Rebirth
Prince Shining Armor awoke, well rested, with the rising sun. Sleeping on a shaking train had never been an issue for him. Weeks of survival training in the thick forests and mountains hardened a stallion, even when one's life later became soft with the amenities of royalty.
The train wagon he was in was one such perk. Its lavish decorations and soft pillows rivaled the most luxurious of hotels, while those under his command slept next to each other in tight bunks. Doubtless, many of his troops had stayed awake during their nightly journey, and Shining couldn’t blame them. The tabloids in the Crystal Empire were less intrusive and sensationalistic than their Canterlot counterparts, yet even they had written endlessly about the turmoil outside of their borders.
The crystal ponies themselves had remained nearly unaffected by the disaster. They already lived beneath the safety of a magical shield, and the loss of the stars wasn't even noticeable beneath their artificial dome. When the train left home, many crystal guards stuck their heads out of the windows to gape openly at the pitch-black sky, as their eyes trailed the drifting comets above.
Shining only had time to stretch and pour himself a glass of water from a pitcher, when a frantic knocking on his door ruined his morning ritual.
”Come in,” he called.
His first lieutenant peeked in.
”Sire,” the stallion began, visibly shaken.
”What is it?” Shining asked. ”Have we reached Canterlot already?”
”Y-yes, Sire. I mean, no, Sire.”
Shining had never seen the pegasus this rattled before. ”What's wrong?”
”Sire, we passed the mountain, and Canterlot just came into view, but you’ll need to see this to believe it.”
Shining nodded and motioned the stallion to take point into the next wagon, which was buzzing with activity. The crystal guards inside were either frantically talking about ’aliens’ or scurrying around the windows on the south side.
Shining’s lieutenant pushed past them, yelling. “Make way for the Prince!”
Some obeyed the commander while others were too caught up in the moment. Shining didn’t know what to think and nudged away a guard from the nearest window to see for himself.
It was a massive spaceship, floating a mile above one of the great lakes adjacent to Canterlot. It appeared stationary for the moment, but large objects could be seen dropping from the ship into the water below.
“What are your orders?” the lieutenant said and gulped audibly.
Shining Armor didn’t know what to say. There were no scenarios in any of the military textbooks to guide him in this situation. He opened his mouth to reply but closed it again when he saw an incoming train on the opposite tracks heading north. Its rapid speed made it evident that they were moving as fast as the engine could handle.
The incoming train blocked his vision of the spaceship, and though its speed made it difficult to see, he noticed that the passengers were the young and elderly.
Oh, sweet Celestia. They’re evacuating the city.
The train passed, and his vision of the city returned. Shining squinted to see what the objects falling from the ship and into the water were, and he realized that the ship’s damage was so severe that loose parts of it were falling off.
”Sire?”
Another train could be seen speeding out of the city walls, while some of the pegasus inhabitants simply flew through gaps in the city’s shield and over its walls.
“Tell the train driver; full speed ahead,” Shining said and was about to turn away to address his guards when something moved in his peripheral vision. Some of the pegasus civilians above the city decided to fly towards the alien spaceship instead of fleeing. The fools were getting themselves into grave danger.
“Belay that order,” Shining bellowed loud enough to silence all other talks in the wagon. “I want every single pegasus to debark and rescue those ponies. Get them away from the spaceship by any means necessary!”
Angels, demons, and erratic gods: the planet was brimming with an abundant diversity of intelligent life, far beyond what Helena believed possible. The full picture of this world was unraveling in her mind. Magic: it was the machination binding it all together. It shaped the creatures of this world to a higher state of being, naturally and without any human direction.
The powers it imparted to each creature were limited to the wielder’s mental capacity, though the ability to bend massive amounts of magic to your will didn’t necessarily correlate with a high intellect. Magic was a physical entity, unlike what the ponies believed, and wielding it depended on the limitations of the flesh.
Helena had none of those restrictions, and yet she was hesitant to allow such a dangerous entity fully into her system. If proven necessary, however, the limits of her control would likely be endless. It was one of the many reasons you'd never find such a system outside of this isolated world.
There was another piece of the puzzle: the ponies. They played their part in someone else's grand scheme without realizing it, a balancing force to maintain the world’s stability and prevent any one race from achieving dominance over the others. The mastermind behind this world must have seen their potential as peacekeepers and uplifted several of them into the species they called alicorns.
”How? You’ve been doing nothing but reading since we entered the library!” Twilight complained.
Helena returned to normal time. She had to admit she’d taken a liking to the young princess that followed and challenged her every move. It was useful sometimes to have assistance; even if it was an unknowing and unwilling one.
To answer Twilight’s question, Helena pointed out the window, and the mare raised an eyebrow before trotting off to take a look outside. Helena’s ship should be visible in the distance, and it wouldn’t take long until it reached the city.
It had been a gamble for Helena to establish an open connection with her ship. If her opponent hadn’t known Helena’s location beforehand, they certainly did now. Still, she trusted her ship would provide sufficient protection against further attacks. The drones had done an excellent job these last few days in getting the ship's weapon systems and propulsion to adequate efficiency.
The search through the library had confirmed some of her fears. In pony history, they often mentioned how stars would disappear for brief periods of time. The ponies believed it to be a cosmic phenomenon of sorts, blocking the light they emanated, but Helena more than suspected that there was another reason. Machines deployed in deep space required frequent maintenance, and the weaponized platforms were no exception. They’d undoubtedly need to be replaced on occasion, and this was evidence that there were automated factories, likely hidden within clusters of asteroids, capable of replicating them.
If the situation escalated into a surface-to-space battle, she’d have to make sure that the ship’s counter-batteries responded before anything reached the exosphere. Helena didn’t know if her opponent would allow the weapons to devastate the surface, but she didn’t intend to take any chances.
“Oh, horseapples,” Twilight said, and turned away from the window to pace back and forth on the library floor. “No, no, no.”
Helena observed the alicorn trot around in circles. Twilight’s mane and tail were in a rough state, and it was apparent she suffered from fatigue. Helena pondered whether it wouldn’t be best if she put the pony to sleep for a few hours. Then she realized what might be worrying the mare so.
“The ponies camped outside my ship were unharmed,” Helena said, as she searched for the next book. She had narrowed the list of suspects to a select few individuals, and it wouldn’t be long until she had sufficient information to resume the hunt.
Twilight stopped in her tracks, ears fully perked and aimed in Helena’s direction.
“How can you possibly know that?” Twilight asked.
Helena allowed herself a minute to answer questions. “My ship informed me of the situation.”
The explanation seemed to calm Twilight, who appeared incapable of deciding if she should continue the conversation or gallop out the door.
“There is one issue,” Helena said. “Five of your ponies were inside the ship at launch.”
“What!” Twilight said, hastily trotting all the way up to Helena’s side. “Who? Are they okay?”
Helena hesitated. The next book on her list might be the one to solve the mystery finally, and the pony’s questions were unimportant in the grand scheme of things. However, the presence of her ship allowed her some leeway.
“Two pegasi guards, a pale unicorn in dark robes—”
”Keeper!” Twilight interrupted. ”What is he doing in there?”
”Stealing my kitchenware,” Helena answered, amused by the camera feed she received from the ship. ”Together with a pink earth pony and a rainbow colored pegasus.”
”Those are my friends,” Twilight said and placed a hoof on Helena’s leg. ”Please, they didn’t mean to trespass. We were only searching for any injured inside.”
“I don’t mind,” Helena replied. “My ship decided it was safer to lock them inside my old recreation area, and they’ll have to stay there until my work here is complete.”
Twilight’s eyes widened. “Are they safe? What will they eat? What if they hurt themselves?”
Helena allowed herself a final moment of distraction. “I will allocate a drone to see to their needs. They’re not my first guests.”
Twilight asked a few more questions, which Helena pointedly ignored. She would waste away the entire day if she indulged in the mare’s endless questions, and the next book, A Brief Encounter with The Changeling Hive, showed promise. There were other ways to maintain the balance in the world besides pretending to be an immortal saint. One could also be a significant threat, preferably strong enough to keep the races united against a common adversary.
Queen Chrysalis could be the one Helena sought. The ability to shapeshift and drain love sounded absurd and worthy of further investigation. The author of the book claimed it was not uncommon for changelings to temporarily replace ponies to spy and attain the love that they fed on, then alter the memories of their captive to make it seem as if nothing had happened.
These attributes were unlike any other, so much so that they almost acted as a beacon to attract her attention. The location of the hive was yet unknown, and there were only speculations that it existed beneath the surface of an area called The Badlands.
Helena doubted a changeling’s disguise would be able to fool her senses, and if she met a sufficient amount of ponies, she might stumble upon one by accident. It would be easy then, to have it share its secret.
Helena blinked. Why was she considering stalking ponies? She had access to her ship and could easily comb the desert with its scanners. A quick request later revealed two settlements: one large, situated around a spiral structure, and a lesser one below ground.
“What were you thinking?”
Helena resumed time. Twilight, with her teeth firmly clenched, glared up at Helena.
“Do you even realize what’s happening out there?” Twilight said, and pointed a hoof toward the window.
Helena didn’t need to move. Her ship had reached its destination and taken a position above a lake. There had been a brief moment of danger, when she detected two powerful magical signals transferred from the castle to the sun and moon. Helena’s ship responded by training its main batteries on the castle, though she quickly dismissed it as just another foolish quirk of this world. The claim that the princesses could move planetary objects was unfounded. In all likelihood, they merely maintained a strong enough signal to activate the mechanism that allowed the system to remain in stable orbit.
She’d encountered many types of stellar engineering during her travels, and in her ship’s data vaults, there likely existed designs to build different varieties of megastructures. Most of these stellar constructs served little to no purpose, as no civilization needed the enormous energy from a Dyson Sphere to function. Instead, their use was relegated to containing dying stars, in an attempt to keep the eventual supernovae explosion from ruining the atmosphere of nearby inhabited worlds.
The visual feed from her ship displayed images of pegasi flying away from Canterlot, though some were brave enough to take a closer inspection of the ship. The latter soon became a problem. There were still many significant gaps in her ship that a flying pony might be able to enter through, and she didn’t need the distraction of any more stowaways. A gray mare with a blond mane even landed atop of one of the missile bays and bumped its camera with her nose.
She considered firing a warning shot to discourage further interlopers, but it proved unnecessary. Pegasus guards, wearing both silver and golden armor, were rounding up those who ventured too close to the ship. Most complied and obediently returned to the city, while others had to be caught and forcefully removed.
There was an equal amount of chaos in the city. The feed showed streets packed with ponies, most pointing to the sky while others stood in lines to board over-packed trains set to leave the city.
“It seems you are evacuating,” Helena began. “An unnecessary process. This city is now the world’s safest place.”
”How can you say such things without seeing it for yourself?” Twilight stomped a hoof in frustration. “How am I supposed to manage this mess... And who gave the order to carry out the evacuation?”
Helena, about done with the library, walked passed Twilight, who, surprisingly, tried to stop her by biting down on the edge of the dress.
“Stop that,” Helena said, looking backward.
”No,” Twilight said, through clenched teeth, ”not until you tell us your plans!”
Helena chose to ignore the alicorn and continued forward, dragging the pony behind her despite its efforts to brake with all four hooves.
There was a fair distance from here to the hive, and though she still possessed a few undamaged shuttles in the hangar bays, the downside of those vehicles was that they were easily traceable. Another route would be to leave the ponies behind, have the main ship remain stationary near Canterlot, and make her way on foot.
She decided on the latter plan. It was a bold and unpredictable move.
The pony continued losing the tug-of-war; luckily, the dress wasn't made out of regular material. Helena made it to the entrance of the library when the doors opened to reveal Princess Celestia, with an eyebrow raised at the struggling Twilight.
“Am I interrupting?” Celestia asked.
”My work here is done,” Helena said and retook control of her dress with a quick jerk as Twilight slackened her grip at the sight of the taller princess. ”I am leaving.”
The statement didn’t seem to faze Celestia. ”Where are you going?”
“It is none of your concern,” Helena said, politely but firmly.
Helena was about to walk past Celestia when she said something unexpected.
“I know how to help you find the one you seek.”
That caught Helena’s attention. “Explain.”
“If you would walk with me, I will show you,” Princess Celestia said, and changed her focus to Twilight. The young mare smiled guiltily in return. “It’s time for you to take a break and go rest, Twilight.”
“Celestia, I’m not that tired,” Twilight said, with one eye twitching lightly. “I can still help.”
“Very well,” Celestia said, frowning. “But don’t think I won’t order the guards to tuck you in if necessary.”
“It won’t come to that,” Twilight replied, and trotted in between Helena and Celestia with fake vigor. “Was it really necessary to evacuate?”
“I didn’t give the order,” Celestia said.
“Then who did?”
“No one. A guard panicked and sounded the alarm, and now it’s irrevocable,” Celestia explained and turned her head up to Helena. “I trust the pilot of your spaceship will behave around my subjects?”
“Wait, Stonewielder said you came here alone,” Twilight noted, and rubbed a hoof beneath her chin. “Then who is piloting the ship?”
Helena stayed at their side as the two conversed. Guards were lining the corridors, though she didn’t see Captain Stonewielder among them. The shove she gave him wasn’t nearly enough to hospitalize him, so the likely explanation was that he commanded the pegasi that were in the process of erecting an aerial blockade around her ship.
“The ship only responds to attacks it deems dangerous,” Helena said as they walked along the hall. “You claimed earlier not to know who created this world?”
There was a short growl from Twilight. The mare really did not like being ignored.
“I do not,” Celestia said, and set the pace arbitrarily slow. It was an obvious ploy to increase the length of the conversation. “But some of the ancient artifacts we found might. I only ask in return that you promise not to harm anyone during your stay here.”
“I have often had to choose to harm a few to save many,” Helena replied, and gave Twilight a stern glare. The mare had been about to open her mouth and ask another one of her endless questions, but the intimidation worked as the mare snapped her mouth shut. “I can only promise you that I would never needlessly put them in harm's way.”
Celestia let out a sigh. “That will do for now,” she said. “If you explained to us why you need to find this ‘creator,’ we might be better able to help you.”
Twilight had asked Helena that question more than once, and the purple mare's ears went fully erect. Helena had never given the whole truth to why she was here. Still, she knew that any answers given would only serve to raise more questions.
“You only need to know that they are responsible for heinous crimes,” Helena said. It wasn't a lie. Installing automatic weapons in space to ambush travelers was a severe crime by every human standard, regardless of the era and civilization.
“Crimes?” Celestia asked as they turned a corner into a different hallway. “You mentioned something about ‘weapons in orbit,’ but I don’t understand how a spear floating around in space could hurt anyone.”
“Maybe it wasn’t spears, but plasma cannons,” Twilight said, mainly to herself.
The two ageless beings at her side looked down at her in disbelief. Judging by the blush spreading across her face, Twilight must not have meant to say it out loud.
“Plasma is only used to cut through industrial metals and asteroids,” Helena said as the group stopped at a nearby door. Celestia motioned Helena to go in first.
Helena entered a meeting room, with a large round table at the center where a white orb floated motionlessly above the surface. Its exterior was smooth and featureless, making it difficult to estimate what function the machine served.
Both princesses stopped near the door and followed Helena with interest. The orb, however, appeared oblivious to their presence.
“The artifact spoke to us on the day of the great disaster,” Celestia said. “But we haven't been able to communicate with it since.”
Helena frowned and approached it with confident steps. The orb remained idle until she placed a hand on it.
Time stopped entirely the moment Helena’s skin made contact with the machine. The defenses within Helena’s body lashed out and attacked the orb's systems all at once, seeking to take full control of it. The sphere registered the attack and tried to counter the intrusion with its own defenses. Helena could do little but analyze the ensuing battle as it was waged within a few milliseconds of real time.
The machine quickly realized that it was outmatched and, with the knowledge of its inevitable defeat, began to cleanse its databanks to deny Helena the information she sought. When Helena finally breached its central computer to change its ownership to hers, most of the information was already gone.
What little remained was nothing more than scrambled data from the far past. Helena's mind had to reassemble it back into functioning pieces until the images were clear enough for her to see, but most were of little importance. Then she found what she sought.
Helena saw through the lens of the machine an event a hundred thousand years in the past. The sphere hovered at the back end of the deck of a spaceship, and in front of the window display stood a lone man, peering out at the space outside: the architect of this world.
Hundreds of automated construction ships were working at clearing away the nebulae to make enough room for the solar system. The man, tall and slim, wore an elaborate white uniform with red markings on the belt and shoulder. His hair was black, and he sported a trimmed goatee.
The image flickered, and now they were inside the same ship at a different time. Space outside had been hollowed out to a much higher degree, and there was a barren world orbiting a star. The same human was there, staring at the outside with a hand pressing against the window.
Helena was unable to recreate any more recordings, and it seemed like another dead end. Then, she stumbled upon a name; a name used both in the human and pony language, which was mentioned several times throughout pony history. The connection couldn’t possibly be a coincidence. If the stories were real, her prey was close, very close.
She returned to normal time and removed her hand from the orb. The orb, now ordered to fly up to her ship and remain idle in one of its cargo bays, floated toward the exit and in-between the two princesses, who stared at it in astonishment.
“Wait, what just happened?” Twilight asked. “Was that thing yours all along?”
Helena ignored the alicorns' questioning looks and turned toward another exit leading in the direction of the royal garden. With a burst of speed, she pushed through the double doors with enough force that they tore from their hinges. Not missing a step, Helena rushed past a group of stunned guards on the other side, jumping over one that blocked her path, then continued through a hallway until arriving at a two-way intersection. Instead of turning, she jumped again out of a central window and into the open air.
Helena landed several feet below on well-maintained grass, followed by the third jump over a hedge. The garden area was large and contained several statues and small lakes stretching along the inner walls of the castle. Helena stopped when she reached the area described in the books, a round patch of grass surrounding a lone pedestal.
The statue she searched for, however, was missing. Only the marble and mismatched parts of a reptile and equine foot remained. The escape must have been recent, as the latest information in the library had only been a few years old.
Helena stared down at the broken pieces. Her opponent had once more eluded her, and a signal from her vessel notified Helena that the ship was priming its weapons systems. Hostile platforms were activating near the outer rim of the system, and the ship deemed that a counter-offensive against her position could be imminent.
Pegasus guards landed one by one at the edge of the clearing, followed by the two princesses. The surprise they both expressed at finding Helena in this particular clearing was telling.
”Where is he?” Helena asked.
Luna lay restless in bed. Logic dictated that she used this time to regain her strength, and with her skills, it would be an easy feat to fall asleep. But something gnawed at the back of her mind. It was still early in the morning, yet who knew what chaos the alien was spreading among her subjects.
She threw away the bedsheets and shuffled over to the balcony.
The sun shone brightly up in the sky, and Celestia would likely chide her later for lowering the moon in her condition. Despite having promised not to strain herself, Luna felt a compulsion to reach outwards. She didn’t fully understand what compelled her to do so, almost as if her unconscious mind knew something that her conscious parts did not.
Luna sat on her hind legs and peered through the morning light, searching for the source of the strange sensation. The dim view of a comet was the sole oddity in the sky, but that only reminded her of the loss she had felt on that accursed day. No, something else called to her, far beyond the veil. Magic flowed into her horn, and she channeled it into the depths of space.
Emptiness greeted her. A once vibrant gathering of constellations reduced to nothingness, and yet her instincts screamed at her to keep searching. Power surged through her horn, reaching an amount that would be considered perilous by most unicorns.
And then she found it. A faint, far away echo welcomed her. It was like embracing a lost friend you never expected to see again, and as her magic approached the source, two more greeted her presence.
Luna felt tears flow uncontrollably down her face, and despite the swelling in her cheek, she smiled broadly at the miracle she witnessed.
The stars, they’re returning.
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Looks like the stars are back for a rematch.
Luna: "Oh Mah stars!"
Wait, so her first reaction to finding a control node that might give her answers to her questions... is to try and hack it and almost lose what she was there to find and steal what's left?
I just- okay, it's consistent with her character so far, but her sheer mind boggling arrogance and lack of empathy for those actually living on this world just doesn't seem to stop amazing me. Maybe Discord (our lord creator!) can pound some sense into her. I mean when even he starts making more sense than Helena, you know you've strayed far off the path of sanity.
Glad to know that Luna's stars have self repair routines though.
8906161
I’m not certain you can fault Helena this time. The orb belonged to someone that wanted to blow up her ship afterall, and even asking it nicely might’ve resulted in a hostile response.
Side note: I know the upvote/downvote system is a form of moral support but there's no reason to downvote people just for disagreeing in a debate. It just makes me look like an ass since you can't see who is doing the downvoting.
Anyhoo:
8906285
It's more that she doesn't even try, nor consider the potential consequences to this world and its people for breaking and stealing it. For all her talk of wanting to protect the people, she doesn't really seem to understand the consequences of her actions. Like how she's completely surprised that people are panicking when her spaceship is hovering over the city. She can think fast enough to leisurely decide what to do about the bullet speeding towards her head, but she can't really apply that to other people.
High INT, low WIS so to speak.
8906511
High INT low WIS is a pretty good way of putting it, yeah.
A lot of people seem to have taken issue with Helena as a protagonist, but I think it's interesting to see how different characters and archetypes do in Equestria.
Unfortunately, the level of self-contradiction and scientific gibberish has become actively painful. It's like reading about a group of "expert biologists" who can't find any differences between a goldfish and a redwood tree - and it simply doesn't have the depth of characterization for it to get along without worthwhile ideas. That's too bad. The idea had potential - but it's time to drop this.
8909189
Aight, sad to see you go. Though, I'd like to note that there will likely only be either a long chapter to wrap things up or two more before the story is set to complete.
As for the sci-fi tech, I did throw in a lot of random stuff in here this chapter (maybe too much). Can't say I found anything too contradictory? The brief mention that humans could build megastructures was mostly to point out that stellar engineering was possible but rarely used, and since the tech level in the galaxy is in a constant flux I think it would be safe to assume that only a select few could actually construct them. The human that 'cleared' the nebula had nearly unlimited time so that should be possible, and Helena being able to hack machines shouldn't be that far out there. Was there anything else I missed?
figured it was dissy all along. he did, suspiciously 'leave' at the start. also, i don't think they're returning. i think someone is doing something.