Starlight Glimmer slowly walked the halls of Twilight’s crystal castle almost in a daze.
Twelve.
Twelve ponies had died. Twelve funerals in as many days. Twelve living breathing equines had perished under her watch. The cemetery was outside of the dome, so they had to make due somewhere in town but still far enough away from the barrier they could conduct the ceremony without hearing the battle outside. Not an easy task. The location was marked with temporary wooden head stones, with any luck they could rebury them at a later date, but for now their grave markers would be a monument to Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer’s failure to keep the ponies under her watch safe. She couldn’t bring herself to share this information with the princess of friendship. As far as she knew, they managed to tunnel underneath the dome before Twilight extended it under ground and Starlight teleported them outside again, but nothing more. She needed to focus on protecting everypony, and so did Starlight for that matter. She couldn’t be anything less than a total rock in a situation like this. Was this what is really meant to lead? She couldn’t talk to Trixie about this, she wouldn’t understand. No pony would understand. Twilight might, but she doubted it, this was a total mess. For some reason her wondering lead her to Twilight’s room just in time for Spike to leave it.
“S- S- Spike I… I…” she croaked out then swallowed to wet her throat.
“Huh? Oh hey Starlight, what’s up?”
Starlight Glimmer didn’t know where to start, she ran through several sentences in her mind but they all eventually fell apart. She blinking her eyes to fight back the tears. Getting ready to just say something anything. As her mouth opened though she thought she saw something out of the corner of her eye. It looked like an albino parasprite but as soon as she focuses on it, the thing disappeared behind a corner.
“Did you see that?” Glimmer asked pointing a hoof behind Spike.
“See what?” He asked turning around.
“… Nothing.” She decided it was just her imagination. She was just loosing it. She just needed some time to herself to…
“Well if you don’t need anything else then I’m heading out.”
Starlight blinked.
“Come again?”
“Twilight wants me to go to the dragon lands and see if they can help. Twilight’s going to concentrate on making a small hole for me to fly though in a few minutes so I gotta hurry. I don’t know how long I’ll be gone for but you’ve got everything here handled right?”
The unicorns legs started shaking.
“F-f- fine, I can handle things here all by myself. I got it all in hoof.” She lied through her teeth.
“Awesome good luck Starlight we’re all counting on you.”
And with that the dragon flew out leaving the still shaking Starlight Glimmer. His parting words finally broke her.
The current acting ruler in crisis of Ponyville collapsed onto her haunches and started to whale like a filly.
…
The high arching halls of the Byzantium echoed with the soft footsteps of adept Maximal, the tech priest was still mostly organic only possessing a singular bionic eye, however he was an eager youth born on the very ship he now tread. As he made his way turning a corner he knew by heart he suddenly saw something unexpected. Astrolonomer Settra was seemingly waiting for him, blocking his path.
The young Maximal gave a polite bow to his superior and attempted to pass. Only for him to move into his way.
“Umm, pardon me my lord, do you wish to discuss something?”
The Magos of Astrogation nodded and gestured for him to follow. Maximal considered sending some kind of message, but decided against it.
“Tell me, young one.” Began Settra “How long have you served aboard the Byzantium?”
“My entire life sir.”
“And in that time, have you ever… doubted Arch Magos Cassius?”
Maximal froze in place.
“Sir, are you seriously considering mu—“
The Magos hushed him. “Just a simple question child.”
Maximal thought for a moment, in truth many of Arch Magos Cassius’s actions seamed, strange especially as of late. Several times he recalled the arch Magos making requests for seemingly random warp jumps from their now late navigator, thinking back that may have even lead to their death. The Magos also seamed to be actively avoiding Mechanicus outposts. Then their was there arrival here. He almost seamed relieved to learn we were in an uncharted sector with no way of knowing how to return to the Imperium. Almost like he had…
“Your flesh betrays your emotions child.” Settra interrupted his contemplations.
“I would follow him into the Eye of Terror if he requested it, but…”
“This isn’t the Eye of Terror, this is some backwater xenos infested mud ball he refuses to simply sterilize and be done with.”
“For the most part the inhabitants—“
“Listen to me boy!!!” Settra shouted. “Something is wrong with Arch Magos Cassius, weather it be spiritually or mentally. He has by his actions or lack of actions dragged us into a conflict with primitives that should have been whipped out before they left their primordial ooze. This campaign has dragged on for far too long for my liking and it’s time we enacted drastic measures to end it sooner rather than later.”
Maximal was shocked by Settra’s words. Never in all his life had he seen such a senior member of the cult Mechanicus show such passion, such rage, such emotion. For his entire existence he was taught to cut away at the flaws that made us fall victim to primal irrational emotions, yet here was Settra, perhaps second only to Cassius himself displaying such illogical behavior in front of him.
He was at a total loss of what to do, especially since parts of what he said made sense. This war was going on for far longer than it should. Granted he didn’t have access to what was really happening, but mopping up a xenos species like this should have taken days not months. Yet here they remained.
“What exactly are you suggesting?”
“Drastic actions for drastic times…”