//------------------------------//
// Chapter 30 - Twilight's Confession 
// Story: Twilight Daylight: Psera, The Legend of Legends 
// by thedarktome 
//------------------------------//

One second Pudge Mount was standing in her living room speaking with Hard Love and Hard Seas. The next she was seeing black. No feeling in her body. No brain activity. Nothing. It was cold. It was scary. She didn't know how long she was out. She didn't know how she was knocked out in the first place. But Maheera did.

She sat upon Queen Novo's throne observing current events through the eyes of Hard Seas, Hard Love, and Pudge Mount together. The perfect candidates for a strategic attack. And it went great. Thousands of Narmeelah's disgusting creations were wiped out. And they had no clue. She didn't know anything about Psera. At all. But thanks to the memories of these ponies her Shadows were infecting, she got a little insight. They were advanced. That much was clear.

At first, she was going to go after that castle. It would've been an excellent target. However, based on magical experience, the Queen would've recognized the runes within an hour. That and her hosts would be looked down upon once they took a step inside. Maheera would've gotten nothing out of that. And since there wasn't that much magic flying around, it took way longer to explode than anticipated this round.

But it was a good error. She got way more of those disgusting Pserateps out of the way than expected. Now time for phase two. Maheera grinned on her throne with the image of the future on her mind. Those ponies would rush into this very house, grab them, they'd be punished, and according to "Narmeelah's Law," they'd speak their last words to the King and Queen before they were shipped off.

She would speak their last words; Maheera would send her own message. Not that her hosts had any idea. When Pudge Mount awoke, she rose from the carpet right behind the front door. Her hooves were splayed out in all directions. Muzzle facing the fancy expensive kitchen directly across.

"Ugggh," she groaned. Then cracked her eyes open and trained them on the ceiling. Everything screamed in pain and aches. Her back, her hooves, her eyes, her mouth especially. Oh jeez, what was going on?

She shifted her body into a sitting position and looked around. Everything seemed normal. Except Hard Seas and Hard Love. Both of them had something going on.

Hard Seas was dropped onto the back of the couch, so now he was leaning over it. Whoo, that was going to hurt when he woke up. Hard Love had her own issues with the glass table she was sleeping on face first.

"Ugghh! Wake up!" Pudge ordered. Then stood up and shook off her burdens.

Hard Love groaned into glass and tilted her head back. Drool leaks out of her mouth and her eyes strained to focus. And a headache beat at the front of her mind.

She asked, "Whoooa, ouch... What happened?" Her tangled mane draped over her face and blocked the room from view for a second before she pushed it to the side with a hoof. Her eyes were lidded, clear with fatigue and drowsiness. She groaned and stood up to stretch her bones and wings. Then walked over to Hard Seas and nudged him by lifting his chin a bit to look into his eyes. "Hey, wakey wakey. What happened to us?"

He cracked his eyes open and trained them on her ruby red eyes. "...what?" He whispered. Then looked around at his predicament. "Hey... Why am I in this extremely uncomfortable position? What did we get into? I hope nothing weird."

Pudge Mount made a beeline for the LiVAM and answered, "I don't know. But I'm not worried about it. Now what were we talking about before we... Did whatever Narmeelah knows we did?" She pressed a button on the side of the LiVAM and made her way back to the couch to flop down on it. Oh, everything hurt. It was like she ran for an entire day.

Hard Love helped get Hard Seas down by shoving him off and sat down in the spot in front of him. "We were talking about how to get the Queen's attention, I believe," she reckoned.

"Oh yeah. She's ruining the nation and our traditions, right. Now how exactly will we—what is wrong with the LiVAM?"

The other two followed her eyes and focused their sights on the blue screen displaying a prompt. "No Connection?" Hard Love relayed. "Since when was that a thing?"

"It's not." Pudge Mount hastily made her way over to the LiVAM. What's wrong with this stupid thing? She tapped it with her hoof and even turned the channels. But there remained no signal. "Yeah, this has never happened before."

Hard Seas sighed and suggested, "Have you tried banging on it?" A stoic look of annoyance was his answer. "Ladies look, I just woke up with a crick in my back because I was sleeping over the edge of the couch with no idea how I got there, cut me some slack here."

Well he had a point. But Pudge Mount wasn't going to let him know that. She sighed and said, "Well either way, this thing's busted right now. Let's discuss getting the Queen's attention over—Hey, it was morning when we left, why is it the afternoon?"



The doors for the Queen's office burst open, allowing her and the rulers of Equestria out onto the red carpet of the Royal Hall. The Guards saluted when they passed, then shut the doors once they did.

Luna quickly caught up to Arcadia and repeated, "Invaded?"

"Yes," she confirmed. Then turned a left to walk for the front of the castle's third floor. "They slipped under the Obelisks. It's Maheera. Guard, summon all executive personnel to the Castle War Room." The pony she was speaking to saluted and opened the doors for her and the Princesses with one stallion. Letting them out onto the walkway leading to the Castle's massive foyer.

Arcadia paid no one any mind. Instead, she pursued her goal: Meeting at the War Room. Gardeen met up with them by the time she reached Arcadia's first apartment here. She smiled to her and said, "You seem better, your highness."

Arcadia looked to her with a deadpan expression and queried, "Really? I just called an emergency meeting."

"Exactly. I would be more relieved if you were walking with your face in a book."

Twilight glanced upwards for a second. Then smirked with a lighting of her horn. A specific book was teleported in front of her face. "You mean like this."

Gardeen pointed a hoof at her and grinned. "Yep! That's it! I feel much better now about your emotions. But why that book, Queen Arcadia?"

Twilight lowered the Information Manual for the PDS Obelisks and graced Gardeen with her "serious mommy" look. "Follow me to the War Room. I think Psera has a major security breach."

Security Breach? Security Breach?! "How could Psera get a security breach without us knowing?"

"That is what I am going to explain." Twilight turned a right into the Situation Room with the Princesses and Gardeen. But she didn't want to. The table was glass, the walls held LiVAMs displaying nothing but the Crest of Psera. Along with the many pads at the seats. No one else was in yet until Madun arrived at the same moment they sat down.

Twilight immediately started her blubberfest. "M-M-Madun, look, listen. I am sorry about what happened in the throne room. You have every right to be upset and..."

Madun plopped down into the seat next to her and rolled his eyes. Much to the amusement of Equestria. Then leaned into Twilight's neck and rubbed his Muzzle against it. Twilight ceased her blubbering and responded to that by slowly tilting her head to the side. Giving Madun much more access. Luna, Cadance and Shining Armor awkwardly shuffled around while Celestia was actually fairly interested in what this is.

After a few seconds Madun pulled away with a smile and whispered, "Stop it."

Every time. Every freaking time. Twilight straightened up and sighed with closed eyes. "How do you do that?" She grumbled.

"You're practically made of buttons. You have the tickle button." He stuck his head in her wings and blew on something that pushed Twilight into a laughing fit. Then pulled out and added, "The angry button." He reached up to her left ear and bit down on it.

Twilight yelped and playfully hit his chest. "No biting there, I'm warning you."

"You have the reset button." He lifted his left hoof and bopped her head.

"Ugh, ma.. mama, ugh... I can't... Madun!" Gardeen had to cover her mouth to keep from from laughing at the Queen's face. Whatever that did had scrambled her brain for a second.

"My cute scrambled egghead. And finally, the relaxation button. You were about to start rambling an apology. Don't, it's okay. I understand, you were worried and hasty."

Twilight sighed and nodded. Holy Narmeelah, she couldn't ask for a better husband. She smirked at him while the military leaders poured in. "You know me well."

"I live with you, sweetie. I know you more than 'well'." He pecked Twilight's cheek and made a motion for the door to be closed. "Now... I assume you have something?"

Right. Twilight nodded and stood up to start the meeting, the zenith of her fears. "Thank you everyone for answering this emergency meeting. As I'm sure you all know, the land of Psera has been attacked by an unknown subject. At this hour, I'm speculating it to be Maheera but it has yet to be confirmed. Are there any updates? Yes, Captain?"

Captain Dark Silver's black coat of fur seemed to absorb the minimum of light in here. He saluted and reported, "A few of my soldiers have retrieved a few feeds from neighboring buildings. Since no one seems to have seen anything, we went back in time and looked around. We didn't need to go back too far." He tapped on the pad at his seat and put up a feed from cameras on the walls.

It was for the front of a nearby building across from the CPC. Probably a restaurant. Three ponies walked out from an alley between it and another. Three ponies the Princesses and Queen recognized.

Celestia raised her hoof and looked to Madun and Twilight. "Are those not those same ponies who—"

"Disrespected me in my Court?" Twilight interrupted. "Yes, they are. Why are they out so late at night?"

Dark shook his head and answered, "No clue, ma'am. But more footage suggests they were headed to the tower, which is closed at this hour."

Of course it is. The maximum last hour that businesses are open is nine here in Cop. It was almost twelve in these images. Twilight sat down and Madun asked, "So what are we doing about it?"

"A raid is scheduled on their places of residence by police. They are the only leads we have but we're not taking any chances."

Twilight nodded and gave her own order. "Bring them to the detention center here in Cop for holding. Now for the reason I called this meeting. I... Have a confession to make." A confession? The Princesses and Shining Armor shared a worried glance. "Bring up the Obelisk Line Feed from the last sixty hours on the East Coast please." While they were making their moves she queried, "What is the news on our offense on Maheera?"

Secretary Manny saluted and answered, "We have a spy currently being given her debriefing package. Our goal is to have Private Smalls of the Elite Guard's Fourth Aerial Precinct to complete a quick aerial scan of Equestria's coast so Lavender can do an assessment and plan a strategy. Then it was recommended earlier in time that you are enlisted."

Twilight nodded and focused on the pad in front of her. Of the scans of the Obelisk Line. "Yes, I heard about this. Pause it." The rewind ceased with a clock in the bottom right corner showing 01:00AM. "Move it forward regular speed." The layout of the Obelisk Line's feed looked similar to a ball field. A big white outline of a circle with a mass of red in the middle. The distance between the two was divided into thirds. It worked just like the Depth Scans. Just always constant.

It worked through heat. By scanning for heat signatures, Psera's able to detect how far, deep, and fast the object is moving. It's impenetrable and flawless. Or so ponies thought. Queen Arcadia knew everything had a weakness, and the Obelisk Line was no exception. If an object reported relatively low heat and was small enough, it could get past by flying like a Pseratep. A serious flaw she herself only believed was not too important and needed not be addressed.

Until now. She raised her hoof and took over the scan by slowing it fifty times. The rotating timer on the bottom left corner that looked like a clock with a single hand slowed drastically. She was close... She could feel it. It was... There.

Queen Arcadia tapped pause and hummed. Within a centimeter of the property line splitting Psera from free seas were dots. Yellow dots with numbers next to them showing depth. And a lot of them, almost a hundred. Oh, this was not good. Not at all.

Secretary Manny asked, "What is that?"

Queen Arcadia didn't answer. Not yet. Ever so slowly she nudged the time up. The dots moved past the line and disappeared in the same second it was scanning. Then Arcadia sighed and closed her eyes. "I have bad news," she whispered. Her eyes opened back up to train on the ponies watching her and she explained.

"The PDS Obelisk Line... Has a flaw. At the time of build it was pushed to the side because it was deemed unnecessary and extremely unlikely to ever happen."

Admiral Shooting Star crossed his silver hooves and asked, "What is this flaw?"

"I'm sure you all know that the Obelisks work by detecting temperature. Anything within a fifty mile radius off of our seas will be detected at a high of one hundred degrees ten miles out, with a low of five one mile and less coming in at seventy degrees. When I built them, it was with the mentality that even if anything comes towards Psera below sixty that they will not survive the trek here across the seas alive at that temperature, considering it is flu temperature and they have far less than twenty-four hours to live. They wouldn't even make it fifty miles in, let alone one hundred from the Line. It would be a waste of my time and magic to set it even lower.

"However, one of our... 'Labs' reported that the temperature of the infected dropped to thirty degrees. I paid it no mind and told them to continue their research. But today while I was in contact with Bright Gold I realized... That these ponies were surviving those temperatures. Below death temperatures. Much longer than I thought they would. And among those ponies were creatures who can swim.

"The PDS is great, but it isn't perfect. At thirty degrees, the subject would have to be within a fourth of a mile of one obelisk to be detected. Once again, paid it no mind. Maheera is not that foolish.

"I was wrong. Two days ago, my daughter believed she heard growling and saw red eyes in a shadow at school. Spying on her class. That was confirmed by the Guards there that even the teacher saw it. A few reports around the Country have slipped across my desk about these noises as well. The Crown sent out an order commanding Psera's Animal Control to look into these. Still no mind to the Obelisk. Until today.

"It was a crazy thought, but even I knew that it was worth it in this time. I looked into the Obelisk and slowed down the recent scans twenty four hours before I was told of Fresh Dawn possibly being watched." Arcadia pointed to the feed on the wall currently empty. "Then I pushed forward slow." The clock in the bottom left slowly moved forward before a mass of yellow dots slowly appeared on the screen once more. Then disappeared once more at the same pace. "And saw that."

Secretary Manny repeated, "What is that?" She was genuinely afraid of the answer.

"Those..." Twilight swallowed hard. "Are Maheera's infected ponies. A small storm, possibly a recon squadron. They got past our early detection by using temperature against us. I theorize that when they were deployed, their temperature was that of a regular pony. But swimming through the sea lowered it greatly. So low in fact that they became invisible to The Obelisk Line until they were directly skimming it. And still invisible then at regular speed."

Arcadia rewound it once again and played the detection normally. The only proof something got there was a small tiny yellow flash that could have been mistaken for a daring fish. It lasted less than a hundredth of a second. "They got past our Obelisk Line, onto our land as 'growling animals', and I believe are responsible for the destruction of our tower. And the thousands of lives lost in it."



Holy buck. Pudge Mount was just staring in horror with Hard Seas and Hard Love over her shoulder. The newspaper. The images surfacing of the collapsed tower in Cop. Holy... Pudge Mount just shook her head and let the paper slip out of her hooves to the floor below. The death toll was at over three thousand now. One third were children.

Hard Love had tears streaking down her face. "How..." She whispered. She shook her head and whimpered, "How could anyone do this?! It's a monstrosity!"

Pudge Mount stood up and sighed. Just to think about all of those lives lost out there. Innocent lives that had no care in the world. It made her want to wrap herself in these wings and just... She faced Hard Love and Seas with a face of steel. "I don't know how or when this happened. Seriously, I don't recall any of this. But—"

The front door suddenly being kicked in spooked and interrupted Pudge Mount's thoughts. "POLICE! ON THE GROUND, ON THE GROUND!!"

Police?! Hard Love did as instructed when the ponies burst into the kitchen and started apprehension. The pushed them over and stepped on their spines to keep them pinned to the ground.

Hard Love screeched and yelled, "Wait what's going on?! Why are we being arrested?!!" Her hooves were forcefully spread out and they started ruffling through her wings.

"Quiet! By order of The Crown, you are under arrest for Suspicion of Genocide!" They pulled them up into a sitting position and placed steel rings around their torso to keep their wings in place. Then did something in the back out of sight that tightened them in place.

"WE WOULD DO NO SUCH THING!!" Pudge Mount argued. She couldn't run away. Her hooves were bound together by chains and connected to each other. Even if she did try to get away, it would be as if she were a foal running. They would be on her quick and fast. Hard and down.

Hard Love looked to the police and bargained, "You have to believe us, we would never do something like that!"

The officer she was looking up to placed a wing on her back and started leading them into the living room. The police in here were looking around and at them as they were ushered out. On the road outside was a large steel chariot with a steel box on the back. A door was open in the back by other police officers standing there with weapons out. Why did they have those, they weren't armed! And they definitely weren't going anywhere!

They ignored the looks from the rest of the neighborhood and allowed themselves to be ushered to the insides of the block of steel with narowed windows letting in air and a view they didn't need. Then the door was sealed and they were locked inside with horror on their minds.