I stare across the battleground at the tangled mess of the forest. My sensors focused and sharp on everything at the edge. I fear I am becoming a bit obsessed with this, it is nothing but plants and strange animals that prowl the inner reaches, but to me, it is a foe that needs destroying. A quandary. However, it does keep me focused, and that is the main thing. A Bolo could watch paint dry and be interested, but it would soon begin to have problems in its psychotronic array. Having an active foe, researching battle plans, making allowances for weapons emplacement, help to keep a Bolo sane. So to keep my own sanity, and my arrays free of the Resartus Protocol, I stare at the forest, making plans should it ever act again.
-------------
It is time for the meeting. I watch as the ponies I have asked to be here arrive and settle into the comfortable chairs and couches. Rarity really over-did herself with the redecorating, and I do admit, the end tables look nice. Though I really should tell her that weekly or monthly redecorating schemes will get a bit pricey. Such is the life of a fashion leader I would guess.
Princess Celestia and Luna have made an appearance, along with a fourth Alicorn I have never seen. She is introduced as Princess Cadence, the Princess of Love. Strange how each of them seem to have a certain job to fulfill and look over, but again, this is a new world, new mores. I politely wait as everypony sets in their wanted spot, lowering the lights a bit and firing up the main screen.
“Thank you for coming, I very much appreciate the time.”
Princess Celestia answers in a warm voice, “You are very welcome, Crusader, it was our pleasure.”
Princess Luna adds in, “Truly a hero such as yourself would have no problem asking us to attend an important meeting!”
“I am no Hero, Your Highness, I am a Bolo.”
Princess Luna stands and points one shod hoof at the camera, they are getting used to talking to the lens it seems, “I say you are a hero, be happy I do not pronounce more nor weigh you down with titles and awards!”
“Yes, Your Highness, I appreciate that.”
“Then behave, you are truly a good pony, be proud of what you’ve done. My sister and I are more than happy to help at any time.”
I can see the smile playing around her mouth, she is definitely being a bit mischievous along with her sister. I find it odd though, they keep referring to me as a pony, but know that I am a Bolo Combat Unit. I have tried to dissuade them, but I believe change will not come for some reason.
A voice comes drifting from one of the couches, “I toooooold you.”
“Yes, Pinkie, I know.”
Everypony gives Pinkie an odd look, she returns them with a warm smile and a wink.
“But to continue, if I may.”
Princess Luna gives a wave, settling back down.
I open with a satellite view of the earth from orbit, the continents showing, the oceans and cloud cover.
“This is the planet Earth, where I was built. This was the home of the human race which founded the Concordiat.”
I show a picture of a typical human, one of my commanders. There are no shocked gasps or surprise. I am sure they have dealt with stranger things.
“As the Concordiat spread, the galaxy was being colonized by them and their allies. There were of course, other empires, other races. This is what started the Final War, the humans grossly underestimated another empire. The Melconians had the numbers, while the Concordiat had technological superiority. It engaged the entire galaxy, whole systems were being wiped out.”
I show them films of a planetary bombardment, the blooms of nuclear fire racing across the surface of the doomed world. I am ashamed to say I was one of the participants in that planetary siege.
“The Concordiat came up with a plan, called Operation Diaspora. We were to go out into the galaxy, find a habitable planet and resume the human race there. We, the Bolos were to be the protectors and the factories which started the society. My Bolo Mark, XXXV, was equipped with what we call fabricators, factories if you will, for producing whatever was needed to begin this society.”
“This was to make sure that the human race continued, that they would not die out in this war.”
I show them the pictures of convoys racing to the stars, battle cruisers and colonization ships side by side.
“I was one of those Bolos due to go out on Operation Diaspora, to help the humans colonize a planet. We did not make it. As we were due to be boarded on a ship to leave, the Melconian Fleet broke through our line. They bombarded the Earth.”
I show them the final moments as caught by my cores before stasis, the kinetic strikes coming in across the continent, the city near the port being destroyed in a fireball.
“We were ordered to go into what is called stasis, this would preserve us intact and ready for battle if the humans managed to fight off the attack.”
Celestia raised a hoof and pointed at the screen full of Bolos, “Have any of them survived? Do you know?”
“I have scanned as deep and as far as I can Your Highness, I cannot find any energy signature, a marker if you will, telling me my brothers or sisters have survived. At this point, I highly doubt it, but it might be possible, I have survived, although against all odds.”
I show the planet once again from space on the screen.
“From the amount of energy being used, and what I know of Melconian battle tactics, Earth was destroyed. I cannot be absolutely sure, I captured very little data before going into stasis.”
I put up a picture of the moon as seen from Earth, close up with all details showing.
“This was Earth’s Moon, as seen from Earth, millions of humans lived on it at the time I was here.”
I now show Equus’s moon on the screen side by side.
“This is your moon, side by side. As you can see by the red arrows, there are points that line up to a very big percentage rate to my own moon. This is not a coincidence. This planet of Equus, is Earth.”
Now the gasps come, a bit of muttering as they all start talking, pointing out the similarities of the two moons.
Twilight speaks up first, “But..but.. there’s never been any indication of anyone on the moon before Nightmare Moon was banished.”
“That was one of the things I checked for first, signs of habitation, there are none. This is puzzling as there was quite a bit of construction on the surface. Now, it appears there is none, but the landmarks remain.”
“Something removed every trace of humanity from the Moon. I have no idea what or who, it truly is a mystery to me.”
Twilight rubbed her chin with a hoof, “So what about here, is there anything..?”
“As far as I can tell, nothing. I have done scans under the surface for as far as I can, I have detected no traces of any civilization before this one.”
I put up a view of the solar system as we knew it in the Concordiat, the planets rotating around the sun, beside it, I put Equestria’s version, the planet being orbited by the sun and moon.
“As you can see, in my time, this was the solar system, planets orbited around the sun, what we called heliocentric. You, on the other hand, have a planet which is orbited by the sun and moon. I have confirmed this, this planet is not rotating as it did in my time. The sun and moon show minor discrepancies when they arise, the sun being a few minutes late, or early.”
Eyes turned to Celestia as she smiled, “Well, I do enjoy a few extra minutes of sleep some days.”
“This would drive the scientists of my time mad. It goes against every physical constant and theory we knew of the universe.”
Rainbow piped up from her seat, “But Celestia has always raised the sun! Now Luna raises the moon and puts the stars in the sky!”
“Let me show you one more thing.”
I put up a picture of the constellation of the Big Dipper, side by side with another they call The Two Sisters.
“This is a constellation called the Big Dipper in my time, see how it looks like a cup with a long handle, a dipper. The other is the constellation you know as The Two Sisters, watch closely.”
I begin the program, letting the stars move in their orbits from the Big Dipper, merging into the Two Sisters, making them match perfectly.
“Some stars, it appears, are not put in place by Princess Luna, but have always been there.”
She nods, “This is true, I cannot place them all, but I do try to liven the night sky.”
“The stars that made up the big Dipper, over time, have moved, and formed the constellation you call The Two Sisters. This cemented the fact that this is Earth, from my star charts, and the evidence as shown by the moon. But by all other evidence, something drastic has changed in the universe. The outer planets are not there anymore in this solar system, my charts show a lot of things that just simply are not there, I can find no evidence of them.”
“In my time, Concordiat scientists theorized that the universe, as it got older, would change. Either it would grow cold, what was called entropy, or it would expand until galaxies would be alone in the great dark. It was also theorized that maybe it would all smash together again, making another what was called, ‘The Big Bang’ forming a whole new universe. I am afraid they never counted on this.
There has been a fundamental shift in the way things work. Magic works here, true magic. In my time it was nothing but myth and legend, although some said they could make it work, it was highly doubted. No evidence ever existed for it. My world, and the Concordiat was based on technology, scientific discoveries that proved the universe worked one way.
This now, is thrown completely out the window you might say. I see magic, I know it is used, and it baffles me how the universe could change so much. I’m afraid I have no answers as to how.”
“So in summary, this is earth, it is beyond my doubting. The universe has changed from what I knew in my time, how, I do not know, but it has, at a very very deep level. How this solar system changed, the missing planets, the sun and moon being directed by Your Highnesses, I have no idea. I am not happy with it, but it is my conclusion.”
Applejack speaks up this time, “So how did y’all get here?”
“Now that, I can tell you. When I went into stasis, it preserved all my systems and hull, basically it should have been untouchable throughout eternity until a recall order came and it snapped off. This would have allowed me to be battle ready at any time without waiting.”
“At some point in history, magic use was becoming commonplace. Magic interferes with the stasis field, I have verified that by Rarity helping me.”
“My pleasure, Crusader.”
“Thank you, Rarity.”
“When magic is used around a stasis field, it interrupts it, making it less and less useful. At those times, my power plants ran out of fuel, the interruptions being long enough that it did not allow me to wake up fully, but allowed the passage of time to make me use a bit of power each time in preparation for awakening.”
“I know this from small recordings in my cores, allowing me to get a picture of waking up slightly, then the field snapping back on before I could realize what was happening. It was a combination of bad luck and magic use. No stasis field was ever meant to protect from magic, as I have mentioned, it was not know in our world.”
“So how long would it take for nature to wear things down?” This from Twilight.
“Approximately two point five thousand years. That is the estimate I can come up with based on wear to my armor and weapons, there was quite a bit of damage done that needed repair. But since I was being readied for shipment, my stocks were at full capacity, I had enough to repair myself and more. I can last a long time, but with the field flickering on and off, it wore at my hull and systems. The field itself, instead of stabilizing me when it flickered, it did damage as well as time.”
Cadence then asks the question I was sure was on everypony’s mind.
“How long has it been, Crusader?”
“One point two four million years, Your Highness.”
As expected, the gasps come, followed by wide-eyed stares. I have checked, rechecked, checked some more, and even more than, it has been constantly run on my data cores. I am not wrong, based on the stars movements, which appear to be constant, and the age of some of the landmarks on the moon.
“This of course, based on the stars movements and some landmarks on the moon. The age is as close as I can come. But I guarantee you it is close to that, if not exactly. When I said I was out of place, well, it seems I was quite right.”
Cadence speaks out once more, her voice warm and caring as she seems to feel the grieving I do, lost in the deep recesses of time, the galaxy I knew no more.
“Does anything survive, Crusader? Would you know?”
“I have tried Your Highness, sending signals that should have been answered. The only conclusion I can come to, is the world I knew, the Concordiat, is no more. I can hear no trace of any survivors.”
“I am sorry to hear that.” Cadence truly is, I could see it in her eyes.
“Myself as well, Your Highness. But given the galaxy was filled with inimical beings, maybe it is for the best.”
Princess Celestia speaks, “Perhaps you’re right, it’s best this world be left to develop on its own.”
“I agree, Your Highness.”
We discuss the future now. All I wish is to be here now, though I do grieve for lost comrades, and be a citizen of Equestria. This is a given as Princess Celestia has already declared me to be one.
The amount of time that has passed is astonishing to say the least, though it might explain the changes in the universe. It is a long time, and no recorded history ever survived and told of any changes before. This could be a natural state, or one that just happened. So many questions to ponder on that, but I think I shall pass.
I believe, and I tell the assembled ponies, that I shall look to the future. I shall assist in any way that I can, and do what I can when requested. Though I did mention the forest, it appears that all the ruling committee are fine with my standing sentinel, even Fluttershy who smiled at the camera lens briefly.
She did though, ask me to be careful about the more intelligent species out there, I assured her I would try. She will visit later to inform me of them to enter into my tactical logs.
It appears the meeting has gone quite well, even with the revelations. I expected more of a human response, typically shouting and disbelief, but was given none of that. I am relieved. too many questions still remain, but without resources I cannot answer them. Maybe one day.
Until then I shall do what I have always done. Stand sentinel and protect.
...and also show the movie of the Great Ponyville Paint War because everypony wants to see it again...
Awesome
It's quite sad you didn't get more view
Yeah, cause, if any other Bolo have awaken and help technologicaly an other civ, they will certainly use a "over a millennia old" tech
(Specially if said civ have acquire better tech afterwards ^^)
5495223 I see your point But the Final War destroyed the galaxy as well, at least in Laumers books, I got the impression it was truly something fierce. So who knows what happened out there in the dark?
No worries on views, as long as someone enjoys it, that's the good thing
I think Cadence and Shining Armor should get comm sets... that way she can whisper naughty things in his ears when he's inspecting the troops and laugh as he tries to keep a straight face. I can't wait to see how Crusaders efforts against the Everfree goes. If his stores start running out could the funds from the jewelry start going into resupplying????
This chapter answers a lot of questions.
I know what happened to the universe! you see, as the great Douglass Adams once said, there is a theory that once someone understands what exactly the universe is, it will be instantly replaced with one far stranger Than the one we know.
Some others theorize that this has already happened.
5550952 in other words, someone figured out how the force works in terms of science, and the universe threw it out Just to mess with us.
5509056 No, it's miniscule! If the universe is 13 billion years old, then another million is nothing. Another billion isn't much either. If it was even possible, it would be a trillion years or more before the universe has a chance to change significantly in a fundamental way.
The author should have gone for a billion years because it's both actually significant and the sun would still be around.
its*
its*
I love reading stories in which they have a viewpoint on what the future may hold. Within the next hundred years we will be colonizing Mars and hopefully other planets. We hopefully will encounter intelligent life but we do not know if they will be hostile or not. Maybe we will be the hostile ones, even history proves that humans act badly towards others that don't have the same skin colour or the same interests. Its a mystery but you my good Author have my like and the Homestuck seal of approval.
5563621 More importantly the Sun would still be around AND still have about another 4 billion years of hydrogen to burn before starting to burn helium and turning into a red giant.
5563621
Aye, a million recorded years isn't very long for a world.
^What?
Edit: After reading some comments it seems you meant 'One point twenty four'
5563621 I could believe a billion years caused a massive change to the fundamental properties of the universe. After all, the projections for the time after the big bang list massive changes happening in seconds, as well as much shorter periods of time. I would have a hard time believing that a machine could survive those periods of time intact however.
Hell, I've read hard scifi stories about sapient species living and dying in the nanoseconds after the bang. Technically possible since the enormous energies available then would have allowed for it.
6046356 ...Those mean the exact same thing. point two four would actually be preferable in my honest opinion. It's less ambiguous to list the numbers rather than combine them in that fashion.
6061876 it sied it had a fabricator right ... dose that mean it was reparinf it self
6061876
ell, I've read hard scifi stories about sapient species living and dying in the nanoseconds after the bang. Technically possible since the enormous energies available then would have allowed for it.
ye gods please please tell me the names of these storys!!
You need commas before addressive appellations.
Who else wants to bet that the change that caused this to start in the first place was vacuum decay (the collapse of the Higgs Field into a lower energy state)?
Since she is referring to a single entity it should be you.
8969260
Y'all is singular. All y'all is plural.
8792092
That’s actually very plausible explanation.
coming back and rereading I just cant believe how masterful some of this foreshadowing is.
For certain values of "sane," at least.
... why are you ashamed, Crusader?
Either alternative universe... or Discord. Leaning towards alternative universe because otherwise the spectral output of the sun would have changed, it's clearly been millions of years since Earth got glassed.
*known
I mean, it's impressive, but given how Luna has been demonstratably able to move stars around, and the whole heliocentric model, I'm still left thinking that an alternative universe is more likely than displacement into the future.
Only now, upon rereading this, do I realise just how meaningful this is.
It should be much more than that, like a billions more.