9: Ultimatum.
The sun warmed Twilight's face as she finished reading through yet another log of conquest. She had managed to sate her curiosity on Elseria by reading through their general histories, staving off the desire to delve into the restricted archives. Something about the tone of those final logs really did suggest that it'd be in her best interests to wait until the world wasn't about to end before delving into whatever horrors were hidden there. And the revelation about the origins, and subsequent actions, of her mentor...She really couldn't afford to focus on them right now.
The logs themselves had made her both fear and empathise with the plight of the long dead empire. It was never a good feeling to be the mouse who has annoyed the dragon, but to sacrifice so much, to sacrifice so many, just to potentially attack something? It made them seem callous, that they could even think of celebration after such death and destruction. She decided that it was an issue best dwelt on when she had more time, and potentially the ear of a philosopher. And several gallons of coffee/one of pinkies Cupca-chino's.
So she had looked over the general history of the Empire of Elseria, which was doing nothing at all to improve their warmonger-y image. She had barely even scratched the surface of the history stored away in the Library and she had already read far too many war reports, scrolled past countless 'incident reports', and seen an impossible number of weapon specifications.
Eventually she had given up trying to find anything redeeming in their histories. Even their code of honour was horrific. Each Elserian citizen was expected to commit suicide for the most arbitrary failings, not doing so would be punished with public torture. From their own family.
She shivered at the thought. For such an advanced civilisation they certainly seemed barbaric when it came to war and punishment, every weapon she had seen seemed to be devised to be a devastating as possible, and every punishment seemed to be designed to be as extreme as possible.
Most of the records she had seen also seemed to convey that the main form of entertainment in the Empire was something called 'Cruor Absortio', which seemed to be a mix of various to-the-death duels, extraordinarily violent physical sports, Magical displays, and most shocking of all, poetry.
There was a horrible thought in her head, the thought that despite how horrible it seemed, their system evidently worked. When she took it upon herself to look for crime reports, the latest ones she had seen were dated over a thousand years prior to the most recent entries, or were the result of the actions of allies and neutral parties (although these did become somewhat suspect to her cynical mind when she noticed that almost immediately afterwards the Elserians had used them as an excuse to invade).
Across an empire spanning thousands of planets, crime was virtually non-existent. Even Equestria, in it's centuries of peace, had regular and organised crime.
Such a thing didn't seem possible. She was still struggling to imagine a civilisation that spanned across such a large distance, let alone one where crime was wiped out. A civilisation where peace was achieved through duty, war, and fear of punishment.
What if they're right? Maybe they-
Her train of thought was thoroughly derailed by the quiet yawns of Applejack stirring awake. The soft orange mare had been leaning against her throughout the entire night and had made Twilight feel incredibly warm and oddly comfortable. Like a familiar and fresh blanket.
“Mmm...Mornin'” Applejack mumbled as she reluctantly pulled away from Twilight and began to stretch out the stiffness in her joints, “Want some breakfast?” she asked, skulking over to their supply cart to find something to cobble together.
“Sure.” Twilight said absent-mindedly as she watched Applejack's swaying hips move towards the cart. She found she was having a significant amount of trouble peeling her eyes away from the farmer's curves, the space which she used to occupy suddenly felt horribly empty.
Twilight was practically rejoicing inside when Applejack re-built the fire, poured something which looked like porridge if you squinted into a pot over it, and sat herself back down next to her.
Applejack had an odd smile gracing her lips as she looked over at Twilight, “Hey, how long we got before them Salt Unit's get here?”
Twilight smiled back, giving Applejack a slightly suspicious look. “Well...they should be here by the evening, or tonight at the latest...But I've got to spend a few hours preparing some components to make the spell more likely to succeed...Why?”
“Because....” Applejack said, a hoof tracing up along a purple midriff. “...We're all alone...Out in the woods..Just the two of us....”
“And the-”
“Just the two of us...and a lonely ol' tent...”
“What-”
“With no pryin' eyes...”
“I don't-”
“Jus' me....an' you...And a cozy lil' sleeping bag...” Applejack finished with a coy wink and a suggestive wiggle of her eyebrows.
“...Ohhh...” Twilight said, finally catching on. She grinned and leaned herself close to Applejack, their heated breath mingling together in the cool morning air. “Well...I guess I can put some time aside for...Phsyical Preparation...”
Applejack moved closer, until their lips were barely apart. “Mmm...wouldn't wanna be letting ya down...not bein' ready...”
One long look later and the mares were practically dragging each other into their tent by the lips.
Twilight quickly found that her Personal Research Magazines had lied to her.
It wasn't good.
It was magnificent.
..\\..
“Luna...Please open the door.” Celestia repeated for the fifth time as she knocked her hoof on her sisters door. The soft sobbing coming from the other side did naught but make her worry more.
She had arrived late last night, still shaken from what she had remembered. She had managed to hide it well enough from the staff and the guards, but growing up with someone meant they tended to learn your little tricks for hiding things.
Luna had cornered her and practically demanded that Celestia share what was going on. She had tried to play it off as nothing to worry about, but her sister was much firmer, and much much more determined than she remembered.
The memories had come back to Luna in a horrible wave, remembering everything she had done so long ago. Remembering how her nightmarish hatred had slaughtered so many. Remembering exactly how they had lived so long.
She had fled to her room and hadn't been seen since, which was unfortunately much harder to conceal from the staff. Celestia, ever the prepared, had managed to spin it off as just an upset stomach. She was really glad for once that she had taken personal time under that excuse before. Not only did it usually end all lines of questioning, it make them seem more...Mortal. More relate-able.
She knocked again, thumping her hoof against the dark hardwood door.
“I'm not going to go away until we've talked.” she said again, loud enough to make sure her sister could hear.
After a long, and troubling, silence the door was bathed in a shimmering field of deep blue magic, which gently opened it. Celestia took a deep breath to steady herself and trotted into the room.
The room itself was large, and decorated somewhat eclectically. There were the typical royal arrangements of drapes and bedding, all done in deep blues and purples, with silvery accents threaded through them at every opportunity. But spread throughout the room were bits of furniture that seemed to not conform to a single style. A very modern designer bookshelf stood between an ancient desk and a brightly coloured wardrobe, the bedside tables seemed mismatched, one beautifully hoof crafted, the other looked factory made.
It gave the impression that Luna may be conflicted, struggling to hold onto the past whilst attempting to embrace the future. That, or she's insane.
Celestia mentally chided herself for that thought. She should never think that way about her sister. She carefully trotted over to Luna's bed, which currently held a pile of blankets somewhat resembling the princess' form, a soft sniffle coming from within it.
The alabaster princess moved over and sat herself down on the edge of the bed, stretching her wings out slowly. As much as she wished that she could mimic her sisters actions, just seal herself away from the world until she had sorted it all out in her head, she knew that she couldn't. At least one of them had to, as the Alblion's were fond of saying, put on a stuff upper lip. If only to keep the Equestrian population from seeing that something was wrong and panicking.
She was going to help her sister through this, and then with any luck get her to take the reins while she dealt with it herself.
“Luna?” She called out softly, extending a wing tip to prod at her sister. Luna just flinched away, taking in a few deep breaths. “We need to talk this through...”
“How?” Came the unsteady voice of the Princess of the night. “How can anyone possibly talk this through?”
“Lulu..”
“No. 'Tia, I do not believe it possible.” Luna said, embers of anger blazing in her eyes as her voice steadied itself. “We are monsters. Beasts that have forgotten their nature are still beasts.”
Celestia shrank back, there was a dangerous tone edging it's way into her sisters voice, one dripping with self-loathing and hatred. “We are not beasts. We are-”
“Shells.” Luna interrupted. “Mere shadows of our former power....And I remember the power I used to wield Sister.” A bitter hatred worked its way through Princess Luna's face, “I tasted it once more merely a thousand years ago....That familiar nightmare....”
“You don't mean the Nightmare was....”
“Yes.”
“But..How do you know?”
“I didn't at the time. Our repression was a strong one indeed, for us to have forgotten so much. Buried such thoughts so deep....It always did feel familiar somehow, didn't it?” Luna practically spat the words out. “But even then...With all my jealousy and petty anger...I was a thimble of water from a long dried ocean.”
Celestia suddenly had answers to a question she had never wanted to ask. She and her sister had refrained from discussing the 'Nightmare Moon Incident', choosing to leave what was done in the past. To think that it was a remnant of their creation....Celestia shook her head, as if to clear her mind. This line of thought would help nopony.
“We are not monsters Lulu....Remember, I know it's hard, but remember what we did. After all the destruction and death.”
Luna shook her head and covered her ears like a foal, “No! Nothing we have done, nothing, can make up for what we are! We dare to judge those who steal?! Those who maim and those who murder?! We have done SO MUCH WORSE!” she began to shout, slipping into the percussive force of the Royal Canterlot voice. “WE ARE THE MOST HEINOUS CRIMINALS TO HAVE EVER WALKED THIS LAND! AND YET WE ARE IT'S RULERS?! WE SHOULD BE EXECUTED! NOT LAUDED!”
Celestia just sat there, holding her ground unflinchingly despite the room shaking voice levelled at her. She waited, weathering the storm of Luna's guilt and hatred, letting her vent until her throat was dry and her eyes became wet.
After Luna had finished venting her frustrations Celestia calmly began to talk, her voice as soothing as she could make it while holding back her own emotions.
“Yes. We are monsters. What we have done can never be forgiven.” she spoke softly as Luna curled up, sniffling and wiping her eyes. “But we have a duty. To those we have created. We have given life to this world, remember? We gave up so much of ourselves to fuel this world, to bring it back from it's desolation. Remember that Lulu.” she said evenly.
As much as Luna wanted to wallow in her hatred and self-loathing, she couldn't. Celestia's words rang true, and the memories of their sacrifice, the surrender of their power to destroy so that the world could create. She closed her eyes as she thought of all the trouble that had come from their jump-starting of the world, the time they spent sleeping to regain a fraction of their strength, the creation of Discord, watching their little ponies rise to power, watching them fight each other over trivialities...watching them unite....then watching them incite her Nightmare.-
“...Maybe we should never have given life back to this world.” Luna mumbled. She became incredibly shocked when Celestia smacked her in the cheek for the utterance.
“Don't you dare say that. Don't even think it.” Celestia hissed. “We may never be worthy of forgiveness for our actions, even if they were made in rage, but none other than ourselves should ever be accountable for our actions.”
Luna rubbed her cheek, sure that she would have at the very least a bruise, and nodded slowly. “I...You are right 'Tia. I'm sorry...I just..How are we supposed to reconcile with this?” She asked, somewhat shakily.
“....I do not know.” Celestia admitted, sighing as her sudden anger fled her. “But I know we cannot let this break us, or what we have built. We need to be strong for now, lest our charges stampede off a mountain. Again.”
Luna gave the ghost of a smile to Celestia and straightened herself up, “We will still need time to...digest this. But...Thank you, sister, for letting me explode at you....Although we could have done without the assault.” she said, rubbing her cheek.
Celestia cracked a grin, noticing her sister shift her tone back to it's usual formalness, “I have been reliably informed that it is the thing to do to mares who are becoming hysterical.” she chuckled out, some of her old mirth returning.
“We...were not being hysterical. Depressive mayhap, but we had none of the symptoms of hysteria.” Luna said with some confusion as Celestia slunk over to the doorway.
“Remind me to lend you my film collection at some time.” Celestia said, waving a wing tip at her sister as she fled the room.
Luna waited a few moments, before shaking her head and muttering something unflattering about Celestia's love of cake and the effects to her posterior, before slumping back onto the bed. She still had the terrible guilt from her actions, but they no longer felt as heavy. She could get used to their weight eventually, even if it took an eternity.
Afterall, she had duties to fulfill. The night sky still took some caring to, and her flock of dreamers still needed it's Shepard.
She would have to follow the example of Celestia's student, and try to keep her breakdowns to private areas...and hope she doesn't have a lunar repeat of the 'Want-It-Need-It' incident.
That would be...problematic.
..//..
Twilight was having an exceptionally hard time gathering power for the spell.
It wasn't the symbols required, she had prepared them on the ground easily enough, cut them into the tree's with barely any difficulties thanks to the Core Unit's help, and drawn the back-ups with finesse and speed.
It wasn't placing the gems correctly to funnel energy into her spell. Although she did have some annoyances with trying to not snack on them.
It wasn't the manipulation of liquid into the forms needed. She had spent a little time practising with water to make sure she could get it picture perfect each time.
It wasn't even getting the blood. Applejack had already given herself some rather long cuts along the foreleg with a blade she had brought, and bandaged them up until they were needed.
Her problem was with holding her concentration long enough to store enough energy in the few gems they had and the symbols she had drawn. Every time she got into the right level of focus to start channelling, she would get a couple minutes worth of charging before one of three things happened.
She would either; Spot Applejack, blush, and giggle to herself. Start drifting into her memory of the event in the tent. Or Applejack would come over to check on her and she'd be too busy trying to stop her eyes from wandering to focus on the spell.
Applejack knew this, she herself was having trouble not smiling coyly any time she looked at Twilight trying to focus. She was also not helping.
Despite the gravity of the situation and the time limit they had until being confronted by giant death machines, she couldn't stop herself from teasing Twilight every now and again. She would deliberately wander into her field of view, swinging her hips all the way, pretend to examine a leaf, and wander off again. Or start of an inquiry into how Twilight's doing with a gentle nibble to her ear. Or come over for a kiss “jus' 'cuz.”.
All in all Twilight was getting annoyingly little work done. She did the only thing she could think of to try and actually focus. She stuck Applejack in the tent, ignored her pouting and told her she would be punished if she came out.
“The bad way.” She said with a stern look at Applejack's forehoof creeping towards the exit.
“Awww..” the Farmer said, chuckling to herself afterwards. “Ah'm sorry Twi'. Ah just ain't got much to do, an' you look adorable when ya blush.”
Twilight just smirked, “Well, when this is all over you can make me blush as much as you want.” Twilight blinked as she realised exactly what she just said.
Before she could clarify, Applejack blurted out “Deal!” and gave Twilight an impossibly smug look.
The purple mare just shook her head and wandered back over to try and actually focus on storing away enough energy for the spell to cast properly.
Applejack smiled, watching the glittering of Twilight's enhancements as she walked. They looked amazing in the sunlight, the golden rays catching on each engraved symbol magnificently and seemed to reflect back like a pool of water.
After a good few minutes of ogling Twilight she finally decided to take a page from Rainbow Dash's book and nap until she was needed. She lay back, drew her hat down over her eyes and smiled as her mind took her back to merely a few hours ago in the tent she was resting in. And then an hour later in the stream when they tried to clean up.
Applejack's smile practically tickled her ears. For a first timer, Twilight had...a lot of vigour.
Outside the tent the Core Unit floated aimlessly. It had nothing it could actually do at this point, having being instructed long ago to never interrupt someone attempting to focus their energy, and having been reminded recently that living things valued sleep oddly highly, it couldn't do anything for either of it's companions.
It sank to the ground and began to run as many diagnostics as it could. On anything it could. It communicated with it's bunker, with the newly repaired and awakening other Core Units, with the Generation Units, with the Medical Suite in the bunker, with the Fabrication Engines, anything and everything in the bunker it could communicated with it did.
This took a grand total of twelve minutes.
It decided to try a full diagnostic on itself, in as much detail as it could process. After the resulting five minutes of frenzied whirring it discovered something that would need to be addressed at the soonest possible time.
Part of it's internal programming had been flagged up, something deep and inaccessible to it had been examined and had given an incredibly worrisome result. It was thinking independently. Without order, or reason. It was developing preferences towards the organics it had dealt with recently. It was missing the past.
It was feeling worry. It was feeling something. It was getting bored.
This was very troublesome for the Core. Synthetic life was very strictly controlled within the Elserian Empire, due to it's classification as life it was subject to all the same rules and regulations as other lifeforms, and given all the same rights. But its creation was subject to many rules, the main rule being that military assets are never to be allowed full sentience, unless the Fabricator General deemed it necessary.
Accidental achievement of sentience meant that the hardware would be disarmed, replaced, re-trained and released.
It actually started to panic when it realised it might be re-classified and given responsibility for itself. It was sure that would be its inevitable death, as military class Maintenance Shells were not usually allowed to operate on civilian hardware. Nor were military class Generation Unit's usually allowed to recharge civilian hardware.
It lifted the bucket that had been used to imprison it earlier and slowly hid itself away under it again like a hermit crab.
It came up with a solution.
It wouldn’t let it progress to far.
It would help the Authority, and then it would initiate a full memory wipe. It was the only way to purge the erroneous code and prevent itself from gaining sentience.
It didn't want to be an AI. It was sure it couldn't handle the responsibility.
It spent the rest of the day trying to stunt its own personality from developing, hiding under a bucket in fear that its Authority would find out that it was developing true AI and re-classify it.
It was infuriated when its attempts didn't slow its progress as much as it hoped.
Then it got mad that it was hoping.
Then it got annoyed that it was mad.
Then it got sad that it was annoyed.
Then it...
..//..
Twilight grumbled in annoyance as her concentration broke once again, but her mumbled grouchy phrases died in her throat when she noticed what had distracted her.
The Core Unit had been peacefully resting in it's bucket, doing whatever it thought it could accomplish, when it shot up into the air, sending their bucket skywards at alarming speed.
“Ekrin detected: Engaging atmospheric shield.” It barked out, an odd wavering in it's voice as it proceeded to cover their camp site in a translucent dome of purple energy, which seemed to Twilight far too thin to actually stop anything.
Just as she was about to test the shield she noticed something through it. It was hard to see, the light of the sun having long faded to a dim orange glow in the far distance, but it was definitely there. A thin trail of acrid yellow smoke was snaking its way through the trees, fizzling and popping where it touched the barrier.
What ultimately made twilight decide staying in the dome was a good idea was the effect it was having on the trees outside it. The yellow smoke seemed to be slowly pockmarking the trees at first, the thin tips of the smoky trails scratching away at the bark like the claws of a giant cat. As Twilight looked further back she saw utter devastation, the smoke seemed to be dissolving the trees away wherever it touched. A wind caught a long tendril of yellow and it wafted gently through the trunk of an ancient tree like it wasn't even there, the remaining wood creaking as it collapsed into the smog and disappeared shortly after.
“What the hay is that?!” Applejack shouted as she galloped over to Twilight.
“Gaseous weaponry: Ekrin: Ekrin is the most dangerous form of gas weapon developed so far due to it's highly acidic nature. Ekrin has been nicknamed 'Acid Gas' due to it's tendency to rapidly corrode most organic substances and inorganic materials. The only way to safely store a supply of Ekrin is in a magical field, or magically enhanced container. Ekrin is usually enchanted to ignore dirt and/or concrete to prevent creation of inaccessible terrain. Ekrin is not used often due to-” The Core Unit spouted off, somewhat hurriedly, until Applejack interrupted it.
“Okay, Got it!..Thanks!” She said, unaware of the internal turmoil being thanked caused within the Core Unit. Applejack got halfway to asking what its appearance meant when the question died in her throat.
The ground was shaking rhythmically, like a herd of dragons all stomping at the same time. Twilight and Applejack shared a look before peering into the depths of the smokescreen and saw something horrifying.
Five dark silhouettes of massive size were marching towards them, through the fog as if it were not even there. The glowing red spots towards their tops did nothing to improve their image, making them seem like demonic figures crawling out of tartaurus.
Applejack was visibly shaking with fear, she had never gotten along well with imagery like this, as much as she hated to admit it. She was terrified, the constant thumping of the machines' movements added to the horrible fear induced pounding of her own heart. As the Salt Unit's got closer, and larger, she only started to become more fearful, the towering masses of metal glinting evilly as they marched straight towards them.
Applejack nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt a cool presence on her back. She turned to look at Twilight, the librarians face full of grim determination, and sighed. The Farmer took a long, deep breath and steadied herself, scooting a little closer to Twilight in the process, and stared defiantly at the huge machines.
Twilight stared down the closet machine, despite it's towering size of nearly two stories. Each one of the machines stopped when they came close enough to the shield that Twilight could start to make out the engraved symbols on their armouring. They spread out in a semi-circle in front of her, the long cannons on their shoulders swivelling to all point...at Applejack.
Twilight threw up the shield just in time as they fired simultaneously, the combined explosion of sound nearly deafening her even from the distance. Their shells impacted the shied and detonated, washing over the shield in a wave of fire and smoke. Twilight was about to start drawing blood from Applejack when something made her pause.
Text appeared on her overlay as a loud, firm voice echoed through her head.
..||..
Alert. Galaxia linked life form within proximity of Authority. Vacate planet immediately. Salt Protocol is in effect.
What?
Error. Please state response in a valid command.
Command: Respond, Stop Salt Protocol.
Error. Salt Protocol cannot be disengaged. Vacate planet immdiately.
Primus command: Scan Authority for mental deficiency.
Hey!
Octavus response: Acknowledged. Scanning.
Octavus response: Alert. Galaxia link detected in authority. Confrim.
...
Uh oh.
...
Primus command: Confirm (4/4). Authority has been compromised. Disable EMN transmission and-
..||..
The exchange lasted mere moments, but that was all it took for the Salt Unit's to decide Twilight was a hostile too. She expanded her shield to cover herself properly and nodded at Applejack, who was already flinging her soiled bandages away and baring her wounds.
Twilight split her attention, wincing at every repeated explosion over her shield, and struggling to pull as much blood as she could safely use from her marefriend. The Salt Unit's were relentless in their attacks, taking turns firing their cannons and making sure she was constantly under fire. It was effective, already she was struggling to cope with holding back the onslaught.
As she drew the symbols they raised their oddly tubular arms, pointing the open circles towards her.
Moments later the entire area was engulfed in flames. The interior of her shield was baking in the sudden heat and threatening to collapse as each salvo completed.
“...Ah...Ah don't feel too good.” Applejack murmured as her limbs lost strength. She collapsed to the ground, dizziness making her unable to stand as she started to feel a horrible cold. Her blood flowed out into the air, forming the symbols Twilight required desperately. Her heart was beating so fast, but she just felt tired. She wanted to just close her eyes, take a little nap, and wake up when it was all over and done with. Some small part of her knew it would be a bad idea to do so.
Twilight wiped the swear from her brow, wincing as another salvo shots washed over her shield. She couldn't keep this up much longer, they were just too powerful.
The only reason she wasn't unleashing the spell right now was a niggling doubt in the back of her mind. One of the symbols she had charged had been knocked out by the Ekrin, and her back up's were stored in their tent, which she couldn't afford to try and move to.
She wasn't sure she had enough power.
She needed more, she had to be absolutely sure these abominations would never hurt another soul.
But where could she draw it from?
..\ | /..