Interlude - Mars Ascending
“Heads up! Coming through!” Tibia’s wings rattled like little buzz saws as she sped through the Hive just under the ceiling. In tight places the clearance was still not very high, and startled changelings jumped out of her way with yelps of surprise.
“Sorry,” she’d shout over her shoulder without looking back. “Important message for King Thorax.”
The young changeling had always been seen as a bit of a daredevil, and she was one of the fastest fliers in the Hive. That had gotten her in trouble more than once since the Reformation, as well as gotten her a permanent flight ban while indoors. But where others had seen a safety hazard, Pharynx had seen the makings of a fine scout.
The distance a regular patrol could cover in three days, she could cover in one. That alone made her an asset to Hive Security if Pharynx had ever seen one.
“Halt!” Two guards, crossing their spears, denied her access to the throne room. “King Thorax is in a meeting. No interruptions.”
“Come on, guys,” Tibia said, pushing one forehoof against the weapons barring her way. “This is vitally important!”
“Like last week, when you were convinced that we were being invaded by griffons, and it turned out to be just a funny shaped cloud formation?”
Tibia stomped her hoof. “I’m not joking around here!”
“What’s with all the shouting?”
The two guards snapped to attention, as did Tibia upon recognizing the voice. “Leader of Patrols Pharynx!”
Pharynx nodded at the two guards, indicating for them to stand at ease, then looked at his young protegee. “Tibia. I’ve been told you were seen violating your no flight rule.”
“Yes, I’m sorry about that, but …”
“Now, I understand what it’s like to be young and wanting to test limits,” Pharynx began, reciting a speech he’d carefully prepared for exactly such an occasion and privately detested. But he’d promised to take responsibility for the young troublemaker when he’d taken her under his wing, so now it was time to be the responsible adult.
“Look, Captain. I’ll apologize, but speed was really …”
“But as protectors of the Hive it is our responsibility to be considerate of those around us,” he droned on relentlessly, trying to speed through the lecture as quickly as he could. He had elsewhere to be, after all. “We must set an example of …”
“CAPTAIN!” Tibia yelled, hovering off the ground to be on eye level with her superior. “I’ve seen the Red Shade!”
Pharynx abruptly stopped in his lecture, suddenly all infractions forgiven and forgotten. “Where?” he asked, summoning a map with his magic
Tibia pointed confidently to several spots on the map.
“Three separate locations?”
She nodded in confirmation.
“Come with me,” he said curtly as he stepped right into the throne room.
Tibia followed as the guards made way, and she couldn’t help but smirk at them as if to say: ‘That’s right. I’m with him.’
“Ember, I give you my word, it’s not a changeling,” Thorax was saying to the Dragon Lord who was pacing up and down the room.
“Well, it’s not a dragon! A changeling, though, can look like anything.” She snorted a small cloud of ash. “This being that came out of nowhere has been brazenly violating our borders for the past two weeks.”
“As well as ours,” Thorax pointed out. “Do you really think I’d be lying to your face about this?” he asked, the hurt in his voice evident.
“No,” she replied after a pause, passing a weary claw over her face. “But my dragons are getting antsy. They think this could be a prelude to invasion. There’s talk of hunting it down.”
“Now, hold on. I agree that some kind of unknown being stalking the border between our two nations and refusing to identify itself to patrols is a cause for concern. But aside from a few scares and broken trees, there haven’t been any serious incidents. We can’t assume they’re hostile.”
“Brother!” Pharynx called, not bothering with any formalities.
Before Thorax could answer, Ember narrowed her eyes at him. “This is a closed session. This had better be important.”
“The Shade was spotted at the Griffonian border.”
Ember turned and let loose a particularly vile curse in ancient dragon. “Where?”
“Hook Beak Pass.”
Thorax drew in his breath sharply.
“That’s not good, I take it?” Ember observed.
“Not only is it right on the border,” Pharynx explained in place of his rapidly paling brother, “it’s got significance. It was the site of our final battle with the griffons when Chrysalis was still in charge and they still had a king. We utterly annihilated them back in the day. It’s partly why Griffonstone is the garbage heap it is today.”
“Wonderful,” Ember grumbled, addressing Thorax again. “This situation was already annoying, but not unmanageable. At least Changelings and Dragons are on somewhat friendly terms. But with the Griffons involved, it’s gonna be a mess. They have no love for either of us, and they’ll think one or both of us are up to something.”
Thorax tapped his hooves together, a nervous habit Pharynx had observed in him even all the way back in their childhood. “Do we know anything else?” he finally brought himself to ask.
Pharynx nodded. “Tibia has spotted it three times.”
“You’ve seen the Red Shade?” Ember blurted.
Pharynx pushed her forward. “Go on. Tell them what you told me.”
Before Tibia could even take a breath, Ember was almost in her face. “Where was it? What does it look like? What’s it doing?”
“Uhm, I,” Tibia began, suddenly feeling very self-conscious in the face of a foreign leader. “I didn’t really get a good look at it.”
Ember growled, but Thorax laid a steadying hoof on her shoulder. “That’s alright, Tibia. Just take it slow, and tell us everything you can.”
Tibia nodded, grateful to be addressing her own, somewhat less intense, ruler instead. “I spotted the Red Shade in three different locations: Darmok Hills, Serenity Valley and Hook Beak Pass.”
“All sites of recent or ancient battles,” Pharynx added as his own observation, though if that held any significance was anybody’s guess at this point.
“And all heavily forested,” Tibia went on. “But I’d seen some broken trees earlier when I was sent to investigate other reports of sightings, so I followed those when I spotted similar patterns. They must have something to do with it. Because the trail led me to the Red Shade without fail each time. I could spot it from above. But every time I came through the tree tops, it vanished.”
“Magic?” Ember asked.
“Could be a dread maulwurf,” Thorax offered. “It could have burrowed when it saw you coming.”
Tibia shook her head. “No, it definitely wasn’t a maulwurf. I’m sure of that at least. It was big, though. Like, really big. Probably even bigger than a dread maulwurf. And it’s strong. It snapped those tree trunks like twigs.”
“Have there been any reports of attacks?”
“Not that I’m aware of. I’ve spoken to some lings from the outlying hives who spotted the Shade, but noling was hurt. They said it definitely saw them, but moved on with heavy footsteps after only the briefest of moments each time. None of the encounters lasted long enough to get a good description, and it was always obscured by some kind of foliage. Some say they saw its eyes glowing red between the trees, though. I can’t confirm that, but everyling who saw it was almost scared out of their chitin. From my own observations, I can say this: It’s huge. It has shiny things like metal on its body and the red seems to be a cloak of some kind.”
“The question is, what is it doing? And when it’s done with the forests, will it start cutting swaths of destruction through hives?” Pharynx pointed out.
The room was quiet for a moment as that sunk in. Then Tibia spoke again. “I think … I think the Red Shade is looking for something … or someone.”
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9494780
Exactly. Survivor’s guilt.
the plot thickens
Hmm... anyone have any ideas, cause I'm stumped. I keep thinking of something that eats Mars probes for breakfast, perhaps there IS a reason almost half of all Mars probes fail to safely get to Mars...
....Megatron?
Oh boi, this is gonna get interesting very fast if that thing is actually hostile!
Knowing the writer, Ryouga?
Hmmmmm
An HG Wells Martian Tripod?
A Cybertronian?
Inhabitants of Barsoom?
A vimanas?
The Red Angel?
*sits patiently for dear author to reveal*
Not sure what Hook Beak Pass might be referencing, but I get the other two.
Curiosity, are you trying to find your 'little' brother?
9494899
Hook Beak Pass is a bit self-indulgent. It's a reference to one of my very early stories on the site, Incognito - The Chrysalis Chronicles. Fair warning if you wanna look it up, though. That's one of my mature stories, which is why I'm not posting the direct link here.
So Mars himself came to reclaim Oppy?
9494942
The Roman god of war, no wonder it's been spotted at the sites of battles.
And Ponyville was the site of Twilight's battle with Tirek.
9494942
That's a scary thought.
Starlight and Opportunity at Tanagra.
Starlight and Opportunity on the ocean.
9495021
Temba, his arms wide.
9495021
Ponyville, when the walls fell
9495021
Delta II Rocket, with sails unfurled
Darn it, everyone's already made all the good Darmok references...
In any case, a very intriguing stake-raiser. Looks like this won't just be a story of cute ponies and cute rovers doing cute things. And struggling with Windows ME.
Okay, given that, I guess the story did already have an antagonist.
So is this Red Shade maybe OppI twin brother Spirt then maybe. Well that just my thoery then?
Did certain author listened to a certain song maybe?
Mars wants his friend back.
Maybe some Explorators of the Adeptus Mechanicus on a quest to retrieve some archeotech ?
Its Marvin looking for his pu-38 explosive space modulator.
It's supposedly crashing through trees like they were twigs, so it's gotta be really massive. Glowing red "eyes", whatever they might really be. Metal present on the body. Apparently covered in red, as if it had a cloak.
I'm honestly at a loss here. There just aren't enough details to make a serious guess.
sounds like our old buddy Ares/Mars is looking for his friend. before anyone says anything both remember the Greek/Roman gods were known for being huge but able to assume human size/form and look up "Song For Opportunity" on Youtube to understand what i mean
9494842
yeah, this would get the CMC (especially tinkerer Applebloom) extremely excited.
9494898
Mars looking for his missing friend.
9494906
Please oh please tell me that's Opportunity's twin, SPIRIT!
9495311
i don't know, sounds like Mars to me. metal pieces: armor, glowing red eyes: Ares/Mars was said to have fire for eyes, red cloak like thing: standard issue in Greek/Roman armor especially among the higher ups. usually described as a cape though.
What is it? It is Elon Musk in a space suit with a spare battery.
Was your cover art made by the same guy that does most of starscribe’s stuff?
If it is the Greek God, Mars, then I don't see why anyone would be excited. It would just be a What-The-Fuck moment of stupidity that proceeds pretty much all stories with interesting premise going down the shitter.
Yes, take this at least mildly grounded story of the Mars Rover being taken to Equestria and being studied... then throw a random-ass deity into the mix. That makes perfect sense.
While everyone else in the comments seems to have several ideas, I don’t have any idea as to what this”Red Shade” could be.
Time to wallow in self-pity?
9491305
especially with specialized equipment (like older industrial mechatronics or electronic testing equipment) where the manufacturer either hasn't written software for newer computers, or the manufacturer has ceased to exist.
In the pantheon of ancient gods, one regular, though very rare, occurance, was that of legendary hero ascendant.
Basically a mortal that through efforts caused deific effects on the world, without being restricted by gods laws. So the easiest way to deal with them and increase their own supporters prayres, was to ascend the hero to a place in the stars etc.
Something to consider.
The shuttles life support was handled by an essentially unmodified home computer, in hardware and Operating System, for almost ten years after the company that made it when bust.
Ten years without a system update as you recognise it. Running life support. Mainly because usually when anything went wrong, it crashed immediately and rebooted into a known state. which often was the working state. In seconds. Working out the details could be done later.
Mars is looking for Oppy, but what for. To finish off, or finish up?
Hmmm I guess PatLabor spider tank
I'm thinking either Curiosity looking for its older, smaller brother...although, the theories that it's Mars, who wants his friend back, are appealing too.
... I got nothing.
9495534
No. This wasn't especially commissioned for this story either. I found it here: https://oixxo.artstation.com/projects/1nw9Ae
Look, I think we can all safely assume, it's a Maritain tripod.2
GAAAAASP!!! Intriging new plot elements! Now we are cookin with GAS :D I cant wait to see where this goes!
9496183
Huh. It does look like starscibe’s artist’s style but there’s nothing on the artist page that I reconize as a starscribe cover.
Whatever.
If it’s Curiosity, the only thing that I can rationalize would be :
Wearing Red = Martian dust
Big = the thing’s the size of a small car
Wearing metal = the thing is made entirely out of metal
Red eye = Curiosity is equipped with a high-powered infraRED laser in its ‘head’ in order to vaporize surface samples from a far and read the vapors coming off. Changelings are insect-like and some insects are capable of seeing infrared. Some people can see a faint red glow coming from infrared lights.
I can’t rationalize how it can knock over trees. Or crush trunks. Or even take footsteps. It’s a wheeled robot and it’s not much heavier than a car. And because it’s on six wheels than four, its ground pressure is even lower.
Hello again Curiosity, good to see you.
9495049
Ponyville, when the library died.
9500561
Did Starlight accidentally a Bolo? Or maybe an Ogre mk-IV?
Who names a changeling, a creature with an exoskeleton, after a lower leg bone?
Why is everyone saying it's Mars? He is a god of war, he would not just run away.
9623075
Who said the the Red Shade fled?
Perhaps it simply continued on its way.
10326547
Spirit? Idk
9623075
in one of the author notes a song by the stupendium was shown in which the thumbnail was mars (the god) with opportunity on mars (the planet)
maybe hes looking for his friend