[Forlorn Ascension]|[Rites of Dominion]

by Desrium

A New Perspective

Phineas shifted his weight from side to side, apprehensive. He pawed at the floor, he stared up at the ceiling. He took deep breaths and exhaled loudly. He had even been pacing. He was trying to fortify himself for his next task; something that was monumentally important. Something he needed to do for the sake of all that was good in the galaxy...in the universe, at that. Something so incredibly great that he utterly feared the resentment that he was more than likely to receive.

He was going to have to apologize to Tsubar.

"Hindsight is such a bitch," Phineas thought as he continued mustering his resolve.

"I could always let him punch me in the face... but that might kill me."

He bared his teeth and stood rigid at the door to the mechanic's chamber, as if he were standing at attention after a drill at the academy. "Stop acting like a foal, damn it," he scolded himself.

He raised his PDA and opened communications with the mechanic.

"Tsubar?" he said, cautiously assessing his situation. Chances are Tsubar was going to tell him to go away... which meant he had to disobey his wishes in a way that didn't piss off the cyborg anymore than he would be already.

"What?" came the Seapony's reply. While he thought this might have been a sign of hostility, Phineas remembered that his earliest impression of Tsubar was his rudeness.

"You mind if I come in?" Phineas pressed on.

"Why the hell are you asking. No one else ever asks."

"Because I feel like a gigantic dick, that's why, you asshole." Phineas replied in his mind. He carried on wordlessly so as to not sour things before they began. He put in a command on his wrist device and opened the door to the engineering deck. The red lighting washed over Phineas' gray suit.

He stepped into the chamber and the door slid shut behind him. He walked the short distance into the room, coming up on Tsubar at his large work station before long. The mechanic was not wearing his helmet at the time, but was in the process of putting it back on. Phineas saw the back of the Shu'badi's head, catching the most fleeting of fleeting glimpses of what the alien truly looked like underneath his suit. He didn't see any obvious signs of mechanical repair...but Romaz didn't say Tsubar's head was affected by his sacrifice. There was another artifact of interest as well.

"A fin? Was that a fin? I totally saw a fin..."

Tsubar turned around, regarding Phineas through a mended visor. "So why are you here?" Tsubar asked abruptly, not straying too far from his table. Phineas frowned at the fact Tsubar made no effort to hide that he was trying to keep away from him. "Does the big, brave hero want to be thanked personally? If that is the case then allow me to-"

"I'm sorry," Phineas stated just as bluntly. "Well that was rather easy..."

Tsubar paused and cocked his head. "That it?" he inquired curiously after a few moments.

"Yes," Phineas responded.

"And what, pray tell, are you sorry for?" Tsubar said in a way that practically beamed the image of the wry, vindictive smile the Seapony had on his face.

"Romaz told me what you did," Phineas stated. The way Tsubar jumped slightly showed that wasn't the response he was expecting. Had things been different, the silver stallion would have enjoyed wrecking Tsubar's attempt to annoy him. But Tsubar wasn't Lightning Streak. He was an entirely different caliber of pony...Seapony...creature.

"I... have done many things," Tsubar said, attempting to redirect the conversation.

"You're a hero. I'm sorry that I ever said... and did those things. I was way out of line, no matter how upset a Federation operative gets they should never resort to violence. I have disappointed my... former superiors... and you, my crewmate."

"I don't need your Federation 'honor' bullshit, Phineas," Tsubar replied. He turned around and started to busy himself with the various bits of scrap and machinery he had lying on the table. Blue sparks started to fly when he got his laser tools out.

Phineas grunted in response. "Alright then. An apology from pony to Shu'badi, then."

"Get it over with," Tsubar said gruffly. Suddenly, he was not in the mood for games and banter.

"I understand that you were only trying to help me. You couldn't have possibly known we would've come across those ponies... and the Draconix..."

"You didn't even touch your drink," Tsubar said flatly.

"No. No I did not," Phineas replied. "And I regret nothing of the sort," he thought.

"Dick," Tsubar said offhoofedly.

"I was just so... angry. I couldn't have believed Equestria had changed so drastically and for the worse... then I started acting like those horrid ponies myself... I forgot something important, then."

"What was that?" Tsubar replied without looking up from his work.

Phineas walked around and took his usual place at the workstation. From his toolbox he pulled out his Harmonizer and gathered his own share of parts and components. He started to put the parts together as he continued speaking.

"I forgot that good still exists in this future. The majority of Equestrians may have been hardened and turned cynical by their surroundings, but good can still exist. Great minds keep the fringe worlds operating. Good souls find a wayward remnant from the past and take him in on their ship," Phineas said.

"... For some reason I doubt you're okay with that," Tsubar replied.

Phineas paused for a short while then nodded. "I'm not. If things were ideal for me, there would still be an Earth for me to go to, with an Equestria many times more grand than the one I knew 378 years ago. But the universe doesn't pander to my preferences and the reality of things is far from gemstones and picnics. If I am going to adapt to the present, I must accept this."

"Accept the shit with the Hoof-Talons?"

"Accept. Not like. Not tolerate, but accept," Phineas responded.

"Accept... but not tolerate..." Tsubar said, laying his arms down on the table to consider the stallion's words. "... Oh... wow. What? No. No, you get that out of your head right now."

"You are all being hunted by the Hoof-Talons for what you did. You saved your friends by giving your body up!"

"No. No. A thousand times, no, damn it!"

"They were all captured and were going to be experimented on! If you hadn't done what you did, they might not be the people they are today!"

"No one should have to endure that amount of suffering."

"We can keep on fighting them, together. We can make something better-!"

"For fuck's sake Startrot!" Tsubar snapped. "Hundreds of ponies and hundreds of non-ponies oppose the Hoof-Talons every minute that passes. Many of those people are dead by time I finish speaking, and they are the lucky ones. I don't even want to think about the ones they deem worthy enough to take alive. You don't just fight the Hoof-Talons. You strike out against them once or twice then you run and hide before they can close in. And let me tell you - in case you don't know - they are closing in on us."

He sighed loudly, whereas Phineas only sat down.

"So are we to keep running, then?" the silver stallion queried. "Because I've lived the life of a drifter. It's not a good life. I can't imagine that the life of fear is any better."

"You don't know what it is that you're standing against," Tsubar stated with a shake of his head.

"Then tell me! Show me, teach me, give every bit of knowledge that you know and I swear to you I will know the Hoof-Talons just as well as you do before long."

"That isn't saying much. I don't even know if you could handle this ship, much less go fighting the good fight-"

"I will make you eat those words like Uolix made them special!" Phineas said suddenly.

"Where the hell are you going!?" Tsubar shouted, floating after Phineas after he had gotten up from the table and went galloping further into the chamber.

"I'm gonna find something to calibrate, and you can't do anything to stop me!" Phineas yelled from deep within the Desolus.

***

"Something to calibrate" turned into reworking the ship's entire energy management mainframe. Phineas' Harmonizer hummed and crackled when he put the last terminal back together. He stepped back to admire his hoofwork. The hours had gotten away from him by time he was finished.

"...You're not a pony. You're some freakish...robotic pony," Tsubar said flatly.

"So, I see you've finished your meal. Do you want seconds? Just tell me I can't do something again. I dare you," Phineas said, feeling his pride well up within.

"Alright, alright. That's pretty amazing; you didn't electrocute yourself or anything. So you can mess around with the ship's systems without completely frying yourself or anyone else aboard," Tsubar said.

"Damn right!" Phineas replied.

"But Hoof-Talons aren't a Spell-core bypass or some mana-flux capacitor," the mechanic warned. "They are the closest things to monsters anyone can be, and I'm pretty sure its because they were born that way."

"I'm listening," Phineas said, eagerly awaiting an explanation.

"During that run-in our merry band had with them," Tsubar began to say; "I came across this place where they were holding others... in pods. It was like they were in stasis, but then I came across a terminal which described experiments with artificial birthing and... hybridization. It suggests that Hoof-Talons sustains itself through the fabrication of its own troops and laborers."

"... What in the actual fuck?" Phineas deadpanned. "They manufacture their workforce? How the hell does that even work!?"

"I didn't have time to snoop around to find out more; I had my friends to rescue... but I made sure to terminate the batch of test tube babies. I suppose that's just one of many things they want me dead for."

Phineas started to pace once more. "Hybrids... what kind of laborers were they trying to make...?"

"Better ones," Tsubar said matter of factly.

"Obviously, but from what?"

"Hoof-Talons," said Tsubar. "Ponies and gryphons. Super pegasi."

"... That is horrifying."

"Congrats. You've described Hoof-Talons as a whole with only three words!" Tsubar said with some biting humor in his words.

Phineas frowned. Hoof-Talons was sounding more and more like an example of science gone rampant. They had no reservations towards making fellow creatures their tools of destruction, the Draconix was proof of that. News that they were attempting to rewrite what it means to be a pony was even more disturbing. Super pegasi? A pony-gryphon crossbreed? How could any sort of Equestrian become so depraved?

"And this is the group of scumbags and psychopaths that have taken an interest in you and the others?" Phineas commented.

"I think you've finally grasped the severity of the situation," Tsubar replied.

***

Phineas sat before the table tapping a hoof against its surface, deep in thought. Tsubar worked in spite of this, the sounds of his arcane tools distant in Phineas's mind. Hoof-Talons was an abomination. A great blight on the name of Equestria, they were. His anger -while present- was something he made sure to keep in check. He could not allow passion to cloud his judgement. He needed to think this through to the end.

"They tried killing Tsubar in Starblazer."

Though the Seapony's explanation for why those pegasi threatened his life was a lie, his reasoning that they were following him since he left the Desolus could not be shaken. They definitely were not waiting in the bar...were they? Unless they were future seers, how would they have known Tsubar would have been there?

"Tsubar, you don't go to Eztraal's very often, do you?" he inquired.

"Nah. I frequent the bar scene but I wander in between them. They're a dime a dozen and help keep the stress of mostly-impending death away," the Seapony replied.

"Lovely," Phineas muttered, going back to his contemplation.

"They were following us, without a doubt." he confirmed. "The pegasi and the Draconix."

It occurred to him then that while he opposed Hoof-Talons on a moral standpoint, he had entered this so-called war with them far earlier. Earlier than when he knew there was a war to be fought. By killing those agents he had brought the conflict to himself; whether or not it was irony was something he could analyze at a later time and whether or not it justified taking lives was something he could not bother debating with himself.

It was going to happen. He was a space explorer turned impromptu soldier! Such a thing would have made him laugh and laugh hard 378 years ago, but here he was; aboard an alien vessel caught in a divide between Equestrians and the rest of the damn galaxy!

"You know, Tsubar. If I ever thought of the future becoming anything like it is right now, I would have totally guessed gryphons had something to do with it," Phineas said offhoofedly. His gravely serious thought had turned more jovial, as if he had discovered some greater comedy about the whole thing.

"And why's that? Gryphons were known for shit like this back in your time?" the mechanic queried without looking up from his work.

"They were known to be territorial, fiercely competitive, overwhelmingly critical and brash in practice. Which is why they made such damn good cadets," Phineas replied, recounting the days of the academy. "I had to go up against gryphons. Give me a donkey. Give me a buffalo. Hell, give me a minotaur any day of the week! I'd rather compete with them before having to best a gryphon!"

"Sounds like they gave you a hard time," Tsubar commented, grunting afterwards.

"Yes. Didn't stop me from kicking their feathered asses though," Phineas said, frowning seconds afterwards. "Say what you will about them... the gryphons were motivated and tactical. Hoof-Talons is just what happens when that drive is put to less than admirable use..."

Tsubar snorted. "Some drive," he started to say. "They terrorize the galaxy but no one knows if they have any sort of end goal. They slaughter, pillage, use their prisoners as test subjects, rape; their crimes are endless. They are monsters for the sake of being monsters."

Phineas shook his head. There was no such thing as "being a monster for the sake of being a monster". The monsters of the stars had their own natures and drives which no one could truly grasp, power which governed them that only the likes of the princesses could have understood -if they even knew about it. It was a dark, unknown phantom that had undeniable malevolence to it; but one that was ultimately a mystery.

A mystery that ran deep.

"There was once a time, in the far... far past of Equestria," Phineas began, "a being known as Discord ruled... a being of chaos that caused strife before the princesses Celestia and Luna imprisoned him."

"Thanks for the history lesson, friend." Tsubar chimed in.

"No one knows why he did the things he did... other than it was his nature to do so."

Tsubar looked up finally, beginning to see the vaguest of points the silver stallion was trying to make. "... Go on." he stated with some eagerness.

"I don't know if my logic holds any water... or air since we're in space and all, but I know that it is the nature of Equestria to do good. Hell, it's the nature of all the sentient races in this galaxy... in the universe even. It is hard to explain... but... there is a virtue within all of us. Something that makes us all good. We don't go out into the stars to wage war and spread misery," Phineas said, sharing his firm beliefs. "We can lose our way. We can falter and make mistakes, but in the end we are all alive, aren't we? We would help each other make something great before we tear each other apart to live in the ruins of the aftermath, right?"

"I think that's one huge-ass conjecture, but go on mister preacher-pony," Tsubar replied.

"But there are things greater than us, Equestrian, Shu'badi, Ghanax or otherwise. Things like Discord, which can disrupt reality itself. Things which can... negate virtue for the sake of causing havoc," Phineas continued.

Tsubar slammed a Manipulator down against the table. "Ah ha!" he exclaimed once things had become clear for him. "You think Hoof-Talons was created by one of those things turning a bunch of ponies and gryphons rogue?"

"It's more than likely. I've... lived... through such a thing," Phineas replied.

"Explain. Explain right now." Tsubar replied, echoing that conversation the stallion had with him that time ago.

Phineas looked down at the table and let out a heavy sigh. "My starship... the Iopteryx... it was destroyed by an actual Iopteryx after we rescued a pony from another Federation ship. I wasn't there to see it but I was told what it did. It was... disfigured and misshapen and spoke in some unknown language. I believe that pony was corrupted by something... made a pawn or something. I think it was what brought on the attack in the first place."

Tsubar was the one tapping on the table now. "... If a Star Terror could turn a pony into a puppet..."

"There's nothing stopping them from turning a whole legion into a force of destruction. A bunch of pirates suddenly becoming an empire all their own? One that strives to produce a new breed of super-pony? One that turns dragons and who knows what else into cyborgs?"

Phineas brought a hoof crashing down, making a few parts on the table jump.

"The worst part about it? Even if Hoof-Talons was a product of a Star Terror, it makes no difference. They still wouldn't have an end goal. Discord's only motivation was causing chaos. Nothing more, nothing less."

"You said your princesses defeated him," Tsubar stated quite plainly.

"Yeah?" Phineas replied.

"How?"

"... The Elements of Harmony. Friendship."

"Ah, the magic of friendship," the Seapony replied. Tsubar hummed thoughtfully and added a few minutes later: "On that count; I suppose we're fucked."

"Way to keep your spirits up, Tsubar," Phineas grumbled. He got up and started to make his way to the chamber's exit.

"And where are you going now?"

"I'm going to do some overdue calibration on my shuttle, it'll need them for the things yet to come," Phineas replied without stopping. "Maybe I could talk to Romaz for a bit and discuss ways we can keep ourselves away from Hoof-Talons afterwards. Like you said, they're closing in... and they're doing so startlingly fast."