//------------------------------// // A New Unity // Story: Cold Scales // by Konatra //------------------------------// The Lord of the Sun sat sternly as he listened to his beloved daughter's tale. She took off her helmet and placed it on the new black slab table as the smaller floating androids cleaned up the mess of black shards and chunks. "Just start from the beginning Spines, how did all this happen?" Spines began her tale... ___ "-After Tendrix sacrificed himself to save me the Androids made me the leader of the entire ship and opted to classify me as Queen due to them studying the hierarchy system our world is in control in. At that point, I decided to start protecting Equestria from the shadows with my forces." Solaris took a hard stare at the child before him and gave an exhausted sigh. "Why didn't you reveal yourself when you were free to roam as you please?" Solaris couldn't be mad at his daughter for her decisions, after all, nothing was her fault and she actually made good use of her situation to do a selfless act and help his people. Still, the king wanted to know just why she chose to keep everyone worried. She looked down, avoiding his gaze in order to come up with an answer, honestly she didn't know exactly why either. The encounter with Dusk made sense since they met during a battle, If he knew the truth he would have thrown himself right into danger to protect her despite her protest, that was not a thought, a cold certain fact and she wouldn't forgive herself if harm came over her brother because of her. But after that, she just didn't seem to want to go home just yet. Also the time she spent learning on how to better command took up a large margin of time, this was essential due to her utter lack of military prowess and limited combat skills. That had changed somewhat with the hours spent training with Bek in mock battles. According to the bot, her combat skills were rated just good enough to properly defend herself against a horde of the Spawn without her suit, she needed a weapon capable of hurting them first though. The suit was doing far more than protecting her as she later came to find out, on the few occasions she had the thing removed she noticed just how tone she had become, while she was nothing to scoff at before since she lost her baby fat years ago, however this level of rock-solid abs, arms, thighs...well it could be argued she had been strength training for years. According to R&D, the suit was filled with chemical implants full of types of steroids that stealth-fully been injecting her around the clock in order to increase her survival probability rate. Well her dreams of being a slim beauty in a dress going to the Gala were crushed...she wondered if Elusive was into girls that could kick his ass. "Spines?" The king knocked the girl out of her 'appropriate' musings. Right she was talking to dad. Her face burned bright and she gulped. "You look troubled." He said sadly and before she could comment he continued. "It must have been hard being alone thinking it was up to you to protect the land you love so much. I know that feeling too, when your uncle Artemis was banished to the Moon I had to hold up the entirety of Equestria for one thousand full years, having the task to both lift the Sun and Moon completely altered my daily life, I had to sleep less, work more as you would guess." He sighed remembering those times. "Few wars I had to wage alone against the Griffon Kingdom leaving large portions of their land in tatters, I'll be honest with you dear Spines, all those years of acting like everything is fine and that I can handle everything was nothing more than a ruse, I was scared and alone with no guidelines of any sort. It is no wonder Nightmare Nebula so easily defeated me despite my knowledge of his return..." The king sat solemnly as his daughter nodded. He shook off the still air between them. "The point is I know how you feel and I know what you are about to go through soon enough and I tell you this." The massive sun king rose from his spot and trotted over to the maskless dragoness. Putting a hoof over her shoulder his fiery eyes stared deeply into her jade-like one. "No daughter of mine will ever have to face the despairs I once did and that is a fact, whatever it is you need to do I will stand by you every step of the way. Spines I give you full support of my kingdom because I can fully trust you no matter what. Your war is now 'Our' war and we will see victory together." Spines couldn't help the sudden flush from her face from showing, she put her hand to her cheek and looked away, unable to meet his gaze. "Geez Dad..." She sighed wishing her helmet was back on. "Well, I am more than happy to hear you say that I think I've taken up more than enough of your time off the throne." She got up grabbing her helmet and putting it to her side. "Come on I'll escort you out." The King was all for leaving as soon as possible before but now that the identity of the mysterious Queen was revealed he wanted nothing more than to stay around awhile and learn about the otherworldly allies his daughter had obtained, but he knew she was right and that what came first were his people at the moment. "Of course Spines." He said following a bit behind her side. "I imagine you are going to set another date for when we can meet without such a pressing time limit so we can make detailed plans. The earliest I can be here is midnight tonight." The queen of androids paused at this. "Tonight, don't you need to sleep?" They were walking down the sleek black corridors devoid of activity. The King had never seen anything like it before, perfect symmetric sterile equilibrium. "I can afford to cast an energizing spell on myself for one night, your tough old-man can handle a sleepless night." He said this while nudging her a bit, throwing off her stride. The two chuckled. "So what will you be doing for now?" "Hm..." She hummed putting a claw on her lip. "Nothing is really planned around her, for now my forces have the Spawn suppressed with their superior forces so I these past days I've either surveyed Ponyville, Canterlot or I would expand my mind and body with the various exercise facilities on this thing. I'm preparing the best I can for if in case things go south and I have to take charge." Solaris nodded mindfully, happy to know his intelligent daughter was planning ahead. They turned a corner into the teleportation station, a simple grey disk on the ground with a holographic keypad made for manual jumps. "I guess we've made our stop, so midnight it is then?" "Yes dad, I'll have an escort come for you then. For now, I would like for you to remain silent on everything you learned until we properly plan out our next move." She said as she typed in codes to return the King to the exact location he was plucked from. Over time she grew accustomed to the alien technology and how to operate it. Solaris nodded at her request. "My lips are sealed; and Spines?" He said while looking back. She looked up to him. "It's good to see you again, you couldn't fathom how worried I've been." He smiled sadly remembering the pain in his chest from before. She returned the smile before putting her helmet back on with an audible hiss. "It's good to see you to dad, sorry for making you all worry." Without waiting for a reply she sent the King on his way with a shimmer of light. ___ The Lord of the Sun shut his eyes at the harsh introduction of natural light. He was back exactly the spot he was spirited away from. He sighed taking in the events of his departure and sat back down as if he never left. After a long time he spoke to no one in particular. "Look like things are about to get interesting...as if things didn't on a common basis." And so he waited in sick anticipation for when he would officially wage war for what could possibly be the most destructive force his Kingdom has ever faced.