Chapter 1
“I’m sorry it has to end this way, Miss Glory,” his cold, crisp voice felt like needles of ice as they reached her ears. Despite what he said, he was not sorry at all. Not in the slightest.
“Wh-what do you mean? Who are you? What’s the meaning of this?!” the mare yelled, with a slight tinge of nervousness in her voice. Seeing stallions with black suits, matching sunglasses, and perturbingly sharp horns standing at your doorstep in the middle of the night tends to do that to ponies.
“You need not worry yourself over such questions, Miss Glory. Just know that you have served your purposes and have been greatly beneficial in our project,” said the stallion in the middle in a careful, monotonous voice. He was a large unicorn stallion, with a grey mane and a dusty blue coat. He wasn’t wearing the black suits the other two next to him wore. Instead, all he wore was a clean white lab coat and a green tie, and yet just looking into his ice grey eyes, the way they were looking at her, as if she was just some cockroach needing to be stepped upon, was more intimidating than his two ‘guards’. Golden Glory shivered. She was getting scared now.
Golden Glory stepped back, her heart beating loudly. Stray strands of her red mane fell to her face. “P-p-project?! What project? What are you talking about? You’re not making sense!”
The stallion closed his eyes, ending his piercing gaze, and sighed.
“Project Rebirth, of course,” replied the stallion. Upon seeing Golden Glory’s nervous confusion, he was compelled to elaborate more.
“The child, Miss Glory,” the stallion said, taking a step into her home, despite not being told to. “We have come for her.”
“My little Shining Glory? What would you want with my daughter?” Golden Glory replied. She getting even more scared now—no she was terrified right now. Not for her own safety, but for her daughter. These stallions looked like they would hurt ponies just to get what they want. She backed away some more, looking desperately for something to defend herself with if things start to get ugly. Oh, how she wished she was a unicorn instead of a pegasus right now.
“You are wasting our time with these questions, Miss Glory. Submit the child to us or we will use force,” he moved forward in to Golden Glory's home, making her cringed with every step.
“Like Tartarus I will! I don’t even know who the buck you are and why you’re here in the middle of the night and yet you expect me to give away my daughter like some party favor?!" Golden Glory stepped forward to the imposing stallion with sudden anger. How dare they barge in to my home! In the middle of the night, no less, and threaten me into giving away my daughter! Why I ought to— her train of angry thoughts was severed, as the stallion was speaking again.
“Daughter?” the stallion said with a light chuckle. It was the first trace of emotion Golden Glory saw from the stallion since meeting him a few minutes ago. “She was never your daughter,” he said with a patronizing smile.
Golden Glory didn’t know what was scarier, his blank face from earlier, or his smiling face now.
“What are you talking about? Of course she’s my daughter! I distinctly remember giving birth to her at the hospital, for Celestia’s sake!” Golden Glory raised her voice, incredulous that the stallion would make these claims.
The stallion’s smile vanished, replaced with a look of mock confusion and tilted his head. “Of course you gave birth to her, Miss Glory. But giving birth doesn’t automatically make her yours.” Face blank once more, he continued. “You are merely her surrogate.”
Golden Glory’s eyes narrowed. “W-what? How dare you make such claims! You don’t even have proof to back them up!” she shouted, enraged by the drivel this stallion was saying.
If this keeps up, she’ll wake the neighbors. Hmmm, we don’t want that now, do we? He thought for a while, but then decided to continue this on for a little while longer. Inwardly, he was starting to enjoy this.
“Do you remember your husband, Miss Glory?” asked the stallion.
“Of course I do! What kind of wife would forget her husband?” Golden Glory replied, unsure of where he was going with this, and admittedly, a little angry and sad of being reminded of her husband. They were riding a train back to Manehatten after a visiting her husband's family living in Ponyville when it inevitably crashed. She was pregnant then with little Shining Glory. She was lucky to have survived, but her husband, not so.
“Ah, quite right. But have you not taken notice that neither of you resemble your little ‘Shining Glory’? Have you not even thought of her being a unicorn when both of your families had none?” he said as he watched her reaction.
Golden Glory thought over of what he said. Apple Peel was an earth pony and her, a Pegasus. She knew the Apples were a family of proud, hardworking earth ponies and she, in turn, had a family of Pegasi all living in Cloudsdale for many generations. Her husband had a red mane and a cream colored coat, while she also had a red mane, but with a yellow coat. Her little Shining Glory… she had a purple coat, and a dark blue mane with two other colors she couldn’t identify since they were too thin and scant. Her eyes narrowed and her yellow coat paled in epiphany. No! No, this can’t be true! It’s a lie! A lie!
“Y-y-you’re lying!” Golden Glory accused, desperately hoping that the stallion was making this up. Her daughter was all that was left of her. She spotted the nearest object she could find. A wine bottle she was drinking from earlier that evening. She inched toward it. She wasn't going to let them take her precious daughter away. Even if it meant her life.
“I’m afraid not, Miss Glory,” the stallion said, stepping closer to her, inwardly smiling. He was definitely liking this. “All of what I've said has been the truth. But enough of this now, Miss Glory. We have dawdled to long. Bring us the girl and—“ he never got to finish that line as a wine bottle was in the process of a crash collision with his head.
Golden Glory realized her mistake. She had acted fast, but the stallion’s two guards were faster. Her eyes widened as she was struck by body-freezing spells. She had forgotten about the guards. She had been too focused with the stallion in front of her. It was too late, and now, she couldn't move.
The blue stallion she had been conversing with sighed. “I had hoped it would not come to this. I was getting quite fond of you, Miss Glory. I was considering just wiping your memories instead and not having to resort to killing you, as was originally planned. I’m sorry it had to end this way.” He nodded to the two guards and went to the upper levels of Golden Glory’s house.
Golden Glory could not speak out. She tried struggling, moving her limbs wildly, but against two powerful unicorns’ spells, her efforts were all in vain. She tried to cry out to spare her daughter, but all she managed were muffled sobs and tears running down her face. Her eyes followed the blue unicorn as he went up. She heard his hoofsteps go into her daughter’s room. Finding new strength, she resisted even more now, but the two guards’ spells were still too strong for her. She did the only thing she could do. She cried.
The blue unicorn stallion was coming down now, with a small little filly, wrapped in blankets as she slept, floating with the unicorn’s pale blue magic. Golden Glory continued to cry as she watched him depart with her daughter. He nodded to his two guards one last time and stepped out of the house.
All Golden Glory could do was stare and cry as the guards’ gray magic erupted from their horns and straight towards her. There was pain, and she screamed, muffled though it was, then all faded to black. Golden Glory was dead.
~~~
“Well, that took longer than expected,” the blue unicorn said to the two guards, though none answered.
He entered the carriage the brought them here with the little filly floating in his magic. The two guards then walk in front of the carriage and harnessed themselves into it and pulled. They were finally moving. To where was only known to him and the two guards.
Shining Glory…what an uninspiring name. Unlike your true name.
He looked at the little filly. She looked every bit like she did in the pictures of books, albeit being only an infant. The first and second steps of their project have come off without a hitch. He hoped that they would succeed this time. Doing things again and again like what happened earlier was beginning to get a little tiring. Orchestrating the crash, making sure the stallion was dead, and siezing the mare. Removing her unborn foal and inserting the embryo proved to be no easy task, even though they had done it three times over the years. So too was covering up for her disappearance after the crash, getting her to the hospital, and explaining she was on comatose to her friends and family.
This better be worth it.
Though he enjoyed seeing their faces when they’ve come to realization, it was more or less the same, and with nothing new happening, it was quite boring after a time. Snapping out of his thoughts, he turned to addressed the sleeping little filly.
“Soon Equestria will be in another age of greatness, and they will bow to you. Even the Princesses. Soon Equestria will come to know you once again, Twilight Sparkle.