Rarity was frantic. Of all the most horrible things that could happen, this was THE – WORST – POSSIBLE - THING!
She was running late and at such a time no less! She had been on her way to Canterlot for a big fashion show that was supposed to be later that day, but her horn had told her that gems were nearby. In all the rush to ‘just check them out’ Rarity had grown fashionably late and all she had to show for it were saddlebags full of diamonds. What could be worse than that?
Rarity tried to calm herself, “Calm down Rarity dear, it’s not like the sky is falling.”
BOOM!
Rarity turned around to see that a crater had appeared just behind her. Within it was a bipedal creature that Rarity first assumed was a Diamond Dog. She couldn’t help but notice however, that it seemed gleeful, despite its obvious injuries.
Furthermore, its posture was much too polite to be mistaken for one of those ruffians. She also admired the way it was dressed. The shoes may have been a little too big and the pants were slightly baggy, but she was sure you could do worse. Most viewing it would say its outerwear was just simple fabric, but Rarity recognized it as the rarest and strongest of all threads - spider’s silk, cleansed of all stickiness. (1)
Also, his eyes were not like a Diamond Dog’s at all, but rather those of a pony. They were colorful, crystalline and as bright and curious as a newborn foal; and they were looking right at her. (2)
The creature spoke, “A unicorn? A unicorn! That’s amazing, and it’s so pristine!”
Rarity liked this thing already, “Why thank you darling. How flattering! ‘Amazing’ is compliment enough, but Pristine? Marevelous dear, really.”
The creature looked shocked, “And you’re sentient no less. In that case, I should introduce myself. My name is Sol and I am a scholar of everything.”
Rarity now seemed skeptical, “A scholar you say? You seem a bit too, well too …”
Sol finished her thought for her, “Childish, young? Yeah, I get that a lot.”
Rarity looked embarrassed, “Sorry dear, I didn’t mean to be rude.”
Sol shook his head, “It’s perfectly alright, but there's sort of a situation here. Here, let me fill you in.” Sol walked over and touched Rarity on the forehead and suddenly she ‘remembered’ things she had never been told. She remembered the Enforcers, and the crash, and that Sol had to find his crew. She didn’t have visions; it was pure information, like reading a book. She had to imagine what it looked like herself.
Sol removed his hand from Rarity’s forehead and Rarity questioned him, “How did you do that dear?”
Sol smiled, but that's not saying much, since he was usually ALWAYS smiling, “I am a psychic. I can speak directly into people’s minds. It takes a lot longer to have a conversation than to remember the same conversation. The brain just works like that. By skipping straight to the memory, I can save a lot of time.”
Rarity gave Sol an evil glare, “That’s just fine, but you didn’t read my thoughts did you? I won’t have you invading a lady’s privacy.”
Sol shook his head defensively, “I won’t deny I could have, but I only do that with my crew or my enemies. Crew because we are all friends and it helps us communicate better, and enemies for obvious reasons.”
Sol’s gaze instantaneously shot towards Canterlot, still far off in the distance, before immediately returning to Rarity, “I was headed that way,” pointing in Canter lot’s direction, “I’ll have to say farewell.”
Rarity clapped her hooves, “Well good. It happens I’m going that way also. Let’s go.”
Sol looked worried, “Um, oh alright. I guess I’ll have to tell you then. I’m also something like a fortune teller. I don’t know what’s in that direction, but it’s going to be in grave danger soon. I …”
Rarity didn’t let him finish “WHAT! Well, all the more reason. Let’s go!” and with that she was on her way.
Sol didn’t like the way things were going, “I don’t predict I can talk her out of it, but I didn’t foresee her death, so I’ll have to make do.”
The two sentient life forms with a keen eye for detail were now on route for Canterlot.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Elsewhere Princess Luna was fighting off mixed feelings of glee and suspicion. Celestia had run out suddenly a few hours ago and had left Luna in charge of everything. While this pleased Luna greatly, she was not a foal and knew that something must be going on. They have divided up the ruling since her return, and Celestia had already given Luna a few days of absolute rule; but those were planned months in advance and this was literally instantaneous.
Luna however was no ordinary pony and could sense ... something. That’s all there was, just something. She didn’t know what. It wasn’t good or evil, but it was strong, and it wasn’t alone. Some other force, totally different from the first had also appeared, but she had long ago last any trace of it. Luna was sure that this was what Celestia had departed to handle.
Luna wanted to go too, but she couldn’t very well leave Canterlot without either monarch, not without a plan at least, and right now she was too tired to make one. It was the middle of the day now after all, and she would have preferred to be asleep. What she would give for a nice dark place to doze off.
Suddenly she got her wish. The Sun was blocked out. Luna stared up at the thing, but it was impossible to tell what it was in this lighting. One instant later a green patterned light washed over all of Canterlot and the next …
ZAP!
It didn’t hurt, per say, but as soon as the flash passed over her, even Princess Luna fell to the ground, totally unable to move.
“Stunning magic. They're trying to paralyze us,” cried Luna. Forget trying, they did it. All across Canterlot all ponies were snoozing away. Only Princess Luna was still conscious but she couldn’t feel her magic anymore at all. She managed to half stand, but just fell down again.
Suddenly the Enforcers descended all around her. They were human shaped. Human with wings, human with armor, and now a bulky armored one with black markings (as opposed to standard silver) made its way to the Moon’s keeper.
The Gladiator Class Enforcer now in front of her spoke mechanically, “You appear to be the only one still conscious. You must be Princess Luna.”
The Gladiator picked her up by the neck and held her right to its face, “Where is the heart of this world?”
Luna tried to blast this thing right in the face, but no magic would come. She still couldn’t feel any magic at all.
The Gladiator continued, “All non-standardized, or non-Enforcer type magic, is nullified by our stunners and can never be recovered without healing from standardized magic. Resistance is futile. Where is the heart?”
Luna felt like she had died inside. Her magic would never come back? She had thought if she stalled, it would return in a moment. But to never wield magic again?!
She did the only thing left to do.
She spit in the Enforcers face, “I know you not demon, but I will not aid one who hurt my people.”
The Enforcer’s thoughts were a mystery. Without more than empty eyes it was impossible to read the expression it had, if it could be said to have an expression at all.
It dropped Luna before turning to a Scout Class, “Fly up to the mother ship and request a Knight Class Enforcer.” The Scout took to the air at nearly the speed of sound.
The Gladiator left to investigate but Luna was not in any better a situation.
How could she let this happen? Why hadn’t she sensed the ship before it got that close? What would Celestia have done? What would Celestia do when she got back and found things like this? Would they take her magic away too? Who would raise the Sun and Moon if both of them lost their powers? Even if they won, would her powers ever return?
These questions went on and on in Luna’s mind and none of them had good answers. She had no idea what to do. It had only been one minute and all of Canterlot had been completely conquered. Celestia turns her back for literally one measly minute and the whole kingdom falls!
Luna’s mind continued in this direction of thought.
One of the Enforcers had noticed and spoke “Our defining feature is that all hope is lost for those that oppose us Princess. Tell us where the heart is and you may be able to join us.”
Luna growled at the Pawn, “I don’t even know what you are talking about, and I certainly won’t help you.”
The Pawn had never moved, and did not now. It had done its job and was no closer to the Heart, so it just stood.
Luna pleaded, not with anyone in particular; she just pleaded.
“Oh please, don’t let it end like this! Somepony, anypony, help us!”
ZAP!
Luna Looked up to see the Soldier Class Enforcer in front of her had a bullet sized hole in its head and was falling dead to the ground. Soon after that, about a dozen more Soldiers were similarly gunned down.
Luna turned in the direction of her hero, “Oh goodness and I are glad to see…
Rarity!”
Indeed, Rarity was the one who was zapping the Enforcers, usually with a comment as to their lack of courtesy, and always referring to them as ‘ruffians’.
Rarity then zapped Luna herself. It hurt, but it also restored Luna back to full power and mobility.
Luna tore through the Enforcers and made her way to Rarity’s side, “Of all the things under the stars that could have saved me, you are not what I would have guessed at all.”
Rarity waved a hoof through her hair, “Well after all Princess, I couldn’t sit idle while these ruffians did as they pleased. So uncouth, I dare say!”
Luna was furiously blasting back the Enforcers, keeping them from getting too close until Rarity motioned for her to stop, “You're just wasting your strength Princess. They cannot be hurt without Armament.”
Sure enough, the ones Rarity shot stayed down, but the one’s Luna incinerated reformed as quickly as she vaporized them.
Luna turned to the fashion mare, trying to discover why she, of all ponies, could do that and noticed that there was a glowing mark stamped around Rarity’s horn.
Rarity spoke, “Sol gave me memories of his own training to learn Armament and now I ‘know’ how to do it. The problem is that it’s temporary, and I have to use my own magic.
Luna touched her horn to Rarity’s, “If you need more magic, have mine. You’ve already done better than me. Where is this friend of yours anyway?”
BOOM!
Luna looked up to see what had happened and Rarity would have, if she could have looked away, “Sounds like he destroyed the Dropship, just like he said he would.”
Suddenly, Sol fell right into the fray, cleaving two Soldier Class Enforcers apart as he hit the ground.
Luna was wary. This thing was a human! Luna would have tried fighting it, but she quickly put together what was happening and decided joining humans (however crazy) sounded a lot better than joining the Enforcers.
Rarity scolded him, confirming to Luna that this human was in fact Sol, “Why are you so late? You said that you would be back soon. I had to save Luna all by myself. Some hero you are.”
Sol sighed, “Sorry, but I never claimed to be a hero anyway. I’m a scholar and a fortune teller. Besides, I didn’t predict anypony getting hurt here today, so I knew you would both be safe. And I just took out the Dropship and all the Enforcers in it, so we are all much safer now.”
Rarity started to go into one of her rants but the mark around her horn disappeared, and with it her confidence, “For some reason I suddenly realized just how reckless I was just now.”
Sol was powering up and firing little blasts of energy to shoot down the remaining Enforcers as he spoke, “Time’s up. I can send pure information straight into your mind permanently, but only as clear as words written on a page. To give memories or skills, I have to give you my own experiences temporarily. Don’t worry though, I fought so many of these I have plenty of experiences of how to fight them.
As for your confidence, you had my training, which involved not being afraid of something you knew you could beat.”
Suddenly the Gladiator returned. Sol smiled, “Oh Gladiator, that will work. Rarity, remember how I said I could read minds?
Well I can do mind control as well, as long as I stay in close range of the target.”
The Gladiator began to spasm and Sol approached it fearlessly. The Gladiator stopped spasmming “awaiting programing”.
Sol turned to the ponies, “We just got a new ally, but don’t trust him if he gets more than fifteen meters from me.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Luna now led Sol and a newly ‘re-marked’ Rarity through the castle, awakening all the palace staff that wouldn’t panic and could help reorganize things. Only Standardized Magic was useful for waking them up though, so many remained unconscious. Sol assured everypony that it would wear off and that when they could walk again he would personally give them their magic back.
Rarity noticed that Luna wasn’t wandering about the Castle looking for ponies to help. She was going somewhere. They eventually arrived at the vault where the Elements of Harmony were kept.
Even Sol gasped in Shock at the sight of the vault torn open like an envelope and its contents missing.
Luna was frantic. She looked about for something that simply wasn’t there anymore.
Sol spoke, “I calculated that there were two Enforcers too few. Dropships always have a thousand Soldiers, a hundred Pawns and Scouts, and one Gladiator. Scouting ships have a thousand Scouts, a hundred Soldiers, and one Gladiator, but you only got one Dropship here. I calculated that we were missing a Soldier and a Scout. One of them must have slipped away and done this.”
Luna turned around and yelled in the Royal Canterlot Voice, “This vault was sealed with a spell that my sister and I had to work together to open! We improved it after Discord broke it so easily!”
Sol looked surprised, “You can use the same trick Musica does to amplify his voice?”
Sol then scolded himself, “Sorry, that’s for a different time. As for your vault, if you didn’t seal it with standardized magic, it wouldn’t matter how sacred or powerful it was. Any Soldier Class Enforcer has control over a cancerous death magic that kills any non-standardized force, other than Enforcers of course.
Luna’s eyes shone. Storms formed around the castle, “And how much more grief will these things you have brought to our doorstep cause? They trample on our sacred things and toy with our people.
And you have put us at war with them!”
Everypony froze. War. It was something unheard of in Equestria and against things even the Princesses couldn’t handle, no less.
Sol shook his head to disagree, “No, this is not war. If it were war, you would all already be dead. The Enforcers didn’t ‘spare’ you. You are nothing to them, nor for that matter are the inhabitants of any world.
The Enforcers always do the same thing - enter a world, pillage what they want, take the world's heart, and move on to the next one.
They are less an invading army and more like Vikings. You’re not their enemy. You’re their victim; just another house to rob.
They don’t kill you because you’re no threat. If they had thought you were dangerous, they would have nuked the planet first. Not that they ever have, not that they ever needed to.”
The silence was broken by Prince Blueblood, “If they’re just thieves, then why don’t we just let them have what they want? We can’t fight something that the Princesses are helpless against! Let’s just give them the goods and then they’ll go away.”
Sol shook his head, “What they want is the heart of your world. If they get it then your world wouldn’t exist anymore. Giving in is not an option.”
All were trembling, not so much from fear, but from helplessness. Rarity asked, “You didn’t give me all the information did you? What do you mean the world won’t exist anymore?”
Sol ignored Rarity and asked Luna something instead, “Princess, that accounts for one Enforcer, the Soldier. Do you know where the Scout is?”
Luna scowled at the insignificant question until she remembered the answer, “Now that I think about it, the Gladiator asked it to go get a Knight Class.”
Sol for the first time looked worried, “What?! You should have said so from the beginning! The runts we’ve been fighting here are just to handle the common problems! Above Soldier Class they grow stronger exponentially! Gladiators are nothing compared to Knights! Plus, Knights can do mind control, but it’s nothing like my version. My mind control never intrudes on the heart and soul of a person. It’s temporary puppeteering with good intentions. I couldn’t cause someone permanent mental scarring even if I tried, because my magic is one that soothes the mind; and my mind control is a gentle trance.
When that guy gets here he’s going to reach into your mind’s deepest fears and control you with them until you completely lose who you are, and become just as mindless as they are!”
Everypony was still trembling but it was mostly fear now. Luna spoke, “They must want to probe my mind and find out everything I know that could be useful to their hunt.”
Sol sighed, “Well yeah, that’s what Knights are for.
Listen carefully. Even I can’t fight a Knight Class. I told you. They get Exponentially stronger. Even with this Gladiator as a puppet I’m no match. If I had my crew we could beat it together, but not alone.”
Everypony now had the perfect mix of helplessness and fear causing their trembling. Even Luna was scared. Heck, she was the most afraid. It was her responsibility and everything was going wrong. Then Luna had the best idea ever.
“You gave Rarity the skills to wipe out Soldiers. Give me those powers and I can help you wipe out a Knight!”
Everypony plus Sol looked up at her. Sol stared off into space for a moment, “Let me explain my powers while I calculate.
I am a psychic. Of all my crew, my magic is most similar to unicorn magic. Telekinesis, telepathy, mind manipulation, pure psychic power, etc. I have it. But I also have a power to see across all the spectrums of light and I can see things no one else can.
I cannot see into the future. I’m calculating the most probable future.
Prediction and foresight are not the same thing.
Foresight means you saw a vision of the future before it happened. I can’t do that.
Prediction means you calculated what could happen and moved accordingly.
In chess, you see where all the pieces are and make predictions about what your opponent will do based on what you do; but real life has more uncertainties than a chess board.
I can see these variables in my mind’s eye and find the value of them. Life to me is just like playing chess. I can predict what will happen later, so I move accordingly.”
Sol now walked up to Rarity, took the mark he had given her, and gave it to Luna,
“Your power is not standardized so it’s a rough estimate, but I would say you approach level 100.
I’m a 50 myself, and that knight will be a 75.
I have Armament. You have raw power.
It’s just a prediction, but I think we can win!”
Luna fired off a few shots to get the feel of her new temporarily standardized magic. She raised an eyebrow at Sol before asking, “You seem to be in a good mood now. I can’t tell if you’re childlike or very scientific. Your words are calculated, but your tone is playful. You confuse me.”
Sol shrugged, “Childlike and scientific are both symptoms of my personality, ‘Curious.’
I’m curious and wide eyed, and I like being that way! The world, all worlds are so fascinating, but I can’t help but feel bad that I’m one of the few that gets to see them. When this Enforcers thing blows over, I’d like to teach what I’ve learned. There is so much I’ve learned that could benefit all sentient life and I’d really like to teach it someday.
‘Give a man a fish and feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and feed him for a lifetime.’
Generosity is good, but I prefer Charity
Don’t just give to others, give of yourself to others.
That’s what I feel.”
Rarity seemed to be wearing a bittersweet smile, deep in thought.
Luna walked to Sol and got his attention, “That’s fine, but first things first. Let’s make a game plan.”
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
A lone Enforcer descended out of the heavens like a demon falling from grace. Its body was a hybrid between a human and a dragon, a human skeletal form with dragonlike features. It was primarily blacker than night but its seams were silver. Its wings were small, no more than a meter wingspan, but they were powered by magic. For anyone who had seen an Enforcer though, the most dangerous feature was its eyes. They were not plain white spheres like other non-pawn class Enforcers, but perfect red and shinning like coals of fire. They also had pupils, a spot of black like its body, set against them.
It didn’t fly like a bird; didn’t need to. It merely descended in the direction it wanted to go with its arms crossed. It was just a little faster than sound, faster than the screams it provoked.
At last it slowed, standing upright, right over the palace gardens and hung like an omen of death.
Its gaze had never been met by another. None dared look into the eyes of the demonic thing. But if Enforcers could feel anything at all, this one would have been shocked. Its gaze was finally met by not one, but two sentient things. It could not help but study these brave and foolish eyes.
One was cold, serious, shining turquoise, and the other, bright, confident and curious.
Sol looked at Luna, “Let's fly.”
Luna scowled, “It would work better if you didn’t insist on riding sidesaddle.”
Sol Looked back to the Knight, “I’m not that bold. Besides, you know the plan. Fly.”
Luna shot at the Knight, carrying the source of her newfound armament and confidence on her back. The Knight did nothing. The speed at which Luna closed the gap was tremendous, but she felt as though it took an eternity. Just as they got within hitting distance of the Knight it reappeared behind them, firing with a wave of instant death magic. It hit them, but they hit back, burning a hole through its chest. Sol was fine, but Luna was gasping for any breath she could get.
Sol spoke straight into her mind instantly, “Be careful. Standardized magicians are immune to his certain death magic, but you’re only half standardized. Don’t become overwhelmed.”
The Knight tried to hit them but Sol had telepathically told Luna how to dodge, and they were safe for a moment, firing blasts rapidly. With its left hand it quickly deflected all the projectiles and with its right blasted at Luna with death magic. Sol used himself as a human shield, saving Luna from the overdose.
Luna released all her remaining charge. The Knight dodged but Sol quickly used his telekinesis to send it back at him, destroying his left shoulder blade.
The Knight flew high into the air. It had played enough, and then started firing its death magic back and forth from one hand to the other, creating an endless loop. This loop soon formed into a house sized sphere of black energy.
Sol screamed, “Fly away from the palace, I’ll cover you!”
Luna flew out over the hedge maze and the Knight tossed the sphere at them. The ponies in the palace stared in disbelief as the blast burst into an explosion that gave off darkness rather than light, and the whole world seemed to go dark for a moment.
When the lights returned, Rarity could see that the palace gardens were gone, not blown away, dead. Everything had rotted or corroded into nothingness, rotting dust billowing in the air.
And also, an orb of psychic energy.
Sol asked aloud, “You ok Luna?”
Luna was, but was shaken, “Sol, let’s switch to plan B.”
Sol was skeptical, “Alright. I’ll mind control you and fight all out, but I’ll leave you with your consciousness. I don’t take anyone’s freedom away. If you don’t like me controlling you, say anything.”
Luna felt all the tension in her body melt away. Her body moved with the flow. She knew what Sol was thinking all the time.
Both spoke, “Round 2.”
It was a round the Enforcer started. He dropped at them like a meteor. Luna’s body shot at him. Right before they hit, Luna barreled to the right, dodging an axe-like chop only by a millimeter. She blasted into its side with all her might, rending it in two at the gut; but the Knight smote them anyway. Luna had not been hit like that ever. The Elements maybe, but they were a force of good, not pain. This hurt.
The Knight blasted a death beam which Sol took, just like the Knight wanted. It now went to cleave him in two. Sol telekinetically flipped Luna upside down, saving himself. From this new position, Luna blasted all she had into the opening where the Knight’s lower body used to be. It soared up through its chest and riddled its body.
It reached down with all its might and grabbed Luna’s head. It was going to try to mind control her.
Luna had been told that the mind control of this thing would be different, but she didn’t realize the extent. This felt horrible.
Sol’s version was calming and never trespassed one’s since of goodness. This was nightmarish and felt like something was coiling about in her mind, dripping with fear.
“Don’t give up Luna! I’ll cancel both of our controls over you, and you blast him!”
The Knight raised its hands over its head, powering up another death bomb.
Luna, now totally free, barreled up, spent all of her armament, and severed the Knight’s head.
The blast powered down and the bits of Knight tumbled to the rotten ground.
Luna and Sol flew down beside the head, which was still alive, but unspeaking.
Sol sighed, “Told you we could win. If the fate of the world hadn’t hung on it, it would have been a lot of fun!”
Luna was too busy thinking how she was going to protect her world, “Sol, can you mind control this thing?”
Sol thought, “Um, I guess, since it’s just a head I should be able to, but for the same reason, it wouldn’t be much use. It doesn’t know anything I don’t. Its Intel is useless you know.”
Luna chided, “Just get into its head and make it dream. I’ll take over from there.”