“Of the Tomb Guard, it was said that none could match them in battle. The Black Guard were fanatic, the Spire Guard cunning, and the Shade Guard wise. But, the Tomb Guard bear the power of our Emperor and the blood of his children - that is what separates them from all others.”

- Let them fear Us by Phanes, Keeper of the Liturgy and Blood of the Emperor -

Queen Luna, Lady of Darkness, lorded over the darkened city of Canterlot from the balcony of the Royal Palace. High above, the moon, far larger than it would usually be, shone the barest of light over the land. What few ponies were visible, buzzing about the Palace like bees, were batponies, clad in the navy blue armour of Luna's army. Those ponies who had supported Celestia, whose numbers had been small but substantial enough to near empty Canterlot, had fled somewhere to the north, near the Crystal Mountains. Luna had not deigned to follow, at least not yet, especially since she was only certain of the absolute loyalty of her personal elite guard, who made up only a small portion of her army.

Azin, the Dreaded, stood in the shadows behind her, flanked by a pair of her Elite Guard. They waited in silence for her to turn, which she eventually did, gesturing for the guards to leave with just a nod. "Azin," she said, as the Tomb Guard stepped forwards from the darkness, "thou bringeth news?"

"Yes," he said, stepping up to the balcony's edge, "our enemy is retreated to the mountains, where they hide amongst the snow. Tyak is hunting them as best he can, though we have not the numbers to find them all."

Luna contemplated sending more soldiers, before shaking her head and replying, "I cannot spare any more. Half of these soldiers I do not trust, the rest are needed in case of rebellion. Tyak will have to make do with what he has."

Azin nodded. "The wizard has fled, I cannot sense his magic within the mountains, it is likely he is either hidden somewhere within the country, or he has fled over the sea."

"No.” Luna cut his idea off quickly. "We haven't the ponypower to spare. I would rather not risk disaster over a hunch."

Azin growled again, but nodded regardless. “The Emperor has found your contribution most worthy, there is a crystal waiting for you in the Cryptum."

Luna was silent, nodding and quickly retreating from the balcony. She very nearly galloped towards the spiral stairs that led down into the depths of the mountain. The Cryptum, as it had become known, was initially created by Luna's order to - as she informed her sister, anyway - store her experiments. Since then, it had become a complex where she had stored weapons, soldiers, plans and, above all, her connection to Emperor Nicholas. She passed various members of her Elite Guard, gathering weapons, drawing up plans, training in the specialised yards or working to construct materials. The door to the communion room, constructed of obsidian, forged by Nicholas himself, was flanked by a pair of Elite Guards, faces covered by stylised helmets of a Tomb Guard, they pushed the door aside as Luna was walking, slamming it closed the moment she entered.

Luna was met with a pitch dark cavern, lit only by a large, dark green crystal that was at least twice her height and hovering above a crevice she swore was bottomless. She stood before it in silence, feeling the presence of the Emperor in the air.

"Luna," an ethereal voice spoke from all around her, the crystal pulsing as it did, "you have done well. Azin has told me that the Light has been banished from much of your land, this is good. Though, I know that Azin and Tyak cannot enforce your will, or my own, alone. I have seen it fit to grant you another two Tomb Guard. They have been spawned specially. They are of your blood as well as mine, I have named them Qirin and Karavon, they will fight well."

Two portals, black, wreathed in dark green writhing energy, opened with ethereal screams. From them emerged two Tomb Guard, both identical. Their helmets, three flat pointed crowns, partly glowed with the runes inscribed into them - the residual energy of their teleportation burning off. The rest of their armour, vaguely pyramidal shaped, with large horizontal shoulder pads and an expansive pad for the torso, looked almost polished, like jet stone. They stood before Luna, on the very edge of the bottomless crevice, and kneeled, bowing their heads.

The voice was silent and the crystal darkened. The presence of Nicholas seemed to leave the room, likely off to perform another operation. Luna looked to the two Tomb Guard, who had risen and prepared to follow. "Come," she said, "I will inform you of your duties."

The Core of the Shield World was surrounded by entire Fleets of warships. Above the portal controls, which formed the new Imperial headquarters, hung a dozen cruisers, utterly dwarfed by the pair of Supercarriers that were above them. The platform was utterly filled with tanks, walkers and soldiers, going about whatever business they had been assigned to. Within the structure were more soldiers, of various calibres, from regular Fusiliers and elite guards, along with a host of new arrivals. Chief amongst them were a company of soldiers from what Emperor Nicholas called Project PHALANX. He had introduced them to Twilight and her friends after a squad of them had marched by.

"Hey.” Twilight tapped Nicholas' left, pointing to the eight soldiers in suits of dark grey power armour. “Who are they?"

"They are called PHALANXs," he replied, "bio-engineered supersoldiers. You won't need to worry about them."

Another squad came from the same corridor, their armour a dark red, with their helmets' large visors silvery. A pair marched up close to Nicholas, both saluting. "Sir," one said, voice processed but still properly distinguishable, "WarFleet Tempestuous Shadows has arrived."

The other spoke, voice clearly different, but barely, "PHALANX Omega, Alpha, Delta and Mu Companies are here, Gamma, Beta and Lambda are inbound."

Nicholas nodded, the PHALANXs dismissing themselves after a few seconds. He turned back to Twilight, who was looking the departing soldiers over. "No," he said, "you do not."

Twilight, having just had the thought of wondering how they were 'bio-engineered', nodded gravely. One day, she was sure, she'd find out. It was likely just a matter of getting a stronger stomach.

"Twilight," he said, "we should go to the portal controls, I have a job you may enjoy."

The portal controls were a massive room of consoles and screens. At the far end was a window leading to what Twilight assumed was the portals themselves, or at least a few of their frames. There were two dozen WarSynths scattered about in defensive positions, ignoring Nicholas and Twilight. The two came upon the largest console, a large, blue screened semicircle, creating a berth for an operator. The screen was covered in various runes, some were somewhat familiar to her, others entirely unknown.

"The portals can only be activated from these consoles," Nicholas said, gesturing to the room, "this one containing the main activation switch. However, there are no translations from the old language of the Assembly, and our own translators cannot be trusted to come up with a working translation within an appropriate time frame. You, however, have a certain gift for working on these things, so I'm granting you whatever resources you need to get these portals online."

Twilight nodded, excited by the prospect of working on an alien language. "But," she said, a wave of confusion coming over her, "surely you could do it? You seem to already know the language, or at least most of it."

Nicholas chuckled, shaking his head. "Twilight." He kneeled to get closer to her. "Total guesswork." He patted her back carefully, before turning to leave. "If you need anything," he said, voice echoing as he went, "contact me."

Twilight turned back to the console, inspecting it all over. It was made of thin, white alloy, very smooth to the touch, supported by two legs of similar alloy on either end. It curved in a near full semicircle, the screen covering the whole of the top of the shape. Various small runes flashed on either side, with one large rune flashing in the middle. It was a simple full circle with a vertical line in its centre. Twilight tentatively tapped it, which caused every screen in the room to flare to life, and for the window to be suddenly filled with various runes and graphs. Her own console had shifted, a pair of large runes making up the centre with numerous small sliders and paragraphs of runes scattered about.

She pressed the large rune on the left, which caused the centre two runes to be replaced by a black rectangle, with a thin red line going across it. "Welcome," the voice of Exultation-001 came from hidden speakers, apparently just below the console by the sound, the thin line moved whenever it spoke. "You are trying to activate the portal controls, correct?"

Twilight thought. A password system, from what she could gather, was what stood between her and the activation. Despite the simple nature of a password system, it was still a matter of sifting through potentially quadrillions of possible assemblages of alien letters. Hoping she wouldn't be locked out, or worse, she spoke, "Twilight Sparkle."

Exultation-001 was silent for a moment. "Authorisation attempt failed. Please state your authorisation."

Far beyond the Shield World's surface, something was cresting the surface of the star. It looked like a creature, though how it had grown to such a size was unknown. Tentacles of white flesh slowly wrapped around the star, clearly and slowly bleeding it of mass. The rest of the creature's body gradually brought itself into view, a massive, worm-like creature with writhing, tumourous growths the size of planets covering its form. What constituted as its face were three triangular extrusions, which could open to reveal its cavernous mouth. The tentacles which pulled it along were at least dozens of kilometres wide, and thousands long, though appeared almost minute next to its full size.

Rising from Cradle's interior were hundreds of starships, ready to meet the creature. At the armada's head was the Crown of Ash, with a pair of supercarriers on either side of it. Scattered amongst the rest of the fleet were carriers, dreadnoughts and battleships of all kinds, with cruisers leading squadrons of thin, tapered hull destroyers and corvettes whilst box-like frigates weaved between them like enormous flies. The Crown of Ash opened fire first, sending two blue streaks flying into the worm creature's flesh. The same bolts of light that had killed Equestria impacted the creature, creating explosions larger than worlds but did no visible damage aside from a pair of burn marks. The force became a symphony of weaponry, every weapon fired in perfect tandem with the others, intent on causing maximum potential damage to the creature; impact after impact rocked it, yet it still moved and showed no sign of letting up. On the bridge of the Crown of Ash stood Kyhron, awaiting his father's next commands from the surface.

"Kyhron," the deep, dreadful and menacing voice of Nicholas' true form rose from within his mind, "pull back, inside the crust. I shall deal with this creature myself."

The PHALANXs had proven themselves to be efficient, Nicholas was happy to give them that; they had cleared the surface within half an hour of his notice, he having left the Core to find the crust devoid of any soldiers, as though they were never there. The yellow star was mostly covered, like an eclipse, Nicholas standing in between the shadow of artificial night and day. Above, fast approaching, was the creature, which he had some difficulty with convincing Exultation-001 not to shoot. The closer it got, the brighter the various runes on Nicholas' sword glowed. As the first of the creature’s tendrils entered the atmosphere, the runes became brighter than the star itself, burning the scant vegetation around them.

"Maw of Hell?" Nicholas said, the creature seeming to hear him, "you are nothing."

"Hmm," Twilight said aloud, she had been reading a book she had found in a draw beneath one of the consoles in the room, it had included a number of what she assumed were names, "orinth."

Exultation seemed to chuckle. "That is a greeting, please state your authorisation."

"Ugh." Twilight put her head in her hooves, trying to think of something that would work. "Authorisation," she said, having all but given up.

Twilight looked up at the console in silence, before slamming the floor with her hooves, "unbe-bucking-lievable!"

Nicholas' sword sliced cleanly through the next tentacle. Whilst the stormcannons of the warships had only scorched it, the immense power of his relatively simple sword quite simply deleted what it came into contact with. The creature was, despite being in orbit, not moving its titanic body any further. Its dismembered tentacle thrashed as it bled below, with the half that was still attached flailing to catch the rapidly ascending Nicholas.

His wings, impenetrable as they were, threw him skywards, the creature next to helpless against what, to it, was a tiny target. He had run the simulations of this battle a million times over, every attack pattern, every guard, every reaction of the creature accounted for; he was acting on muscle memory. As a swarm of tentacles sped towards him, he angled his wings into a spin, pirouetting past the swarm as the wickedly sharp tips of his wings sliced through flesh. In a sudden spurt of blood, the tentacles shattered and fell.

Nicholas spread his wings again, bringing his assent to a halt and angling him towards the creature's maw. With his free hand, he conjured a ball of writhing shadows. Bringing his arm back, he recalled the exact angle and force needed to propel it into the creature's heart. After no less than a second, he pushed it forwards, before letting himself be taken by gravity.

The shadow mass travelled up in silence, the creature apparently not having noticed it. As another swarm of tentacles moved on Nicholas, a faint breeze heralded a sudden shockwave from above. The creature, noticeably smaller, fell from orbit, its corrupted flesh keeping it from simply melting as it entered the atmosphere. It impacted the ground with a tremendous quake, cracking the mud and stone beneath it. As a cloud of dust swept over him, Nicholas landed too, silently, without any such reaction from the earth.

As the dust settled, he beheld the monster, slithering about its new surroundings confusedly. Suddenly, it stopped, bringing a tentacle up close to its mouth. Nicholas looked closely, seeing what normal eyes would not: a speck of cyan, encased in the white and gold tumourous flesh of the creature. He launched himself forwards at lightning speed, the land behind him cracking for miles when he did.

He struck the creature with a glancing blow along its top, just beyond its mouth, causing the creature to reel and roar out. With a second strike on its upper jaw flap, the tentacle released the stricken pegasus, who fell, unable to use her wings. Nicholas swung around, striking the creature again as he caught Rainbow in one claw. With a single beat of his mighty wings, he was away, searching for a safe location to deposit the pegasus whilst he fought the creature. He soon found it, in the form of a maintenance bunker, connected to a platform below the surface.

He lay her in the doorway, banging on it twice. "Come up," he yelled, certain whoever was within could hear him, "tend to this injured one."

He brought his sword in front of him in a guard. "Monster," he challenged the creature, who seemed eager to accept, "no more games, now you die."

"But," Twilight yelled, banging the console with her hooves, "that is my identity! I am Twilight Sparkle!"

"Negative," Exultation-001 said, whose only form appeared to be a red line, "databases indicate you are not 'Twilight Sparkle'."

"Well," Twilight's tone shifted from rage to sarcastic, "I've only just found out you exist, so maybe your databases don't know me."

Exultation-001 was silent for a moment. "Negative. Precursor identified, database entries located physically on SHIELD-001, local databases keep a digital copy."

Twilight groaned again, "come on," she pleaded, "just let me in. I'm Twilight Sparkle, that's who I am."

The console in front of Twilight flashed up with a file, two paragraphs of runes and glyphs encircling a stylised picture of her cutie mark. She groaned again, it would take her another age to translate all of the runes, even despite knowing half already. Content with work, but angry with the difficulty of it all, she got to reading.

The Maw of Hell, as Nicholas had identified it, was at death's door within minutes. Even as titanic as it was, the hundreds of deep, biting wounds from Oathbreaker had sapped its strength, so much so that it was little more than a slowly flailing mass of flesh, its jaw no longer strong enough to open and close fully. With the last reserves of its strength, it jolted forwards, catching Nicholas within its mouth. He descended through its damp, dark insides, slashing at whatever looked important. Soon, he found himself somewhere within what on a regular creature would be its chest cavity. The Maw had no lungs to speak of, nor many of the other organs that would be present in the majority of other life forms. It did, however, have a heart: the size of Nicholas' fist, grey and cancerous, almost entirely encased in a fat like substance.

He grasped it in a three clawed hand, the fat caving in slightly as the creature's body began to spasm and twitch violently, trying to dislodge him. The thin tendons that held it in place had little give, taking an effort to pull away. Each was like a rope of metal, snapping like a whip when broken, cutting through the creature's flesh. Eventually, the heart gave way entirely, what little pinkish colour it had quickly fading, the creature thrashing one final time before becoming still. Nicholas beheld the heart for a moment, observing something hidden to the normal eye, before crushing it and casting its remains aside. In what little space he had, he turned to the creature's wall of skin, which shattered like glass as he walked through it, the star above burning away the rapidly decaying flesh.

He spread his wings and took flight towards the maintenance bunker where he had left the injured Rainbow Dash. He found her behind four PHALANXs, with a further two tending to her, the other two of the squad were likely further within, or somewhere around. The pegasus was groggy, as if just awoken from sleep, but seemed strong enough to respond to the PHALANXs’ attentions.

"What does that thing do?" She asked, speech slurred slightly, pointing to an instrument in one of her medic's hands.

"It's a stimulant injector," she said, placing it onto Rainbow's neck, "hold still." She depressed a button, the instrument making a click and causing Rainbow to wince slightly. "Should keep you awake and moving whilst we get you sorted.” She turned to her colleague. "Pass the scanner."

One of the PHALANXs not tending to Rainbow looked up at Nicholas, whose glittery look from the Maw of Hell's flesh was slowly starting to recede. "Damn good job, sir. Thought we were in trouble with that thing."

"Thank you." Emperor Nicholas nodded to the PHALANX, who stepped aside to allow him better access to Rainbow. "What is her condition?"

The male PHALANX rose, stepping out of Rainbow's earshot. "Both her wings are done for, nothing much we can do there; she's got a punctured lung, on the left side, we can fix that in the medical bay easy enough; most of the bones in her left front and two back legs are broken, fixable but still pretty painful; and she has mild internal haemorrhaging that we've cleaned up. If she survives, which she probably will, she won't fly again without assistance."

Nicholas nodded gravely. "Radio for medical extraction, get her fit and working as quickly as possible."

Nicholas kneeled to get closer to Rainbow. "We are going to move you," he said, "once the medics arrive. Until then, sit tight with this team. I need to check on Twilight."

His body collapsed in on itself, teleporting him to the other side of Cradle. Rainbow almost seemed not to notice, but had nodded her affirmative when Nicholas had told her the plan.

"Hey," she said, drawing the attention of one of the PHALANXs, "who are you guys?"

"Red Team," he said, pointing to their scarlet coloured armour, "I'm Sam, these are Douglas, Hayden, Ellie, Aimee and Em."

Ellie gave a wave, Em nodded, Hayden gave a thumbs up and Douglas a salute with two fingers. Aimee continued attending her, silently rebuffing any attempt at conversation. Rainbow returned each with courtesy of a hoof wave, which Aimee immediately manoeuvred down to avoid further breakages.

"Would consider her for PHALANX," Em mused to Ellie, who gave them a dig in the shoulder to imply the negative, "she's tough, besides, she'll probably need it."

Their heavily accented expression drew Rainbow's attention. "What do you mean?" She asked, looking over her right shoulder to the PHALANX, whose visor bore a rather crude image of a skull.

"Nothing," Ellie said, "they mean nothing." She shot a glance at the PHALANX, who just chuckled and shook their head.

Em leaned in close, making sure Ellie was out of ear shot. "When you're up and walking again, ask for High Admiral Sol, trust me."

On cue, two medics, identified by the red runes on their left shoulder plates, emerged from the bunker, the remaining pair of Red Team's members following behind. One of the medics set up their stretcher, a collapsible device that fit on their back, and loaded Rainbow onto it whilst their comrade ran scans.

"I've already checked her," Aimee said, in her no-nonsense tone, "she's stable but I can't do any more."

"Yes sir." One of the medics nodded, before lifting the stretcher and taking her down into the bunker.

Douglas walked up to Sam, "you think she'll be okay?" There wasn't much concern in his voice, if there was then he was good at hiding it.

"Yeah," Sam replied immediately, "definitely. Just depends what she does afterwards."

Twilight rubbed her temples. "Okay," she said, keeping her breathing solid and steady, "okay, I did it." She looked over the newly sorted text one more time, before beginning to read:

My studies into those the Assembly considers Precursors have yielded great fruit. One specific species has caught my eyes, from the planet we call Xayanth. Their abilities are perhaps in excess of even the Emperor themself, especially combined. I spoke to many of their number, though one stood out in particular. She called herself Sunless-Halo-of-Penumbra, she was a scholar of her species, both their history and their current form. She revealed to me they did not create our species, nor any of the worlds in our galaxy, but that they simply traversed the stars before us. She has spoken of an interest to meet with you, and the Emperor themself, perhaps this may be possible in the near future?

I have by my side, as I type, Sunless-Halo-of-Penumbra, the Precursor Magistros Wing-of-Iron-Will will have told you about. She has expressed a wish to meet with you, if Your Majesty allows it. So far, she has shown me incredible feats that members of her kind are capable of, which I have no doubt that Your Majesty would be interested in. I can, if Your Majesty wishes it, have her transferred with me to Sanctum, which is located only a few light years from Xayanth.

Twilight hoped to every god she could find that her translation was correct. If it was not, she would probably just give up, the weight of the task having definitely put her off translating again for the next few years. She studied the two logs again, searching for what she assumed were names, names that could be related in any way to her. She eventually decided on two such names. "Radiant-Dawn-of-Remembrance," she said, awaiting Exultation-001's reply.

Her heart sank slightly, "Sunless-Halo-of-Penumbra," she said, praying internally it would at least bear some fruit.

"Affirmative," Exultation-001 replied, "biometrics confirmed. Welcome back, Sunless-Halo-of-Penumbra."

The room seemed to open up, lights she had not known of previously activated, the screens leading to the portals fell away, replaced by almost entirely transparent shields, the consoles flickered to life and filled themselves with instructions and buttons and graphs. The command terminal, now covered in various buttons she could identify as controls, embraced her warmly. She breathed a sigh of intense relief, sitting back on her haunches and basking in the satisfaction of a job well done.

"Twilight." Nicholas' voice echoed behind through the door behind her. "I need you to unlock the door."

"Nicholas," she shouted back, hoping he could hear her, "why is this machine calling me something else?"

"It called me Sunless-Halo-of-Penumbra," she shouted, mind flooding with thoughts of what it could mean, "who is that?"

She swung a hoof up and onto a button, which prompted the door to click and slowly slide open; Twilight marvelled for a moment how she had known that was the right button, before rising to meet Nicholas, who was rapidly advancing.

In only a few thunderous steps, he was upon the console, attempting to communicate with Exultation-001. "Do'she tuve gar'ya unzh'e. Korva was'ra un'tre." It was clear from his tone he did not know that Twilight could understand him.

"What plan?" She asked, drawing his eye, "and I thought you said you couldn't understand them."

"I did," he replied, almost guiltily, "and I lied. For a purpose. For a purpose, which this AI has unknowingly accelerated."

Exultation-001 hummed, "Sunless-Halo-of-Penumbra was the last living creature to access my network before I was deactivated. From my assessments, it was she who deactivated the portals to stop the Catastrophe from spreading this far. This installation owes its existence to her. I thought it wise to inform her of who she..."

Nicholas held a ball of shadow in a clenched fist, silencing Exultation-001 instantly. "No more," he commanded, "the plan will not be endangered."

He turned to Twilight. "Come," he said, gesturing to the open door, "let us walk, we have much to discuss."

Twilight followed, thoughts of both confusion and a hint of worry flooded her mind, "Nicholas," she said, following close to the titan, who was walking especially slowly for her, "what's going on?"

Once out of the control room, the door closed and Nicholas began to speak, "thousands of years ago, I entered the Great Experiment, at the centre of the planet Chronove. This was to be the Dauxite Assembly's greatest achievement: they had built time machines before, conquered the galaxy and had the technology to build even stars, but this was the absolute pinnacle of their science. It was designed to make a living creature, a biological lifeform, into a time machine in and of themself. This creature, in whatever form it took, would be woven into the very fabric of time, able to alter it at will.”

“The experiment was, however, unfinished, and so I was trapped for a very long time in a cycle of torment." Nicholas seemed to choke.

"But, I found a great many things. I learned of the War in Heaven, in which we now fight, of the eternal rivalry between Light and Dark, of the incredible power of both, and of the Dauxite Assembly. But, above all, I learned of your species. The Assembly called you, and those like you, Precursors, because you predated even their ancient power. Of these ancient Precursors, only your species survived, and even then differently. Luna now is a much more accurate depiction of your species, such is the extent of the mutations you have undergone. The oldest of your species, even amongst those who still survives, are a few millennia old, at most. Yet, you are far, far older. Such was your ancient power, and wisdom, that you placed your very spirit into hibernation, whilst reseeding your species in its new form onto the world you call Equestria, but which the Assembly would call Sanctum, a Shield World. Your spirit, eventually, released itself, subsuming - for want of a better term - the offspring of your 'mother' when it was incredibly early in development. It appears, however, that your memories remain locked away, perhaps never to be released, though your power is certainly coming through."

Twilight nodded glumly, some cynical part of her certain Nicholas was joking with her.

"No," he said, gravely, "I am not. Your magical talent is no accident, these 'spells' and abilities are ones you learned in ages past, unlocked as your soul matured and the memories were activated. I understand this is a lot to take in, and it wouldn't surprise or harm me if you did not believe me immediately. But, I shall have research materials delivered to you, and you are free to speak to me should you need to learn more. In the meantime, you should head up to the medical bay in this facility, Rainbow Dash is waiting for you."

Without a word more, he vanished, leaving Twilight in an unknown corridor, with the sounds of Fusiliers going about various business just beyond the door. She stood by for a minute or two, trying to possibly comprehend the pile of information that had been piled upon her. Eventually, she decided just to go to the medical bay, worried about why Rainbow Dash would be there.

"Hold up." A Fusilier stood in front of her as she tried to enter. "No entry for unauthorised personnel."

Twilight looked up at them. "Emperor Nicholas told me to come, I'm," she hesitated, trying to think of which name to use, "Twilight Sparkle."

The Fusilier pulled back. "Sorry, ma'am, head on through." Their comrade opened the door with a console, Twilight entering.

The medical bay was of decent size, four rooms in total, one forming a reception area. The walls were clearly heavily sterilised, shining white even compared to the corridors outside.

Twilight walked up to one of the grey uniformed soldiers manning the desks. "Excuse me," she said, "I'm here to see Rainbow Dash?"

The soldier nodded, tapping something out into the console in front of him, "to the left," he said, pointing to the doorway. It was automatic, swinging open, to Twilight's surprise - even after she thought she'd gotten used to them - leading her into an eight bed room. Only two of the beds were filled, one with a heavily bandaged Fusilier, sleeping lightly, and the other by a covered shape of a pony.

A pair of medics were by the pony's side, who was revealed as Rainbow Dash as Twilight approached. One of the medics left when they saw her, the other turned to speak to her, "she can talk, just don't tax her." They followed their comrade, leaving her and Rainbow alone.

"Twi." Rainbow's voice was notably quieter than usual. "Got into a bit of trouble, heh."

Twilight smiled, coming in close to her friend. "I can tell. It's not the first time."

Both laughed, "yeah," Rainbow sighed, "although, I think this time is worse than usual."

Twilight gave her a look up and down, her wings, legs and lower back were entirely cocooned in bandages, with several blue points that vibrated at incredibly high frequencies, in order to better heal her injuries. "Yeah," she said, "I guess so."

“You best head off,” she whispered, “I’d rather you not see me like this.”

Much as Twilight wanted to say otherwise, she knew she would need to leave. Not only did she need more information on “Sunless-Halo-of-Penumbra,” but she also would rather not see Rainbow Dash as injured as she was. She gave her best smile to Rainbow, before turning and heading out.

Rainbow Dash was left in silence for another few minutes. Until, through the bulkhead door, came eight crimson armoured PHALANXs, Rainbow immediately recognising them as Red Team. Ellie came up to her first, giving her a look over. "How you feeling?"

Hayden came alongside Ellie. "Considering how you were, you're doing damn good."

Emperor Nicholas looked over the file pulled from the Assembly archives on the lower planet. It was, as far as he was aware, the only picture developed of the old Xayanthan species. It was definitely a pony, at least in the sense of basic shape. Their legs were long, built of solid muscle, terminating in feet with four claws, three forwards and one back. They stood about fourteen feet tall, with their thin, yet powerful smooth horn extending a further five from their head. The wings on their back were enormous, with a total wingspan of forty feet, the longest feathers no less than a metre and a half in length. Their sclera were black, with cyan-magenta irises, their teeth pearl white and jagged, like daggers perfectly fitted together. Their coat was a dark purple, their mane and tail indigo, with the corona of their horn shimmering royal purple. On their muscular flanks was an image, set into coat and flesh, five white, six pointed stars surrounding a larger copy in mulberry. He was rather impressed with his work on Luna, especially after viewing the source material, and even further impressed by the strength of the figure before him.

Sunless-Halo-of-Penumbra, preserved in her original form in video, was, from the data that came with her, incredibly strong, both physically and magically. To replicate this form would take thought, Nicholas not willing to risk allowing mutation to run its course like he had with Luna. He studied it intently, ensuring every last detail was ingrained into his mind, before he would even consider constructing it.

"Hmm." Exultation-001 appeared behind him, bourne aloft by a small flying screen. "A Precursor," it said, "and here too. You wish to reverse the mutation, correct?"

Nicholas grunted, "the rest will make their own fate, Penumbra and Luna are all I need."

The War in Heaven

by voroshilov

VIII. Exultation