Prologue
Prologue: Project Rekindle
"There's always hope. But hope can be corrupted."
The open-topped humvee I was sitting in gave an almighty lurch. Startling me awake, I almost fell forwards onto the floor of the vehicle. Immediately hooking my holed hoof around a bar, I slowly pulled myself back up to sitting position. But damn, everybody else on the humvee was already laughing at me.
The one beside me gave me a pat on the shoulders as he continued to guffaw. The laughter continued on for awhile before dissolving back into the usual chatter again.
"Say, Critters," the changeling closest to me turned towards me. "How did you get into this squad anyways?"
"Conscription, I guess?" I shrugged. I was never good at conversations, not in the Hive, not here either.
"Join the club," said the changeling right opposite me, as he gave me a lopsided smile.
The old changeling driving the humvee gave one loud, audible grunt. As we all turned to him, he started to ramble. "During my age, all changelings were conscripted! But no, we weren't as whiny like you youngsters! We were all proud to join the Swarm! To fight against those cruel, unjust ponies! During my time, weak-minded youngsters like you are always the first one to go!"
"But sir," one of the changelings sitting in the corner pointed out, "During the Great War, you were probably about our age and complaining about the love rations."
The old changeling grunted again as we all burst into laughter. I admit, that jab was hilarious.
"Now, now, brothers," said our squad commander. His name was Flakes. Also, his name was th eonly one I bothered to remember. "You guys do know that we're here on a mission right? And lay off the veteran, he's probably taken more bullets than all of us combined."
"Oh no, here he goes again," complained the changeling on my other side.
"This mission is sent from Canterlot itself. Top brass even said it may be from the Queen herself! I'm sure you all are excited about this mission, but I'll brief it again if you forgot anything."
All of us straightened when we heard the word 'Queen'. I wonder why it happened. Biological reasons, perhaps? Or maybe just that we were raised upon the belief that the Queen was omniscient.
"Strange lights and sounds have been observed near the tombs between Ponyville and Canterlot. Our mission is to scout out the area and try to eliminate any threat there is."
'Threat'. To be truthful, this was the first actual battle that I may fight in. I pulled my rifle towards me closer. Us changelings, especially the ones stationed near the middle of Equestria, barely saw action anymore. The stalemate with the Griffin Defense Alliance and Dragon Restoration Initiative to the south combined with the ceasefire with the Northern Coalition meant that the changelings sandwiched in the middle only had the occasional fanatic to deal with.
"The Siege for Canterlot may be won, but the Great War is still long from over!" My drill sergeant back at the Hive was fond at screaming this into our ears.
The journey continued on as we started to move onto more uneven roads. But it was nothing compared to the humvee's superior off-land skill. One of the less offensive of General Steel Grey's many inventions, but still quite useful nevertheless. I have never met any of the Union Generals before, but I bet he's every bit as awesome as they say.
"We're here," grunted the old changeling as he stopped the humvee. "I'll come fetch you guys in three hours. Don't die."
We all nodded at his grim reminder as we checked over our equipment. The standard armored barding. Check. A siege rifle that can be activated by a flick of my wings strapped to my side. Check. A holstered sidearm designed to be used with my mouth. Check. Two grenades. Check.
All these are technological advances that won us the war. Slaughtered every single Royal Guard they threw at us. I felt more confident as I reminded myself even unicorns can't penetrate our barding. Not with simple spells anyway. Then I reminded myself with a shrug that unicorns are just a myth.
Really, the idea of ponies who could shoot fire, lightning or invisible bullets from their horns were scary. But we still won against them anyways. I read somewhere that the top brass decided to execute every unicorn to stop any possible chance of revolution. Serves them right.
"Critters. To point," waved Flakes as I advance to the front of the squad, holding my siege rifle at the ready. But really, there wasn't anything around but decaying tombstones and big, stony structures. Then I saw it. A flash of purple light from one of the larger tombs. Signaling to Flakes, we all advance slowly towards it.
Wow. The tomb was huge. It even had a stature of a unicorn with wings decorating the front. Below the statue, written on a plaque were the words, "Here lies Twilight Sparkle. Our final Princess. May she be loved forever and ever."
"Do you think it's a unicorn zombie?" asked one of the changelings behind me.
Without answering, Flake took point from me as he advanced into the tomb. The rest of us quickly followed, not wanting to be left behind near the graves of our former enemies.
What greeted was bizarre. The interior didn't have the stony, mossy look I pictured. It was lined with some kind of white, reflective material lined with pulsing purple lines, but that wasn't the weirdest part. It was way too huge compared to the exterior. As though manipulated by magic.
Probably thinking the same, Flakes readjusted his siege rifle before continuing forwards towards the doors opposite the hall. I noticed that all the purple lines led to the door. We advanced as one, training kicking in.
We heard some talking from the interior, but they were muffled and we couldn't make out a single word. Nodding, Flakes motioned our explosives expert to stick at panel of explosive to the door. Experience told me this was the type which pushed open the door without harming anyone on our side.
After a very, very long three second countdown, the doors exploded inwards as screams started to penetrate the smoke. As one, the squad lined up and fired our siege rifles repeatedly into the dust. Not stopping until the clips were emptied.
I quickly drew out my side firearm and pointed it at the cloud, waiting for the smoke to clear. The rest of the squad did the same.
"Oh for the love of the Queen," started Flakes as the smoke cleared. "What is this?"
Earth ponies in lab coats and barely armored pegasi lay dead all over the floor, all of them missing at least a chunk of their body from our volley. But that was far less grotesque compared to the sight that greeted us. Tanks with semi-transparent fluid lined the walls. Pieces of what I think was flesh pulsated within the fluid. Some of the pieces of flesh had some purple fur on it. Flake started to back away from a tank with what I think was half a burned hoof, only to bang into a tank with a sole purple eyeball.
Then my eyes went to the ground. Under the tanks, purple lines identical to the ones I saw before all leaded deeper into the hall. Notifying Flakes, I proceeded to stare down into the settling dust. There was something glowing a purple light at the end of the hall.
Without waiting for my squad, I proceeded to cautiously prance forwards with my gun out, as though drawn to the purple light. Stepping over the bodies of the dead earth ponies and pegasi, I continued onward.
All the purple lines were connected to a jagged purple star-shaped gem above the largest tank in the facility. The gem was glowing a soft, drawing glow. My hooves acted on their own, slowly pulling me towards the gem.
"Critters! What are you doing?" asked Flakes, apparently he snapped out of it. But his voice was so distant. So insignificant to the purple glow. I continued on.
Memories that were not mine were playing through my mind. A yellow pegasus, giving a shy smile. A flash of fire then she was gone. A blue one, giving a speech to a standing ovation. She disappeared into a pool of her own blood. A pink earth pony staring with me down at a sea of flames. She was swallowed by a swarm of changelings. An orange earth pony, looking sadly at me. She was gone with a whole refugee formation. A white unicorn pony -so that's what their horns looked like- outfitting me with a garment of sorts. I pushed her out of the crumbling building.
Something barreled into me, knocking me back to sense. "Critters! What's wrong?!" screamed one of my squad members.
Surreal. I shook my head again to clear my head of those images. Somehow, the pink one reminded me of one of the other generals. But those images felt real. As though I was there.
"Magic," spat one of my squad members behind me. "They were researching magic."
Magic. A weapon. But this felt different, as though it was trying to tell us something. I gently pushed Flakes away, touching my holed hoof on the tank. As though reacting to my touch, the tank glowed an eerie purple as the jagged gem pulsed.
"Critters!" As though in slow motion, I see half of my squad rushing towards me, the other half pulling up their rifles to point at me- wait, not me, the tank.
A wave of warm air washed over me as the tank opened. I jumped back, finally snapping out of the trance. Flakes pulled me back just in time as the cover of the tank blew off.
All of us put our wings on triggers as a warm, purple mist started to leak out of the tank. Without waiting, all of us fired rapidly into the mist. Just as we thought the threat was over, an translucent, shimmering wave of energy blasted the mist and all of us back.
I coughed out blood. The concussive blast had slammed me painfully onto the wall, apparently breaking my spine, judging by the pain. All of my other fellow squad members were all lying on the ground, unmoving.
My vision started to darken. It was starting to get hard to breathe. The only thing I saw beyond the dust was a figure of a pony, both terrible and magnificent with his (or was it her?) wings outstretched and horn glowing.
I coughed out more blood. I probably won't live to see my next love ration, I thought.
So this was the power of 'magic'.