[Forlorn Ascension]|[Rites of Dominion]

by Desrium

Blurred

Phineas told the Commander his tale. He told her of the day that started off, in hindsight, incredibly mundane compared to his previous exploits. All the days after the fall of the Hoof-Talon legion had something mundane about them up until that point. There were no battles in space –or rather, there weren’t any full blown wars being fought in space. There were the criminals and the law enforcement that hunted them down. Phineas had his run-ins with the bad apples of the greater majority that ended straddling the line of justice and tragedy in that short… short time. In that time, he was just a wanderer living his life, drifting through space and watching worlds flourish when they were at one point on the verge of collapse. Then he came across the distress signal, beyond the Harmony’s reach back then.

Past that border waited his next great fight, he knew now. His hopes for a life spent living instead of fighting wars were scrawny weeds reaching for the sun blocked by the sprawling, leafy branches that was his drive to act. His fight was eternal: to parry the blade of war, one had to wield the blade themself. He would fight so that others would know peace. It was who he was. And he was damn good at it.

***

Uolix was facing the super projector’s hologram, two of her mechanical limbs tied together behind her. Her other two were wrapped around each other in such a way in front of her that one of them was of a longer length than the other, so that she could rest her chin in the center of her clawed grasper. She was in silent contemplation since Phineas finished recounting his battle with the chimera. The stallion himself had returned his helmet to his head and was sitting behind her, partly waiting for her response and partly doing his own share of thinking. Phineas found the chimera that day by chance when the hybrid was at his most weakest. His empire was cut down, his soldiers tattered and frail. How was he going to find something out in the vast cosmos that was at the height of its power, nigh unmatched? And should he find the leader of the undead… just what exactly would he be facing? The chimera, the first champion of the Star Terrors, almost killed him. Did that mean the second would crush him the moment he stepped hoof into its line of sight?

“Startrot,” said Uolix and the stallion was pulled from his thoughts.

“Commander?”

Uolix turned to face him. Her arms uncoiled and flowed out to her sides. “Your report… worries me.”

Phineas frowned. He guessed as much. The chimera was immensely powerful all on its own, proficient in both physical and magical combat. Not only that, it was unbelievably persistent even after grievous bodily harm. It was the ultimate warrior.

“In fact… it frightens me that such a creature could have existed without any of us knowing about it for hundreds of years.”

“Makes you wonder what else the Polymerization were doing that we don’t know about. Makes you wonder if it’s a good thing we don’t know about them,” Phineas said.

“Mm,” Uolix responded. Phineas could almost feel her gaze through her opaque visor boring into his eyes through his helmet’s optic screens. As she bobbed up and down ever so slightly, she kept her stare constant, her arms moving in a hypnotic rhythm off to her sides. The stallion began feeling uncomfortable in the silence that fell in between them.

“Uolix…?” Phineas asked. She approached him and he tensed up. As she got nearer and nearer he arched his back and raised his head high, seconds away from turning and putting some distance between him and the Shu’badi. Her arms shot out and enclosed him however, the graspers manifesting an energy field to completely block his path.

Phineas heard the shuffling behind him. He turned his head slightly and from his peripheral vision could see the officers standing, many of them having weapons drawn. They were aiming at him. They were treating him like he wasn’t worthy of their trust! They were treating him as an enemy!

“Uolix!” Phineas shouted indignantly. “What the hell!?”

“’Makes you wonder what else the Polymerization were doing we don’t know about’,” the Commander quoted with a sharp edge to her echoey voice. “The fact you are standing before me today leaves me with three unfortunate conclusions, Phineas Startrot.”

“And what might those be!?” the silver stallion responded hotly, almost pressing his helm against her’s.

“The first is that you’re an agent for the enemy painted the shades of an ally through a complex ruse. The chimera may not be dead at all and your absence was just another part of this scheme. The Hoof-Talons were just the beginning phase of the Star Terrors’ greater plans.”

“What kind of-!”

“The second is that you’re involvement with the Star Terrors has manipulated your thoughts and actions. Perhaps you honestly view yourself as an ally to our cause, but everything you say and do perpetuates the Star Terror agenda for the galaxy.”

“That’s unbeli-“

“Lastly… and perhaps most unsettling of all…” Uolix paused, as if to revise just how she was going to say what she was going to say. “Lastly…” She sighed and shook her head. “The most unsettling possibility is that you are what you say you are.”

“… What?” Phineas deadpanned. “How the hell is me being honest the most unsettling possibility? Why the hell are you holding me like some caged animal? Why the hell are your officers pointing their guns at me!? This doesn’t make any sense, Uolix!”

“You are just a regular pony, Phineas!” Uolix replied, her voice rising to match his. “A regular pony from another time! You shouldn’t have been nearly as effective as you were during the Hoof-Talon crisis! Any normal pony… any normal being would have been rendered catatonic by the shock and trauma you have been through!”

“But I’m not a regular pony!” Phineas countered. “I never have and never will be! I am Phineas Startrot damn it! I am-“

“You are the lone pony who stood up against a small army, fought and won” Uolix said grimly. “You are the lone pony who faced what might have been the most powerful… mortal… that we know of… and not only did you live… you beat him.”

Phineas fell silent, beginning to grasp just what it was the Commander was saying.

“If you are what you say you are, Phineas, that means no one else in this entire galaxy could stop you should you choose to do something. You are just a regular pony… yet you are terrifying. The term ‘Federation pony’ is synonymous with a warrior unlike any that the galaxy has known in recent eras. Not even the legendary Captain, leader of the Umpiron resistance, has a record the likes of yours.”

Like a freight train running at full speed, Phineas was slammed with the full implication of his title. How other reacted to it. How others treated him after making it clear who he was. He wasn’t respected. He was feared. He was a loose cannon, a wildcard. A threat by any other name.

“Uolix I… I…” Phineas started to say, but found himself unable to form a sentence. She was right.

“I… doubt you are an enemy in the obvious way. Your unique circumstance with the… Iopteryx, was it? It is an unfortunate result of fate…” Uolix said in a much more level tone. “How could a cosmic power not recognize one such as you? How could it resist toying with one as passionate as yourself?”

Phineas hung his head. He couldn’t say anymore. He just couldn’t.

“You are a hero, Phineas Startrot,” said the Commander, “but I fear that after enduring all that you have… and given your particular skills and aptitude… you are a disaster waiting to happen.”

The energy field dissipated and she retracted her arms. She floated away from the armored pony and motioned to the others in the chamber to lower their weapons. Complying slowly, the officers holstered their guns and warily took their seats at their stations.

“So what will you do now, Startrot?” Uolix asked him in a soothing voice.

He did not reply immediately, but when he did some moments later, he said: “I’m going to wait until my shuttle is suited for flight and combat again. Then I’m going to find this leader. I’m going to put him down. I’ll do it by myself. Too many lives have been lost and I’m not going to risk any more of them.”

“Nothing I can say can stop you, I take it?” she inquired. He shook his head.

He looked straight through her and added, “We’ll figure out what to do with me after the Star Terrors aren’t a threat to the galaxy at large.”

He turned away from her then and started to head back down the aisle of terminals, avoiding the gazes of the perplexed officers that were gawking at him like he was some kind of sideshow. The headstrong Equestrian with a chip on his shoulder, dragging a boulder wherever he went.

“I didn’t dismiss you, Phineas,” Uolix called out to him.

“I’m not a part of the Harmony,” Phineas replied without breaking stride. “You aren’t my superior officer, so I don’t care.”

Uolix visibly drooped at that. She bowed her head and murmured to herself, “I figured you would say that.”

When he came to the elevator, the silver stallion glared and deployed his jets, the plating on his utility pack rearranging for them to slip out and lock into place. The boosters pitched upwards and roared to life, red exhaust streaming out of the rockets and the pony taking flight. When he reached the level he arrived on, he flew over the railing and dropped onto the metallic balcony. From there, his jets stowed themselves and he left the chamber through the same doors he came through.

Uolix spun around to look at the super projector image again. “Good luck, Federation pony. I feel as if you won’t make it without someone believing in you… so I’ll do as much. Do you all approve, friends? I hope you do. I sincerely hope you do…”

No one with her in the observation chamber knew of the tears she was crying.