//------------------------------// // 6: Queries. // Story: Remnants, Forgotten. // by AnkhOmega //------------------------------// 6: Queries. Twilight's eye twitched. This was quite possibly the worst thing that could have happened to her today, at least in her mind. Not only was her mentor, Princess Celestia, here in person, but also the strange orb from the bunker was seemingly reacting badly to her presence. A strand of her mane sprung out of place. She tried to think of a way to tell Celestia what had happened. She couldn't, who would believe her? She tried to think of a way to lie her way out of it, to convince Celestia to go away. She couldn't, the Princess could always tell when she was lying. She tried to remember that invisibility spell she had read about. Unfortunately she lacked the required three pounds of diamond dust to cast it. A whisper in her ear from Applejack knocked her out of her own thoughts. “Uhh..Twi', we gonna just sit here?” “Yes!..No. No, we can't. Can we? We can't, Can we?” Twilight stammered, trapped by fear induced indecision. “Twi', ya know you need to tell her. She's gonna find out eventually.” Applejack tried to reason with the panicking mare. On the other side of the wall of energy Princess Celestia was smirking. She could hear Twilight and what sounded like her farmer friend's muffled whispering. From what she could gather it appeared that Twilight may have been engaged in something rather....private. “I'm not intruding on anything, am I?” She asked, with a wide smirk. The frantic whispering that followed intensified her smirk. Maybe catching her in the act will finally get her to come out of the closet... she thought to herself. Twilight was not currently sharing the Princess' cheerful demeanour. She was currently curled up in a ball on the floor, stroking her tail and muttering something about being sent to Tartarus. Applejack was desperately trying to convince her that it'd be okay. “Don't worry, take your time.” Celestia attempted to reassure them, settling herself down into a sitting position on the floor. After a few minutes Applejack had managed to coax Twilight into a somewhat stable state. She was leaning against the farmer for support, both physical and emotional. She was trying to think of a way to get out of telling the Princess, but had to concede to a point made quietly by the soft orange form she was pressing herself against. “Trust me Twi', getting' this over and done with quickly will be for the best. It gets harder the longer ya leave it.” Applejack said, softly into her ear. Twilight nodded in response and resolved herself to get it over with. She was glad for the strength Applejack was lending her, she doubted she would be able to do this by herself. Command: Lower the shield. She thought, trying to keep the nagging fears out of her mind. The patchwork voice of the Core Unit spoke out, in what almost sounded like horror. “Alert. Aspect of Galaxia detected. Lowering the barrier will endanger the Authority.”. “Who's that?” Celestia asked, quirking a brow. She had certainly not been expecting a stallion to be there, and there was something odd about his voice. She was bout to ask what was going on when a though stuck her, Wait...Galaxia? Twilight repeated the command in her head, getting a little frustrated with the orb. It was allowing her time to think, which could only lead to her panicking again. “Override accepted. Defense protocol Zeta deactivated.” the orb said, it's glow receding along with the wall of energy. Princess Celestia stared at the orb in confusion for a moment after the wall had fallen, wondering what it's purpose was. Her eyes drifted over to Twilight as she started to ask a question. The words caught in her throat as her sight came over her student. She blinked as she tried to process the new form Twilight now possessed. She was struck by that horrible and familiar feeling again, only much more intense as she examined Twilight's new parts. She couldn't shake the feeling that she had seen them before, but different. Much Different. “My...Twilight, what has happened to you?” She managed to ask. Twilight cast her gaze to the floor, looking almost ashamed, as she started to give Celestia the details of what had happened to her so far. Applejack looped a forehoof around Twilight, hugging her close as she told her tale. ..//.. The guardspony moved through the rubble. He saw several more bodies strewn about the streets, more senseless death and destruction. He had been a guard almost his entire long and storied life. He had seen the aftermath of border skirmishes, terrorist attacks, foolhardy attempts at revolutions and what happened when you withheld chocolate chip cookies from a foal being tutored by the Princess of the sun. None of that compared the the horror he found himself searching through. The fires had mostly stopped burning by now, leaving most things covered in a fine layer of ash. It did nothing to conceal the devastation around him. He trotted his way down the street, stepping over the corpses littered around. Whatever had done this had been thorough, and merciless. He couldn't quite bring himself to look at the bodies of what had once been a group of fillies and colts huddled together in an alley. The wounds he saw on the bodies he could look at were horrendous. Hoof sized holes appeared predominantly, but there were others spread out. The occasional pony seemed to have been burned, by acid or fire. Some looked crushed, trampled by others or just flattened by something huge. Some were in pieces, torn apart by something that had left large holes in the ground. He stopped walking when he reached what had once been a park. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. The normally verdant green grass, tall leafy trees and dazzling displays of multiple flowers were gone. In their place was darkened soil, dead husks of black bark, and crushed petals. The once proud monument to the city's pride in the centre now laid shattered, crushed into dust under some massive creature's foot. He didn't need to see anymore, and he doubted if he could take seeing much more. He spread his wings and took fight, heading straight for Canterlot. The Princesses would need to hear about this. Baltimare was a ruin. ..\\.. “...and then Applejack came over to apologise, and you showed up.” Twilight finished bringing the ponies in the room up to speed. She had left out certain parts of the story, namely the admission of love from Applejack, and what details she could remember of the surgery. One was a private matter, the other she really didn't want to talk about if she could help it. “It sounds like you've had quite the ordeal.” Celestia said softly, she could tell Twilight was keeping something back, but didn't want to pry just yet. She knew the lavender mare could be...mentally delicate at times of stress. Applejack gave Twilight a light squeeze, her foreleg hadn't left her friend the entire time. After hearing about exactly what Twilight had gone through she had started to feel much worse over her abandonment of her friend, she vowed silently to make it up to her properly at some point. They sat in silence for a few moments, digesting the information they had been given. Just as Celestia was about to ask a question, the orb interrupted her. “Alert. Two new notifications, both marked as important. Do you wish to hear them?” It chimed out. “Not now...” Twilight muttered. Both Applejack and Celestia were eyeing the orb suspiciously, it had been unnaturally quiet ever since the story had started, but had kept its focus clearly on the Princess. “If you don't mind me asking, what is that orb?” Celestia asked, not taking her eyes off the hovering ball of metal. “Designation: Core Unit-002.” It somewhat-helpfully responded. “I'm not entirely sure.” Twilight admitted, remembering the not entirely helpful response it had given before. “But it seems to be trying to help me out. I could ask again if you want?” Princess Celestia smiled light and nodded, some enthusiasm seemed to be seeping it's way into her student. She always did seem to perk up when there was something to be learned. Command: Query Library, Core Units. Twilight thought. She was somewhat amazed by the speed at which her request was carried out, the desired data being displayed to her overlay and being vocalised by the Core Unit near simultaneously. “Core Unit: A Core Unit is designed to interface with both Shell Units and facilitate communication between Biological sentients.” “What the hay is a Shell Unit?” Applejack asked, confusion clearly etched on her face. “Shell Unit: A Shell Unit is a non-thinking Unit designed for a specific task. A Shell Unit cannot function without an attached Core Unit. Common jobs preformed by Shell Units include: Construction, Demolition, Crowd Control, Cookery, and Maintenance.” Oh, so now it answers questions. Twilight thought as she rolled her eye. “If you don't mind me asking, what were those notifications?” Celestia asked, “They seemed somewhat important.” “One: Salt units have completed operations at Grid Kilo Kilo-7. Two: Final message from the High Overseer has been 80% restored.” “Final message?” Asked Twilight with a quirked eyebrow, “What final message?” “Message time-stamp indicates it was recorded 6 hours before all systems were brought offline prior to reactivation by the Authority.” Twilight was wide-eyed with excitement as she exclaimed “Do you know what this means?!” Applejack shook her head, smiling lightly at the tone her friend had taken. Celestia just sat and smiled, waiting for Twilight to explain. “We have a message from the creators of all of this stuff! Think of the possibilities! We could have an insight on who or what they were, what their society was like, their religious beliefs, their physiology....what caused them to leave all this behind...” Twilight was momentarily lost in her own thoughts before blurting out “What's the message?” “Beginning Audio-visual playback. Alert. Visual component has not been fully restored, definition may be low.” The orb floated to the side of the trio and began glowing again, from the glyph a few beams of light projected into the air and started forming a rectangle. Within a moment the blue rectangle of energy was filled in, with a sudden bright flash a picture appeared in the frame. All eyes were glued to it as it a shape in the picture began moving, the scene came into focus and Twilight's jaw practically hit the floor. The shape began speaking. ..\\.. The High Overseer sat down. The metal chair was uncomfortable. He was far too used to his chair, it was cushioned in all the right places. He looked up from the simple metal table in front of him, he was already resting his arms on it, tenting his fingers like he was told he did when stressed. He smiled inwardly at that. Stress seemed like the least of his current concerns. He reached up to his neck, pulling away the collar of his shimmering black robes. The collar always got in the way when he was trying to remove the Mask of Office. It was one of the many little things that made his life annoying. He pressed the sigil on his neck, The featureless metal surrounding his head split in thousands of ways, coming apart and retracting down into wherever it went when it wasn’t needed. He was never quite sure where it stored itself. One of the little mysteries he would never solve. “This is High Overseer Vaark'un. I am recording and transmitting this message as a confession. And for posterity, I suppose. Should any Elserian's be receiving this, evacuate the planet immediately. In fact, I order you to evacuate the damn solar system. Maybe even the quadrant depending on the spread. Whatever the case, leave Elseria immediately. We've fallen. I've failed you all and I will pay the price for that, but you cannot return here. It's way past too late.” He spoke. Calm, for the first time in what felt like eons. He ran a hand through his short brown hair, staring at the Core Unit recording his message. He would miss them, they made his work so much easier. “To any unknown entity receiving this, avoid Elseria for the near future. If this is being heard by whatever race manages to re-conquer the planet....I'm sorry. Pray the Salt protocol hasn't been activated. If it has, ask any surviving Core Unit about Salt Units. And ask what an XK-class scenario is. Then pray your timer isn't up. I'm sorry, the council authorised their creation without my consent. Our petty vengeance will destroy you if you're unlucky. I've created a few logs. My understanding of how all this happened. What lead to the death of our empire. Should it still stand, search the library for my name, they'll be the first things there. I made sure of that. I wish it had ended differently. I wish we had had more time.” He looked down at the table again. He felt so hopeless. At least his final act would be one of honour. “Should all this be for naught, and the only ones to ever hear this are the Aspects of Light and Dark... I'm sorry for what we did. For who we were. And I hate you for what you did. I detest you for all you did to all we had. For the souls lost to you and your progenitor.” He reached down to his side, un-holstering his prized side-arm. He loved that weapon. It was the only thing he had kept throughout his entire life. It was ancient, outdated, bulky, and inefficient. But it was reliable. And sometimes, that was all he needed. “I give myself for my honour. I take the action expected of me and follow the precedent of those better than myself. For Elseria.” He raised the barrel to his temple. He had so many regrets. So many things he wanted to have done differently. “In her name.” No more regrets. No more failures. No more pain. He pulled the trigger. The explosion of sound rattled the furniture as he was thrown by the force of the impact. He slumped to the floor, parts of his skull now decorating the walls. ..//.. The three sat there in stunned silence, each struggling to process what they had just seen. Applejack was struggling with the very idea that something could have the need to take it's own life. It was anathema to her, problems didn't go away when you died after all. If anything, more came from not having you around to fix them. Twilight was baffled by not only the suicide, but the creature in the video as well. She had never seen anything quite like it. Initially she had though it to be some kind of faceless metal creature, then that façade had fallen, and it's true face had been revealed. It was hairless, save for atop it's head and around it's chin and mouth. It's skin was pale as snow, giving it a ghostly appearance. It's eyes didn't help in that regard. They were small, and black, with a bright ring of yellow around the pupil. It's voice was deep and commanding, but soft. Almost soothing, and definitely male. Celestia shared similar feelings with the other two, but held one unique to her. She had heard that voice before. She didn't know where, but she had definitely heard it before. The creature in the video was similarly familiar. She felt a sudden bout of fear at the sight of the creature, not at it's shape, nor vision, but at the sudden feeling of terrible guilt. She felt like she had done something, something she couldn’t remember. Something horrible. After a few minutes of silence, something clicked in Twilight's mind. “...Salt Units?” she asked no-one in particular. “Wha's that?” Applejack asked. “Salt units...Didn't Core Unit-002 say something about them?” Twilight responded. “Affirmative. Do you wish for a library query?” It chimed out. After the three of them confirmed their interest it began to explain, their faces drooped as they listened. “Salt Unit: A Salt Unit is designed to be the ultimate in mutually assured destruction philosophy. They are designed to be able to induce an XK-class scenario through widespread ecological disaster. Salt Units operate autonomously in groups of ten. Standard operating procedure dictates targeting of civilian population centres and manufacturing sectors as priority one targets. They are able to function at a minimum of 10% capacity with full destructive capability. The Fabricator General has issued one complaint against Salt Unit design. They are stated to be “Glass Cannons”, highly destructive but theorised armour plating would not stand up to anything above a Scorpio class battle tank.” Princess Celestia couldn't believe her ears. She couldn't believe that someone could possibly be callous enough to design something to attack civilians first. To deliberately target innocents. It seemed it would just cause undue suffering to those who had nothing to do with what had happened. “What's an XK-class scenario?” Twilight asked, her voice shaking. “End of the World Scenarios: An XK-class scenario outlines any scenario in which a planet becomes uninhabitable to all forms of life. Theoretical causes of such an event are: Meteor impact of sufficient size, Strip Mining, Activation of Salt Protocol, and Over-pollution. XK-class scenarios are nicknamed the 'Salted Earth' scenarios, from which Salt Units draw their name.” It helpfully informed. “Wait a minute, that fella...said somethin' 'bout a timer?” Applejack asked before Twilight could. “Correct. Salt Units have an in-built 24 hour window of deactivation. During this timeframe any Tier One governing body can issue an order for deactivation.” That seemed to relax the Princess and the Farmer momentarily. It wasn’t the unstoppable end of the world if there was time to deactivate them. All that they had to do was find a Tie- “When was the activation notification sent?” Twilight asked quietly. Applejack and Celestia stared at her in shock. “Approximately 37 hours ago.” The Core Unit informed them. There was a horrible silence. Twilight began to twitch, she should have paid more attention. Asked what they were immediately. Not ignored the notifications. She should have stopped this. She knew she was a Tier One governing body, she didn't know how, but she knew. She should have stopped it. They had deployed somewhere. They had hit somewhere. She should have listened. She was shaking. Spiralling down with guilt and blame. Before either The Princess or the Farmer could ask what was wrong, a thump came from the balcony. A white pegasus in the regalia of a royal guard was standing there, out of breath and clearly overexerted. “P-princess...” He managed to choke out, “Baltimare...Baltimare's gone...they're all dead!”