grip, it shattering and spilling all the hot liquid on the table. “What is that?” guard asked, clearly staring at the same object I was. “I don’t know,” I answered idly. Then, after recovering from shock, I ordered the guard, “Assemble my royal guards and meet me outside with them.” “Yes princess.” He saluted and then dashed away. I was quick to follow, but we separated our ways in the next hallway. I was galloping towards dragon chambers to my number one assistant, Spike the Dragon. I unnecessarily slammed the door open to his chamber and screamed his name repeatedly. “Ugh, Twilight, what’s wrong?” he asked as he was yawning. The chamber room was filled with variety of gems, gold and jewelry like a makeshift bed for him to slumber lazy. His size was huge like any other full-grown dragon was. “Letter to princess Celestia. And Now!” “It’s been years since I did that,” he said yawning. “No time!” I was spinning my foreleg to indicate my desperation. He accelerated himself getting up. Then awkwardly stopped for a moment, struggling. “Spike, no time to-” I was interrupted by him spitting royal-sealed letter in ablaze of green fire. I levitated and unrolled the letter. “Dear princess Twilight Sparkle, it has come to our attention that nationwide threat is descending from outer space. We need you in Canterlot castle at once. Princess Celestia.” “Does that mean I can go back to sleep?” he asked. I shot daggers at him. “What?” And I left. ~~~ Once I was in my armor and my troops ready, I shoot into air flying to Canterlot. Trace of magenta and blue bloomed behind me. And ponies panicked below under the darkening land. I arrived. Usual royal greetings were absent; troops greeting royal arrivals were elsewhere. I landed heavily, panting for a bit from fast travel. Glancing behind me, my pegasus guards were still far behind and unicorns nowhere in sight. “They’re not fit to catch up,” I assured myself, then trotted inside. I forced open throne room door. “I’m here!” Princesses were startled for a moment upon my arrival, but then fixed their usual composure as I approached them. There were only three other princesses besides me, no guards or captains, military or strategy advisers. Celestia was first to speak, “Good, we can begin. I require all your powers to surpass this threat of annihilation.” “I’m ready.” I banged my armor chest plating with my hoof. “Celestia needs all our magic to destroy it. In the process, she’s going to sacrifice herself to save us all,” Cadance explained with sour and dim in her voice. “What? But why?!” “This meteorite is nothing like what we faced before. It’s five times the size of our moon,” Luna added. “But-” “And as such I take this responsibility upon myself. And now that you know what our plan is, we can begin,” Celestia said, determined. “No. There MUST be another way,” I refused, slamming my hoof into white ceramic tile flooring. “There is none,” Celestia stated, “no time for one. Luna will do nicely as our ruler. Cadence is valuable asset to us and crystal ponies. And you, Twilight, you’re young but you already accomplished so much more than any of us could during as long. Losing you would hurt every pony more than it would to lose either one of us.” “It’s not what I meant. Princess-” “In mere minutes this meteorite will engulf us into eternal void.” “No… but… There should… princess.” I stumbled searching for words. She had a point. “We shall begin.” Luna placed a hoof over my back. “Thou shall comply.” Regal blue alicorn with lighter regal blue sparkling mane princess Luna lowered her horn, pointing to her white alicorn sister, princess Celestia. Pink alicorn princess Cadence followed, mimicking Luna. And I, young lavender alicorn with blue mane, stripped pink and purple, hesitated before doing the same. Obedient. We surrounded Celestia, and she began draining our alicorn magic. Soon enough we were done. And Celestia exited through conveniently opened throne room window. We followed to look through the window, dizzy and weak from the drain. She looked like a tiny blur within the massive meteorite. And then clash. Waves of white and molten fire traveled its length, but doing little damage. Then, Celestia’s blur enlarged, sending more waves around the meteorite. Then again, more intensively and bigger, and again, and again, until I couldn’t keep my eyes on the scene. There was no sound, just tension and occasional gasps from the princesses. “She did it,” Luna said, convincing me to look up again. White glow was rapidly evaporating, and with it meteorite as well, only crumbles of its prior glory remained. Harmless Harmless. That was probably on every pony’s minds back then, harmless. ~~~ We sat in silence for a bit longer, starring at previously meteorite covered sky. My guards joined us at one point, but were asked to leave us alone. Luna and Cadence were sad. But I was wailing my heart out. Celestia was like mother to me; she accompanied me throughout most of my life and my development as pony and then princess. I’m thankful to her for all her support as much as I am to my best friends, and more. And now another pony close to me was gone. I couldn’t handle; I turned my wailing head from the window and trotted out of the throne room. Shouts of my name behind as I left did nothing to stop or slow me. “How could she abandon me?” I mumbled to myself. I was weak, and without magic. My troops waited just outside the room. “Home!” I shouted, before fainting. ~~~ Three years after Celestia’s disappearance Equestria under Luna’s rule was like it always was under Celestia’s. Ponies and other creatures took it lightly. Some even happy for a change – a permanent one – others sculptured memorials of her. I was grumpy and paranoid. My magic never returned, and my cutie mark also absent – the mark that indicates our special talents as ponies, mine was pink six-pointed star accompanied by five small white ones – so was Luna’s and Cadence’s, gone too. But they took it lightly while I wasn’t me anymore. I visited little royal summits. Most of my days were spent locked and alone with a book, lots of books, and tears without sleep. Other days I just slumbered in bed, exhausted from previous sleepless days. And royal duty be damned. Ponies began mocking me as ‘princess of emotions’. So be it, it fits me perfectly, without magic I was nothing but that. Then there was Tiberium. In Equestria it was first located in Saddle Arabia by the Timber River. But there also were other worldwide locations of it. Curious and adventurous researchers set expeditions to these locations. All, as much as I read, claimed different theories of its purposes. But all of them agreed that it’s highly toxic and that it has something to do with the remains of the meteorite that was threatening to annihilate our planet, before Celestia destroyed most of it. Theories were based on authors’ own biases, speculations and fantasies but little data and facts that I so desired. ~~~ Twilight’s Castle, Twilight’s bedroom An excerpt from a book ‘Tiberium Future’ by Kane Hooves: Its mysterious power drags me closer to it. It’s toxic to my body, but its essence; I hunger for more. […] And our knowledge is limited. But not enough knowledge can ever explain Tiberium. Its otherworldly mysteries are forever unknown to a puny being. But nobody should seek the truths alone. I invite you all to the future, a Tiberium future. Welcome to the Brotherhood of Nod. After finishing I closed the book, not feeling like I wanted to reread it the second time. There were other books about Tiberium, and so much more not related to it. But, somehow this one interested me the most out of all of them. I needed to meet this Kane Hooves. I stood up from my bed, sluggish from constant immobility. I stretched my muscles, dizziness surrounded me, but I kept my balance. “I need some exercise,” I said to nobody in particular. Echoes reminded me that I was alone in my room. Door creaking startled me. “Can I help?” guard asked. “Yes. Prepare my saddlebags with food and beverage for few days.” “A royal tour?” guard lifted his eyebrow. “No. I’m headed out to Saddle Arabia. Alone.” ~~~ Timber River, Saddle Arabia -- Three years after Celestia’s disappearance Desert. I never been here before, not that I recall I was; I had little free time, royal nonsense and such, and all of it was spent reading. To think about it, all I did at royal summits was ‘look important and waste time’. And my absence was little issue, as princess Luna rarely complained. Anyways, Kane lived in desert scorpion farm, and it probably provided some income in the past. But now business was abandoned; cages that used to contain scorpions were now mistreated with rust and empty. Wooden house itself was painted black with occasional ‘Tiberium’ in green or ‘Brotherhood of Nod’ in red written on it at random. I knocked. “I’m sorry, my brother,” came stallion’s voice from inside, “but today I must rest. We shall explore the inner secrets of Tiberium tomorrow.” “Can I come in?” I asked. There was short pause after that. Then, he opened the door a little bit to peek. “Ah, princess herself!” He opened the door the rest of the way. “Come on in, I can never refuse a princess’ visit.” He was young bald and bearded stallion. He had dark red coat and black spiky tail. His cutie mark was scorpion’s tail in black. His house was small; one main big room and few doors to bathroom, bedroom, kitchen and storage. And what a mess it was in. Stains of black, green and red all over, papers scattered everywhere. “Not royal accommodations, but if you wish to reside for a night, make yourself home,” he said with a grin. “Yeah, thanks. Humble. But no.” “You’re not here to join the Brotherhood?” He gestured me to sit on the chair near one of the paper-littered tables. “No.” I sat. He was quick to follow, sitting opposite of me. “But I’m interested in Tiberium, its technical use. Other sources I read are primitive and lack such data. I’m not saying that yours is any better, but it has that ‘spiritual touch’ to it. And it’s my best bet to know more about it. Besides, you claim to have found a specimen of it.” Devilish smile crept on his face. “Welcome to Brotherhood, sister.” ~~~ The next day I was led to a Tiberium Cave, as how Kane called it, with many other followers. I and every pony and few griffins wore black hooded capes with red strips here and there for support. The cave itself wasn’t really a cave; a crater from meteorite impact formed in what used to be a hill now overgrown with Tiberium. We stopped, and Kane exposed his head from within the hood. “Brothers, sisters, welcome to the beginning of our future,” he began his speech, but I didn’t listen. I was closest to stand near Tiberium, my first time seeing it, and feeling it. It was indeed magical as Kane claimed, but there was more to it; it felt familiar: the loving touch of a sister, the gentle kindness of a mentor, the lunar might of inner dreams, and heartbeat of own body, but malformed into this we now called Tiberium. I felt Cadence’s, Celestia’s, Luna’s and my own magic twisted within the green crystals. “So, this is what happened to it,” I mumbled to myself. Toxic? Probably, but I didn’t care. I kicked loose a spike of Tiberium. It was surprisingly fragile, comparable to candy crystals in durability. I placed it underneath the cape in my saddlebags. Once the speech ended and everyone scattered, Kane approached me. “Being the pony who read much about Tiberium, however much about it there is, to simply do what you did.” He pointed at my cape and saddlebags beneath it. “Wha?” “I assure I’m not blind. Nor can I stop you, given your status.” He circled twice around me. “Nor am I judging you, just curious.” “It’s for research.” I knew what he was referring to. “The rest of Brotherhood is at least sane.” He laughed mockingly. “Take it. Who knows, maybe your research will provide interesting results.” He glanced from me to the crater, then back to me. “I hope you’re not here to restrict this area from use?” “No, nothing like that. If you wish to treat it as shrine or something, I’m not here to forbid.” I removed my cape and placed it in my saddlebag. “Splendid. Say, may I request you sharing your findings on it?” “Sure,” I replied. My visit yielded no data of it that I wanted, but I had a specimen of Tiberium now for research, and it was worth the visit. ~~~ Five years after Celestia’s disappearance Tiberium: a resource, I discovered spending days on it in my lab the past two years. In its liquid form with correct synthetic treatment and magic support it could create various materials: iron, steel, gold, silver, and many other that we haven’t found names for yet. It also restored some of my magic; finally I was able to levitate sheets of paper and quills to document my research with ease. Little Tiberium spike from Timber River was now a lengthy ditch of Tiberium in Everfree Forest. I did shared findings with Kane Hooves on it and he was most pleased with it, even if he understood little of what I said. I would’ve shared it with the whole Equestria and lands beyond, but Kane suggested not to, something to do with ‘the unworthy’ and ‘ignorant’ or such people. I listened to him. However, I also shared my findings with Luna. She was less than pleased. “Two years?!” she barked. “And just now thou tell Us?!” She was puffing and swinging her forelegs uselessly as we sat near the table, adorned with delicacies and fine beverage. “But worst of it is sharing it with some mad pony’s cult of all things, not with ponies that matter or specialize in it!” “No pony specializes in it but me. All the other self-proclaimed specialists are wrong and claim imaginable things without any data to back it up,” I countered, sipping hot liquid from decorated cup. “And I told you now, the ‘ponies that matter.’” “Yes. And this cult claims just that!” “They supplied me with-” “And thou feel entitled to them?!” Luna smashed her hooves onto the table, sending various meals to shake, and leaned her head over it and closer to me. “Five years thou not visit, never at royal summits.” She gritted her teeth. “The Elites art tired of Our excuses of thy absence and deemed thee irrelevant. “We gave thou mind. A loss settled deep, but life continues. Thy obsession of this Tiberium concerns Us. We request ceasing thy research.” “What?!” I was shocked. “How can’t you understand? Tiberium can help our civilization grow. Its uses are endless and it can be reproduced. And we’re connected to it, us alicorns; it’s our magic we lost in it. And Tiberium restored some of my own.” I shook a cup with liquid in it with my levitation magic to prove my point, some of its liquid spilling on tablecloth. “Listen to reason.” Luna was almost nose to nose with me. “They poisoned thee.” I tried to say something, but Luna’s hoof was blocking my mouth. “Hunt down the activity of this ‘Brotherhood’. All places where Tiberium grows must be forbidden entrance by five square miles, and everyone found within that radius art to be guilty of breaking safety protocols.” She removed her nose from mine and her hoof from my mouth and sat down on her chair opposite of mine. “Since thou seem obsessed with Tiberium, thou shall find ways to destroy or gather and store it away from everybody. Policy Equestria clean of malevolent crystal.” “Ok.” I lowered my head. I wasn’t the one to question the supreme ruler of Equestria. Obedient. ~~~ Seven years after Celestia’s disappearance Harvester, Refinery, Silo was my answer. Harvester made from liquid Tiberium synthesized into steel and iron plating. Engine magically powered with toxic magic of solid Tiberium crystals and other gems. Magic shield spells, powered with Tiberium itself, held Tiberium firm inside and prevented it from spreading. Poly ceramic and rubber tracks provided steadier and safer access over uneven terrain. A driver was required to operate the vehicle, but we had plenty of volunteers. It had storage tank for storing Tiberium. Its collector had magic-altered heating system that melted Tiberium into liquid form. Then, the storage tank had a ruby in it to soak the liquid Tiberium, apparently rubies attract liquid Tiberium like magnets. A technological masterpiece, but it looked like moving metal box. Once full, Harvester unloaded Tiberium into Refinery – as well made from materials synthesized from Tiberium. Refinery itself was a replica of my laboratory, just on bigger scale. Tubes ran from Harvester’s storage tank into main Refinery’s furnace. Ruby in the middle, in the bottom of it, prevented Tiberium from leaking, and constant heating spell matrixes kept Tiberium from hardening and growing. And, with right magic, raw material synthesis was possible right from within the furnace itself. Then, excess liquid Tiberium was being stored in the silos. A ruby and regular heating kept Tiberium harmless and safe within. Two Refineries and four Harvesters were operating in Tiberium Cave crater. Now documented findings and sketches of my inventions were being reviewed by Kane Hooves, as we sat on the chairs near the table in his house. House itself was now cleaned, but exterior all the same. “Mhmm,” Kane mumbled to himself, for like the nth time now, as he was flipping pages of the material for the third time. “Mhmm.” “I know you’re upset you can’t use your shrine now.” I finally disturbed his inner mhmm’s. “Mhmm.” “But I couldn’t do a thing against princess’ will.” “Mhmm.” “And I’m not the one to oppose her; I’m not in control. Not as much.” “Mhmm.” He reached the last page of the document, and then flipped it to its cover; ‘Storing Tiberium’ was the title. I expected him to review it the fourth time, but he didn’t, instead throwing it on the table flat then catching my eyes with his own. “I don’t understand anything that’s written,” he began, “and I’m not upset about our shrine; I’m angry, and my brothers and sisters are as well.” He lowered his face onto the table. “But I don’t blame you.” Then back to me. “You’re the most involved in the Brotherhood.” He stood up from the chair. “But in time you’ll have to pick a side.” He picked up Storing Tiberium. “What do you mean?” “The ignorant and unworthy are interfering with Brotherhood’s vision.” He turned his back on me. “And you’re involved with the strings. And we can see eye to eye.” He moved closer to the door to leave his house. “Don’t expect finding me here ever again.” He opened the door, and then closed behind himself, leaving me confused and alone inside. ~~~ Eight years after Celestia’s disappearance Storing Tiberium was a success. Other nations adapted my inventions and followed my Tiberium vision. It wasn’t a permanent solution to erase it off the planet, as that was impossible, but nobody would do that if they could, it wouldn’t be smart; Tiberium was now used all around the globe, and mega-industrialization begun. With unlimited supplies cities and villages grew. No pony was homeless anymore. New small business arose, and old bigger ones grew even larger; with limitless and cheap resources only imagination was the limit. And the most fortunate people were the ones who owned most Tiberium Refinery stations. Tsar Terror Feathers of Griffons owned the most at that time, being closely associated with Equestria throughout grim history. He was gifted economic immunity to Tiberium harvesting technology as a compensation for Equestrians’ war crimes against the griffons in the past. Also, there were many Tiberium craters all over his homeland, and it was a perfect opportunity for griffons to clean their land and earn fortune as they did. There were also shady ones, or villains, that took interest in Tiberium and wanted to gain access to it. And they tried to do so the best way they could, by force. However, all their attempts were futile, as no one was stupid enough to not predict it. Cities and harvesting sites had enormous and durable fortification that held adamant against their attacks until I or other princesses or soldiers came to suppress the threat. However, we had a competitor: Kane’s Brotherhood of Nod. They offered upgraded versions of Harvesters and Refineries that gathered Tiberium more efficiently, and they took less percentage of royalties from the operations. Also, they created new ranged weaponry, called Rifles, and supplied such weapons to everyone who decided to follow their Tiberium beliefs, thus creating militia squads to protect their economic interests. They regularly held military courses to discipline their army, each course with its religious vibe to it. And like so, they pushed us out of the business, only Griffon lands and Prance refused Brotherhood’s offers and stayed with my design. But we gave it no mind; as princesses, we were wealthy enough to sustain ourselves. And it’s the truth of life; the weak fall and become irrelevant, the strong triumph and dominate the space. Luna claimed that that was a good thing, to finally ease my mind off Tiberium and let others adapt and develop around it naturally, virtues of friendship and harmony to guide them. But such virtues were ineffective on Tiberium hungry. And we were too ignorant to notice.