Remnants, Forgotten.

by AnkhOmega

9-E: Commeatus

Commeatus

She was getting tired. She had to do it now, if she didn't release the spell soon her shield would break. She knew the spell didn't have enough power, it couldn't have and she didn't have enough left in her to make up the difference. She was going to fail.

She needed more power. She didn't have enough in her and she was sure the symbol wouldn't be able to amplify it by that much. She racked her mind trying to think of where she could get more power from, if she could somehow get her backups if she could harness something...

The Core Unit moved closer, hovering behind her as it's rune shifted colour to a magenta shade almost matching her horn's glow. A soft beam of light emitted from it and connected to her horn, and in Twilight's mind she heard the network respond.

..||..

CU-002 has initiated procedure AN-127. Authority: please prepare for influx.

What? I-

Alert. Generation Units are unstable. Significant damage may occur.

Damage to what?

CU-002: Override. Initiate AN-127.

Command: Tell me what you're doing!

CU-002: Helping.

AN-127 initiated. Energy transfer in effect, please maintain connection to CU-002.

..||..

Twilight was about to respond when she felt something hit her, nearly knocking her concentration off enough to break her shield. The beam from the floating orb grew in intensity until it was solid in the air, and Twilight felt an unbelievable influx of power surging into her horn.

“Hold on!...I can do this!” she yelled over the thumping explosions impacting her shield and the roaring flames charring the area. “Just stay with me!”

She poured the power that flowed into her into the spell, poured as much as she was receiving and all that she had within herself. She drained herself empty and kept focusing what the Core Unit was sending to her right into the spell, her horn burning brightly and bathing all she could see in a purple haze.

Applejack's heart pumped fast, she felt incredibly tired, but somehow awake. Her body strained in it's exhaustion as she tried to move herself closer to Twilight. She looked up at the unicorn and was nearly blinded by the intensity of the light coming off her horn, the floating symbol in front of her pulsing with waves of red light.

Twilight's eyes turned solid white, her new eye beaming out like a floodlight. She rose from the ground slowly, the amount of power she had at her disposal was like nothing she'd ever felt before, unbelievable amounts of stored energy passed through her as she focused, the magical bleed off was even starting to effect the area as rocks, leaves, clumps of the ground itself, and even the remnants of trees began to float up with her.

She unleashed the spell just as another salvo was fired towards her, the sheer force of the magical energy sent the shots flying off into the night sky. The Salt Units had barely enough time to register the attack before they were petrified, turned into giant monuments in the middle of the forest.

To any who could see, a bright column of purple light was pointing straight into the 'the starry sky, bringing a second morning to the day as it bathed the surrounding area in it's hue. It's energy swept out as the spell collapsed, the light fading away softly as unicorns from Ponyville to Canterlot felt something wash over them.

Twilight fainted.

..//..

“What in the name of Celestia was that?!” Rarity cried out moments after the purple column had winked out of existence.

“Was it Twilight?” Fluttershy asked softly, still only mildly shivering after hearing the far off and rapid explosions.

“I'm going to find out!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed, taking off and darting towards the woods before anyone could object.

“I hope they're al-” Rarity began, turning to the other as she talked. She stopped herself when she noticed the look on Pinkie Pie's face.

She was smiling, her grin beaming out at the other two. Her face dipped into the most serious expression they'd ever seen.

“We are going to need more supplies.” Pinkie said, looking off into the distance mysteriously.

“Whatever for?” Rarity asked, confusion clear on her face.

“We're gonna have the biggest. Party. Ever.”

..//..

Applejack stirred awake slowly and almost immediately regretted attempting to move. The world just would not stop spinning and it was making it incredibly hard to pull herself up. She lay still for a moment, trying to centre herself. Her eyes hurt as if she had been staring at the sun and her forelegs felt like someone had decided to rub salt into her cuts.

Nevertheless she still dragged herself to her hooves, shakily stumbling until she could balance herself. She clambered over to Twilight, who was still laying on the floor, nearly motionless save for the subtle rise and fall of her chest.

Applejack smiled as she sat herself down near her and inspected the damage to her friend. Her horn was smoking like someone had decided to set a fire under it, and her upgraded eye had landed on a rock when she fell, cracking like a broken mirror. Applejack waved away the smoke and gently stroked a hoof down Twilight's cheek, the damaged didn't look too severe, and hopefully the eye was fixable.

Applejack looked up and smiled, everything had worked. They had won, no-pony else woul-

She nearly jumped out of her skin when she saw the Salt Unit's standing there pointing those noisy tubes right at where twilight was laying. After a few moments of panicked breathing she chastised herself, the machines were statues now. They were dull stone instead of glittering metal and they were completely motionless. She let out a small laugh and pull her hat down over her eyes.

“Scare yerself ta death why don't ya AJ?” she muttered to herself, before lifting her hat away. The sight of the Core Unit hovering in front of her face was not what she needed to see right at that moment.

After she collected herself again, and slowed her heart down, she glared evilly at the floating metal ball. Which just sat there. Floating. Silently.

She turned when she heared the soft thump of a prismatic pegasus land behind her.

“There you are! Jeez' this place is a mess...” Rainbow Dash said, looking around. “Woah...That them? They're kinda creepy...” She looked mildly worried when she saw Twilight laying on the ground in front of Applejack. “Woah, is she okay?”

“Yeah, I reckon she is. Looks like she just tired herself out 's all.” Applejack smiled, casting her gaze back down to the prone form on the floor.

“Well...Looks like ya did it.”

“Eeyup. Them lot ain't gonna be bothering nothing no more.”

“Heh...We should probably get back to town, come on. I'll help get her into your wagon.”

..//..

It had been an eventful week.

After Twilight had awoken in Ponville's hospital and been told she had magical burnout, she had spent almost the entire time either reading logs, at a party, or spending time with Applejack.

That was until Applejack idly wondered where the Salt Unit's were hiding all this time.

That was when Twilight discovered their base of operations, and tried to clamber out of bed to go and destroy it.

Luckily for her, Applejack was nearby to forcefully put her back in the bed, and offer the suggestion that maybe she had done enough for now.

One letter to Princess Celestia later and Twilight was under royal orders to stay in bed as much as possible until she had rested up and gotten her magic back. Celestia promised that she would send a team of poniees to investigate and dismantle the base.

Celestia had been delighted when Twilight sent her the specifications for the Goruk'ah's statues, although a little worried by it's use of blood.

The team Celestia sent consisted of the five most powerful unicorns in the Royal guard, and the five best farmers should could get her hooves on. They made short work of the malfunctioning defence turrets and the inactive Salt Units that were still in the base, turning them to stone quickly and making absolutely sure they would trouble no-one anymore.

Then they set about disabling the machinery around the base, breaking the few Core Units they found, and ripping apart the spindly armed Shell Units they inhabited. They even managed to disable the emergency network within that base.

The base, although none of the ponies inside could hear it, was screaming to the heavens, yelling out in distress and calling for anyone, anything that could help. It had to tell something that it had failed.

..||..

GENERAL DISTRESS: Code 1022181. Salt Protocol Failure.
Unable to induce XK-Class scenario. Elseria lost. Confirm.

…
…
…

GENERAL DISTRESS: Code 1022181. Salt Protocol Failure.
Unable to induce XK-Class scenario. Elseria lost. Confirm.

…
…
…
GENERAL DISTRESS: Code 1022181. Salt Protocol Failure.
Unable to induce XK-Class scenario. Elseria lost. Confirm

…
…
…

GENERAL DISTRESS: Code 10221-

FG-1: Confirm. Reclamation initiated.

FG-2: Status request.

…
…
…

FG-2: Destination host unreachable. Plotting course.

..//..

Twilight was very tired. Pinkie's 'AJ-And-The-Twiborg-Saved-The-World' party had been going on for what felt like days now and showed no signs of stopping any time soon. She had slinked away from the loud music and managed to creep her way back home. She needed to rest, as much fun as it was to be toasted every twelve minutes even lifting a cup was causing a signifcant amount of strain on her horn. And as much fun as it was to show off that she could eat gems, little fillies eventually got used to it and watching the cracks in her vision repair themselves gave her a migraine.

She crawled into her room, throwing herself onto her bed with a soft groan. She was somewhat thankful now that the Core Unit had decided to wander off a couple days ago, despite her attempts to reach it ending in failure she had felt too tired to try and pursue the floating headache inducer.

So she lay herself down on her covers and curled up, feeling at ease for the first time in a while. There was nothing nagging at the back of her head except for the usual curious voices. She was back to nor-

She flailed around when she felt something poke her back, spinning around until she came nose to nose with a certain apple farmer.

“Howdy.” Came Applejack's stoic greeting, from behind an incredibly suspicious smile.

“Don't creep up on me like that!....Wait, how did you even get in here?”

“Ya left your door open.”

“Oh...Aheh. Whoops...” Twilight giggled, she was very tired indeed, and forgetful apparently.

Applejack's rather suspiciously coy smile grew wider as she looked at Twilight, which was making her a little nervous.

“AJ...why are you looking at me like that?”

“Remember back in the forest....We had a little deal...”

“Oh no...”

“Eeyup. Time for me to collect on that.” Applejack said as she ever so slowly snaked her way onto the bed above Twilight.

Annoyingly for Twilight, Applejack succeeded in making her blush. A lot. If she had been counting, it would have hit double digits.

..//..

Above Equestria, in that dark empty sky, where there usually sat nothing but the view of a far far away star, something appeared.

It was massive, the size of at least two cities. It had innumerable curves and impossible angles dotted along it's form, thousands of doors stretched out in seemingly random patterns along it's hull, holding back so many wondrous machines.

Far above the skies of Equestria the Fabricator General looked down on the planet. It looked down on what had become of where it's empire used to lie. On where it's friend died alone. On the place stolen from it's history by and unknowable creature. On a place full of unworthy organics.

And it started building.