//------------------------------// // Prologue // Story: The Sins Of The Celestial Empire // by Erol carstein //------------------------------// ++ BEGIN AUDIO LOG++ ++CURRENT MILLENIAL DATE: M832/465++ ++ENTRY NUMBER: 3287++ ENTRANT NAME: BLAZE++ ++MOTTO FOR THE DAY: WE TRAVEL TOWARDS A BRIGHTER FUTURE++ ++ALL DATA TO BE FORWARDED TO IMPERIAL HIGH COMMAND++ ≤ΘΘΘ≥ Welcome to the future, the current millennial date is M832 ADW. For over eight hundred thousand years the species of equine kind has expanded across the stars, conquering all before them. It has been over a million generations since we first realised our destiny as a species lay with the stars, and since we took our first steps into the gaping maw of intergalactic space. From our home world of Equine prime we spread to the stars, moving from system to system. Where we met acceptance we assimilated, drawing dozens of alien species into our doctrine and creed. With expansion there came incredible leaps in technology, we were capable of things our ancestors could only dream of. Cryo-stasis allowed us to rest in peace and silence as the colonisation arks of our race drifted from star to star. When Cryo-stasis proved too slow for a race of such insatiable curiosity as ours we developed phase jumping, and where suddenly able to jump from system to system in mere hours. Just like that the sheer urge to expand and prosper as a species had pushed our understanding of science centuries ahead. But the advances aren't just limited to expansion. The military, the economy, medical science and biological adaptation, all these and more benefitted. A computer the size of car was capable of processing the entire data economy of a star system without slowing. The creation of synthetic stem-cells allowed the growing of new limbs for the crippled. We could prevent motor neurone disease, cancer, cystic fibrosis and muscular dystrophy. we eradicated disease entirely, and the average life span of an imperial citizen stretched to a century, its highest ever. But it didn't stop there, not by a long shot. Cross sub-species alteration was now possible, we had reached the threshold of godhood. Unicorns and pegausi were capable of switching species, of giving up their horns and wings and switching positions, even earth ponies could become a different sub-species of pony. We even created the first synthetic Alicorns, the penultimate stage of our species evolutionary path, and from their ranks were formed our ruling elite, politicians, generals, spiritual leaders and chief scientists. We created nanotrites, nanoscopic machines that could live in our blood and keep the pony body in perfect physical shape, allowing us to stay awake of days, and perform athletic feats beyond that of our predecessors. But it was in military application our knowledge reached its full potential, and transformed us from colonial settlers and explores into a fully fledged military force to be reckoned with. We built warships that ranged from simple war frigates and assault cruisers, to capital ships the size of moons, with the destructive capacity to level entire cities in one apocalyptic salvo. We built space stations of titanic proportions, that hung over our worlds and protected us from the evil that lay beyond our borders. Defensive optical arrays were created, powered by fusion reactors hundreds of meters across that had the potential to disrupt the fusion reactions within the hearts of living stars and cause them to die eons before their set time. joining them were plasma cannons capable of melting a cruiser in a single burst of superheated energy. Where we met resistance to our advance we crushed it, with the might of our fleets and navies and the strength of our armies. We bombarded them into submission. We destroyed their homes. Crushed their cities. Annihilated their worlds. After almost ten thousand years of war and expansion we reached the edge of our galaxy, and when that happened not even our need to explore could break us through the wall that was intergalactic space, where the vistas of time and space conspired to isolate us to the tiny island of our galaxy in the unimaginably huge ocean of the universe. But that wasn't the end to the wars; peace would still have to wait. Whilst our attentions had been turned to the threats without, who stood in the darkness waiting for the perfect moment to strike at our empire, we lost sight of the enemy within. It was an ancient, nameless horror that lay within the heart of every imperial citizen. an enemy made manifest by our very existence. But to understand that there's something else you need to know. Magic. Magic is an integral part of our species, an almost inexplicable energy that permeates our very bodies and souls. Though magic is generated by all ponies, through our innate connection to each other and the concept of harmony, only unicorns have the means capable to harness this semi-psychic energy, using their horns as conduits for this power. It is a gift that has allowed us to push beyond the physical boundaries of our own bodies. But it was this very gift, our greatest asset, that was our worst enemy. Our understanding of magic was already deep, and coupled with our new advances in science and genetics, specifically the ability to perform cross sub-species augmentation; we reached new levels of power on a new biological and genetic scale. To put it simply, Equine kind stood on the brink of an evolutionary jump that had been millennia in the making, and had been ushered into living history by our own understanding of technology. Our finest scientists predicted that once the jump was complete anypony would be capable of manipulating magic, unicorn or not. It was a magnificent concept to behold, a race of magic wielders that had the will and means to conquer not just the galaxy, but given time the universe. It was almost too good to be true. To celebrate the dawning of this new age, the empresses Celestia and Luna ordered the construction of an astropathic beacon, a magical light that would shine out into the spaces between this world and the realm of magic in order to connect those with the gift to the great choir, a gathering of unicorns a million strong, whose spells would burn day and night to fuel the fires of magic that burned in our hearts. It was an edifice like no other, and upon completion it stood as the greatest building ever, rivalling even the imperial palace in sheer majesty and beauty. Trillions came from all over the galaxy to witness its unveiling, and as the choir began to sing and the beacon sent out its ethereal glow, all knew that our empire was truly the greatest in all of eternity. But as the beacon reached full strength something went wrong. We're not sure what, and to this day the answer still eludes us, but somehow the beacon came into contact with … something else, and brought it forth into our world. With the cackle of unnatural laughter that sent an incomprehendable fear into the minds of the seven trillion onlookers, a gaping wound in the fabric of reality that separated us from the realm of magic opened up, and from it stepped forth Chrysalis. She was our inner darkness given form. As the crowds watched on in awe, Chrysalis smiled, revealing ivory fangs, and then threw her head back, giving off a psychic scream that caused trillions of unicorns across the length of the galaxy to simultaneously shriek in pain and claw at their own eyes as they beheld the might of this new entity before the scream tore away at their sanity. What were left behind were nothing more then broken creatures devoid of their souls. Across the length and breadth of the empire, on a million worlds, portals tore open holes in the fabric of reality and from them came the changelings. They where a demonic race of shape shifters that could take the form of any living creature, be they pony or alien and they descended on us with mad blood lust in their eyes. Hundreds of worlds fell before them, mowed down like wheat before a scythe. For millennia the changelings had watched us from beyond the barrier of reality. For millennia they had longed to consume our souls. When they came forth, they wasted no time in collecting their harvest. Those who where unicorns and those who bore the potential of the gift in their genes where the changelings prey of choice, and they were taken kicking and screaming into the realm of magic, the home of the changelings, where there would be no escape. None knew what lay inside the portals for certain, only that beyond their shimmering, mirror like surface the realm of magic was in constant turmoil, as the raw energy of magic generated by our emotions caused the world to remain on constant flux, nothing ever remaining fixed or stable. On Equine prime, Chrysalis had butchered the whole population, seven trillion souls, and had trapped Celestia and Luna within a pocket universe, an inescapable prison formed of pure magic that could only be accessed from the outside. Chrysalis was slowly draining the sisters of their magic, using their immortal souls to fuel a spell so powerful it would tear down the barrier of reality and plunge the whole galaxy, maybe even the whole universe, into the realm of magic, and drown us all in a tide of insanity and blood. However, though the changelings where a deadly foe and they struck fear into the heart of even the most powerful of our race, we were not a species to simply accept the rule of this new threat. We fought back with fire and fury, rage fuelling us on as we fought for our wives, our children and our homes. Across millions of worlds heroes rose to take the fight to the changelings, great stallions and mares such as Blaze, Nightshade, Titus and Silvershield. With all the strength we could muster we fought the demons tooth and hoof, giving no quarter and asking for none. Though we were weary from the wars we had already fought, and the changelings where creatures of unnatural strength and speed, we slowly but surely took back our worlds. We were finally strong enough to take the fight to Chrysalis, all that was needed was a hero to lead us, a pony of true purity and strength at heart who would be able to defeat Chrysalis and cast her and her infernal children back into the realm of magic. From the backwater world of Terra, an agri world on the fringes of society, there came our hero. He was a great pegausi stallion, with a coat of snow white, a mane and tail of flame, and emerald eyes that burned with righteous fury. His name was Nova, and he was the hero we received in our hour of need. From Terra, Nova travelled the stars, moving from system to system, crushing the changeling swarms and calling for the hero of each world to join him in his crusade for vengeance. With his simple hammer of steel, Nova liberated hundreds of worlds, and from those worlds there came unnumbered followers, each willing to follow Nova into the fires of hell to rid our galaxy of this unnatural terror. When he reach Equine prime, Nova discovered a world that had changed beyond all recognition. It was here that the great astropathic beacon was located, and it was here that the energies that seeped from the realm of magic were strongest. It was once said that Discord was the true master of insanity and chaos, but looking down upon the living hellscape that was our home world, Nova knew that no creature of this universe could ever feasibly imagine this kind of chaos. Descending alone from his orbiting capital ship 'The Blade Of Salvation' Nova plunged down on the living hell below him, screaming through the skies in a drop pod like a comet of fire to come slamming down in the imperial palace, crashing through the roof of the main audience chamber in front of the imperial throne. Chrysalis lay reclined on its marble seat, around the base of the throne were the viciously dismembered bodies of her latest victims, their blood still hot and fresh on her muzzle. As she watched the pods doors opened and Nova stepped forth, armoured in emerald green ceramite and wielding a hammer of adamantium, a weapon so strong it could smash its way through ferocrete. Though the audience chamber had become like a chamber of hell, with the bodies of still living ponies fused into the walls and the floor slick with the blood and entrails of Chrysalis's victims, Nova didn't hesitate and he leapt at Chrysalis with reckless abandon, uncaring for his own fate so long as he took Chrysalis to hell with him. For three days and nights they battled, trading blows with the strength of gods. Nova fought bravely, his hammer smashing down many a time to deliver a furious blow that could shatter stone and crush bone, but he was out matched by Chrysalis. The hell spawn queen was everywhere at once, striking at Nova from all angles and giving him no means to defend himself. But though he bled from over a hundred wounds Nova never once yielded until finally Chrysalis struck him a deadly blow to his heart, stabbing deep with a dagger made of bone. As Nova fell to his knees Chrysalis revealed her fangs, and with an unnatural laugh that tore at the mind, prepared to feed on the blood of her opponent in a vampiric fashion. However, as her fangs bit deep into the flesh of his neck Nova knew this wasn't the end. Within his heart a new fire began to burn, raging with the force of a star, and with a roar of defiance Nova pushed Chrysalis back, chunks of flesh ripping from his neck where her fangs had pierced his body, before a blinding light filled his eyes. With a gurgle and the snapping of bone an Alicorns horn thrust its way through his skull, without a moment of hesitation Nova Leapt from his knees and drove his horn deep into Chrysalis' chest, piercing through her chitinous armour and iron-hard bone to stab her black heart and undo the spell that held Luna and Celestia captive. A single moment later the combatants died together, falling to the floor with nothing more than a soft thumping noise. Chrysalis' body disintegrated into ash, the powerful magic that bound her to the mortal plain unravelling. As her soul left the mortal world, so too did those of her children, the changelings, and in an instant the galaxy was free from the vice like grip of insanity. Of Novas body there was no sign, and though the whole of the palace was searched from top to bottom he could not be found. It was like he had simply vanished. In the aftermath of the invasion, a more dictatorial form of government control was instigated in order to ensure that our gifts as a species would never again lead us into the jaws of the changelings. All unicorns where forced to undergo strict compliance testing to ensure that they had control of their abilities, any who failed where deported to the furthest reaches of the galaxy, to massive prison colonies where they wouldn't risk becoming living conduits for the insanity of Chrysalis. All those who had the gift in a hereditary form where chipped, tagged and kept under twenty four hours surveillance. During the war there where many cults formed, who worshipped Chrysalis as the ultimate power of the universe, with the changelings gone we hunted down these depraved cults and exterminated them, any caught praying to Chrysalis faced incineration, for only the purifying strength of fire can truly banish such horror from a ponies soul. Once we had the cults crushed and our psychic gifts brought to heel the twin sisters declared that we had to return to the stars, and secure our worlds before the xeno threat without sensed our weakness. And so where launched the reclamation crusades, a time when thousands of armies where sent forth to reclaim the worlds of the empire, and bring our race back into dominance. Once satisfied that all resistance to their rule had been crushed, and that we where the sole rulers of the galaxy, the twin rulers of our empire, empress Celestia and empress Luna, decreed that we had reached a prophesised age of plenty, and that a living utopia amongst the stars had been born through the efforts of our armies and heroes. With nowhere else to explore, and nowhere new to go, our drive to improve as a species turned from expansion to civic life. We divided the galaxy into two segments, segmentum Solaris occupied the galactic north and west, and segmentum Lunara occupied the galactic south and east, with the entirety of our 'Celestial Empire' being ruled from our ancient home world of Equine prime, a massive civic world covered in continent spanning cities and gravity defying spires. Inter-system trading flourished, and within a decade it became possible for a farmer way out on the outpost world of Aldaen in the far north of the galaxy to spice his food with fire root from the desert world of Enkiaera in the deep south. Even religion changed, altering its fundamental fabric of monotheism to incorporate the millions of worlds capable of supporting life. Where as previously we believed that our home world alone was our haven and only refuge in the whirling maelstrom of chaos, and that Celestia and Luna were living gods who controlled the universe, trillions upon trillions now hailed the new eternal entity of the Goddess, who gave us life and the desire to expand and conquer in her name. Pilgrims would flock in their billions to our home world to give praise to the six beautiful saints of our race, who in their own lives had witnessed the first tentative steps of our species into the emptiness beyond our atmosphere, led the first expeditions in the void to discover worlds far from our own and wielded the elements of harmony, a feat none have accomplished since. Twilight Sparkle, whose knowledge of the stars had allowed her to serve as the navigator of the first fleets. Rarity, whose beauty and poise had seduced whole worlds to our cause. Pinkie Pie, whose fearlessness of the unknown had strengthened our hearts in the face of fear. Applejack, whose boundless strength at heart had held us firm when we were lost and alone. Fluttershy, whose affinity with the creatures of the galaxy had leant her control over the ecosystems of entire worlds. Rainbow Dash, whose unwavering loyalty to the cause had formed the bulwark of our expansion, a pillar of strength that held us firm against those who would have destroyed us. Though each an every one of them fell in defence of the cause and gave their lives as the ultimate sacrifice for what they believed in, their sacrifices were certainly not in vain. Upon our home world, built over the supposed location of ponyville, where the saints where alleged to have lived, we erected a cathedral in their honour, an edifice so large it could be seen from space. we named it 'Cathedral Terra' and within its miles long halls, under a roof that is two miles above the ground, billions pray every day for their blessing, so that our empire may continue to prosper and grow. However, along with the new found knowledge and piety our expansion gave us, we also gained excessive decadence and corruption. Beneath the veneer of perfection and social understanding the empire was a bloated tumour of hedonism that sprawled across the galaxy, draining planets of their resources and leaving entire species to starve and die. From the imperial palace in the great capital city of Canterlot there where tales of great feasts that lasted for weeks. Orgies of excess where the aristocracy of the empire would revel in flesh, food and drink, and lose themselves in the smoke of a thousand different narcotics. It was said that even the empress Celestia knew of these depraved activities Some even dared to whisper that she actively took part. This stain on our society didn't go unnoticed however, and after ten thousand years of keeping her silence as her empire became nothing but a malignant tumour that stained the galaxy, Empress Luna called a great conclave, summoning the imperial governors of the millions of planets of the empire to the imperial palace for something nopony could have ever dreamed of. The alteration of the imperial doctrine. From the millions of worlds they came, governors and governess' from the far north. The barony family of the Lightmarks, who'd, held sway over the midnight worlds of the east since the completion of the reclamation crusades. From the south there came the caliphs of the desert worlds and from the west there came delegates from the farming cooperatives of the agri-worlds that kept us fed. Under the roof of the imperial palace, in the vast audience hall Luna welcomed them, and then she did the unthinkable. She accused Celestia of corruption in the reigning of the empire and of excessive hedonism in her personal life, in front of billions she decried her sister and called from the reigns of galactic government to be given to her, an Alicorn of pure heart and nature. Celestia in turn, infuriated by her sisters actions, accused Luna of attempting a coup and that she was simply trying to take control of the empire for her own selfish gain. As the sisters fought a vicious battle of accusations and partially veiled insults, long buried grudges and resentments began to bubble up amongst the delegates. Seeing an opportunity to destroy the power of the Lightmarks, long the political enemies of his family, Governor Steelmane of the northern systems declared his support for princess Celestia, and accused Luna of high treason. The farming cooperatives sided with Celestia also, stating that they would not see the bountiful produce of their worlds being fed to traitors and turn cloaks. In turn the Lightmarks and caliphs of the east and south staked their support for Luna, declaring that the Celestial Empire had become decadent and sinful, and that new purity was needed to lead the empire back to the path of righteousness. In the space of a day, the galaxy had been split in two, war was imminent. Ironically the allegiances of the imperial governors meant that it was segmentum Solaris versus Segmentum Lunara. Luna left the imperial palace with her supporters and travelled to the midnight planet of Aurelia, deep within the heart of segmentum Lunara. The planet itself was an ancient civic fortress world, its surface covered in defence installations thousands of years old. Surface to orbit cannons with the power to cripple capital ships and long range redeemer launches that could fire upon ships over a thousand miles away, all of them towering over the massive cities below, rising so high that their barrels pierced through the atmosphere and into space. From the imperial governors' stronghold at the heart of the planet, Luna and her supporters drew up a new doctrine of imperial governance, and began to broadcast their message. On every planet in every system across the length and breadth of the segmentum Lunara, imperial governors received orders to muster their troops and to prepare to go to war. Though it had been over one hundred and fifty thousand years since the empire had ever called for military action, the standing army was constantly training, and within the space of a few months segmentum Lunara was mobilized for war. Only one message ever reached Equine prime, a short range frequency vox message from an untraceable source that simply stated "your worlds are corrupt and your ponies depraved, you are not fit to rule the stars. We are the new leadership that this empire needs. All hail the New Lunar Republic" Celestia responded in kind to this new threat, and began mobilizing the military forces of segmentum Solaris, calling everypony from special forces units to simple planetary defence militia to her banners. She also called upon the faith, saying that Lunas new government meant to wipe away worship of the goddess and her six saints and replace it with worship of the darkness and the night. The ploy worked and Celestia gained the full support of the Adeptus militant, a warrior order of war priests who spent their whole lives defending the faith. Within Cathedral Terra, under the eyes of the holy six and the Goddess herself, Celestia stood in front of a congregation of billions and stated that Luna was a traitor, and that her new Luna republic was nothing but a speck of dirt to be wiped away beneath the hooves of the rightful government. "we shall go to their worlds and drive them into the darkness of space that they love so much. No longer are we the Celestial Empire, now we are the Solar Empire, and we shall destroy the rebels with fire and fury" After over seven hundred thousand years of peace and prosperity, of love and tolerance between all ponies of all worlds, the galaxy was now divided, with brother fighting brother and fathers fighting sons. Along the frontier between the two segmentums the construction began of deep-space orbital facilities, ion cannons, nuclear launching facilities, mine fields and gauss weapons, the opposing factions spared no expense in the defence of their territory. High over our home world Celestia ordered the construction of a new type of weapon. A planet killer. Though it would take hundreds of years to complete, the weapon, which Celestia named 'the world devastator' would be capable of firing a nuclear payload of several million megatons across the border of the segmentums and bombard Aurelia into submission without risk of a revenge strike. All of this happened over a thousand years ago, and we've been at war ever since. I can't tell you how many worlds have died because of this conflict, I can't tell you how many fathers and sons have died fighting for rulers they've never seen, I can't tell you how many families have been crushed under the uncaring iron-shod hooves of the two factions, or how many have starved, or died of disease. There's trillions of ponies in the galaxy, too many to count, the death of billions can easily go unnoticed. I was only fifteen when they conscripted me, three years too young. My father tried to stop them from taking me, saying the Celestia would never put a teenager into a war zone, and they shot him for dissidence. I should know, they made me pull the trigger. I've fought in my fair share of war zones during my career, from the unending deserts of Talharn to the vast fields of the agri-world of new Eden. I've fought in more than a dozen boarding actions in deep space, I was even there when we captured 'Luna's grace' the capital ship of the eastern Lunara fleet. I've killed more ponies then I can count in the name of a ruler I've never seen, it sickens me. After two years fighting in the Ghost-space conflicts on the north rim high command pulled me out, they sent me home. Of course it was only as I was boarding the transport that the news reached my station. My home planet of Rylelia, an industrial world out in the far north, had been sacked and burned by the new Luna republic. They'd bombarded the planet continuously for a week before launching an orbital strike. They killed everyone they found, destroyed the factories and left nothing behind but ash. Once they were done they'd withdrawn and used cyclonic torpedoes to eradicate the surface of everything still standing, by the time the local defence fleet had arrived there was nothing left of my home, just an dead rock floating in space. It was a brutal reminder of the ferocity of the new Lunar republic. Now what the hell was I supposed to do? I'd been dumped by the military, my home was gone, and I had no other family to take me in. I was eighteen and alone in the galaxy, just another of the billions of orphans who'd lost everything to the war. With nowhere to go I signed up with a mercenary company ironically called "the orphaned sons" and served another two years on the front lines, my rage and thirst for revenge pushing me on. I took part in the siege of Varaks, following heroes like Commander Requiem deep into the fray, plunging from orbit in screaming drop pods and we came crashing down through the flak curtain straight into the heart of the enemy. I fought side by side with the penal legions on Detrona, where the New Luna Republic continuously shelled us from orbit for five months before the western Solaris fleet came to our aid. All the while the only thing running through my head was what the new Lunar republic had taken from me, and that if it cost me my life, I make would every single one of those treacherous bastards pay. When I turned twenty my contract with the mercenaries terminated, and once again I was alone in the middle of an active war zone. But what came next was a shock. Whilst searching for a ship to the inner systems on board a space port orbiting the fortress world of Kriegar I was approached by a group of military police and placed into custody on charges of war crimes and breach of pony rights. Whilst in a holding cell, waiting for the inevitable transfer to one of the multiple prison colonies, a beautiful mare who was pure white with bright green eyes entered my cell. She gave me a choice, I could either get transferred and spend the rest of my life without ever seeing the light of day again as I slaved in the labour mines, or I could go with her and take my revenge. The choice seemed so clear at the time, I came with her without a moments hesitation. I was placed into a medical coma, and transported to a world that's very location was known only to the imperial high command. A, bleak windswept place that was continuously covered in snow and ice, I lived in a facility under ground, where the walls where a blinding white and I never met another soul, save for the white mare, who would glide along the corridors like a silent ghost, always by my side. I was fed and watered on a regular basis, I didn't suffer, but the eeriness of it still got to me, and made me wonder what they were going to do to me. It was within those white walls they … changed me, and turned me into something more then I could ever have dreamed of. My body underwent severe biological augmentation surgery, and they changed me from the inside out. They reached into my genetics and changed my root code, the strings of base elements that lay in the heart of every one of my cells. I became stronger, smarter, and faster. I could pick up and throw objects to heavy for a team of trained soldiers to move. I could gallop faster than the legendary desert warriors of Caldien, and in time my knowledge of the sciences and arts came on par with the scholars of the imperial archives. They altered my metabolism so that I could go for days on a thimble of water and a crust of bread, and they changed the construction sequencing in my DNA, altering my aging process so that I would no longer age, leaving me frozen in my own life line. Extensive physical augmentation followed. They stripped off my skin and replaced my very bones with the purest adamantium and ceramite, they took out my organs and replaced them with machinery, with a compact fusion core replacing my heart and fuelling my body with boundless strength. They replaced my brain with a biocomputer, which maintained the machinery inside my body and allowed me to think and process intelligence faster than I could ever have with my original mind. Within my mind was now an AI that took the form of the white mare, she was my constant companion, giving me information, processing each situation I found myself in and mapping out a plan, she even talked to me, her voice filling my head and her psycho-projection interacting with me just like a normal pony would. My eyes were removed and instead in their place I received synthetic ones, tiny computers that fed information to my brain about me environment. They allowed me to replay events I had previously seen, trace fingerprints, see the world through a red haze of thermal imaging, and had a constant uplink with the imperial high command, allowing me to access records and intelligence. Even my ears where changed, becoming super-sensitive to the slightest sounds. The pain I went through was endless, and only the goddess and the holy six know how loudly I screamed or how much blood I lost. But I never told them to stop. What they were giving me was a chance for revenge, and no matter what I had to go through I would seize that chance and hold onto it with my very life. I had been born an earth pony, just like my brothers and sisters and my father and mother, and all those before me, but when the mare was done with me I wasn't an earth pony anymore. I had been transformed into a synthetic Alicorn, the ultimate personification of equine evolution, one of only a few hundred in existence. Having wings was new to me, and it took months to learn how to control them properly, let alone fly, but I gritted my teeth and tried all the same. Magic was even more difficult to learn, and I inadvertently killed at least a dozen of my trainers as I tried to master my new abilities. Every day I would go through hours of exercise, pushing my new body to the limits of its mechanical endurance. After five years of continuous training the mare came to me again, and told me I was ready. She told me it was time for vengeance, and I took it readily. My name was deleted from imperial records, along with my date of birth, my iris recognition file and any records that I'd even existed. Just like that I left the old me behind, and took a new name. I became Blaze, after a warrior hero of our race who had fought by Novas side against the changeling, and I wore my new identity with pride. I left the nameless world and its silent white walled facility behind, and returned to the war as a new being. The war hadn't been idle whilst they'd altered me, and many of the worlds I'd fought on had now been destroyed, wiped clean of all life, just like my home world. The galaxy had become a different place, with new technologies and weaponry. High in orbit above Equine prime the world devastator cannon had been completed, and I was there to witness its first firing. Watching as a payload of several thousand megatons that had been fired halfway across the galaxy came smashing down on the civic world of Theedrae, creating an explosion so big it punched straight through the planet, hollowing it out like an apple core and killing a trillion souls instantaneously. However, that was only time the weapon would be used. seeing the pure destructive potential of the world devastator, Celestia ordered its immediate decommission, declaring that no-pony, whether mortal or immortal, would ever have the right to condemn an entire world. I've taken part in dozens of planetary assaults since I left the facility; I've seen things that would sicken those who hadn't seen them before. Through it all there's only one thing driving me onwards. In my pocket I keep a photograph, worn and faded. In the picture there's a family, happy and whole. Whenever I look at that picture of my family I know that I will never stop in my thirst for justice. I will fight on and on and keep killing until I see Luna dead for what she's done, and that's a promise I will keep even if it takes me to my grave. ++ALL DATA TO BE FORWARDED TO IMPERIAL HIGH COMMAND UNDER ORDER 87, SECTION EV78J9++ ++ALL HAIL THE SOLAR EMPIRE++ ++END AUDIO LOG++