Somewhere and yet, Nowhere
“Of all the ways we can prepare this reality for the inevitable invasion, is to provide multiple technological bases?” An exasperated male voice growled out, his voice being digitized through some sort of device.
“I mean… Remember what happened to that dimension when some of our fellows literally only provided one tech nource?” A female voice, sounding much more melodic and natural, spoke with a sigh.
“Neutralized so easily that we didn’t have time to shore up the dimensional barriers to stop their advance.” A younger male voice, whose voice sounded like it was being spoken through a speaker, said in a nonchalant manner. “Even had to use those warheads to collapse that entire dimension so that it couldn't be turned into an outpost…"
"As bad as it sounds, conflict is a natural way of expanding and strengthening the locals." The first voice sounded hesitant for a moment. "All that we are allowed to do at the moment is to drop wrecks filled with tech on certain locations."
"And 'guide' the chosen races to said wrecks." The female voice sighed as she sounded frustrated. "Only if we weren't recovering our own forces…"
"What's done is done." The first voice comforted the female. "Their dimension is far away enough that they have at least 1,437 years of time, maybe more if we harass them."
"Well, what are we waiting for, you old lizard?" The younger male sang out as a shrill sound accompanied by the sound of reality being eased open. "Let's go!"
Another sound, this one sounding of wind building up alongside the similar sound of reality being eased open, was accompanied by the female sighing.
"I ain't old! Just because I am functionally immortal thanks to nanites, doesn't mean I'm old!" The first voice growled out as he eased open reality as well, accompanied by what sounded like fire burning and ice freezing at the same time.
And then, silence.
Southlands
Pantila Hex was most definitely having the worst months of her entire life. Her hive, which she was ever so proud of, had been reduced to a shell of its former self. Not that she had not seen the signs of betrayal, but it had come at a time when her hive was preparing to move to another city in Equestria to feed. Her hive had been a hive of workers, gathering love from the ponies as they did many menial jobs and were appreciated. It was not much, but it let her sixty strong hive just enough to get by.
That was… Until she betrayed them.
A no-name Queen and her miniscule hive had exposed her hive in the middle of packing up their things to the Equestrian Guard and had led to a slaughter without warning. It was only pure luck that she and nearly half of her hive had managed to escape alive from the location she and her hive had been hiding in. While she wanted to so dearly go after that traitorous queen, she had to put her own hive’s survival first. After escaping the town, she had taken her hive further south as it was the only way left open, as weird as that was.
Even as her hive rested in the forest near the southern border of Equestria, nursing their injuries and grieving, she had no idea on what to do now. Her priorities had been mostly to lead her hive, but as of now-
She and the remaining drones were fleeing from a dragon that had appeared from nowhere. While it wasn’t common to see dragons this far south, it had been sheer bad luck to run into the dragon as they were moving with what little luggage they had managed to take. Luckily, they had somehow managed to salvage most of the crystals filled with love energy even as they ran from the dragon. But even then, Pantia Hex and her hive ran away in silence as they relied on their connection as a hive mind. While the queen of a changeling hive possessed full individuality, it wasn’t unheard of for drones to develop individuality despite a hive mind that connected them to their queens.
If anything, they were all screaming in abject fear within the hive mind as they ran.
So they fled. They could only stop for minutes, or if they were lucky; hours. But it was only after nearly two days of nonstop running that they had realized that they had run into an entirely different locale. In fact, Pantila’s hive had sat on the muddy floor of a jungle for hours just trying to comprehend they had gone from a desert to a jungle of all things.
That and the air around them felt more... powered. Pantila ordered her remaining changelings tasked to security to scout out where they were. There was some form of unknown magic involved, she was so sure of it.
As she and her few remaining drones began to gather things for an impromptu shelter, a spike of confusion and fear was sent through the hive mind with an image. And what an image it was. The stricken ship, as it clearly had been some sort of vessel at one point, was made entirely of a kind of metal with the basic shape of those airships that the ponies have been recently building, but this was on an entirely different scale. It was a literal mountain of metal with great chunks having been torn out of it as if there had been explosions from within. The entire ship was also covered in forest growth, but at the same time seemed to retain a luster of new material. The rear of the ship possessed three massive colonial protrusions, and she could only imagine what they were for. And along the middle of the ship were small spheres and what appeared to be smaller ships attached to the hull. The curves of the ship made it a strangely beautiful sight, but it terrified Pantila. Within hours, she and her hive would find a way inside using a hole near the ground, but still dozens of feet high. The dark interior of the now clearly alien vessel made them hesitate, but something drew them deeper into the ship. Out of every closed door they had tried to open, only one remained open with the skeletal remains of a humanoid being sat before a dimly lit panel.
It was only when Pantila approached the skeleton, did the screen light up brighter and she would hear the words of a dead man. And even more shocking would be the fact that the alien spoke Equestrian. Or was it?
“Upon my impending death, I was told by an old friend that he wished to utilize what resources I have gathered to ‘guide’ a primitive race to be more than they are.”
Pantila wished she could refute that, but seeing the massive vessel, she remained silent.
“And as I sit here feeling my body fail, I can only pray for something better. To whomever this, my years of effort and blood spilled, is going to; learn. Learn from the mistakes of humanity and become better. There are weapons within this vessel that will ruin entire continents for hundreds of years and there is technology that can save countless lives. Learn. There will be a time when your race will finally reach the stars far wiser and hopefully, united. But I will not simply give you all access to this fine vessel.”
Of course, it wouldn’t be on a silver platter.
“There will be books, datapads, and learning aids all throughout the ship. Read them, learn from them, and then? Innovate. Don’t copy what we have. Be better than us! Be more unique than us! As soon as this message ends, the upper living quarters will be powered on so you can live aboard this ship learning. But you have to fend for yourselves. None of the defenses will be active until you can figure out how to activate the rest of the ship and its facilities. There are few locations where food is grown, but who knows when someone will find this ship. Find your own damned food.”
To which Pantila was already sweating in mild panic. They had more than enough for a month or two of love energy, but-
But wait. If this ship had advanced knowledge and machines, couldn’t there be a way of producing the energy Changelings needed to survive? Pantila noticed the moving picture end, which was followed by a distant sound of something.
Then the lights came on.
Northern Mountains
Lady Amberblade of the Griffin Heavy Knight unit sighed as she soared through the skies just above the mountain fortress she called home. It had been a series of horrible events that had led to near collapse of the Griffin Empire. But one thing that she and her allied Knights knew was that this kind of political collapse at the same time as a peasant rebellion had to have been planned. She hovered above a cloud as she could see aerial caravans bringing more and more of her allies to her fortress where they would consolidate their power in preparation to crush the rebellion that had taken their king and the entire royal family.
If anything, she had never agreed much with the king; but she was a sworn knight of the empire. And damn the rebellion for ending the royal family just as she and her soldiers were rotating guard duty out with another knight’s group.
So she was now stocking food, weapons, and the numbers to tear the rebellion apart for their treachery. She would-
What was that? Her sharp eyes noticed something in the distance, a mountain of snow in the high peaks breaking apart to reveal something. Something metal as it glinted in the sun sharply.
But she knew that mountain. She remembered walking on that mountain with her father on her very first hunt, remembered that it was where she fought her duel and…
But then again, they had suffered through a rather devastating earthquake her advisors had claimed was one of the reasons the peasants rebelled. Then perhaps…
It would be a day later as she and her most trusted officers would arrive at the mountain with the exposed metal side that was absurdly massive. In fact, it would be easier to call it a smooth mountain of metal at this point, but a few things stood out. As she and her fellows flew around the ‘mountain’, they quickly noticed that the highest point of this ‘mountain’ was a massive barrel of some kind. Much like that of the fortress guns on the Amberclad Fortress, if they were nearly thousands of times larger.
And as they flew closer with their blades drawn, one of her cousins found a way into the behemoth. And then they would realize quickly that this… ‘mountain’ was no mountain, but something that was supposed to be horizontal, not vertical. The tight hallways were dark, but the soft light from the floor illuminated just enough that they could see accurately. It wasn’t until they reached what was filled with hundreds of metal objects tossed down as if to reinforce the idea that this place was supposed to be horizontal. But throughout all of the mess of metal, a half dozen objects remained standing, as they were held in place by massive clamps; and drew their eyes.
They were bipedal metal giants with a blade and cannon for arms and possessing heads on the center of their torso. But what drew them in was the heraldry that had been marked onto the shield next to the head. Spread wings of a Griffon, a small blue and red shield with two swords behind it, and a golden scroll with words that had been blasted away by something. The blue metal giant suddenly seemed far more ancient than they had thought, and now that their eyes were adjusting to the darkness; the metal giant looked very much like a knight.
Just as Amberblade laid a claw on the heraldry, the eyes of the metal giant glowed a fierce red and shot out a wave of light that formed into an armored bipedal being much like that of minotaurs, but without their bulk and horns. The figure was clearly injured as they could hear the male being forcing himself to stand as he sucked in shallow breaths.
“Damn it. If it wasn’t for that xeno… Regardless, I shall abide by our contract. To whichever xeno is listening to this message, know that you are witnessing humanity’s might regardless of what condition they are in. It may be broken, ancient, and troublesome; but know that there are things aboard this ship that-”
A coughing fit stopped the male’s speech, which was somehow in Equestrian.
“That will boggle your primitive minds and you shall realize that it was by the hands of Man that had crafted them. So hear my words, filthy xenos. These titans that stand before you are and will never be yours. If you wish to use them, build your own with your own hands. The weapons aboard this mighty vessel? I could care less that you take them apart and learn from them, but be warned. They are not yours. You may claim to be owners of this dead ship, her dead crew, the ruined equipment and the Emperor’s mighty Knights; but they will never be yours. If you wish to claim the title as knights, EARN them by learning from what lies before you. Build and achieve Knighthood on your own merits, not on the equipment of loyal men and women of the Imperium. Be innovators, not copycats.”
And with that, silence returned the cavernous hangar of the vessel with the only sound being that of beating wings.
Midwest Equestria
Marble Spark was but a simple business pony who ran the quartz mine that was deep beneath the earth and oversaw nearly everything. And today, he and his workers were going to tap into that new vein that was found just weeks ago. As he walked up to a heavily built up barricade where a unicorn was carefully placing explosive crystals onto key locations of the final layer of stone that would lead to the next vein. His mining and refining business was run by him and his family of earth ponies, but also was one of the first to incorporate pegasi and unicorns into the business. There was still tension between all of them, but regardless; it had led to many lucrative contracts as their highly refined quartz (thanks to unicorns) and swift delivery (pegasi there) allowed them to supply the nobility of Canterlot to build their fancy city on the mountain. He and his workers braced themselves as the explosives were set off and-
The sound of rushing wind was not something they were expecting.
As Marble peered through a slit in the barricade, his eyes widened at what he saw. In fact, everyone of his workers could only gawk at what they were seeing. Dozens of painted armored giants stood within the massive cavern that was filled with strange glowing quartz. He approached cautiously up to a giant and noticed that it was most certainly not a living thing. He tapped a hoof on it and realized that it felt and sounded like quartz.
As he called in several of his unicorn workers to go over what they had blown out, he got the confirmation that these were golems without minds. When he asked for more specific details, he realized that these were some kind ancient golems that had been buried to perhaps hide their existence by their creators? Even as pegasi, unicorns, and more earth ponies came from the nearby town to study the golems, all he could see were the bits to be made.
Who knew? He could also be Equestria’s new provider of magical pilotable golems and weapons? As he silently thought of the bits to be made, a figure in the shadows facepalmed at his own half-assed attempt to introduce some form of new technology. At least there were several more of these caverns out there…