Prologue: Project Zereth
A new day dawned over the technologically advanced nation of Equestria. As ever, the harmony of nature and technology was maintained. The waking city of Ponyville could be seen in the shadow of the towering structure hovering over the Everfree Forest. That structure was known by all as the Sphere Research Institute, the source of Equestria’s technological innovation.
Five years have passed since an incident involving a hacker named Crystal Silicon, who was also a former member of the Canterlot nobility, threatened all of Equestria using a dangerous construct that originated from an artificial universe created by Sphere.
The universe in question was not-so-creatively named the Eternal Sphere by the owner and CEO of Sphere, Princess Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship and alicorn, who were known in other circles as Xel’naga, a mysterious race of ascended beings who possess indefinite life spans and the ability to create universes. Sharing this burden were Princesses Celestia, Luna, Cadance, Flurry Heart and Sweetie Drops, the latter who ascended as a result of an intergalactic war from over a thousand years ago. Her wife, Lyra Heartstrings, shared a life bond with Sweetie and thus lived for as long as Sweetie did.
Five years ago, an interesting breakthrough came about as a result of the Crystal Silicon incident. Thanks to the ongoing research into a magical science called Symbology, it was discovered that abilities could be imbued into peoples’ very genetics. This came in the form of a number of characters from the Eternal Sphere manifesting in Equestria which shouldn’t have been possible since characters were still composed of binary. This impossibility had been overturned as a result of two humans named Fayt Leingod and Maria Traydor who respectively possessed symbological genes named Destruction and Alteration.
Maria’s Alteration gene allowed digital beings and objects to be transmuted into material form while Fayt’s Destruction gene made it possible to apply the physics of the Eternal Sphere to the real world. Since then, the Equestrians have learned how to bring objects from the Eternal Sphere into the real world.
Another interesting matter was that the incident had piqued the interest of a family of multiverse-traveling deities, one of whom spent their childhood within the Eternal Sphere. One of the deities was an undead woman named Thanatas with pale skin and snow-white hair. She wore a set of heavy black armor that depicted faces in torment on the shoulders and skulls on her gauntlets, boots, and belt. She carried a runed longsword with a depiction of a screaming face being impaled on the hilt.
Another member was a young girl who was raised in the Eternal Sphere by foster parents named Sophia. During the course of her adventures in the Eternal Sphere and Equestria, she came to learn of her family history and the potential she held, eventually leading her to becoming a psionic warrior with shapeshifting abilities on the genetic level. During the incident she was at the age of sixteen. After five years she was now a young adult and was still growing. It would be a few more years until she reached the peak of her growth and would remain there for the rest of her ageless life.
Over those five years she had inherited her grandfather’s celestial navy and developed it into something much greater. Through her immense psionic power and versatile alien powers, Sophia took control of a race of feral aliens known as the Zerg and quickly developed it into a powerful brood and integrated it with her grandfather’s forces. She also gained the knowledge of creating spatial rifts which allow her to summon members of her army from anywhere if necessary. She also integrated several tribes of a technologically advanced race of psionic warriors called the Protoss, another tribe of whom were currently a part of Equestrian society.
Five years had passed since the Crystal Silicon incident and up until then, nobody had heard anything from Thanatas or Sophia. The former took off to a strange-looking universe and had not been heard from since while the latter was beefing up her inheritance.
Deep within the towering Sphere institute, Twilight Sparkle and Midnight Sparkle, an artificial intelligence turned real pony through the powers of Fayt and Maria, were hard at work observing the development of their current project called Project Zereth.
Midnight, who was originally a discarded creation of Crystal Silicon, bore similar appearances to Twilight except her coat and mane were darker. She also took care to style her mane into a bun to further distinguish herself from her counterpart and boss. Unlike Twilight, who had a more gentle approach on running the institute, Midnight contributed a firm but fair approach to keeping the employees in line while also putting new employees through a rigorous screening process to make sure that enemies don’t infiltrate the company again like what happened five years ago.
While they were going through the latest data concerning the new galaxy in development in the Eternal Sphere, the one being developed by the Zereth Mortis system, Twilight sighed.
“This isn’t good. One of the world shapers has gone rogue and has gathered an army of demons in order to systematically destroy every world they come across.”
“This came as a result of the chaotic energies within the Eternal Sphere opening a rift into the between,” Midnight replied. “The barriers between the cosmic plane and the between weakened as a result of the energies. We managed to repair the barrier but now the denizens of the Void have had a taste of the cosmic plane and will find other ways to breach it. Before we could, a number of eldritch horrors invaded the plane and began corrupting the worlds they came across. Four of these things attached themselves to the planet where you were planning to use for Project Ankh. That rogue Shaper seems to be using a scorched earth strategy against them which is the last thing we need.”
“We were lucky the other Shapers were up to the task of suppressing the horrors. Unfortunately, by the time they came to that world, the creatures were already too deeply burrowed into the planet’s crust that removing them would have caused catastrophic damage to the planet itself. It’s also one of the few planets left out there that contains a developing soul of a World Shaper, one of the most powerful ones I’ve developed.”
“Looks like there’s more bad news. It seems that for some unknown reason the Arbiter golem has also gone rogue,” Midnight added. “Thankfully the other custodians have suppressed him and banished him to the purgatory realm. His power was used to create another Arbiter so we can investigate that matter at another time.”
Twilight sighed in relief, “That’s good, the last thing we need is for a rogue golem to find his way into Zereth Mortis and reprogram the structure of the galaxy that took me three years to program.” She continued looking through the reports. “That’s it for the cosmic scale reports, what about the planetary scale?”
“The most recent report shows that nine more worlds have fallen to the demons. Five more have been consumed by the Void. If this keeps up we will have to reset the entire galaxy.”
“Remember Midnight, after that mess with the debugging drones we decided that we wouldn’t directly intervene unless absolutely necessary.” Twilight sighed, “Though I did decide that if the planet at the center of the galaxy, Azeroth, were to fall, then I would go through with it. Unfortunately, it would mean the end of Project Ankh as we would lose the vital resources needed to reincarnate the target souls.”
“Not to mention you will likely lock yourself away for Celestia knows how long grieving the loss if that were to happen,” Midnight added.
Twilight began to appreciate the floor design as her ears drooped. “I miss them so much,” she said softly.
Sensing the growing sadness within Twilight, Midnight turned her boss toward her and quickly wrapped her arms around her. “Even after a thousand years, you still can’t let them go. They really mean the world to you, huh?” Midnight whispered, earning a silent nod from Twilight in response. “I still think that this is a bad idea Twilight, but I promised that I’d see this through.” The two broke their hug before Midnight put back on her professional mask. “I hope you know what you will be exposing them to. They won’t have memories of their past lives so their behaviors may be different. They will be raised in a world filled with danger. Parts of their old personalities may still be there, but they will be different overall. I have to ask, what do you plan to get out of all this?”
Twilight took a moment to mentally prepare her response. “It’s not about me wanting to see my friends again. I know that they are all long dead. In the least, I get to watch their reincarnations go on amazing adventures. Maybe one day I’ll even get to befriend them all over again. There is a more objective reason for this, but I’ll keep it to myself for now until I see how this all plays out. I don’t want to get my hopes up yet.”
Midnight nodded in understanding. “And what about the Equestrian Liberation Front? It’s been five years since we heard anything significant about them but that likely isn’t going to be the case forever. Aren’t you concerned that they might interfere with Project Ankh?”
“Well, yes, but there’s not much we can do about that. They’ve covered up their tracks so well that we have no way of finding them. We don’t have much choice except to wait for their next move.”
Just then, a rift opened in the room and a familiar blue humanoid rabbit that Twilight and Midnight knew emerged from it before the rift vanished.
Not counting the ears, Sophia was at least as tall as the average pony. Her fur was a dark blue, bordering on indigo with a long head of hair matching her fur. The uniform she was wearing was a lighter shade of blue than her fur and extended down from her shoulders to past her knees. Two lines of buttons extended all the way down the front of her uniform. Her boots were made of thick black leather and she wore black gloves to match her boots. A cap would have completed the image of her status as a top ranking officer of her intergalactic navy, but she forwent that because she was bored and wanted something to do outside of maintaining an organization for the time being.
Sophia breathed a sigh of relief, “Whew, it took five years, but I finally managed to delegate enough of the work where I don’t need to be present all the time.” She then waved at the purple duo. “Hey there you two, it’s been a while.”
“Hey there, Sophia,” Twilight greeted. “What brings you here?”
“Boredom, really. How’s Project Zereth coming along?”
“I wish I could say that it’s coming along smoothly, but there are a number of issues that concern us,” Midnight answered. She then handed Sophia the reports for her to look through.
“Huh, demon invasions, eldritch horrors, a rogue afterlife judge, sounds like an invitation for a fun time.”
“While we do have need of your assistance in this matter, we must ask that you not handle all of this on your own and instead make sure that the heroes who are likely to rise up not get themselves killed during their adventures,” Midnight requested.
Sophia shrugged, “Sure, a little challenge makes things more fun. Where do you want me?”
“Let’s wait for the other guest so we don’t have to repeat ourselves.”
Right on cue, another rift opened and a familiar pale-looking human in horrific armor emerged before the rift closed. Right away, everyone noticed the worried look on Thanatas’ face. “What’s the matter, Thanatas?” Twilight asked.
Thanatas closed her eyes and took a deep breath. “I’ve come to learn that despite my millennia of experience, motherhood is still something I’m not ready for. Though I doubt most mothers have to put up with the troubles I went through with my daughter.”
“Oh, I’ve heard of her,” Sophia said. “Violetta I think you named her. I heard that she’s been behaving like a demon child out of a horror movie. What happened to her?”
“Remember that vampire I enslaved during our ascension of this two hundred and eleven floor tower?” Everyone in the room nodded. “Well, first of all, an undead with a toxic body like myself trying to give birth to a baby through scientific techniques thought impossible leads to a very predictable outcome. However, in this case, the only thing keeping her alive was the family’s immortality gene and even that was failing because my daughter was born a withered husk. I quickly put her on life support and needed to give her a blood transfusion.
“That was when that delusional slave found out that he wasn’t the father of my child and out of spite, he gorged himself on my entire blood supply. Needless to say, I had my minions rip him limb from limb, literally.
“Though then, I was in a pretty desperate situation. My newborn daughter was slowly dying from exsanguination and I had no blood to give her. Except for the one vat that was in my nearest lab. Believe me, I would never have used that blood if there was another option. The blood I used was extracted from a certain mineral on Azeroth on a continent called Northrend. The mineral was called Saronite, but what I did was filter out the solid impurities and extract the black liquid from within. Out of options, I transfused the stuff into Violetta.”
Twilight and Midnight were confused about what the undead was talking about while Sophia had an incredulous look on her face after reading her cousin’s mind enough to get the gist of what she was talking about. “Wait, you mean to tell me that you transfused blood from an eldritch horror into your daughter!? Well that certainly explains the demonic behavior. Any way we can restore her sanity?”
“Honestly, this is beyond my level of medical expertise. At this point, the blood has marked her with an affinity for the Void, like my Death affinity and your War affinity. It’s a long shot, and even I have to question my own sanity for considering this, but with any luck she might find a way to restore order in her mind if we push her into the deepest depths of the proverbial rabbit hole through bringing her to powerful beings of the Void.”
Twilight grit her teeth before she yelled out in a tone just below the Royal Canterlot Voice, “You transfused evil blood into your daughter and now you want to expose her to more evil!?”
“It might work,” Sophia offered. “My powers grew as my armies grew. Thanatas is extremely powerful because of her kingdom of the dead. Helping Violetta grow stronger might help her mind to get a grip on her own madness and take control of it.”
“I hope so, Sophia.” Thanatas sighed. “Violetta has been roaming Azeroth in the Eternal Sphere for almost twenty years now. She’s currently eighteen now and still no sign of her madness being contained.”
“Right, I forgot the Equestrians can manipulate time in the Eternal Sphere.”
“Until then, it would be nice if we could find something temporary to help her mind settle so she can focus on the task of absorbing more Void energies.” Thanatas paused for a moment then decided to change the subject. “Anyway, why are we here?”
Twilight took a moment for her mind to switch tracks after the abrupt change in topic. “Right, Midnight and I have been observing the events going on in the sector of the Eternal Sphere where Project Zereth has been developing a galaxy. In particular, our observations are focused on Azeroth.” She brings up a holographic display of a planet with four continents, an eternal storm between the four of them as well as a number of islands around the storm. “I’m sure that Thanatas has intimate knowledge of this world so I’m expecting her to fill Sophia in on any details she might need to know for this mission.”
Twilight cleared her throat and prepared to enter lecture mode. “Around the time Project Ankh began, Azeroth had seen an invasion of a race of green-skinned brutes called orcs who were running high on drinking demon blood. The suddenness of this attack led to the fall of a human kingdom called Stormwind. The orcs continued their campaign north through a kingdom of a race called dwarves, but failed to conquer them, and into a number of human kingdoms that were supported by a number of other races and were driven back to the portal they came from.”
“Yeah, yeah, princess, I know the history of Azeroth. I can fill Sophia in on any details she might need to know later,” Thanatas interrupted. “Suffice to say, the orcs created their own alliance of different races to rival the current Alliance. They are called the Horde.”
“Right, the Horde city of Orgrimmar which is on the east central coast of the western continent and the rebuilt city of Stormwind which sits around the southern portion of the eastern continent are where I need you two. Thanatas, I want you to earn the trust of the current Horde leader, Thrall, and become their ally. Sophia, I want you to do the same with the Alliance. However, it seems that the current leader of the Alliance, King Varian Wrynn, has gone missing so you will have to settle for earning the trust of the current regent, Bolvar Fordragon until he is located and returned to his kingdom.”
“Doesn’t sound too hard,” Sophia figured.
“Try to maintain a neutral stance with regard to the interactions between the Alliance and the Horde. Those two are experiencing a tenuous truce right now but there is still a deep hatred between them. Don’t get involved in any conflicts between them, for their sake. Between the two of you, either of you could cause a lot of collateral damage and if you two fought each other, it would likely be cataclysmic. Anything else I leave to your discretion.
“Also, there are six individuals that I want you to keep an eye on.” Twilight handed Sophia six folders containing profiles of six individuals. “These six are the subjects of Project Ankh, make sure they don’t wind up getting killed. I don’t know where their paths will lead them, but it will be up to you two and your family to make sure they reach the end.
“One last thing, I assigned one of my employees, Fayt Leingod, to act as a neutral observer for the goings on in Azeroth. I programmed his character to be as one of the Blue Dragonflight, one of the five species of dragons on Azeroth charged with its defense. The three of you will be working together for a long while. I will update you if the situation changes.”
Sophia and Thanatas looked through the profiles before returning them to Twilight. Thanatas drew her sword and slashed the air, opening a rift for the two of them to pass through.
Meanwhile, in an undisclosed location…
It had been five years since a mandatory meeting was called between the leaders of the Equestrian Liberation Front. Crystal Silicon, a unicorn mare with a shining white coat and a silvery mane, looked around the table and observed her fellow lieutenants. Steel Edge, a black earth pony stallion with a red mane, was sharpening his weapons he forged as usual. Desert Wind, a golden tan pegasus stallion with a green mane, was still trying to fool others with his pauper look despite his wealth. Greenpeace, a blue earth pony stallion with a yellow mane, continued expressing his dislike of shirts while appearing oblivious to the world around him thanks to whatever plant he’s inhaled today. Windwhisper, a yellow pegasus mare with a white mane, sat quietly in her seat with her wings stretched out. Gemini Star, in her bratty red form with sky blue mane, was humming an off key song and hoping it made someone snap. Misty Wing, a hot pink pegasus mare with a dark yellow mane, leaned over the table with her head on her right hand and a bored expression on her face.
Crystal took another glance at Gemini. She often wondered why the filly never allowed herself to grow into an adult body. She was actually around the same age as the rest of them, but for whatever reason, when her body reached a certain age, she ended her own life in some way so she could get her soul transferred to one of the many copies lying in stasis. Out of all of her associates, Gemini Star was definitely the weirdest.
Everyone adopted a professional posture once the leader entered the conference room. The shadowed form of the leader walked over to his seat and sat down, ready to start the meeting.
“I will keep this brief,” the leader began. “I called all of you here today to announce the beginning of the hunt for the AI fragments that have been floating around the Eternal Sphere. To review, years ago, a powerful AI entered the Eternal Sphere and was attacked by Sphere’s debugging drones, the Executioners. The AI split itself into eight fragments and scattered throughout the universe. Thanks to the combined efforts of Crystal Silicon, Windwhisper and Gemini Star, we have obtained one of them: the fragment of Rebirth.
“After studying the fragment, I have found that the other seven will likely attach themselves to individuals whose malice aligns with their respective factors. The factors are as follows: vengeance, temptation, machination, prophecy, propagation, deception, and the terror of death.
“It seems that the new galaxy created by Sphere is brimming with that malice and has drawn the seven fragments to it. Windwhisper has foreseen that the fragments will converge on one world at the center of the galaxy. I will be sending all seven of you to that world while in disguise as denizens of that world.
“Do not expose your true identities to anyone. This is a matter of stealth and one slip up can put the entire grand plan in jeopardy. For the plan to work, we must obtain all eight fragments before Sphere catches on. Any questions?”
“Yeah, we’re just all supposed to go in there at once? Wouldn’t that be suspicious?” Gemini asked.
“All seven of you will be sent to separate locations as different races. Some of you will have to wait patiently before you join the hunt though to avoid raising suspicion. Maintain your guise at all costs.”
With no other questions, the leader ended the meeting and left the conference room while the others made their preparations for what was going to be a very long adventure.
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I have no real reference for
'World of Warcraft'
Seekers of the Epitaph, will it be beginner friendly or do i need some hours of educated playtime?
11356921
I'll try to be as descriptive as I can but I'm not very confident in that area. If necessary you don't have to play the game but you can use the wiki sites as reference for better imagery.
Neat... So pressing the Reset button is still a possibility.
Sooo I get Warhammer vibes out of this chapter...
11356929
Ok, thanks.
Are the Clones free of inherent gen illnesses? Might be a reason the brat kills herself before reaching adulthood...
11357493
Could you clarify?
11357588
There are genetic inherited illness that could kill a body going trough puberty, do to the hormones shifting.
Some Cancers are effected by hormones changes become more active.
Perhaps the dying before she becomes a adult is to avoid showing that all her clones are still holding this inherited time bomb of a illness. She might fear being seen as a liability, rather than a eccentric.
There might also be a more hooves on explanation.
She is rather a psychopath so perhaps she has a mental disorder. She might noticed that at a certain age it get worse and their for trys avoid getting worse.
The soul is effected by experience and perhaps experience that neurotic behavior at a certain age slowly increases the damage to her psychological health.
2023, time to re-reading this
👍
I am surprised the undead Thanatas don't just start from scratch. That daughter don't seem to be worth the trouble even if she can be salvaged somehow