Fallen Angel

by Stuffzilla

Chapter Four: To War

To War

Light flooded into his optics. He sat up and looked about, soon realizing he was within the War Room. His cores still ached, but they were functional. All systems were repaired. Dyncik had to have employed a Lathe bath. They repaired damages within seconds, but was less precise than other treatments. He left the War Room, the sound of Lathe use instantly catching his audio inputs. Dyncik had certainly been busy while he was incapacitated. Speaking of Dyncik, where was he? He looked about, but he was nowhere to be seen.

"Commander!" A voice caught his attention. He turned around to face it's source. A small fabricator bot, which stared up at him with a single white optic. "You've finally recovered!"

"Indeed." He responded, whilst linking himself to the Net. His army was now twice as large as it was when he left for Fluttershy's. He scanned through the numerous signatures to find Dyncik, but he still found nothing. Perhaps he had left the base. "Where is Dyncik?" He asked the small bot.

"He had left with others to disassemble the Impostor." The machine responded. "They have been there for the last four hours." He nodded.

"Understood." He said, turning to leave. As he walked away from the base, he sent commands to stop production. He did not need a larger army at the moment. In fact, other than the Impostor turning against him, there hadn't been a single sign of resistance, sentients or otherwise. Instead of reassurance, this worried him. A force could appear and strike at any moment. He would need to be ready for them at any moment. His logic core ached, but he ignored it. He was perfectly operational. No reason to worry. He would meet with Dyncik, and then decide what to do from there.

Within a few moments, he arrived back at Ponyville. Some of the structures were still in shambles from the battle. No sign of Dyncik. He must've been on his way to Ponyville whilst Dyncik was on his way back to the base. Interesting how events can occur. He looked up towards the cliffs in the distance, focusing on the palace perched upon the precipice. He brought up the image of the palace, inspecting the numbers He sent a command to the Seraph, which was in orbit. Within moments, the transport descended from orbit, taking hold of him and lifting him into the sky. It then began taking him closer to the palace. Within a minute, they were hovering nearby. He searched for a suitable area to land. The paved road leading into the acropolis was barren. The drawbridge, which would have provided crossing of the river in front of the keep, was up. The structures within were too crowded to make a landing, so he decided the paved road would be the best site.

The Seraph brought him closer to the ground and released him. He hit the ground with a loud thunk, his metal feet cracking the pavement upon impact. The Seraph then retreated to the safety of high orbit. He looked about. Well-groomed vegetation lined the roads, appearing to have been cut very recently. He began his approach to the palace, stopping at the edge of the river; which cascaded down the cliff into a waterfall. He looked over the edge, and knocked a small stone off with his foot, which took fourteen seconds to hit the ground. About a ten kilometre drop. It was held up by two large metal chains, as to be expected. The problem, however, is figuring out how to get it to lower. Who was he kidding? Water hardly affected him, the depth of this river would be nothing.

He stepped out into the water, the extent of which bringing it up to his ankle. He walked across the river, reaching the other side in only two strides. He stood to the right of the gate, studying it. After a few moments, he grabbed the edge of the gate, forcing it downward with little difficulty. The entrance possessed only one other obstacle, a metal gate. He lifted it without issue, peering into the entrance, which was pitifully small. There was no sign of anything active, so he crawled through the entrance, standing as soon as it was permitted. He was greeted with a sight not unlike that of Ponyville. Numerous sentients were now standing in the streets, staring at him. They looked more 'high-class' than those in Ponyville. However, their social status did nothing to ease their fear. They were afraid just the same. He began walking through the streets, the sentients once again fleeing once out of his sight.

He walked for what must've been an hour, before finally reaching what he assumed was the centre piece of the walled city. A large, expansive palace awaited. He began his approach to the gate, which was barely enough to accommodate him, unsurprisingly. Two sentients stood at both sides of the gate, trying to look stoic whilst clearly trembling in fear at his approach.

"You shall not go further!" One of the sentients shouted as he halted at the gate. He stared at them for a brief moment, before prying open the doors, crouching down and crawling inside. He stood once within, looking about. This palace was certainly not designed with Commanders in mind, although the stained glass was very well made. He climbed the stairs with a single step, charging his Lathe and moving further into the palace, using the Lathe to carve a path through. He didn't know where he was going, nor why he was in the palace. He wished to explore; he would satisfy his curiosity.

He passed through numerous rooms in his exploration, one of which a dining room, another what looked to be a ballroom, and a large throne room. The throne room was the only room with sentients within, two guards like those at the gate, and another sitting on the throne itself. The sentient who sat upon the throne was snowy white in color, possessing a horn and wings; her mane consisting of numerous shades of pink, light purple, blue, and light green. She wore some decorative armor, or what seemed like armor. A large golden collar around her neck with an amethyst in the centre, a tiara with an amethyst at the central spire, and golden 'shoes' on each of her hooves. What struck him as odd was how her mane behaved. It had a sort of perpetual motion to it, as if wind was constantly flowing through it. His anemometer detected no draft or breeze through the chamber, which made the behavior all the more inexplicable. He began approaching, the guards looking to the sentient upon the throne. She did not seem fazed by him, and she silently watched him come closer. He stopped just before the throne. The leader upon the throne had light purple eyes, and a very inaccurate depiction of the sun on her flank.

"Greetings." He said, after about five minutes of complete silence.

"Welcome." The leader said, staring up at him. She had a sort of regal quality to her; it was extremely likely that if Twilight was a princess, this sentient was a queen of some sort. Her horn had a sharp tip to it, so she must be higher on the social hierarchy than Twilight, if it were any indication. Another few minutes of silence went by before she finally said something else. "Who might you be?"

"Commander." He simply stated. If this sentient was of great political stature, he did not want to gall her with broken grammar and syntax.

"You are a military commander?" She asked, a marginal hint of concern and nervousness in her voice.

"Yes." At this, her calm composure slightly deteriorated, her previously expressionless face beginning to convey what her voice already did.

"And your disposition? Towards us and our nation?"

"Neutral." This didn't do much to calm or reassure her, but it at the very least stopped the deterioration of her placidity. "Who. Are. You?" He decided to ask.

"I am Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria." Princess? Another one? She was much larger than Twilight, had a larger and more deadly horn, and yet she was a princess just like Twilight? Not only that, but she ruled the country? A princess ruling a country? He was flabbergasted, unable to process this. Princesses were not rulers, they were daughters of rulers! Unless Dmitri lied to him about politics (which he certainly hadn't), then Equestria's political establishment was clearly amongst the most unfathomably senseless systems he had ever had the misfortune of involving himself in. He calmed himself, opening his vents to cool the three extra degrees his core had accumulated; he still wanted to make a good impression, despite his desire to point out every single flaw with this form of government.

"Interesting." He simply said, not knowing how to follow up. Celestia stared at him confusedly, the guards also focusing their gaze on him. They must've heard the intakes cycling air through his system. It was extremely loud, but he had the audio inputs tuned out of the noise. He didn't want to say anything else, yet he did not want to walk out either. "Inquiry."

"Oh? What is it?" Celestia asked, tilting her head slightly.

"Familiar?" He asked, before playing back the recording of the female voice from the Impostor's audio file.

"No, I can't say I know what it means, although I have heard the statement before." She said, shaking her head. "I sincerely apologize." She would not be of much help to him. Which only raised the question: Why did the Impostor have an image of this city? What relation did the numbers in the corner have to anything at all? He doubted she would be able to answer either, so he turned and began walking out. He carved his way through the nearby wall, which lead him to a balcony. The balcony overlooked a large area of well-maintained vegetation and statues. He dropped off the balcony, landing with enough force to send soil flying. He pulled his metal feet from the dirt, and looked at the nearest statue. It was of a sentient he didn't recognize, swinging a pickaxe with it's forelegs. He couldn't fathom the significance of this statue, so he moved on.

The garden was much larger than expected, a massive hedge maze in the centre. Well, large in a sentient's sense. He towered over the hedges and dwarfed the statues, the hedge maze no more than a kilometer in diameter. He looked about, wandering aimlessly. There wasn't really a reason to be in this garden, just like there wasn't really a reason to enter the palace. He just wanted to wander. What a concept it was: sentients that didn't senselessly attack him without first asking his intentions. It felt so unbelievably foreign to him that he at one point dismissed the notion in it's entirety. Why was he still fascinated by this? It had dawned upon him at least two solar cycles ago, and he was still fawning over it like it was something unimaginable? Yes. Yes he was. Perhaps it was just because it was so out of the ordinary, or maybe because this was the only race to not attack him since the Creators.

He eventually came across a statue of Celestia. Her gaze was fixed upon a seeming dead end of the stone path. Beneath the sun's very own gaze. He approached the dead end, and tapped the path with his foot. He then lifted up his right leg, spooling up his servo. He then released the pent-up torque from the servo, causing his leg to shoot downward like a bullet out of a firearm. His foot punched through the stone, not contacting soil beneath. He pulled his foot from the stone, crouching down to the hole he had created. He cut away from it with his Lathe, revealing a large pit. He dropped a stone into the darkness, hearing it hit the bottom after two seconds. He dropped down, hitting not stone, but metal with a loud 'clang'.

He looked about, before activating his headlights. The two floodlights illuminated the dark chamber, revealing a metal floor, with large piles of deceased Commander corpses strewn about. This was a graveyard; of his very own kind, no less. He felt no sadness or grief. Only burning, unrelenting hatred towards them, even as they lay cold as the liquidated planet he was left for dead on. He began walking amongst the lifeless husks, not paying much attention to their condition or model. This entire chamber was odd, it seemed to stretch on forever in every direction. After some time, he came across something he really didn't know how to react to. A Commander's husk, the model of which was unlike any he'd ever seen. It was a strange amalgamation of numerous Commander models, so he fittingly labeled the model the 'Chimera'. The Chimera had a main body of a Rallus, the head of a Theta, left arm of an Alpha, right arm of an Invictus, and lower body of an Osiris. He stared at the Chimera's husk for a brief moment, before moving on. It wasn't anything to worry about. The combination of parts would likely make it's systems heavily desynchronized. Besides, if the Chimera had been a husk as long as these other Commanders, then it was certainly not going to come to life and attempt to attack him.

Ten minutes later, he finally came across a solid wall, with a lever in the centre. A large carving of Celestia's symbol surrounded the lever. The key to set them ablaze. Did he really want to pull this lever? What did she mean by setting them ablaze? Who are 'they'? Who was she? Why was her voice in that audio file? Why was that file on the Impostor? He shut down the thought process, taking hold of the lever with his metal hand. He pulled it down, the lever emitting a loud squealing noise as it slid.

"Enemy Commander detected." Universal said calmly. He turned around, and saw six glowing red optics staring back at him. Not one Commander, but at least six. Quickly, all the optics shifted to look towards the ceiling. A large wave of energy hit him, scrambling his systems, blinding him and bringing him to his knees. When his systems were finally clear, he looked about, the red optics now absent. He hit the floor with his metal fist, cursing with every word he knew. He stood up, making his way back to the hole he'd entered through. He noticed something odd, though. The Chimera was now absent from it's previous spot. He let out a sigh. The Chimera was alive and well, somehow hiding in plain sight from him. He reached the hole, and drove some fuel into his thrusters. He hadn't used these in a while, but he was certain they operated. The triggers ignited the fuel with a click, and he rose out of the hole on a stream of flame. He shut down the thrusters soon after, landing back on the very same path he had broken.

He looked back into the pit, before turning to leave. How foolish of him. He only had one Commander to deal with before. Now he had at the very least seven that needed to be annihilated. He silently cursed himself and his curiosity. He wandered through the garden, searching for a suitable spot to depart from. He stopped just outside the hedge maze, sending a command to the Seraph. He needed to alert Dyncik. Within a few minutes, the Seraph descended from the sky and took hold of him, pulling him high above the palace. It then began flying back to the base. Upon arrival, it quickly descended, dropping him off, and returning to high orbit. He looked around the base, noticing Dyncik approach.

"Welcome back, Commander." He said.

"What of the Impostor?" Avol asked.

"Completely disassembled, ready for reassembly at any moment." He said, looking back towards Ponyville. "The sentients were surprisingly cooperative, and even attempted to help."

"Define attempted."

"Hardly made a difference at all." Dyncik replied, chuckling. "The most significant contribution they made was getting sick from the coolant leaks."

"Coolant leaks?"

"Yes." Dyncik said. "At some point or another one of the sentients severed a coolant main, and the resulting pool gave them extreme illness."

"Was the yellow sentient involved?"

"The one with the pink mane? No, not at all." Dyncik's optic dimmed. "Why?"

"No reason." Avol replied. "I think it is also necessary to inform you of a change of circumstance."

"Really?" Dyncik said. "Do tell." The way he said it reminded Avol of Dmitri. Why was he suddenly on the mind?

"In addition to the original Commander signal, there is at least six other Commanders who are now loose on the planet."

"What? How?"

"Apparently the 'key to set them ablaze' was referring to the flames this battle will inevitably birth."

"Should I prepa-"

"Yes. Bring all defenses online. Get orbital radar as soon as possible. We must prepare for the coming war." With that, Avol turned and began heading towards the War Room. This was no longer the sentient's planet. This was no longer Fluttershy's, or Celestia's planet. This was his, and the other Commanders' planet. Together, they were about to turn it into a war zone. He wondered if she would forgive him. Forgive him for unleashing the Commanders. Forgive him for waging war on her planet. Forgive him for arriving, and sending her world down this path.

Comments

[Cadmium]

Im kind of cunfused about the size of the Commander Unit because one time it towers over Fluttershys house and can look into it from above and later it can stroll around Celestias castle.
So how big exactly is it in comparison to your average pony?

[Stuffzilla]

5161079 I work Avol and the other Commander's sizes off of a very vague scale I have. The trees in the actual game come up to around his model's (Invictus) kneecap. Assuming the trees are the same size in the game as they are in MLP, Fluttershy (and the other ponies by extension) are about the size of a common housefly to Avol. I didn't really have a scale to work for Canterlot, so I made the main gate and the entrance to the palace about as tall as the mentioned tree, and large enough to accommodate Avol's massive size. Avol also has to make use of his Lathe to navigate the palace without smashing his face into the ceiling and thresholds into the neighboring rooms. Hope that cleared things up for you.

[Viceroy]

more

[Oodles]

5184040
We don't know what kind of trees are being portrayed in PA, they could very well be Redwood trees, after all they do look fairly similar. This would also be closer resembling the scale of commander to planet in PA, for if the commanders were the sizes of regular trees you find all about, then the planets wouldn't be planets in PA, and the scale of the planets to the stars in PA would suggest that the stars are very tiny and consequently would not be capable of supporting nuclear fusion. While I realize that PA probably never went for accurate scale, I think closer to accurate is better then farther, barring situations where you would be sacrificing entertainment.

[Oodles]

I kinda wonder why would the Creators install 'emotion cores' onto logical killing machines, their purpose is to eradicate competitors and enemies, not spread flowers and joy, it would be more logical for the machines to take a single look at the equines, evaluate them as best possible, then make all of them dead, the ones who pose a threat with guns, and the ones who don't would be ignored to death, or more accurately they would strip the planet of natural resources and habitual land turning everything into weapons of war, leaving every life form to die, or be killed and scrapped along with the land. These machines would likelier do that then enslave the population, as it may be a net profit, it is still inefficient, as they could just spend the time building endless armadas and bases, as the equines would be an insignificant workforce when compared to the machines capable of self replicating planets of themselves if just one survives, all in a matter of months. The only reason I can deduce this hasn't happened is because of those 'emotion cores' that were mentioned, the behavior is purely a product of humans intervention.

[W0lfR0ck]

5435234
Those Emotion Cores are the one limiting factor for these bots. Maybe they were not intended to be just weapons of war. The emotion cores could be vital to other jobs, and help ensure that they don't become rampant.

[faurana]

hmm ... this is gonna be interresting. I´ll keep reading.

[riflespin]

5435231

I would likely say this to fit the whole idiocy of the internet that is inside you. " It is a universe of fiction, you question it too much, it just falls apart. All fiction is based on imagination, whether you like it or not, THINGS DO NOT MAKE SENSE. So just move along now and watch something like he-man singing or batman eating a hotdog."

[TheArchive]

Oh man, I'm not sure I can keep reading this. That was so contrived.

First of all, he is not going in that palace. Heck, he's taller than the darn thing. Second why was Celestia surprised to see him? How was anyone surprised? He's practically the size of a mountain! Third, where the heck did that chamber come from? There is no way you can expect the reader to just blindly accept the idea that it's been there this entire time directly underneath the palace. You know, the palace which has an underground cavern they already know about? Fourth, that was incredibly contrived to see all those commanders just up and leave like that, and I'm getting beyond annoyed that this story keeps giving the main character an idiot ball in order to advance the plot. Fifth, why didn't the other units immediately know this? I've been seeing signs of this popping up in the story so far, but this was the most obvious. These are machines. Everything they encounter and do should immediately be known by all the others. These are not unconnected beings who have no way of sending messages without going up to each other. Finally, where was the panic when he left? There is no way half a dozen commanders just walked out of Canterlot without leaving massive devastation and confusion.

This story has so much potential, and you are a good writer, but this just doesn't work. There are so many issues with the premise and everything happening that I just can't go on. Honestly, I feel like this story lost a lot of entertainment the moment the impostor showed up with that prophesy nonsense. The entire conflict has been forced and breaks suspension-of-disbelief, and now if I keep reading and see the fighting about to happen, I'll constantly be thinking to myself that none of this should be happening. The only suggestion I could make to fix all of the issues with plot holes and SoD breaking moments would be to take everything that happened right as the impostor showed up and everything that came after that moment, and toss it out. You can have conflict, but it needs to make sense. And this? None of this makes any sense at all.

[NecronTombStalker]

6578043
One thing "TheArchive", I'm quite certain that Commanders aren't THAT massive, otherwise Titans would basically be the size of planetoids. Just trying to see if that ever crossed your mind.

[Zepher]

6852757 they aren't there more like a few stories tall at most. Honestly I think there only 2-3 stories tall.

[DenzelRamos]

I wonder why he didn't do the thing that I would do in that sort of situation? (When he saw the commander corpses)

Me in that kind of situation: DISASSEMBLE ALL ENEMY COMMANDER CORPSES AND OTHER ENEMY UNITS IN THE GENERAL AREA!!!

My thought process: There's no such thing as too many resources. Except of you don't have enough Room for them or use for them.