CHAPTER 15
“We are a nation, but interdependent. Separation is our weakness.”
Legion towered over the small royal guard, who looked up to the machine in fear. The guard gulped, unable to take his eyes away from the geth.
“Please,” Legion repeated. “We must speak with Princess Luna immediately.” The guard remained silent for a moment longer, before he finally found the courage to speak.
“I’m… sorry,” he muttered. “Princess Luna is not here right now… She will be b-back s-s-soon…”
“Our message is of utmost importance,” Legion said. “Is there any way we can get into contact with her?”
“I-I’m sorry,” the guard stammered once again. “She sh-should be b-back soon, though…” Legion paused for a moment before continuing.
“Acknowledged,” it said. “Inform her to meet us in our old guest quarters. We will be waiting.” Legion stepped past the guard, ignoring the dumbfounded expression that it had left on his face. It navigated through the maze of crates, and entered the palace once again. The immediate hallway was devoid of life, as at this hour it was unlikely that anyone other than guards would be awake. Quickly, Legion began to move down the familiar corridors back to its guest room. Princess Luna would hopefully be back soon, as the guard had said. In the meantime, Legion accessed the file where it had downloaded the collector data, and began to sift through it…
Princess Luna’s chariot touched down in the large courtyard outside of Canterlot castle, skidding to a halt just a few meters from the main entrance. Luna tiredly stepped out, followed by Twilight Sparkle and Cadance. As soon as her hooves hit the stone floor of the courtyard, she almost collapsed out of exhaustion. Trottingham was a fair bit larger than Ponyville, and amplifying Cadance’s ward spell had taken more out of her than she had expected. It was not as bad as amplifying the electromagnetic pulse, as that had prevented her from using magic for several minutes. But still, all Luna wanted was to feel the comfort of her bed and the rejuvenating presence of sleep.
As she approached the main entrance to the castle, the doors suddenly burst open and a young solar guard sprinted out, almost running right into the princess. He stopped just shy of hitting her, then quickly bowed.
“Your highness!” he said, sounding out of breath.
“What is it?” Luna asked curiously. “Who are you?”
“I am Corporal… Corporal Night Flyer, majesty,” the guard said. “I was… on patrol… in the docks…”
“And?” Luna asked, beginning to grow impatient. Every minute that she was speaking with this guard was another minute of sleep lost.
“The… The machine! It’s back!”
Luna’s eyes widened as her pupils shrunk, and an angry glare passed over her face. She shoved past the guard, not even waiting to hear where Legion was in the castle. She had a fairly good idea. As she walked, she began to build up a magical charge in her horn, ready to pulverize the geth as soon as it came into her sight. Luna was partially aware of somepony calling her name, but she did not care. Only when Twilight Sparkle teleported right in front of her did Luna stop walking.
“Get out of my way, Twilight Sparkle,” Luna snarled. “I told Legion never to return here, and yet it has. I will destroy it.”
“Luna, wait!” Twilight shouted, holding up a hoof. “Think about this! Legion would not have returned if it wasn’t important! Maybe he has more information on the disease?”
“It should not meddle in our affairs,” the princess of the night said, attempting to bypass the young alicorn.
“He means well, princess!” Twilight exclaimed, continuing to block Luna’s path. “Please, let me speak with him first. Let me find out what he wants.” Luna sighed, and dispelled the magic that was collecting in her horn.
“Very well, Twilight…” she conceded. “I shall be waiting in my study. Let me know when I can destroy it.” Luna lit her horn and disappeared in a bright flash, leaving Twilight alone in the hallway. She did not remain alone for long, as Cadance soon trotted up to her.
“What was that all about?” she asked, stifling a yawn.
“Luna wants to blow Legion up,” Twilight explained. “I’ve stopped her for now. Come on, let’s go talk to him.” She turned down the hallway and began trotting for the guest quarters with Cadance in tow.
The guest quarters were not horribly far from the main entrance. Moving at a brisk trot, it only took Twilight and Cadance a few minutes to reach them. When they did, it became quite obvious where Legion was keeping himself. Several guards surrounded a door, all of them pointing their weapons at it. Twilight approached the guards and held up a hoof, prompting them to lower their weapons.
“You are all dismissed,” she ordered. A murmur of confusion spread throughout the guards, and they did not immediately leave. An authoritative glare from Twilight was all that was needed to reinforce the order, and they moved away from the door. Twilight knocked on it to let Legion know she was coming in, then opened it and stepped inside, with Cadance right behind her. Much like the first time Twilight had spoken with Legion, he was standing in the center of the room, his eye scanning over his omni-tool as data rushed by. Legion lowered his arm as Twilight entered, and turned to face the two princesses.
“Twilight Sparkle,” he said. “Where is Princess Luna?”
“She’s… a little agitated right now, Legion,” Twilight explained. “It’s probably best for you to speak with me first, and I’ll pass on whatever your message is.” Legion paused for a moment, the flaps around his face moving randomly, as if in thought. Finally they settled, and Legion spoke.
“Very well,” he said. “There is much data to transfer. We will give you a quick run-down, but we would prefer to reveal all discoveries with Princess Luna present.” Twilight nodded, and sat down on the marble floor. Cadance did as she did, her eyes never going away from the geth.
“Shortly after Princess Luna sent us away, we returned to Equis, though not to Equestria. Rather, we went to the badlands to investigate the changeling hives and locate data on the collectors. It was not easy, but we found the entrance to the hive, and snuck in.
“For hours we scouted the hives, looking for any relevant data. Two very important things were located. First was a collector laboratory, within which was an operational computer. We interfaced with the computer, and made a number of discoveries, both about the collectors themselves, and the virus. The second discovery… Princess Celestia is alive.” Twilight and Cadance both gasped, neither of them knowing how to respond. Tears began to well up in Twilight’s eyes, though these were tears of joy rather than of sadness. Could it be true? Her mentor alive? It seemed impossible, after what she had seen.
“She… she is?” Twilight whispered. “Where is she?”
“We would prefer to reveal this data with Princess Luna present, Twilight Sparkle,” Legion said. “Hopefully she will see this as information that cannot be lost, and will not attempt to damage this unit.”
“I’ll go get her right now!” Twilight said. She stood up, lit her horn, and a moment later disappeared with a bright flash. Cadance remained in the room with Legion, never looking up from a single point on the floor. Legion seemed to notice, and cautiously stepped up to the princess.
“Are you alright?” he said softly.
“I… Yes, thank you,” Cadance said, her voice cracking. “It’s just… With all that has happened these past few days… This is excellent news!” Legion nodded, but did not speak.
“I’m sorry, you don’t even know me.” Cadance stood up with a smile. “I’m Princess Cadance, Luna and Celestia’s adopted niece.”
“We are Legion, a terminal of the geth,” Legion said, formally introducing himself to the princess.
“It is a pleasure to meet you, Legion,” she replied. “I have heard a lot about you.” Legion was about to reply when two bright flashes filled the room, and when they faded Twilight and Luna stood across from the geth. Luna appeared apoplectic with rage, her horn alight. As soon as she had materialized, Legion was suddenly swept up in an aura of blue magic. He hovered several feet off of the floor, though it did not seem to bother him at all.
“You!” Luna shouted. “What are you playing at!? Why do you do this!?”
“Please elaborate,” Legion said calmly. “What have we done?”
“My sister!” Luna shouted even louder, tears beginning to stream down her face. “She is not alive! We all saw her murdered by Chrysalis! Why do you lie!?”
“We are not lying,” the geth said. “Princess Celestia was taken to the changeling hive. She was healed by the collectors, and is now being stored in a cocoon-like pod.” Luna stared on in shock, and released Legion from her telekinesis. The machine fell to the floor, landing on his powerful legs. He stood up to his full height and crossed the room to Luna.
“It’s true, then?” she asked slowly. “My sister… alive…”
“Yes,” Legion answered. “We were unable to rescue her. We had no data on the pods to release her, and doing so forcibly could have had negative results. We spoke with her, and explained the predicament. She requested that we return here and help you.”
“Legion, you said that you got some information from the hive?” Twilight asked, stepping forward.
“Yes,” the geth said, nodding. “There is four hundred and seventy two terabytes worth of data to sift through. We went through roughly one-fifth on the flight back here, and we went through another seven terabytes while waiting for you to return. This leaves much data to look through, but we have made several discoveries about the virus.”
“Do not pretty anything up for us, Legion,” Luna stated. “Simply tell us: do you have a cure?”
“No,” Legion answered. “Not yet. However, the data recovered will be instrumental in assisting us with the creation of one. But it is not the intricacies of the nanovirus that we wish to discuss. Rather, we come with a warning.
“While scouting the hive, we intercepted the changeling queen. We followed her, and she led us to a room filled with cocoons, which is where we located Princess Celestia. It was when the queen was speaking with Celestia that we made an alarming discovery: the collectors have finished refining the disease, rendering EMP’s useless, and will be deploying it this morning.”
“Did she say where!?” Cadance asked, alarmed.
“Yes,” the geth said. “Ponyville and Trottingham will both be hit simultaneously.” At the delivery of the news, the princesses all breathed a sigh of relief, confusing the geth.
“We just came from both of those towns, Legion,” Twilight explained. “We figured out a way to defend them: by using an amplification spell on the ward spell used by the Nighthawks, we have both towns entirely covered. The nanovirus won’t have an effect on anypony there.”
“This is a false assumption,” Legion said, causing Twilight to raise an eyebrow. “While we were spying on the changeling queen, she revealed to Princess Celestia that the new version of the virus has also found a way to bypass the wards that you use. All wards will now be ineffective.”
“Then… Then Ponyville and Trottingham are still at risk!” Luna said, her eyes widening. Her head snapped around to face Cadance. “Cadance, send some Nighthawks to both towns! With luck, we may be able to catch the changelings before it’s too late!” Cadance nodded, then turned to exit.
“Wait!” Twilight yelled, stopping the princess. “Luna, if you send Nighthawks there, you’re just putting more ponies at risk. Our wards don’t work anymore, we need to find something else.” Luna sighed and nodded. Cadance turned back around and rejoined the other two princesses around Legion.
“At this time, there is nothing that we can do,” the geth said. “We will continue to go over the data that we collected from the hive, but until something is found, we recommend a full quarantine of Ponyville and Trottingham.”
“I agree,” Luna said. “Keep going over the information. If you find anything, let Twilight or Cadance know. I have to begin the day court in a few hours, so until then I am going to get some rest.” With that, Luna turned and exited the room, slamming the door shut behind her. Cadance stayed for a few moments longer before she left as well, leaving Twilight alone with Legion.
“Listen…” the princess began. “I know Luna was pretty mad at you, but… Thanks for coming back…”
“… Acknowledged,” Legion said. It brought its arm back up and began scanning over the omni-tool. Twilight took that as being a signal for her to leave, so she crossed the room to the door and stepped out, closing it softly behind her.
Sighing, Twilight began walking down the hall of guest rooms. If Ponyville was at risk, her friends deserved to know. Sighing once again, Twilight stepped up to the closest door belonging to one of her friends, and knocked. This was not going to be easy to explain.
Queen Chrysalis gulped nervously as she moved down one of the tunnels of her hive. It was rare that anypony came back to this section, as the current number of changelings allowed them to comfortably live near the entrance to the hive. It was for this reason that the collectors had chosen to place most of their equipment back here, where they would not be disturbed by any of her changelings.
Turning down another tunnel, Chrysalis came to a door guarded by two collectors. They both held their strange weapons at the ready, a sight which did nothing to calm the queen’s nerves. At the sight of Chrysalis they stepped aside and allowed her entry into the room, which appeared to be just another lab. There were several spread out throughout the hive, Chrysalis did not know what made this one significant. But the collector captain had specifically requested her presence, and now it was time to find out why.
Standing over a green computer terminal were several collector engineers, and standing over them was the collector captain. They had no facial expressions to speak of, but by the way he had his arms crossed, Chrysalis inferred that the captain was not happy at all. Upon hearing Chrysalis enter, the captain turned his large head to stare at her. Chrysalis slowly stepped up and looked down, avoiding the penetrating gaze of the collector’s six eyes.
“Chrysalis,” the captain said. “We have a problem.”
“What is it?” Chrysalis asked, briefly staring up at the captain.
“This computer has been accessed without authorization,” the captain answered, waving his large hand over the terminal. “One of my drones found it online and with the encryption code broken.”
“Surely you do not think one of my changelings did this, do you?” Chrysalis asked, her eyes growing wide.
“No,” the collector said. “You do not possess the technology. There is only one on the planet who does: the geth.” Chrysalis sighed and nodded. Ever since its discovery, the geth had proven to be a thorn in the side of the collectors. Chrysalis’s eyes widened as she made a sudden realization.
“Does that mean that it is here, now!?” she asked. The collector shook his head.
“Not likely,” he answered. “Geth are smart. This platform seems to be smarter than most, considering how far away it is from the geth consensus. It is more than likely that it left the moment it completed a download of every file on this computer.”
“How did it make it into our hive in the first place?” Chrysalis wondered. “The entrance is well guarded.”
“Many geth are equipped with tactical cloak emitters,” the collector explained. “It renders them completely invisible to the naked eye. Hmm…”
“What are you thinking?”
“I may have an idea,” the captain began. “A trap, if you will. It will take a bit of time to prepare, but if that geth returns, it will be at our mercy. I also think I may know how the geth discovered we were on this world in the first place. If I am right, then the ponies will be in for quite a surprise…”
“Shall I set up more guards at the main entrance?” Chrysalis asked.
“No,” the captain said. “If it comes back, it is best to act as though we never knew it was here. We must lull it into a false sense of security. It will be none the wiser. Now go, Chrysalis. Prepare the hunters to send out the virus. I will begin work on our little trap.” Chrysalis nodded, then turned and exited the room. As soon as she was back in the tunnels, she broke out into a sprint and began to head for the barracks. It was time to continue the plan.
“What!?” Rainbow Dash yelled angrily. “If that nanovirus hurts Scoots I’m gonna punch it in the face!” Twilight sighed, but nodded. She had expected her friends to react this way. They had lived in Ponyville far longer than she had, and even though Twilight was incredibly worried, she could not imagine how her friends felt.
“I don’t think it works that way, Rainbow,” Fluttershy said, putting a hoof on the shoulder of her distraught friend. The shy pegasus turned her head to face Twilight, more worried than usual. “Um… Did Legion say anything about um… if the virus affects animals?”
“I think it specifically targets ponies, Fluttershy,” Twilight answered, earning a sigh of relief from her friend. “This also means that we will not be able to return to Ponyville for some time. Until a cure is found, which could be a while.”
“Oh, my dear Sweetie Belle!” Rarity cried, putting a hoof to her forehead. “Twilight, we must get them on a train to Canterlot immediately!”
“It could already be too late, Rarity,” Twilight said sorrowfully. “And besides, Luna has already ordered a full quarantine of Ponyville. All of the trains are cancelled.”
“But yer a princess, Twilight!” Applejack complained. “You have to do something!”
“I’m sorry, Applejack… I really am…” Despite her apologies, nopony felt any better. They all stared at the floor, unable to voice their fears. A moment later, Twilight stood up and turned towards the door.
“I should be going,” she said. “There’s work to do…” She somberly opened the door and stepped out into the hallway, closing the door behind her. Before she could make it far down the hallway, Twilight heard another door opening. She turned her head, and saw Legion stepping out of his room, appearing alarmed. He rushed to Twilight, who turned around to fully face the machine.
“Legion?” she asked. “What is it?”
“We have uncovered important data,” Legion said. “Please retrieve Princesses Luna and Cadance.” Nodding, Twilight set off down the hallway. She did not know where Cadance was, but Luna would likely be starting the day court by now. As she began to move down the halls, Twilight waved a guard over to her position. He trotted over, then saluted, awaiting orders.
“Please get Princess Cadance and bring her to Legion’s guest room,” she commanded. The guard saluted once more, then turned and disappeared down the hall. Twilight began to move in the opposite direction to where Luna would be: the throne room.
Princess Luna sat down in her throne, her eyes looking out over the crowd of ponies waiting to speak with her. Curiously, this crowd was much smaller than the ones she had served over the past few days, and it seemed much angrier. The ponies all approached Luna, glaring. As it drew nearer to her, Luna noticed her guards preparing their weapons to fend off an attack.
“Good morning, my little ponies,” Luna said with a smile, trying to remain calm. “Please form an orderly line and we shall begin.” None of the ponies moved. Instead, they all continued to glare at the princess.
“Where is Princess Celestia?” one pony said from somewhere in the crowd.
“I have already answered that question,” Luna said. “She is busy negotiating trade deals. She will hopefully be back soon.” A murmur of disbelief spread through the crowd, along with a general shaking of heads. Luna gulped as she realized that ponies were beginning to not believe her.
“Where is she!?” another pony called.
“We want to see her now!” said another. Soon there were so many voices speaking at once that Luna could not make out any of the words. She held up a hoof to calm the crowd, but that proved to be ineffective. Sighing, Luna summoned up a voice she had not used in quite some time…
“SILENCE!” she shouted in the royal Canterlot speaking voice. This caused an immediate wave of silence to wash over the room, stopping the angered ponies.
“Now,” Luna continued, dropping to her normal speaking voice. “If we could please—“
“What did you do with Princess Celestia, Nightmare Moon!?”
Luna froze, and all of her guards allowed their stoic expressions to falter for a moment. Luna slowly lowered her hoof and scanned over the crowd, trying to find who had yelled the accusation. Even though the crowd was smaller than previous ones, it was still too large for her to find any specific pony.
“... Princess Celestia will be back soon,” Luna repeated quietly. “Then she will once again take control of the day court. If you would like to shout accusations at me, then please do so at my night court, between the hours of 12am and 6am. Now, please form an orderly—“
“Luna!” another voice called, this time from the very back of the throne room. Sighing, the princess of the night craned her neck to see over the crowd, whose faces had now taken on expressions of guilt. Running at her from the entrance of the throne room was Twilight Sparkle. She weakly flapped her wings to fly over the crowd, landing by Luna.
“Luna,” Twilight said again. “Um… You are needed to meet with the… Zebra ambassador.”
“Ah,” Luna said, playing along. “He is early. Tell him I will be with him in a moment.” Twilight nodded, then turned and exited the throne room, this time choosing the walk past the crowd rather than fly over them. When she was out of the room, Luna turned her attention back to the crowd.
“I apologize, but we are going to have to take a quick break,” she said. “In the meantime, please form an orderly line and I will address you all when I am back. Thank you for your cooperation.” With that, Luna stood and walked around the crowd of ponies, exiting the throne room through the main entrance. Twilight Sparkle was waiting outside, and joined her as she began walking down the hallway.
“What was going on in there?” she asked. “That didn’t look like a line of ponies waiting to have their questions answered…”
“Oh they had questions,” Luna replied. “Just not what I was expecting…” Twilight nodded, but did not press the issue. “Anyway, what has Legion discovered?”
“He didn’t tell me,” Twilight answered. “But he said it was important, and he looked kind of alarmed.”
“Hmm…” Luna and Twilight continued walking down the hallways of the castle until they finally came to Legion’s door, which was already cracked open. Twilight pulled it open the rest of the way, revealing a nervous looking Cadance standing across from Legion.
“Good, you have arrived,” Legion said. “We have uncovered something… very interesting.”
“A cure?” Luna asked hopefully.
“No,” Legion answered. “This data is not relating to the disease, but to the collectors themselves.” The ponies nodded and urged the geth to continue.
“As we went through the data, we found a series of audio logs from the collector captain, the one in charge of the lesser collector drones. None are recent. The oldest dates back to two days after their crash, and confirmed the data that we already knew: they crash landed entirely by accident due to unexplained mechanical errors. The next several logs detail their first few days on Equis, as well as their initial discovery of your kind. They observed your use of magic, which was intriguing to them.
“Several ponies were kidnapped from a large, unnamed city. They ran experiments, trying to find how you used magic, but to no avail. For a time they simply gave up, until nine months ago when they met the changelings. The changelings helped expand their understanding of magic, and in the months that followed, the collector captain devised a plan, though these logs do not say what that plan is. Only that it has something to do with your magic.
“But that is not the interesting data that we uncovered. Rather, the data comes from an audio log dated fourteen months ago, before the collectors met the changelings. We will play a segment of this log for you.” Legion pressed several buttons on its omni-tool, and a screen with a graph on it appeared. Legion pressed one more button, and a deep voice began to filter through the device.
“We have been here for nearly two years now. We have decided to abandon the crash site, as power reserves are dwindling. Soon enough it will serve as no more than a cold grave for all of us. Maps that we have stolen from the villages and cities of the natives show that most of the western half of this continent is uninhabited. There is a mountain range which seems to have some dangerous creature, but beyond that we should be safe.
“I have considered using what little power we have left to activate the distress beacon, but considering just how far out we are, it is unlikely that the others would detect it. Even if they did, I am not sure if I would want them to come here. The longer that we all remain on this world, the more we seem to remember. They are no more than just flashes of memories, but out here where the Reapers have no control over us, I am beginning to see. We all are beginning to see.
“We have been corrupted. That much is clear. I do not know how, but we have been made the slaves of the Reapers for the past fifty thousand years. The others will not understand. They will either try to destroy us, or return us beyond the Omega Four relay, where we will become indoctrinated once again. We have a power here, and I intend to use it.” Legion pressed another button and the recording stopped.
“I… I don’t understand,” Luna said. “What is a ‘Reaper’? And what did that thing mean by ‘indoctrinated’?”
“We have mentioned the Reapers before, though not by that name,” Legion began. “Twilight Sparkle, do you remember the story that I told you of how the Heretics became corrupted by the Old Machines?” Twilight nodded. “‘Reaper’ is another name for ‘Old Machine’. The geth Heretics saw them as gods: the pinnacle of non-organic life. They are a race of sentient starships, millions of years old. Every fifty thousand years they return to this galaxy and eradicate all advanced organic life. The collectors are genetically altered versions of the previous race to be eradicated – the protheans. The Reapers are expected to return very soon.”
“Are we at risk, then?” Cadance asked. Legion shook his head in response.
“Not likely,” he said. “The Reapers only target advanced, space-faring civilizations. You would not be detected by them. Additionally, your Mass Relay is heavily damaged. They may not even be able to come to this system.”
“So what did that collector mean when it said it was ‘beginning to see’?” Twilight asked, confused.
“We cannot be sure, but we have a hypothesis,” Legion began. “Reaper indoctrination works when an organic is in incredibly close range to Reaper technology. The technology uses electromagnetic fields, infrasonic and ultrasonic noise, and other means to brainwash an organic into working for the Reapers. At their base, the collectors are surrounded by Reaper technology, effectively keeping them permanently indoctrinated. Here, there is no Reaper technology. Over the years it seems that the indoctrination effect has begun to wear off, and these collectors no longer serve the Reapers.”
“If they no longer serve these machines, then why are the collectors still attacking us?” Luna asked.
“Unknown, though it likely ties into their ‘plan’, which remains a mystery,” Legion answered.
“Keep going through the data, see what else you can find,” Twilight said. “There could be more logs, or some kind of document detailing their plans.”
“Understood,” Legion said. “We will remain here. If any more critical data is uncovered, we will alert one of you.”
“What about the virus?” Cadance asked. “Did you find anything regarding that?”
“Nothing we did not already know,” the geth answered. “And while more data may be uncovered, it is unlikely that anything that can give us a cure was stored on that computer. The encryption was… weak, and it was entirely unguarded. Whatever computer was storing the very schematics of the virus will be well protected.” Cadance frowned and nodded.
“I must return to the day court,” Luna said. “Hopefully the ponies have finally arranged themselves in an orderly line. I will see you at lunch.” She nodded her farewell, then turned and exited the room, leaving Twilight and Cadance alone with Legion.
“Cadance,” Twilight began, turning to face her sister-in-law. “We should go see if there’s any news from Ponyville or Trottingham yet. It may be too early, but… I need to know.” Cadance nodded, and put a hoof on Twilight’s shoulder.
“Alright, let’s go,” Cadance said. “Thank you, Legion. We’ll let you work.”
“Acknowledged,” Legion said as the two princesses exited its room. He raised his omni-tool and, with nothing else to do, continued going over data.
Only a couple of hours later, Twilight Sparkle was sitting somberly in a chair in the dining hall. Her friends all sat around her, looking equally as distraught. Cadance sat right next to her, constantly keeping a comforting hoof on her shoulder. Twilight had her chin on the table, and was keeping it propped up with her hooves.
The news had arrived not too long after speaking with Legion. The disease was registered in both Ponyville and Trottingham. In Ponyville, the report came from Doctor Horse that an older stallion from the Ponyville Retirement Village was exhibiting symptoms. No more news had come since. For all Twilight knew, half the town could be infected…
Her friends, specifically Applejack and Rarity, were not taking it well. Their families were still in Ponyville, and with the town fully quarantined, there was nothing that could be done to save them before the disease hit. Rainbow Dash was also taking it badly, though she tried her hardest not to show it. Scootaloo meant a lot to the mare, and with her in harm’s way, Dash felt like she was just giving up. They were doing their best to comfort one another, but that was difficult under the circumstances.
Suddenly, the door flew open and Princess Luna walked in, taking a seat on her usual chair at the head of the table. She seemed less tired than the previous days, but there were still noticeable bags beneath her eyes. Without speaking a word, Luna picked up her menu and began to look over it. A few times her sapphire eyes scanned over the ponies sitting at the table with her, but some knowing stares from Cadance told her that speaking was not recommended. A few minutes later a waiter came out and took all of their orders, which was the first time anypony had spoken since coming to the dining hall. After he left, however, the silence lingered on.
About halfway into the quiet meal, the door opened and a guard poked his head inside, a letter held inside his mouth. He carried the letter over to Princess Luna, set it on the table next to her, then bowed and left the room. Luna put down her eating utensils and unfurled the letter, scanning over every word with her eyes. A moment later she put it down, and continued eating.
“… What does it say?” Twilight asked, breaking the silence for the first time. Luna cleared her throat, then spoke.
“It is a message from Healthy Heart,” she replied. “She wishes for me to go to the crash site at my earliest convenience. Apparently they have found something.”
“When will you go?” Cadance asked.
“After we are finished eating,” Luna answered. Just as Twilight was about to speak, Luna held up a hoof. “And yes, I will be going alone. If Legion finds anything, I need you two here to help it – him, out. Okay?”
“Alright…” Twilight sighed. She understood the reasoning, but still did not wish to pass up an opportunity to go back to the ship.
The meal was completed in silence, and when Luna was finished she stood up and left the room. Twilight watched her go curiously.
“I wonder what Healthy Heart found…”
The chariot touched down in the snowy plains several dozen kilometers beyond the Equestrian border. The brightness of the sun shined off of the reflective snow, causing Princess Luna to squint as she hopped out of the chariot and her covered hooves sunk into the snow. The hole to the collector ship was still present, and it looked like some extra digging had been done recently to keep it visible.
Luna walked through the snow, each step making a loud crunch, then hopped down into the open hatch, using her wings to slow her descent. She landed on the metal floor of the airlock, and immediately came face to face with Healthy Heart.
“Ah, your highness!” she said excitedly, bowing. “I thought that I heard your chariot landing. Please, come with me.” The chief medical officer turned around and walked through the door to the hallway leading to the laboratory. All of the ponies were still inside, and the two sick ponies brought from Westrock remained in their caskets. Luna noticed somberly that the air holes on the casket of the once living pony had been covered up to prevent the smell of decomposition from escaping. As she entered the lab, the eyes of the medical specialists and engineers all turned to her.
“I brought food and supplies with me on my chariot, it is waiting outside,” she reported, causing many of them to smile gratefully. Food had been brought on the original trip, but that had been days ago. With the number of ponies here, there was not a lot to go around. Two unicorns stood and exited the lab, heading for the exit. When they were gone, Luna turned to Heart. “So, what is it that you found?”
“Well,” Heart began. “When we first arrived here, Legion told us not to turn anything else on without his permission, to save power. While his ship was plugged in, most of the emergency power was restored, though not all of it. So when we finally settled on the conclusion that examining the technology in this lab was a lost cause, we turned it all off and decided to explore the rest of the ship.”
“Are you sure that that was safe?” Luna asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Structurally, the ship seems sound,” the mare explained. “We haven’t been able to access any of the lower decks, as they were likely destroyed in the crash, but the upper few remain undamaged. Come with me, I’ll show you what we found.”
Heart and several other specialists exited the lab, with the princess in tow. They led her down the length of the hallway, to a door situated at the very end. Upon the door was a small green rectangle.
“It took quite a bit of work, but we finally got the door working again,” Heart said. “This leads to a series of ramps. What we found is on the floor right below this one.” One of the specialists pushed in on the green rectangle, causing it to pulse and splitting the door in half. As Healthy Heart had said, the door opened to reveal a series of ramps that seemed to go down quite a ways.
The medical mare led Luna down the first ramp, to a door that was identical to the one above. She pressed the button that caused the door to open, which revealed yet another hallway that closely resembled the one above. Healthy Heart led Luna down to the very end, where a large and very elaborate door was set. This one had the green button on a separate control panel that sat on the right of the door. Healthy Heart pushed the button, and immediately a mechanical whirring could be heard through the metal walls of the ship. The sound of several locks disengaging was heard as well, and the door slowly began to split apart. When it opened, Luna’s jaw dropped in shock.
The room beyond was quite large, much larger than the laboratory above. It was round, and was filled almost entirely with collector computers. Most were off, and the few that remained on flickered every few moments. In the center of the room was a circular pit surrounded by a guard rail. Healthy Heart waved a hoof, signaling Luna to follow, and began to trot towards the pit.
When Heart got close, two lights, one above the pit and one inside the pit itself, came on and displayed an apparition of something Luna knew quite well: the galaxy. The blue light that it gave off illuminated much of the room as the apparition rotated around its center. It was… beautiful.
“What is this?” Luna asked, awestruck.
“We think it’s a map,” Heart explained. “I read the report on the Mass Relays. We think that each circle on this representation of the galaxy is the location of a different Mass Relay.” It was only then that Luna noticed the small circles dotting the galaxy map. Each one had a small line above it, and written on the line was some text that Luna could not read.
“Incredible…” the princess said. “I wonder where we are on this map…”
“I don’t know,” Heart said. “Legion told you that our system’s Relay wasn’t charted, right? It probably wouldn’t be on here, then.” Luna nodded in agreement.
“Thank you, Ms. Heart,” she said, drawing a confused stare from the mare. “With all that has been going on these past few days… I truly did need this.” Healthy Heart smiled, and continued staring out over the map.
“Well,” Luna began. “I have been away long enough. I should probably return to—”
She was cut off as a shrill alarm began screaming through the ship, and red lights began flashing in the room. A voice in some alien language said something that Luna could not understand, then the line was repeated.
“Princess, what’s happening?” Heart asked nervously.
“I do not know…” Luna answered, having to speak loudly to be heard above the siren. “But I do not like it. Come! We need to go!” Heart nodded in agreement and they both turned around, then sprinted out of the large room. The other specialists that had joined them were right behind them, running in fear of something they did not know. Quickly they ran up the ramp to the top deck, then sprinted to the medical lab, where the ponies who had chosen to remain behind were looking around, confused.
“Come! We are leaving!” Luna ordered. The ponies all scrambled out of the door and followed the princess to the airlock. Luna flared her wings and shot up the airlock, then stood by the hatch, waiting for more ponies to join her. Healthy Heart was the first one out, and only a few seconds later another pony followed. This continued until around half of the specialists were out, at which point the ground began rumbling right beneath their hooves.
“Princess, what—“
“GO!”
Luna and the ponies who had made it out of the ship already began sprinting away as fast as they could as the rumbling began to grow in intensity. Several hundred meters from the hatch, Luna stopped and turned around. Ponies were still crawling out of the buried hatch and rushing to join her. Suddenly, Luna heard a series of dull booms from beneath the ground. Luna’s eyes grew wide as she realized just what was happening.
“EVERYPONY MOVE!”
There was suddenly a massive explosion, the epicenter of which was the airlock hatch. The explosion sent up a wide tower of snow and picked Princess Luna up from her spot on the ground, sending her flying backwards at terrifying speeds. She flared her wings to slow herself down, but found that it was hard to control her flight against the shockwave. Along with the ponies that had been sent flying, several pieces of debris rained from the sky.
Luna hit the ground hard with a sickening crunch. Her pupils shrunk to tiny dots as the pain registered, and she looked down at herself, her breathing ragged. Her dark torc had been ripped from her chest at some point, and where it once protected her there was a long piece of debris jutting from her chest. Debris, snow, and ash continued to fall as Luna’s eyesight dimmed. With a pained groan, Luna closed her eyes, and lapsed into unconsciousness.
Queen Chrysalis watched as the collector captain stood over a computer, his amber eyes glowing brightly. He could not give off any emotions based on facial expressions, but Chrysalis had learned enough over the past few months to know that he was very annoyed.
“What does it say?” she asked curiously, wondering what could be angering the collector so.
“It is exactly as I thought,” he answered. “The geth found our crash site. From these readings, there are a large number of organics there right now, tampering with the systems…”
“Shall I send my changelings to take care of them?” Chrysalis asked. “They are probably only scientists.”
“… No,” the captain replied after a slight pause. “I have something that will send an even bigger message.” He pressed several buttons on the computer, and the normally green display turned into a dark shade of red. A flashing indicator appeared in the center of the display, and the collector pressed his finger into it, causing it to pulse in response. Text began rapidly flowing by on the screen. It continued to do this for several tense minutes, during which neither Chrysalis nor the collector spoke. As each moment passed, the rate at which the text flowed by increased until it finally froze, and every symbol was exactly the same.
“It is done,” the collector reported, stepping away from the computer. “Now come. I wish to speak with this ‘Princess Celestia’.”