The Chronicles of a Lost Angel [Refined Edition]

by Nova Borealis

[20] Your Heart is in Another Castle

Planet Equus

Serena

Four days have past sense the fall of the Crystal Empire, many ponies are now homeless and are taking up temporary refuge in a camp site set up in Alpha Base. During these past few days I have been under the base deep inside the labs hooked up to the mainframe constructing schematics of a new weather control unit for the city, but I'll need the crystal heart to do further research on the matter. I'm in a large dark room surrounded by monitors holograms, I appear to have wiring connected to my wings hooked up to the mainframe.

"Necra, what are your thoughts on going on your first mission?" I ask her. Necra is sitting at her desk near by, she looks up from her desk monitor.

"A mission? What do you need?" asked Necra.

"The crystal heart generated a bubble of controlled weather around the city, I'm creating a schematic of a replacement castle that doubles as a weather control tower similar to how it was originally, I can't continue until I actually have the crystal heart here." I explain.

"Wouldn't getting it in the middle of an ice storm be easier for one of the sentinels?" suggested Necra.

"Yes, but I want you to retrieve it." I say to get a surprised expression.

"Changelings don't exactly have a great history with the leaders of that country." said Necra a bit worried that Cadence and Shinning Armor may get the wrong idea.

"If you want to earn the respect of ponies you should be the one to deliver the heart to me. I would advise consulting Cadence or Shining Armor first before you take one of the ships." I inform Necra. During these past few days Necra has been taught how to use her headset. She wears it at all times to keep her informed of mission details with the HUD as well as make it easier to interface with the lab. She's also been doing well in the flight simulators but she still has a 73% survival rate with driving a normal ship. I'll give her a waypoint to an easier to drive ship...the X Caliber should suit her needs, though she'll half to use her interface gloves to drive it. Necra wears black boots on her forelegs made of nanofibers and tipped with micro mass projectors powered by magic built to withstand the elements of nature as well as being resistant to an impact of over 300 MPH. These gloves should make it easier for Necra to use controls designed for more biologically developed life forms, though she is still learning how to use her activatable fingers.

"You got it boss." said Necra as she gives me a playful solute and walks out of the room. I might need to keep an eye on her, just in case.

Necra

I walk out of the control center to be met with the deepest depths of the Aperture Labs. I stand on the floor of the colossal cavern room, around me are no buildings, only that cubical rail system that fills the room, leaving the room mostly empty. Behind me is the gravity pillar, under that is the central control center as the gravity pillar appears to float above the building in a controlled fashion. I'm 30 miles below the ceiling of the labs so I'll need to hail a tram. I just let myself have a controlled fall all the way down here the first time. I hail a tram with my headset. A pill shaped capsule descends from the rail system the ground before me. The doors open and I get inside to take my seat on one of the plush chairs.

"Surface." I say simply as the tram doors close and the tram shoots straight up. Three minutes later the tram slows down to the office building. I leave the tram and make my way out of the labs to the surface. I walk out of the east watch tower to be met with many tents set up in Alpha Base surrounding the Sirus. I take the form of a brown pegasus pony mare to go unnoticed in crowd of refugees. The waypoint on my HUD indicates the locations of the X Caliber which is parked in the Sirus ship hanger ready for take off and the leaders of the Crystal Empire. Cadence and Shining Armor are at the base of the ship sitting in front of the open cargo bay with a few crates filled with medical supplies around them, most likely consulting their advisers about managing the population. About 24 minutes later I have them in my sights and proceed with my mission. I revert back to my original form getting a few gasps from the crowd around me as they back up in fear. I nervously smile as silence washes over the area.

"What do you want bug?" said Shining Armor with venom in his voice.

"Serena wants me to go to the Crystal Empire to retrieve the crystal heart." I say sheepishly. I get a shocked look from him.

"I'll die before I let you steal the heart!" yelled Shining, but before he could make a move on me Cadence stepped in.

"Why do you need the Heart?" she asked.

"W-We're working on an updated version of your castle so you can move back to your homes and make the ice melt. But we can't continue the research until we actually have the crystal heart with us so we can conduct tests." I say but to get no reply.

"Personally I think it would be a bad idea to leave such a powerful relic unguarded in the middle of an icy wasteland where anyone could steal it...and King Sombra might have a resurrection spell laying around somewhere...so no matter what you think it's still a good idea to bring it here regardless." I say, gaining more confidence as I go on. The royals before me ponder the thought for a moment.

"I think it's a good idea." said a yellow pony with an icon that resembles burst of sunlight for a cutie mark.

"You may have a point...who knows what could be out there." said Cadence in a worried tone.

"Ok, you can go, but I'M coming with you!" said Shining Armor.

"Fine, you can come, I'll have some one to talk to in the ship." I say as I walk past him into the cargo bay. Shining catches up with me.

"Woah woah woah, your taking the ship? Do you even know how to drive one of those things?" said Shining Armor a bit shocked that I would even know how to drive one.

"Oh you don't know how? How are you gonna get to the nearest galactic strip club then?" I toy with him.

"Yeah, REAL funny, just like that time your kind attacked Canterlot." said Shining, clearly mocking me due to the actions of a different queen.

"Says the inceptive perfect prince stereotype from fantasy land." I retort, Shining Armor stays silent as I clearly put him in his place. A few minutes later we make it to the hanger. The X Caliber is prepped and ready to fly.

"So your not taking the Sirus?" asked Shining Armor.

"Taking a Hybrid Class Starship to retrieve one relic no bigger then my head? Yeah, that's a great idea." I say coyly.

"OK OK, I see your point. But are you SURE you know how to drive this?" asked Shining Armor, I sense a spark of fear with in him.

"You scared?" I ask as I fly up to the windshield, causing it to disappear.

"No, It's just I think it may be too complex for somepony with no..." said Shining as he trailed off.

"Hands?" I say as I show my fore legs to him with my boots activated. Two hands made of hard light powered by my own magic and directly connected to my nerves to act as real hands are shown before him.

"Y-yeah...those...." he said, a bit jealous at my upgrade. I get into the cockpit and start the engines.

"Well? Come one then." I say after a few seconds of waiting. Shining Armor climes in with some difficulty, taking to slow I simply levitate him with my magic and carry him inside the ship behind me and set him down.

"Don't do that!" Shining protested.

"Please, you were taking to slow...think fast!" I say as I activate the windshield and launch the ship forward, sending Shining flying back into the cabin. He slowly gets up and walks back towards me with much anger in his eyes.

"Do that again, I'll break your neck." he said with clear disgust.

"And make us crash in Ponyville, killing a few hundred ponies? Yeah, good idea your highness." I remark.

"Just shut up and drive." said Shining, giving up making small talk.

"I'm not like Chrysalis you know..." I say a few minutes later to ease the tension as we fly by Canterlot. I sense the anger in Shining Amor dissipate, but clearly still there.

"Well you didn't ponynap Cadence...but if you plan on doing anything funny then I'll make you pay." said Shining, still reluctant to accept me as a friend.

"I'm dieing...starving of low love supply...and yet all I can get are small sparks of love from Serena...yet it is not enough to keep me alive for much longer...I could hardly cast that levitation spell. I would never do what that retched witch would do...I would never go to such extremes." I say to try and convince him I am not his enemy. Silence engulfs the ship until we make it to the Crystal Empire. The Crystal Empire's capital city lay covered with ice as the only source of light in the emits of the stormy night is the glow of the still active crystal heart. I get a few abnormalities on the scanner.

"What is it?" asked Shining.

"I'm detecting a few magical anomalies in the area, they don't seem to be emitting from the heart...I'm taking us down." I say as I land the ship and deactivate the windshield. I jump out as Shining fallows me. I take in my surroundings, the sky is dark with the shroud of night as the buildings around me seem to be in good condition, yet others are in ruins. The once beautiful crystal castle is in shambles as only its base remains untouched. About half the city is shattered by the fallen upper half of the castle. The crystal heart glows faintly in the center, waiting to be retrieved.

"Come on, we need to get the heart before what ever's here gets it first." I say as I run towards the heart, the closer I get to it the stronger I become...as if it's radiating love magic. Shining notices this as we get closer, I suspect he may think I may try and steal it regardless of what I say to him, granted we both have the same goal. We make it to the crystal heart, a blue floating crystal in the shape of a heart that gives off love magic, I unwittingly absorb the magic that radiates in my direction. Shining, surprisingly does not notice this, I turn around to find he's looking into the dark surroundings. I scan the area to see if their's any change in the anomalies. The shadows of frozen ponies begin to stand up and take on a physical form. They begin to approach us with white glowing eyes. Shining Armor deploys a violate bubble shield around us with his magic. My scans indicate these figures are the combined result of the left over dark magic from Epsilon combined with the dark magic remnants that was here originally. I imagine that King Sombra must be regenerating somewhere in the area.

"Cover your eyes!" I say to Shining as I absorb as much love as I can to boast my power so I can give off a shockwave of light from my horn. The shadow figure retreat back into the darkness as Shining grabs the heart with his magic and runs back to the ship with me close behind. Shining jumps into the ship with the heart tightly in his grasp. I get in the cockpit and activate the windshield, and in a matter of seconds we take off on route to Ponyville.

Author's Note:

Now, why would Necra call Shining Armor "Inceptive"?
Because he wears shiny armor when his actual name is "Shining Armor". It only proves the fact he is kinda a 2 dimensional character. It also makes for a bad pun.

Comments

[p61blkwidow]

loved the chapter. nice to see serena and necra working as a team. and also seeing serena have feelins for necra.

[Nova Borealis]

7390461 Yet she doesn't know it yet. But will those feelings ever surface? Stay turned to find out!

[Nova Borealis]

7410914 Think of Angel Class Sentinel as some kind of artificial mentally disturbed valkyrie.