EXECUTIONER ONE

by Hurgusburgus

Chapter 15

The words, cold and all but devoid of emotion, cut through the air.

“W-what do you mean?” Rarity piped up hesitantly, but turned to face Twilight as the purple unicorn spoke.

“It means that war is coming to Equestria... Right?”

Lieia smiled grimly, nodding once. “Vasari, if we're lucky.”

Immediately, Rainbow Dash was in the air, doing a couple of quick jabs at an imaginary enemy. “Let 'em try, I'll kick their flanks back to where they came!”

Lieia laughed at the pegasus' bravado, her voice dripping with contempt. “You? With an overinflated ego like yours, even a blind man would see you coming in the dead of night. If you tried to tangle with Vasari, you wouldn't even get a chance to so much as let out a peep before you were flying with the wind as a handful of ash.”

“Wait, what did you just say?” Rainbow growled angrily, turning to glare at the woman.

“I said that your ego's writing cheques your body can't cash, Skittles. Seen way too many kids like you getting stuffed into bodybags. And, while your loyalty to your friends is admirable, that stubbornness and thick-headedness of yours is going to get you, or someone else, killed one day.” Letting out a hum, she turned to gaze outside again, just as the cyan mare pounced at her.

“Rainbow, no!” Applejack shouted a warning, but her voice died in her throat as she saw the human whirl around with incredible speed, her left arm's fingers curling around her friend's throat, leaving the furious pegasus flailing her limbs ineffectively.

“See? Case in point. And you're thinking of fighting the Vasari? Pathetic.” Lieia's eyes were a pair of cold, blue orbs, scrutinising the unruly pony.

“Like I care what you think! I'm still going to fight them!”

“So, you'd be willing to intentionally kill others?”

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to answer before the words caught up with her. “W-what?”

“The Vasari aren't going to stop simply because you rough them up a bit. It's been more than twelve years since they showed up in Coalition space, and they've been growing increasingly desperate since then. They're not going to stop at a simple victory – they'll enslave your entire planet, or simply take every inhabitant as slaves with them, and tear your entire world apart for resources. If you want to have a chance at holding your ground against them, you need to be just as ruthless. And do you seriously think you have what it takes to turn yourself in a cold, unfeeling killing machine?” Several quiet moments passed as she waited for an answer, letting out a scoff once she received none. “Thought as much.” Her tone turning a tad softer and calmer, Lieia deposited the pegasus on the ground. “I know how you feel, trust me. But this fight is one that you'll have to sit out.”

The brash pegasus, her anger abated, rubbed her throat tentatively before speaking. “If they're all so big, bad and strong, how do you plan on stopping them?”

“The same way I've done since taking the throne – by thrashing the bastards so badly that they'll be remembered solely because of how pointlessly they died. Simplicity incarnate, really.” Luna frowned at that.

“And you're sure there's no way to solve this peacefully?”

“I know more about the Vasari than you do, Princess. Hell, my sister had a taste of enslavement when the war started. Lemme tell ya, what she told me wasn't pretty. Tell me, would you be willing to bargain with a race that enslaves and butchers your kind just because they think they're better than you?”

Luna paused, her mind drifting back to the wars Equestria had been forced to defend itself from – like so many other countries, their existence was ensured through bloodshed, with Griffons being among the species that'd gladly see the freshly-crowned diarchs dethroned.

“No. I would not.”

Now that drew stares from the other ponies.

“Well, nice to know that at least someone here has a smidgen of common sense. Right, so I'll give you the run-down of what's going to happen.” A holographic depiction of Equis appeared in the middle of the room, followed by the miniscule Sun and Moon circling the planet. “So, there's your world, the moon, and the sun that our scientists would no doubt have a fit over.” A number of icons flashed into existence in low orbit above Equestrian territory. “There's my ships. Not an awful lot of vessels, but their crews are experienced. We'll lay down nuclear mines here, here, and here.” Numerous red, blinking dots appeared throughout the system. “When those go off, the Vasari forces will be forced to take a slow approach, giving us time to form a defensive perimeter. Of course, even the biggest guns won't help against their cloak-equipped vessels, which can make planetfall with little difficulty. To this end, I'll deploy several rapid reaction forces planetside, to combat whatever groundside hostiles there are. We'll keep out of your hair and mind our own business. I know how prejudiced against outsiders your ponies can be.”

Celestia turned to face the Queen, her tone incredulous.

“Excuse me?”

“Well, the incident with everyone in Ponyville thinking Zecora is a witch come to curse their town speaks pretty clear for itself.”

“Whu-how do you even know about that?” Rainbow Dash piped up, confusion clearly written across her face, causing Lieia to let out a smarmy grin.

“When Executioner One had the big ol' information exchange with your purple bookworm, she provided him with a lot of knowledge, the friendship reports being among them. And the data-packet it sent straight to me included everything Miss Sparkle shared.”

All of a sudden, Twilight felt very tiny and very insignificant as Celestia's eyes locked onto her.

“For a race whose creed is 'love and tolerate', there's sure a lot of narrow-minded individuals among your kind.” Lieia quipped, regaining the alabaster alicorn's attention.

“You're one to talk.” Celestia retorted, but Lieia only smiled.

“Hypocritical or not, truth's truth. Anyways, anything you'd like to add to the plan?”

“And what if we decide Equestria does not need your help?”

“I collect Executioner and leave. Then Vasari will arrive and bombard you from orbit until you accept their shackles or are driven extinct. Simple as that.”

Celestia glared at the human, who returned the gaze coolly.

“So, what'll it be?”

“...Do what you must, but do not keep us out of the loop. If there's any trouble, I will want to know of it.”

“We're agreed, then.” Lieia stuck out her left arm, the sophisticated piece of bionic technology moving as fluidly as its organic counterpart and Celestia found herself suppressing a wave of nausea before accepting the gesture. Metal fingers wrapped around her fetlock and shook her foreleg twice before letting go. “Then without further ado, I think we're done here for now. However, you're welcome to have a tour of Deliverance, if that sounds acceptable.”

“Really? A tour? Awesome!” Spike exclaimed as he emerged from his hiding spot behind Rarity, making his presence known for the first time since arriving. He'd been content to remain in an awed silence up to this point – but being made aware that there was more to see quelled his cautiousness.

“Totally. I'll have one of my crew act as your guide, if that's okay.” Her guests nodded, if a little reluctantly. “Cool. I'll have someone come by in a couple of minutes.” As the Equestrians turned to leave, they heard the Queen's voice once more. “Oh, before you go, there's one last thing. Well, two, to be fair.” Luna cocked an eyebrow, speaking first.

“What is it?”

“In the past years, I've had to recruit from... less than reputable places. There are more than a few serial killers and psychos among the rank-and-file who jumped at the chance of getting a full pardon in return for service. But they shouldn't be a problem so long as you don't go wandering off into places you don't have a permission to access.”

“That's a fancy way of sayin' 'mind yer damn business.'” Applejack piped up.

“Hey, I'm just giving some advice to you. You'd do well to follow it.”

“Noted. And what's the other thing?” Celestia took up the slack in the conversation.

“I'd like to find out whether or not these three had permission to come with you.” One of the wall-mounted screens lit up, displaying none other than the three Cutie Mark Crusaders, surrounded by guards.

“Oh, boy.” Spike winced sympathetically, while the Elements and Princesses were going through various degrees of a heart attack at this turn of events. It didn't last long, however, and Spike pre-emptively clamped his claws over his ears.

“SWEETIE BELLE?!”

“APPLE BLOOM?!”

“SCOOTALOO?!”

“I'll go out on a limb here and take that as a no, then.”

---

Rarity, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were talking over each other as they berated the three culprits, but the gist of it was clear – they were so grounded, like no filly had ever been grounded before. Well, as soon as they got back to Equestria, that is. Until then, they were under the other ponies' strict surveillance as the group trotted after their guide, a cheery young woman who introduced herself as Larissa Greiss – insofar, she'd been decidedly more well-mannered than the Queen.

“Rainbow? Y'feelin' alright? You've been mighty quiet.” Applejack inquired to the cyan pegasus, whom looked at her forehooves thoughtfully for a moment before looking at the farmpony.

“You don't think that what she said is true, right?”

“Uh...” Twilight trailed off awkwardly as she recalled the Mare Do Well affair. The other Elements also tried to make themselves scarce, with differing degrees of success, as the cyan pegasus looked to them in turn.

“Gee, thanks for the support, girls.”

“Ill-mannered as the Queen is, there is truth to what she said – rash decisions can cost dearly.” Luna spoke, a dark tone to her voice and Celestia found herself agreeing with her sibling, albeit grudgingly. The alabaster alicorn turned her head to regard the group – all but Spike seemed either deep in thought or less-than-enthusiastic to be here. Internally, she cursed the nerve of that woman before nuzzling Twilight. The downcast unicorn perked up, looking at her mentor questioningly.

“I'm not angry with you, Twilight. It's not my place to decide whether you want to share any of your knowledge with others, including the friendship reports. But her ability to turn it into some sort of insult is maddening.”

“Uh, t'be honest, all o' Ponyville went into hidin' ev'ry time Zecora came into town.” Applejack interjected. “Thought she was puttin' curses and such onto the stalls, we did.”

Rainbow Dash snorted at that, her mood improving some. “And then we all wandered into Poison Joke later. Heheh, Apple Teeny.”

“Rainbow Crash.”

“Touché.”

---

Luna frowned, poking her mane twice. “Gauge? Are you still there?”

“'Tis I, the Frenchiest fry~”

Author's Note:

You know what sucks about living on your own?

When depression strikes, one will lay in the bed for hours without doing anything productive.

Comments

[Bones_]

Heh. Gauge.

[Nightmare Wolf]

Oh yeah! Shit's getting serious!
One thing though. If you make it into full scale war or something like that, I think that turning it into sequel would be better, as the tone would be probably more different than the rest of this story.

[dargondarkfire]

so short. need more pony, need more executioner ai, need more crazy!