New Rome

by dragonridergoku

Introductions

“Welcome back Miss Pie, I’m sorry you had to experience a sideran flamethrower up close, but luckily we got you out of there just in time. Any longer and you would have been nothing but an ash pile atop the rest of the burned forest.”

Pinkie Pie woke up on what appeared to be a simple cot. She had no idea how she got there or even where she was. The last thing she remembered was a bright light before she blacked out. As she examined her surroundings, she noticed two important things. One, she was in a metallic room with bright floodlights overhead and the smell of medicine and sterilized air all around her. The second thing was the creature standing at the foot of her cot, watching her as she woke up. The creature stood on two legs and wore what appeared to be a doctor’s coat. A red cross was located on the sleeves of the coat while a gray vest covered the front of the white coat. The creature had short brown hair covering the top of its head while its skin was a light tan color. It appeared to be studying her and constantly writing down notes on a clipboard.

That was when she noticed the pain. Her entre body suddenly felt like it was on fire. She started screaming and barely noticed the creature before her jumping up and talking to her. Her pain induced haze prevented her from understanding its words, but she could tell it was trying to calm her down. After a few minutes, the pain began to recede and Pinkie Pie finally stopped her screaming. Now she could make out the words of the creature trying to help her.

“Calm down Miss Pie, you’re going to be fine. Please be calm and listen to me Miss Pie. You need to be calm if you wish to recover quickly. Oh good, you’ve stopped screaming; now maybe we can make some progress. I’m a doctor Miss Pie; I’m trying to help you. You were burned badly by a sideran soldier. We managed to rescue you just before the flames hit, but you still received major burns to most of your body. I am doctor red hand, and I am in charge of your well-being until you are deemed healthy enough to be released from my care.”

“Where am I? How did you save me? How do you know my name? What are you?”

“All good questions Miss Pie, You are currently in the medical wing of the United Empire of New Rome’s flagship, the Shadow’s Descent. I belong to a race known as Humans who make up the majority of the New Roman Empire. We saved you from a sideran soldier who tried to kill you. You were teleported into the bridge of this ship through our teleportation devices. We know who you are due to your famous status as an element of harmony. We may never come in contact with your race, but we still know of the important events in your history, one of which being the return of the elements in you and your five friends.”

“So, you saved my life, and brought me here? What is the United Empire of New Rome?”

“Yes, we needed to treat your injuries, and the medical wing was the best place for that. The flagship has the largest medical wing in the fleet. New Rome is the name of our empire. We span the entire galaxy and are in charge of defending all of our subjects from dangers they cannot deal with on their own. Typically, we do not have contact with less advanced races like yours, but when they need us we will defend them. Now your planet is being targeted by the sideran army, and we have come to stop them.”

“So you want to help us? Who are these sideran guys?”

“The siderans are a race of creatures similar to humans, but not quite the same. They are known for their worship of fire and their ideals of victory or death. They used to rule this galaxy long ago, and they ruled it with an iron fist. Humans and siderans have never gotten along. We used to be two empires that both ruled over this galaxy, until they went to war with us and took over. After thousands of years, we came back and managed to defeat the sideran army. We have ruled ever since, and now they have returned. We are trying to defeat them once more, but their numbers are far greater than ours. If
you want more information about them, you’re going to have to ask the emperor or one of his generals. That’s about all I know about them.”

“Thanks, thank you for saving my life. Do you know if my friends are safe?”

“I’m afraid I do not know, now I need you to go back to sleep, you’re still recovering from your injuries.”

With that, doctor Red Hand left the room and Pinkie Pie lied back down on her cot and fell asleep. Doctor Red Hand let the door close behind him as he went to the bridge to tell the emperor about Miss Pie’s wake from her unconsciousness. While he walked down the hallway, he passed all of the soldiers heading out to their usual activities in training rooms or battle stations. About halfway down the hallway, the doctor turned a black ring on his finger and his body was suddenly covered in a dark aura as it slowly changed.

Red Hand slowly grew almost an entire foot until he stood at a good seven feet tall. That wasn’t the only thing that changed, His hair turned black and his uniform changed as well. Instead of a red cross on his coat, it became a trio of golden stars and his grey vest became a dark red color. His blue eyes watched as the soldiers around him suddenly saluted him once the transformation ended. He waited a second before dismissing the salutes aimed at him. He soon reached a door at the end of the hallway and entered a large room with a view outside of the planet below them.

Red Hand walked up to the man standing in the center of the room and stood next to him before speaking.

“Sir, the element of laughter has woken from her sleep. She wasted no time to ask questions about us. I answered her for now, but she still wants better answers. I wouldn’t be surprised if she wished to see you for her answers.”

“Very well, it can’t be helped and her curiosity is justified. I assume you kept your true identity a secret, right Rhede?”

“Of course, she only knew me as her doctor, not as general of an army. Are we prepared to reveal ourselves to the sideran fleet and the ponies of Equestria?”

“Almost, Starfall has the fleet in place, and Jer’rahd has most of his troops ready for orbital drop. We just have to wait for Miss Pie’s recovery so she can be sent down with the army.”

“I see. I await your orders sir.”

“And when the time comes, you know what they’ll be.”

With this said, the man known as Rhede turned and walked out of the room and down the hallway to the training area. When he arrived, he was shown a scene of utter mayhem and chaos. In the middle of the room, there was a large muscled man with dark grey hair, being assaulted on all sides by unarmed younger soldiers. As Rhede watched, one soldier after another were thrown clear across the room before they could so much as lay a finger on the older man’s hat.

“You runts call that an attack, don’t make me laugh. I thought you all were soldiers, not wimps. You lot should be back in boot camp, not out on the battlefield.”

A young man was then thrown straight through the doorway as Rhede ducked to avoid a recruit to the face. When he stood back up, the muscled man was walking straight towards him as the trainees either stood at attention or lay beaten on the ground.

“Is there a reason you interrupted my training session Rhede? I was just starting to get to know these miserable new troops here.”

“As much as you love knocking out the new recruits Jer’rahd, I need to speak with you and the others before we start fighting the sideran army. If you could please get Bleu when you’re finished here, that would be great.”

“Fine, we meet in the war room in two hours. That should give these whelps some time to recover from my training session before we go to war.”

“Good, now I just need to get Starfall and Velkorn to come to our little get together and then we can get started.”

Rhede then walked out the door and past a still moaning recruit before entering the room that housed the sleeping form of Pinkie Pie. Once inside, he walked up to a dark skinned woman wearing a white coat with a pair of stars on each sleeve. The woman was busy mixing some herbs and other ingredients together into a paste. This paste was wiped across the forehead of the sleeping pink mare before the woman turned towards Rhede.

“Have you come to check on the mare, or do I need a new reason to despair?”

“It’s good to see she’s recovering, but I’m afraid we need the group gathered in the war room. I’ve already spoken with Jer’rahd and he’s getting Bleu. You wouldn’t happen to know where Starfall went, would you?”

“I have not seen Starfall, but I see you need us all. Then to the war room I shall go, when battle starts we must know.”

“Thank you Velkorn, be there in two hours, then we can discuss a plan of action.”

Once this was said, Rhede left once more to retrieve Starfall. He walked over to a door marked elevator and pressed a code into the holographic keypad next to it. Within seconds, the doors slid open to reveal a small room. Rhede went in and the doors closed before the elevator shuddered and rapidly moved through the large ship. Ten seconds later, the doors opened to reveal a hanger filled with small, one person fighters. At one end of the hanger stood a group of younger pilots standing around, telling tales of their impressive feats while the older pilots chuckled from the sidelines with grins upon their faces.

Many pilots were busy polishing their ships and making sure everything was in fighting order for when the battle with the Sideran fleet took place. One such pilot stood by an impressive ship painted a midnight blue with golden lightning bolts running down the sides. The back end of the ship carried twin thrusters covered in a dark silver paint while a pair of thin wings stuck out from either side, both painted the same midnight blue color as the main body. In the front of the ship was a window of reinforced glass, tinted so as to hide the pilot’s seat from any prying eyes.

The pilot herself was a short woman. She had short, bright gray hair with streaks of purple in it. She wore what, at first glance, appeared to be standard pilot’s attire. If you looked closer, however, you could see a group of four stars patched onto each shoulder. Her flight suit was also equipped with a pair of large, sapphire blades that were strapped to her back. The swords looked as if they were made for decoration, but the edge was sharper than any normal blade, and was devoid of even a single scratch despite the dark red coating on the edges.

Rhede walked up to this pilot as she wiped down a patch of her ship that was charred from fire. When he arrived, the pilot looked up and began to speak.

“Well, I didn’t expect to see you down here, something important going on?”

“As a matter of fact, yes. I need you in the war room in two hours. The element of laughter woke up, we are almost ready to send the troops down and reveal our presence to the siderans as well as the ponies that call this planet home.”

“Sounds good, it’d be nice to finally get some flying time instead of being cooped up in this ship for so long. I suppose I’ll be there. Are the others coming?”

“Yes, I’ve already met with everyone besides Bleu, but Jer’s getting her for me.”

“Great, just let me finish up here and I’ll be on my way.”

“See you then Starfall.”

With that, Starfall turned back to her ship and Rhede returned to the elevator to see what he could do before the meeting was to begin. Two hours later, everyone was gathered in the war room besides one. The doors flew open and in ran a woman unlike any other.

Her skin was covered in a pale blue set of scales. A pair of bat-like wings were folded up on her back, and she wore a thin metal plated suit of armor that covered all but her head and pale blue wings. On her head was a purple beret that covered a rat’s nest of sky blue hair. The beret had a single star on the front while the armor sported a bright purple star painted onto each shoulder. The armor itself was dark blue besides a series of black scorch marks covering a majority of its front and back. The woman’s eyes were blue with a black reptilian slit running down the center.

“Sorry I’m late, I sort of forgot about the meeting until just a few minutes ago. I was busy down in the kitchens and lost track of time.”

“Its fine Bleu, we haven’t done anything yet. Most of us just got here as well.” Jer’rahd said to the half-dragon who hastily took a seat next to him.

“Well now that we’re all here,” Rhede started, “I believe it’s time we began thinking of our plan of action against the sideran army. As I informed most of you, the element of laughter has recently awoken from her unconsciousness. Once she’s ready, we will send her down to the planet along with the first strike team. Hopefully, she can inform the ponies they encounter that we mean them no harm and wish to help them defend against the sideran invasion.”

“That part of the plan sounds good with me,” Starfall began, “I recommend sending her down in a ship instead of firing her in a drop pod like we would our own troops. Even after we saved her life, that pink pony may not like being sent on a collision course with the ground. My squad can keep her transport safe while we send it down. It would help if we didn’t reveal ourselves to the siderans until after we’ve delivered their element of harmony safely to the planet’s surface.”

“I agree with dear Starfall, we don’t need them to fear us all. Even if she is perfectly fine, the ponies may not agree at the time.” Velkorn stated, agreeing with Starfall’s plan.

“I suppose that’s a good idea, but I’m going with that transport. I recommend we all go down with the first team so we can set up a strong first contact group. If that doesn’t work, we’ll also need someone who can fight well and get us out of there. Send in a squad from the 42nd with us.” Jer’rahd stated.

“Well, this seems settled, once that pony wakes up, we all go down in the transport, with Starfall providing cover for us. Now we just need to prepare the transport and wait.” Bleu concluded.

“Well then we can skip the waiting and just leave once the shuttle’s ready, I can’t wait to throw you guys a party for saving me once we get back.” Pinkie Pie said after suddenly appearing in an empty chair.

“Oh good, I never was one for waiti- PINKIE PIE! WHERE DID YOU COME FROM?!” Rhede yelled, noticing the pink pony that had just appeared.

“I had an itchy belly and a twitchy nose, which means somebody I don’t really know is talking about me. So I came over here and found you guys mentioning me and a transport and going down to Equestria in said transport.”

“Well please don’t appear like that again, you’re lucky nobody attacked you.”

“Okie dokie loki”

“Yea, anyway, I’d like to be down there as soon as possible, so let’s get started.” Jer’rahd finished as they all got up to gather the troops and prepare for departure.

~~~~~

Princess Luna was currently looking from her balcony out at the smoking forest of burned trees and ash laden ground. After she had returned from the castle ruins with the element bearers and the book, the monsters that had lay waste to the forest were picked up in some sort of large metal carriage and returned to the massive shape up in the sky. This shape was now joined by many more objects, some nearly twice as big as the original was. The pegasus teams had managed to put out the fires with their storm fronts gathered from various weather factories across Equestria.

The creatures known as the siderans had yet to reveal themselves on land, but had quite clearly shown that they dominate the skies. Their ships had proven to be far beyond the height in the sky they were originally thought to be in and were likely at the edges of the atmosphere, or even further. Their massive size, combined with the amount of ships had squashed nearly all hope Luna had of winning against these enemies in a fight. The only chance they had was if they could somehow gather all the books as well as use the elements of harmony combined with the books power. Even then, the chances of success were slim at best and without Pinkie Pie or any viable replacements for laughter, they couldn’t even use that plan.

Luna spread her wings and exited her observatory into the crimson sky of the setting sun. Without her sister to move the sun, she had been tasked with both her own celestial body and the large fireball that marked day. The strain on her magic was nearly enough to make her simply leave the bodies where they were. Nearly. Luna flew down her tower towards the main gate, where a large group of royal guards in armor from all corners of Equestria’s military stood, waiting for her orders.
When Luna landed, she began addressing the combined guard forces on their current situation.

“We thank thee for coming and risking your lives for our effort to protect Canterlot from an invasion the likes of which we have never seen. Thine efforts shall be remembered for thy courage and bravery in the coming days of battle. We wish there were a better chance of victory, but we are afraid there is little hope for our survival in this war. We shall stand with our armies, and we shall provide any support we can to defeat the invading powers that seek our destruction. Most of you will die, but your sacrifice will allow our families and friends to escape the fury of the ones we fight. We are the only things standing between the pony race, as well as those of the griffon, draconic, and zebra races and extinction. The armies of every race in Equestria and the surrounding lands are joined in this moment of unity the likes of which have never been seen since the dawn of time. We may not win this war, but we shall die making sure those who cannot protect themselves are able to live another day. We will protect our homes and families until our dying breath is used to inflict more pain upon those who wish to harm us. We will fight, until there is nothing left of us to fight with. Who will join us in our day of reckoning? WHO WILL FIGHT FOR EQUESTRIA!!!”

With that, a chorus of cheers rang out as every member of the crowd raised their weapons into the air and shouted their agreement to everyone listening. When the crowd had quieted down, Luna spoke once more.

“Thank you, we await the honor of joining in thy glory on the battlefield. The griffon armies arrive later tonight, and the dragons shall wait in the surrounding mountains. Our end is near, but we will assure that our families survive and remember the glory of our courage long into the future. Leave now, be with your families for one last night before the tides of war sweep us away from everything we hold dear.”

That said, the crowd began to disperse in silence, until a loud boom sounded from above and a fiery shape was seen falling towards the city. Every guard pulled out their weapons and prepared for impact, when the fire dispelled and a ship could be seen emerging from its fiery descent. A group of smaller, faster ships were seen coming up behind the first until they created a V formation with the larger ship behind the center ship. They slowed their descent and evened out as they turned towards the city of Canterlot.

As the ships grew closer, the smaller ones flew ahead and slowed when they reached the castle. On the second pass, they stopped completely over the courtyard and hovered in place as the larger ship entered their rough circle. The large ship slowly descended and a hatch on the back opened slowly. By the time it neared ground level, the doors had opened enough to see a large, bipedal creature standing within. It was wearing a suit of some type of armor that covered everything but its head. The armor was a dark blue-purple color and it glowed softly with a dark radiance. Strapped to the creature’s back was a large, midnight blue, double sided sword with a dark leather wrapped handle in the center.

When the ship reached the ground, the creature stepped out and approached Princess Luna. Luna stared directly at the creature, who merely smiled before speaking.

“I assume you are the leader of these ponies. I am general Jer’rahd Kaisur of the United Empire of New Rome. I believe our interests are aligned and I come to offer help in your fight.”

“Why should we accept thine offer? As far as we know, you are allied with those siderans who wish to destroy us. What would you gain from helping us?”

“It is our duty to help those who cannot defend against the threats of this universe. We usually work from the shadows, helping when we are absolutely needed, and then leaving. Often without those we helped ever even knowing we were there. We saved this planet from destruction once before, and we are here to do so again. If you choose not to accept that answer, then how about this one? We want to keep the books away from the siderans just as much as you do. It was the reason we sent them here in the first place.”

“You are the ones that sent the books here? You stopped that monster’s destructive rampage all those thousands of years ago? Who are you, really?”

“I told you, we are the United Empire of New Rome, the silent guardians who protect those who cannot protect themselves. We will come when we are needed, then leave once we are done. Do not try to find us, just know that we are watching from the shadows. I also have a little surprise for you Princess.” Jer’rahd then turned towards the large ship and called out, “Let her out.”

At that moment, a commotion was heard from within the ship and a pink blur shot out and started bouncing up and down before the princess as a very hyperactive pink pony with a fluffy pink mane. Following her came three more creatures similar to Jer’rahd who merely stood back and watched as Pinkie Pie began speaking at a million miles a second.

“Princess Luna I’m so glad to see you do you know where Twilight and the others are? They’re probably super-duper worried about me, but luckily these guys pulled me out just in time or I would be just a pile of black ash and that’s no fun, but no, they pulled me out just in time and I came back here with them after resting up in their super-cool big ship thing where I-” Pinkie was then stopped as a silver clad hoof entered her mouth.

“Pinkie Pie, you are alive. This is much better than we had hoped. We may now have a chance once the elements and the books are brought together.” Luna said with wide eyes as she stared at the pink pony before her.

“About that princess, I’m afraid we can’t let you use the books. I’m sure you remember what happened last time you messed with them.” Jer’rahd told Luna.

“But we will have the elements with us this time, they will surely negate the negative side effects.”

“No princess, trust someone afflicted with the power of them both combined, the elements will not protect you. They will only make it worse.”

Author's Note:

A big thanks to TDR for letting me use his characters from his Stories in Stone series for New Rome's five generals. If you haven't read them, I highly recommend the stories. They are likely my favorite stories on FiMfiction.