Ursae Majoris: Eternal Knight

by Draconaes

Chapter 20

Notes: These next two chapters have been painful for me to write. I know what I want to happen and I can't decide the right way for it to happen. These have a lot of exposition and not a lot of pony. The following chapters should have more action and more pony. I might end up drastically changing these chapters once I realize that I think they are terrible. Hopefully that won't happen, though.

Chapter 20
******

"So, what's the real story?" Tyr froze. "I won't tell the horse." He turned. Kuthrine stood behind him, arms crossed.

"Are dras politics really important to you at this juncture?" Tyr resumed walking. Kuthrine followed.

"I dunno. Are they? That's what I'm trying to find out, obviously."

"Informing you might increase your willingness to aid me... the war with the Empire."

"Ah."

"Not per se. It was the grain that broke the quadruped's back."

"Cute. You dras seem to love our language, if nothing else."

"You gave the impression that wordplay would be appreciated."

"You are assuming I appreciate my behavior being reciprocated. Just exposit already."

Tyr grinned. "I acquiesce. Nyx has and has had a policy of subjugation regarding alien civilizations. To describe it from a human perspective, she liberated our planet from the various sectarian warlords that struggled for control."

Kuthrine rolled her eyes. "And instated herself, conveniently."

"Her motives are of a remarkably altruistic nature."

"Remarkable for humans or for dras?"

"Yes. She decided, after their destruction, that while slavery is crueler than death, death could not be the most efficient solution for dealing with dissidents. So, any civilization we come across now is assimilated. They are given a colony ship to live on, and are provided security in exchange for knowledge."

Kuthrine laughed. "No slavery? That sounds pretty close to me, just a bit more subtle. Besides, what about using them as soldiers? I know you guys tried that during the invasion."

"We merely requested assistance from any humans willing, and some of them joined us. It is standard procedure."

"Right, and I'm sure that masquerading as gods had nothing to do with it."

Tyr growled. "As I said before, this latest conflict is at the core of the issue. Syn believes that a war with the Empire is undesirable. I agree. We should cut our losses and leave. Nyx will not, though. She wishes to assimilate humanity at any cost. She also wants your golem and focuser technology. All your other technology is stolen from us."

Kuthrine frowned. "So it's not that you have any moral outrage for the subjugation of my entire species, it's just that it's too expensive? Feeling really sympathetic to your cause, over here."

"Is your "Umbra" organization not dedicated to the betterment of mages? Surely, ensuring that your people are not "enslaved" would be the right decision." Tyr looked back to Kuthrine, who was frozen several paces behind him.

"How do you know about that?"

"I can see through walls."

"You bastard. Why should I trust you when you are working with Opaque? I didn't know they even had dras on their payroll."

"Believe what you want, but I don't particularly care for the intricacies of human politics. That was my original point. I don't oppose Umbra, and I don't oppose Opaque. I would prefer to not oppose the Empire as a whole. Help me get the Elements, and I will answer any questions you have and leave you to your plots."

Kuthrine stood silently, arms crossed an head bowed. After a few moments, she looked up and met his gaze. "Fine. Where are you going, anyway? I'd like to be kept in the loop if I'm going to help you." They resumed walking.

"Two hours ago, an Empire reclamation unit arrived in system."

Kuthrine stumbled. "What!?"

"Trixie has also informed me that a god-like being known as "Luna" is searching for us. Stealing some of Trixie's energy has hindered her investigation, but enough suspicion remains that I do not think it will be long before Equestria fields its own investigation. We are no longer secure, so I am going to Canterlot to begin the search for the elements. The others will join us if possible."

"You couldn't have told us earlier!? We could all be heading there together instead of leaving two thirds of our team in the dark!"

"Time is at a premium. Tiamat will guard Trixie and Kelly."

"What about Anderson?"

"He is not important now. He is a liability in more ways that one. He also has survival skills of his own..." Tyr drifted off as he sensed something nearby. A flying golem of some kind had entered the area.

Kuthrine shook her head. "I don't like this-"

Tyr cut her off, his voice urgent. "Umbra advanced reclamation protection?"

"What?"

"Yes or no!"

"Yes! Why?"

Tyr relaxed. And then he was blind. Pain shot through his nervous system, and then faded. He collapsed to the ground and waited for his senses to return. He heard Kuthrine nearby, swearing and groaning. After a few minutes, he could sense the world around him again. Kuthrine was leaning against a tree, rubbing her temples. "Fuck! Why would they do that?"

Tyr staggered to his feet. "Is Kelly part of Umbra? I understand that replacing a vowel with the letter "u" is required, but I want to be sure."

"Ugh... what? No, of course... not..." Realization dawned on her face. She looked like she was going to be sick.

"Vital personnel: zero casualties. The plan remains unchanged. Let's go."

"Fuck..."

******

"So, Umbra's working with the Escape now? And you wanted to off them so it doesn't get out? I'd like to point out that I'd rather not die, that I'm on your side, and that it would be hard to cover up."

"Shut up, Reynolds. Just watch over your bots like a good little amagus. Besides, I haven o connection to Umbra."

"Sure you don't, Urika. It's not like Urika is a weird name to have. Easy to explain that odd spelling without Umbra's silly quirk."

"My earlier threat is still in effect."

"Which one was that?"

"The one I made two years ago when I first met you."

"Ouch. Right, shutting up. Anyway, we still have to take out those dras, and "recover resources" and all that. I'd say we use the railgun, but there's a class 0b or 0c civilization down there. A bit of a mess, yeah?"

Urika sighed. "Leave if the mage to carry the op. Typical. It's a wonder that we aren't stored next to the robots during transport. Alright, land us next to the wreck and bring 5, 6, and 8. I don't trust 7 due to that last op. It'll fall apart at the worst possible time."

"Whoa, bring, as in, with me? Can't I just stay in the ship?"

"If I'm risking my ass so are you. Maybe you can finally fix that 0% accuracy rating you have."

"It's not my fault that 0/0 is translated to 0% and not, like, infinite%. Fine, I'll be your meat shield. Wouldn't want to lady to break a nail."

"Anti-personnel rounds. I don't need to explain why you wasted armor-piercing like last time."

"Sure thing, mom."

******

Twilight groaned and held her hooves over her head. Minutes after entering the Everfree Forest, she had felt something like a magical shock wave hit her. She was only just now recovering. 'I hope Trixie is alright. If she was in the middle of fighting something when that hit...' She didn't want to think of the possibility that the shock wave was caused by something happening to Trixie. She had a feeling that things were going to deteriorate quickly, and she didn't even know what was going on. 'Maybe I shouldn't have panicked and run here without the others...'

She shook her head. Now was really not the time to start doubting herself. She needed to keep together! She went over her plan again. Step 1: find Trixie. This shouldn't be too hard, since she just had to find a unicorn's energy in the forest. Step 2: bring Trixie to Luna. This was decidedly harder, but she had just finished preparing a spell that would teleport her and anypony nearby to Canterlot.

'Alright, step 1 first... obviously...' Twilight made several sweeps with her horn, trying to detect unicorn magic. On her fourth sweep, she sensed a unicorn a ways to her left. Smiling, she quickly teleported to the general location. Opening her eyes, she saw two surprised looking creatures. Well, they seemed surprised, at any rate. "What-"

"Grab her." Twilight panicked and cast the first spell that came to mind. The world shifted around her, and she found herself laying in the Canterlot gardens. 'Great! I cast the mass teleport spell by mistake! And my aim was thrown off!' She looked around, hoping that she was both right and wrong in equal amounts. Seeing nopony else, she sighed in relief at her own safety and in frustration that she couldn't capture the strange creatures now. 'Maybe the spell didn't work on them. Or maybe they got dumped off target like I did.'

Either way, her plan was now ruined. Trixie was still in the Everfree Forest, and two dangerous mosters were now possibly loose in Canterlot. She had to find one of the Princesses and tell them! Princess Luna didn't want Celestia to know yet, and Twilight didn't want to betray her trust, but at this point they were running out of options. 'I'll try to find Luna first, but I can't keep her secret if it's going to endanger Equestria.' She teleported away to begin her search.

******

Tyr peeled his face off the cold, hard floor and examined his surroundings. Unicorns were evidently quite powerful. Starborn had magical senses and could shape energy to an extent, and humans could do little that wasn't a derivative of manipulating heat, but this unicorn had just teleported twice in a row. Trixie had demonstrated telekinesis for him, but he had doubted the other abilities she claimed. Now he wasn't so sure. 'And the elements are even more powerful.' He grinned.

He stood and walked over to a nearby stained-glass window. He could see that he was on a mountain, presumably in the Canterlot Royal Palace. He looked down the hallway and saw a large ornate door that matched the description Trixie had given him of the vault. His grin widened. 'Excellent.'