//------------------------------// // Chapter 2 - A New Frontier // Story: Harmonious Destiny // by OverlordCornutt //------------------------------// Chapter 2 – A New Frontier It’s another picturesque morning in Ponyville, the soft rays of the sun slowly creating over the hills and trees which surround the quaint little village. Nature it seems is at peace, the assorted critters chittering and bustling about to find their breakfast meals, before setting to work on fortifying their burrows and nests. The streams all bubble and roll lazily along their lengths, weaving and winding across one another before becoming a large river that cuts through the village and the two woods that border it. All is at peace, all is right. The world is as it should be. A low rumble of an approaching storm can be heard over the horizon. The sleepy citizens begin to stir as the light of a new day begins to blanket the world around them, each individual beginning their own personal morning ritual. The Cakes feed the twins, who grow hungrier by the day, and prepare the kitchen for the creation of all the assorted treats they will be making through the day. Pinkie Pie aids them, becoming a blur of pink positivity as she prepares for the morning breakfast rush. Her tail has been twitching, which can only mena this is going to be a a super big day! Elsewhere the Apple clan, having been up for far longer than the rest of the sleepy little town, are hard at work harvesting the eastern fields. It’s Applejack's favorite harvest since it gives her a stunning view of Ponyville, which rests in the valley just a couple miles away. As a filly she would often stare out and watch the sunrise as it stirred the residents awake and filled the world with the bustling life she had come to love in her hometown. As she closes her eyes and feels the cool morning breeze wash over her, the distant thunder growing as it approaches, she feels completely at one with nature. All across Ponyville the citizens awake and prepare for another wonderful and peaceful day, eager to see their friends and loved ones again. Many make preparations for the coming storm which seems to be quickly approaching, if the loud rises of thunder are anything to go by. It is in the middle of this tranquil moment that an immense explosion of sound rattles the sky’s round Ponyville, shattering the peaceful scene as the sky gives way to a large screaming object. It jettisons across the sky, a long pillar of fire erupting from its rear section. It’s more than just loud, to the citizens of Ponyville it seems almost deafening as the strange metallic thing soars overhead and into the distance, it’s presence having only lasted for a few seconds. The impact it had however… would last far longer. Spike watched as his best friend, adopted sibling, and… possibly boss was in the midst of a rather severe episode of Twilighting™. Said pony of interest was currently listening to a crowd of panicked ponies clamoring for attention about what had disrupted their previously fine morning. Twilight's magic had been furiously taking in each and every minute detail for the different witnesses of the event. Her mind races as she tries to make sense of this strange object, eyes darting across parchments of records and sightings as she begins to hyperventilate. For nearly a week now it has done the same routine day in and day out. First it is reported at either A high altitude above Dodge Junction or somewhere in the vicinity of Cloudsdale, occasionally hovering over either city for a few seconds before rapidly departing. Soon after it is seen in Manehattan or Stalliongrad, which can’t be possible given the sheer distance they are from the original sightings. After all there is no way this strange thing would be able to make a transcontinental jaunt just like that… right? Twilight shakes her head, facts come first and theories after. Right now she needs to figure out which cities are seeing this thing and which are simply panicked citizens seeing illusions. Both Luna and Celestia have been helping in this regard, helping to confirm reports through an emergency response team they drafted after the first few sightings. Cadence meanwhile had co to yes to report that no sightings in the northern reaches had surfaced, while Thorax confirmed the same in the south. It's path took it directly across Equestria, from East to west and back, before disappearing somewhere over either Ponyville or Appleloosa. The number of sightings even remains rather constant, Twilight thought, as her mind lured over every detail and chart she had created. Eventually she noticed the towns folk had stopped their barrage of questions and fears and were simply looking at her, somewhat bemused. The pile around Twilight not only had notes but now had grown to include atlases, maps of every era, times of myths and legends and even a few science fiction novels. Pricing this she let out a small enabreseed laugh before setting her assorted aids away and addressing the crowd. Twilight gulped. She laughed a bit too nervously as she began to compose herself, before addressing the crowd. “Everypony, I understand that this is all very strange and frightening, but please rest assured that the Princesses and I are working tirelessly to discover what this object is and what can be done about it,” she approached the crowd. While she may not have had the same presence or experience as Celestia and Luna, she did know this Ponies well and had long since earned both their trust and respect. “For now the best thing to do is try and remain calm, if you see the object or notice anything you think is helpful please don’t hesitate to come and tell me. Now please go about your business, I will let you know if we discover anything new". The crowd slowly dispersed, each complying to their princesses request. While they were still afraid of this unknown terror, they knew Twilight would figure it out, after all she and the other elements were heros! As the last of the crowd exited the meeting hall, Twilight let out a long exasperated sigh. She knew there was some kind of pattern here, she just needed to figure out what it was. “Spike” she called, her voice echoing in the large crystal chamber, as the plump drake waddled over to her. He gave her a swift salute before readying a quill and scroll, years of practice and familiarity told him this was gonna be another letter spree. “I need to draft letters to each of the cities that currently have been reporting sightings everyday. See if you can get them to send any pictures and projected flight paths as well, I have a theory and the more data I can collect the better” once more hee Horn shimmered as she returned her previous visual aids to her vision, her eyes drinking in each line of text or map margin. Spike quickly and silently set to his task, he knew better than to distract Twilight in the midst of her research and as her number one assistant he would be sure to aid her to the best of his ability. And so he began to write. Earlier that week… A bright flash signaled the arrival of Cyrell to the planet's surface, his ship soaring past him overhead. He really needed to thank Amanda for upgrading his transmat, some older ships couldn’t perform “combat transmats” as they were called. He had seen many Guardians with an affinity for the older vessels waiting for their ships to dock before entering or exiting them during his early days. He personally didn’t want to give any of Humanities enemies a chance to shoot his precious bird down though, and had managed to butter up the shipwright with some choice tech from his adventures. Cayde was right, sometimes unsanctioned Ops really do pay off. The memories seemed to hang as Cyrell slowly checked his surroundings. These woods were dense, but they were far more inviting than the large forest just north of him. Selene has run scans over it out of curiosity, and had found plenty to be wary of. Cyrell figures he would set up base here for a time, allowing his ship to continue on the predetermined flight loop he had programmed into it. With any luck these… creatures would still be chasing it while he set to work collecting paracausal energy for the NLS Drive. He and Selene had talked at length while programing the ship's autopilot about their current predicament. This world left the two with many questions about what they had seen, and they had seen many bizarre things over the centuries. Cyrell had initially thought they had been transported into some obscure and corrupted timeline from the Infinite Forest, though Soren had reminded him that the only entrance they knew of currently was on Mercury. She had suggested it might be an illusion from Savathûn or Nokris, but each scan they tried came back without a trace of the Hive’s perverse Magicks. Taking a moment to survey the small campground that was to be his home for the time being, Cyrell couldn’t help but feel distant memories beginning to reemerge. Pieces of his history spent in the wild, trudging towards the Last City at his ghost encouragement. The long treks across the asteroids in the Tangled Shore as he hunted the Barons who had murdered his friend, Cayde-6 the hunter Vanguard. More and more he reflected on his past, and how he had overcome each trial before. This would be no different, he would be the Wall. Cyrell stretched his hands above his head, rolling his shoulders as he worked the stiffness out of his muscles. There was work to be done and he didn’t want to require a resurrection because of a sudden cramp. Not again anyway. A familiar set of clicks and whirs brought Cyrell’s attention to Selene, “Alright boss, I’ve finished going over my scans. Still no exact match for any Light or Darkness energies. But I did happen to find plenty of abnormal readings and heat signatures in that dark and not so inviting set of brambles” as she chirped and hummed her shell began to move its forward panels towards the dark wood that stood in the distance. Even here on the planet's surface it was easy to see how starkly different the two sections of forest were from one another. Their campground had large oak and birch trees with thick trunks all around it. They rose high above his head and towards the sky, forming a large canopy of limbs and leaves. The trees were, as far as Cyrell could tell, healthy and strong, perhaps even good enough to make a shelter out of. All around them the sounds of a forest teeming with life played out, just like the stories he read from the Golden Age. Birds of numerous shapes and sizes called out to one another or flitted from one tree to another. Small woodland creatures scurried across the ground in search of berries and nuts to scavenge. It was everything he had ever imagined a perfect wood would be, so he called it Light Wood. His destination however, was the darker and more twisted trunks of what he had come to call the Dark Wood. It’s trees were even larger than the Light Wood’s, but the trunks were gnarled and twisted. The bark was as black as charcoal, the limbs covered in thick leaves and sharp thorns that weaved into a canopy that blocked out almost all light from the sun. Cyrell imagined he would hear and see many different types of creatures there, and none would be very pleasant either. “Are you sure you wanna go there? That place almost makes the HellMouth look inviting…” Selene's eye darted across the dark visage in the distance cautiously. Her shell contracting as if to make her seem even smaller. Ghosts were all too aware that some areas of the universe had pockets of darkness that inhibited, or even prevented, their ability to raise fallen guardians. That forest seemed like it would be more than suited for the evil and corrupting powers of the Dark. “You said so yourself, it’s got plenty of large heat signatures which means it’s bound to have something I can use my light against. The stronger the creature, the more notes we can make,” Cyrell continues warming up, unfazed by his companions' trepidation. This wasn’t the first time they had ventured into uncharted territory, and he was sure it wouldn’t be the last. Or atleast, he hoped it wouldn’t be the last, given the circumstances. Selene simply stared at her charge, closing her eye and sighing as she drifted towards him, and disappeared from sight in a twinkle of light. “Just try not to get in over your head…” With that, Cyrell finished checking his equipment and taking hold of his trusty pulse rifle, Blast Furnace. The Black Armory likes to claim its weapons were capable of felling any foe, it was time to test that claim once more. Eris Morn, lone survivor of the ill fated Crota Fireteam, surveyed the broken surface of humanities Moon. From her spot in Sanctuary she could see the Red Keep rising from below the dust ridden surface, a reminder of the foe who claimed this place for themselves. A foe she would see brought to the same end they had brought upon her fireteam, and the guardians of the Great Disaster. Her musings of revenge and justice were cut short though, as the heavy footfalls of her new “friend” made their way to her sanctum. She turned to face him, more than certain that he had something dire to report. He never came in person if it wasn’t. The Drifter was uncharacteristically subdued. His trademark smirk and air of bravado was gone, banished to the fringes of his mind. His face now set in a grimace, more appropriately seen of someone such as Zavala than on the enigmatic gambler. He continued making his way to her, stopping just a few steps away. His eyes briefly downcast, eyes darting around before he slowly raised to meet Eris’s steely gaze. A moment passed, neither daring to speak. The tension was palpable, beads of sweat running down his neck and forehead. Finally he spoke in a coarse, shuddering whisper. “I lost the kid…” his words hung in the air, like the specters conjured by the Pyramid beneath them. Eris simply stared at him, her face frozen in a permanent scowl, her body frozen like statue. “Explain yourself, Rat” Eris growled, she hated when she was right. “Well…” Drifter began, clasping his hands and wringing them together. His eyes once again darted to the surrounding moon rocks and equipment around Eris, before shakily lookIng Eris in two of her three eyes. “The Kid and I, we were… testing a lil invention of mine. But uhh… well. It sorta kinda had a...” Drifter paused again, swallowing a lump that had been forming in his throat. His face was drenched with sweat and his cyan eyes ensnared by Eris’ furry green. After another moment he began again, “Look just look for… for yourself. It’ll make more sense that way.” Eris watched as his ghost hovered towards her, it’s crimson eye staring forward without blinking. It showed her streams of data, walls of calculations and even schematics. She poured over them, dissecting each line and equation with a scrutiny only she could muster. Slowly, her confusion and anger gave way to a new feeling. One she hadn’t felt since her time in the Pit. Unbridled horror and fear. “Do you have any idea what you may have done, Rat,” her voice was low, some may even have mistaken it for calm. The Drifter however, knew the rage that hide behind those words. He visibly cowered as her eyes seemed to burn brighter, Similar to a raging forest fire. The lightless guardian seeming to towered over him, her teeth bared in a twisted snarl. “You May have just played right into Savathûn’s machinations! Without the Guardian’s aid we can not decipher the messages we receive from the Pyramids!” Drifter was all too aware of this fact. It had been eating away at him, which was not common for the loner. But Cyrell had been different, he had passed the test and become part of his Crew, a true Dredgen! For Drifter to have possibly sent him into the claws of the Hive goddess, or worse, filled him with sorrow and remorse. “I need your help Mo– I mean Eris. I’ve been running some numbers and I think it’s more like he got shunted somewhere else… kinda like that Queen of yours and her people did during the Collapse,” Drifter shuttered as Eris fiery rage continues to bare down against him. He was desperate to calm the mad woman, lest she decide to make him as lightless as herself. “I know it’s a long shot, maybe even just wishful thinking, but if we can find a way to recreate these parameters then we should be able to find Cyrell and bring’em back!” Eris continued to glower at him, her lips Still curled into a snarl and her teeth bared. Slowly, agonizingly so, she leaned back and turned to face the Red Keep again. After a few terse moments she turned her head to him. “For your sake, Rat, you better be right. Bring me your foul machines, I will aid you in this task. For Cyrell and the City, not for you.” Drifter began furiously nodding his head, slowly inching away from the terrifying woman and towards the landing pad and translating away. As soon as he was back on his ship he let out a a long, trembling sigh. That lady was scary, but she sure did get results. As Drifter made his way to the cargo hold, preparing to gather the components he would need, he passed by a large work desk that had a disassembled invasion portal on it. He suddenly stopped and turned on his heels, and faced the jury rigged portal. Slowly, an idea began to form in his mind, and The Drifter felt his lips tug up into that devious smirk that he was so well known for. Castle Friendship in Ponyville was host to many events, from holidays to town meetings and more, it had seen many wonderful and even bizarre parties and celebrations alike. Today, however, it played host to a very special meeting of six very special ponies. Within the Hall of Friendship the six bearers seated themselves around the Cutie Map, ready to see what Twilight had called them all there for. Applejack and Pinkie both glanced around, viewing the numerous chalkboards which had been scattered around the large room. Rarity meanwhile was stealing glances at the various papers which had been neatly placed at each throne, large and meaty paragraphs covered each thin sheet, a tale tell sign of the studious Alicorns hoofwork. Rainbow Dash was currently sleeping on a cloud above her throne, determined to get her post-lunch pre-workout nap regardless of the summons. Fluttershy meanwhile was comforting a throng of critters that had been following her ever since the strange flying machine began screeching across the sky, the poor thing scared senseless by its ear piercing roar. The four conscious mares soon turned to watch the heavy crystal doors that lead deeper into the castle open, revealing a frazzled, yet oddly chipper Twilight Sparkle. The lavender princess made her way towards her throne, a smile directed to her five friends, though it briefly was replaced with a more exasperated sigh as she saw the snoozing rainbow mare and her cloud hammock. A quick burst of magic however saw that brought to an end, as an ethereal hoof poked the cyan mare. Rainbows eyes slowly fluttered open, a groan escaping her maw as she glared at the offending object. A long yawn escaped her before she slowly flitted down to her proper seat, eyes half open and wings held to her side. “Now that Everypony is ready,” Twilight began, “I hereby call this meeting to order!” She clipped her hoof on the cold crystal surface of the Cutie Map, an image of Equestria popping up soon after. Oddly though, there were strange lines hanging above the various cities and towns, including Ponyville. This immediately caught Applejack and Rarity’s attention, the two sharing a confused look before facing Twilight. “So uhh… what’s this all about Twi, finally find a way to make changes to the map” Applejack questioned. She hadn’t bothered to read over the large stack of papers in front of her, or had she looked over the various chalkboards covered in notes. In her experience Twilight had a tendency to over explain her thoughts on paper, and more concise when explaining it verbally. Well at least most times she was, it often depended on the subject. The rest of the bearers were all excitedly awaiting Twilight's response, with Pinkie already priming her party cannon for immediate celebration, as she was want to do. Fluttershy for her part was distracted by yet another hedgehog trying to burrow into her mane, which was already housing a variety of other small critters seeking comfort from the pale yellow caretaker. Twilight, despite looking like she hadn’t slept in days if the bags under eyes were any inclination, was quick to address her friends question. “Oh well that was something of a recent development, but it’s nothing compared to what I’ve managed to do discover about our UFO!” Twilight began to excitedly levitate some of the various chalkboards and papers around her, as Rainbow began to roll her eyes and make herself comfy for the next hour or so. “Now I’m sure you have been wondering what the recent, umm, plan was for dealing with the strange UFO flying around for the past few weeks” Twilight began, her born shimmering with magic as the map showed a rendition of the strange metallic thing hovering above Cloudsdale. “I’ve been waiting for whoever is inside to come down so we can throw the. A ‘Congrats For Making a Super Duper Cool Flying Thingie’ party, it sure this works too” Pinkie exclaimed, having pulled out trays of assorted candies and pastries for the group to munch on. “I believe what Pinkie means is, that we have been eager to see what you came up with, dear” Rarity added, throwing a bemused look at her hyperactive pink friend, who was currently stacking multiple cupcakes and cookies into a tower, no doubt to be consumed in one go. “And I rightly can’t wait to be rid of the varmint! Been spookin poor Betty and her herd nearly everyday!” Applejack exclaimed, her own weariness starting to show on her face. While she was no stranger to the hectic and busy life of running a farm, having to constantly calm down the stampeding cows was starting to take its toll. “Not to mention all my poor animal friends, who are so scared that they can’t even sleep” Fluttershy quietly commented, the various critters poking out their heads to nod in agreement. “Well worry no more! I’ve come up with a plan to find the party responsible, no not that kind of party Pinkie, and give them a talking to about the importance of acquiring proper testing licenses and the harmful affects of undocumented flights by unsanction machines/objects!” The lavender mare clapped her hooves excitedly as she began to levitate a small object with a tarp over it. As she lifted the tarp away, it revealed a long gem, that had been cut into a beautiful rectangular shape and covered in strange tunes that flowed with magic. The others stared in awe at the strange sight, while gems were fairly common as parts of fashion or decor it was not often that you saw them used for something more practical. Twilight threw her hooves up in a flourish as she gestured towards her new creation “This gem will solve all our problems!” Applejack could t help but raise an eyebrow at that, “Okay… how exactly do you figure that, Twi” She questioned. While she trusted Twilight when it came to all things magical, she couldn’t for the life of herself figure this one out without some context. “I’m glad you asked,” Twilight said “Acter studying the reports and cross referencing flight charts of Equestria, I have managed to determine the route this mystery machine is taking everyday” she once again motioned to the Cutie Map, the strange lines reappearing as the object followed them in a repeating path. ”It always starts somewhere around Cloudsdale or Appleoosa, before making its way between the Everfree and WhiteTail Forests, turning around towards Canterlot and finally heading towards Las Pegasus and Stalliongrad prior to disappearing altogether” she explained, the map providing a visual for her explanation. “Okay, so you know where it goes and when, but what’s the gem do” Applejack states, her confusion still apparent. Twilight smiled as she charged her horn and teleported a large metal filling cabinet into the room with them, “This gem can stick to any metallic surface, while also having a two way tracker spell that I can use to find where it’s going to land using the map!” At this she gestured to the map which now had a small gem, just like the one on the cabinet, floating above the castle. Twilight's smile widened as the five mares turned towards her in awe, though they expected no less of the studious Princess. “Wowie Zowie Twilight! That’s super megariffic,” Pinkie exclaimed, confetti burying from the tips of her hooves as she bounded over to Twilight. Rarity was a kit to say the same, when she stopped and put her hoof under her chin. Her eyes studied the map before she turned to Twilight and said “while this is very impressive dear, how exactly do you plan on getting the gem into that ghastly thing?” Twilight smirked as her eyes slowly drifted towards the prismatic Pegasus seated across from her, soon followed by the rest of her friends. Rainbow for her part, simply rubbed a hoof against her chest before turning her eyes to meet them, a confident smirk spreading across her muzzle. “Like you even had to ask, Rares.”