Remnants, Forgotten.

by AnkhOmega

7:Solutions.

7:Solutions

Applejack wasn't sure what to do. It had been close to an hour now since the news hit that they had missed the chance to stop the end of the world, and things hadn't gone well. Twilight was a quivering wreck, mumbling self-criminations about her idiocy for not investigating earlier, Princess Celestia was busy debriefing the guard who had alerted them to the destruction of a major city, and Applejack herself was struggling to process what had just been revealed to her.

Baltimare, a fairly large city if she recalled correctly, was gone. Everypony who used to live there was dead, at the hoof of these “Salt Units”. Applejack couldn't even imagine death on that scale, nor what type of horror these creatures were that would allow them to destroy so much in such little time.

She didn't know what she could do about them. But she did know one thing, Twilight was having a breakdown. She could help with that, at least it was something she know how to try and help with.

She trotted over to Twilight, who was currently in the foetal position and stroking her tail while quivering. She sat next to the shivering mass and did the only thing she could think to do. She leant down next to her head and starting running a forehoof through her mane. She began whispering and cooing in an effort to comfort Twilight and coax her out of the state she'd gotten herself into.

It didn't quite have the desired effect. Twilight stopped shivering, stopped talking to herself, and relaxed her body a little. In place of those however, she started sobbing. Applejack just continued stroking a hoof through her mane, whispering reassurances into her ear.

It was this scene that Princess Celestia returned from the balcony to find. She smiled lightly when she saw them, it was good to see somepony caring enough to comfort Twilight despite her rather unusual new appearance. She decided to give the two of them some privacy, while she thought on how to react to tragedy. She had sent the Guardspony back to Canterlot to await her return and organise a search through the rubble for any survivors.

As she was leaving the room she spotted the Core Unit watching over the two. She wrapped it in a field of golden magic and dragged it out with her, despite its protests, figuring that they would need some privacy.

..//..

Applejack had noticed the Princess leaving, dragging the weird orb with her. She was somewhat grateful for that, as nice as it was to have a handy source of answers floating about, Twilight could do without it delivering more news.

Twilight had quieted down after a while, her sobs becoming whispers of blaming herself and the occasional sniffle. Applejack leaned her head down close to Twilight's, attempting to hear what was being said.

“...It's all my fault. They're dead because I didn't listen, didn't look, didn't think...Whole world's going to be destroyed because of me...

Applejack frowned, she knew she had to nip that line of thought in the bud as soon as she could. Twilight was a little obsessive at the best of times, she tended to over-think, and then over-react to her over-thinking. Having her dwell on something like this would definitely not end well.
Applejack reached a forehoof down and picked Twilight up by the shoulder, lifting her into a sitting position. She lifted Twilight's chin up, looking into her eyes. Twilight had stopped muttering, settling for the occasional sniffle. Applejack brushed her hoof over Twilight's left cheek, wiping away residual tears.

“It's not your fault Twi'.” She said softly.

“But I-” Twilight tried to interject.

“But nothin;'. Ain't nopony who coulda seen somethin' like this comin', or handled it any better.”

“But if I had-”

“Don't be wastin' yer' life on the ifs. What's happened has happened, what ya should be focusin' on right now, what you would be focusin' on if you were thinkin' straight, is how ta stop these things from doin' it again.”

“...What if I can't stop them?”

“Ya can.”

“Yes, but what if I can't?”

“Ya can and that's the end of it. You're Twilight Sparkle fer cryin' out loud, ain't nothing you can't do when ya put ya mind to it.” Applejack was relieved to see the corner of Twilight's mouth turn up in the beginnings of a smile. Applejack's comforting instincts kicked in to seize the opportunity, before either of them could think it through the Farmer had wrapped her forehooves around the Librarian in a tight hug.

Twilight was momentarily stunned by the action, all her previous thoughts and worries seemed to vanish from her mind. They were replaced by a comfortable warmth and the odd thought that, in the tight embrace from the strong earth pony, she felt safe. She wrapped her forelegs around Applejack, sharing the embrace fully.

Applejack shivered, the cold metal of Twilight's new legs cooling her back rapidly. She smiled despite the sudden temperature difference, despite the oddity of her new form it was still the mare she loved. And she was hugging her back.

They stayed like that, just holding each other, for a few minutes before breaking apart. Both mares were smiling at each other, Twilight's full of hope and renewed self-confidence, Applejack's full of love and hope for the future.

That hopeful look stirred something in Applejack, and for a moment she threw her inhibitions to the wind. She leaned in and gave Twilight a quick, gentle kiss on her lips.

Twilight was surprised on two fronts by the quick kiss. The first being the action itself, it wasn't an action that had much precedent in her life, somewhat to her chagrin. The second was just how soft Applejack's lips felt against hers, and how right that fraction of a moment had felt.

When Applejack realised what she'd just done, and after the surprise had worn off for Twilight, they both stared at each other. Within moments they were blushing hard enough that anyone who saw them would swear their coats had changed colour.

They shared an awkward silence, followed by a few coy smiles, which brought on a small fit of giggles shared between the two. Twilight didn't think she had ever felt better, all of her stress just seemed to melt away, giving way to her usual focused self.

“Okay...Come on, lets get going.” Twilight said, moving towards the door once the heated blush had faded from her cheeks. “We've got to stop these things from destroying anything else.”

Applejack caught up with her and asked, “Where're we goin'?” As much as it pleased her to see some determination in her friend instead of hopelessness, she knew they needed a plan to fight something like what they were going up against.

“To do research!” Twilight almost sounded excited about the prospect. Applejack just rolled her eyes knowingly.

They made their way down into the central chamber of the library, finding Princess Celestia sitting at the main table with a horrified look on her face. The Core Unit floated over to Twilight almost immediately, hovering near her like protective mother would hover near a child.

“Princess?” Twilight asked the stock still alicorn. She hadn't made so much as a flinch since they had come down the stairs. She tried calling to her a few more times and was met with silence. Twilight decided to risk the unthinkable in order to get her mentor's attention.

She poked Celestia in the side with her hoof.

The way Celestia jumped reminded Twilight, for the briefest moment, of a startled cat.

..\\..

Celestia dragged the Core Unit down into the main room of the library and sat at the table. After a few minutes of her dragging it back when it attempted to re-enter Twilight's bedroom it gave up, and began floating in the corner of the room in something approaching a sulk.

She sat in serene silence for a while, thinking. Her thoughts dwelled on the news she had received from the guard. An entire city destroyed and thousands lying dead in its streets. That level of destruction was unheard of in almost all living memory. Equestria hadn't seen open war in generations, she had made very sure of that, and she doubted that the general population would react well to the news that they had been attacked by something unfathomably ancient. Unfathomably ancient, yet somehow familiar.

She glanced up to the Core Unit. It had said something before the shield went down, something which was currently nagging away at the back of her mind.

“Excuse me,” She spoke, “Would you be so kind as to tell me who or what Galaxia was?”

Almost immediately the Core Unit spun to 'face' her, its glyph focusing on her. It stared for a moment before chiming out, “Please wait.....Aspect authorised for solo access to Library server. Querying.”

It floated closer to her, stopping at the other side of the central table before continuing. “Galaxia: Little is know about the creature known as Galaxia. It appears as a large equine creature with a horn and wings made of a substance resembling fire. It was discovered during exploration of the Galactic Core and immediately began attacking Elserian colonies. After the creature's destruction the Aspects of Galaxia are presumed to have been formed and have been assumed to have spread to all remaining colony worlds.”

This again, seemed familiar to Celestia, as if she already knew of Galaxia from somewhere, but had forgotten long ago. It was like a name on the tip of her tongue, or a face that is obscured by missing details, only infinitely more infuriating. She wanted to know more, so she could hopefully banish this feeling.

“What is an Aspect of Galaxia?”

“Aspects: An aspect of Galaxia is a creature presumed to have been formed as a by-product of Galaxia's destruction. Two have been confirmed to exist so far, The Apsects of Light and Dark. Although much less powerful than their progenitor, they are still overwhelmingly dangerous.”

She could feel it. She was getting close to the reason why she felt like this strange technology was so familiar. She was getting close to an answer. She was close to banishing the questions in her mind, and yet, there was a voice in the back of her head telling her that she wouldn't like the answers.

“What were Aspects of Light and Dark?” She asked, ignoring the doubts in her mind.

“Visual aids available. Displaying.” The Core Unit began to project out two images, blurry at first but they slowly became more and more in focus. With each passing moment Celestia tried to deny what her eyes were seeing, looking for some way that it could be a mistake, a falsehood. The pictures began to change, scenes of battle, scenes of devastation, scenes of slaughter, and scenes of madness were cycled through.

Each picture showed her or her sister. Their eyes were solid white and glowing with rage. Their features contorted into masks of hatred. They were slaughtering the bipedal Elserians, man, woman, and child. They looked like they were enjoying it, revelling in bloodshed.

“Aspects: The Aspect of Light is a much smaller equine than Galaxia, but still larger than average for such creatures. It possesses an alabaster white coat, feathered wings and a long horn.”

She began to remember, ancient memories of anger dredged themselves up as the Core Unit spoke. She would have given anything to not relive the coming moments. To have her deeds remain blissfully suppressed.

“It is to be considered an extremely dangerous opponent both physically and magically.”

She remembered casting such horrible spells upon the creatures, rending their flesh from their bones or searing their bodies until they were nothing more than charred husks. She remembered the smell of burning flesh. She remembered the ones who got close and were crushed underhoof, organs rupturing under her stomps. She remembered tearing open machines with her bare hooves, seeking to give a similar fate to their operators.

“All forces are advised to use heavy ordinance against an Aspect regardless of proximity to other lifeforms.”

She remembered their attempts at self-defence. They threw everything at her. The very air exploded around her shields as they tried to fight her away. She remembered their sacrifice of the families she was about to murder, just to attempt to stop her. She remembered their machines of war. She remembered the power of her anger.

“Alert: The creature has taken control of the local star, day-night cycle is no longer predictable.”

She remembered taking control of the sun. She remembered pulling it closer, baking the land and boiling the seas in sudden heatwaves. She remembered watching a dehydrated city burn up under her fury.

“Warning: The creature can focus the energy of the star into a tight beam of heat, heavy mechanised infantry should be advised to not remain stationary during confrontation.”

She remembered focusing her power into single spots, burning through their large boxes of destruction. She remembered igniting fields of crops, laughing as she knew the indigenous population would starve.

The orb was still talking, but it's words fell on deaf ears. She was lost in her newly recovered memories.

She remembered the rage. The anger. The meaningless hatred.

She remembered the joy of having such furious power, and the glorious slaughter of war. She remembered the fizzling out of her anger when there was nothing left but ashes to focus on.

She remembered snapping out of her rage, finding herself alone in a blackened world of ash and dust. She had wandered through a dead expanse until she had found her sister, lying in a crater and weeping from loneliness.

She remembered the sacrifice they had shared to bring new life to a burnt world.

She remembered everything.

She practically jumped out of her coat when something cold and metal prodded her in the side.

..//..

After they had settled down Celestia had excused herself, she had to return to Canterlot and come up with a plan for how to deliver the news to the general population. Twilight was a little concerned over the slight waver in the Princess' voice. Something was troubling her, but unfortunately Twilight couldn't afford to cut into her research time to ask. She had a very important topic to investigate after all.

She settled down at the main table, reaching out with her magic to grasp dozens of sheets of paper, scrolls, quills, and ink pots. Spike entered the room from the kitchen, nearly fainting when he saw Twilight, Applejack worked quickly however, stopping the dragon from voicing a protest by cramming her hoof into his mouth.

“Ah'm gonna brew ya up somethin', How d'ya take yer coffee?” Applejack asked, shoving spike back into the kitchen.

“Black, Strong.” Was all the response Twilight could give. She had encircled herself with various books, some on old military strategy, most on magic. She couldn't find anything even remotely useful. She had already practically memorised the books she had access to, none of them held much by the way of options for something that could withstand whatever a 'Scorpio class battle tank' was.

She needed more books, it would have been ideal to her to be in the Canterlot Archives right now, she knew for a fact that there were much more specialised combat magics stored away in some of the restricted wings. She desperately needed access to that library of hidden away knowledge.

Something clicked in her brain. She looked at the Core Unit with a grin on her face. Command: Query Library server for Offensive Magic.

The sheer volume of information that started flooding into her mind was immense. It was almost painful with its intensity, magical symbols, equations, formulae, and spell histories shot through her mind. She quickly realised she had no chance to store it all in her memory, she had to write it down. All of it.

The scratching of quill on parchment was nearly loud enough to be heard from outside the building. Enough pages to fill volumes were scattered on every available surface as Twilight attempted to write out as much of the information as she could. The cup of coffee on the table went unnoticed as she attempted to copy the vast quantities of data streaming from the Library server.

Both Applejack and Spike had attempted to get her attention. They had received a rushed “Can'ttalkgottawritebeforeit'sgone” for their troubles. They both shrugged and set about trying to organise the mess of seemingly random symbols, pages of text and equations.

Applejack made sure to check up on Spike every now and then. They had talked things through in the kitchen and he had taken it surprisingly well, declaring that he would simply need to be there for her more until she was okay. She smiled at him, he reminded her of a member of the Apple family, there for you whether you want them to be or not.

Minutes passed and Twilight had used up nearly all available pages of paper, pots of ink, and quills in her frenzied writing. When the last ink pot ran dry she had written at least enough to fill four extra large reference guides. She had barely gotten down a tenth of the information that was passing through her head, she decided that after all this was over she was going to try to get it all down again. But maybe next time she'd try a specific sub-topic. Or attempt it with a lot more supplies around.

She noted, with some surprise, that despite the fat that she had just spent a large amount of time writing on no less than five different subjects at once, on numerous pieces of paper, with several quills, she didn't actually feel tired. There wasn't even the slightest hint of magical exhaustion or the headache which followed it.

“Ya all done there Twi'?” Applejack asked tentatively. She really hoped she was, she didn't think she could take much more organising paperwork.

“I think so...for now at least.” Twilight smiled, then looked around. Spike and Applejack looked exhausted, surrounded by stacks of paper. Her smile turned sheepish. “Heh....well, I think there's something here we can use.”

“There better be...I nearly threw my back out carrying all these stacks of paper.” Spike complained.

“Okay then. Now we just need a clear indication of the specifications on these Salt Units, then we can figure out which of these spells to use. Then it should be a simple matter of figuring out where they're going next and stopping them from reaching there.” Twilight listed off the tasks with a happy grin. Lists made everything so much easier.

“Right.” Applejack nodded, “How we gonna do that?”

Twilight smirked at her, “Simple. Ask.” She turned towards the Core Unit, “Core Unit-002, What are the specifications of a Salt Unit?”

The orb floated into the middle of the room, hovering above the central table, and began to project out an image. The projection showed two views of a bipedal machine, from the front and side. There were markings surrounding it, height measurements, width, spell absorption ratings,weapon specifications, and even power consumption estimates.

The Core Unit started to name off parts of the projection, defining them and highlighting them to draw emphasis. The list it rattled off was worryingly long, full of things she'd never even heard of before in concept. The few things that she did understand were 'Shoulder Mounted cannons', various runes of destructive and protective function, and a large store of various poisons.

It sounded to her like these Salt Units were designed with their function in mind, rather than a budget. Running through what little she could remember of the offensive spells that had flashed through her mind a few possible names stood out. The most promising required a little confirmation before she could start planning to use it.

“What material is their armour made from?” She asked, hoping that she wouldn't have to resort to one of the more extreme sounding spells.

“Salt Unit: Specifications: Armouring: Salt Unit armour is composed of a steel based alloy supplemented with various blends of heavier metals. Each unit is coated with thin layers of titanium and silver to allow for more intricate runes to be inscribed.” it informed her in it's pre-recorded voice.

“Perfect!” she practically yelled, causing Applejack and Spike to jump from the sudden increase in volume.

“Wha? Tha's good ah take it?” Applejack asked curiously.

“Very good!” Twilight said while digging through the assorted stacks of paper, carelessly creating a mess of them while searching for one particular entry.

Spike glared at the back of her head. He hated when she did this kind of thing. He just knew that he'd had to clean this up later.

When she located the page she had been seeking she grabbed it with a loud “Ahah!”, slapping it down on the table to show the others. They leaned over to take a look at what had gotten her so excited, Twilight smiling smugly behind them.

After a few minutes of them staring at the paper and occasionally tilting their heads, Applejack finally spoke up. “Uhh...Twi'? You know we can't read whatever language this is, right?”

Twilight deflated, “But...It's in Equish...” she said, moving between her friend to peer at the page. Which was quite clearly in basic Equish, admittedly her hornwriting was a little messy, but that was a product of writing so many things at once.

“Twilight, I've never seen a language that looked anything like that before in my life.” Spike said, somewhat nervous that Twilight might be losing it, and mildly unnerved by the metallic parts masquerading as his surrogate-mother/sister's limbs.

“That's....really weird. Core Unit, why don't you explain this spell, while I try to figure out what's going on?” Twilight said, her eyes never leaving the page.

In response the floating orb immediately flew above Twilight and pointed it's glyph at the page, as if it were reading it itself. It span back around to face Applejack and Spike and began to explain.

“Goruk'ah's Statues: An offensive spell designed to assist in dealing with heavy armour vehicles or infantry equipped with heavy or powered armour. The spell is designed for mass transmutation of various light and heavy metals into stone, immobilising them and rendering weapons useless. It became renown after the battle of Gresh, in which Goruk'ah cast the spell against the Greshok's mobile infantry, encasing them in a petrified version of the armour they wore. The Statue Fields of Gresh are currently one of the most popular tourist destinations in the sector.”

“Wait an applebuckin' minute..” Applejack said, with a mildly disturbed look on her face. “This fella trapped them in their armour? Did he jus' leave them there?”

“Affirmative. After Gresh's surrender the statues were scanned for signs of life. 99% had suffocated. 1% of the encased soldiers had fallen into a coma. High Overseer Narhk'esh decreed that it would be less severe of a punishment to let the comatose soldiers share the fate of the rest.” The orb responded, it's lack of any clear inflection causing the statement to sound callous.

“Is it just me, or is it the more we hear about these Elseer Ians-” Applejack started, giving a quick glare at the orb as it interrupted her.

“Correction: Pronunciation: El-Serr-ee-Ahns. Elserians.”

“-Elserians, the less there is to like?” she finished.

Twilight considered it for a moment. They did seem rather militant, and a little extreme. And their creations were currently attempting to destroy the planet. And they did kind of...mutilate her. But surely they couldn't be all bad, could they? They had had a civilisation spanning the stars, a level of technology practically unheard of to Equestria, and they had an unbelievable amount of knowledge stored away.

“Admittedly they haven't given off the best first impression......” Twilight agreed, “But I’m sure, like every culture, they have their redeeming qualities. But that's not the point, I think with this spell we can actually stop these Salt Units!” She practically shone with excitement at the prospect.

“Well, yeah there is that ah s'pose....So, d'ya know how to cast it?” Applejack inquired. Twilights new-found enthusiasm was spreading and she was having a hard time keeping her normal level-headedness.

Twilight cast her eyes back along the page, searching out the focusing symbol. Her face blanched when she saw the reagents necessary to power the spell. “Oh...Uh-oh.” she said, a tinge of dread snaking its way into her voice.

“What? Somethin' wrong?”

“The spell...It needs blood to cast. Fresh blood.”

..||..

Primus request: Secondary and Tertiary base systems status.
…
…
…
Self-test complete. Displaying results.

Local Teleportation Matrix: Offline
Ammunition Generation Unit: Online: 45% efficiency.
Armour Regeneration stations: Offline.
Ekrin poison banks: Online: 10% efficiency.
Maintenance Shells: Online: 87% efficiency.
Defence Systems: Online: 2% efficiency.
Production facilities: Offline.
XK-Weather Manipulation: Offline.
XK-Harmonic Disruption: Offline
XK-Grand Putrefaction: Offline.
XK-Singularity Generator: Offline.
XK-Planetary core destabiliser: Offline.

Power Levels: Critical: 13%.
Time Estimation until fully repaired: 8 Days.

All XK systems offline. Recommendation: Manual induction.
…
…
…
Primus request: Rearm. Designate next target.
…
…
…
Acknowledged. Plotting lifesign map.

..||..

Author's Note:

Sorry this took so long. I got very, very distracted.

Comments

[The Lone Shadow]

This bodes ill.... dl.dropbox.com/u/31471793/FiMFiction/emoticons/misc_rainbowderp_flip.png

[John Tannius]

It's a good thing they aren't fighting these things at their best. I seriously doubt that spell would work even if Twilight could find a source of fresh blood.

I'd say write faster but since I haven't written anything in years I'd be a hypocrite.