Hecate's Orphanage

by BlackRoseRaven


Machination Against Machination

Chapter Twenty: Machination Against Machination
~BlackRoseRaven

Seneschal grimaced as Thorn piloted the ship they had stolen quickly towards the tower in the distance, muttering from his Clockwork shell: “I've lost contact with Sigma team.”
Thorn only nodded shortly, and Seneschal looked almost uncomfortably at the stallion for a moment before he cleared his throat and added: “Alpha team has engaged a security force at the uplink, but they seem to be close to completing their objective. Gamma team has breached Consensus Gentium and is making their way to the control center.”
“Periodically check for Sigma team. If they've failed, then we'll need to move in ourselves and shut down the superserver.” Thorn said quietly, before he grimaced a bit and added, correcting his course even as the wind attempted to buffet them towards the earth: “We're losing too much time. What about Hecate?”
“There's no need for concern. I can easily keep the network of AIs that run this world under my thumb. As a matter of fact, it's pathetic, really, what Hecate had to work with before I was created.” Seneschal said with the faintest hint of arrogance, polishing one steel claw against his shell's chest. “Besides, once we bring Thronus under control, it won't take long for us to put the rest of Fyrverǫld in line.”
“We're on final approach to the tower.” Thorn said, and Seneschal gave a bit of a grumble as he leaned forwards over the pilot seat, the sapphire stallion narrowing his eyes as he noted what looked almost like large platforms slowly rising into the air around the tower, atop of each of which were Kirin in turrets. “Analysis?”
“I probably don't need to point this out, Thorn, but those turrets will tear this ship apart while we search for a place to land. In twenty seconds we'll be in their range at this speed.” Seneschal said nervously, before the AI winced and grabbed the back of Thorn's seat as the stallion only increased the ship's speed, Seneschal blurting: “What are you doing? We won't survive! We won't even be able to land this cruiser, we'll-”
“Engage shielding.” Thorn ordered as his own horn glowed brightly, and Seneschal's steel jaw dropped before the AI flinched backwards as bullets began to pound into the ship as it streaked through the air, the Clockwork shell covering itself with its arms as it shouted helplessly, even as a field of blue energy wrapped around the steel being.
The ship streaked past the turrets, ignoring the bullets tearing holes through its steel frame before it smashed into the wall of the tower, ripping its way into the structure with a tremendous crash and boom. Walls were torn apart, and pieces of ceiling collapsed around them as the vehicle screeched slowly to a halt in a broken mess.
For a few moments, there was silence apart from the crackling of flame and the crumbling of loose rubble... and then a mechanical foreleg punched out the little windshield that remained, Thorn grimacing as he carefully pulled himself free from the wreckage. He hopped out onto the fuselage of the plane, brushing a few wrinkles out of his cape before he hopped down as the last of the glow faded from around his body, the stallion striding quickly down the corridor towards the door at the end as he created a holographic screen, saying calmly: “We should be able to find an interface relatively close by. Seneschal?”
“I'm coming, you...” Seneschal muttered a few censored curses as he dragged his Clockwork shell out of the ruins of the plane, brushing awkwardly at himself before he stumbled quickly after Thorn. “That was... an act of insanity!”
“It was an act of estimation and logic.” Thorn replied calmly as he touched the armored door, then frowned and muttered: “Circuits are damaged.”
“I'll get it.” Seneschal grumbled, and he half-pushed Thorn aside before simply raising a metal hoof and kicking the steel door out of place, leaving a distinct dent in the middle of the ajar door. Then the Clockwork shell simply grabbed the loose edges of the broken door and forcibly twisted it loose before tossing it away, leaning into the room beyond to mutter: “This will do.”
Thorn followed Seneschal into what seemed like a computer lab, the sapphire stallion clicking his tongue before he approached one of the consoles and remarked: “These look very... old. They must not have updated everything.”
“Fyrverǫld, according to the historical data, was shut down even before Decretum. Something to do with... data malfunctions, I'm not quite sure. It really doesn't make sense when you think about it at all, but Queen Hecate always says my predecessors – Valthrudnir included – were never any good at logical thinking.” Seneschal answered absently, as he tore one of the computers open and began to dig through its innards. “Now, where are... oh yes, here we are.”
The Clockwork shell tore something out of the console, and then he glanced up at the sound of banging. But Thorn only looked towards the doorway, saying calmly: “Kirin. I'll deal with the problem. You concentrate on getting access to the control network and shutting down this city's Overlord.”
“Yes sir, yes sir...” grumbled Seneschal, but he seemed relieved all the same as he turned his attention back towards the broken bits of computer in front of him, his mechanical claws wiggling before he started to quickly work through the wreckage.
Thorn, meanwhile, approached the open doorway and stepped out into the corridor fearlessly. He watched with a slight tilt of his head as the wreckage of the plane was slowly dragged backwards, before it was almost thrown out of the hole they had smashed into the tower by two Kirin in exosuits. The moment the wreckage was out of their way, Kirin Bushi stormed forward: no less than four, all of them in heavy armor and with electrified weapons held at the ready.
Thorn's eyes flicked back and forth meditatively, as one of the Bushi snarled: “Resist and you will be terminated, Dogmatist! You are hereby ordered to submit!”
“Standard paired formation. Two by two, with two heavy infantry ready to support.” Thorn calmly created a holographic screen, tapping quickly over this and ignoring the Bushi leveling their weapons at him, before the half dozen Kirin all flinched, one of them gasping and grabbing at his ear. “Your communications have been disabled. According to your tactical training, if there are no calls for reinforcements, then none will ever be sent to investigate, negating time-based parameters. A flaw Hecate already corrected in Dogmatist training.”
“Terminate him.” growled one of the Bushi, and then the apparent commander and one of the other Kirin rushed forward, their stun rods at the ready-
Thorn half-turned as his hoof swept sharply over the holographic screen, stretching and distorting it as his horn glowed with magic, and the harmless illusion became a fence of electricity that the two Bushi charged straight into, both Kirin screaming in agony before they collapsed in smoking piles. Thorn allowed the electrical fence to vanish after a moment, and then he simply looked coldly at the two remaining Bushi and the Kirin in exosuits, the sapphire stallion stating: “Retreat, or I'll neutralize all of you as necessary.”
The two Bushi looked at each other, and then they charged forward, the exosuits following. Thorn only waited calmly even as one of the Bushi charged his horn with magic before unleashing a blast of energy at the stallion, but Thorn simply sidestepped this before he slammed his metal hoof into the face of the first attacker, knocking the Bushi hurtling limply through the air into one of the exosuits with enough force to knock the lightweight mech crashing backwards.
The other Bushi slashed in at Thorn's side, but the sapphire stallion was faster, swinging his metal elbow back into the rod and ignoring the electricity that sparked uselessly over his insulated steel limb. Instead, he slammed the side of his metal hoof into the side of the Kirin's neck, forming a circuit that made the Kirin howl in pain as the electricity from his stun rod was driven back into his own body.
The Kirin stumbled backwards, and Thorn slammed a punch up under his chin, neatly knocking the Bushi out. Before the sapphire stallion could react, however, the remaining exosuit crashed into him and picked him up, slamming the stallion into the ceiling before flinging him savagely into the ground and raising a hoof to stomp on him-
Thorn rolled quickly to the side, then he lunged forwards and slammed his metal hoof through the exosuit's knee, ripping it apart, and in a burst of crimson, destroying the leg of the Kirin beneath the metal shell. The Kirin screamed as he toppled backward, and the last exosuit was distracted by the fall of his partner, even as he stumbled up to his own metal hooves, giving Thorn the opportunity he needed as the pistons on his steel shoulder pumped.
His foreleg sparked as Thorn swung his foreleg out, and his metal hoof shot forward on a long chain before Thorn lashed it to the side, looping the weapon around the remaining Kirin's throat. The exosuit gargled as it grabbed uselessly at the chain, and then the operator in the suit screamed in agony as electricity pumped down the limb, Thorn only watching with a cold expression as the Kirin gradually lost his fight to stay on his feet, the exosuit collapsing with a tremendous bang before Thorn yanked the chain free and his metal hoof fed quickly back into place.
Thorn flexed his steel hoof slowly, and then he looked down at the sole conscious Kirin in front of him, the exosuit operator uselessly clinging at his devastated leg before Thorn simply reached out and grabbed him by the head. The operator tried to fight too late before he howled as electricity pumped through his body, and then the Kirin collapsed in an unconscious, weakly-twitching heap as Thorn pulled away, brushing moodily at himself as he muttered: “That was sloppy of me.”
He turned and strode back into the room, absently stretching a little to try and loosen up his sore back before Seneschal complained: “That was a waste of time and resources, Thorn.”
Thorn only gave the Clockwork shell a look, but he was spared having to answer as a beeping went off before a static-riddled voice stated: “-won't uplink... can't... failing to...”
“Alpha team, stand by.” Thorn said calmly, and then he looked over at Seneschal, asking: “Why won't the uplink work?”
“Because...” Seneschal fidgeted, and then he suddenly rose his head and said quickly: “The superserver! The superserver must be running a security protocol, or they have some other protections in place that-”
“Alpha team, we've lost contact with Sigma team. You'll have to hold your position for now until the superserver can be brought offline. Gamma team, respond.” Thorn paused for a moment, then repeated quickly: “Gamma team, we need-”
“Busy!” shouted Scrivener's strangled voice, as at the moment, the stallion was currently leaping back and forth, narrowly dodging the rockets from the massive war machine marching towards him.
It had all gone according to plan, right until they had smashed their way into the control core and discovered no supercomputer or AI system or Clockwork Titan, but a gigantic battlemech waiting for them, which apparently served as both the final defense of and the control core for the city.
They had barely done any damage to it so far: it was simply too big for standard physical or magical combat, and every inch of it was protected by alloy plating. It was wirelessly drawing power from the facility around them, it was covered in weapon systems – from the missile pods on its shoulders to the humongous artillery cannons on its back to the massive vulcan cannons it had at the ends of its arms – and stomped around on massive tripod-like claws.
Morgan uselessly attempted another spell, but the machine released a shockwave of antimagic that canceled the magic out: it was short range, at least, and neither the purple mare nor Luna were affected by it even as they retreated a few feet, just in case. Scrivener Blooms swore under his breath as he attempted to charge in, but the machine simply aimed both gatling guns at him and opened fire as smaller defense turrets on its back aimed towards Luna and Morgan, firing at both mares to keep them busy.
Morgan created a forcefield as Luna ground her teeth together in frustration, before she suddenly snapped her horn forwards, covering the ground in front of her with ice and sapphire hellfire. Then, with another sharp flick of her horn, her fearsome Jötunnfang formed, the mare shouting: “I have had enough of being embarrassed by a great, stupid, oversized toy!”
The sapphire mare shot into the air, then darted towards the machine, bringing one enormous fist of ice and fire back as she weaved back and forth through gunfire, even as Twilight and Scrivener both shouted at her-
Another shockwave of antimagic ripped through the air, Luna howling in fury and frustration... before the sapphire mare snarled and she made both claws of ice slam forward all the same, punching squarely into the flat metal top of the bipedal battlemech and knocking it staggering.
Luna fell from the air, but there was no time to think or to leap to her aid, only to react to the opening she had created: Scrivener and Morgan both rushed forward, the stallion plowing into the steel ankle of the machine before he slammed his claws as deeply into the open, vulnerable joint as he could, while Morgan summoned up all the power she could around her horn before lashing it forward, sending a tremendous blast of lightning pounding into the front of the machine.
The battlemech whirred violently, spasming as it lurched backward another step, Scrivener wincing as he clung stubbornly on to its ankle and focused his corruption into the joint. And when the machine stomped down to try and regain its footing, there was a horrible tearing of metal as its ankle twisted unnaturally, Scrivener cursing as he threw himself backwards before grinning despite himself as the war machine toppled.
It crashed down on its back with a tremendous bang, the massive room rattling with the force of impact before Twilight snapped her horn quickly down, the metal floor sparking before it became magnetized, binding the gigantic machine to the ground. Twilight and Scrivener both prepared to move in to quickly finish the machine off, but before they could so much as step forward, Luna leapt over the robot with a roar, her frost-fire claws raised before she began to slam them savagely down into the machine's body over and over again, smashing apart alloy plating and sending chunks of metal flying in all directions as she floated over the fallen robot, which was helpless to do anything but twitch beneath the hail of blows.
Scrivener and Morgan both sighed and lowered their heads, and then Scrivener reached back and moodily touched the device on his side, activating the communicator as he muttered: “We're not busy anymore. Core should be down in a few seconds.”
Luna's claws tore into the machine's breast, ripping something large and glowing free before chucking what was likely a power core aside like a toy, the sapphire mare swearing angrily away as Morgan muttered: “She's never going to let this go, you know.”
“I know. But she can't abuse the Jötunnfang constantly.” Scrivener shook his head briefly, then he hesitated as he looked at Morgan, asking quietly: “You okay? Antimagic hurts you more than it does Luna. I think that's what had us most worried.”
“I'm fine.” Morgan smiled briefly, silently touching the orb in her breast before she shook her head and added quietly: “I'm not worried about us or Luna. I am worried about exerting too much power and attracting Helheim's attention.”
“You're the one always saying to trust Hel.” Scrivener said pointedly over the sound of Luna continuing to punch the wreckage of the machine into oblivion, and Morgan smiled briefly before both she and the stallion frowned as the device hanging on his side beeped.
“Seneschal just detected the core going offline. We don't have a clear fix on Sigma team, but we've detected signs of life in their sector. Alpha team is holding at their position, we need you to regroup with Sigma and ensure their objective is completed.”
Scrivener smiled briefly at Thorn's collectedness, and then he whistled sharply to Luna, who half-pulled herself out of the hole in the colossus with a scowl. “Thorn's asking us to go check up on Prestige. Do you want to keep doing whatever you're doing there, or come with us?”
Luna huffed loudly at this, her icy claws helping heft her out of the hole in the steel giant before she asked grouchily: “And am I permitted to use my 'silly claws,' Scrivener Blooms? Or shall we again make light of an enemy and make it seem impervious when we should be able to crush such foes like-”
“Thank you for protecting us.” Morgan interrupted, and Luna huffed but looked pacified all the same. “Even if we have to try and do our best to act... normal right now. No superpowers.”
“But I am made entirely from superpowers!” Luna whined, as her claws of frost-fire gestured wildly for support. “Why must thou both always lecture me upon holding back? Methinks thou both hold back enough for all of us.”
“Well, yes, that's the point. We know how to hold back, and you don't.” Scrivener said patiently, and Luna huffed before she leapt into the air and glided down towards him, then firmly bopped him with one fist, knocking the stallion flat as he mumbled: “Thank you for proving my point.”
Luna glared down at him, picking him up in her icy hands, but before she could do anything else Morgan interjected quickly: “We need to go and find Prestige and the rest of her team. They might actually be in danger if-”
“Nay, they do not have to pace themselves, and Prestige does the Valkyrie name proud. I am sure they are fine.” Luna paused, then dropped Scrivener and flexed her icy claws slowly, muttering: “But anything is better than staying here. Let us go.”
“Are you... okay, nevermind.” Scrivener said tiredly, when Luna only waggled one giant, icy finger at him. He turned around, muttering: “Well, Twilight and I are still going to... sorry, sorry, Morgan and I are going to be careful.”
“Aye, thou art clearly very careful, not even calling thy wife by her own name.” Luna retorted, and Scrivener glared at her before Morgan gently patted his side, the two striding quickly away and leaving Luna standing in the middle of the room as she complained: “And thou art both against me, again! Why?”
Both ponies simply ignored Luna, and she grumbled and made a rude gesture at their backs with both floating hands before she hurried after them. It didn't take them long to exit the facility: there were even fewer security personnel or other threats active now that they had taken down the security core, although Scrivener kept looking uncertainly back at Luna and her giant floating claws of ice as they made their way through the facility.
But he knew that dismissing the Jötunnfang would create another distinct pulse of magic: while normally the three of them weren't incredibly concerned with attracting Archive attention with their distinct powers, because they had been to Fyrverǫld so recently, the Watchers would be monitoring it for any distortions or unusual magic. The only thing they could hope was that Hecate's operations here would cover up their presence, although of course Luna had been unwilling to turn down a fight, any more than she could deny Hecate her help.
Luna just hoped that Hecate hadn't gotten herself into too much trouble, but then he sapphire mare gave a wry grin as her eyes gleamed. No, that was a selfish thought, really: she knew that Hecate could handle herself, against anything and everything that was stupid enough to get in her way.
And this was a lesson that Thokk was currently learning, the witch wheezing loudly for breath as she clutched at her side, staring with disbelief at Hecate. Parts of the mechanical goddess' body had been torn away, but everything was still fully functional: and even if Hecate had discarded Lucy, she had summoned a massive, fully-automatic shotgun in place of the spiked ball and chain, the gun looking like something that belonged mounted on a battletank, not in the goliath's hands.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” the witch shouted as a tornado slowly tore over the castle behind her, ripping up chunks of metal plating and shards of glass from the structure. All around them, the world had become nothing but chaos and violence, and yet Hecate was still cold and unflinching, even as she felt the bridge beneath them starting to give out from the quaking earth and the roaring winds. “Why won't you just die?”
“I have too much to do.” Hecate took aim from the hip, and Thokk reacted almost too late, barely creating a shield in time to protect herself from several barrages of steel, before Hecate scowled as the gun ran empty.
All the same, she slowly raised it to her sparking shoulder, ignoring the fact that the butt of the weapon was settling into mesh and cabling as Thokk snarled at her from under her cracked mask. “What about you, Thokk? Are you willing to sacrifice all your time and manipulations?”
Thokk growled under her breath, then she suddenly thrust a hand above her head, lightning striking into her palm from the skies and becoming a thrumming orb of destruction as she growled: “You're right, I've got lots to do and way more important things to waste my time on than this trash heap. Here, have a housewarming gift!”
Thokk leapt into the air and flung the orb down into the bridge, an eruption of force and magic tearing through the damaged structure and shattering it as the witch vanished with a cackle. Hecate grimaced as she stumbled backwards, but then tossed her empty rifle away as her eyes flashed, jet boosters bursting to life from her hooves and allowing her to hover safely even as the bridge collapsed into broken stone and steel ruin beneath her.
The thrusters weren't enough to keep her airborne for very long, the mare slowly descending from the skies towards the rubble below, but even as she fell, she was already bringing up holographic screens to quickly enter commands and synchronize her data with Seneschal's updates.
Now, all of this city's systems – including many of the Kirin – were protected only by the superserver, which was also the only thing left protecting the data uplink they needed to access. Once they breached the superserver, this city would essentially be cut off from the rest of Fyrverǫld: and with Thokk gone and no leader to guide them, Hecate would swiftly be able to take control. Seneschal would be able to wrestle control away from the defunct Overlord AIs once they had access to the satellite network, and that would ensure the takeover of the rest of Fyrverǫld would be as quick and bloodless as possible.
Although considering the fact that this city, Thronus, was now being torn apart by storms, half the buildings were in flames, and Hecate could see plenty of Kirin laying dead in the streets from the logic nodes in their brains overloading, she thought bitterly there had already been plenty of blood spilled in the name of the greater good.
The ivory mare gave a thin smile at this, and then she shook her head shortly before she frowned at one of the holographic screens even as her boosters kicked off and she dropped the rest of the way to the rubble-strewn earth. “Why am I picking up a new threat reading, Seneschal?”
From where they were hidden in the computer office, Seneschal fidgeted before he exclaimed loudly, making Thorn wince: “The Overlords must be reacting to Thronus' AI being shut down by sending in reinforcements! We didn't expect them to extend their reach out of their subdomains, it means that-”
“It means we need to get the superserver offline now, so we can take over the city's defenses and turn them on the attackers.” Hecate said coldly, before the mechanical goddess turned and started to quickly stride down the street, growling: “I can't believe that Sigma team has already failed in their mission. These are supposed to be the-”
“W-We're here!” Prestige's breathless voice suddenly blurted out of the static, and Hecate felt relief, and, as much as she didn't want to admit it, not just because it meant their operations might be back on schedule. “We're inside the compound, at the control center, but my machine device was destroyed and-”
“How are you contacting me without a Mission Drive?” Hecate asked, frowning slightly, but Seneschal answered before Prestige could, sounding excited.
“They're patching in through a Titan! Sigma, is the Titan responding to verbal orders or are you using manual operation parameters?”
“I just... asked to get in contact with Hecate.” Prestige said lamely, and Hecate smiled thinly: excellent. They hadn't been smart enough to purge her administrative properties completely from the system. That played to their advantage.
“Repeat after me, Sigma leader: A-X-H, 34-56-71.” Hecate said clearly, and there was a mumbling from the other side of the screen, followed by a fizzle of static as one of Hecate's other holographic screens lit up. “Now say this: allow communication.”
“Allow communication?” Prestige half-asked dubiously, but it was enough, as Hecate detected port access opening, which Seneschal immediately took advantage of, information scrawling rapidly over the holographic screen before the mechanical empress looked calmly up as a voice shouted at her.
A small team of Kirin were approaching, with an exosuit behind them carrying a massive rocket launcher. Her eyes flicked meditatively over the Homeguard, before the one in front snarled: “Your privileges have been revoked! Lay down and surrender immediately, traitor!”
Hecate smiled thinly, and several panels snapped open across her steel body, glassy orbs shooting up into the air before they homed violently in on the Kirin. They exploded in blasts of electricity and antimagic where they struck, driving the Homeguard to the ground with screams of agony and sending the exosuit stumbling forward before it lost power and collapsed on its front with a crunch, the rocket launcher bouncing out of its vise-hands.
Hecate slowly strode forward, kicking one of the Kirin out of the way before she leaned down and picked up the rocket launcher. She studied this absently, then looked up as a Kirin war machine rolled into the street: an armored carrier, with a massive cannon on top of the vehicle. This swiveled towards her, locking on and firing in an instant-
Hecate's claw was faster, reaching up and catching the heavy shell it shot: the force of impact crunched her steel palm in slightly and made her arm sizzle, but the mechanical empress simply said calmly: “Take note: modify structural stability.”
She tossed the heavy shell aside, then brought the rocket launcher up with her other arm, before narrowing her eyes as there was a loud beeping, and the tank suddenly rolled to a halt as the cannon lowered slightly. She felt it even before the readings on the holographic screen beside her changed, and the Seneschal exclaimed: “We did it! Thronus is ours, Lady Hecate, all Kirin have been given the order to stand down and-”
“Shut up, Seneschal.” Hecate said moodily, and then she took aim with the rocket launcher before pulling the trigger, the rocket streaking through the air and smashing into the cannon on top of the tank to explode in a monumental blast of shrapnel and fire. Then Hecate simply tossed the launcher aside, ignoring the Kirin that piled out of the armored vehicle with shouts and screams of surprise and fear and confusion.
Instead, she turned her attention to the holographic screen, tapping quickly over it: with the superserver under their control, they were able to activate the satellite uplink and begin taking over the network that controlled Fyrverǫld. It would take time, but time was on their side now even if the other Overlord AIs concentrated all their forces on Thronus: even if they attempted to use missile attacks and nuclear or plasmatic armament, they could defend themselves and hold out against the enemy far longer than it would take Seneschal to wipe out the hostile AI systems.
“Seneschal, confirm that all local targets have been rendered non-hostile. Thorn, I need you to make your way to Consensus Gentium to prepare it for a new control center and to manage the Kirin. Sigma, Gamma, Alpha teams, report to me. I will be waiting for you in...” Hecate looked over her shoulder, grimacing a bit at the sight of the stone and steel castle, which had been ravaged by the tornadoes and shaking earth. Although thankfully, with Thokk leaving, the storms had started to lose their power. “I will meet you in Crown. Your Mission Drives are being updated as we speak.”
Hecate turned to stride down the street, ignoring the Kirin that saluted her almost drunkenly as much as she ignored the ones that were feebly twitching on the ground, grabbing at their heads and shivering. The logic nodes had always been a bad idea, Hecate reflected moodily: brainwashing or removing someone's free will had enough side effects as it was. Inserting a 'logic' node that made someone think the thoughts you wanted them to, however, had many more flaws.
A Kirin stared at her as she passed, a bit of blood leaking from one ear before it suddenly saluted, but Hecate didn't let her eyes linger. She hated seeing them, probably even more than Valthrudnir had hated seeing them: every single one of them reminded her of Thesis. With their real minds thinking one way, but the nodes implanted in their brains forcing them to think completely differently. With memories that told them one thing, but the implacable, unalterable, agonizing logic-mind telling them something different now, to go against the memories, to forget their feelings and perhaps even what they had been trained to do and instead obey, obey, obey...
And to think, these were 'perfected' nodes, that Valthrudnir had shoved into the brains of an entire world filled with Kirin when he'd stumbled across it, in some petty act of revenge and... perhaps because once...
No, Hecate wouldn't let herself think those thoughts. She closed her eyes and took a slow breath, then continued on her path, keeping herself focused forward, ignoring the Kirin that drew close to her, ignoring the ones that called out to her, saluted her, and even the few that threatened her weakly or even tried to aim their weapons at her. It wasn't as if their programming would allow them to carry out any of their threats, or they could even hurt her with their puny, useless weapons and impotent magic. She was an Empress, a Goddess.
The only thing that could hurt her were her own memories.

Cadence uneasily watched a Kirin as it calmly passed food out to them in the plain dining hall. All around them, other Kirin soldiers were eating mechanically, tossing them scowls and foul looks every now and then, but while they were hostile, they weren't... well, hostile.
The ivory mare shifted a little, looking nervously down at her simple, tasteless ration. Moonflower was happily gobbling down seconds already, since La Croix had just pushed his bowl of mush away, and Sombra was slowly eating his own as he looked curiously around.
Luna Brynhild, Scrivener Blooms, and Morgan Heldóttir had taken their own food with them to visit Thorn and make sure he was alright at whatever the place was that apparently served as the nerve center of the city. Cadence thought it was really just because Luna wanted to spend some time with her son, but it wasn't like even the Swan could grumble too much about that: they weren't exactly in any kind of danger zone anymore, it seemed.
Gamma team was here, though, and they were eating their food at a table nearby. Hecate was nowhere in sight, but every now and then Seneschal broadcasted announcements over the speakers, which the Kirin always responded to promptly.
It was uncomfortable all the same: Cadence badly wanted to go and find Hecate and get an explanation about what the hell was going on, but she knew that was pointless. She would probably reprimand her, and then simply tell her what the ivory mare had already figured out: the Kirin were on their side now, and listening to them. All she knew was that apparently Thokk and the Jarsongildi had fled Fyrverǫld, but it seemed like it was far too easy.
What if Thokk had already completed her operations here? What if she had a base of power somewhere else? And why precisely had she needed Decretum technology in the first place: after all, Thokk could apparently summon lost souls from the Void to aid her, and Cadence couldn't think of a force more frightening than that. So why had Thokk been here, going to such lengths to start up all this old technology again, and then not seeming to care when she left such a massive weapon in Hecate's more-than-capable hands?
Thokk had to realize what a mistake that was. Or worse, Thokk had to be absolutely sure that she had something even worse and more dangerous up her sleeve, and that she could complete whatever unknown objectives she had in the little time it would delay Hecate to finish taking over Fyrverǫld. It wasn't like it was any secret that Hecate had every key and every password that was needed to take control of this mechanical world, after all...
In one short, bloody conflict, they had conquered a world. Or maybe 'taken back' was a better way to phrase it, since she thought that for Hecate this was almost a coming home. Well, then again, to this day Cadence wasn't entirely sure where Hecate was really from...
Too many thoughts. Too many weird thoughts, at that. Cadence shook her head briefly, before she looked uncomfortably over at Moonflower and asked finally: “How can you eat that stuff? It's disgusting.”
“It's nutritious.” Moonflower defended, straightening with a huff... and Cadence couldn't help but smile a little at the fact he had a moustache of goo under his nostrils. “And besides, Cadence. You were never trapped in Tartarus. You don't want to imagine the kind of gruel I was left eating down there. It was... well... it was gruel!”
“How awful.” Cadence said dryly, and then she sighed a little and scooped some of the mush up, grimacing a bit as she ate a spoonful before muttering: “Tastes like sour potatoes.”
“Tastes like the bayou. I ain't eatin' nothin' those Kirin are makin' for us, either. I ain't scared of 'em trying to kill us, but I doubt they gonna care if a ver or two fall in the soup.”
Moonflower only shrugged, then he picked up his bowl and loudly slurped up the last of it with a sigh of pleasure. He grinned over at La Croix, who scowled at him before the larger stallion declared: “And I might even have another!”
Cadence sighed, then hesitated for a moment before she picked up her bowl and quickly left the table, Moonflower blinking in surprise as the Loa cocked his own head curiously. But Sombra only smiled as his daughter made her way over to Sigma team's table, the Swan Maiden clearing her throat as she approached before asking: “Uh, can I-”
“Sure, sit down.” Prestige smiled and immediately shuffled down the bench, letting the ivory mare join them. Cadence smiled her thanks, nodding politely as she looked around at the group: a little battered-looking, she thought, but overall none the worse for wear. “I'm glad you guys made it through okay. It was rough, huh?”
“Not as bad as the first time we were here. And definitely not as bad as I was expecting.” Cadence replied, shaking her head briefly before she gave a small smile in response. “But hey, it looks like your team did a great job. I heard you saw a lot more action than we did.”
Prestige only chuckled, as Applejack said wryly: “Sure wasn't my idea of fun, I'll say that. Ain't like any fight I've ever been in before. Don't think I want my hooves to leave the earth for a long while now, neither.”
Cadence smiled again, nodding briefly before Tender Trust said softly, as she looked back and forth: “This feels very... strange. I am not sure what to think of it. It is good to see these tribes coming together, but these manidogisik are... I do not know what to think of them.”
“It's strange. They aren't like nzambi, but part of what that means is... some of them do still desire to hurt us. They just don't have the will to.” Meadowlark added, looking up and shaking her head briefly. “Although some of them are more like... I don't even have the words for them. They just... accept whatever they're told and do what they're asked. They're not friendly, they're not hostile, but at the same time they're...”
“Curious.” Prestige finished, and the Valkyrie hesitated before asking Cadence: “Are there... a lot of Kirin or Dogmatists like this on your world? Hecate is always very tight-lipped about what she does and...”
“No, no. Not at all. I've never seen Kirin before, let alone...” Cadence looked uncomfortably across the hall, before she said softly: “Hecate is hard on us, but... she seems to value us all having our free will. Moonflower might complain every now and then that he's scared of being turned into a Dogmatist, but... I think even he knows that Hecate would never do that.”
Prestige nodded, smiling a little before she said quietly: “I don't know a whole lot about Hecate, but... from what I've seen and been told, she knows what she's doing. And hero has always really respected her.”
Cadence cocked her head, and Meadowlark laughed before she supplied: “She means her coltfriend, Antares Mīrus. Luna's son.”
The ivory mare immediately took an interest in this, saying quickly: “Right, they said something about that before... how many children does Luna have?”
“Uh... three.” Prestige answered after a moment, looking a little surprised by the sudden intense interest. “Antares is her first son, but... second child. Her first daughter is named Scarlet Sage, and her second daughter, who is the third child, is Innocence. I mean, not... biologically, but they're like-”
“And Thorn Blackfeather makes four.” Cadence said musingly, lowering her head thoughtfully, and Prestige blushed a bit at this.
“Right, I uh... that's pretty incredible. We all thought Hecate adopted him from another world so she could have a second in command. He's pretty obviously being groomed as an administrator, after all.”
“'Groom' is kind of an ugly word. That's the word you attach to pedophiles.” Applejack said mildly, and Prestige gave the wooden mare a flat look. “Well, it is. I was just readin' about that the other way, 'smatter of fact.”
Tender Trust nodded with the seriousness Cadence was beginning to understand the Phooka treated everything with, and Prestige only shook her head as Meadowlark remarked: “I think you've been spending too much time with your husband.”
Applejack smiled wryly, replying easily: “Hey, it's nice to finally be able to spend time with him without... you know. Havin' to worry about things.” She quieted for a moment, then cleared her throat before asking Cadence, who looked up almost dumbly from her thoughts: “So what about you? What's it like, livin' in Decretum, with these uh... friends o' yours?”
“Oh, it's... it's interesting.” Cadence leaned back a bit, glancing back at the other table and laughing a little when she saw Moonflower and La Croix were now arguing over something, while Sombra watched over them with his seemingly-endless patience. “Sombra is actually my father. La Croix comes from Darkwater, and he's some sort of... spirit-thing-”
“He's a Loa, a sort of... messenger between the zebra and the other world. Well... that's usually what a Loa is, anyway.” Meadowlark chipped in, and Cadence nodded with a smile. “Zecora warned me not to be tricked by any of his guiles, since she wasn't sure entirely what to make of him, but... she also told me that someone particularly important said that La Croix had earned a gift from a friend, in spite of the fact that he and his siblings are responsible for... making a lot of mischief.”
“I'm glad someone thinks so. He's certainly hard enough on himself for whatever happened in the past.” Cadence paused, and then she shook her head quickly before continuing: “Anyway, uh... last but not least is Moonflower. He's actually a winged unicorn, but... he lost one of his wings. He talks a big game, and he's incredibly talented, but he's far from the great and terrible evil he likes to pretend he is. He's a good guy. They're all good people, really, and I'd... trust every one of them with my life.”
Cadence smiled over her shoulder at them, and Prestige said softly: “Well, they all seem to look up to you as their leader, too. I think you've got a really good team there, Cadence, and... a really good thing going. Even if you all... you definitely aren't what I expected to see from the little I knew about Hecate.”
There was quiet for a few moments, and Cadence shifted a little, unable to resist asking: “So... so all of you knew Hecate?”
“That's right.” Applejack grinned a little, shaking her head slowly. “I still remember when Luna and Scrivener first showed up with her. She was literally a head in a box.”
“She was on a short leash for a long time. It wasn't until the Pious came that we really gave her a chance to prove herself... I guess we were all scared of her, and what she might do.” Prestige admitted, nodding a little before she added softly: “And I guess... not all of us felt all that charitable when she just... left one day, in the middle of the war...”
Cadence frowned, cocking her head in both curiosity and surprise, and Applejack chuckled softly before she said: “She wasn't a coward, though. Thought a lot of nasty things about her, but never thought of her as no coward. She just... knew what was happening, and decided to step out of it, I think. She also knew that if we failed...”
“She'd need to be there to stop them. There's no way any of us could have known that Luna, Scrivener, and Twilight would all come back.” Prestige picked up, laughing a little before she gazed off into the distance. “Still hard to believe...”
“So you... have a lot of respect for the Valkyrie, do you?” Cadence asked almost nervously, and Prestige nodded with a smile, although she was studying the mare curiously, her eyes locked on Cadence as the ivory mare visibly fidgeted a little. “I uh... well, I'll admit she... her partners seem very nice.”
“Yeah. Scrivy and Twilight.” Prestige looked at the ivory mare for a moment longer, before she said finally: “It's okay if you don't really... well, if you aren't quite fond of Luna and all. She's a little... difficult to get used to for a lot of people.”
“I'll say.” Cadence grumbled, and then the ivory mare hesitated before shaking her head briefly, muttering: “And it's not that, it's more... it's the Swan. The Swan hates the Valkyrie. Or maybe... I don't know, maybe the Swan is stuck in the past and just trying to convince itself that the Valkyrie is still what it thinks it is. From what I've seen, Brynhild has been doing... she's been doing a pretty good job. And I'm... grateful to her.”
Those words hurt Cadence's pride to say, but all the same she managed them out and, like it or not, she thought it was important. Prestige smiled a little at this, and then she remarked quietly: “Well, I know better than most ponies that it's very possible to change, and to... grow up, for lack of a better word. Some days, I think I'm still growing up.”
“I think it's all just a state of mind, Prestige. And Heaven knows you take care of your family and friends very well.” Meadowlark paused, then added easily: “Or at least a lot better than you used to, since in the past...”
Prestige only laughed and shook her head, replying mildly: “Be fair, Meadowlark. I think I did a great job of taking care of my friends in the past... as long as they weren't shorn wings, splinter horns, or slave hoofs, that is.”
Cadence looked with surprise at Prestige, as Applejack said: “You couldn't believe how much we saw this little girl here change, growin' up. Went from being the most venomous little racist y'ever did meet to the kindest, gentlest... well, okay, she still ain't very kind or gentle, but she's getting there.”
“Hey!” Prestige laughed, though, and so did the rest of the table, Cadence smiling and relaxing a little, and before she even realized it, she was talking:
“In the world where I come from, and the... time, I guess, that I came from too, Daddy was a great king. He ruled over the Crystal Empire, which was a unicorn-controlled territory.” Cadence explained, as all eyes turned to her with curiosity. “We had Pegasi, too, but mostly it was unicorns... that's how we were able to protect ourselves from the storms and keep our people safe.
“But outside in the barrens lived earth ponies. They were ruthless barbarians, very strong, resistant to our magic. We called them the Crystal Ponies, and most of us... me included, I guess... thought they should be left out there in the cold, destroyed or driven away.” She quieted, then shook her head slowly. “But Father wanted to save them all. And even after... bad things happened, and he was deceived by Valthrudnir, he worked hard to save them all. He drove the unicorns and Pegasi out of the Crystal Empire because they could be corrupted by the disease, but the Crystal Ponies, maybe... because of their different magic, maybe because of their connection to the earth, I don't know... they couldn't be affected by the poisons in the land. And Daddy worked to save them, to protect them, even though... they had taken so much from us, with their raids, their attacks, their...”
Cadence looked over her shoulder at her father, who looked back up at her from across the table, giving her a gentle, reassuring smile. And the ivory mare blushed a bit before she finally turned a smile to Prestige, saying softly: “I just guess that you and I aren't so different after all.”
The two nodded to each other, and then Cadence asked curiously: “So you're a Valkyrie, aren't you? Not a... born Valkyrie, but rather...”
“That's right. I was one of the first inductees, I'm very proud to say.” Prestige smiled and nodded back, raising her head slightly: for some reason, it did Cadence good to see the mare taking such pride in herself and her position. It was... reassuring, somehow. “I was... honestly surprised when Kvasir and Aria picked me, of all ponies. But they said that because of how I'd been trained before I died, and because of my special talent, I was precisely what they were looking for at the time.”
Cadence tilted her head, and Prestige smiled a bit as she glanced down at her armored hip. “Right, you can't see my cutie mark... but my talent is for mixing different elements of magic together. Multicasting. At least, that's what everyone calls it.”
Cadence nodded, then she smiled a little and said quietly: “My own talent is for... well, I don't know anymore. It used to be... emotional magic, I guess you could say, but I guess that with the Swan and all, I'm a little... different.”
She looked down awkwardly, but Applejack only shrugged before saying mildly: “My talent was supposed to be for apples, apples, apples. Now look at me. I'm pretty much a walking tree.”
She gestured awkwardly at herself, and Tender Trust nodded before saying kindly: “Then at least you have reached the apogee of your craft, Miss Applejack. Prestige has become a Valkyrie, you have become a tree, Meadowlark is a zebra, and my mother has become a Phooka. I wonder sometimes what I will become when I am finally ready to complete that rite.”
“I'm sure it'll be something good, Tender Trust.” Applejack said as a smile quirked at her muzzle, and then she shook her head slowly before she said wryly: “All I know for sure is that life sure takes you to some strange places, and death takes you even weirder places than that.”
“I hear you there.” Cadence said softly, and then she smiled in return and shook her head slowly as she looked around at these odd ponies, letting herself relax in their presence as she settled in to learn more of what she could about them, and the strange world they came from.