Queen of Blades

by Salacar

Chapter Two

The echoes of hoofsteps could be heard throughout the halls of Canterlot castle, armored guards moving to and fro in search of the monstrous intruder. Princess Celestia was worried, from what Shining Armor had told her, and what she had felt of the creature herself, it was without a doubt extremely powerful. According to her captain, ‘she’ had even wielded some kind of strange magic, one he had never encountered before.

She was thankful that none of her ponies had been killed during the encounter. If only her guards hadn’t been so stubborn about keeping her out of danger, she might have been able to prevent several injuries. She knew that her guards had only followed the code they had all sworn to, yet it still weighed heavily upon her. It was also true that she might have gotten hurt, fighting an alien adversary with such an unknown power.

What really troubled her, as she nervously paced her throne room, was that the creature had been able to somehow teleport inside the Vault, a feat even Discord would be hard pressed to mimic, and then just leave without even taking the Elements. It made no sense to her, why had she come here? What was her goal?

In frustration she stomped her hoof to the floor, startling a pair of nearby guards with her uncharacteristic outburst of agitation. The last few days had been taxing on her, readying Canterlot’s defenses against unknown threats, preparing for the upcoming royal wedding, and now this. For once she just wanted to know what was going on, to find the missing pieces to this frustrating puzzle.

Her sister was the one skilled in divination magic and predictions however, those specific arts had always been connected to the moon and its goddess. Having Luna try to make sense of it all might have lessened her budding headache, yet she would not awake for at least another few hours, and she would need to be fully rested if she was going to track this intruder. Several hours where an unknown, powerful entity was free to roam the castle and harm her subjects.

There was a deep silence in the Castle’s royal library. With the increase in activity and security in every part of the building, no ponies had any reason to actually visit this particular room. This had allowed the Queen of Blades more than enough time to extract what she could from the unfortunate librarian.

With a brief scowl the Zerg queen released the equine, or ‘unicorn’ as it turned out, who fell unconscious to the floor with a large thud. She had discovered a number of things, most of it rather unsettling. Apparently she was in a land called Equestria, which was ruled by a pair of alicorn sisters, on the planet Equis. Said sisters were supposedly immortal beings capable of moving the planet’s sun and moon through the sky.

The Queen of Blades scoffed at the idea. It was true that she had felt a massive energy signature from a creature inside the castle, most likely from one of these pony sisters. Yet she very much doubted they had the necessary power to move celestial bodies, and thus attributed it to religious beliefs instead. According to her unwilling informant, who was busy drooling on the floor, they were supposedly kind and generous rulers who preached the concept of Harmony. The older sister, Celestia, had been ruling Equestria alone for a thousand years until her sister, Luna, had returned from banishment. If they were truly that old, she would need to take great care not to agitate them too recklessly.

Which was the only reason the unicorn on the floor was still alive. She had actually needed to fight her instincts to stop herself from opening him up, finding out what made him tick, and assimilate him into her Swarm. They had a new, exotic power after all, which was very intriguing to her. This ‘magic’, as silly as it sounded, required great mental fortitude and concentration, and thus the unicorn had been rather hard to extract any information from, without fear of breaking his mind by accident.

Most troubling of all however, was the discovery that Equis did not have contact to any other planets, or even something capable of spaceflight. It was true that she still carried the collective DNA of her swarm, and would be able to breed a new species of creatures able to travel between solar systems. But if Equis did not already have any native creatures capable of such, which she could infest and control, she would need to breed an original strain, a Behemoth or Mutalisk perhaps. Yet doing so without an established Hive could take months. Time she did not have if she wanted to return to the nearest infested world, and her Swarm. Creating an Overlord might have been possible, though it wouldn’t be nearly fast enough to get her back to known space in time. Not to mention she most likely no longer had the power necessary to open a wormhole, her recent weakening taken into consideration.

She was promptly brought out of her contemplations by the sound of a door opening, and only barely made it behind a pair of bookcases before the sound of armored hoofsteps was heard.

“Over here! I think somepony is unconscious!” A gruff voice called out, attracting another trio of noisy guards. “Somepony get a medic. The rest of you, spread out and search the library!”

The Queen of Blades took a moment to gather her focus, and just as an armed guard turned the corner, her body was cloaked in a layer of psionic energy, leaving her almost entirely invisible. It had always been one of her strongest skills, it was the one she had used the most during her time as a Ghost after all. The unicorn guard peered right through her, and after only a few seconds he continued on his way.

None in the library noticed as the stealthed psionic slipped past them, and out the open door.

Shining Armor was resting on one of several occupied beds in the castle’s infirmary. He had of course been opposed to the idea that he had to rest, but Princess Celestia’s order had been absolute. He had rarely seen the ruler so adamant, she had actually scared him a little. Even when he had insisted that he should be out there, leading the search for the creature, it had fallen on deaf ears. He hadn’t felt good about it, but here he was.

The nursing staff hadn’t even allowed him to keep his armor on, and he felt vulnerable, thinking about how the intruder was still out there, and could burst through the door at any moment. Even after they had cleaned him up and concluded that nothing was wrong with him, they had insisted that he stayed in bed until the princess came to see him. Her order apparently.

The captain of the guard gave a snort of annoyance to dismiss his thoughts, his gaze wandering to the other beds in the infirmary. Almost all of them had a wounded guard in them, those who had been directly struck by the creature’s wings or magical attack were still out cold. He was relieved that they had all survived the ordeal.

A sound of shuffling legs and loud voices drew his attention towards the door, where a trio of guardsponies were carrying an unconscious unicorn into the infirmary. As one of the nurses directed them towards a nearby bed, Shining Armor realised who it was.

“Is that... Ancient Scroll?” he asked nopony in particular, his voice barely above a whisper.

Just then, a very familiar voice cut in from beside him. “Indeed it is, captain. He was found unconscious in the library no more than five minutes ago.”

The captain’s head swirled quickly to look at the speaker, and the royal visage of Princess Celestia looked back at him with obvious worry. How had he not heard her approach?

“Princess! I’m so sorry, I didn’t hear you come in,” the flustered unicorn said as he tried to get out of his bed, but was stopped by the firm hoof of his ruler.

“Stay in bed, captain. Or do I have to order you again?” This was not a true question, and the tone in her voice told him that she would suffer no defiance on the matter.

He sighed and lowered himself back on the bed. “How did it happen? Have we apprehended the creature? Did she hurt him?”

Celestia cut off the torrent of questions with a hoof, then gave him a reassuring smile. “The good librarian will be just fine. As for the creature, I am afraid that she has not been spotted since your battle with her,” The ruler furrowed her brow in slight worry. “It is a good thing I suppose, at the very least she has not hurt anypony else.”

Shining Armor was not so certain that he agreed with her judgement, he had seen firsthoof what the creature was capable of, seen the cold, calculated malice in her eyes as she attempted to invade his mind. This creature was not one to stray from killing innocents, he could feel it in his guts.

The Princess’ voice brought him away from those dark thoughts. “I’m surprised you know of Ancient Scroll, you don’t seem like much of a library pony to me.”

The captain of the guard couldn’t help but give a low chuckle. “I don’t, not personally at least. But Twily spent a lot of time in that library, and apparently they’re quite good acquaintances.” He sent the ruler a mirthful smile. “You know how she is with books.”

Princess Celestia responded with a knowing smile, thoughts turning to her beloved student.

“Indeed.”

The Queen of Blades had been busy. Avoiding the guards had turned out easy enough, they likely did not have any means of invisibility themselves, or if they did it was not a common thing at least. Just to be on the safe side however, she chose to avoid most unicorns she happened to pass by. No need to take any chances after all.

For the most part she was simply staying out of sight, taking every chance to intrude on the mind of any non-unicorn pony in reach. The guards didn’t have much to offer, but the various scholars and officials gave her a great deal of knowledge. She had pretty much gotten used to the restrictions her powers had suffered, and had managed to invade minds without causing a single one of them to notice.

There was one particular piece of information that was very interesting to her, and she now knew exactly where to go next. With a small smile she slipped past another pair of guards, and not long after that she was outside. All around her were trees, green grass and a multitude of flowers, insects and animals aplenty in their natural habitat. It was weak in her eyes, what purpose did these creatures even serve? If she had any say in it, she would quickly have replaced this annoyingly green garden with a zergling spawning pool. It would certainly be a welcome sight.

With steady strides she proceeded through the garden, ignoring the suddenly nervous animals skitter away from an invisible threat. The soil was soft, and she would easily be able to burrow in order to make her escape, lingering for too long would be unwise after all. It would be foolish to antagonize the alicorn sisters without reason, especially in the seat of their power.

She made it to an ideal patch of earth, and just as she undid her cloaking, she felt a powerful presence nearby, internally surprised that something that strong had managed to sneak up on her. With a calm demeanor she turned around, looking towards one of the nearby castle balconies. Standing on said balcony was an alabaster pony, much larger than the average specimens she had encountered earlier, and this one with both horn and wings. The Princess’ ethereal mane was blowing in an unseen wind, as she looked down on the Queen of Blades with a gathered composure.

Their eyes locked, Celestia’s magenta eyes peering into her own yellow. Neither of them moved a muscle, and the garden itself had become almost deadly silent. The Queen of Blades was not certain what the alicorn was looking for, but she gazed so deeply into her eyes it was almost uncomfortable, yet she looked back with the same intensity. She dared not reach her own mind out to touch the princess’, in fear that such a powerful being might have had mental defenses prepared.

They stayed like that for a full minute, until a chorus of yells were heard from outside the garden, soon followed by the sound of galloping guards. The Queen of Blades thought she detected a hint of annoyance, maybe even worry, in the royal alicorn’s eyes.

Deciding that she had already overstayed her welcome, the Zerg queen started vibrating the special muscles just under her skin at extreme frequencies, liquefying the soil to the point that her own body weight was enough to slowly sink her into the ground. Not once did she remove her eyes from the princess’ as she descended, and the alicorn made no move to stop her. The Queen gave her a small smile just as she disappeared from sight, the sound of stomping hooves sounding audible through the ground.

No, now was not the time to idly linger, she still had a lot of information to gather if she wanted to find a way off of this world. Picking the brains of a few scholars might have been good enough to find out the basics, but she needed something more. A source of knowledge even greater. Books and tomes would not suffice, especially not compared to the mind of a prodigy.

In all the minds she had searched, one name stood out as exceptional, someone with an intelligence even the scholars’ respected. A unicorn actually, and now she knew exactly where to find her.

‘Ponyville... Twilight Sparkle...’