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// Chapter 13 - The Blue EM2 
// Story: 40 Years 
// by bookhorse125 
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Queen Haven certainly felt things were back under control in Zephyr Heights.

After the experience of being branded a criminal by her own citizenry and imprisoned, followed by an escape across the wilds and finally helping to defeat Sprout and his big robot pony, Queen Haven certainly knew what a brush with the real world felt like. She still hadn't gotten all the mud out of her fur.

Luckily, the citizens had been more than understanding, and it seemed that something Zipp had said after the entire fiasco had turned out true. Upon getting the power to fly back, the pegasi had forgiven them, and had in fact welcomed them back into power. As she finished checking the settings on her throne and glanced around the familiar room, with the sun streaming back in through the windows, all seemed like it was back to normal.

Though there were two major reminders that things were different to before this all happened. The first was all the pegasi flying around- and sometimes into each other. Perhaps some form of air traffic control was required to prevent the growing numbers of air to air collisions. The second reminder came with her crown. Instead of the former blue gem that had been set into it (and which she had last seen in Maretime Bay), a purple one now sat in its place, another firm reminder of what had changed.

Not that she had much chance to perceive much change. She had left Pipp and Zipp in charge of the cleanup effort in Maretime Bay, and gone with Thunder and Zoom back to Zephyr Heights to start the long process of clearing up legislation to potentially welcome unicorn and earth pony visitors to their city.

She groaned as she felt her joints ache. Clearly all the running about of the last few days had taken a toll on her. That or age was finally catching up to her. She shook her head and glanced at a display. A news report displayed concerned messages from Pegasus Airways, a bulk aviation carrier. The founder feared that, with pegasi now able to fly, there would be no business for them.

Queen Haven got up from her throne and began to pace around the quiet room. The quietness was both comforting and threatening. Whilst the lack of sound allowed her a chance to more easily examine her own thoughts, the silence also reminded her of the absence of her daughters. Had the time truly come that they had fled the nest?

Speaking of Pipp and Zipp, they still weren't responding to messages on their phones. Odd. Then again, Maretime Bay and Bridlewood lacked C-Net towers, so it would make sense that coverage was poor at best. They may not have received the message, but she was certain they were in good hooves with the other three.

She looked at a portrait on the wall of the three of them. A pity three could not have been four, but Faust giveth, and Faust taketh away.

There was a knock at the door. "ENTER!"

A guard stepped through the door, and bowed so low his helmet scraped the floor. "Your Majesty," he said, "you have a unicorn who wishes to visit you."

"Show them in," Queen Haven replied.

The guard went out, and then brought the figure through before shutting the door behind him.

And the figure certainly was a familiar one. Alphabittle had even brought some things with him. "Hey, Merry," he said. "I brought flowers." And he had.

Queen Haven momentarily forgot the restraints of her office of state, and made her way over beaming with a large smile. "Alphy!" she said. "It's been too long!"

"It's only been a few hours at most!" the unicorn laughed, as he levitated the flowers out of the way to take the hug. "But still, the throne room certainly beats dodging war machines or being stuck in place with splatapault balls."

"Shall we head into the garden?" the Queen suggested. "It's a good deal more private, and it's easier to hide. We wouldn't want those nosey journalists finding out about us yet, would we?"

Alphabittle nodded. "Lead the way, Your Majesty."

A few minutes of walking brought them out in the garden, and they stopped by a waterfall to talk. "Nice to be able to do this without having to find random bushes and trees in Bridlewood to hide behind," Alphabittle joked. "Hiding a romance with another leader, let alone a pegasus, was pretty hard work back in those days."

"You weren't the only one," Queen Haven admitted. "Years of loneliness can rather do that to a pony. I should know, given the passage of time takes all those we love away from us."

Alphabittle nodded. "I know the feeling. It must've been tough having to be both a mom and a dad to them on top of all the Queen stuff."

"It was," the Queen sighed, looking up at the sky. "I can only hope he's truly in a better place now. And I still don't know if my girls are leaving home yet. I don't think I'm ready for the nest to be empty."

Alphabittle saw she was getting a bit emotional, and as such decided to change the topic. "You know, I'm not entirely sure why we didn't go public. It could have brought us back together much quicker."

Queen Haven sighed. "As much as I would have liked to, I couldn't. At least not then. The populace wouldn't have reacted well. Imagine the headline! Queen falls in love with enemy leader! They'd have cast me to the looney bin and found somepony else." She paused. "And even if you had gotten through that, you'd have my girls to contend with." Another pause was filled only with the rolling waterfall. "They still deeply miss their father, and I don't blame them. And another stallion rolling in after years of a single parent dynamic would naturally trigger concerns that a gold digger had arrived."

Suddenly, there was a loud explosion on the other side of the garden. "What was that?" Alphabittle asked.

Queen Haven dashed over to the other side, and her jaw dropped in surprise. "Good grief!"

A group of metal bipedal machines were advancing through the garden. The one at the front was larger than the others, and was carrying a bigger weapon. "Target spotted," it spoke. "Queen Haven. Engage."

The Queen dived into a bush as the area sounded to the hail of green energy fire which vaporised leaves and exploded things nearby.

Queen Haven activated her hidden distress beacon, before spotting Alphabittle charging in, his horn glowing.

The unicorn fired off a blast that slammed into one of the machines and bowled it over. "How'd you like that, huh?!"

The machine responded by suddenly getting back up. Another blast of energy roared towards Alphabittle, before Queen Haven dived out of her hiding place and knocked him out of the way.

"Thanks for the save!" Alphabittle responded.

"Saving you is getting to be a habit, Alphy," Queen Haven replied, before swinging back and bucking one of the machines into a tree.

The remaining machines began to focus fire as the duo focused their attacks.

"Thunder and Zoom on approach. Mark targets for bombing run."

"Light your horn and point!"

Alphabittle complied, with the glow visible from overhead.

"Marker sighted, preparing for drop."

Moments later two pegasi roared over, and a pair of improvised mortars fell from underneath them. They landed and exploded, blowing the remaining machines into pieces and leaving them scattered and confused.

The duo on the ground approached the wreckage as Thunder and Zoom touched down, looking at the scene before them. "Your Majesty, are you alright?" Thunder asked.

"We're fine," Queen Haven replied, as she stepped through the scene of destruction. She indicated to one of the machines, the larger one. "It's still functional."

Its head turned to her and looked. "We cannot be stopped," it said. "We are numberless. We blot out the sun. We are Legion. You cannot hope to stop us."

"We shall decide that," Queen Haven replied. "Take the unit away. Military intelligence will be able to decode this, I have no doubt."

As the two guards hauled the machine away, Alphabittle glanced at Queen Haven. "What were those? And how did they find us?"

"Those are questions that will have to wait," Queen Haven replied. "But I have never seen a threat like this before. If we are truly in danger like this, what other threats may await us out there?"

Suddenly, all sorts of bizarre sounds could be heard in the distance. "To the balcony!" the Queen said, as she set off at speed.

"Your stamina is pretty good for your age!" Alphabittle quipped.

"You're no spring chicken yourself!"

The scene before them soon killed any desire for jokes. Enormous siege works spread out down below.

As they watched, a series of large cannons began to glow an ominous and sickly red.