THE STARSCAPE
Alone in the Starscape Luna's body was at rest. Her spirit coursed freely, trotting along the stars.
Exploring the alien galaxy had been an exhausting endeavor, for even the brightest of Celestia's academics. Luna had a thousand years' experience charting stars and her unique abilities made her especially suited for crossing safely. Her astral self traveled light years with no fear of the creatures of the Warp.
Twilight Sparkle and the other twenty ponies had disappeared from the moment they stepped into Discord's portal. Finding them was the Princess' first priority but long days had past and they had no clue where to look. She had no choice but to chart and keep an eye on the entire galaxy waiting for a sign.
Her gaze couldn't catch every detail. Princess Luna did not notice the ripple caused the exact moment the first Discord Topaz pierced the barriers between realspace and the Eye of Terror. She didn't see the way Derpy's gem sank into the deeper regions of the Warp.
All she saw was the moment something within the Warp reacted to the Topaz's presence and created a beam of energy that pierced the universe like a spear, across all reality and into the Starscape.
Luna gasped at the sight of the cosmic event and her astral form dispersed, returning her consciousness to her physical body.
Whole again, she quickly stood to track where the beam headed only to find it hadn't crossed into the Starscape.
The beam led directly into Equestria.
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EQUESTRIA, CANTERLOT ROYAL CASTLE
CANTERLOT TOWER
EMERGENCY WAR ROOM
The hallway to the sealed vault of the Elements was crowded.
The carpets, potted plants and stained glass windows were still where they'd always been, they were just covered by a mountain of new stuff: the plants had been 'eaten' by nightstands with tall shelves because their air space was needed for stacking bookcases. The stained glass windows were draped with curtains marked with the Halo Stars. The carpet was buried under dozens of desks with ponies rushing back and forth.
The bulk of the room was dominated by a great table horseshoe-shaped table.
At that table's center Celestia sat on a great cushion. There she played her role as the central pillar on which everything leaned for support, the font to which all information was fed and from which all decisions and orders flowed.
Above her head a trillion specks of light, each no larger than the head of a pin, sparkled in the air. Between the sparkling lights and the limit of the Halo Star curtains the Imperium's Galaxy was faithfully recreated. Everything piece of the puzzle was gradually being mapped and replicated down to the two great wounds in Imperium space: the Maelstrom, and the Eye of Terror.
Behind her, the only body in the room not working grumbled.
"This blows. How long am I supposed to wait here doing nothing?"
Princess Celestia gave herself a moment's interruption from a report hypothesizing the effect that a particular cluster of dense bodies might have on determining the shape of the Maelstrom to give Spike a moment of her attention.
"Don't worry, Spike. We've no reason to be afraid."
Spike shook his head. Ever since he'd gotten back to Canterlot he'd had only one thing on his mind: getting the Cutie Mark Crusaders squared away as soon as possible.
To his credit and the girls' it took three days: Sweetie Bell left the Carousel Boutique and went back to her parents, Scootaloo went home and Applebloom took Babs back to Sweet Apple Acres. Granny Smith might be able to manage for a few days without Big Mac and Applejack but with the two fillies around at least the farm wouldn't feel so alone.
No sooner had Spike hugged the third and last filly goodbye when he realized he'd need their help with the mane six' animal friends: Winona was fine on the farm; Sweetie Belle took an indignant Opalescence with her; the Cakes only needed the word to keep Gummy fed and watered; Angel Bunny was already ruling Fluttershy's cottage with an iron paw; Spike and Scootaloo looked up at the sky, then back at each other, then back to the sky at Rainbow Dash's house and concluded neither one had a way to actually get up to the rainbow-pooled three-storied tower in the clouds and giving up they both went back to Ponyville proper.
Scootalo waved Spike goodbye a second and final time and told him not to worry, she'd find somepony she could trust to go and make sure Tank was fed and taken care: "There's no way I'd let Rainbow Dash down!"
So Spike went back to the library tree-house, told Owlowiscious he'd be in charge for a while, and packed up the three crates containing Twilight's emergency study supplies, her emergency emergency research supplies, and her all-purpose emergency of emergencies cache and guide to the unpredicted laboratory, archaeology, astronomy and history archive.
The little dragon marched down the street to the train station and he was a sight the likes of which hadn't been seen since Big MacIntosh dragged Berry Punch's house to its new location in front of the Carousel Boutique.
The station hadn't felt as crowded, and as lonely, as it had that day.
The conductor was busy with stallions getting sorted for travel. Shining Armor's campaign for emergency recruitment en masse was in full swing. Volunteers crowded the platform saying goodbye to their loved ones.
Spike pushed between Thunderlane and Bulk Biceps to get a quick interview.
The conductor dismissed him out of hoof saying he was busy.
Spike then shoved a signed order from Princess Celestia, complete with the royal seal and hopped onto the train. As far as he was concerned somepony else could load the mountain of stuff, the only thing on his mind was that he should have been burping out Twilight's letters by the book-full days ago.
That day in the train yard was over a week ago and Spike, for all his bellyaching, wasn't really feeling useless; the little guy was terrified.
He looked up to Celestia with tears in his eyes like only a child could and asked:
"What am I supposed to do?"
Celestia tried to comfort him: "What you have always done. Go take a nap, we'll still be here." Leaning closer to his ear she whispered. "And don't tell anypony, but I think you'll be able to deliver a letter just as well in your sleep."
Spike nodded and got up from behind her, waddled on under the large table and vanished behind bodies as he left the long hallway.
Celestia nodded to a royal unicorn guard.
"Keep him company and if there is word bring it to me immediately."
A royal voice broke from the vault behind Celestia, freezing everypony in their tracks.
"Sister, something happened, we have need that thou bear witness to it thyself, thine opinion is needed for it is most informed."
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SEGMENTUM ULTIMA, GALACTIC EAST OF HOLY TERRA
ONE HUNDRED LIGHT YEARS GALACTIC SOUTH OF THE GRENDEL STARS
Princess Celestia and Princess Luna faded into the universe. Their bodies glowed with golden and indigo light respectively. Their magic fields provided them with air and the power to communicate verbally.
"Luna." Celestia began. "Luna where are we? I see nothing but stars and empty space all around us."
Luna looked surprised. "This is not right, sister. We meant that we should arrive at the source of the magic beam, a place of magenta light and unstable reality. We are very far from where we should be. Someone has prevented us from entering this world closer to Twilight Sparkle's location."
Celestia became serious:
"You are certain it is a person and not a natural phenomenon?"
Luna was unshakeable. "We are most certain. We feel whispers, they tell us we are not wanted here."
"May I?" Celestia gestured towards Luna's head.
Luna smiled mischievously. "Please do."
Celestia closed her eyes and Luna dove into her sister's mind, expanding her consciousness and opening herself so that they both stood on equal footing. With their consciousness shared Luna let her sister experience all that she did. Celestia soon heard the voices: tiny, niggling things. Celestia approached and in the back-and-forth struggle to define the mental landscape between her consciousness and Luna's they were revealed.
Celestia aimed her horn and her light shined on them. As her magic isolated each individual whisper they cried out, only one constant whisper echoing: "ponies".
Luna entered the mental landscape and trapped the voices within spell orbs. Each took on a human shape, the shapes of Chaos Space Marines.
Celestia's eyes narrowed: "Tell us who you are."
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"I am Charibdis." The first voice declared. He looked stronger than the rest, his essence was darker and his spectral body retained the mutations he had accumulated in life.
Luna spoke: "Be calm and answer our inquiries. Why hast thou dared to lay a hoof upon our person?"
Charibdis, unfortunately, refused to answer.
The second spirit spoke up: "He... wasn't... Charibdis. His name was Iebin. The gods left us whole because we saw your kind: ponies. He ordered we find you."
A third voice echoed "Iebin."
Luna nodded to Celestia and they each took up places before one prisoner allowing the others to fade into the back of their collective mind. They didn't understand who ghosts could be 'whole' but that was the least of their concenrs.
Celestia approached the stronger one, her radiance bathed him in light: "Who are you?"
The human shape solidified, its body resembled a Space Marine again free of mutations: "I... I was James Herne."
Luna focused on the weaker outline, projecting a part of herself into his mind making parts of his soul whole.
"I was varSteppenvulf Fourth."
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James spoke. "I ... I was born on Caliope Seven"
Fourth spoke: "I was son to varSteppenvulf on Marsis."
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"Tell us." Celestia lead.
"Show us." Luna insisted.
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Luna opened her eyes and the landscape was a dark forest. "What are we looking at?"
Fourth spoke: "This, this was my home."
They looked around. The environment became solid but it was still just a tent outside a large burrow. "This is a village. It has no name, settlements on Marsis are temporary camps at the best."
Luna noticed a cluster of humans, crowded and mud-splattered and indistinguishable from apes. "The villagers wear no clothes."
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Celestia opened her eyes and found herself in a tiny room."This looks like a closet."
James looked strangely proud: "It's a hab block room. Looking back it is small. It wasn't so bad as a child."
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Fourth looked at his fellow humans and laughed at Luna. "Aye, they never needed to. Or they never had them even if they did. Clothes, pshaw."
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James looked confused as he answered Celestia's next question: "A hab block is just a layer, or a storey for a house silly horse. It's just a word for a spire. You know? A hive."
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Fourth continued describing his homeworld: "Some people died from the cold, I remember that. All the people hibernate during the winter. They build tunnels into the warmest parts of the earth and lay low, waiting for spring, hoping the food would last. Always in small groups, families. You couldn't share with anyone else. Someone would always sneak around, steal food, give more to their own people, their children, or themselves."
Luna arched a brow and Fourth shrugged.
"Oh you'd confront them but they'd cry and whine 'they're desperate, they're hungry' and we'd all yell back 'so are we!' And there would be a fight and by the end only one family would be left alive."
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James was sighing, completely oblivious to the memory that he wasn't an ordinary human anymore, not even an Astartes. All he knew was that he was alive and he was answering this strange winged unicorn's questions: "This is a hive. Hive planets are special, they're all built this way. Billions of people all in one massive city."
Celestia changed their perspective, moving them to the outside of the hive so she could get a look. it was massive. Over five hundred stories tall by her estimate. It defied belief that anything artificial could be built so tall.
"It does not look stable." She said.
James agreed. "It isn't, but that's part of life. Some day the earth will quake and parts of it will snap. Millions of people dead in seconds. Then the dust will clear, a new level will be built up higher and life will go on."
Celestia moved them inside again and they toured halls.
"Some parts get cut off and they'll evolve into their own societies. Fringe elements. It may be a few city levels, it may be an entire wing. It won't matter. Life will circulate, flow around them. That section will be cut off like a cancer. Left to fester on its own. Until it becomes necessary to do something about it. When they become a plague or an army and they threaten another hab block, another level, another section of the city that is integrated to the whole and vital, then the House families or the Hive administratum will intervene. Then they'll send in a real army; house guard, PDF, garrisoned Imperial Guard it doesn't matter."
"PDF?" Celestia asked.
"Planetary Defense Forces. They guard against the sky. The laxest part of every planet's army. They can go decades or even centuries without being needed."
Celestia didn't understand. "And what do they do?"
James didn't really have a straight answer. "Whoever they decide. They go down in force and look around. And they purge anything that stands up to them. Two or three sweeps and their job is done. Order is restored. Really they just killed everyone in power, directly or indirectly. Scrounger-nobility without an army suddenly get overthrown and a new generation of scavengers try to make a living of it again. Maybe someone from the upper levels or lower tries to muscle in, integrate the space and manpower to his own schemes. Produce more, gain a higher standing, hopefully one day elevate himself to the higher spire levels. And the cycle starts over."
Celestia had led them back to the first room. "And this room was your home."
"I... we lived here."
Celestia gestured to a dark corner in the stifling space. "There is a door here. Open it."
"I don't think I should."
"Do not be afraid." She said, trying her best to be reassuring.
"I am a Space Marine. I know no fear."
"James..." Celestia gently coerced him.
The door began to open on its own and James couldn't avoid speaking: "I... I'm not a Space Marine. I... I turned my back on the Chapter. I sold my soul to Marilius. No, Immundus. He renamed himself Immundus."
Celestia tried to give him courage. "Everything you have seen and lived, does what lie behind that door truly make you hesitate?"
"I... no. it cannot. Why would it? I... I remember now. This was my home. That, that machine. I remember I could fit my head twice in it if I could try. But I've seen such devices since. They are so tiny."
The room, previously wide enough to accommodate them easily, shrank to its true scale now that now that Brother Herne had a frame of reference - the scale of a boy to the scale of a simple convection oven. He towered over the hab room, his shoulderpads scraping against the walls. Celestia was now against the far wall, sitting on the cot.
James continued: "My father always made a point to drill it into my head that this wasn't our home. It was a room, someone else's room, and one day we'd have to leave it. I understand now why. It was a slum section, completely impoverished. Unofficial, unsanctioned, unmonitored. Nobody owned the rooms they were housed in, everything was just occupied. We were squatters. Everybody were squatters. There was nobody to purchase from and no point in buying anything anyway: the section had been owned by a banking firm that had probably been absorbed a century ago. The deeds were likely written off when the hab was cut off from the rest of the hive decades earlier. It was lawless, a no-man's land. Any day gangers could smash in the door and clear us out declaring it was theirs. Nobody would stop them."
"I was one of them. One day I grew up. I left my father and never returned, joined a hab gang and took over. We'd mark a shopkeeper, trace him to his home, raid his supplies and take over his room. Often we found nothing. One time we got lucky and hit a stash: two cases of engine-degreaser being distilled into licor. We stayed there a year I think, drinking and trading excess and living it up until the ethyl ran out. The gang turned on each other. I made it out alive."
James' eyes took on a glassy state. His voice was mechanical. Calm.
"Then the Angels came. They took me. I became one. I became an Angel.
I became a Space Marine.
And I forgot everything."
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Within Fourth's mind Luna was making similar progress.
"I was the last one of my family, dug into the earth. They killed my parents, they killed my sister. They didn't need a weak girl, they said."
"I killed him."
"I caught his arm and crushed his eye with a rock. I took the knife from his hand and I killed him."
"Him and his family. Everything had been ruined. They'd spilt the water barrels in the tunnels during the brawl. Everything was mud, I drank it trying to save the water. I was so hungry. I killed them, and I survived the winter."
"I ate them."
"I survived the next three years, alone, because I killed people, and I ate them."
"And then one day the Angels came. They took me. I became one. I became an Angel.
I became a Space Marine.
And I forgot everything."
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A dozen minds and a dozen souls across the galaxy echoed the same sentiment. Luna and Celestia had managed to tap into a maelstrom of thoughts and psychic echoes, shadows of people who no longer lived.
Everywhere the same pattern repeated itself.
"I learned to read and write."
"I learned to fight, use a bolter."
"They taught me everything."
"I forgot about my parents. I didn't realize. I never noticed, never cared. I had brothers now."
"I discovered I was meant to serve alongside the Mechanicus. I had been blessed by the Omnissiah. I worked flesh and machines."
But at the end, always:
"One day the Angels came.
I became a Space Marine.
And I forgot everything."
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Every cluster of stars eventually becomes charted, every section becomes drawn on a map. Distances and routes are discovered, tested, preserved.
Eventually one planet, one system, becomes a capital.
"Governor, We expect an explanation." Luna had searched the dreams of leaders looking for a trail, following breadcrumbs until she could find the person at the top.
Her search had led her to this world, to this man.
Her power put him within his dreams despite the fortress of protective technology, much of it anti-psycher, with which he surrounded himself.
"I must be dreaming... what fantasy is this that a pegasus-winged unicorn would demand I explain myself... You are beautiful. Like an imaginary friend from childhood. I don't remember you... but then I am one hundred and twenty."
Luna explained herself very briefly. She wanted to understand Space Marines.
The governor answered. "The worlds you describe aren't unusual. I've never heard of Caliope Seven or Marsis; I can tell you now I never needed to. The first is a common Hive World and the second's a Feral planet if I'd ever heard of one. There are billions of inhabitants on a Hive World. Billions. Do you really think there's room for all of them? Perish the thought, never. But they are and they're there. There people breed like rats and survive just the same. If they were all useful, oh that would be something. I'd conscript an entire Hive if I could, send them all into Guard Regiments or penal legions if need be. I'd happily send them all into the gaping maw of an Ork 'Waaaagh!' if it meant an end to two of our problems."
"But it wouldn't. So we leave them be. The best invariably rise to the top and get picked out, either as Imperium or Astartes agents. Some might even be of use to the Inquisition. It matters naught. The planetary tithes are met, my advisers predict stability in the region baring any outside circumstances and the organizations that take their pick from our human livestock are well satisfied. And even if thy weren't who cares? The Astartes would pick off members from another world, as would the Inquisition.
The Schola Progenium continues to satisfactorily induct new applicants for the Ecclesiarchy, the Departmento Munitorum, the Sororitas, the Commissariat AND the stormtrooper regiments and as far as I'm concerned that settles the matter."
Luna heard a string of terms that meant nothing to her and while she was tempted to pursue these new threads she felt it was important to get closure on the subject of varSteppenvulf's homeworld. "And the feral world?"
The governor waved off the question with his hand. "Trivial. Like I said we have millions of men to spare on planet. Marsis or whatever it's called is just another mudball. If it isn't already settled then it must not be worth settling. Hardly worth the terraforming effort just to make the lives of a few savages comfortable."
Luna persisted, pleading their case. "Is that the only benefit you could see? You speak as if inhabitable worlds were easily procured."
The governor granted the point. "Indeed they are not. " He was pensive. "Hmm... perhaps there is a hidden benefit. That is why I am speaking to you isn't it? This is just my subconscious. Some planet caught my eye and a little dream pony with wings, a horn and an enlarged head is my mind's way of reminding me about it. I must say this is very livid: I should ask my chief cook what he did, perhaps the pech was of better quality this time... one can never tell."
Luna ignored the word 'pech' and focused on the governor's anxieties."What do you think of these other organizations that trouble you?"
"Well let me see. The Schola produces its own adepts and none counts towards the planetary tithe but there are some advantages. The reconstruction and dedication of a hive section to a Sororitas Minor Order would improve turnaround and provide a tertiary planetary defense. It might even help to ward off the evil eye."
Luna dismissed the last term. She'd heard the term 'evil eye' in enough human minds to understand it was a baseless superstition.
He continued: "The same could be said for a stormtrooper garrison and training facility, less prestigious but also less interference from the Ecclesiarchy. Piety notwithstanding I would not be doing my progeny any favors by converting this planet into a shrineworld. But it's all just speculation, isn't it? It all comes down to the quality of the masses' brats. My father, in his day, never saw the value investing in them. Why should I?"
A disturbing thought began to form within Luna's heart. Even as she fought against it she had to give it words. "What is the age of maturity?"
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varSteppenvulf didn't hesitate. "At puberty. The first signs. When a lad grows his first beard and a lass bleeds."
Herne was apprehensive but answered anyway. "The official records vary, typically the prefects and arbites enforced the age of sixteen."
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The governor's standards were completely different.
"My boy finished his elementary education at the age of twenty-five. I suspect he'll be ready and I'll begin delegating authorities to him in his forties. Ideally I'll retire to private life no sooner than two-hundred and ten. I hope I'll be in health to maneuver him even then. I didn't inherit full control of House Claad until I was one-hundred and thirteen and I'll not see everything brought down by passing all on to a boy."
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"How old were you when the Angels came?" Celestia asked.
James had trouble remembering then answered: "I was eleven."
Fourth was quick. "Thirteen Marsis winters. Ten years standard."
"Why?" Celestia asked, astonished at their answers.
James spoke clearly: "I trained initiates in the scout company. They must be young. The transformative properties of gene-seed are rejected more frequently in adulthood, even adolescence. The entire process is best completed before puberty sets in and their body growth ends."
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Luna was outraged. She blocked out everything else and talked directly to Celestia.
"It is worse than we suspected Sister, worse than we could have imagined. They are chosen deliberately. Orphans. Taken from the most savage of societies. They must be strong and capable killers and they must have accomplished this before they mature, halfway into their childhood. If they were ponies they wouldn't be old enough to have a cutie-mark. They wouldn't have an idea who they really are."
"Combine their youth with the hypnotherapy required to enhance their transformation and every Space Marine has no memory of their life as an ordinary human. The formulas for their transformation and the organizations that encourage them have been refined over millennia."
"Human lifespans can exceed two-hundred years. The Chapter is all they know."
Celestia was quiet.
At that moment Iebin spoke, forcing himself back from the clouded recesses of their mind collective:
"Indeed it is. Curious how these humans react, isn't it?"
Celestia and Luna looked on in shock as Iebin's yellow eye fell from his head and the rest of his body faded back to where Celestia kept him. The eye hovered in the air and sprouted a complete body.
Discord's body.
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"I am surprised to see you here and well." Celestia said. "I remember what happened to you."
Discord was taunting. "I had no doubt you did, you have a tendency to stand back and watch everything unfold. You know I had my doubts but apparently one thousand years of routine can make a pony change. Or perhaps I'm mistaken, perhaps it isn't time that made everything change for that take-charge princess I used to know. Perhaps it came from something... deeper."
Celestia didn't care for Discord's insinuation. He was being nasty and she needed answers but more likely than not if she just up and asked what she wanted to know that would be the information he withheld.
Discord continued: "Such a curious position you were in, lording over all of creation unchallenged, free to impose your own brand of "order" across the realm - and really why shouldn't you? After all the defeated aren't around to press their own version of events upon everypony not in the know. Tell me Celestia, were a thousand years enough? Your first choice plan to rule Equestria as a shared monarchy didn't have such a long shelf life, did it? You soon found yourself playing with more orbital bodies, and more than just orbital bodies, very quickly."
Discord went on, indifferent to Luna's teeth-gritting. "I wonder if in contrast those thousand years succeeded were the others didn't. If they were enough to make you see the distance, enough to measure the degrees, enough to make you understand what it is like to be someone... like me."
Celestia didn't know why Discord was obsessing over the past, especially over this speculation of a tyrant Celestia. Something about him was off.
"You've immortalized me as a puppeteer but it wasn't too long afterwards that the strain of your new-found 'freedom' caught up with you. Tell me, what virtue innate to you determined that your reign should be judged as righteous by that lovely little storybook you continue to write?"
Celestia had heard enough. "I do appreciate your point, your fears. I have never felt alone but power is isolating. Watching from afar, intervening in small ways, trying so hard not to interfere with everypony's lives. It is difficult and humbling and it is still worlds away from the fear of becoming emotionally involved with anyone; Treating everything in the fleeting moment as something outside you. It is not for you to judge my rule, Discord. For all my limitations and imperfections I have done my best to not only guide my subjects but to share in their lives."
Unsatisfied with this response Discord grumbled.
Celestia moved to attack. "I heard you cry."
"That was just for Pinkie's sake."
"I don't believe that. You've lent my little ponies more than just your magic; there's a piece of you inside all of them right now. You were doing this because I asked, and I am thankful but you remained here because of what you went through."
Discord looked furious. She went on: "It's why you cried."
Celestia brought her face within inches of his, their muzzles almost touching. "You were afraid."
Discord huffed. "I'm not having this discussion. Let's just move on to whatever it is you want from me."
"I know you're not complete, Discord. Your being is split among twenty-one other individuals. You're just a small fragment, the part of you that resents me. It's pretty clever. This part of you would naturally be the one that crossed the universe to find me."
With a nod Celestia and Luna opened their hearts and the Discord fragment vanished, dissolving into their minds. All at once they experienced everything, the studies, the research, the fear, the combat, Derpy...
Luna reeled. "Sister, we must hurry!"
Celestia stopped her.
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Back in the physical realm Celestia stopped. Something in the universe at large felt wrong. Her eyes turned to a planet on the eastern fringe. Their cries were deafening.
The planet's Imperial population rend their garments and cried to the heavens screaming about the end of the world. The apocalypse had come to their solar system: Solar Flared, earthquakes, tidal waves, distortion of their planet's ozone shield and increased background radiation had devastated the population, crippled its industry and drove its superfluous nobility to flee to neighboring systems.
Celestia turned to a distant star and saw the devastation for what it was: a celestial body suffering from a gravity distortion on a galactic scale. She drew a spyglass from her saddlebag, enchanted it with her horn and pointed it in the direction of the gravity spike.
"There's something else coming. Something on the opposite end of the galaxy." Celestia closed the spyglass. "Sister, can you see what lies in the distance?"
"Not with our eyes.
Celestia nodded at Luna and Luna broke off, splitting her astral self and hurling it across the galaxy. Her mental construct flowed, using the pull of the gravity spike as a guiding road.
She soon found the source. A massive fleet of biological constructs, kilometer-long living organisms escorted by organic fighter-vessels as numerous as the stars.
Luna's focus returned to her body and shared the vision with Celestia. "By the heavens, what are these creatures?"
In response Celestia turned around, scanning the planetary system for the world where they had found the planetary governor.
"Mmm... hello again. A new pony. Are you here to play with me too?"
Celestia was elegant but brief. "I apologize, no. I have only one question for you."
"Have you now? Very well then, please tell. What is it?"
Luna phased into the governor's mind as well, picking up the conversation where Celestia left off. "This image, tell us, what is it?" Luna projected a still, a mere microsecond of the size and composition of the fleet.
The planetary governor, the lord protector and master of House Claad, experienced a total mental breakdown as several thousand hours of briefings, holologs, personal accounts, Mechanicus biologists' studies and indoctrinated defense strategy flooded his mind.
His memory overlapped written words with aural discussions and visual logs of what every last one of these known horrors were conjectured to look like along with the horrifying aftermath of their invasions.
Luna and Celestia were forcibly ejected from his dreamscape, their ears ringing with his desperate screams.
"THEY ARE COME! THE GREAT DEVOURER!"
"Tyranids." Luna said. "The Imperium calls them Tyranids and the humans view their galaxy as a map of bright stars that are gradually replaced by barren rock as this mindless swarm devours everything in its path, consuming its biomass for the sole intention of calfing more organisms to spread out across the stars."
Celestia balked. "Weaponized parasprites."
"We can think of no better analogy."
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Celestia turned to the tendril of the approaching Tyranid hive fleet and pulled out a scroll and tools. A compass, quill, ink pot, an abacus. Floating weightlessly she built a sphere of mathematics, geometry and algebra around herself.
Luna arched her brow: "Sister, what art thou calculating?"
Celestia answered her as she turned to the distressed planet with a pair of forceps and an hourglass on its side. Celestia created a small gravity well and waited. The planet shook violently and Celestia simultaneously set the timer and measured the severity of the displacement. When the planet came to a rest she duplicated the contents onto a scale, measured the mass and logged the duration of the quake and its magnitude.
The hourglass continued to spill its sand; Celestia needed to know the frequency of the tremors as well. "I am calculating the strength and magnitude of the gravitational distortion."
"Curious. Why?"
"I need to know that information if I am to stop them effectively. Have I overlooked something?"
Luna shook her head. "Sister, we do not question thine methods but rather thy motivation. That fleet, however monstrous, is part of their natural order. I suspect they face threats of this magnitude on a regular basis. Thine efforts in the grand scheme of things, while commendable, are unlikely to make a difference."
"I believe that isn't true."
Luna went into Celestia's sphere of documents, lists and calculations looking over the numbers. "By thine estimates this 'Hive Fleet' will not reach this system for several solar decades. All information the governor possessed implied that these creatures travel through realspace by altering the laws of physics. They cannot enter the Warp and thus are not a threat to us or to Twilight Sparkle's mission."
Luna tapped into the research Twilight had made through the essence of Discord's shared consciousness. Theories and histories about the nature of the Warp were plentiful within the Inquisitor Lord's personal files. " Indeed, the nature of the Warp makes it likely that if every living thing in this universe were to die the consciousness of the Chaos Gods would begin to fade and the threat to Equestria would be over. Why stand in the way of this infestation?"
Celestia had only one response: morality. "Because they're people."
Luna dipped her head, considered, then accepted her sister's answer. With violent force she expelled Iebin, Fourth, James and the other phantasms from their collective mind and erected a force field that kept them away. Defeated they retreated to the Warp.
"We are with you." She said, referring only to herself.
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Twinkling in the distance this Hive Fleet, a late tendril of the Hive Fleet Imperium scholars had designated 'Behemoth', floated forward caught within a compressed space-time corridor. It was a capsule the size of a planet, crossing the galaxy faster than the speed of light.
Relatively tiny, the fleet itself posed a threat not because of its size but because of what it reinforced and the scale of the force it acted as the vanguard for.
In its path psycher communications and navigators' vision turned black or static, a phenomenon they described as a 'shadow in the Warp'.
Their psychic interference did nothing to affect simple magic.
Princess Luna's astral self entered the corridor and traveled alongside the fleet, galloping across space as she scouted the massive bio-ships.
At last she found the one she wanted. It was a comparatively small vessel, soft, lacking the chitinous shell of the warship creatures and covered with flailing spines. Like a spider pulling at a web this vessel, this 'Narvhal', pulled at the gravitational force of the star system dragging its fleet along.
Luna used her magic to create a series of gravity shields around the vessel. The Narvhal shrieked as its delicate senses were assaulted by the fluctuating gravity fields.
Seconds later an asteroid the size of a continent tore through the fleet, collecting a cover of smashed Drone Escorts until it smashed into the tiny vessel, leaving a trail of pulped entrails floating through space, ejecting the Narvhal from the time-space corridor and knocking the crippled vessel off course.
Luna's astral projection remained with the fleet, so far her gravity wells preserved the fleet's velocity and course.
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"Excellent, a direct hit sister!" Luna cheered.
Celestia smiled with satisfaction even as her brow became covered with the sweat of her efforts.
She and Luna had relocated several hundred light years from the Imperium system and its now-committed planetary governor. Celestia felt bad for the raving, terrified human but at least he would receive better care than anyone else in his system would receive under the same circumstances. She hoped his wife, son or even his adjutants would be qualified to rule in his place... if not, things at least could not get much worse than they already were.
As it was they were single-hoofedly adding centuries to their solar system's lifespan.
"Luna, current decay?"
Luna checked her hourglass and graph. "Twenty seconds, their current speed should have dropped to 90% of initial velocity."
"Confirm please."
Luna nodded and sent a mental signal that reached her astral body almost instantly. "We estimate... 94%. Their deceleration is more gradual than expected. It would appear the Narvhal had complete control over the fleet's light-speed propulsion. Our gravity well will dissipate on its own before the fleet dispels its effect. The fleet might still eject from the corridor, however."
Celestia spoke as she made a note. "Individual creatures evolved to react to highly specialized roles. Would you say they are so specialized it makes them inflexible?" She tried to sound casual but still grunted heavily on certain vowels.
Luna brought a new body with her levitation, a particularly dense asteroid she spotted in a field. She yielded it to Celestia's control and began plotting a projected path. "We are not certain."
"We will have to take good notes then." Celestia led the asteroid to the gravity loop. Her magic had created a grid to facilitate aiming. The loop itself was the result of a spell creating fields that would accelerate mass forward. The matter would then go through a series of other loops light years away. In simple terms it was a rail gun powered by gravity and not magnetism.
Dropping celestial bodies at faster than light speeds towards a fleet that was itself approaching them at faster than light speeds would result in impacts that would be cosmic in scale.
Luna began spotting for Celestia "Target acquired, X-axis +300, Y-axis -43. Shape: arrowhead dragging seven tendrils."
"The largest ship?"
"Verily. Suspected 'Hive Ship'. It has a dense cover of Cruisers... move +0.02 X-axis to compensate."
"Done."
"Fire!"
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The asteroid accelerated through seven gravity rings until it found itself smashing into the dense shell of a joined Cruiser. The asteroid blew through the Cruiser with a spectacular impact that created a massive cloud of biological pyro-acid.
The asteroid was partially deflected and the corrosion instantly robbed it of mass but it was still large and dense enough to impact against the Hive Ship and pierce through its hull, venting entire battalions of Tyranid organisms contained within it to the void of space.
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"Success?" Celestia wheezed. Her exhaustion was obvious.
"Somewhat. The Hive Ship has been damaged, sister, but not fatally so. The shielding Cruiser blunted the missile attack. Of some consolation, the Cruiser released a cloud of acid that some of the escorted craft were not immune to. Collateral damage from the corrosive agents to the lesser ships is high."
Celestia gave Luna a smile but it was weak.
Luna noticed. "Sister, you are not well!"
Celestia nodded. "Quickly then." She said.
Abandoning all attempts at sniping Luna levitated every rock from the asteroid field she could lift and launched them en masse through the gravity rings. Many deviated off course so badly they would miss the fleet completely and impact with distant bodies and stars.
Luna did not let this concern her: as far as the Imperials knew, everything that lay behind an approaching Tyranid fleet was already dead.
The summoned meteor shower was robbed of some of its effectiveness. After the loss of its Narvhal, one Cruiser and damage to its Hive Ship the Hive Mind had begun to break from its gravity acceleration and disperse its bio-ships. The rain destroyed escort and vanguard drone ships by the thousands and caused further damage to Cruisers and the Hive Ship but failed to cripple one as thoroughly as the last two.
The ponderous fleet spread out, still peppered by a cloud of space rock but no longer threatened. It would take time, regroup once the Hive Mind calculated its risk and the likeliness of future attacks. If necessary it would backtrack the many light years it had overshot and retrieve the wounded Narvhal. Its wounds, perhaps, might turn out to be insignificant but the value of the time Princess Celestia and Princess Luna had bought the Imperium was incalculable.
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Luna could only ask: "Why?"
Celestia was a dead weight on her back. "Discord... we cannot find them, they are within the Warp. We cannot enter it. We must wait until they emerge. We need time. And just because I cannot do anything for them... doesn't mean I can't do anything for... anyone..."
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The royal sisters emerged from the vault room of the Elements and returned to the war room.
Celestia's guards and staff gasped at the state their princess was in.
"I'm... so sorry Luna." Celestia gasped, barely conscious. "I was supposed to move that barren system's star, put it in the fleet's way. I just didn't have the strength."
"Hush sister, you have done most impressively. Everypony would be inspired if they had seen what you just accomplished."
Celestia agreed weakly and moved to the cushion inside the horseshoe-shaped great table. "Next... issues."
"No!" Luna yelled. Looking around to find everypony quivering at her she softened her voice. "Thou needs sleep, dear sister. We will help you to your room-"
"Bed is no different." Celestia refused.
"Very well, thou may rest here but thou are NOT to be disturbed. At least five hours!"
Celestia nodded and dozed off.
Luna imagined a vision from the governor's memory seeing Celestia, tired, unconscious, yet sitting up upon that cushion surrounded by the table, guards, scribes, scrolls and the star charts the hallway had been filled with. A human, a great human, sat upon a throne in much the same way.
For reasons Luna could not explain she was horrified.
"Nopony wakes her. Six hours, do you hear me? If you haven't enough work on your own thou may make use of these!" Luna said as she levitated their notes on the star systems, their use of astral magic and the Tyranid species.
Celestia's bespectacled unicorn secretary, Raven, accepted the scroll and nodded. Everypony was nodding obediently at Luna.
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Luna looked back at Celestia's sleeping body as her astral body faded out of Equestria and into the Starscape.
All their work and they hadn't come closer to finding out where Twilight and the others were, and Celestia's order not to send other ponies in after them still held. Furthermore they had been sidetracked from investigating the beam of light that came from the Warp. Discord's voice in her mind assured her that everything was proceeding exactly as it was supposed to.
Luna didn't like what her sister ordered but she wasn't willing to go behind her back and undermine Celestia's decision... at least not all the way.
A thought entered her mind, a memory: A nightmare she had encountered before and had forgotten since.
Leaving her astral self in the Starscape she focused on her physical body and exited the castle. She knew where she needed to go, now she just needed to find the physical location that matched the dream she had spied upon. She turned to a messenger before she took flight "Take a message to Adamant, I want the Night Guard assembled and ready. I will be with them hopefully by nightfall, there is something I must do."