//------------------------------// // The Distant Sound of Drums (Part 2) // Story: Heat Death // by ScottTrek //------------------------------// During the Tellos War Twilight stood serenely as the drop-shuttle shuddered its way through reentry. With any luck they'd appear no different to the hundreds of other dunks of debris raining down on the planet, all being pushed out of orbit by spatial-artillery. It seemed grizzly. Using the wrecks of her slain comrades to cover this missions approach. But it was necessary, and at this moment all she could do was look out the view-screen and hope there was no-pony still alive out there in the fragmenting chaos. The other occupants of the pod could only hold on tight and clamp down on their mouth-guards. With a groan that resonated straight into the ponies bones the drop-shuttle knifed through Arcana's planetary shield; shedding a skin of indigo energy as it went, back-lit in a fiery halo as debris burned behind them. As they slipped down through the atmosphere Twilight glanced back; somewhere behind them Princess Flurry Heart was ordering the fleet into retreat. They were on their own. Stranded on an alien world and surrounded by a hostile army. "Just another day as Princess." She murmured to herself. Chief Aurora peered carefully at her latest acquisition, translucent blue tendrils emerging from her exo-suit to probe its internal components. Her glowing techno-magic instantly scrubbing and cataloguing each component as she went. The ancient computer bank was pretty much useless for actually computing but with a bit of inventing retooling she could use its components to finish the quantum network she was seeding throughout the Valkyrie. If she could get the central machine working they'd have a totally infallible, wireless control systems that could interact with every system on the ship with a delay lag of less than 0.01 attoseconds. It would probably be her greatest achievement. if it worked. And if Umbra would stop licking it. "U...U...Umbra," she stuttered, "Please friend... just... stop please?" But the Eldritch Pony would not be deterred. Aurora fruitlessly tried to push him away, her suit flapping against his spindly frame. "Uhh...oh no... Nocturne can you please... do something?" Nocturne looked her her brother and shrugged. "Sorry Chief he's been acting odd all week. Dunno why." "So... so....he's... he's been acting like this all week... or... or for a week?" Aurora asked. "Sorry what do you mean?" Nocturne replied, as made a half-hearted attempt to pull her brother away. Umbra signing something even she didn't understand in response before going back to his industrious licking. "So...um... has he been acting like this for a few days or a week. I mean as in a week exactly." "You know now you mention it i guess it has been exactly a week. Why? Do you know something?" Nocturne watched with lessening amusement as Umbra continued to lick. He licked down the computer bank, along the floor, up a nearby wall then suddenly punching though said wall with his inner tendrils. "OH BY THE PRINCESS! UMBRA WHAT THE.... Aurora i'm so sorry i'll get him... Aurora?" Nocturne looked around but the Chief has seemingly run off. She pondered it for a second before the sound of rending metal continued and she went back to swearing at her brother. A dozen ponies crept their way across the ashen surface towards Arcanas capital facility, the spires of the forge city seeming to reach into the sky like the fingers of some ghastly dedicates titan. They glanced around furtively, investigating every nook and cranny of the rocky landscape as Twilight talked in their heads. "It is pretty common knowledge that the Tellos's aggression against us made no logical sense," Twilight calmly beamed to the squadron, her magic creeping around them like the legs of a spider. "And while civilisations being driven to illogical actions is not completely unusual, for a near machine race such as the Tellos it was almost unthinkable. Would you not agree Specialist Jupiter?" "Yes ma'am." Jupiter Belt whispered, before making a small whining noise and repeating herself through the telepathic link. For a moment everyone stiffened and looked around. But the vocalisation seemed to go unheard and they carried on. "It not within their nature." "Indeed, something was fundamentally wrong with the situation. So we started looking for the unknown factor, and since the battle of the Crab Nebula we've hand an answer. Dark magic... specifically it's Equestrian dark magic." Solar Spear felt his heart skip a beat, followed by a flutter of annoyance as Helm did an audible spit-take. Smacking his hoof into the Privates chest he glanced at the princess and asked. "You mean like a Unicorn? Or something like you?" Twilight felt a small twinge as a ripple passed through the soldiers. "The magic we detected has a signature unique to unicorns such as yourself. I don't know what kind of individual we will find hear, but if one of our kind has fallen this far we cannot allow them to continue to pollute the Tellosians, no matter what they have done to us." The group had arrived at the base of one the great city spires. Two combat engineers plugged a mobile terminal into the wall and after a few moment the entire section shifted as a sea of rippling scales. Twilight stood in the doorway, breathing in the blast of acrid, ionised air blew out from the structure. "I the opportunity presents itself... terminate without hesitation." "Princess?" Twilight roused herself from her slumber. Sitting up in her seat she blinked the sleep from her eyes she looked down to see Chief Aurora peering up at her. "Ahh, Aurora! How curious, i was just dreaming about your kinda forerunners. Are you familiar with the story?" "Umm... no ma'am." "Well you see... oh wait, that can wait until another time. How did the latest salvage mission go?" "It went... ok... Princess may i speak to you...in private?" Twilight looked around the bridge, before nodding them both towards the captains office. Aurora was all but hyperventilating as the door shut behind them, blue tendrils gasping for air at the seams of her suit. "P...P... Princess, with all... all... due respect. Where in Tartarus are you taking the ship?"