Chapter 19
They recognised this place. The memory that they had just entered was taking place in Princess Celestia’s bedroom, completely identical to the memory of it that took place a thousand years prior. It was late in the morning, and Princess Celestia was lying on her bed, looking very tired. She eventually managed to drag herself out of bed and let out a yawn.
‘She looks exhausted’, Dizzy said as they watched Princess Celestia cross the room to her private bath, she turned on the water at the washbasin and allowed it to fill completely, before she splashed some water on her face.
‘Not sleeping well, are we Celestia?’ a tinny, metal voice called out from behind her, causing the princess to jump in surprise. Kelso watched as one of Emerald Sparkle's spritebots materialised from thin air. Princess Celestia opened her mouth and was about ready to call for her guards when the voice continued. 'Don’t even bother, call for the guards and I’ll be gone before the words even escape your lips'.
Celestia turned around slowly and looked at her ‘guest’ and was clearly surprised to discover what had invaded her private bath. ‘A robot?’ Celestia asked. ‘There have been no robots in Equestria in nearly a thousand years!’
‘I can understand why you would think that. Unfortunately, you are stupid for thinking it. Your little pogrom against technology hasn’t worked nearly as well as you hoped. I, and the Cultus Mechanicus should have made that perfectly clear to you’.
‘I will not stand here and be insulted in my own bedroom!’ Celestia said hotly. ‘Who are you!? You have a lot to answer for!’
‘Stupid indeed. Is it not obvious to you? That I should disappear one day without even the slightest trace? I really wouldn’t have been that hard to find if you had really wanted to’.
Celestia looked over the robot intensely for a moment before it dawned on her who she was speaking to. ‘Emerald?’ she asked.
‘Nice to see you too, bitch, hope you enjoy today, because today is the last day that you are ever going to be in power’.
Celestia was taken aback by the words of her former friend who she had thought to be long dead. ‘Emerald... What happened to you?’ she asked, her voice filled with worry as she carefully stepped forward towards the spritebot.
‘Oh you know, the usual story, filly gets raped in a dark alleyway in the middle of the night, gets pregnant, has foal, is forced to abandon said foal on some stranger’s doorstep because princess of the universe decides that she is going to destroy everything that Equestrian society needs to prosper, and puts herself in stasis so that she can save the world, not that you would care about any of that, all you care about is what you want, always has been, always will be’.
‘Emerald... I... I don’t know what to say...’ Celestia said, while the voice through the spritebot’s loudspeakers was artificial, monotone, and without emotion, she could tell that Emerald Sparkle was angry from word choice alone. ‘I just tried to do what was right...’
‘Oh, you did what was right! Right for you! Damn you Celestia, do you know how close we were? We were THIS close to civil nuclear power. Clean, cheap energy for everypony! And it wouldn’t have stopped there. A thousand years went by, and we went back in time, only to get back to the place that we were at. A thousand years wasted because of you. Well, enjoy this day, because it will be the last one you see. Because when we meet again, I will kill you’.
‘Emerald...’ Princess Celestia began; however, Emerald Sparkle did not stick around to speak with her further. The spritebot disappeared into thin air, and was nowhere to be found. Celestia glanced around, making sure that she wasn’t hallucinating.
'Announcing your intentions to your enemy', Hopely said with a frown. 'That’s a bold move and not something that you do unless you're ready to play your hand'.
Kelso nodded her head in agreement. 'Emerald Sparkle's about to make her attempt'.
...
As they entered a new memory, this one in the centre of Ponyville, they could tell that things were off. As they landed the earth beneath their hooves began to shake, and they all struggled to keep their balance.
‘An earthquake!?’ Kelso cried out.
‘Impossible! There are no fault lines for hundreds of kilometres!’ Sparky cried out in response.
They looked up and saw themselves standing in front of what was obviously a bakery, decorated as if it was a gingerbread house. The ground beneath the building shook wildly and cracked, eventually faltering completely. The building collapsed as the ground began to move apart. Large steel doors pushed the rubble away and opened up a large chasm. Ponyville had been built on top of the Everfree Plains Missile Base’s launch silo.
What launched from the silo, however, was not a missile like they had been expecting, rather, a horde of Emerald Sparkle’s spritebots ascended into the air in a cloud of fluid metal; they rose high, passing before the sun as if it were some twisted version of a solar eclipse. The spritebots ignored Ponyville however, and the metal cloud turned its attention towards Canterlot, descending on the capital city.
The threat was not ended there, as a large ringed cargo lift rose to the top of the silo. Sparky’s jaw dropped wide open as she saw what was on it. More robots, and worse still, it was a design that she recognised from the same dream that she had first seen the spritebots in. The robots had a large body with thick armour plating, with two manipulator arms jaunting out from each side, built into each was a submachine gun on the right arm, and either a grenade launcher or flamethrower on the left. The centre mass held a small television screen, displaying which was the imposing, and disconcertingly friendly looking, image of Emerald Sparkle, and the robots rolled around on a tracked wheelbase.
These were Emerald Sparkle’s soldiers. These were the EPMB Combots.
...
‘Shining Armour! Be careful!’ a mare’s voice cried out.
The scene had changed to the streets of Canterlot. Kelso clutched her head in pain as she fell to the ground, the rapid scene changes were getting worse, and becoming more frequent.
‘Kelso!’ Viola cried out, quickly rushing to her partner’s side.
‘I’m okay...’ Kelso said as she pushed herself back up to her hooves. Her head was killing her, she felt as if someone had taken a hammer and mashed it against her skull to give her the worst migraine she had ever had, this was starting to take its toll upon her, when it was all said and done, Kelso didn’t know if she was going to have enough strength to get out of the Ghastly Gorge Industrial Complex on her own four hooves, or if Viola and Hopely would have to drag her out.
Kelso turned to watch the focus of the memory, though it was difficult to determine what it exactly was. The streets of Canterlot were highly chaotic and disorganised. The residents of the city fled from the spritebot strafing runs. Members of the Royal Guard engaged in a highly disorganised and ineffective resistance to the flying horde before them, and the escort troops of the World Leaders Conference weren’t doing much better, a section of schäferhund soldiers turned their weapons towards the sky, peering through the zeroing sight on their storm harnesses to try and hit any spritebot that they could, as their tank rolled along besides them, firing high explosive shells into the air to disrupt the flight patterns of the attacking spritebots.
In front of them, standing back to back were two ponies, a unicorn stallion, dressed in the armour of the Royal Guard, the other, was a pink coated mare with both a unicorn’s horn and a set of pegasi wings. Both of them levitated long swords besides their heads, and took a moment to swing, and usually miss, any spritebot that happened to get close.
The mare however swung and caught a lucky break, hacking off a spritebot’s wing and causing it to crash into the ground. ‘Ha! That’s five! How many have you gotten Shining Armour?’
The unicorn stallion mumbled something inaudible, even to the passive observers, who were just as close to them as they were to each other.
‘What was that?!’ the mare cried out.
‘Three’, the stallion repeated with a huff as he swung at another spritebot that attempted to strafe him, smashing it between the eyes with the sharp edge of his sword. ‘Make that four’.
‘You’re going to have to do better than that! Captain of the Royal Guard!’ the mare said taking another swing, clipping the wings of another spritebot as it fluttered rapidly trying to stay afloat, the mare was unimpressed and finished it off with a quick roundhouse kick, sending it flying into a nearby building and smashing to bits.
‘Cadence... I love you, but I am not above tossing you off the mountain!’ the unicorn stallion identified as Shining Armour said with annoyance.
‘I have wings!’ Cadence responded as she hacked at another spritebot, sending it crashing into the ground at her hooves, and giving it a hard kick, sending it flying into the side armour of the nearby schäferhund tank.
‘And I have a sword sharp enough to hack them off!’ Shining Armour replied.
Cadence couldn’t help but smirk. Her head turned up as a full squadron of spritebots dove upon them, clearly discovering the value of these two targets, they had changed their tactics of just sending in one at a time. ‘Shining Armour! Look out!’ she cried out as she leapt at her companion, pushing him out of the way as the spritebots passed over them, firing their submachine guns at full speed.
Shining Armour hit the ground hard, but he quickly jumped back up to his hooves and turned towards her. ‘Cadence!’ he cried out. The mare was bleeding.
‘I’m okay!’ Cadence cried out as she picked herself up. ‘Just a graze!’ she said, reassuring him. Her eyes turned back to the sky as the squadron of spritebots turned back around. ‘We need to go!’ she cried out as she pulled him along. They took off running, as the spritebots increased speed to match them. ‘They must have figured out who we are!’ she cried out.
‘And here I thought our wedding was rough!’ Shining Armour cried out as he turned around to look. As the spritebots were getting closer, the two ponies increased speed, making it harder for Kelso and company to keep up, they rounded a corner and nearly collided head long with a group of pegasi clad in tan uniforms, and they were the escort troops of the cheval delegation. The cheval were a race of pegasi ponies hailing from the continent Europa, and while they were similar in appearance to Equestrian pegasi, they are completely unrelated.
‘Tomber!’ the leader of the cheval, a brown coated pegasus armed with a bolt action rifle cried out. Cadence and Shining Armour needed no further encouragement, and dropped down to the ground. ‘Tirez vos armes!’ the cheval shouted as the soldiers surrounding them discharged their weapons in a hail of gunfire, sending the spritebots hurdling into the ground.
Cadence looked up at their saviour and gave him a small scowl. ‘Cheval...’ she hissed at the pony before her.
‘Oui mademoiselle!’ the cheval said nodding his head, ignoring the annoyance in her voice. ‘Je m'appelle Maréchal des logis-chef Dmitri Moreau’, he said, offering a hoof to the fallen mare to help her up. She refused to take it, instead getting to her hooves by her own means.
‘Your assistance is appreciated, but that doesn’t mean I have to like it’, Cadence said with a scoff.
‘Oui mademoiselle!’ Dmitri Moreau said with a nod. It was clear that he understood what she said, but didn’t particularly care. ‘Stay behind us! My men will give you cover!’
Oh, right. The whole "The Cheval overthrew her family" thing. Gotcha.
Cadence, you nationalist bh. A different aspect of the battle, nice one Wheller, I am pleased.
693437 I missed something?
A blog perchance or just a specific comment?
I knew Emerald was also blinded by her beliefs, still I'll never forgive her for what she did, no one has the right to overthrow the government by killing it's ruler just because they disagree with them!
Total badass music
Thought that was a link huh?
blog.wtfconcept.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/trololol.gif
694274
It's on Wheller's blog.
694521 Ahh, Thank you
with a huff as she swung at another - he.
Anyways, love the story still. Too bad that this stuff is getting slightly spoiled for me for when I go back and read the other stories later.
693437>>693513>>694274
Princess Cadence really does not like the cheval, and frankly, so do a lot of other people. The common stereotype of the cheval is that they're imperialistic warmongers who aren't above manipulating the events of the nations around them to suit their own needs, and while their empire was never nearly as large as the welarans, the cheval imperialism is often seen as having been worse and more damaging. This has put them into conflict with pretty much every nation on the continent Europa at some point or another, but they've had their biggest problems with the schäferhund and the hispaña.
Hell, during the time of the Old Monarchy, there was a period of time when hispaña did not even appear on the map, when it was incorporated into the Cheval Third Republic (to become the Cheval Fourth Republic), after a devastating civil war in Hispaña between 996-999 Reign of Celestia. (7-4 Before the Republic) at the behest of the Hispaña Second Republic Government, rather than allow the country to fall under the schäferhund friendly Fascist forces under Carlos Carlo y Salgado.
694798 You seem to like real world history (good for you), and you also incorporate/assimilate it very well into your story-Congrats
(Although in real world the difference to this is: France *Cheval* never took over Republican Spain in any real way,
and (personal opinion) France has not really won or instigated (in obvious way) a war by themselves in awhile
I say personal opiinon because I know next to no French history... I regret my lack of knowledge
Edit#2: Made less potentially insulting, as well as staying accurate so far as self
695078
I know, but with our Soviet Union analogue (The Præsidium) not around yet at this time, their roll was filled by the cheval.
I make references to real world history, but things get changed to better fit the time line and advantages that certain races may have. The cheval are fliers, thus they've got a big advantage over their enemies.
695128
Oh wasn't complaining.
Although, probably in another blog, why do the Schafer-hunds need the storm harness? They sounded to be very similer to Diamond Dogs.
Spraken sie Deutch?
Please excuse the horrible spelling, and maybe the grammer-have to run an teach some Afghan's and take them out on a long patrol soon...
Also wont be able to reliably connect to internet for a few days-like I said long patrol...
I don't always enjoy teaching, but when I do it must be Afghan's, They are hilarious - Just so long as you don't have to rely on them for serious stuff,
or anything related to combat
695185
Schäferhund walk on four legs. They're a race similar to dire wolves.
Diamond Dogs aren't actually dogs, they're Gnolls, and are completely unrelated.
694327
No single person has the right to completely decimate a majority of a nation's technology just for fear of the unknown and possible corruption caused by said technology. True, it was for a noble attempt, trying to create a utopia, but at the expense of a better standard of living? That's a bit selfish, no matter how much Celestia wanted it to be for the benefit of her people. No single person should be allowed to make the choice that the majority should make. Look at the Republic now: Technologically advanced, but not in any deadly wars. True, Emerald's actions were not the best way to go about it, but to her, it was the only way to take back what Celestia 'stole' from them.
Me? Personally, my love for science and technology would leave me a bit biased, but I would find a way around a total invasion of Canterlot. Perhaps an assassination or a peaceful attempt to increase the amount of technology allowed? Meh, I'm not good with politics.
695301 Well I think Emerald COULD have tried a little harder to make some kind of deal with Celestia, she didn't HAVE to overthrow the government with a war just to try and get her point across.
Me personally I would've suggested that Emerald set up some of her own atomic power plants in some other nation and see how well they hold up and THEN perhpas present the idea of Atomic Power to Celestia AFTER she was sure it was safe, but like I said that's just me personally.
Also what happened to Luna she actually favored Atomic Power so unless Emerald wasn't in her right mind when she attacked Canterlot head on she should have no reason to go after Luna.
695411
Assuming Celestia would have listened, and that Emerald would have been able to walk away from that meeting without ending up dead or tossed into the dungeons of the royal castle. The first being more likely.
Celestia had already lost her mother, her sister banished. She wasn't about be rational.
695469 I take that means Luna was NOT banished to the moon or had not come back yet.
695469
Yet she elevates herself to a position of leadership and makes a decision that doesn't just change the lives of a town or city, but the lives of an entire country. If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen...
695411
Exactly. If I was her, I would've just done a "fuck this shit!" and gone somewhere else where my expertise would've been respected and used (kinda like when George W. Bush scared off all our scientists T_T), instead of shunned and burned from history. However, I digress: I respect Celestia at the same time as hating her. She "tried" he best to make a utopia, but all the while, she wasn't fair in her judgement. Change is the lore of life. Without it, we are but a constant variable, always following the same information our past generations shared with us, even if it's outdated. As proven in this, you can't stop advancement ANYWHERE forever. With order, there is chaos; with love, there is hate; Yin & Yang; peace and war; removing one side of the equation makes it false, and eventually, Nature WILL fix the equation...
...Shit, I just went philosophical again.
695411
Also, overthrowing a government is fun (on computer games, that is). Besides, all know Karl Marx didn't call for a violent overthrow of a government just for the sake of communism...
Well, maybe he did.
695534 W. scared off our scientists, where did you hear that, and what do you mean?
695542 Well the thing with Communism is that when the Soviet Union applied it, it fell into the hands of a dictator who abused the system thus scaring the U.S. into thinking that it was evil and had to be stopped, it took some time for the U.S. to realize that not ALL Communist governments were bad. (China and Vietnam)
I guess you can say that it was an idea that didn't have any way to safely remove those who took advantage of it, an idea that sounded good in theory but just didn't work like it was suppose to.
MUST HAVE MOAR!
great story so far and perhaps instead of killing everyone at canterlot, after gathering and advancing technology, they could have just killed/ banished Celestia
oh well, so much for that
EDIT: they being Emerald and/ or Cromwell
sorry for the dooubles post
695547
Remember stem cell research and all that? George W. Bush and a the one before or after him (forgot) put some restrictions on what scientist could do with it (cloning was also another thing they put some limits on, due to the whole Dolly the Sheep thing), and that caused a lot of great scientists to leave and go to China and other countries that allowed for their research to continue. Me? I think it was stupid. I won't go into detail, but think of stem cells as a wild-card: It can be any type of cell you want it to be. So, imagine being able to heal the impossible, such as spinal injuries and what-not. Granted, you can't just put it where you want it and say, 'reconnect to this part and connect to this part!' in this age, but down the road with many other discoveries, this could be a major scientific breakthrough.
695567
The only fallacy of Communism: Human nature contradicts it. In my opinion, it's a great idea, but the fact is, is that without Jesus (or, in case of any Atheists, someone that was actually 100% perfect) leading it, it will eventually fall into the hands of the corrupt.
695680
Giant sniper rifle with incendiary rounds and massive damage.
695721 Well like you said the research was a 'wild card' so who knows what could've become of it.
Besides W. was so focused on Foreign Policy in his adminstration that science was probably yet another thing he thought he could just leave to run on it's own, alas he was wrong. (W. you were a great governor of Texas but not so great of a president)
You seem to like your roundhouse kicks. so I wonder how It would like look like when a pony pulls one off... seems like it would seem pretty damn impressive to me. But then again I'm easily impressed... What do you think Seananners?
as always! love the chapter and story!
keep up the lovely work!
695752
By 'wild card,' I meant that stem cells could morph into any cells (nerve cells, etc.). I'd link you to Wikipedia, but that's not exactly able to be trusted (even though it links to governmental websites and such with official information), and I'm not in the mood to go looking for a great article that'd explain it easily for you. Just know that embryonic stem cells can pretty much turn into any cell in your body (immune system cells, nerve cells which make up nerve tissues, etc.), and are a very promising medical phenomenom that deserves some thought. Also, I agree with you on the governor vs. president part. You gotta admit, though: Operation Desert Storm and the call on the Persian Gulf War were smart calls on his part, not to mention he is a funny man. (I live in Texas FYI :3.)
695234 Yes! Got internet, I love Rico (because only he could make it happen)
Anyway - I now understand about Schäferhund...anatomy (seems it should be plural to me in this usage),
Thank you for clearing that up for me - makes so much more sense.
Also, incase translator (rightfully) wouldn't work,
My secondary barely related question was: Do you speak German? (Or literal translation: Speak you German?)
695987 I don't want to go into a polotical battle here but I did manage to pick up a W. bush autobiography written as he started his attempt for President and when I saw what he did as governor and the steps he took to accomplish such things as improved literacy I thought they were very good.
I guess he just didn't have as good a judgement as president, still he wasn't the WORST president we've ever had.
697006
Now don't get me started on the worst president (and no, despite Obama not being a good president, he wasn't the worst...)...
Anyway, it said you replied 2 minutes ahead of what my clock is showing... so I'm posting in the future before your future post was posted because I can apparently time-travel now.
Wait, what?
697025 Like I said I'm not looking to start a political battle here, that's not what this show is about (I konw you probably know that but well you can never be TOO careful in these situations)
697045
Kinda like showing sarcasm on the Internet, you just never know if people will catch it... xD
697048 Well o.k. let's just leave it at that before somebrony says or does something they'll REGRET.
697059
I don't get it. Did you think we were arguing? The tone of my past few comments were rather carefree, so if you thought any were poking fun at you, they weren't. Besides, you'll know if I want you to be mad or angry...
*steals your cookies*
697081 I just wanted to show that we were done with that discussion and that we wouldn't start World War III.
Any way to change the topic do you think Luna would've agreed with Emerald did even if Luna favored atomic power?
697101
Kill her sister? No. Allow for the advancement of technology? Yes.
697120 Wouldn't it be funny in an ironic way (not that I want that to happen) if Emerald killed Luna because she got mad with Emerald for killing her sister and opposed her plans for atomic power.
697152
That would be the very definition.
697246 Like I said though it's not like I want it to happen.