//------------------------------// // A War // Story: The ReIncarnation AU: From Space // by SweetToothTheUnicorn //------------------------------// THUD. Twilight sighs as heavy and loud as she dared. Her wings ached from beneath the crimson cape that was draped across her back---a gift from Rarity during her last visit. It was meant to help her get into work mode easier as they’d all realized long ago that ‘getting in character’ was something the Princess excelled at. However, after being stuck on her throne for five hours listening to the woes of the kingdom, a stiffness had set in over her muscles and has left her achy. Levitating the cape off, Twilight stands and stretches her wings out as far as she can to a series of loud pops. She sighs, in relief this time, but the sound is overshadowed by the exaggerated gagging coming from her dear Friendship Advisor. He dry heaves into his hand, “Gross! Do you have to keep doing that?!” “Sorry, Spike, but you know that being stuck like that really messes up my back,” she stands straight as the floating cape begins to fold itself into a perfect square. It comes to rest on the throne’s cushioned seat as Twilight’s hooves click against the stoned floor, even over the plush carpeting, and her wing waves the dragon to follow her. Eyes ahead, the Princess cheerily says, “Now c’mon! We only have an hour before our next meeting.” “You don’t need an hour to get through the whole library. You’ve been in and out of it for months now! Starlight is still surprised you showed that much restraint,” Spike rolls his eyes but follows with a fond smile on his face. “I had a schedule to get used to and governing to do,” she insists. He looks down at the color coded schedule he carries, crossing out their last meeting before tucking it away in the small satchel he’s begun wearing---another gift from Rarity. Over the last two and a half years Spike has begun to go through another growth spurt and it has allowed him to pass Twilight’s shoulder for the first time, not even just with his head spines either! An exciting new evolution that they’d celebrated a few months ago with one of Pinkie and Cheese’s extravaganza. This extra height meant longer legs that let him keep up without much effort. He crosses his arms as he speaks, “Yes, we’re all so proud of you. What are you diving into today?” “I’m going to look through more of Luna’s journals on the necessity of sleep aid in the kingdom. From there I can look through Starswirl and the older manuals that had been written by past kings and queens,” she explains with a prominent glint in her eye. Spike racks his brain for a moment, but when he finds himself coming up blank and squints, “Wait who?” “The past kings and queens, silly! The minor rulers that took up position during The Change,” she laughs like that makes sense to him. Which it doesn’t. “What kings and queens? I thought the Princesses always ruled?” “They did, but they needed ponies they could trust to rule in their steed when The Change occurs. Now, like I was saying, I was thinking to then---,” she dismissively waves the topic off with her wing and begins to happily continue explaining her plans. Spike would like to say that he is a good at listening, especially after so many years with Twilight, but he’s unconsciously picked up her intense curiosity for the unknown. Just in a more controlled fashion, of course. And this was sending off different signals in his brain. He rushes forward and taps her shoulder to catch her attention once more as he pipes up, “Okay, you just said that thing again. Maybe I’m just tired or a little fogged up after that meeting, but what’s The Change you keep talking about?” Twilight stops in her tracks and turns to him in an almost violent turn, “You don’t know?” “Know what?!” “Oh my Celestia! I might just be the worst parent or teacher or friend to ever exist! How have I never told you about this?! I know that you were born into Celestia’s rule like I was, but this is--- I was her top student. I was studying about her and with her for years when you were just a little fledgling. Oh, I just---,” her ranting is cut off by Spike quickly covering her mouth. He gives her a big, reassuring smile as he exclaims, “Twilight! I get your really upset about this, but why don’t we focus on what you didn’t tell me instead of what it means for you? I’m still alive and kicking so I have plenty of time to learn, right?” His nodding is enough to make her nod and breathe through the panic that she’d been feeling moments ago. Breathily she laughs, “Right! You’re so right! And we’re going to just the perfect place to do that! Let’s hurry to the library.” Twilight’s large wings scoop up the young dragon with little effort as the alicorn continues on her desired path. Any and all questions that Spike is trying to ask are drowned out by the thudding of her hooves as they hurry further and further into the castle. Taking a long, twisting path to a set of tall doors that are engraved with a series of sun and moon symbols that decorated them. It is mildly familiar to the dragon, but before he can think too far on it a purple glow opens the doors and Twilight continues on without a backwards glance. Spike grunts as he’s hit by the thick, muggy air of this library and he can guess why by the stray cobwebs that he spots in the far corners of the massive room. A pale blue glow falls over them that draws the dragon’s attention upwards to find a dome of stained glass above him in the same images as the door. But there are now familiar alicorn forms in the center with eyes longingly turned upwards as they face one another. “What are they looking at?” Twilight stops and turns to look at him over his shoulder, “Huh? Who?” “Princess Celestia and Princess Luna! The two are just staring up at nothing...,” Spike’s face scrunches in concentration at another strange puzzle. He uses a claw to trace the patterns in the air to try and familiarize himself with them since they seem to hold importance. Twilight follows his eyes as he continues, “Is it unfinished?” “Oh! No, no it is finished. It might make more sense when I show you what I have in mind,” the purple mare says with a newfound determination as she moves once more. Spike reluctantly looks away from the ceiling to a light that stretches out from the very center of the room. As they move between thick bookshelves past the dusty contents that seemed ready to fall as they war for space. He can tell by smell that they are all old and aged even from within the different protective spells that covered the space. His eyes track the soft pulsing sigils that are scattered around every corner; he has seen them in a few of the books Twilight read back in her Canterlot days. As they get closer to the source of light Spike’s attention is brought to a small podium that seemed to have been carved from an old marble. Rainbow webbing had never been seen before if Rarity’s musings of gems and designs are to be believed. He makes note to get information about it from Twilight later on, but his eyes zone in on a shining protective orb that is atop this podium. Inside it was a book that looked different from any other that he’d seen before. The cover was thick, made of a bumpy dark leather that has a metal plate set into it; a bit of bronze that had strange symbols carved into it. Squiggles and curves that don’t look like any language that he’s ever seen; dragons write like they’re fighting, griffins write in short bursts, changelings basically copy the loopy pegasi style, and hippogriffs wrote in the same old fashioned way people in Equestria did long ago. The young dragon watches with rapt attention as Twilight begins to whisper what can only be an old spell as her horn lights and the orb slowly dissolves into small shining lights. All amazement and curiosity is ruined by the immediate heavy smell of rot and decay that is wrapped up in a soured, fruity tang. It’s so pungent and hits so suddenly that Spike can’t help but retch. “Ugh! What is that smell?!” “The book is made from a... well, a type of material that no other book is made from. What you’re smelling is that material having aged a good deal,” Twilight demurely hides an uneasy smile behind a hoof. She won’t meet his eyes either in this moment and her face is tinged green with just a hint of disgust; another thing that Spike will be making note of. He nods, “Okay... And what do we need with this weird smelling book?” “Yes! Get comfy down here while I read, alright? This book has so much information and is so, so old that it needs to be handled with the utmost care,” Twilight lets the other down off her back as a beanbag floats towards them. It is much newer than anything else in the library if it’s bright orange color is anything to go by and it’s lack of dust. It drops right beside the podium as Twilight continues, “Now, let’s see... The story begins deep, deep in space. Past our galaxy where the suns are plentiful and the things that live there are beyond words. Among them are beings never before seen...” They were creatures that existed in many bodies but with one mind. Their one hope was to travel across the stars, visit distant planets, and learn all that there was to know. Knowledge fed them just as easily as matter did. While they had no real names of their own the solar systems they’d moved through have taken to calling them Solar Gliders. Solar Gliders had no real form that they kept to as their pure energy just burned through them. They moved in waves and, unintentionally, left their mark on everything because their focus is not on the creatures they meet but instead their worlds. Beings of energy think little of those with mass, with their own minds, and (possibly) their own selfish needs. Beings of energy eat, learn, and move on. Those natives find themselves angry, obviously, at the destruction left behind by these Solar Gliders. Survivors that reach out to allies or make friends with those who’ve been victims of similar situations. They plan out ways to reach out to these apathetic beings in hopes of stopping more destruction in the wings. The conversations often give way to debates. “You’re hurting us!” “We simply eat when our energy has depleted. We eat only our fill and move on.” “Your eating has destroyed homes, crops, and even our dead!” “Anything and everything possesses energy, even things that have passed.” “We care for those things! Can’t you eat something else?” “We either eat that which you hold dear lest we become beasts that consume others.” “Can’t you find a home for yourselves?!” “Our needs will always be to learn all we can. Remaining on a world means starvation, ignorance even.” “So, our needs don’t mean anything to you?!” “We are a collective. Our hunger is great and ever growing. We have given you a mercy in this way.” “Can you not just eat the worlds that have died?! Why not chase down those dying stars?!” “For we are those very same stars. We gather and seek out those that would have outlived us. We wish to know you.” “You don’t care what happens after you’ve learned all you can about us?!” “You creatures are much like us. Simple. What do we care now that we’ve learned all we have?” “Do our lives mean so little when you feel there’s nothing more to learn?!” “Precisely.” “We are not just our history! What of our futures?” “For many, once we leave there is no future to mourn. What do we care of lost causes?” Things devolve from there. Wounded, offended, and furious brings about war of these worlds against the Solar Gliders. But trying to fight beings that consume the matter around them is horrendously difficult. So, what do these worlds do? They create something that is more than mass and just as hungry. A creature that seeks out the greatest form of energy to finally rid itself of it’s insatiable hunger, a craving for pure energy that can be found in very few things. It is dangerous and it is desperate but continuous loses push people to do foolish things. They name this creature Devourer. And it is effective to say the least. There is no records of the battle that ensued. It lasted for days, weeks, months even if a normal calendar is meant to be believed so far in space where there is no rotation to calculate. All that allows these worlds to know that their homemade weapon was worth the risk is the screaming. Roaring waves of agony seem to echo through the vast, soundless void of space that is felt more than heard. It rocks the worlds till their mountains shift and their foliage wilt under this projected duress. It went on for hours at a time before silence, likely the Solar Gliders having fled to hide and regroup. But the quiet didn’t last long as the Devourer continued it’s relentless pursuit and it would start all over again. No one knows when it truly ended because there is no proof that it has. No, the only thing that truly matters about this story is the fact that, in the midst of another vicious attack, two stray Solar Gliders are sent away. Maybe a desperate attempt to stop the utter extinction of itself or maybe an act of fear that surged through the two. Who can say? Either way, they soar as fast as they can to a blackhole with a hope of escaping their pursuer once and for all. An unpleasant experience in every sense of the word. A feeling of being pulled apart at the seams while at the same time being squeezed tight until the body is twisted into a painful thread. Even for beings with no real form and simply floating essence is it a nauseating experience that overwhelms the senses to the point that consciousness is lost for the very first time. The two stray Solar Gliders awaken an unknowable amount of time later. It’s quiet for the very first time, except for the sound of one another. Between them anxiety, terror, guilt, shame, and uncertainty danced around the two as they find that they rest in a large crater. Their minds know very few things now that they are so far from the hive mind they’d once been connected to; they each have small flashes of memory to what happened while they were resting. Combined energy had been unleashed on impact and seemed to revitalize a dying, weak terrestrial planet. They’d hit something on the way down and found themselves in bodies for the first time, struck with new memories and identities. This cause a fusion that was sudden and unpredictable which created the first alicorns, Crissal and Lorna. It would take them some time to learn that their arrival brought about so much change in the few creatures that still lived upon the planet. Almost as long as they come to realize their appearances were strange for not only the extra appendages but the marking that appeared on their flanks. The responsibility and change that they will orchestrate later on. But there is more to come before these questions can be answered or realized. THUNK Spike sits up and turns to Twilight in confusion, “Why’d you stop? And what does it mean that there’s more to come?” “Like I said, this book is incredibly old. Not just because of when it was bound together but also the information comes from reliable but ancient sources. These pages were written much later than anything else that exists in here,” she explains with a giddy smile. She whispers another spell and the shield reforms around the book, once safely tucked away the alicorn’s attention moves to a shelf to the far right. Her horn glows and, after a bit of shuffling in the distance, a roll of several scrolls float in front of Spike’s flabbergasted face. “Here! These may help just a little bit more.” He holds his hands out as the magic disappears and Twilight trots off, her attention drawn away by her original goal. Fueled by his aforementioned plague of curiosity that he’d picked up from the mare, Spike shouts, “Wait, can’t I just read while you---!” She shouts over him, “I’ll read you more during the next break! We only have so many hours in the day! Just read those for now!” Spike sighs as he settles back onto the beanbag, “Fine... Might as well see what this has to offer.”