1: The Vote
Alexia Tune sat in a private balcony overlooking the senate for Sol, the world government named after the old Latin name for the sun. It was a preemptive measure, made all those years ago in expectation that terrans would begin colonizing the rest of the solar system. That foresight had been accurate with long range teleportation making early mining operations on the moon a reality. The terrans were not foolish enough to keep their civilization bottled up on Earth alone anymore, and colony projects to Mars and other space stations were coming along nicely now that space travel within system was a non-issue. However, going beyond that had thus far proved untenable until last month.
Rather than gazing up at the heavens, Alexia’s focus was on the milling statesmen preparing themselves for the morning session to begin. The massive holographic clock above the chairman’s seat declared it was nearly eight o’clock local time January 12th of 2120. There was an electric buzz in the atmosphere, a strange mix of excitement and dread in equal measure.
Normally, Alexia was absent from such sessions since she was not an elected official, and had no authority over the legislative body. Yet authority was not the only way to have power. Presently, she was content to sit back and quietly eat her breakfast. Alexia was wearing a light blue summer dress that complimented her azure mane and silver fur to a lovely degree. Around her neck, the royal necklace made by her three soul mates glittered from the loving maintenance of its bearer. Upon her face was the latest in unobtrusive Magitech that she was personally giving a field test: A smart uplink headset. The wafer thin headset elegantly curved around the contours of her face and the spiral groove of her horn. It was colored silver so it blended seamlessly in with her coat. Thanks to the presence of her horn, all the information the headset gave her could be passed through the ivory spire without the need of an eyepiece.
Reacting to minute flicks with her magic, Alexia marked each politician with a holographic overlay that was visible only to herself. Feras Carlson. He’s admittedly anti-antagonistic. I doubt he’ll vote no, but he’s going to make sure the Navy’ll have political wrinkles in their rules of engagement. She moved on to mark every statesman and matching them to the file she had with each one. By the time the bells chimed to begin the session, she had each member highlighted in her personal Heads Up Display.
Of the ninety one seats in house, thirty seven of them were filled by ponies. The human chairman entered a few commands in his station to alert the news crews across the chamber. Most people paid only cursory attention to Senate, a sentiment Alexia Tune normally shared, but today was history. “Please be seated, ladies and gentlemen.”
He waited a minute for everyone to focus. “We’ll begin the session with resolution 12-49C. The Sol Defense Force has perfected their long-range teleportation system. Ever since the origins of the Mion Meteor were determined in the late 2020’s, it is now possible to begin scouting missions into Koridost space. The DF is requesting permission to proceed with these operations, and if necessary, begin hostile actions in the application of war in defense of our world. The proponent of this action, Senator Filibuster, will now speak.”
Upon the large plain white walls of the senate chamber, real-time polls appeared as a pie graph for the citizens of the seven original surviving nations appeared with an eighth larger graph representing the whole consensus was situated on top. Each of those nations had greatly expanded their territory into the various fallen countries. Even after a hundred years, terrans still hadn’t fully repopulated the world, and with colonizing incentives starting to make headway into the media, it was likely to take a long time indeed to reach pre-war population levels.
By in large, the Earth’s population was already declaring over half were in support of the position, while forty percent remained undecided. I may or may not have slipped I was in favor of this bill passing, Alexia mused with unabashed mirth. I do my best to keep my views personal, but I wasn’t going to remain neutral on this one.
Can’t truly blame those on the fence and the naysayers though, Alexia Tune thought darkly. I’m the only living person who personally remembers the Mion War. Aurora and Violet were much too young to remember any of it except for reconstruction.
Her headset chimed an alert, causing a momentary distraction as text scrolled across the left side of her vision.
Light Dome test scheduled today at 1300 hours local time. Prepare accordingly.
Alexia didn’t get a chance to contemplate the test when a pale blue earth pony garbed in a smart black suit took the speaker’s podium. His face appeared above him along the wall hologram so no one would miss his facial expressions. “Thank you, chairman.”
He sipped some water and cleared his throat away from the mic. “Though known to us all, I feel the effects of the Mion War and subsequent reconstruction need to be restated, no matter how many documentaries we’ve suffered over the years.”
Alexia rolled her eyes. There were at least thirty based on my activities alone during that time.
“Billions dead,” Filibuster stated definitively. Even today, it was hard for people to truly comprehend such a large number of people. “The near collapse of civilization, and our erasure from history was the threat the greatest generation of our time.” Whatever minor small chat had been going on was silenced. The polls slightly shifted to in favor. “The Mions and their Koridost masters wanted nothing less than our complete and total annihilation. The Russell Ferret documentary: The Mind Behind the Red, was one that struck me very hard in my youth. Not only due to the sheer scale of the Mion’s crimes being laid bare for all to see, but that such a large number of pony collaborators either willfully joined the Mions’ efforts, or were brainwashed into doing so.” He paused to wipe a few tears from his eyes, but his voice remained level. “The Mions wanted to destroy all traces of human civilization from the modern day clear back to the earliest cave paintings.”
Filibuster took a moment to survey the senate chamber, focusing more on his political opponents. “This was not some enemy trying to crush us. They were not trying to simply defeat us. No. They tried to remove the fact that the people of Earth ever existed in the first place. They tried to erase us! That was their goal. And just to add salt on the wound, the fact that the Koridost didn’t even have the god damned common courtesy to do it themselves is utterly abhorrent. Any discussion presented here today should be a formality at best. The Mion virus was specifically tailored to attack humanity,” he banged his hoof on the podium. “This wasn’t just some catch-all virus. All the evidence from captured computer data to prisoner accounts all say the same thing. This was a targeted attack.”
The polls leaned towards being dominated for agreement of the bill. “We don’t know when, but in all likelihood the Koridost will eventually come here to collect their prize. Only they will find that we’re still here, standing strong and resilient. I for one will not see our world burn twice. It is our duty as loyal terrans of Sol to green light the budget expansion of the Defense Force. The sooner we start investigating the Koridost, the sooner we learn how to defend ourselves against them. And then, to return the favor our billions dead demand!”
Alexia only half listened to the stallion speak long and passionately about his view of the proposition. He may be relying on the old tactic of fearmongering and spinning patriotic fervor, but underneath it all, he has a point. If nothing else, we need to know our enemy to defeat him, with either words or weapons.
Filibuster ended his speech shortly there after, leaving the polls spiking at 85% for the proposition. Alexia snorted in vast amusement. Wow, that must have been his shortest speech yet. The chairman read from his podium for a moment before looking back up to his fellow statesmen. “Representative Dieter Kauf has the floor.”
A small robotic server robot came out of a wall and took Alexia’s empty plate away. An alert on her HUD popped up with Aurora Sky’s head appearing to the right. Her head was outlined with a faint blue circle surrounding it with ‘Aurora Sky live’ orbiting the edge. Aurora’s long two toned blue mane had the unkempt look of a mad scientist, with stray hairs spilling out of a hastily-tied ponytail.
Alexia accepted the call and Aurora’s slightly human-ish face became a live projection. Alexia reflexively glanced at Aurora’s ears. Thirty years and counting since she got over that human ear phase. Good, they were a miserable look on her. I’m just glad she’s always kept her lovely snow-white color and most of her muzzle every time she fiddles with her form. The multi hued blue-maned alicorn was using a similar headset to her mother, though it didn’t show in her portrait. “Testing live-com. How’s New York treating you, momma?”
There was a minor delay on the senate floor, allowing Alexia to give her daughter more attention. “Quite well actually. My meeting with eastern HQ ironed out the issues we had with Chaplin's proposal to the board. Plus, now that everything’s been cleared up for me stepping back into a silent partner role within the corporation, I’ll be able to join the first group to the Koridost star system without scaring the shareholders.” Alexia glanced over to the large holographic clock. “For now though, I was planning on seeing a Broadway play since they reopened Studio 54 as a historic site.”
“Well you might want to hold off on that,” Aurora added with growing excitement. “I think I found father’s reincarnation!”
Alexia’s heart skipped a beat and her face betrayed her shock. “Are you certain? Have you approached him yet?”
Aurora wavered her head and gave a ‘sorta kinda’ expression while sending a picture over. A rotating 3-D photo of a rich blue unicorn mare with sea foam green wavy mane appeared to the right of Aurora’s face. A cutie mark depicting a kite shield superimposed over a mage’s staff. By Alexia’s assessment, the mare couldn’t be a day over seventeen years old. “She’s a mare, actually.”
The gender didn’t matter to Alexia as she studied the picture carefully, only if it was really one of her soul mates. “Sensei Twilight told me to expect changes in tribe and gender but the reincarnated would bear a strong resemblance to the original. Plus the personality would be pretty close as well, along with a lot of déjà vu around other Soul-Linked. That being said, what makes you think she your father? The only similarity is the shield part of her cutie mark.”
“Hey, even the Equestrians said colors could change, and Celestia only knows of like, four generations of Twilight and her friends, if that? Besides, our Tree isn’t the same as the one they have on Equiis. There’s a lot of factors that could be at work that we don’t know about.”
Alexia gave her daughter a grumbling scowl, but there was no ill-will behind it. “Alright, you have a point. Anything else?”
“Yeah, she came up to me at the Burger Shack back home, and she surprised me by starting a conversation like we were old friends. She spent everything she had to move to Trinity.”
“She didn’t try to kiss your hoof or beg for you to bless her soda first?” Alexia teased with a toothy smirk.
“That was one time!” Aurora flustered with pouting lips and reddened cheeks. Alexia chuckled inwardly. “Anyway, it was great having a new face that didn’t prostrate themselves the moment she came up to me, so we started chatting for what ended up being four hours. She talks just like dad did, it felt like I’ve known her all my life.”
“What’s her name?”
Aurora gave her a perplexed look. “I didn’t post it with the picture?” Alexia shook her head. “Gah, that’s one more bug I’ll need to fix. Her name’s Aquaria.”
“Heh, you sure it’s not Crimson?”
“Positive. I know my father.” Aurora’s stern visage convinced Alexia her daughter had no doubts.
The longer Alexia studied the blue unicorn, the more she felt her heart tug towards her. “We can’t jump the gun here. Granted the mane and coat colors don’t need to be a perfect match, this is suspect. Even if she is Conrad, Aquaria’s her own mare. Twilight and Celestia said she wouldn’t remember anything of her previous life. Of course, they didn’t account for Loki, but she’s always been one to defy the norm.” Alexia couldn’t help but to smirk at the thought of Loki. “It’s also a possibility that my soul-forge works differently than Twilight’s. Either way, we need to take this at her pace, going too fast could end up pushing her away.”
Aurora gave a pleading grin and sad puppy dog eyes. “Can I please at least invite her for dinner tonight? I know you don’t want to get your hopes up, but it’s worth a shot.”
Sighing heavily, Alexia cast a searching gaze at her pleading daughter. “If you’re that sure about it then you have my blessing. We won’t know if she’s Conrad until I meet her in any event.”
“Yea!! Thanks momma, I’ll make sure to pass the news to Violet. See you later!” Aurora’s blissfully beaming face vanished along with Aquaria’s image.
Polite clapping brought Alexia’s attention back to the senate floor. Feras Carlson was patiently waiting for the applause to die down from his perch on the speaker’s platform. The polls had changed little during Aurora’s conversation, with only minor drops in approval from China and Germany.
“My fellow terrans,” Carlson began with charismatic confidence. “I know many of you are fully aware of the scars our world still suffers. The lives lost, the cultures destroyed, and the wounds upon our collective psyche still weep even over a century later,” he jammed a finger on the podium to push his point.
“We have made some progress.” He paused for but a moment to gauge the crowd. “Magitech shield generators cover every city. Emergency services have extended mandatory biohazard training, we’ve spent trillions on the collection of Aegis Space Stations to serve as an early warning system and defense platform. The cost of all this defense spending is exorbitant, made possible only because of off-world mining efforts.
“Now, that is not to say I disapprove. On the contrary, any one of you can see I have historically supported the defense initiative.”
Alexia narrowed her gaze. What’s he playing at?
“I support Resolution 12-49C in every way, except” his gaze hardened, “for how our brave soldiers will enact this legislation. We need to be brutally honest with ourselves.” He glanced up at Alexia’s balcony, meeting her eyes for but a moment. “It has been over a hundred years since the Herald was destroyed. So where are the Koridost?” He made a dramatic shrug. “If they wanted our world for colonization, doesn’t it seem strange that we haven’t even seen so much single ship or second meteor?”
He’s really on his game today, Alexia mused with a slight nod of respect.
Carlson visibly calmed down. “I will admit that our ability to detect any starship is probably woefully inadequate. Even though the subspace transceiver we recovered and reverse engineered has indeed revealed scores of alien communications that we were previously unable to detect. However much of it is encrypted, so unless the Navy managed to crack the code within the past ten minutes, we’re still in the dark.
“All we know for sure, is that someone is out there.” Carlson made sure to look at each camera as he pointed to the sky. “The question I present is; is it worth poking the hornets’ nest?” He made a show of shuffling papers to give people time to consider his words. “Ultimately, for the good of our world, we have to assume someone still remembers us. Bunkering up and keeping our heads down could just as easily spell the end of our civilization as the meteor almost did if the Koridost do remember us.
“I strongly suggest, however, that we take our teleportation-aided investigations with extreme discretion. We must act with the olive branch first, and the sword only as the very last resort.”
Alexia tapped into social media via her headset and saw a virtual explosion of chatter about Carlson’s latest declaration. With a few flicks of her magic, Alexia created a few filters to focus on those denouncing the man. He’s playing it dangerously.
One particular post on a political website caught her eye. “Like he’s trying to make a deal with a Super Hitler.” Well if the Koridost are like we think they probably are, it would be an apt description.
As if mirroring the world’s clamor, the senators were also ill at ease. Nearly all of them had been for military action or for avoiding action against the Koridost entirely. To his credit, Carlson continued undaunted. “The reason why, is that we know absolutely nothing about the Koridost as a people. Was the attack on our world a government sanctioned action, or the efforts of a minor faction?”
He’s using the same stance I’ve been standing on for the past hundred years, Alexia mused respectfully.
“What we need is information,” Carlson pressed adamantly. “I will leave it to the generals and admirals to figure out the critical details, and act in the best interests of Sol. What I do know, is that if we start a war against what could quite possibly be an intergalactic civilization, we stand little to no chance against them.”
Alexia’s social media feed rebounded with thousands of people mirroring Carlson’s demand for discretion. The silver alicorn shook her head in playful exasperation. That’s what people get for instantly jumping on a single phrase before the man could finish. He knows he can’t beat the proposition, so he’s going for plan B. I can live with that.
Fully expecting the bill to pass, Alexia departed the balcony and into the hallway where a pair of human guards in black suits waited for her, a gangly tall one and a short one. “Gentlemen, please pass along my apologies to Studio 54 that I’ll have to miss tonight’s performance.”
The short guard nodded curtly. “As you order.” He got his smart phone out and made the call while Alexia turned to the other guard.
“It looks like I’ll be heading home early. Please inform the Security Center that I wish to use a teleport with a forward spin of 12.598.”
“I had no idea you had hardware that could control the spin down to three decimal places, Princess,” Tall said with genuine amazement.
“It’s a new prototype,” she answered with a gentle smile. “If all goes well, expect it on the market in a few months.”
“Most impressive,” He responded before pressing his earpiece and relayed her request. Must be dangerous being the one testing the bleeding edge.
Alexia’s magical senses felt the anti-magic screen around the building shift a few moments later. As with every government building, anti-magic screen technology had evolved to allow telekinesis and nothing else. A rotational shift like this was used so unicorn security personnel could perform their duties in an emergency.
The headset chimed when the selected rotation was free of interference. Letting her spell form, she could feel the headset react, take hold of her spell, and mold it to the proper frequency. She activated the spell as soon as the second alert dinged.
A moment later, Alexia winked back into existence a few meters from her limousine in the parking garage. The expansive parking area’s silence remained unbroken, her hooves making none of the familiar clip-clopping sound thanks to the soft soled shoes. Snorting in playful disgust, she found her driver was reclined in his seat and snoring away with his butler-esk uniform cap covering his face.
Rolling her eyes with a mirthful grin, Alexia tapped the glass. The man jumped in his seat and gave her a sheepish half-smile while fumbling to roll the window down. “What am I going to do with you, Skippy?”
The weathered old man groaned helplessly. “You know me, Princess. The misses is a howling banshee out for my blood every night.”
“Uh huh. The only woman you’re married to is the bottle.”
He unlocked the passenger door with an oily grin. “You wound me greater than that Bosnian did back in ‘78. You remember that one where we wreaked three whole platoons by ourselves?” Alexia said nothing, but he could see the slight upward twitch of her lips. “It’s a sad day indeed when you don’t wanna reminisce about the good ol’ days.”
Entering the vehicle from the rear driver-side door, Alexia settled in. “I’ve done a lot of stupid stuff over the years, old friend. I wasn’t exactly thinking logically back then.”
“Ha! As if logic ever did anything for me. So where to?”
Glad he still has the sense to drop it. “The airport’s tele-gate terminal, if you please.”
“Glad to see you took my advice in avoiding the theater,” he chuckled heartily as he took the car out of the parking lot. “I don’t care if Cats is a ‘classic’ or not. It’s the work of the Devil I tell you. Cat-people... t’ain’t natural ta wanna lick yourself in areas like that, uh hmm.”
“What would I ever do without your sage advice,” Alexia teased, not that the driver seemed to notice her tone.
“Probably make the same mistake I did getting married a second time. Have I ever told you about the time Jaqueline and I fought for forty days and forty nights?”
“The one where she flooded the basement after revealing herself as a double agent for Viadata?” Alexia was glad the privacy screen hid her chuckling smile at the crotchety old man.
As he started going on and on about his busy life, Alexia tuned the old man out. The New York skyline held her attention more than tall tales. Much of the pre-war infrastructure was badly damaged shortly after the Herald’s destruction. The regional Mions attacked before the Herald’s absence could totally rob them of their intellect.
Ultimately, it gave New Yorkers an excuse to rebuild with a possible space-bound invasion in mind. Situated near Sol headquarters was a small collection of eighty-one story towers that thrummed with massive amounts of stored mana. The interconnected complex took up five city blocks and looked akin any other post-war skyscraper. Alexia, however, knew better. The majority of the interior was dominated by huge mana arrays and crystals.
Light Dome test imminent.
With a flicker of magic, Alexia removed the HUD overlay to see normally as the tower activated. A thick sheen of deep navy blue mana exploded outward a minute later. Her driver grumbled and spit curses as the tidal wave of mana passed over him, causing an oppressive tingling sensation over their bodies. The feeling reminded him too much of the less glamorous parts of his career. Luckily, Alexia was used to it through a lifetime of spellcasting.
The wave of mana spread out with a radius of eight miles. The tower was a glowing beacon of energy that nearly blinded Alexia until she curtailed her magical senses. The tower’s mana saturated every citizen and building within New York to the point that it burned out numerous civilian model anti-magic fields that were carelessly left active.
Tapping into her headset, Alexia was pleasantly surprised the computer already had satellite feed coming in. The live feed from space revealed the city had disappeared completely, leaving nothing but a forest and untouched nature. Even flocks of birds and fauna were present. Her position within Sol’s department of defense allowed her clearance to tap into the tower’s mission control chatter.
“Visible light screen active and functioning,” one operator said.
“Thermal signature masked with a point oh oh nine degree margin of error. Correcting.”
“Electromagnetic spectrum reads zero. Background levels only.”
She grinned as each test revealed the city was for all intents and purposes completely invisible to any outside observer. Good thing HQ’s renovation crew had the foresight to bury all the shielded power and tele-com lines so this won’t interrupt the senate broadcast nor have detectable power readings on the edges. Alexia’s car moved into heavier traffic and dense city blocks, breaking her sight of the tower. Let’s hope this fools any ships the Koridost send. Assuming they haven’t already.
Primary test complete.
Alexia saw the heavy mana fade away, revealing New York for all to see.
Five hours until barrier projection test.
“Hmm, well I should be long gone before then sadly.”
While undetectable to most, Alexia’s headset augmented senses saw each skyscraper in the city was drawing all of the loose mirage mana expended by the test into themselves before funneling it back to the tower along the sewer system. The overall action between the tower and the skyscrapers still ended with a net-increase in atmospheric mana levels.
Outside of that, other improvements had been implemented into New York to truly make it a city worthy of the 22nd century. All freight and mass transit systems were completely automated and took up either elevated rail or subway networks, leaving the streets to individually driven cars and pedestrians. Every surface of the buildings, glass or otherwise, converted sunlight to power and from there to mana.
There were countless other improvements at various levels with perfected mana control being the chief improvement across the globe. With innovative concentration technologies, mana-fuelled cars outpaced internal combustion over fifty years ago in both power, operational range, and most importantly, price.
“You want to listen to the news?” Alexia’s driver barked back at her while turning the radio up without waiting for a response. Not that he needed to because Alexia wanted to catch up on the latest anyway.
“Welcome back to the Assassination News Squad!” a fast slightly scratchy masculine voice said. “I’m your host Mark Caplin!”
“And his co-host Timothy Zaner,’ said a more deliberate husky man.
“The latest update on the Anti-Koridost legislation is looking like it’ll pass, but the public backing Carlson’s call for discretion is at an all time high. No doubt the Navy’s going to be pissed about a certain individual calling for that session to be open to public voting.”
“Do you really think the world would have accepted anything less? We’re only talking about the possibility of bringing a bunch of murderous aliens down on top of us,” Timothy added with heavy sarcasm.
“I’d say let them come!” Mark shot back with a rocket salvo sound effect backing him up. “With teleportation tech able to get us across the stars, what’s to stop the marines from porting inside any hostile fleet that takes up orbit? We go in there, kill the crew, and either scuttle the ship or better yet, take it for ourselves!”
Alexia rolled her eyes. It’s so easy to talk strategy from ignorance.
“Well when our generals are out of ideas I’m sure we’ll all come running to you. Now to our required one minute off topic coverage. Hanz Welerson, the last surviving first generation terran pony, died yesterday at the ripe old age of 165.”
“That’s assuming you ignore Princess Alexia Tune,” his counterpart amended with an implied wolf whistle. “I swear, you look at the early pictures of her, she seems to prefer growing rather than aging. I don’t care what anyone says, she’s the only female out there who truly lives up to that old saying ‘aging like fine wine.’”
Alexia scowled angrily. “Do these guys have no shame? Talk about the dead one second and then my ass the next.” A small part of her took joy in the fact that humans found her attractive though.
“As much as we all enjoy you're lusting fascinations, Timothy” the other man said with irritation that matched Alexia’s own, “you do bring up an interesting topic with her. What exactly is she a princess of? Aside from her, there isn’t any other surviving royal family aside from hers. It’s an outdated title is what it is.”
“What is this? A news channel or a talk show?” Alexia grumbled as she banged a hoof on the intercom to speak with her driver. “Harry, what is this crap we’re listening to?”
“Only the best talk show on this side of the world!” he chuckled back. “You need to get rid of that stick up your ass and lighten up.”
“How big can that stick be if I put up with you?” she countered snidely, only for him to laugh it off.
“Touché.”
With the airport still not in sight, Alexia slouched in her seat and pulled some snacks out of the mini-fridge.
“You know as well I do our equine brothers and sisters wouldn’t call her anything else, except demi-goddess,” the radio blared.
Alexia idly munched on some trail mix while impatiently tapping the the doorframe with a wing elbow. It took years to get people to finally settle on the ‘demi’ part. At least that way the press doesn’t go for the jugular every time I make a mistake.
Timothy’s radio partner sounded as if he’d heard this argument a dozen times over. “Call her a demi-goddess all you want, but I still say princess is obsolete. She has no actual state or territory she rules, and Alexia has historically shown no desire to do so. Crackpots aside anyway. If anything, people should be calling her Director since she owns Magitech Valley and majority shares with-”
The news cut out and was thankfully replaced by modern music. Alexia hummed at it. Sounds like jazz, with hints of old swing music mixed with electronica. I like it.
She barely completed that thought before her driver grumbled over the intercom. “You don’t need anything to stroke that ego of yours.”
She only shrugged in response. “You’re the only reason we were still listening to that in the first place.”
He prattled on about conspiracies and nonsense, but Alexia just cut the commlink. Instead, she chose to enjoy the music the rest of the way to the airport. The automatic hoof buffer next to her seat proved heavenly. By the end of it, she was bouncing a mathematically perfect manicured hoof to the beat when the car came to a stop in front of two marines, one earth stallion and a woman, in full body power armor.
Slipping her four shoes back on, Alexia cleared her throat and adopted a regal poise. She grabbed the purse and stepped outside. Upon exiting the limousine, she withdrew her ID card which projected a minute hologram of a constantly shifting chaotic mass of letters and numbers within a two inch sphere. A small probe extended from the stallion’s armor and scanned the hologram.
“Welcome to JFK International, Princess Alexia,” he and his partner snapped to attention and saluted. Even with her unique appearance, Alexia demanded that even she be screened by security.
“Thank you, Corporal Rap Tap.” Alexia returned her ID card to her purse. “I trust the tele-gate is ready for use.”
“Last I heard, my Goddess.”
Alexia was about to walk past him when his comment stopped her. Truth be told, it had been decades since anyone called her that, and she wasn’t about to let it slide now. “Stow that talk while you’re in that uniform, Corporal,” she scolded with harsh regal authority. Both soldiers siffened at the heated mare. “And even then, use the whole title.”
Burning with embarrassment not only in front of Alexia, but his partner, who would no doubt taunt him relentlessly, Rap Tap bowed deeply. “My apologies, Demi-goddess. Private Chambers will escort you to the gateway.”
Alexia turned to the woman who swept an arm towards the doors. “This way please.”
Nodding in acknowledgement, Alexia cantered after the marine. The moment I start letting them drop the ‘demi’ part, is when they’ll forget I’m not a true god. And if that happens, how long would it take before I start believing the lie?
The tele-gate was not open for public use so Alexia only found military personnel around her as she was led through what used to be the far end of the civilian terminals. The military section was cordoned off by soldiers and solid white walls that could be easily removed later when it was finally open for public use.
In an act of good humor, or irony, the portal was waiting for her at the old airplane gates. The portal itself was an skeletal cube measuring three meters in diameter. Thick power antenna blanketed the top of the cube which allowed wireless mana feeds. The portal cube was flanked by numerous consoles with only three technicians hard at work. A good step forward from the dozen scientists and engineers that it took to run the prototypes thirty years ago, Alexia mused with a hint of pride for her fellow terrans.
With the rise of computer aided spellcasting, teleportation software was tightly controlled to the point of being a federal security secret. Various safeguards were put in place such as making the software delete itself or even self-destruct the storage device if anyone but the authorized user handled it. Even then, the risk of criminalist natural teleport casters was almost non-existent since anti-magic technology saturated the market. Only the trio of terran alicorns knew how to bypass such fields, and they weren’t telling anyone.
With their arrival at the gate, Alexia’s escort bid her farewell to return to her post. The elderly human chief technician was waiting for her with a polite smile. “Ah, Director Tune how are you this fine day?” he said with a flourishing bow and presented a cupped hand.
Giggling in good humor, Alexia unfurled a wing and let him grasp her wing elbow and plant a gentlemanly kiss upon it. “May you never change, Robert.”
Giving her a warm nod and smile, Robert spun around to wave at his underlings. “We’ve made some improvements to our start up time since our last update report in December. Least of which was curbing the power consumption by a whole percent!” He took a moment to bask in the steady progress. “The calculations for the gate in Trinity are complete and the coils are spooled up for you.”
“As punctual as ever.” Alexia gave him a sly look as she stepped over to the center of the hollow cube. “I knew there was a reason I promoted you. Have a good day, Robert.”
“You as well, Director.” Robert looked to his followers as Alexia was presented a chair to sit in. “Alright, ladies and gentlemen, from the top.”
As the team went to work, Alexia watched the floor open to allow panels to slide up and entomb her within the cube. She dampened her magic senses as much as possible to keep the rapid buildup of mana from blinding her.
A sudden build up buffeted her with waves of mana until what felt like a rippling massive energy passed through her. Alexia gasped reflexively at a sudden deafening quiet. The lights within the cube flickered on and the walls slid noisily into the floor to reveal she was in the old Section Nine building.
A flash of giggling pink fur zipped in as soon as it could squeeze through the dropping walls. “Heyya Alex!”
Alexia was disorientated between the furry attack and trying to bring her senses back to normal. It took her a few seconds to shake off the after effects of the teleport and realize the lump of fur clinging to her was a pink furred and blond-maned young adult mare.
A massively warm smile covered Alexia face as she scooped up the bubbly mare and squashed her in a hug of her own. “How was your day, Nova?”
“Great!” Nova gushed as she bounced off of Alexia and started scampering around the room. “I aced my physics and magic theory finals! But most importantly, I finally graduated!!”
Several company employees sweated at the disruption. A pegasus stallion garbed in a mid-level engineer uniform sweated by the nearby console until the walls fully lowered before rushing over to Alexia. “My apologies, Director. I don’t know why security keeps letting her slip by every time you return.”
Nova ducked over to get Alexia between her and the encroaching engineer. She hissed and cattily swatted a hoof at him. Alexia rolled her eyes and smothered Nova with a wing. “I told you, Wilkins, that Nova is welcome to greet me at the gate. She won’t go into any restricted areas.”
Nova pushed her head out from behind Alexia’s silver wing. “Yeah, buddy, I’m one of the cool cats ‘round here!”
A security officer stormed through the open door at the far end of the room, revealing to Alexia just how recent Nova’s break in was. The guard quickly holstered his taser at the sight of the alicorn hiding the pink and blond unicorn. Alexia’s good humor could only go so far and glowered at Nova. “Alright, you, I’m getting you a special pass key so you will stop giving everyone in the company a heart attack every time you sneak in.”
The engineer stiffened while the guard relaxed a bit. “To be honest, Director, I don’t know what you see in this troublemaker. She’s a danger to corporate security.”
“Troublemaker is such a disingenuous accusation!” Nova huffed like a victorian noblewoman. “I am simply testing your security.” She gave the security guard half lidded eyes. “And I find it lacking.”
Alexia raised her other wing to hold off any further bickering. Nova’s true nature, and the soul-forge in general, was a carefully guarded secret that not even the herd’s descendants knew about, save for the alicorn sisters. “Nova is a personal friend of mine. I’ll have security issue her a passkey.” She looked to the officer. “Was sneaking in all she did?”
The man crossed his arms and snorted a thin smile at the young mare. “No, ma’am, she somehow got into the security center and unscrewed the nuts and bolts from the chairs before coming here. The chief’s pissed.”
Alexia gave the pink unicorn a death-glare and used her magic to shift Nova’s mane around to find the wrench and screwdriver hidden within. “At least you had old age to slow you down the last time you tried pulling this crap,” she hissed barely loud enough for Nova to hear.
Nova could only manage to give a pleading grin with drooped ears. Alexia spoke after giving the engineer the tools. “Alright, make sure to use a class five mana dampener around the building. The last thing we need is her doing the same thing to anything important.”
“That would be much appreciated, Director.” The engineer took the tools as Alexia charged her horn. With a flash of azure light, Alexia and Nova were transported to the Royal Manor.
The manor’s basement used to be a series of bedrooms occupied by the herd’s numerous children. With the house being nearly empty for decades, it had been repurposed with one of the rooms housing a scaled-down one-way version of the cube-gate. This one was short ranged by comparison, and was designed to pull Alexia to the house with the proper hearth charm.
This was not the first time Nova had been pulled along with Alexia to this gate, so she was no worse for wear and merrily jumped away towards the door even before the lights flickered on. “Come on, Aly Corny, I still have to figure out what to wear for dinner!”
“Hold up a minute, Nova,” Alexia commanded tersely. The green and pink unicorn spun around to find Alexia with her patented lecture face. “I’m glad you’re back, and that you apparently have most of your first incarnation’s memories.” I’m just going to chalk that up to Nova being Loki. “But that doesn’t give you carte blanche to rampage through my company.”
A shadow passed over Nova’s face. The prankster disappeared from her face and was replaced by genuine repentance. She shrunk back a bit with a hoof and her ears wilted. “Sorry, Princess. Sometimes I let my old memories get the better of me. At least it’s gotten better since I came back to Trinity and met you. But it’s more like…” Nova furrowed her brow and tried to think of the right words for her feelings, but her brain failed her. “I don’t know. It’s getting harder to know where my old self ends and I begin.”
Alexia’s ire dimmed along with her scowl. “I know, dear. Just remember, you may have been Loki the earth pony, but you are still your own person as Nova the unicorn. Don’t forget either side of you.”
Nova scuffed the carpet irritably. “That’s better than what my therapist used to tell me.” Lousy prick. “Anyway, is it okay if I borrow some cash? I’m kinda broke. My folks cut me off yesterday since it was my 18th birthday.” She gave a depressed ‘yay’ with a limp hoof wave.
“Of course you can. But you know, you hated your first life’s parents too,’ Alexia added with a sad sigh. “Isn’t there any possibility in reconciling with them this time?”
“Hell no!” Nova raged more at her distant parent herd, than at Alexia. “Maybe that just means I’m doomed to always have shitty parents. At least as a human I only had to suffer two at a time.”
“Perhaps,” Alexia huffed. I really don’t want to have this conversation again. I’m just glad she got out of there as young as she did. “You haven’t told them the nature of our relationship, have you?”
“Nope. For all they know, I’m some pilgrim, who's over here to worship the ground you walk on, which is just fine by me. I’d rather let them think I’m some deadbeat than Loki’s reincarnation anyway. All I’d ever see of them would be their hooves out asking for your money.” Nova was so livid she was letting her mana boil around her horn.
I hope Conrad – Aquaria – had better luck with her parents this time around. “Speaking of money.” Alexia withdrew her wallet from her purse. “You’ve been keeping your budget low, so here’s a few extra hundred.” Despite her rage, Nova cooled herself enough to give heartfelt thanks. “Before you go out clothes shopping, however, you should know that Aurora thinks she found Conrad’s second life.”
“Really?” Nova’s original joviality returned in full force. “That’s so awesome! Wait…” she grew hesitant. “How can Aurora be so sure? I thought you said it takes one of the four of us to be in the same room to see the soul-tether.”
“It does,” Alexia answered with a respectful nod. She jerked her head to the door so Nova would follow her out. “Aurora’s basing it off her familiarity with her father, and how Aquaria, her name by the way, acts.”
“Does she remember anything of her old life, like I do?”
“No idea. Aurora texted me, saying she made reservations for us at The Fluffed Toque.”
Nova hummed in mild disapproval once they reached the main floor. “If it’s all the same to you, I’ll skip out for tonight. If she’s the real deal, lemme know, but until then I’d rather just go to the mall or Circuit Center to clear my head.”
With a great flap of her wings, Alexia flew up to the second story where her daughters’ rooms were. She looked back down to her old herd mate. “Sounds fair. No need getting both of us emotionally worked up if Aquaria ends up being a dud.”
“Thanks, Alexia. Hope it goes well!” Without further ado, Nova sprinted towards the garage, leaving Alexia free to search for her daughter.
Glad she’s working it all out in her head, Alexia mused with growing peace of mind. She was a mess when I first found her. For now though, I need to get Aurora. I hope she remembered to call Violet about Aquaria. She knows how attached Violet was to her father.
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Woop!
A very welcome and lovely surprise!
Yes, all the yes!
Civilization BE was here.
Ey! It's back!
Dammit all/A thousand Thanks Boldish!
(that work, okay?)
The story looks extremely promising, and I do like the world building worked into it. And Loki's reincarnation... as a unicorn... with her past self's memories... the horror... the horror...
5776973 i support this message
5777071 Three attempts and Still not a pegasus.
desperately hoping for a third book
Thank you Boldish, for pushing for this. And thank you LAP for still be willing to work on this. I have to admit I didn't expect the 100 year gap, that certainly gives a lot of space for anything to be written in the meantime. Also clears away the old pieces on the board, even the Royal Herd's descendants. Finally, 100 years is enough time for the pony population to really boom, especially if they kept up the high birth rate.
Lots of interesting ideas portrayed here. I think one of the more interesting ones is that Alexia is still part of Section 9 even a hundred years later. Another is the sad reminder that reincarnation can be quite painful to a developing mind, and why people supposedly forget their past lives to have fresh starts.
I'd find it amusing if Crimson's reincarnation is also a unicorn.
I admit I was actually expecting the third book would begin sometime earlier with Discord making good on his promise to go on an adventure with Aurora and Violet.
5777071
Considering Nova's position, does this mean that she'd learn the counter to the anti magic field? Loki with an immunity to anti magic....
5777248
I saw your comments on Boldish's story. I'd be more than willing to go over any ideas you have if you want to keep things canon.
Wonderful to see this back already.
I hope Crimson gets to be a pegasus like she originally wanted this time around.
This was nice.
That's pretty much all I can say. Yay for more chaos.
I recognize that cover art
Thank you for continuing this!
That is an excellent point. If they are intergalactic, Sol won't stand a chance in an all out war. Better hope the group that 'attacked' Earth is a rogue one in that scenario.
Vaguely misleading haiku:
one armed man clapping
diligent man caught napping
woman seen slapping
Thanks for any continuation of this most excellent 'verse.
VERY interesting take on futuristic Earth rebuilding. Carlson's got a point; the Koridost did all that damage to Earth seemingly without even trying. And while Earth's tech has gone ahead leaps and bounds since then, there's no reason to believe the Koridost also haven't been advancing in the meantime. And if they're an intergalactic or even just high-end interstellar, Earth can kiss its ass goodbye.
Also... they have all that tech, but they still don't have self driving cars? We have that shit today!
Oh no, Nova!
Lovely little short. Always love to see more of this amazing, amazing universe.
Hmm, wonder what her daughters are deities of...
5779490
If you haven't read it yet, Chaotic Touch of Harmony: The life and times of teenage Alicorns is a story that takes place between the previous book and now. While LAP isn't the author of it, he is one of the editors. It answers your question a bit -- a bit, since it's not that kind of story and not even the main stories really answers that in terms of Alexia herself.
Violet's cutie mark image is called "Body", Aurora's cutie mark image is called "Mind", and Alexia's passive magic worked on the soul aka the spirit, so it's probably a play on the phrase "Mind, Body, and Spirit". What that actually means is anyone's guess.
Hey, can you source that image in the description? It's in the "Edit" menu.
http://techgnotic.deviantart.com/art/Speedpaint-Future-City-58452645
5777343
Hey, thanks. I'm still working out exactly what I'd want to do of course, but when I reach the limits of what I can work out independently I'll be asking for some input.
Two questions you'll definitely be asked about is Equestria-Terra interactions (gonna have to know this to see where the limits of keeping things canon would be. At this moment I'm actually assuming no travel/physical trade between the two worlds except in special circumstances like diplomacy. Only free exchange of ideas. Heck, knowing if there is the equivalent of an internet connection between the two worlds would be a major thing to know), and why Twilight's portal spell isn't being used in favor for this cube teleportation that apparently took awhile to get off the ground even when both ends have access to magic.
On this chapter, I'm a bit confused because of how its written: Is Nova being around a recent thing or has she been around for years?
Based on these comments:
I wouldn't qualify 18 as being young, but the way Alexia lectured made it seem kinda recent.
5777172 If she does become a Pegasus, I hope she is white and named Surprise
5784046
Nova's been in Trinity for 5 years, although much of her animosity towards her parent herd is colored through Loki's memories and those awakening memories made her a highly confused child. Beyond that, I'm going to leave her backstory to the story itself.
All though I will say this Nova's personality will become increasingly dominate over Loki's memories the longer she stays around Alexia or any other soul-forge member.
5780903
done
5777071
Would it have been a bigger suprise if she was a pegasus?
5779490
Tacos and Chimichangas
5785347 My thoughts exactly.
I love seeing that this is continuing because I really do love the 'slice of life' parts of this series. Also, who's Hanz Welerson? Was he/she a character from the pervious stories or side stories or he/she just a random name?
I'm a bit late to the party, but it is nice to see this universe continuing. Eager to see where you take us, my captain!
A nice way to wipe some of the slate while still keeping it familiar.
Magic! Yay!
That should be "who's".
It's nice to see more up, and I hope some more questions get answered.
Yes... YES! YEEEEEESSSSSS!!!!!
5786622
I'm pretty sure it's a random name. The point of the announcement wasn't his death so much as the last pony in the world who remembers the war (first generation) besides Alexia (and apparently Nova now). Every pony afterwards was a foal at that time, or was born afterwards. No one else in the world remembers the war.
The age, 165, I assume he was around 60~65 years old when he was transformed, and lived another 100~105 years afterwards.
well its good but not a good place to start a 3rd book given how almost every character from the last 2 are now dead i think it would be much better if this was after the Koridost promptly had their ass handed to them or something i just think the 100 year jump is a bad place to start for a 3rd story it would be like starting mass effect 1 and the skiping 2 it would be very confusion and well feels like we've missed a lot (another example would be halo 1 to 4)
other then that the only real problems i have with this are somethis short story had of the "facts" it has mainly 2/3rds of the population wiped out sure not everyone has a gun and the mions spread like the plague but still 2 billion survivors....the other thing would be the death of EVERY royal family in the world i mean really the uk would have had the queen in a bunker at least as soon as the Washington siege and might as well add japan Sweden and Saudi Arabia's royal family as well it is Very unlikly they all would die
sooo ya good start couple of logical (from my view) problems but good will continue to read
Nice too see you haven't lost your charm over this series. I'm aware the "Changling" books are of a higher piority (hell, i'm overjoyed when i see one update), but this has been very good aswell. This series is one of the few dark fanfics I've been able to get into properly compared to many.
These stories are a gem, and are just as good as the Hive books. My only gripe is grammar issues, but I usually just ignore those anyway
5807779
The Queen in the UK isn't that much respected; probably some form of bunker, but i'd expect that either in this fic her family's significance have been downplayed in the media to what it actually is, or Alex just knows :P
With other nations, who knows how it happened. Certain tyrannical regimes must have been utterly slaughtered, or consumed into larger ones.
Overall, loved the first chapter! Took me a while to get to it, but ooooh, happy thoughts... And... Sad thoughts. The thought of Conrad or Crimson dying as Alex watches...
...At least Loki keeping her old memories softens the blow a little ;) Still, I feel like re-reading the old fics (For the... third? Fourth time now? xD)... CToH has always been my favorite fanfic, on par with the show even, it's a shame to see the end of their old forms... But, I suppose that the new ones are here to stay, and we'll grow to love them if (PLEASSEEEE, I BEG~) you continue. :Teary-eyed-smile:
This is off to a great start, can't wait to see more.
5974971
Where exactly did you come up with something like that? Elizabeth the 2nd is one of the most well-respected royal figures in the world today. She's survived through two major wars and numerous smaller ones, not to mention holding the reins of the third largest super power in the world.
Don't go basing the value of the Crown of England on other Heads of State. The UK is one of the oldest nations in this world, and speaking as a loyal American, I'm glad it is. This nation wouldn't be a nation if it wasn't for the UK. The Queen garners more respect than U.S. presidents ever will, not to mention the fact that she has a higher level of power. One whole branch of British Parliament is under her control; the House of Lords.