17: Equestria
In her brightly lit bedroom, Alexia Tune sat in front of a full length mirror as Loki combed her alpha’s mane and tail with a master’s touch. The earth mare’s tongue stuck out the side of her mouth as she tunnel visioned onto getting the magically ensnared brush and a sizable dose of hairspray to make Alexia’s azure hair look as if she had water cascading around her face and down the length of her neck. Alexia was busying herself with a brush as well, only she was focusing on her coat to bring out the silver sheen her shampoo bottle promised.
“Do you have to be so liberal with the hair spray?” Alexia queried between coughing fits and stinging eyes. “How’s it going to look when I show up blind in Canterlot?”
“Tut, tut, tut,” Loki chastised when Alexia shied away from the looming spray bottle of torment. “You’ve escaped this for far too long. It is every female Terran’s duty to build up an immunity to it.” Loki tapped her chin with the end of her comb. “We gotta come up with a gender term for Terrans.” She tilted her head at the sour look Alexia was shooting her.
“I think we have more important things to worry about than thinking up new words, like my suffering eyes!”
Conrad stuck his head through the door, whistling at how cleaned up the mares looked. I’m too used to seeing them in casual or combat gear. “As much as I love to see my lovely ladies looking as ravishing as ever, are you two going to be done any time soon? Twilight’s going to be opening the portal in about five minutes.”
Alexia used the excuse to teleport the vile can of hairspray out of the house and grabbed some visine. “We’ll be right there, honey.”
Loki took the sudden disappearance of the spray can in stride and skipped out of the room while planting a kiss on Conrad’s snout. “See you by the Mystery Tree.”
With Loki on her way out, Conrad took the time to walk in and stand next to Alexia. “Never seen you so dolled up before, except for your first press conference at the White House. You look great!”
“Ugh!” Alexia groaned as she blinked the eye drops in, visibly calming. “How can I look good with bloodshot eyes?”
“Here let me look,” Conrad placated as he gently pulled her head towards him. He carefully flicked away her tears with a wing so her eye mascara wouldn’t be ruined. “You’ll be fine, it’s already clearing up.”
Any other day, Alexia might have gone off about hairspray and Loki, but today was special. Today they were going to a party at Canterlot Castle. Yet enjoying the party was ultimately secondary for Alexia. There are some key matters I have to discuss with the Equestrian princesses about Earth’s future. I hope Twilight remembered to get Celestia to talk as soon as possible. I’d rather not stew over it during the party itself. Alexia returned to the present when Conrad gave her a long affectionate nuzzle. “Thanks, Conny. Come on, we don’t want to keep Twilight waiting.”
Charging up her horn, Alexia teleported both Conrad and herself to the garden. They reappeared in the garden surrounding the sapling. The rest of Alexia’s family was waiting for Twilight’s phantom to open the portal. Crimson was in the middle of hugging her mother. “I wish you and Beth could come too.”
“I know, Dear, but I don’t think my nerves could handle it.” Bella kissed her daughter’s forehead before briefly scratching behind her ear. “Now get on, and have fun.”
Twilight Sparkle watched Loki canter up to the group, causing the purple mage to rub her hooves together. “Alright everyone, I’m opening it now, please be quick so your garden has enough ambient mana left for your return trip.”
Resting on a small concrete slab, Alexia’s tome jostled before an oblong portal opened before them. Alexia’s herd and foals, jumped through to arrive at Twilight’s old study in Canterlot Castle. Careful to keep from messing up her fur or mane, Alexia quickly bounced over to Twilight, nuzzling her mentor who returned it in kind.
“Welcome to Equestria, everypony!” Twilight broke off from Alexia, only to be swarmed by three giggling foals. “And a very warm greeting to you three.” As per usual, none of the royal herd wore any sort of clothing upon hearing Canterlot’s weather was comfortable, but they made sure their mane and coats were given an american style to allow them to stand out among the crowd. Loki was the exception in that she was wearing her computer harness, partly because she wanted to work on a new virus, and partly to show off Earth technology, and no amount of persuasion from her mates could convince her to do otherwise.
The herd noticed Celestia and Luna standing off to the side. The regal sisters stepped forward as the portal closed. “Greetings, everypony, I’m so glad to see all of you in person.”
While Alexia wasn’t one to feel like an outsider around other tribes of pony, she couldn’t quite label how she felt being around three other alicorns. Between Twilight’s exuberance, Celestia’s measured grace, and Luna’s polite friendliness, Alexia wrestled with her emotions. Maybe this is as close to being with equals as I’ll ever get. She inwardly groaned at herself. Assuming I could ever really be anywhere close to the equal of two beings that move celestial bodies, and the embodiment of magic itself. The niggling thought that her worshipers seemed dead-set on calling her the Alicorn of Life made her mood sour a little, especially since Crimson believed it as well.
Conrad noticed his alpha was a little lost in the clouds and nudged her as he bowed. “I have to admit, I never thought I’d ever walk on the birth planet of my species.”
Alexia yelped first at the prod in her ribs and then at her faux pas. “Ah – he he, yeah, me too. Well, I’ve been here a couple of times in the past month, but not for as long as a garden party before.” She gave a wide sheepish grin to hide her embarrassment.
Celestia easily saw Alexia’s embarrassment, yet what really had her attention was a strong thread she sensed linking the silver alicorn with her herd members. As Luna talked with the others, Celestia watched the others carefully, and the link itself.
It appeared to her as an ethereal blue tether bound to each adult herd member’s carbuncle. I’ve seen many magical bonds before but… None of the others seemed to notice the tethers. If Luna had seen them, she’d at least have glanced my way to make sure I saw them too, but she’s made no reaction. I know Twilight has her secrets thanks to her work with the Dusk Guard, but I doubt she would hide this from me, especially since I can see it plain as day.
The conversation started moving everyone down the hall towards the garden. Celestia input her own comments here and there, and was about to let the tether issue drop. Perhaps it’s just a safeguard Alexia created in case she and her mates were ever separated. There’s no way to tell without plucking it apart and that’d be an invasion of privacy. She physically stopped walking when her eyes glanced towards Conrad where the tether went from blue to brown. No. It’s not possible! She looked to Crimson and Loki to find the color of the threads matched each pony’s eye color. Only one form of bond blends like that!
“Something wrong, sister?”
Celestia smoothly snapped out of it and gave a regal grin. The particular bond Alexia’s herd shared was extremely subtle soul magic. It was only Celestia’s much older arcane senses that detected the bond at all. “No, Luna, everything is fine. Just something coming to light is all. Alexia, Twilight?” the mares in question hummed inquisitively. “Would you mind walking with me a bit?”
“Oh right, of course.” I wonder if Twilight told her I prefer to settle things quickly . Alexia nuzzled her mates as Conrad and Loki took one filly each off their alpha’s back. “I’ll catch you guys in a few.”
“Of course, Celestia,” Twilight cantered over towards the hallway Celestia pointed to with a wing. “I’m sure my friends would love to see you. I kinda talked to them about you a lot,” she added sheepishly.
The rest of the herd was baffled as to why Celestia pulled Alexia away from the group, but they had no reason to believe there was any foul play at work. Loki bounced over to Twilight. “Sounds great, I can’t wait to meet this Pinkie Pie character you’ve said so much about.”
“See you later Alex!” Crimson called out as the trio of alicorns walked down a stained glass hallway.
Luna cast her sister an arched eyebrow. What does that make me, the tour guide? “Let me show you to the room you’ll be staying in tonight.”
“Thank you for reviewing my request so quickly, Princess Celestia. Even if you refuse, I’d feel better knowing now rather than stew over it at the party.” Alexia perked up after they were well out of earshot.
Celestia gave a slight nod of respect. “I try to accommodate the friends of Equestria when I can, even more so when lives are on the line. I know you will want to discuss them with your herd later, but I felt some measure of privacy was needed since you brought the foals along with you.”
“Thank you, for that.” Alexia nodded slightly, but said nothing as she waited for Celestia to gather her thoughts.
Those musings forced Celestia into a rather awkward position. “Alexia, before we go into your request, I need to ask. Are you, by chance, aware that your soul is bound to your herdmates?” Twilight furrowed her brow in befuddlement, and looked rapidly between her old mentor and Alexia.
“Bound?” Alexia queried genuinely, momentarily worried due to Twilight’s reaction. She was briefly distracted by the large ornate stained glass windows depicting ancient equestrian heroes of old. “I know the four of us are very close, but other than that I don’t know what you mean.”
Celestia looked reassuringly at both mares. “The love you share with one another is a powerful thing, Alexia. What I mean is that you, Conrad, Loki, and Crimson are immortal… in a sense.”
Alexia’s stunned shock was tempered both by skepticism and not wanting to get over excited at the prospect of her mates living alongside her. “That’s a tall attribute to fill. What do you mean? How did this happen?”
“I only had a hunch for all these years,” Celestia answered as the group turned a corner near the kitchens. The smell of cooking food was a welcome distraction. “The original six ponies who overcame generations of hatred and mistrust outlined in the Hearths Warming Eve play created the Tree of Harmony. Are you familiar with it?”
“Mostly,” Alexia replied shakily. “That’s the story with Commander Hurricane and Princess Platinum, if I’m not mistaken.”
“Correct, and now that I see you and your herd are bonded the same way as those six ponies’ current incarnations are, I know now that when a group of ponies create a Tree of Power, they are bonded for eternity.”
Twilight nodded and couldn’t help but feel mixed about it all. She only looked up from the ground when Alexia turned to her for verification. “She’s talking about you and your friends, isn’t she?”
“That’s… right.” Twilight looked to her old mentor to continue and did so when Celestia gave her a nod. “Celestia told me about our soul forge a year after I became an alicorn. She waited to tell me so that my friends and I could form natural friendships before we knew the whole truth. That way we eliminated the risk of resentment of being fated together.”
“I felt it would instill a stronger friendship if I informed you later rather than make it feel forced if I told you right from the start.”
Thus far, Alexia was still in disbelief now that she had a minute to collect her thoughts. “I have yet to hear what this soul bonding actually means to any of us. I already know the four of us would never leave the herd, but they will die someday. I like to think I’ve come to terms with that.” It pained her to dredge up her mates’ mortality when it didn’t feel necessary.
“The thing of it is, Alexia,” Twilight began with carefully measured neutrality. “Yes, your herdmates will die, hopefully at peace in their sleep, surrounded by loved ones. But whatever the cause may be, that is an insurmountable fact. However, what a soul forge means is that in the event of their death, their spirit will not cross over as normal, but instead will reincarnate into a new body, without fail.” Alexia’s heart caught in her throat. “They’ll start off as foals, and have no memory of their previous life at all. The only thing that sets them apart from a normal foal is that they’ll always have a strong resemblance to the original soul, like a mane and coat color.” Twilight used a foreleg to flop her mane. “Clover the Clever looked exactly like me, except the exact mane colors and I style my hair differently.”
“Wait, wait,” Alexia rubbed her head to keep the headache at bay. “You believe you’re the Clover the Clever? How can you be so sure?”
“This,” Twilight pointed at a massive four square meter oil painting of six ponies posing for the artist. In it, two ponies of each tribe were present. Both unicorns were mares, the earth ponies were stallions with Commander Hurricane being a stallion and Private Pansy being a mare. Alexia recalled a few pictures Twilight had shown her months ago of her five friends. It was like looking at the direct ancestors of Twilight and her friends, their colorations were so similar. Hell, even their cutie marks look like they mean the same thing. “It’s kind of strange to see my original self. Considering I've reincarnated dozens of times, it should come as no surprise that my spirit has changed quite a bit. I like to think it was for the better.”
“Now wait a minute,” Alexia began a little too quickly. “I’ll admit I don’t remember the descriptions of those six in the book very well, but none of them looked anything like you or your friends.”
“That was my doing,” Celestia interjected calmly. “After I discovered the connection centuries ago, and the theory about them forging the Tree of Harmony, I covered that part up to protect their future incarnations. As you can imagine, more than a few mothers would attempt dying their newborn foals to match that of the tree's creators, should that part ever be made public knowledge.”
“The only way to break such a bond is for all members of the soul forge to be dead all at once,” Twilight added, “something that’s going to be rather unlikely to happen since you and I are alicorns.”
“This is a bit much to accept.” Alexia had to get away from the old painting, and started wandering further down the hall. Alexia saw that the only way to give herself time to digest the odd news was to talk about something else. “As fascinating as all this is, can we please leave it for another time?”
“As you wish,” Celestia replied reassuringly. “It is not an immediate matter, just one I thought you should be made aware of.”
Alexia took a few deep breaths to calm down and shove the whole soul forge thing into the corner of her mind for later. “Have you come to a decision about my request?”
Celestia’s face darkened at the topic, while Twilight’s expression became forlorn. “Your planet has suffered so much in so little time,” a tear fell from the alabaster alicorn’s face at the thought of billions dead. Even for one such as her, the sheer weight of the dead in such a short timeframe chilled Celestia to the core. “And yet you wish to plunge straight back into fighting.”
“It’s not like we have much of a choice, Princess Celestia,” Alexia rebuked with an edge of steel. “Sooner or later, the Koridost are going to learn of the Mions’ failure. Even with Magitech, we have no hope of defending ourselves against an actual fleet of starships. Even one ship might be enough to raze the Earth. We need a way to level the field, and the sooner we strike, the better.”
“You misunderstand me, Alexia,” Celestia started guiding them to a long flight of stairs towards the royal quarters. “To have the will to stand and defend your planet in the face of the overwhelming power of an intergalactic species says much for the character of you terrans. It is saddening that this is necessary at all, but the method of the Koridost’s attack upon your world tells me they believe you are beneath them.”
“Many of our leaders believe that is the aliens’ twisted logic as well.” Alexia decided to slowly fly over the stairs, rather than walk. “As for fighting back, what else can we do? Only a few stubborn idiots think the Koridost won’t come sooner or later to check on the Mions’ progress, if they haven’t already.”
“Sadly, I agree.” Celestia turned to Twilight with a nod.
As always, Twilight had sought her old mentor’s approval, and sighed in relief now that she had it. “I’ll give you all the information I can on extended long range teleportation and beacon placement for portals. The destination will be exponentially inaccurate the further away you send it, but you could theoretically find a way to teleport a beacon to another world.” Stupid Discord and his chaos magic aside.
Alexia felt like a physical weight had been lifted from her withers, and she sighed in profound relief. “Thank you so much, Princesses. You don’t know just how much it means to my people to have a way to fight back. At the very least it will give us the possibility of colonizing other worlds if worst comes to worst.”
“Your people are fighters, Princess Alexia, it will do them well to have a focus for such energies.” Celestia added that last part with emphasis, much to Alexia’s chagrin.
Not exactly wrong, but I can’t help but feel she’s being a little condescending by saying that.
Celestia found the royal guest quarters, usually reserved for Cadence, had the scattered few belongings left over from Alexia’s herd, but the they were no where to be found. “They must have departed to tour the castle no doubt,” Celestia commented as Alexia got a full view of the room. Yet what really drew Alexia’s attention was the sweeping vista of Canterlot and the pristine natural landscape beyond. The graceful marble and gold spires mixed with the whitewashed city combined with the huge forest below to bring a tear of joy to Alexia’s eye. With so much damage caused by the Mions both before and after going feral from the Herald’s destruction, Alexia never had time to sightsee outside of refugee crowded cities and Trinity under reconstruction.
“Given what your planet’s been through, it must be a bit of a shock to see an undamaged city.”
“A sad truth,” Alexia replied weakly. “Trinity came under attack last week by a horde of feral mions burrowing underground. They nearly destroyed my garden. Even with detection arrays, it’s going to be a long time before we rid our planet of them.” She shook herself to get rid of the pale funk that such topics brought out of her so she could focus on happier things. “I wonder where my mates ran off too.”
A few minutes earlier, Loki practically barged her way into the royal suite and her jaw fell to the floor at the opulent luxury of it all. Her jaw was soon joined by Crimson and Conrad’s own. It was a three story tower chamber that was open along the center for flight. The walls looked like pure ivory with gold inlay finish. The walls were covered in stuffed bookshelves and artwork that would keep a collector happy for years. As the group moved inside, the ground floor rug almost felt like a memory foam floor that massaged their hooves as they walked. Incense burned at key points in the room to give it an atmosphere of Zen calm.
And then there was the bed.
The bed was a bit larger than a king size, with a mountain of colorful pillows with tastefully done sheets. With Dusty on her back, Loki raced over and jumped on the bed. With a girlish squeal of delight, Loki rolled around on the bed with Dusty howling with laughter.
“You guys gotta try this bed! It’s like taking a hit of E, but totally legal and without the drug trip!”
Luna couldn’t help but to smile at Loki’s liveliness. “I’ll leave you all to settle in,” she looked at the bright late morning sky and yawned. “It’s very late for me, and I’m exhausted. I’ll leave my guards here if you need anything.”
“What about a tour?” Crimson asked without missing a beat. Luna blinked at the widely grinning earth mare. “I’ve never been in an actual castle before! It’ll give us something to do while Alexia’s busy.”
Luna nodded at the simple request. “Sounds perfectly reasonable. I’ll have a guard tend to you shortly.”
Luna departed while closing the door behind her. Conrad couldn’t help but to huff derisively at the room as he let the scrambling fillies off his back so they could join their aunt in assaulting the bed. He flew over to land next to Crimson. “Bloody hell, would you look at this place? I don’t think even Ol Trump could afford a pad like this, if he were still alive.”
“Bah,” Crimson snorted irritably. “The rich didn’t exactly like the governments of the world seizing most of their assets. At least Trump would have willingly donated most of his wealth to help rebuild civilization.” If only to get his name down in history.
“…Yeah, it’s going to be a long time before anyone can get stupidly rich. Even international companies are being restricting on how much they can pay for non-practical expenses.” Conrad felt a shiver roll up his spine at how dense the atmospheric mana was on Equis. Feels like I could fly for days.
Loki bounced particularly hard on the edge of the bed and landed right in between her herd mates. Her mane was a mess, so she thrashed her head around like a wet dog for a few seconds before it returned to its original perfectly sculpted form.
Crimson scowled at how easy that was. That’s so unfair. It took me two hours to get my mane and tail done.
Missing her mate’s ire, Loki barged into the conversation now that her antics caused a pause in the talks. “All that means is we should enjoy this place while we’re here. And to be honest, the more distracted the better.” She roped both mates’ heads over to look at her harness visor’s display. “A whole castle and no Wi-Fi! It’s criminal!”
A knock on the open door brought everyone’s attention towards a dapper looking pale purple unicorn stallion with a noblestallion’s tuxedo on. While he tried to present a mature image, he was clearly a late adolescent. He further cleared his throat and spoke with a holier-than-thou tone. “You must be the extra-planetary visitors I was told about. I am Count Demonie, and I’m…” He had to choke out the next few words. “Here to escort you around the castle as a tour guide.”
Looks of confusion bounced around the herd, with Loki asking the shared question. “I thought we were getting a guard.”
“You were, but Princess Luna saw me in the hall outside her sister’s chambers and made it a royal decree that I point you around the castle.” A thought occurred to him, and his mood suddenly brightened. If this whole portal thing becomes lucrative, it might be a good idea to get a measure of these Terran ponies.
Between Demonie’s attitude and the fact that he reminded Conrad and Loki of self-centered rich kids during Earth’s golden era, they took an instant dislike of the noblepony. Crimson saw the privileged arrogance she hoped Dusty would never have. Or any of our children for that matter.
Loki prodded Conrad in the ribs and whispered to him. “Hey, why don’t we have some fun with this guy? See what it takes to make him run off.”
Conrad was jostled by Violet and Aurora as the giggling fillies rammed into his back legs. “Hmm, tempting, but what are we going to do if our tour guide runs off?”
Loki scooped up Aurora and started tickling her as Crimson talked with Demonie. “There’re guards everywhere. All we need to do is flag one of them down, flash these alicorn girly girls at them and they’ll take us where ever we want to go.”
He couldn’t help but to chuckle at the idea. “One of these days, we’re going to have to tell them about all the times we waved our daughters around as a form of identification and free pass.”
With his compliance in the plan assured, Loki grabbed Violet and placed the filly on her back. “Follow my lead!”
The hacker soon had Crimson joining in on the con, and the herd set out to enjoy the palace, and laugh at one noblepony’s expense.
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Loki and Pinkie ppie soon to meet. I can't wait to see what happens then especially when Loki gets loaded up with sugar.
YesYesYesYesYes. I am so happy this updated. I love this story so much.
Don't let the bright Pink One near the green and pink one, or else, Discord will be the least of your Chaotic worries.
It is good to see that the princesses are willing to help. Granted Princes Celestia seems a little reserved, but not without good reason, but if they all foster a proper relationship what she fears shouldn't ever come to pass.
I suspect that Discord will also want to get his two cents in soon, or at least get a more real look at what his efforts have created.
Can't wait to see what happens next.
5293268 oh god the horror xD
I'm so glad this story is still being updated. I feared it was over after the 16th chapter. There are still quite a bit of loose ends to tie up, as well as slice of life shenanigans to be had, not to mention an eventual conclusion to the story.
can some one color and then animate a loki gif of her hair returning to normal after a few head bangs?
I've been expecting this arc since halfway through the first story. So far it's certainly not disappointing.
The approach to the soul bond is also much less crude than forcing an all alicorn herd. Though I have to wonder what kind of relationship a fully-grown Dusty would have with the foal versions of his parents. Avatar had some fun with this idea.
Wait a second..... Earth pony. May be very old when his parents' reincarnations are children. Related to a mare that's more than a little kooky. Royal blood.
You could totally make Dusty King Bumi!
You need to separate two people, (ponies), from talking in the same paragraph.
Also you can shorten this:
Down to this:
What does that make me, the tour guide?
5293268 somehow both worlds implode simultaneously. XD
So Rarity is princess Platinum reincarnated. It explains a lot.
With the proper implementation of Magic and technology, it should be possible to teleport probes into a spanning-tree network array, which can both serve as a detection screen and triangulation matrix for ultra-long teleportation.
Of course, that is actually quite expensive (resource wise) but probably the most efficient means of world-hopping intra-dimension. Now, if only they could implement tesseract transport.....
Keep going! ;)
Crap, I want more and I want it NNNNOOOOOOWWWWWW
Huah, I thought that this chapter will begin at the beginning of the third book, so this story will end in this book or will there really be a third one?
5302659
This chapter and any following chapters are set up for a possible book 3 and wrap up of book 2
5295520
Makes you wonder just what the MLP writers can't say about the M6.
5302659
Oh okay so things are still wrapping up for this book. Though it is kind of sad that book 3 is on the binge. Well as long book 2 does not end in a huge sequel hook and provides enough closure for it to be on it's own, then things will be fine.
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Whoops I replied to myself. Read the above comment.
5323280
I wonder how your assessment will change during chapters 8 and 9.
Finally caught up. Am I right in assuming this is going to be a trilogy, with the last part being them taking the fight to the Koridost?
Amazingly high quality. What else can I say? Love it.
How did it take me this long to check out your other stories?!? Been following Of the Hive and family for awhile and love it, but I think this is even better.
Simply divine, my good fellow. I eagerly await upates.
For some reason I held off reading this five chapters ago. I'm glad I started this again though!
Fun story. Looking forward to seeing how this ends.
I rather like how you write the assorted immortals (ageless if you want to be nitpicky). The worship especially, it's a good contrast to the darker elements. Like the as-of-yet unaddressed 'collaborators' (I doubt they've all been killed by the feral mions). Which I'd love to see addressed, the whole bit made me squirm (for lack of a better term) more than it really should've (I do read a lot of darker books), which was a good addition to the story. I think there'll be a substantial amnesty program on account of mild brainwashing and the effective propaganda campaign. Totally not from the lack of magic prisons, guards in general, and a desperate need for community service.
I wonder if they'll try diplomacy or at least take a peek at the enemy planet before invading or shoving nukes through the portal. Or a joint approach (read: Bluff) by the Harmonic Union. They don't know equestria uses spears, and when a portal is opened to your planet that you can't replicate, it's easy to assume they don't. Alternatively, there's always a good game of catchup with smuggled technology if the transmission got through.
Also, I have a most ridiculous idea of a Nightmare Alexia v2.0 caused by thinking Luna's looks better.
Edit: Did they save Wikipedia? It's hosted with its primary locations in Florida and Virginia (Backup)...
This chapter predates Trump's life becoming even more public than it was, and I think we know better now. Trump would have merely said he donated it all willingly; the truth would be less flattering.
w-what?