Dormant No Longer
Next, to humanity, the flood was our greatest adversary. It would seem that they were driven by our extinction. And, with our hubris as well as our myopic handling of the Mantle... we were powerless when entire sections of the galaxy fell to the parasite. My husband spoke before all of you stating that the reclamation has already begun and that we should negate any hope of halting its advance. Yes, we are hopeless. Hopelessly blind to believe that the mantle belongs to one species! Our arrogance, our ego has brought this fate upon us! In our dying breath, let us atone for our sins... and do what we believed we had done for millennia.
~The Librarian
The sun beat down over the Peaks of Peril. Through the thicket, a familiar fair coated creature parted the vegetation. Autumn Blaze trotted happily while humming to herself. The heat of the day stuck to the scales on her back and radiated up through her horn. Lost in her song, she hadn’t noticed that the crisp peat she danced on gave way to metallic clicking. Her curious eyes fell to the ground. She tested the surface again. Her cheerful smile quickly transitioned to an intrigued grin.
Dancing with vigor, she relished at the harmonic clicking her hard claws made as they came in contact with the foreign surface. Giggling and playing, she hadn’t noticed the ground had become segmented by geometric lines of golden light. Once a low rumbling filled the atmosphere, she tried to keep herself stable while the immediate area shook violently. Then, the ground beneath her separated and opened.
As soon as it started, the quaking stopped. The young Kirin opened her eyes finding a dark abyss. Peering down into the depths a green light came slowly rising to the surface. A floating metal orb with a single bright green eye assessed the area before turning its attention to the frightened Kririn.
“Hey...” It spoke with a calm deep voice. “What are you doing on this shield world?”
“Wh-Wha?” Before she could make sense that this frightening thing had just spoken to her, she was bathed in a laser-like green light.
“Hmm. It looks like you’re native to this installation”
“Y-Yeah! I am… whatever that means…” Autumn Blaze shakingly chuckled.
“Whatever. I need to find my masters.”
“Your… masters?” She tilted her head in confusion.
“Yes! We have to get down to business if we’re going to be ready for the reclamation.”
“I have no idea what you’re talking about, b-but I can help you… maybe.”
It shone that light on her again “Thank you, native.”
Autumn walked stiffly with fear. She had no idea what she had done, or what this thing following her was. Hopefully, Rain Shine could make sense of what she had uncovered.
Across the world, a graceful pair of mares poked around their grand collection of books. The sisters had been working themselves to near death while trying to keep up with the radical changes their fellow princess had brought upon the kingdom. Unsure of how they managed to do it, but they had one day to themselves, and they were going to enjoy it with one of their more… private pastimes.
“Ooh, sister, look!” Luna presented a book with a masculine pony holding a mare in an opaque flowing dress tenderly. “I think this one will be most enjoyable!”
Celestia read the title and suppressed a laugh. “You’ve made a good choice, sister. Let’s see if I can find one to match.” She scanned through her entire romance section, flying through books that ranged from tame to risque on a taboo level. After tearing apart most of her collection, she found a book simply titled “The Scorch”. A dragon stood behind a pony with torn clothes who clung to what appeared to be a dead or dying mare. “What do you think of this?” She asked like a giddy filly.
“Ooooh, this will work nicely!” Luna chirped. “Come! We don’t have all day!”
“I’m coming, sister,” Celestia giggled.
She and Luna had gotten more time to reconnect after Starlight had switched their cutie marks. One of their favorite things to do, when they had time, was to pick two of the most barebones, cheesy, and cliched romance novels and make fun of them. Whether it be corny dialogue, elongated paragraphs, poorly written angst, and of course… the saucy bits…
It was to be held in Luna’s tower this time. The nocturnal sister burst through her door and flopped on to her bed. A bottle of wine, and a bag of hay chips all ready for her. Celestia didn’t snack when she read. The sound of chewing broke her concentration. As Celestia flipped past the table of contents, Luna erupted into a fit of giggles.
“I haven’t even seen the glossary yet and there’s a cheesy preamble speaking about how “Fear is the Heart of Love”.
“Oh, really?” Celestia chuckled.
“Yes! Listen to this. ‘I once heard that no love can come from hate, but fear. Fear is the heart of love. And if that’s the case, then everyone must adore me’.”
Luna laughed while Celestia tried to best to keep a straight muzzle in spite of the cringe. “Oh… Oh my,” She sighed.
“What?” Luna asked, rolling over on her back.
“This novel contains coarse language, sexual situations, and violence… Perhaps we should come up with a rating system for these books.” She jumped several chapters ahead and landed on one such scene. “Ah… well. At least that warning held true.”
“Care to read aloud sister…?” Luna teased with a sly look. Celestia instantly turned red and began sputtering before a trail of smoke entered the room. Spike’s message couldn’t have been timed any more perfectly. “Something from Princess Twilight?” Luna asked while munching on a few chips.
Celestia gently removed the wax seal and read the letter to herself before she nearly jumped, now donning a concerned frown.
“What is it, sister?”
“Twilight’s cutie map has our marks hovering over the Peaks of Peril.”
Luna tilted her head with a raised brow. “That’s… strange. We aren’t connected to the elements, are we?”
“I do not know,” She sighs and closes her book. “So much for our day off.”
“It was bound to happen eventually,” Luna drank all of the wine left in her glass. “I’m glad we were able to open our books this time.”
“As am I,” Celestia chuckled, relieved that she didn’t have to read through a dragon getting friendly with a group of mares aloud.
Twilight waited giddily for the princesses to arrive. Seeing a friendship problem where the princesses were the ones to solve it rather than be the subject was exciting on an entirely different level. Spike, sat by her side stroking his wing membranes tenderly, taking an occasional glance at her.
“You look kinda creepy with that smile, y’know?”
“I can’t help it! This is unprecedented! I finally get to see the princesses take a step into my field of expertise!”
Spike rolled his eyes with a shake of his head. “You forget that you’re a princess too sometimes.”
Twilight flared her wings, “Yeah, but. They’re The princesses! And I get to watch them fix a friendship problem!”
“You need a stallion in your life,” Spike snorted to himself.
Twilight would stare at the map, then take a quick peek at the door several times hoping for Celestia and Luna to appear right before her. Starlight entered with a cup of juice in her magical grasp. She looked at Spike, then to Twilight with some concern.
“What’s up with her?” She asked while taking a sip.
“Celestia and Luna were called by the map and Twilight can’t wait to see what they have to do.”
“Holy crow! Really?”
“Yeah,” Spike shrugged. “You get used to Twily-nanas moments”
“This isn’t a ‘Twily-nanas’ moment!” Twilight hissed.
“I already know that. I didn’t know that they could be called by the map,” She approached the table and peered over. “Isn’t that where Applejack and Fluttershy met the Kirins?”
“Exactly! I wonder what kind of trouble those ‘hotheads’ are stirring up this time.”
“Good one, Twilight,” Spike chuckled. Then, Celestia and Luna entered escorted by two Royal Guards.
“That will be all gentlecolts,” Celestia dismissed with a wave of her wing.
“Celestia! Luna!” Twilight greeted each of them with a warm hug. “I’m so, so, very excited that you’re here!”
“It would seem,” Luna teased.
Twilight trotted back to the map and swished her tail happily.
“So, where are we needed?” Celestia asked while getting a closer look. “Oh! I haven’t been to the Peaks of Peril in ages.”
“Oh… great… Kirins…” Luna groaned.
“Are you okay, Princess?” Twilight asked.
“Rain Shine and I have a bit of a… history.”
“Let’s just say that fire and fire only beget more fire,” Celestia added.
Luna grumbled in agreement.
“Oooh, maybe that’s why the map called you!”
“That couldn’t be. We haven’t spoken to the Kirins in hundreds of years,” Luna spoke with bemusement.
“Well, whatever the case. We must investigate.”
“Uhm… can I tag along?”
Celestia and Luna shared a look. “Of course. We could use some guidance on how to solve a friendship problem.”
“You want me to guide you?” Twilight beamed.
“A good teacher learns as much from their students as they do from her after all,” Celestia smiled.
“Yes!” Twilight literally flipped. “Spike, pack some parchment, extra ink, and snacks!”
“On it!” Spike saluted.
“Starlight, do you want to come with?” Twilight asked.
Starlight looked up at Luna and Celestia and took a hasty sip of her juice. “I’m fine. You guys have this covered.”
“Alright. Just give me a moment princess,” Twilight ran off as a blur of purple. Leaving Starlight with Celestia and Luna. Starlight would occasionally glance at them before awkwardly shuffling off to who knows where.
“So, the Kirins. In all honesty, I nearly forgot they existed,” Celestia spoke up.
“I could stand to forget them once again,” Luna growled.
“We’ll need your cooperation if we’re going to figure out what their issue is.”
“I’ll cooperate just fine. It’s Rain Shine that you should be lecturing.”
“Luna,” Celestia draped her wing over Luna’s back. “It is alright. You were younger and much more brazen then and… so was she.”
“We’ll see,” Luna sighed.
Kirins gathered around the spheroid visitor buzzing with questions occasionally poking the thing in the eye, much to its dismay.
“I’ve seen this before, but I can’t recall when,” Rain Shine spoke from beyond the crowd.
“Does it have a name?” Autumn blaze asked.
“That’s the thing. I haven’t the slightest what it could be.”
A rustling came from behind them revealing Celestia’s towering figure dwarfing all with her wings outstretched.
“Princess!” Rain Shine greeted with a bow.
“Hello old friend,” Celestia bowed as well. Luna stood beside her sister with her mouth clamped shut and as straight a face as she could muster. Rain Shine noticed and matched her expression.
“Princess Luna.”
“Rain Shine.”
“Well, where are my manners! What brings you all the way out here?”
“We heard that there may be a friendship problem that needs to be resolved,” Celestia and the others followed behind Rain Shine as she led them to the gathering of Kirins.
“Another one? And so sudden… well. It may have something to do with what young Autumn Blaze found earlier today.”
She led them closer until a male voice could be heard warning the “natives” not to poke at his carapace. Celestia’s ears perked up instantly upon hearing his familiar tone. She parted the crowd and came face to face with the curious sentient object.
“Oh! Hey. Who are you?” He asked before scanning Celestia. “It can’t be…” He gasped.
Celestia stood frozen before him, unable to move nor think.
Luna approached and donned the same expression before speaking to the orb. “117?”
“Yes? Are you who I think you are?” He scanned Luna and pirouetted in joy. “Haha! I recognize those genesongs anywhere!”
“It… it…” Celestia stammered.
“What’s wrong, Mistress Heiliona?”
“Why did he call you Heiliona?” Twilight asked.
“And why does that name sound so familiar?” Rain Shine added.
Celestia and Luna still didn’t move. It was as if they had seen a ghost and their hooves had been stayed by paralyzing fear.
“Mistress Hydorae, what’s wrong with your sister? Did her cognition core take a few bumps over the millennia?”
“W-W-We’re just… surprised that you have awakened l-lucky.”
“Why? You told me to reactivate once I received a signal from the other shield worlds.”
“Which shield world?” Celestia asked with an unsteady tone.
“Requiem.”
“Princesses… what is happening?” Twilight asked with more than just slight worry. Once she caught the frightened look in the sisters’ eyes she knew that whatever this ball spoke of could be earth-shattering.
“So… it has begun then?”
“Yes. It’s only a matter of time before the reclaimers find Caballus.”
For eons, they had sought to keep their world safe. Out of the reach of anyone who would violate forerunner artifacts for their own gain. But now the day they dreaded was finally upon them. The greatest most violent species the ecumene ever faced, barring the parasite, had already found one of the shield worlds. The final words of the Didact before he vanished rattled through their heads. The reclamation has already begun. And they were hopeless, no. They were powerless to stop it