A Sci-Fi Fantasy following a unicorn named Erika Gefallen as she deals with her past life and world.
WARNING:Rewrite in progress!
As a last vindictive act Discord sends one of the Mane Six into the Multi-verse. The one to suffer this fate is Twilight. She somehow suvives the experience but comes out a filly with very little in terms of memory. Her situation is made much more better by being found by a society and a Human willing to take her in. However this is not so much a story of her life in her new home as a story of how she comes to terms with her old one.
This is the Story of Erika Gefallen as she struggles with the life and memories of Twilight Sparkle...
(Thanks is due to EvilBob for the awesome picture!)
The Multi-verse is a big place. Many people who actually manage to breach the walls of reality to see it often misinterpret just how big. In this place of stars and void infinity can be used as a unit of distance. But then… distance, even time, is only a product of universes. To the Multi-verse nothing is true yet nothing is wrong, that mile could be inches in length, or it could be several trillion light years. That one moment could have been a fraction of an instant, or it could have been several billion years. Nothing is constant in this place of void and flickering stars but sometimes it is.
In the Multi-verse there is no limit to what realities can exist. Even the tiniest probability of a universe potentially existing is true. Whole worlds persist as small stars, flickering in the eternal darkness… until they die. Then in that moment of universal death there is life, for this normally cataclysmic event starts with barely a whimper and ends with the birth of several other universes.
The Multi-verse is timeless, it is endless and it is beyond even the mightiest of the omnipotent. All possibilities are realities, like a violet unicorn suddenly coming flying out of her home universe at light speeds.
Strangely it is possible for a living being to exist here in this everlasting void without dying. While no air exists here, neither does the concept of suffocation.
The unicorn soared through the Multi-verse, mouth open in an unheard agonized scream. Her form seemed to warp and twist, slowly becoming smaller with time.
All things come to an end and so did the unicorn’s flight through the void. Though truth be told the unicorn would have continued to fly for who knows how many trillions of light years had she not suddenly and inexplicably changed course to a nearby universe. Disappearing anticlimactically upon contact with the flickering star like form of an entire universe.
Λ
A compound hovered in place, surrounded by a perfect sphere of clouds, a few cracks in the cloud barrier allowed shafts of sunlight to illuminate the complex. The compound was massive in size, easily a dozen miles around and with extremely tall spires, the tallest of which was almost half a mile.
The compound was undeniably beautiful, seemingly made of sand stone bricks that were covered in decorative carvings. Hanging gardens covered the massive walls of the compound, giving the impression of something grandly ancient. Waterfalls flowed from large culverts on the spires, draining into great artificial lakes. The compound had many large courtyards as well, each filled with immaculate vibrant gardens.
All was peaceful as the coloring of the clouds turned copper, signaling the arrival of the evening and more cracks appeared in the cloud layer, allowing a small peak of the star filled sky that lay beyond.
In one of the many garden filled courtyards the trend of peace continued. But in a small clearing surrounded by concealing hedges and large flower bushes, a box with writing on the side suddenly appeared in midair a foot over the ground and fell with a thud as gravity asserted itself.
Silence reigned for a moment before a soft whimpering filled the air and the box rocked back forth briefly. The whimpering began again and was followed by the box rocking back and forth a bit more rapidly.
Suddenly a rustling noise came from one of the flower bushes and a man appeared, followed shortly by a young woman.
The man wore a long dark gray hooded cloak made of a harsh tough cloth, a buttoned up thigh length gray coat made of the same material, a pair of dark gray pants also made of the same material and a pair of hardy boots. Flowing out of the man’s hood was a long pink silk scarf that was wrapped around the lower half of his face and hid his features, though it did nothing to hide his ashen gray skin and bright pink eyes that glowed softly in the shadow of his hood.
The woman was more normal looking. She was fair skinned with chocolate brown hair and large brown eyes. She wore a long green sleeveless dress with a white tough apron that had a few pockets on it. On her hands were a pair of tough brown leather gloves and a pair of boots were worn on her feet. Finally atop her head was a wide brimmed straw hat that kept the sun out of her eyes.
“A box? How did that-Oh!” The woman said in a language faintly reminiscent of Greek before being surprised by the box moving. “There’s something in it!”
The man hummed in thought and approached the box with a little wariness, the woman close behind him. He crouched next to the box and studied it with the woman looking curiously over his shoulder.
“Give to a good home?” The man said as he read the writing on the box just as more whimpering issued from the box. “A pet? One of my family abandoned their pet? That is incredibly irresponsible but why did they write that in English?”
“That is so sad, I wonder what kind of pet it is?” The woman said disappointedly before asking.
“Let’s see.” The man replied before opening the top of the box and revealing the being inside.
“Oh my gosh… Ezekiel she’s adorable!” The woman gushed as she removed her straw hat, revealing her long pointed ears.
“Indeed…” ‘Ezekiel’ absently agreed as he studied the creature looking up at them curiously.
It looked like a dwarf purple unicorn but… the proportions were all wrong. The face was too expressive for an equine, more so was that it had soft facial feature that made Ezekiel and the woman as well immediate assume it was female. The size and positioning of the eyes were off as well, making the little unicorn’s expression seem… human.
“Hmm…” Ezekiel hummed curiously before slowly and carefully picking up the small unicorn. The little unicorn didn’t change its curious expression but it utterly beamed at him when he held her gently but tightly in his arms.
“Ooooooooh she’s sooooooo cute!” Squealed the elf as she reached out and stroked the tiny’s unicorn’s mane.
Ezekiel smiled as the small unicorn giggled in delight at the attention she was receiving, sounding very much like a little girl when she did so. He then pulled down both his hood and scarf, revealing his features before poking the unicorn with his finger to get her attention. The very moment the unicorn met his gaze his eyes glowed brightly, making her gasp in surprise and wonder.
“Are you going to keep her Ezekiel?” The elf woman asked as she continued to lavish the unicorn with attention. “Because if you aren’t…”
“Well, well.” Ezekiel began with some surprise. “I think you may want to hold back on getting her a rhinestone collar Emilia.”
“Huh, why?” Emilia asked.
“Because she is not an animal, she is a person instead.” Ezekiel said as he smiled softly at the little unicorn in his arms.
“What really?” Emilia asked as she looked intently at the little unicorn. “I know unicorns are rather smart but in the end they are still magical animals. Is she some sort of chimera?”
“If she is someone didn’t want anything more to do with her and abandoned her here.” Ezekiel replied with a frown. “Likely knowing she would almost certainly be immediately discovered.”
“What are you going to do with her?” Emilia asked. “I mean if you plan on taking her to someone who would take care I would be glad to.”
“Really Emilia?” Ezekiel asked with a raised brow. “This isn’t an animal like you at first thought, she is going to grow up to be a child who would need to be given a room, varied diet, education and overall a lot of tender love and care.”
“And you think I can’t do all that?” Emilia asked with a sad pout.
“None of the sort.” Ezekiel replied gently. “I am merely stating what you would most definitely find yourself needing to do eventually. And I know you Emilia, you love to spend your off hours chatting and having fun with your coworkers, all that could go out the window with a child thrown into the mix. Believe me Emilia I know all about children and balancing a social life, a job and their needs is not at all easy for those with their very first.”
“Well I… okay I can see your point.” Emilia sighed sadly and stoked the unicorn’s mane. “Darling little thing too…”
“Don’t worry Emilia I’ll make sure to find her a good home.” Ezekiel said with a smile. “And I’ll be sure to ensure you can visit the little one here.”
“Thank you Ezekiel.” The elf replied a little sadly and replaced her hat on her head. “Well I better get back to gardening. See you later.”
“Goodbye Emilia.” Ezekiel said as the both of them went their separate ways. The unicorn in his arms shifted herself until she was looking over Ezekiel’s shoulder at the elf and waved her little hoof goodbye.
‘Smart little girl.’ Ezekiel thought with a smile. ‘I do wonder how old you are exactly. It’s very likely you are not much more than a toddler, yes very likely since I didn’t hear you try to say anything.’
Ezekiel continued down a stonework path with the unicorn in his arms, said unicorn was twisting her head this way and that trying to take in every sight that passed of the grandiose gardens around her.
Suddenly the sounds of heavy padded feet came from around the corner of a tall hedge and a massive almost near white maneless lion appeared. The little unicorn gave a shout of fear and immediately buried her head in Ezekiel’s shirt.
The lion was around eight feet tall at its shoulders and had icy blue eyes, it had the air of something very old and had a look in its eyes that bespoke of many, many years of life. A sleeping little girl was being carried around by the lion by the back of her dress collar, slumbering peacefully despite being held aloft by the large predator.
“Shhh, it’s okay.” Ezekiel said as he soothed the little unicorn in his arms and stroked her mane. “This is Geoffrey; he is a liger and wouldn’t hurt anyone that didn’t deserve it.”
“Hello Geoffrey.” Ezekiel greeted the massive liger and motioned to the little girl he had. “Tire herself out playing?”
Geoffrey gave a nod and rumbled lowly as he shot the unicorn in Ezekiel’s arms a wondering look.
“I don’t really know where she came from.” Ezekiel said, giving the unicorn another comforting pet. “I and Emilia just found her in a box in the garden.”
“Now, now just calm down.” Ezekiel said softly to the little unicorn and stepped closer to Geoffrey and placed his hand on the liger’s snout. “See? Everything is just fine.”
At first the unicorn looked at Geoffrey fearfully out of the corner of her eye but after a few moments she looked at him fully. Giving an uncertain frown she reached out with her tiny hoof and after a moment’s hesitation placed on Geoffrey’s nose.
The massive liger gave a deep soothing purr at the unicorn’s touch, prompting her to smile and pat his nose a bit more. Guessing he was going to be seeing more of the little creature around the compound Geoffrey slowly closed in and nuzzled her with his massive nose and took in her scent for memory making her give a squeaking laugh.
With that Geoffrey rumbled deeply and padded away with his charge to bring her home.
“See you later Geoffrey.” Ezekiel said with a small wave which the unicorn mirrored with a wave of her own.
Continuing on the two eventually arrived at the apparent destination, a small pond lined with lily pads and flowers and a little blond haired boy wearing sandals, a pair of yellow shorts and a dark blue t-shirt sitting by its edge.
“Daddy!” The little boy exclaimed happily and ran over to Ezekiel. “What’s that?”
“She is a rather unique unicorn, Conrad.” Ezekiel replied as he placed said unicorn on the ground before Conrad. “What do you think of her?”
Conrad stepped in close to the unicorn and started looking over her curiously, an action the unicorn mirrored with perhaps even more curiosity. Conrad reached over and flicked the unicorn’s ear curiously and she returned the action by poking at his belly, slightly pudgy with baby fat. Conrad giggled happily and wrapped up the unicorn in a hug which said unicorn was only too happy to return with a large smile.
“She’s the awesomest thing ever!” Conrad said happily. “What’s her name?”
“She doesn’t have one.” Ezekiel replied. “I just found her abandoned off in the gardens here.”
“Aww, everyone should have a name…” Conrad said and twisted up his little face into something he called his thinking look and stuck out his tongue out of the corner of his mouth. The little unicorn was delighted by this and squealed with laughter.
“I think… her name should be Erika.” Conrad said after a long moment of critical thinking.
“And why is that?” Ezekiel asked his son.
“Cause she looks like an Erika!” Conrad replied with a toothy smile.
“A good reason as any other to be sure.” Ezekiel replied with a small amused smile and bent down onto one knee. “I see no reason why she shouldn’t be called that. Very well, from now on you are called Erika.”
‘Erika’ only looked at Ezekiel quizzically for a moment before suddenly letting out a loud yawn. Ezekiel smiled as Conrad followed suit and released a yawn of his own. Glancing up at the sky above Ezekiel saw that more and more of the coppery clouds were giving way to night sky.
“Well it’s getting close to bedtime.” Ezekiel stated as he got back up. “Let’s get inside; I’ll tuck you into bed.”
“kay daddy…” Conrad said as he rubbed one of his eyes. “Daddy?”
“Yes Conrad?” Ezekiel said as he lead the way inside, Conrad and Erika trailing after him.
“Can we keep her?” Conrad asked with a hopeful smile, pointing at Erika.
“She isn’t a pet Conrad.” Ezekiel replied but looked rather intrigued by the idea. “She is a person and likely she is going to be learning how to talk in a short while.”
“Oh…” Conrad said, looking rather disappointed before his face lit up with another idea. “Can she stay with us then?”
“… Let me speak to your mother before making a decision.” Ezekiel replied after a moment. “I’ll do it tonight and tell you our answer tomorrow.”
“Kay…” Conrad said with another yawn that Erika mirrored.
After walking inside, and taking an elevator that had made Erika wake up with excitement at seeing the world from high up, the group arrived at a long hallway. A few sets of double doors lined the hallway but Ezekiel seemed to be leading the two down to the very end of the hall. As they walked Erika suddenly looked out one of the windows and gasped at the sight it showed.
Ezekiel turned around when he heard the gasp and saw her gazing out a window at the lit up night side of an entire planet.
“Why she staring at Atlantis for?” Conrad asked curiously.
“She likely never saw a planet from orbit before.” Ezekiel answered before stepping over laying his hand atop Erika’s head. “Come on now, it’s an even grander sight during the day and it’s late.”
Not understanding the words but getting the meaning Erika continued following after Ezekiel, shooting glances at the windows all the while.
Opening the doors revealed large bedroom with a fairly large bed, toys covering the floor and various posters covering the walls. Conrad ran inside and jumped on his bed, turning around he patted the spot next to him and called out.
“Come here Erika!” Conrad said. “We can share a bed until you get your own room.”
Not knowing Erika was her new name the unicorn none the less was able to understand Conrad’s gesture and quickly trotted over to scramble onto the bed. Conrad then started moving about his large bed shifting his blankets and pillows in search for something. Eventually he found it and presented it to Erika, a dark brown teddy bear.
“This is Mogwai.” Conrad said cheerfully and presented the bear to Erika. “I’ve had him for the longest time but I think I’m getting too old for teddies. You can have him if you want.”
Again Erika didn’t understand what Conrad said but she did understand that he was presenting her with a gift. She reached out with her forelegs and took Mogwai from Conrad and stared at it for a moment, then she wrapped it up with a tight hug smile as bright as the sun.
Ezekiel smiled at the sight of the two getting along fantastically. The more he saw Erika interact with Conrad the more he was certain adopting the little unicorn was going to be a wonderful and rewarding experience. Conrad already acting like a good big brother also made Ezekiel think that deciding to have only child this time was perhaps a mistake.
“Well you two, time for bed.” Ezekiel said and stepped over to the side of the bed. “Conrad do you mind if Erika shares a room with you a while? At least until we can be sure she’ll be fine sleeping by herself.”
“Sure thing daddy.” Conrad said as he crawled under the blankets, lifting them up so Erika could have an easier time of getting under them as well. “I don’t mind if she says in here for years!”
“We’ll see about that.” Ezekiel said as he magically moved the blankets and tucked Conrad and Erika in. “She is a girl after all and may want her own room after a while.”
“She can stay here till then.” Conrad said as he snuggled in close to Erika making the little unicorn beam happily as she tightly clutched Mogwai to her.
“Have a good night you two.” Ezekiel said with a warm smile and left the room, closing the door behind him.
Ezekiel walked down the hallway for a few moments when there was a pink flash and suddenly in his place was a bolt of pink lightning disappearing into a power socket. The bolt surged through the wiring of the massive palace for a near instant before exiting out of another outlet located near the very top of the main spire of the massive complex. The bolt reformed into Ezekiel in an instant hadn’t paused in the slightest from the development before walking towards a pair of beautifully carved wooden doors.
Inside was a rather modest room in comparison to the one Ezekiel had tucked Conrad and Erika in, granted this seemed more like a living room and had a massive window in place of one wall. Everywhere was signs of modern technology, a holographic clock showed the time, ready to appear before someone with but a single command, glass tabletops floated legless in the air, innumerable devices darted the room as Atlantis hung silently in the night sky. Ezekiel couldn’t help but sigh at the mess really.
In a couch lying down before what could possibly be the only archaic in the room, a fireplace covered with equally old looking knick knacks, was a woman. She had long black straight hair and deep blue eyes and wore a dark gray t-shirt with a pair of dark blue soft looking pants with little ravens on them. She was reading a tablet like device, the fireplace crackling with a healthy fire.
Ezekiel walked towards her, a sudden surge of pink sparks and electricity flowed over him and he was wearing something very much like the woman’s clothes as well. Unlike her his feet had a pair of black socks on them with an equally black pair of plain black pants and a gray t-shirt, instead of wrapped around his neck his scarf simply hung off the back of his neck and descended down his front.
Once in front of the couch Ezekiel simply turned around and began to sit, heedless of the reading woman on the couch. Before he even got close to sitting on her though she suddenly exploded into a cloud of ice and snow swirling about the air as Ezekiel took his seat. Once ashen skinned man had done so the woman reformed back lying on his lap but leaning contentedly against his chest.
“So how was your day?” She asked Ezekiel as she swiped another page.
“It was fairly good Su Li.” Ezekiel answered his wife. “There was a riot on a developing frontier world and after a lot of the local citizenry decided violence would be better than peaceful protest. The local governor handled it fairly well, had the minds of suspected ring leaders plunged for info executed the guilty. The Keller Royal Remnants are raising another pirates and mercs to raid and basically be a nuisance towards us.”
“I know the details about that one.” Su Li replied. “The pirates are fodder for the legions but the mercs are the real issue, there are three companies in total and all of them and all of them are rich and very good at what they do.”
“How rich exactly?” Ezekiel asked.
“Enough to charter a freighter and escort for the galactic core and bring back core tech and gear.” Su Li answered and put the tablet down on her chest to look up at Ezekiel seriously. “It’s not going to be the simple minded thugs with something to prove anymore, it’s going to be an actual professional elite force with not only the skill but now the gear needed to fight us. We may have to expect some War Mage casualties in this.”
“Hmm… at least core tech has some fierce copy protection on it otherwise we would have to hunt it all done lest it proliferates.” Ezekiel sighed.
“Even if it did no one would be able to build it or manage it in such a way they’d want it anywhere other than the home world.” Su Li scoffed and started reading her tablet again. “There are some good production centers in this part of the arm but nothing that can handle core tech.”
“True but even so…” Ezekiel replied and had a thoughtful frown on his face. “The Kellers still have a very successful shipping industry despite our near annihilation of them.”
“And our very enthusiastic disruption of said industry.”
“Yes, but they shouldn’t be able to throw away money for mercs of this caliber.” Ezekiel muttered. “Vengeance or not they still have a good sense for business in that family of theirs. Someone has to be helping them, taking the brunt of the cost for… a distraction?”
“And you say you aren’t good at politics.” Su Li smiled up at him. “Remember those religious fanatics the Vor’Shans? They’re trying to get us to redirect our best forces on a different border so they can hit us and establish a foothold.”
“It would never work, even if they did take a world we would take it back near instantly.” Ezekiel said.
“Yes and just like everyone else they know that and are only after one thing.” Su Li said with a nod.
“Atlanteans for tests and experiments.” Ezekiel said with a sigh. “Well things are going to get a bit lively in the next few years, maybe even decades.”
“Nothing we can’t handle though.” Su Li said, snuggling close to her husband.
“Of course.” Ezekiel said with a firm nod, wrapping an arm around her. “Serious matters aside I have something much less dire to share with you.”
“Oh?”
“I found this little purple unicorn in the compound gardens.” Ezekiel said. “She is fairly small for a unicorn, even for a foal, and has the potential to grow up to be as intelligent and talkative as anyone else.”
“Can I see?” Su Li asked.
“Of course.” Ezekiel answered and his wife’s eyes glowed a bright blue as she plunged into his mind.
“Oh she’s adorable!” Su Li practically squealed. “And I saw your idea, I for one support it whole heartedly! Just look at the way she and Conrad bonded, it was like it was meant to be. I know we wanted to just have a single child this time but just looking at Conrad already acting like a big brother is just too much.”
“It’s settled then.” Ezekiel said with a nod. “Tomorrow we tell Conrad he now has a little sister, tell the rest of the family and we go about trying to teach her some basic Atlantean, We’ll go from there.”
“I look forward to meeting her in person.” Su Li and then looked up at Ezekiel with wide pleading eyes. “Carry me to bed?”
“I don’t see why not.” Ezekiel said with a small smile and stood up with her in his arms. “It’s about time for the both of us to be sleeping as well.”
“Well… we don’t have to go to sleep right away now don’t we?” Su Li said looking up at him faux coyly.
“No we don’t have to.” Ezekiel answered with a smile opening and then closing the bedroom door behind him magically.
“Here you are Princess.” A unicorn wearing a lab coat said handing a folder to Celestia. “We’ve just had a breakthrough; I believe you will find the latest progress report very satisfying.”
“Thank you Note Pad.” Celestia said and magically took hold of the folder. “I shall look through it immediately.”
Princess Celestia was currently in one of the many studies dotting the Royal Palace of Canterlot. It had been roughly forty five days since Discord had teleported Twilight away as a one last vengeful act and the Princess had been very worried for her student. Using powerful and tiring scrying techniques Celestia was able to roughly pinpoint Twilight’s position. A terrible place wrought with war and hatred not seen since Sombra’s terrible reign, Earth.
It was only through the unlikeliest of chances that Celestia discovered the world in the first place, helping her best and brightest develop a working theory of alternate dimensions. What she saw of that place was burned forever into her mind. Bipedal creatures charging across a blasted hellish landscape, boxy machines of steel roaring and billowing death crawling behind them, massive flocks of metal birds flying over cities and dropping exploding metal eggs by the hundreds and massive balloons whose purpose was just as vile, and clouds of death that swept over entire battlefields despoiling and mutilating all it touched. Even when this terrible conflict was ended did the suffering not end, vengeance burned in the hearts of the victors and they took it out on those they had beaten. The last of the world that Celestia could bear to see was the conquered people suffering and their hatred growing with every passing day, all but promising the terrible conflict would continue again someday.
So it was with great dismay and fear and that Celestia found that her student, who was so much like a daughter to her, was in such a world. With each passing day Celestia could not help but imagine what terrible things could be befalling her student at that very moment. Was she being tormented and abused by those who considered her an ‘unholy’ abomination? Tortured with clinical dispassion in a lab? Celestia just couldn’t help but think of the horrible fates that could have befallen her student.
But that was then, now she had the chance to go save Twilight from whatever fate she was suffering. It would have been better for all if it hadn’t taken forty five days to develop a spell to cross the inter-dimensional boundary, but the best minds at her disposal could only work so fast, perhaps if Twilight herself was there the process of developing the spell could have been sped up greatly. There was however no knowing that for sure and Celestia didn’t bother to waste any further time thinking about it.
The Princess frowned when she read the theoretical power requirements for the spell, while it wasn’t beyond her and her sister’s combined power it would mean Equestria would have to do without both of its rulers for a time which was unacceptable. Celestia pondered alternatives, while a sufficiently large force of unicorns could substitute for Luna it meant taking a large number of to ponies to a fairly violent land, which could very well cost lives. Another idea occurred to Celestia, it had its merits but also its faults but ultimately it meant bringing along only a small group of ponies and that meant the world when Celestia didn’t want to fight anyone.
‘Could I possibly use them like that though.’ Celestia thought with a frown. ‘This is a far better alternative than both I and Luna leaving or taking a large force of Royal Guards, but still it means risking Twilight’s dear friends… I shall leave the choice up to them, better that they choose to come rather than to order them to do so. Even if some of them do not want to do this the spell should still be powered with at least three of the elements there.’
With a decisive nod Celestia brought up some parchment and started writing a letter to send off to Spike, telling him that she needed Twilight’s friends for a most serious task. With a flash of light the magical wisp flew away to be belched up by the little dragon. Once that was done Celestia left her desk and went to go order some Royal Guards to take a few chariots and pick up Twilight’s friends in Ponyville. After that she would sit and wait for their arrival and hear their decision.
Λ
Little over an hour later found an inwardly nervous Celestia sitting on a couch and sipping some calming tea when the remaining Mane Six walked into her study.
“Hello my little ponies.” Celestia greeted, getting up from the couch. “No doubt you are wondering what sort of task I have called you all here for.”
“Salutations your highness,” Rarity said as she and her friends bowed before the Princess. “Yes we are but no doubt it has something to do with our missing friend right?”
“Oh! Didyoufindherdidyoufindher!!” Pinkie asked rapidly, hopping in place.
“Yes actually.” Celestia answered and the mares cheered happily. “However we still have to retrieve her and doing so requires your help. I am not going to lie to all of you, the place Twilight is happens to be very dangerous and if we don’t go with the greatest care your very lives will be in grave danger.”
“Doesn’t matter Princess.” Rainbow Dash replied determinedly. “Twilight’s needs our help so we’re going to help her.”
“Twilight’s an honorary Apple your highness, ah ain’t gonna abandon family.” Applejack added.
“It all sounds very frightening but I’m will to brave it for my friend.” Fluttershy said a little nervous but determined.
“Me five!” Pinkie cheered her agreement.
“Twilight is extremely fortunate to count you all as her friends.” Celestia smiled at them warmly before becoming very serious. “Just so you are all certain, I am not exaggerating the danger in the slightest. The slightest misstep in this could result in grave injuries… at the least.”
“Ain’t nothing we five are willing to risk to get our friend back, ain’t that right girls?” Applejack asked her friends and got shouts and nods of agreement.
“Very well, follow me then.” Celestia said and began walking out of the room. “We have a chamber set aside for the use of the spell to reach Twilight.
“From what you have said of the place your highness it sounds like Twilight is in a far off land.” Rarity commented as the group made way.
“Yes and no, it can be considered a far off land but it is an separate dimension altogether.” Celestia answered to everyone’s surprise.
“Sweet! Are we gonna fight evil aliens to get Twilight back?!” Dash asked excitedly as she shadow boxed mid-air.
“I dearly hope we don’t.” Celestia replied seriously. “The purpose of our going to this dimension is purely the rescue of Twilight, however there is the likelihood we may have to fight for her release.”
“Just how are we going to reach her?” Rarity asked.
“A spell will teleport us across the gap between worlds.” Celestia explained. “The power requirements for such a spell however are vast, which is why I have called for all of you. I need the power of the Elements of Harmony to supply the spell with what is needs.”
“If you only need us to power the spell then why take us along?” Rarity asked. “As Twilight’s friends of course we would gladly provide any aid in her safe return, but if the danger is so great why not take Equestria’s finest to rescue Twilight?”
“The spell needs a lot of power.” Celestia said. “There is no telling what would happen if the spell ran out of power while en-route to our destination. Thus the reason why I am taking all of your along, I am also hoping a smaller group would keep us from being discovered and allow us to recover Twilight quietly.”
“You keep mentioning avoiding danger, just how dangerous is the world we are going to?” Rarity asked in worry for her displaced friend.
“Incredibly so.” Celestia answered as the group arrived before a set of double doors. “I had scryed that world before and saw an horribly destructive and immense war that claimed the lives of countless innocents, and when the war was done further crimes against common decency were committed. The last I saw of it the signs of a new war just as destructive as the first lied everywhere. It’s been several years now, the very war I predicted could be raging and we may be dropped in the thick of it depending on Twilight’s location, as the spell homes in on her and drops us near.”
At this Twilight’s friends looked far less eager for the coming rescue but were no less determined, if they had to brave grave dangers for a dear friend like Twilight they easily would in a heartbeat.
The group entered through the double doors, within was a bare chamber with a large blue circle carved upon the stone floor. Several unicorns in lab coats surrounded the circle in deep discussion with each other and standing off to the side looking rather worried was Princess Luna. Upon noticing her sister Luna motioned her over.
“Excuse me eveypony.” Celestia said and walked over to her sister. “Yes Luna.”
“Are you sure that this is wise sister?” Luna asked in concern.
“Come now Luna I have full confidence that you will do fine.” Celestia said kindly.
“While I do find your confidence in I being able to hold the kingdom together in your absence heartening it is not what I am worried about.” Luna replied. “It is about these creatures you have told me about, these humans. Would it not be better to take ponies trained for combat rather than them?”
“I would dearly hope it won’t come to violence Luna.” Celsetia said with a shake of her head. “If it does it may not matter how skilled our ponies are, many would fall if not all of them.”
“Are humans really that dangerous?” Luna asked.
“Where we have spent a thousand years prospering in peace they have spent it fighting one conflict after another.” Ceslestia answered. “Such experience demands to be taken seriously.”
“It appears young Twilight Sparkle has found herself in a most precarious predicament then.” Luna commented with a frown.
“Yes, I dearly wish she is alright.” Celestia replied worriedly.
“From what you have told me of her she would seem to be quite the resourceful pony.” Luna stated comfortingly. “I’m sure she is fully qualified to handle any danger she encounters.”
“The only thing one can do is to hope for the very best in this situation.” Celestia said with a sigh and looked towards the circle carved into the floor, said circle being examined by Twilight’s friend. “Is everything ready for the teleport?”
“Yes dear sister.” Luna said and brought up a wooden box before opening it. “Here are the Elements of Harmony.”
Celestia levitated five of the elements out of the box and stared at the tiara for a moment before frowning and steeling her expression before taking off her own tiara.
“Right… let’s not waste any more time shall we?” Celestia stated as she placed the Element of Magic upon her head.
“We shall be ready when you are sister.” Luna said as Celestia walked over to the five mares in the circle.
“Here you are Everypony.” Celestia said and levitated the Elements over to their respective bearers. “Put them on and start concentrating on channeling their power when I tell you.”
“Your majesty, I didn’t know you could still use the Elements of Harmony.” Rarity stated with surprise at seeing Celestia wearing an Element.
“Over millennia ago I used to be able to use all six of them.” Celestia began. “While I am not longer able to do that anymore I am still capable of at least using one, which is needed here as the Element of Magic is needed for the proper use of the Elements.”
“These things can’t work if the Element of Magic isn’t used too?” Rainbow Dash asked, glancing at her own Element.
“The Element of Magic acts as a focus for the other Elements during their combined use.” Celestia explained. “While each individual Element doesn’t need the others or Magic to work they work much better if used all together.”
“Now if there are no more questions than you should all get ready for the teleport.” Celestia stated.
Celestia waited for a few moments as the mares each clipped on their Elements, mentally going over the arcane math behind the spell several times to make sure she had it right. Once the girls had their Elements on Celestia gave each a look over.
“Ready?” She asked them and got determined nods in answer. “Okay… on three, one, two, three!”
The Elements of Harmony started glowing brightly followed by the eyes of their bearers shining just as brightly. The circle carved into the floor glowed like a flare as the spell started, the energy running through the large rune suddenly slowly lifted up from the carved lines in the floor. The circle came to a stop a few feet above the five mares and one alicorn. Another circle seemed to split off from the first and started spinning, first slowly then quickly picking up speed. Several more circles split off from the first and began spinning until the total number of them was seven, then the first circle started spinning as well. The runic circles continued to pick up speed until it appeared to a form a solid orb of light, its brightness much like a miniature sun.
Then suddenly and quite anticlimactically the circles disappeared with the sound of metal clinking on stone.
Luna stared with wide eyes as she spotted the Elements of Harmony sitting on floor sans their bearers.
“Well… that can’t be good.” Commented one unicorn.
Λ
The world fell away as the five mares and one alicorn was sent on their way to a different world. Where there had been a chamber of the Royal Palace was now a world of utter darkness dotted with twinkling white lights.
At first the group was still then suddenly they started moving with incredible speed in one direction, stars streaking by as they soared through the emptiness. Completely and utterly unexpectedly the Elements of Harmony ripped off each of the ponies, somehow unlatching themselves or just flying off in Celestia’s case.
‘NO!’ Celestia watched in dismay as the Elements spun away into the darkness, knowing that without them she couldn’t perform the spell again for the return trip.
Just when Celestia thought it couldn’t get any worse the group suddenly stopped their break neck speed. Fearing that the loss of power to the teleport spell would mean the group would be stuck in this empty place Celestia was about to try something desperate. Then a strange sensation came over the group, like they were being watched by countless eyes and an almost touch like sensation could be felt on their coats, on the very edges of their hearing the faintest murmurs and whispers could be heard. And just as suddenly as they had stopped they started moving again.
Celestia saw that Rainbow Dash was about to open her mouth, no doubt to ask what had just happened a question Celestia herself wished to know when one they all had impacted one of the Twinkling lights and total darkness and silence was all that Celestia knew.
For several long heart stopping moments Celestia could see nothing and could hear nothing but soon she began to feel something. She felt like she was lying on a hard rock like surface and could feel vibrations through it. Soon her hearing started to come in and she began to hear a dull pounding noise that seemed to come at her from all directions. Finally her sight started to return, the world was a blur of grays, blacks and browns but it was slowly improving along with her hearing.
Details started to fill in, she could now tell that she was lying on a street much like the ones in Manehattan but any further was still a blur. The noises started to become clearer and sounded like the muffled booms of a cannon.
Celestia shook her head and started to get onto her hooves when the ground seemed to shake and she collapsed back onto her back, her head spinning and nausea growing intense. The Princess waited until she felt like she wasn’t going to lose her lunch before taking another look of her surroundings.
Her vision had improved to the point she could now make out the mares she had taken with her on the road around her. They seemed to be in the same state as her and were recovering just as quickly. Celestia was now able to make out more of the world around her. She could see that tall skyscrapers like those in Manehattan surrounded her but that’s where the similarities ended. The more she began to make out and hear the more she began to fear for the lives of the ponies with her.
Most of the glass windows on the skyscrapers were broken and smoke and flames rose from a good many of them. The street she was on was covered in cracks and shards of broken glass. Strange looking machines dotted the road belching flames from their twisted forms. Booming noises were much clearer and the Princess could now make out an odd noise that sounded very much like a heavy downpour of rain, accompanied by high pitched wailing sounds coming from the sky above. And there was blood, so much blood, not three feet from Fluttershy’s spot on the ground Celestia could make out the long bled out corpse of some being. Before Celestia could say anything Fluttershy had turned around and immediately spotted the corpse.
“AHHHHH!” Fluttershy screamed and immediately scurried away from the corpse.
“OH WHAT THE HAY IS THAT!?!” Dash shouted.
“Oh crud, oh Celestia…” Applejack gasped in wide eyed shock at the body.
“Is… what is that?” Rarity asked with a hoof over her mouth as Pinkie retched and heaved.
“I do not know.” Celestia said as she examined the creature. It wore a pair of red shorts made of a strong material and a sleeveless white shirt made of something similar. It’s entire body was covered in short brown hair with longer bristles coming out of the back of its head and back. It’s legs looked to be a bit frail but it’s arms bulged with muscles and ended in equally strong looking hands with claws. It’s face reminded Celestia very much of a mole, except that it’s eyes appeared to be a fair bit larger and it had a large set of teeth that it’s lips barely closed over.
“…Whatever this being is I know it isn’t a part of the race I was expecting.” Celestia stated.
“I-is that a bad thing?” Dash asked a little shakily still eying the corpse. “Maybe Twilight just went somewhere else that just had these guys?”
“That can’t be true because I know that only one sapient race inhabited the world we are supposed to be in.” Celestia answered and saw Rarity staring off down the street and looked in the direction she was staring.
There was another creature like the one on the street standing at the end of the street and staring at them, at least Celestia assumed it was the same species as it was covered in some sort of armor with only a fraction of their face exposed. It had something in its hand that Celestia thought was a gun but looked fairly different form the ones she had seen in her scrying. Celestia couldn’t really tell from this distance but she thought it was giving them a quizzical look. Suddenly it started gesturing sharply to the side as more beings like it appeared from down another street, one carrying a large tube like device on its shoulder.
Celestia became alarmed when they started aiming their weapons towards them and was about to shout at the mares to run when a black sphere rushed through the air over them, sounding strangely like water rushing down pipe. The black sphere impacted the armored being with the large tube weapon on its shoulder, it’s head disintegrating into particles as it fell to the ground.
The Princess turned around as the mares screamed in fright at the sudden violence erupting around them. Behind them running down the streets and ducking behind burning wrecks were another group of armored beings. They looked even more heavily armored then the other group and their form were completely covered by a copper colored metal. Their helmets obscured their faces with a metal plate and a single thin visor and had this wide curving brim on it with a fin like crest running along the back.
Bullets and black bolts of disintegrating death flew back and forth with the ponies caught in the middle, tearing apart the landscape around them.
“This way!” Celestia shouted over the deafening noise of battle as she bolted for an alley way. Once inside with the others she quickly glanced back out and saw that the first group was being reinforced by ever more numbers and throwing overwhelming amounts of firepower down the streets a their enemy. The second group continued their steady advance however, darting from cover to cover, their pinpoint deadly accuracy making up for the dozens against their twelve.
Celestia quickly darted away as the first group brought up more shoulder weapons and let off fireworks like projectiles and started annihilating the street. She and the mares run towards the other end of the alley to another streets when a massive treaded vehicle stopped in front of that very exit, blocking it. A much less heavily armored mole creature with a thick helmet was sticking out of the top, manning some sort of large weapon.
A beam of black flashed over the heads of the mares and swept over the mole creature and the weapon, causing both to disintegrate messily. Muffled shouts echoed from within the metal machine and with a roar of its engine it rolled ahead.
The mares turned around and saw a copper armor being standing at the entrance of the alley with a large weapon on its shoulder, standing just behind it and leaning out of alley to fire periodically was another like it.
Not liking the idea of being in the same area with any of the fighters the mares wordlessly made the decision to leave the alley. They came out running into the street just behind the vehicle and at the worst time, a group of heavily armored mole creatures were running to the back of the vehicle and spotted them. They all raised their weapons and one of them starting shouting at the mares in a barking language.
“I… I do not know what you are saying.” Celestly said calmly as the smaller ponies recoiled from the weapons aimed at them.
Suddenly loud thudding sounds came from somewhere ahead. The vehicle turned its large long barreled weapon to the side and down a street, too late.
A massive armored being came sprinting into view and rammed into the vehicle and sending it rolling onto its side. It was very much like the smaller copper ones but was bronze and had a smooth bullet like helmet with two circular eye lens.
The mole creatures reacted quickly to the destruction of their vehicle and fired their weapons at the massive being as they moved into cover.
Bullets and rockets pinged and exploded against the massive being as it brought its own weapons to bear. Two guns made up of many spinning barrels revved up for a brief moment before letting lose with an absolutely punishing wave of black bolts. The armored behemoth ruthlessly cut down mole creatures and their cover alike, everything in front of its spinning guns seemingly fading into dust of backs and reds. Then a large cannon like weapon popped up just behind its shoulder and aimed towards one of the buildings where a group of the mole creatures had quickly entrenched themselves. There was a high pitched whine and bright star like glow from the cannon’s mouth before blasted forward, emitting a powerful shockwave that buffeted everything in range followed by a blast of heat from the building exploding.
For Celestia the world seemed to get so very quiet as the giant of destruction faced her and her ponies, its weapons mounted beneath its forearms whirring softly as they spun always ready for use. It stomped forward before coming to a stop a mere meter from them, towering over them and staring at them though it’s opaque black lenses. Celestia darted her eyes over to another alley way just to the side of them several times in the tense silence.
“Run.” The Princess stated simply and every one of the ponies immediately run down that alley wordlessly. As they entered the alley Celestia looked over her shoulder at the giant and saw it staring after them silently and making no attempts to stop or follow them.
Λ
“Murmillo squad AG1626 reporting victorious engagement.” A calm voice with a electronic echo stated on a com channel. “Returning to hostile sweep parameters.”
“Lieutenant Ivy reporting sighting on a squad of Dire Loons Mercenaries, Captain Sparkly.” A female voice said.
“Contacts?” ‘Captain Sparkly’ Replied, a female voice.
“A company of Murmillos with Cestus support engaged and were forced to retreat with the mercenaries.” Lieutenant Ivy reported. “Recommending heavy aerial strikes on the squad if not orbital bombardment on their current coordinates before Warmage assault.”
“Going to call in available Air Mages for support.” Captain Sparkly answered. “The Sadistic Melody and it’s escorts are stuck in heavy combat”
“This is Sky Ranger, forwarding a report on a G-Class energy reading from the Sadistic Melody, Captain Sparkly.” A male voiced informed on the coms.
“Now that is just fantastic.” Captain Sparkly growled. “Losses?”
“None ma’am.” Sky Ranger reported to his superior’s surprise. “Readings state G-Class came into contact with a Squad of Murmillo’s and a Cestus but did nothing.”
“Hmm… suspicious.” Captain Sparkly replied.
“Cestus unit EB0152 reporting contact with priority one race.” A deep electronic baritone voice stated. “Categorized as ‘Locate and Contact immediately’”
“Well this is turning out to be a very eventful fight.” Captain Sparkly stated.
“Captain that very same Cestus is the one that came into contact with the G-Class.” Sky Ranger said.
“Figures, alright they are trying to avoid the fighting right?” Sparkly asked.
“They seem to be.” Sky Ranger answered. “The G-Class ended up in some threatening situations and didn’t try to fight, instead choosing to run away”
“Alright get a free Air Mage to herd them into quiet area without making it look obvious and I’ll go meet this priority race.” Captain Sparkly Commanded. “Then I need a Flight of Air Mages to suppress and soften up a squad of Dire Loons before a Warmages assault.”
“On it ma’am, receiving coordinates now.”
Λ
Celestia and her ponies made their way down a desolated and destroyed street, the sounds of battle and war were ever present but in the very least they were distant sounding enough.
“This place is horrible…” Pinkie said as Fluttershy sniffed back horrified tears at the wanton death she had just witnessed. “And Twilight’s supposed to be here?”
“The Spell brings us near; it’s up to us to find her exact location.” Celestia replied softly as she carefully scanned her surroundings for threats. “Sadly it appears it is going to be a much harder task than anticipated.”
“Well… I’m going up to get a better view.” Dash said and flared her wings.
“No wait!” Celestia shouted but was too late.
Rainbow Dash soared into the air, aiming to get higher than the tall damaged skyscrapers surrounding them. Just as she was about to fly over above the rooftops a black streak suddenly darted by leaving orange orbs in its wake. White streaks followed after it but one of them happened to hit one of the orbs causing a devastating implosion and pressure wave that could be felt on the ground.
“CRUD, CRUD, CRUD, CRUD, CRUD!” Rainbow Dash shouted as she dove back down and wreckage hit a skyscraper, sending glass shards and rubble raining on the streets below.
“Run!” Celestia shouted as the as she saw the upper portions of the skyscraper collapse fall towards the street.
With a deafening rumble the top of the skyscraper fell towards the ground with terrifying speed. It didn’t take long or much for the ponies to get out of harm’s way but that didn’t stop the destruction and ensuing dust cloud from being terrifying.
For several long moments a thick cloud of dust enshrouded everyone from view and all Celestia could do was listen to everyone cough and choke on dust but eventually it settled.
“Is everypony alright?” Celestia asked, now utterly filthy and covered with dust.
“Other than a mouth full of dirt I’m fine yer highness.” Applejack replied as she dusted off her Stetson. “How ya’ll all doing?”
“F-fine…” Fluttershy answered as she and Pinkie continued to hack and cough out dust.
“Rarity? Ya alright there sugercube?” Applejack asked the glamorous unicorn, who instead of throwing a fit over how filthy she was; she was instead ignoring her current condition in favour of staring grimly towards the sky.
“Those orbs.” Rarity stated. “The ones that caused that explosion… they are still up there and they are drifting down towards us.”
“What!” Immediately everyone followed Rarity’s gaze and saw the truth for themselves. Drifting slowly down from the sky were many dozens of glowing orbs.
“Run again?” Dash asked Celestia.
“Yes.” Celestia stated simply and took note of the areas the orbs were drifting into. Seeing that the streets off the one they were on were going to be hit Celestia made the decision that they should stay on the street they were currently on and run down it away from the magical bombs.
And the mares ran, bombs dropping down along their sides. The street they were currently on was being bombed as well but the orbs dropping down on it were rather slow for some reason, not that they were complaining about the fact.
Bright bangs resounded behind the running ponies and flashes of light illuminated the world before them. Eventually the explosions and flashes slowed and the ponies began to stop their running. Celestia looked over her shoulder to spy the devastation but was confused when the streets appeared to be no less damaged then before.
“Are… are we d-done running y-yet?” Fluttershy asked as she panted, starting to run short of breath.
“I dearly hope so, while I am not out of shape neither am I a mare for extraneous activity.” Rarity commented as she forced herself to take steady breaths.
“Staying in one area in a place like this is not a good idea.” Celestia stated. “We can stay a rest a few moments but we have to keep moving to avoid further danger.”
With that the group of six moved off to the side of the street and amongst a pile of large rubble, a portion of which happened to have landed in such a way as to allow the ponies a hidden place to rest while keeping an eye on their surroundings. While the five smaller mares rested in the rubble alcove Celestia keep sticking her head above their cover, keeping a sharp lookout for potential danger.
“I’m ready to go if you want Princess.” Fluttershy said from her spot on the ground.
“Good timing, I was about to get us moving about now.” The dust covered Princess replied as she ducked back down to face the others. “We have to locate Twilight Sparkle.”
“Where would she be in this place?” Rarity asked as she briefly attempted to brush off the immense amounts of dust off her body.
“I only know the spell dropped us near her.” Celestia answered and popped her head out again and blinked her eyes when she came face to face with a glowing sparking purple orb.
Everyone shouted when the orb exploding in an incredibly blinding and deafening explosion. Celestia being the alicorn of the sun had recovered much faster than the other mares and thus was the first to see that they were surrounded.
Crouched upon the rubble they were sheltered by were armored beings very much like the coppery ones with the crested helmets. However they were pitch black instead of copper, at least nine of the ten brings were black, the last was silver and the shape of it’s from drew Celestia’s eyes.
It was completely covered in silvery armor but stood upon four legs and was shaped just like a pony, and had short stubby wing like attachments extending from its shoulders, and lacked the wide brimmed crested helmets like the others but had a horn extending from its forehead.
“So… did my race finally look for me or were you just traveling?” It said with a feminine and very familiar voice.
“T-Twilight?” Celestia hazarded.
“Is that that what my race called me before abandoning me all those years ago?” ‘Twilight’ asked as the silvery armor around her head suddenly formed seams and began to flip and slide away, revealing her deeply unamused face. “I should probably be more culturally sensitive about it but consider me… unimpressed.”
A long silence erupted from those words as Celestia took them in and grasped the implications, the only noise being of distant explsions, some of which seemed to be coming closer.
Celestia’s mind whirled at what Twilight had said. It had only been over a month since the unicorn had been unwillingly sent to this world yet she had said she had been here for years. Even so she still should have recognised both herself and her friends, as covered with dust and filthy as they currently were. Yet she was now looking at them like they were strangers she didn’t particularly like.
“What the hey Twilight!?” Dash shouted. “We go through all this to get you and this is how you treat us?”
“Don’t call me that.” ‘Twilight replied. “Even if I had been left with anything other than a box I had been abandoned in I doubt I would have grown up with it. And get me? I’m not going anywhere with you… least until I know what I am getting into.”
Celestia’s confusion deepened at Twilight’s words, not only did she not remember them she didn’t even know her name and grew up with a different one. What did that even mean? Had her memories been erased and replaced with something else? It was all Celestia could come up with considering her lack of information in what was going on but as far as she knew humans had no magic, then again everything she had seen so far did not align at all with what she knew about humans and their world.
Before anyone could say anything else ‘Twilight’ scoffed and her helmet suddenly snapped back up and over her head. Then she turned around and walked a short distance away before placing a hoof on the side of her head.
Celestia watched curiously as the mare she once knew stood in absolute silence for several moments.
Λ
“Captain Sparkly to the Sadistic Melody.” Erika said into the coms pointedly facing away from the ponies she had been talking to.
“Sparkly this is Captain Alexandria.” A voice answered calmly.
“Ma’am! Did not expect you to be at the coms.” Erika said in surprise at her commanding officer answering transmissions.
“I was waiting for yours specifically.” Alexandria replied. “Did first contact with the P-One race and the G-Class go well?”
“Both are secured ma’am and no violence so far.” Erika reported before adding. “They happen to be my race ma’am.”
“Hmm… your status Sparkly?” Alexandria asked.
“Still one hundred good for combat ma’am.” Erika answered. “… Though truth be told I am rather eager to know about my race after all this time. I know my priorities though ma’am, I’m just calling to call in transport and have them sent up for safe keeping.”
“You’ll get your transport Sparkly and stay sharp, this fight is still a long way from finishing just yet.” Captain Alexandria stated.
“Of course ma’am.”
“Captain Alexandria out.” The Captain signed off.
Λ
After a long moment of silence, filled only with somewhat distant explosions and the sounds of war ‘Twilight’ finally lowered her hoof and faced the Celestia and other mares. Once more the seams in her helmet appeared before it slid away and revealed her face. She seemed to study all of them for a moment, her eyes lingering on Fluttershy and Dash’s wings and on the bear foreheads of Applejack and Pinkie Pie.
“A transport is coming in.” She finally said. “We will stay here and protect you until it arrives and ensure you board safely. Now we don’t intend you any harm but this is obviously not a safe place for any of you so you’ll be sent somewhere far safer.”
Though they were having trouble with keeping up with everything that was happening if there was one thing the mares could understand, it was being somewhere that wasn’t as dangerous and as violent as this place was. Celestia was also grateful for such a reprieve as she needed to figure out how exactly she was going to bring everyone home without the Elements of Harmony to power the spell. However she also noticed that ‘Twilight’ didn’t say she was going to be on the transport with them.
“And what about you?” Celestia asked with a concerned frown.
“What about me?” The armored unicorn replied with a raised brow. “I’ve still got a battle to fight and soldiers to command.”
Before Celestia could form a response to an answer she found rather distressing a voice suddenly appeared from around her, speaking an odd language she hadn’t heard before. ‘Twilight’ frowned and starting speaking the same language and the voice responded causing her expression to harden. She then barked something that sounded like a commanded to the black armored beings around her and immediately her helmet snapped back up over her head. As the other armored beings leapt into movement Celestia approached ‘Twilight’.
“What’s going on?” She asked her. “What is happening?”
“Take cover.” Was Celestia’s only warning before the wings on ‘Twilight’s’ back suddenly lit up and she flew up into the air and darted away as a loud shrill whistle filled the air. Celestia and the mares could only shout in alarm as explosions suddenly started erupting from around them and showing dirt over everything in sight.
Λ
Erika darted through the air, dodging shells and explosions before quickly darting behind some rubble for cover. She had been informed by an Air Mage that the squad of mercenaries they had been supressing had managed to weather their barrage little worse for wear and was rapidly closing in on her. Seeing the squad closing in on her from down the street she could understand why they withstood the bombing.
It was a group of seven extremely heavily armored and armed mercenaries. Each one stood around seven feet tall thanks to their immense high tech power armor, some armor plates easily two inches thick. Guns were under their forearms, attached to their shoulders and one large one on their back. The wrist mounted guns could easily supress large groups of infantry and the cannons on their shoulders could deal with armor just as easily, the large cannon on their back was a mortar, a relatively short range low caliber artillery gun with a range of a handful of miles. They all had the colors of the Dire Loons Mercenaries Company, garish stripes of red, yellow and green with a red wall eyed smiley sneering and sticking it’s tongue out mockingly.
“SPARKLY!” One of the Mercs boomed out of his vocaliser. “I’VE FINALLY CAUGHT YOU FUCKING TYRANT BITCH!”
‘Oh not this asshole again.’ Erika scowled as she shifted her position behind her cover and built up a spell, her form beginning to arc with slight sparks of violet. ‘I’ve had it with playing tag with the bastard, he is not leaving here alive.’
“BUTCHER THOSE LITTLE FUCKS OF HERS!” The Raging Merc boomed to his subordinates. “I’VE WAITED TOO LONG TO TEAR THIS BITCH A NEW ONE!”
Translucent spheres of blue energy formed around each of the mercs as they jogged forward. Immediately they were met with a wave of colorful death, sky blue balls of fire trailing long tails of flames, beams of dark green, large pulsating crimson orbs and Erika’s own stream of violet spark bolts, all of it impacted the shields and did nothing but tear up the ground around each merc. Erika knew better though, the shields were being drained though it would take time and they had the advantage of both numbers and the enemy commander being angry.
The Merc Captain strode forward purposefully, utterly ignoring the magical death raining down upon him. The visor of his helmet locked firmly on Erika’s position behind some wreckage letting off streams of spark bolts at his approach. The two shoulder cannons then glowed briefly, air and dust being sucked towards the muzzle and loud high pitched whines filling the air. Just before the cannons fired Erika leapt into the air, her armor’s wings alight as she took into the air and an explosion overtook her former cover.
Erika continued letting off dazzling streams of spark bolts as she darted madly through the air, occasionally adding a much larger version that instead of smacking into the Merc’s shield with a crackle of electricity, exploded.
The Merc Captain wasn’t idle in the least as he was being bombarded, his armor’s systems tracked Erika’s erratic flight patterns and made predictions. Using this information he let loose his anti-infantry guns on his arms, sending long thick rounds flying towards Erika.
Erika frowned as the rounds started filling the air around her and despite her best efforts she was being hit. Unlike the local tech where a soldier had to be using fairly large anti-armor rail drivers to get a piercing hit on the first try on Atlantean Warmages, core tech was advanced enough that infantry grade weapons could tear through Warmage armor if it hit the right place.
‘Ugh… looks like he’s determined to make this do or die too.’ Erika thought as bullets ripped right through a joint and smashed one of her knees. ‘He isn’t trying to dodge or take advantage of the terrain and his shield is starting to flicker, he’s standing where he has a clear shot of me and where everyone has a shot of him.’
Deciding that trying to stay ahead of a core enhanced targeting system was a bad idea Erika took to the ground again and briefly limped behind another piece of wreackage. The Unicorn Warmage focused on her magic, sending bolts arching up and over her cover and rapidly healing her destroyed knee as well. She quickly blurred into movement when she heard a familiar whine and moved towards some more wreckage when her former cover exploded.
“Weren’t some of you just bombing these Mercs a minute ago?” Erika calmly questioned on her comms. “Where is my air support?”
“Working on it captain.” Sky Ranger responded. “Enemy fighters and bombers moved into the combat zone, we had a priority intercept.”
“Support me when you can.” Erika grunted when core rounds started tearing through her cover and started taking a few bits and pieces of herself with them.
Leaping out of her quickly destructing cover Erika sent a spark bolt as big as herself flying into the Merc Captain’s shield. There was a brilliant explosion and when the dust cleared the Captain’s shield was gone, having been strained beyond its capacity by all the magic fired into it.
“RAAAAGH!” The Merc bellowed as he charged her, firing off his four guns as he went. “YOU ARE NOT KILLING ME! I AM KILLING YOU!”
‘I’m not the one with armor that can’t heal itself.’ Erika mentally sniped as silvery material started slowly filling in the holes and tears made by gunfire in her armor. ‘Neither am I the one making tactical errors left and right for the sake of revenge you amateur.’
Erika blurred into movement, darting from wreckage to wreckage as the Merc Captain fired overwhelming amounts of bullets and began overheating his anti-armor cannons in his rabid attempt to kill her. Dirt flew through the air and showered over everything as explosions rang out around her but Erika stayed calm and steady even as bullets began to hit her armor and tear into her again. She coughed and choked a little when one such round managed to piece her side plating and rip into her lung before lodging in the other.
Gritting her teeth she kept her focus on firing off more spark bolts into the Merc’s charging form, tearing apart more and more of his armor before quickly darting into cover again. Taking the brief moment this gave her to her advantage Erika rapidly inflated her collapsed lung with her magic and pushed the bullet out of her other into her chest cavity. Then she had to leap away as her cover erupted in more explosions.
Erika turned and saw that the Merc’s shoulder cannons had finally shut themselves down to prevent a violent meltdown, depriving their user of much needed firepower to his vulgar ire. The armored unicorn took this chance to strafe his knees and make him collapse onto the ground and barely holding himself up with his hands.
“THINK YOU’RE HOT SHIT, I’VE STILL GOT THIS GUN!” The Merc shouted as the mortar on his back suddenly hummed with energy, leaving Erika with only enough time to jump before her ears started ringing and the world went spinning.
By the time she began her rapid magic aided recovery Erika found herself being held aloft. The Merc Captain was now holding her by the neck and no doubt glaring into her visor out of his own. Alarms started going off on her hud as the Captain started squeezing down on her neck before he suddenly stopped.
“I am not going to choke you, I want to hear you scream bitch.” He said as he adjusted his grip and brought his other hand to grip around her head. “Just like they did.”
Erika frowned as she felt and heard her helmet strain under the pressure of the Merc’s strength, this was somewhat of a bad situation but she had honestly been through worse. She just needed to build up a bit of magic and she would be out of his grip in a moment, she could count on her armor lasting that long especially if he expected her to scream a bit before dying.
Suddenly there was a brilliant flash of light and a beam of intense sunlight appeared from somewhere off to the side and struck the Merc Captain. It scythed over one of his shoulder cannons and clipped the other when he recoiled from the hit and then moved downwards, managing to shear off the massive mortar on his back. The attack was powerful and had completely melted the one shoulder cannon it hit completely while overheating the other into uselessness and cutting deeply into the thick plating of the armor.
“ARGH! WHAT THE FUCK?!?” The Merc shouted and turned his head towards the source of his attack, offering the perfect opportunity for Erika to assault him.
The armored unicorn released the magic she had been building up into a beam of her own which blasted near point blank into the Merc’s face, making him drop her and back away clutching her heavily damaged helmet. Erika pressed her attack, charging into him with her horn alight and stabbing it deeply into the plating over his stomach before releasing another burst of magic.
The Merc Captain jerked as the sound of a muffled explosion went off and he pushed Erika away from him. Clutching his stomach he staggered a few steps backwards before falling over onto his back with a loud bang.
Erika exhaled lightly at another of her hunters meeting their end at her hooves before turning to the side and seeing a dust covered Celestia looking at her from the wreckage she had been taking cover in, her face a mask of deep worry and concern. The armored unicorn stared at her a bit before giving her a nod of thanks and turning towards the rest of her squad.
There was only two of the Mercenaries still standing, one was in the process of attempting to retreat but was being utterly torn apart by ranged magic and the other was being physically torn apart by her second in command. Her second had seen fit to close the distance and engage in melee, as well as make use of his Jotun Armor’s ability to enlarge both himself and his weapon. Ending the fight by impaling the merc on his massive sword her second then rapidly shrunk down to normal size in a whirring of motors and flipping of armor plates.
“Are you alright Captain?” He asked her.
“I am okay Jacobs.” Erika responded and then added a little jokingly. “Thanks for the help by the way.”
“I would have been embarrassed for you if that killed you.” Jacobs said with a chuckle.
“You and me both.” Erika sighed, glancing at her own bested foe before walking away. Suddenly she was stopped when said bested foe grabbed her by one of her hooves.
“Y-y-you Killed t-them…” He choked out weakly. “A-all of them… h-hundreds of u-us gone in… in a minute…”
“You all signed contracts, every one of you knew what they were getting into and the risks.” Erika stated, her voice lacking all sympathy yet any heat as well. “If our positions were reversed and you saw a chance to slip behind to deliver that decisive blow you and your own wouldn’t have been any different.”
“…N-no… we wouldn’t have…” The Merc agreed after a moment and then with a strangled choke his grip slackened on her hoof.
“…” Erika stared at the corpse of her enemy for a moment before bring a hoof to the side of her head. “Sky Ranger cancel that request for air support, we handled it.”
“Roger that Captain.” Sky Ranger replied. “Your transport will arrive within the minute.”
“Right, Captain Sparkly out.” Erika said and turned towards the ponies still hiding in the wreckage. “All of you can come out now! The transport will be arriving soon to pick all of you up.”
All six of the dust covered mares nervously got out of the cover. They were rather twitchy now, flinching at the sounds of war and death around them. Erika couldn’t blame them for the reaction as she figured the lot of them were civvies and therefore completely unused to war, she became rather curious why they would willingly go into a warzone for her despite this lack of experience though.
Blurring out of the sky a black shape came to a near instant stop over them, it was their transport. It was a sleek small ship, capable of holding twenty people comfortably, forty if they didn’t mind getting knocked about. It was covered in gleaming black plating, it’s two wings stuck out at the sides and ended in large powerful turbine like engines that could easily adjust their orientation, and had a smaller pair on its tail as well. Its cockpit didn’t appear to have any windows for the pilot to see out of but was covered in very heavy looking armor.
The transport eased down till it was only a foot or so above the ground and then its boarding ramp lowered onto the ground with a clang, revealing a faintly lit bare interior with the walls lined with seats.
“Alright just get on and you’ll be brought to safety of the command ship, the Sadistic Melody.” Erika said gesturing towards the opening with her head.
“But what about you?” Celestia asked as the mares quickly boarded the transport.
“Like I told you before I have a battle to fight, though I do appreciate the assist you gave me.” Erika said with the slightest smile. “Don’t worry I’ll met up with you again soon, even since the day I could talk I wanted to find my race and I’m not about to let that go to waste.”
“Very well…” Celestia said with a frown and boarded the transport as well but turned back towards Erika. “Please stay safe until then.”
“Don’t worry it’s going to take a lot to-” Erika began.
“This Captain Alexandria to all forces.” Alexandria suddenly broke in one the comms. “The situation in orbit is deteriorating rapidly, we are pulling out, I repeat we are pulling out all forces prepare for extraction.”
“Right, looks like we are coming along.” Erika stated and boarded the ramp along with her squad. “Everyone buckle in, the trip back might be a bit rocky.”
The Warmages wordlessly took their places on the seats on one side of the transport and the mares took to the seats on the other side. However they did start to have issues trying to sit down right and one of the Warmages sat back up to assist them.
The ramp closed as Erika stepped into the cockpit of the transport. The cockpit looked like it was it nothing but two seats sitting in midair supported by nothing. Erika entered the cockpit without a word and took the seat next to the pilot, stepping on the special plating that displayed the world outside. The pilot was wearing a dark gray jumpsuit along with a gunmetal gray helmet with large black reflective glass like visor. The helmet also happened to have dozens of stickers on the back of it, quite a few of them rather childish looking.
“What’s the situation in orbit?” Erika asked the pilot.
“It was under control until a few minutes ago.” The pilot answered as he manipulated his holographic controls. “Then dozens of Dire Loon escorts and a few troop carriers popped in. The Melody and her own escorts could handle them but not without possible losses and damage.”
“So we’re pulling out.” Erika stated with a nod. “Understandable, this is just a raid, too much effort to bust up some docks and industrial districts.”
“Yep.” The pilot replied and the transport lifted off and immediately shot towards the clouds, more transports arriving and passing them to pick up the various units still on the ground. “Get ready; it might be a bit more crowded on the way up.”
Erika nodded and stared out as the clouds passed them and the sky began to fade away to a field of stars and sudden flashes of lights.
“Is everyone buckled up back there?” Erika asked in English, taking in the scene before her.
“Yes we are!” The unicorn heard come from the hold.
“Good, just try not to panic too much if this gets a bit rough.” Erika stated and closed the door with her magic so the ponies couldn’t glance out cockpit and see the warzone they were about to fly through.
The Sadistic Melody was like a circular fortress with high slopped walls, along the ‘walls’ were gaps were sections of armor plating had moved away and revealed gun batteries, and there were many gun batteries. The open mouths of its hanger bays were along the bottom of the great ship and near it’s center, a bristling deadly array of point defense guns protected these obvious weapoints and ensuring no fighter or bomber could get near. The Melody was practically solid armor and guns as the same could be said for her escorts. The ship was a carrier though and did more damage from its hold full of golem fighters and Air Mage contingent then it ever did with its guns… well most of the guns. Said golems and Air Mage happened to be out doing their jobs and unintentionally made a chaotic show of it.
Golems and Air Mages streaked and darted about in the silent void of space, dogfighting with enemy fighters attempting to claim the route between the Melody and her deployed ground forces. Energy weapons, shots from rail guns and magic filled the void their brilliant lights adding to the silent lethal dance of death.
The Melody itself and its escorts would have been providing more cover for its drop ships had they not been so busy trying to keep the enemy fleet out of distance of them.
Erika had no doubts that if the ponies saw what was going on outside they would be a bit more then nervous about it.
Suddenly everything started spinning as the pilot whipped his hands across the controls. Steaks of light flashed by and a few splashed against the transport’s shields. Enemy fighters blurred by, quickly followed by black blurs only made visible by their colorful magic trails left in their wake. At this the pilot started to mutter curses under his breath before swiping his hands across the controls violently. The ship responded to the controls instantly and spun to face the retreating forms of the fighters that strafed them. The pilot quickly tapped a few holographic buttons and with a dull thump felt and heard through the hull spheres of magic shot out from under the transport. They traveled far and fast, rapidly gaining on the space fighters who had not expected the transport they attacked to fire back on them.
“That’s what you get for touching my ship.” The pilot growled out as explosions marked the doom of his attackers.
“Let’s get back to the Melody before anyone else decides to take a shot at us, shall we?” Erika stated and got a nod from the pilot.
The ship continued on its way though not without further harassment, thankfully nothing pierced the shield and the ponies remained unaware of the assault the ship had to endure thanks to the ship’s inertia dampener. Eventually the fighters stopped harassing the transport when it neared the Melody to avoid certain death via the ships overwhelming anti-fighter defences.
The transport flew though the unseen barrier that kept the atmosphere in the hanger. There was well over a dozen docking areas in the cavernous hanger, each dock had racks upon racks of Golem fighters hanging from the bottom of them, the sound of dull clanking was constant as golems returned to their berth for repairs and rearmament or were detached and launched themselves into the fray. The floor of each dock were reserved for the Naval Mages, Warmages who specialised in the operation of star ships, and had their personal ships covering the floor of all of them. Sections of the dock were reserved for quick drop-offs and the transport soared for one such spot where a man in a white uniform seemed to be awaiting them.
The transport came to a stop over the docking area and lowered itself until it was a foot above the ground before dropping its ramp onto the floor. With that Erika got out of her sit in the co-pilot’s chair and moved into the hold where everyone was unbuckling themselves out of their seats.
“Alright we’re here; you don’t have worry about anymore danger of attack here.” Erika assured the ponies. “Come on there is someone waiting for us outside.”
Walking down the ramp Erika looked to see who was waiting for them.
The Naval Mage was an officer from the look of his peaked cap on his head and a stern hawk like face, his uniform was prim and tidy and seemed to lack a single wrinkle with black shoes polished to a shine. On his chest was a nametag, Lieutenant Commander Benjamin Smith was his name and rank.
“Lieutenant Commander Benjamin.” Benjamin introduced himself. “At ease Captain, I am here to escort your charges to their assigned quarters. You and your squad may have some R and R but you need to debrief Captain Alexander before you do so.”
“Right sir, thank you sir.” Erika said before facing the ponies who were looking at her with uncertainty. “Just follow him, everything will be alright. You’ll likely be getting the best rooms on the ship and be able to clean yourselves up.”
“Oh thank goodness!” Rarity exclaimed. “I am an utter wreck! Why just look at all this dust in my mane and coat! It’s going to take hours to get everything in order! I don’t suppose this obvious military ship will have the shampoos and conditioners I’ll though?”
“Not initially but the ship can make you some with a minute’s preparation.” Erika replied and couldn’t help but smile slightly at the mare’s behaviour, so much different than it was back on the planet in the warzone. She reminded her of a few Warmages when they were on their off hours really.
“Jacobs you and your men can go relax, I’ll be giving everyone the same command when they get back from on world.” Erika stated to one of the Warmages.
“Yes ma’am, thank you ma’am.” Jacobs said, completely unidentifiable to anyone not wearing a helm with a HUD. “Come on; let’s go finally finish watching season Five.”
With that the group split into three going off their own separate ways. One off to relax, another to inform her superiors of all that happened and the final group barely able to keep up with all that was happening around them.
Λ
“My goodness that shower is terribly small!” Rarity complained as she came out of the bathroom with a cloud of steam following her, her mane wrapped up in a towel. “It was barely big enough to stand in, any smaller and I would have had to stand on my hind legs!”
The mares were now in a spacious room, there were several large couches and armchairs around the room, a large coffee table sat in the middle of the room and along one side of the room were a set of drawers with a large mirror above it. The odd thing about the room was the sense of newness about it, as if the room hadn’t either been here or been like this before they arrived on the Sadistic Melody.
“W-well e-everypony on this ship seems to be bipedal…” Fluttershy started, her own mane still slightly moist from her shower. “It seems like the showers would be made specifically for them.”
“Just be glad the shower is big enough to actually fit ya sugercube.” Applejack said and nodded at Princess Celestia. “I think her highness may have a bit more trouble then you getting cleaned up.”
“Oh my goodness pardon me your highness.” Rarity said raising her hoof to her mouth. “I wasn’t thinking.”
“It’s of no concern my dear pony.” Celestia said kindly and moved into the bathroom. “I shall manage somehow despite difficulties. However I do wish to advise you that you should be thankful we are not in a warzone anymore, the fact we were able to reach a place with anything approaching a refreshing shower is a miracle in itself from what I have seen of such places.”
“My apologies Princess I do not mean to sound ungrateful.” Rarity said with a frown. “I realise we have been through quite a precarious situation but now that we aren’t I would rather relax and tend to the trivialities that would be ignored in serious circumstances.”
“Very well as long as you understand how serious how situation was…” Celestia said with a troubled frown though it didn’t seem to be directed at Rarity. Then the Princess of the Sun walked into the bathroom to clean herself as well.
“Well darlings how are all of you?” Rarity asked as she walked over to the drawers and started rifling through them. “I know what we have been through was very stressful and disturbing and would like to know how all of you are ‘holding up’ as it were.”
“I-I-I…” Fluttershy gulped and sniffed back a few tears. “I’m fine…”
Immediately dropping the thing she had taken to be some sort of hair dryer Rarity darted over to the distraught pegasus.
“Shh, it’s okay Fluttershy.” Rarity said, getting close to the other mare and giving her a comforting hug. “Just let it all out dear.”
“I-it was so h-horrible!” Fluttershy cried. “W-why would anypony k-k-kill each other!? What about the c-children? Some of them m-must have been p-parents! Doesn’t anypony c-care about that!?”
“The Princess wasn’t kidding when she said this place was dangerous.” Dash muttered loudly. “As soon as we arrive we’re caught between those things murdering each other.”
“Ah figured when the Princess said dangerous she meant dangerous like Everfree.” Applejack stated. “Like we’d have ta’ watch out for critters having a go at us. Didn’t think we’d actually have ta’ worry about people or whatever they are attacking us.”
“Twilight was just like them too.” Pinkie said quietly. “Fighting… and she didn’t even recognise us…”
“Whatever could have happened to her?” Rarity thought as she held a softly crying Fluttershy close. “She didn’t recognise us, she didn’t recognise Celestia and she said she grew up here. What does that mean? Did she somehow regress to a filly and was raised by one of these creatures?”
“Maybe she was brainwashed into thinking that way!” Dash said with some alarm.
“A sound idea though it comes with issues.” Rarity said. “Namely how she could have learned to fight like that little over a month. Both you and I have taken self defense classes Rainbow Dash, you know how long it can take to learn to throw a punch or buck offensively properly.”
“Yeah, yeah that’s true…” Dash said and rubbed her head in thought. “It’s a weird problem to figure out huh?”
“I’m afraid we have far more serious problems to think about.” Celestia said as she left the bathroom, a few towels magically held up to dry off her mane.
“What!? But Twilight is the whole reason we came here!” Pinkie exclaimed. “What’s more important than that?!”
“I believe you’ll recall I needed the Elements of Harmony in order to power the spell to get us here.” Celestia stated and after a moment everyone’s eyes widened with realization. “Yes, the Elements are no longer with us. We are stranded in this strange and dangerous world with no clear way to return.”
“Oh my… but isn’t possible to store magical power in crystals?” Rarity asked hopefully. “Surely if we find enough and charge them we can go home.”
“It’s a possibility however there is no telling if such things even exist in this universe.” Celestia stated grimly. “I’m afraid we may need to make ourselves comfortable for we may be in this world a fairly long time.”
“Oh no…” Fluttershy began to despair before her eyes suddenly filled with hope. “Maybe… maybe Twilight will help us? All these strange beings use magic too, maybe we could ask them to help us get home.”
“It…” Celestia wasn’t too sure of that chance as Twilight seemed to think of them as strangers and to what she assumed were humans they were just foreigners as well, however she didn’t have it in her to potentially crush the hope the most sensitive of their number had. “It’s a possibility.”
Suddenly there was a knock at the door and Celestia looked at it a moment before opening it with her magic. Standing in the door was a figure the mares could not help but be intimidated by, he bipedal like all the others they have seen and wore a long pitch black coat with black boots and gloves, covering his head was a mask with two crimson lenses over the eyes and a few slits on the bottom for him to breathe through, atop the mask was a peaked cap with a symbol on the front depicting a neon pink lambda, over his shoulders he wore a long dark red hooded cloak with the hood down.
“Greetings.” The being said politely. “I am Operative Daniels, I am here representing the Atlantean Empire and wish to speak with you. May I come in?”
“Yes you may.” Celestia replied though the others looked like they wished she said no. “Please have a seat.”
“Thank you.” Daniels said and closed the door behind him.
Λ
“… After finishing the off the attacking Mercs the transport arrived.” Erika said to her CO. “We piled in and began the flight back here, there was some action along the way from harassment by enemy fighters but it was fairly minor thanks to our own Air Mage support and arrived on the Melody soon after.”
Erika was in what was basically a coffee room, Alexandria having decided she needed a bit of an energy boost arranged to have the debriefing there. Said Captain was also multi-tasking, listening to Erika’ report, drinking a coffee so potent it would have been considered a near lethal drug on twenty first century earth and watching several holo screens depicting battles and data.
“All ground forces successfully recovered Captain.” An AI announced. “Initiating self-destruct on all lost Atlantean gear… self-destruct successful; we have greens across the board ma’am.”
“Thank you Turbo.” Alexandria said while taking a sip of her coffee, her gaze riveted to the screens before her. “Begin our withdrawal to the waypoints; we’ll let them win today.”
“Aye ma’am.”
“You have done very well today Erika.” Alexandria stated, finally closing the screens and giving the unicorn her full attention. “Once again you’ve proven your cool under fire, your skill in a fight and the ability to trust your soldiers to get their jobs done without hand holding, all admirable and valuable traits in an Atlantean Officer.”
“Thank you ma’am.” Erika replied.
“However I wish to ask you on our passengers.” Alexandria stated. “The… ponies your people, what are your thoughts and feelings on them?”
“I am… rather conflicted on them ma’am.” Erika said with a frown. “On one hand I do not like the fact they seem to have expected me to just up and go with them the moment they saw me after abandoning me all those years ago, on the other they did come all this way and even brought a G-Class with them to ensure success that has to mean something right? I am willing to give them the benefit of the doubt really plus I would finally get to find out why I was abandoned and what my people are like.”
“Hmm… I do believe you will get your chance Erika.” Alexandria said with a nod before frowning in annoyance. “Well, after Operative Daniels is done with them.”
“The Operative, he… he isn’t going to hurt them is he?” Erika asked with a frown. “They haven’t done anything wrong… right?”
“None of the sort.” Alexandria answered, waving off Erika’s worry. “He is merely being diplomatic… at least as diplomatic as he can be wearing that damn mask of his.”
Λ
The creature, that is to say the human that identified himself as ‘Operative Daniels’ was a rather polite and sociable fellow as it turned out despite his odd clothing and chose of headwear. At least that was what Celestia could gleam out of their brief time together speaking in the room that was given to them. Though the others mares still found a bit too intimidating to speak with casually and remained mostly silent during the conversation.
Celestia had learned quite a bit from talking with Daniels, she learned that Twilight Sparkle identified as Erika Gefallen now and had even been adopted by the local royal family into their number, though the Operative had been rather quick to tell her not to call them royal or a noble like title of any sort which she found rather curious. Another rather fantastic discovery was the fact they were in space, she and the mares hadn’t really known they were being flown into orbit and had assumed they had gone to a ship off a nearby coast. Adding to this was the knowledge that the Atlantean Empire was one that stretched hundreds of star systems. Celestia had preferred the more down to earth novels but did indulge in the occasional science fiction story; never did she expect to suddenly find herself in a universe that would fit such a story, though in hindsight the fantastical weaponry and surroundings should have clued her in on the nature of the world around her.
“Erika spent quite a few years training to be a Warmage, completing the training in record time when she did finish.” Daniels recounted from his place in an armchair. “She was then placed into the field right away for some practical experience before starting to work her way up the ranks to where she is now.”
“While I find the idea of one placing their life on the line for something greater admirable was it really necessary that she be exposed to such violence?” Celestia asked with a frown.
“I understand what you are getting at, as a member of the most respected family in the Empire why isn’t she being given a much quieter position?” Daniels stated. “It’s because of Ezekiel’s, our Emperor, wishes for equality. Erika’s familial relations are supposed to only mean she has had far more preparation for Warmage training than most.”
“I myself have had experience with such things and can plainly guess that despite your Emperor’s efforts it didn’t completely work.” Celestia stated.
“Exactly.” Daniels replied with a nod. “People respect the Gefallens greatly, none more than us, the Warmages no matter our branch. Thus if Erika wished she could easily ask a few favours here and there and end up with a fairly light combat but prestigious position. However she is just like many of her fellow Gefallen, raised to fight and work for their strength, intelligence and skill, never to just plainly ask for it. And Erika herself would never know she even had this influence herself had she not been made aware of it.”
“It sounds like she was raised upright and true.” Celestia commented with a grateful smile.
“It would be hard not to be, considering who did the raising.” Daniels replied with some amusement. “Now is there anything you would like to know.”
“I would like to proffer a question my good sir.” Rarity said, having managed to somewhat get over Daniels’ appearance. “Whatever is going to happen to us?”
“We have been looking for your race for a long time, upon contact developing former relations was priority one and it still is.” Daniels answered. “I’d imagine we would be making a quick stop for repairs and rearmament before heading to the capital and meeting with Emperor Ezekiel. Considering your power I imagine you have some authority of your own?”
“Ah, you can tell from just looking?” Celestia asked.
“We all can.” Daniels answered. “Your great power is very clear to us and it’s equally rare for the person to possess to not have some formal power of their own. So am I correct in guessing you can at the least act as a representative of your people?”
“I can do more than that Mr. Daniels.” Celestia nodded. “I am Princess and co-ruler of the kingdom of Equestria and all her people.”
“Interesting…” Daniels commented with a hum. “Let’s keep that to ourselves for a short while shall we? At least until we reach the Gefallen family compound, there is a chance we may be under pursuit and we wouldn’t want your royal status widely known.”
“… No I can understand and appreciate the desire to ensure mine and my ponies’ safety.” Celestia said but inwardly had a sneaking suspicion that there was a secondary reason for the want for secrecy. “I thank you Operative Daniels. Are you going to be leaving now?”
“Unfortunately yes, I did enjoy our talking but alas I have other issues to attend and can’t put them off much longer.” Operative Daniels replied as he got up from his seat and walked to the door. “Now if you need anything just ask aloud for it, the ship’s AI Turbo will gladly help you, now rest and relax the journey to the capital may take the better part of a day.”
“Once again, our thanks Operative Daniels it was a pleasure!” Celestia called after the Atlantean as he closed the door.
‘Believe me the pleasure was all mine.’ Daniels thought as the door closed behind him and he made his way down the hall.
While Celestia had certainly learned a lot from Daniels the Operative had learned even more from the mares with her. Taking advantage of his crimson lenses shielding his eyes from sight Daniels had plunged the minds of each one of the mares and learned everything he needed to know. He knew what each one of the ponies were and their place in the scheme of things, the Elements of Harmony, the teleport spell, Erika when she had been Twilight Sparkle, their desire to bring their dear friend home and the almighty being that had sent Erika here in the first place. Yes Daniels had learned a lot and fully intended to share it with Ezekiel before Captain Alexandria had the ship set course for the capital.
Λ
Erika was making her way back to her quarters, having finished her report to Alexandria and the few things she needed to do with the forces she was commanding as her rank demanded, like making sure everyone was safe and sound and those that were wounded in the battle they were in were recovering comfortably.
Now that she had nothing important to concern her mind with it wandered over to a subject she had begun to lose hope ever accomplishing, meeting her people. Truthfully she was rather glad the mercenaries attacked when they did as Erika could feel a deep seated excitement bubbling up deep within her over finally finding members of her race, that excitement was efficiently and quickly pushed back down as her battle instincts took hold. Now that she was the battlefield however she could allow herself the luxury of imagining what her people were like and taking hints from the ponies she had seen.
‘They had sent all females to track me down.’ Erika thought. ‘The G-Class with them means they are actually important, so is my society matriarchal in nature? Or perhaps my race has a disproportionate gender population? No I would have been told if my unaltered genome made it more likely for me to give birth to females. And they have sub species too! Pegasus, unicorn pegasus, pony and of course, unicorn. Is there segregation of race I wonder? Despite being distasteful it does tend to happen in most societies, I shouldn’t try to whitewash my own in hopes of them being as great as I always hoped they’d be. Which one would it be though? The unicorns have magic obviously, the pega…si? The pegasi can fly and the ponies have neither so if anyone is to be treated lowly for their race it would be them. Course this is all just conjecture, oh and the big one, can’t forget about her. Hmm… she is a G-Class so in all likelihood her form isn’t an actual species but a resort of apotheosis of some sort. Again, all conjecture but I’ll get to sit down with them ask the interesting questions soon enough, let’s just get some shut eye first.’
It was to Erika’s surprise that Operative Daniels appeared from around the corner. The Warmage considered asking the Shadow Mage what he learned from the ponies but decided better of it, if the Operative would share such information with her he would. Still Erika couldn’t help but hope he would do just that as she walked past him, and that hoped faded when he did nothing but nod at her in greeting.
‘Oh well…’ Erika thought with an inward sigh. ‘I would prefer to hear about my people from my people anyway.’
With that Erika continued on her way to her quarters and along the way decided to take a shortcut through a rec room.
It was a fairly large room with several holo TVs lining one wall with several well-worn but comfortable couches sitting before them. A small kitchen like space sat on one corner and had a table for eating next to it. There were many tables and chairs for anyone to use as they pleased and finally two well used pool tables sat currently unused.
Since the deployed Warmages had only recently arrived there was only one Warmage sitting at a table with a wide array of colorful cards before him, his expression fixed in one of deadly seriousness and wearing a dark gray jumpsuit along with a pitch black cuirass. Two others were currently using the small kitchen area, a man cooking up a meal while a woman who had hair made of moss and skin of wood watching on eagerly from the table. Only one of the TVs were in use by a group of three slurping some slush like drink as they watched what appeared to be a war drama, it seemed like the TV was on mute but in actuality the speakers were designed to send sound only to the area around the couch before it, allowing everyone to watch their own shows without noise pollution ruining it.
Erika walked through the room nearly unnoticed, only the wooden woman, the Dryad spotted her and gave her a respectful nod, everyone else was caught up in their own things. As she walked past the group watching the TV she couldn’t help but overhear their conversation.
“Wow they really do make the Warmages foul mouthed don’t they?” One of the Mages commented.
“You haven’t spent a lot of time around non-Warmages haven’t you?” Asked one of her friends.
“I’ve practically spent every single moment of my time since grad with you guys; you’re both like my family.” The first replied and got warm smiles from her friends.
“That’s sweet, well the civvies got this stereotypical picture of us as foul mouthed adrenalin junkies.” Answered her other friend. “They always are surprised to see us so calm and well-spoken even in the heat of battle.”
“They should see Emily when she dances and sings for everyone.” Commented one with a laugh. “She’s practically the exact opposite of a foul mouthed adrenalin junkie.”
“I heard she was forced into the Warmages.” The first half whispered.
There was a long awkward silence after that.
“Yeah…”
Erika picked up the pace little as she frowned and exited the rec room out of another door. Her room wasn’t too far away now, just down a few more halls.
Sure enough the Unicorn soon found herself standing before her door, which was nigh undisguisable from all the others in that very hall. She entered and flicked on the light switch. Her room wasn’t at all impressive, it was barely bigger than a walk in closet, had bare steel walls and floor, one thin bed and one bedside table upon which sat a gray brick. Most people would consider such a space not even good for a prison let alone for one of Atlantis’ finest but Erika was trained to rest in and had rested in far worse locales, frankly she found her sleeping quarters more than suitable.
With a whirring of motors and flipping of armor plating Erika found herself only wearing a silvery cuirass and her black uniform coat underneath. With a flash of violet magic the cuirass fell off her and floated over to the corner of the tiny bedroom. She then threw herself on her bed turned to face the gray brick on her bedside table.
With another flash of magic a holographic screen leapt up from the brick and showed a desktop with many little icons on it, the background was a picture of Erika with a massive pleased smile, practically brandishing a plaque congratulating her for completing her Warmage training and another plaque for graduating in record breaking time. Beside her was a blond and blue eyed fair skinned man wearing a dark gray jumpsuit and a silvery cuirass kneeling beside her. The man also had this massive grin on his face that likely had something to do with the multicolored mushroom cloud inexplicably in the far background of the picture.
A cursor appeared on the screen and Erika moved it over to one of the icons and clicked on it, bring up a window with a blank black screen and column of names with numbers beside them on the side. She clicked on one of the names and soft techno music starting filling the room, the black screen now filled with explosions of color.
With that Erika rolled onto her back and closed her eyes, slowly falling to sleep to the sound of her music.
TERMINALOGY War mage= General military term Field mage= Ground forces Air mage= Air forces Naval mage= Orbital forces Golem= Technomagical Robot GROUND FORCES Fireteam=5 Field Mages Squad-2 Fireteams= 10 Field Mages Platoon- 4 squads= 40 Field Mages Company- 5 Platoons= 200 Field Mages Battalion- 5 Companys= 1000 Field Mages Regiment- 10 Battalions= 10,000 Field Mages Division- 4 regiments= 40,000 Field Mages Corps- 5 Divisions =200,000 Field Mages Field Army- 5 Corps 1,000,000 Field Mages Army Group-10 Field Armies= 10,000,000 Field Mages Legion- 10 Army groups= 100,000,000 Field Mages Theater- 10 Legions (depending on importance of conflict, averages at 10) = 1,000,000,000 Field Mages AIR FORCES Section= 3 Air Mages Flight- 3 Section= 9 Air Mages Squadron- 3 Flights= 19 Air Mages Wing- 4 Squadrons= 76 Air Mages Tactical Air Company (TAC) - 3 Wings= 238 Air Mages ORBITAL FORCES Note: Ship classes after Corvette carry an attachment of support and boarding golems. Fast Attack Craft= 10 Naval mages Orbital Patrol Vessel= 15 Naval Mages Corvette= 30 Naval Mages Frigate= 100 Naval Mages 2000 Golems Destroyer= 200 Naval Mages 5000 Golems Cruiser= 400 Naval Mages 10,000 Golems Battle Cruiser= 500 Naval Mages 40,000 Golems Dreadnought= 1000 Naval mages 10,000 Golems Battleship= 2000 Naval Mages 1,000,000 Golems Carrier- 10 TACs= 10000 Naval Mages 2380 Air Mages 5,000,000 Golems Dedicated Carrier- 100 TACs= 2000 Naval Mages 23,800 Air Mages 1,000,000 Golems
OFFICER RANKS : FIELD MAGE RANKS Officer Cadet 2nd Lieutenant Lieutenant Captain Major Lieutenant Colonel Colonel Brigadier General Field Marshall AIR MAGE RANKS Officer Cadet Pilot Officer Flying Officer Flight Lieutenant Squadron Leader Wing Commander Sky Captain Air Commodore Air Marshall Marshall of the Air Mages NAVAL MAGE RANKS Midshipman Ensign Sub-Lieutenant Lieutenant Lieutenant Commander Commander Captain Commodore Admiral Admiral of the Fleet AN: Yeah most of this is ripped from military Wikipedia pages and altered to suit my needs :P
Erika was dreaming, she had enough mind magic training to know that. She could see herself as a very young child sitting in a garden in the Gefallen Compound, her teddy bear Mogwai was sitting beside her and she watched in happy curiosity as Conrad started making structures out of the dirt with his own developing magic. One structure that struck a chord within her was of a castle hanging off the side of a mountain.
‘I remember what it was like to be that young.’ Erika thought. ‘It was so peaceful happy and carefree, death wasn’t something that even existed, the idea of people not being as safe, as happy and as cared for as us was an alien thought, a dark fantastical thing in fairy tales of heroes, princesses and grand destinies and true love.’
The scene changed, now Erika was a bit older, a bit bigger and bit wiser. She was in the gardens again; her teddy bear was with her sitting upon her back and her father Ezekiel was there in his usual cloaked attire. He was teaching her how to use her magic. Her younger self tried to do as she was instructed and her horn became alit with a pink aura. Ezekiel shook his head and reached down with his hand and covered her horn completely with it. He motioned for her to try again and with a pout she did. For the longest moment the younger Erika had a look of intense concentration and strain upon her face until finally there was a result. Her form was suddenly blanketed in a violet aura of magic for several seconds before it faded away. She panted in exertion but smiled giddily at Ezekiel.
‘Getting older is like a doubled edged sword.’ Erika thought contemplatively. ‘The world becomes less… magical and fantastic, truths are revealed and the way you thought the world worked is dashed and remade almost every day, youthful innocence chipped away slowly but persistently… but at the same time you are stronger for knowing this truth, the darker ways of the world, the cold ways, the pragmatic ways, whereas before these truths would have severely depressed a young child or just confused them you begin to become old enough to maybe not take it in your stride but at least tolerate it until you can. Getting started on learning intensive magic from my father was like this, no longer was death some distant fictional thing but something that can strike close to home and being a Warmage meant protecting the people of Atlantis from those from threats of death both within and without. Death wasn’t the worst thing that can happen to you though but at this point there was nothing more terrible than death in my young mind.’
Erika’s dream world shifted and a new venue was seen along with Erika being yet older. She was taller and bigger but she wasn’t as big as she was now but she was definitely older, a young teen in fact and only a year away from being old enough to be enrolled in the Warmage Academy at the tender age of thirteen. Even at this point and despite knowing that most people only passed the Academy after two decades of training she was both excited and eager. But currently her excitement and eagerness was completely absent instead her face was a mask of utter shock and disbelief as she sat in her father’s study and listening to him talk, regaling her with tales of what he had seen, heard and done.
‘Discovering your parents did not suit the marble pedestal you had placed them was something everyone goes through… I always thought my parents deserved theirs though, so very much…’ Erika thought with some sadness. ‘Discovering my Father, Ezekiel Gefallen Gott Morder, was just the same in that regard was a harsh blow to what remained of my innocence. In this regard I suppose everyone else has an easier time don’t they? After all what is the worst you have heard your parents doing? Starting a drunken brawl at your sport’s game? Perhaps you’ve saw them sneak a few hotel towels into their bags just before checking out? For me it was finding out from the source himself what he had done to get to where he is today. Its one thing to read about how the rise of the Atlantean Empire over its decadent Republic lead to the destruction of the nobility in its entirety, it’s a different story to hear your father talk about his blind rage causing him to have each noble man, woman and child butchered, or how he had nearly driven he elves into extinction for their crimes and turned the entirety of their race barely a step above that of a slave, and only in the past thousand years had their condition been reversed to something resembling beings that didn’t live to serve. But despite that I love my father, it may have been surprisingly hard to come to terms with but my father has his flaws and is just a person in the end despite the incredible responsibilities he has had to bear. If there was anything this had taught me though was to always be realistic with your expectations of people, no one is a paragon of virtues no matter what their reputation may say of them.’
And the scene changed yet again, this time Erika was now inside a drop ship and the interior seemed to be shaking mightily. Instead of her silvery armor she would be gifted with upon her promotion to the rank of captain Erika was wearing the common black armor of a frontline Warmage. It was her first deployment and it would be an eventful one in her young opinion, though for the vets and elders in her squad it was just another bumpy drop into hostile territory.
‘And so it comes to my time of my first deployment as an actual Warmage, armed with my magic, my training, and all the knowledge I had gained while growing up.’ Erika thought. ‘I was aware of all the evils any sentient could commit. Murder, torture, rape, lynching minorities, open hatred, assault with unsaid government sanction, some of the few things I would see in missions to the neighbouring solar nations and I would ready to face all of it down with all of my strength. Needless to say I was now without even the minor scrap of innocence I had possessed from my childhood. Seventeen years old and already an adult in both mind and soul… sometimes I wonder if I should have waited, if I should have gone for training when I turned twenty one instead of as soon as I was allowed? But in the end what’s done is done, I am in my late forties now and First Generation willing I will have hundreds more ahead of me. The past is the past but the future is always changing, always interesting… but there is one thing about the past I am interested in knowing about though, the origins of my birth and race.’
“Ma’am?” Erika heard a muffled voice call out from a great distance followed by rhythmic booming. “Captain Sparkly are you up ma’am?”
‘Well it’s time to wake up.’ Erika thought and with a swirl of darkness found herself opening her eyes in her tiny quarters with her computer still playing her music softly.
“One moment, I’ll be right there!” Erika called out as the knocking continued. She got up from her bed rubbing at her eyes and yawning. Walking towards her door she absently floated her cuirass to her and magically strapped it on before opening the door.
“Yes what is it?” Erika asked the female elven Naval Mage standing at attention before her.
“Ma’am the Melody has been repaired and rearmed and is now on the way to the capital.” She told her. “Along with that I am to inform you that Captain Alexandria wishes to speak with you at your first convenience at the bridge.”
“Thank you, dismissed.” Erika said with a nod.
With a sharp salute the Mage went on her way and Erika exited her room closing the door behind her. Deciding to take a short relaxing shower before meeting with the Captain Erika began moving down towards the showers in her section of the ship.
Since they were now in Atlantean territory and thus didn’t expect to be attacked the halls were filled with Warmages walking and talking casually to each other, all wearing a gray jumpsuit along with a black cuirass.
Soon Erika arrived to the showers and entered into the locker room to hang up her armour and her coat before walking into the showers. The showering area was filled with dozens of little cubicles with chest high walls. The sound of rushing water met her ears and thick mist met her eyes, the showers were in use.
There were about seven people in cubicles and talking casually. Two of them were men and the five were women, three of those women were Dryads. The seven showering mages paused their conversation and looked towards her at the sounds of her hooves on the linoleum floor.
“Hay Cap’!” One of the Dryads waved energetically and smiled happily. “The water is hot enough to cook with! It’s wonderful~”
“It certainly sounds so.” Erika smiled lightly at the giddy Dryad before entering one of the cubicles to use herself. Being as short as she was the walls ended up obscuring her from sight, not that Erika minded that so much.
The mages returned to their conversation as Erika magically manipulated her surroundings with her magic, turning on her shower and squeezing out a few globules of soap from the bottle attached to the wall.
“So what do you think of our passengers Cap’?” Erika heard someone call out. “Honestly I had thought you were one and only when it comes to species.”
“I haven’t had a chance to talk to them in depth just yet.” Erika answered as she stood under the relaxing stream of hot water pouring down on her from the ceiling above. “I most certainly am glad that I am not the only member of my species though, while I don’t doubt I wouldn’t have been able to birth enough children to restart a species I’d rather leave having tons of children to my parents.”
“Oh~ I heard about the new generation they had!” The Dryad from before said. “The pictures I found of them were so cute! Did you meet them yet?”
“Unfortunately I’ve only had the chance to meet the newest members of my family once.” Erika answered candidly as she lathered soap upon herself. She really didn’t mind that fact, after all she didn’t really know the previous generations her parents had birthed all that much and imagined it would be the same for the newest one.
“I… I hope my sister is okay…” A new voice said.
Immediately after that statement Erika could feel the cheerful atmosphere melt away and replaced with gloom.
“Yeah she is showing the signs isn’t she.” Questioned one mage.
“Starting to favour melee, sadism towards wounded enemies, breaking off from the squad and not remembering it…” The new voice said quietly. “She is going to just blackout as soon as she enters a fight one of these days and find herself waking up to corpses all around her…”
“A Berserker huh? I’m sorry Delvin.” The Dryad from before said quietly.
At this point Erika had decided to finish up and rinsed the soap off her before leaving her cubicle. Before she entered the locker room Erika stopped before a large wall mirror and took in her wet form. Suddenly violet sparks began running down her wet mane and coat with dangerous a sounding crackle of electricity. Once the sparks were gone it was as if she had finished drying herself off and brushing herself. Nodding in satisfaction at being presentable Erika went to the locker she put her coat and cuirass in before walking out the doors, her destination being the bridge where Captain Alexandria was waiting.
Λ
“And how is your coffee this time?” Turbo asked, his voice seeming to originate from everywhere in the room. “I do hope I had managed to make it mild enough this time.”
“It’s wonderful now, thank you Turbo.” Celestia thanked the AI.
So far the ponies had spent a whole day on the spaceship called the ‘Sadistic Melody’. Questionable name themes aside it was a rather pleasant and exciting experience for it seemed like new discoveries were around every corner for the ponies. Take Turbo the ‘AI’ for instance. Back in Equestria computers were still in its beginning stages, homes computers were still relatively new and only people who had taken classes were able to make much use of the devices. Here though computers were so advanced and intelligent they had become people of their very own, artificial intelligences was what these souls in the machine were called. Turbo had rather liked the term when she called him that in fact.
“Ah, that’s very good I’m rather sorry about the coffee before.” Turbo said apologetically. “I am rather used to the way Warmages prefer their coffee, that is to say immensely potent. I am actually glad you spat it up when you did, no telling what effects such a potent brew would have had on you had you drank it anyway.”
“Well it’s fortunate we won’t have to find out then.” Celestia commented as she took another sip of her drink, content to chat with the ‘Soul of the ship’.
It was then that several of those machines called ‘golems’ floated out of the bathroom. Each was about the size of a cat and many little devices floating about them as well as a few arms sticking out of their bulbous shapes.
“And the bathroom adjustments are finished!” Turbo proclaimed. “It had completely slipped my mind at the time when I was remodeling this room for you to adjust the size of the shower, micromanaging the battle around the ship had just taken nearly all of my attention.”
“No need to apologise Turbo, like I had mentioned I and everypony else were just glad to be out of that warzone, having to deal with some discomfort in the form of a miss sized shower is completely trivial.” Celestia assured her electronic caretaker. “I am incredibly grateful in fact that you had taken any time at all to make our stay aboard the Melody as comfortable as possible despite needing to watch the battle as well.”
“It wasn’t much effort honestly.” Turbo replied. “To you it would have been like… stirring your tea and blowing on it before sipping it while you were doing important paper work, though I had forgotten to ‘blow’ on the tea as it were. Ah! It appears those the girls have decided to come back now.”
Sure enough Celestia could hear the familiar sounds of the mares’ voices through the door as they approached. The door opened and in walked in five excitedly talking ponies.
“Hello my little ponies how was your little adventure around the Melody?” Celestia asked curiously.
“It’s been quite the experience your highness.” Rarity answered. “We went looking for something to eat and found the local cafeteria. Since this is a military ship I was rather expecting it to be a bland affair. Consider my surprise when they had so many different varieties available! Although the sure number of… meat present was a bit of a damper, it can’t really be helped however as one can’t help the things they have to eat.”
“Warmages are fully capable of going without sustenance of any form Miss Rarity.” Turbo answered. “So food is purely a luxury, as a luxury then it should be good and in great variety. Helping this is the fabricator allowing us to make any sort of foodstuff imaginable.”
“You fabricate food?” Rarity questioned with a raised brow. “How does that work?”
“The foodstuffs are made from a nutrient paste.” Turbo answered. “They are then molded, textured and chemically flavoured to fit the foodstuff they are mimicking, an added benefit of this means that it is rather difficult to overeat.”
“Ah…” Rarity said, not knowing how to take that piece of information.
“Well ah and Rainbow went looking around after eating.” Applejack said. “We both found this workout place with a bunch of those mage people in there. I saw this one fella lift this bar that was being pushed down by these machine things.”
“Those were piston weights Miss Jack.” Turbo said. “The Mage using them had them pushing down at three metric tons.”
“Woo doggy! Now that’s heavy!” Applejack replied. “And my family name is Apple mister, not Jack.”
“Apologies.”
“I saw this one guy running a track.” Dash said. “He was doing pretty meh at first but then he got faster and faster until he was beginning to blur on the track! He looked like he was only jogging too, wonder how fast he would go if he went all out?”
“Um Pinkie Pie took me to go see what the Warmages do for fun.” Fluttershy said softly. “We managed to find the ‘Rec Room’ and Pinkie went to go see what some of the people were doing. I took a seat and… well I ended up looking at these half tree looking people a lot. They were just so… different and unique with their plant mane and tree bark skin.”
“The beings you are fascinated by are called Dryads.” Turbo explained. “They are ladies of nature, born of seed and tree.”
“I got to find out about all these fun little party games the mages like to play!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed excitedly. “I don’t normally play video games all that much but these were so cool and fun looking! I just had to play! So they let me play and I lost a lot but it was fun! They even gave me this thingy right here!”
Pinkie then pulled out a handheld console from… somewhere, and likely held thousands of video games for Pinkie to try.
“Fascinating.” Turbo commented upon seeing what Pinkie did.
“I know right!” Pinkie said, waving her gamepad around excitedly. “This baby has over twelve thousand video games collected from all over the Empire! And it’s up to date! Ohhhh I wonder what kind of fun stuff is on here!”
“So what interesting thing about the locals did you discover Princess?” Rarity asked.
“Well… I did discover this most invigorating brew.” Celestia replied, levitating her cup of coffee for emphases.
Everyone looked rather put off by that ‘interesting’ discovery. Rainbow Dash even looked on the verge of outright booing. After a moment of silence Rarity cleared her throat.
“Well Princess that is certainly a discovery.” She said lightly.
“Well I heard we’re heading to their capital now.” Rainbow Dash said as Celestia coughed lightly in some embarrassment. “And going faster than the speed of light to get there! IT’S AWESOME!”
“Well that certainly is exciting sounding.” Celestia smiled at Dash’s excitement at going so fast before frowning. “It’s rather unfortunate I am not properly dressed to meet a fellow head of state, I’m afraid it may be a bit of a poor first impression.”
“Not to worry!” Turbo broke in. “Emperor Ezekiel is fine with forgoing pomp and formalities for a more casual meeting, in fact he favours such meetings.”
“Oh!” Celestia looked rather delighted by this bit of information. “I had not thought he would be such a person. Well this certainly takes off some of the stress.”
While outwardly Celestia looked happy and even a little eager to meet Ezekiel inwardly she was wary and guarded. She remembered she had seen of humanity before and the experience they had just been though. Thus she wasn’t going to let her guard down in any discussion with the Human Emperor, no matter how casual the meeting was going to be, her mind filled with memories of the carnage she had survived though the day before.
Λ
Erika walked through a large opening into the bridge of the Sadistic Melody. With the technology the Empire possessed it was a simple matter to steam images of the surrounding environment to any screen on the ship, thus it made more sense to have the ‘brain’ of the ship in the very center where layers upon layers of armor made it nearly impossible to get a critical shot on it. The Bridge was the size of a fairly good sized gym and shaped in a half sphere. Holo screens covered every inch of the curving walls, most displayed the surrounding environment which was a blur of star streaks from going faster than light, the rest had scrolling lines of data that Erika could probably understand if she strained. Several rings of consoles with operators at them surrounded a slightly raised up podium that had a fairly comfortable looking rotating chair which had its own array of holo screens orbiting it.
Alexandria was standing on the edge of the captain’s podium and staring up at various holo screens while sipping a cup of powerful coffee. The moment Erika had stepping into the bridge Alexandria had spotted her and immediately made for her.
“Come with me.” Alexandria said as she walked past Erika and out of the bridge.
Erika did as told and followed after the Ship Captain. They walked down a hallway and Alexandria walked through a nearby doorway. Erika walked in soon after and found they were in a small break room and the Captain was off in the corner getting a pot of fresh coffee brewed up.
“Once we arrive at the capitol everyone will be put on extended leave.” Alexandria stated, placing her most likely empty coffee mug beside the filling pot. “That includes all units attached to the Sadistic Melody so you can go home and enjoy getting to know your found people as well.”
“Thank you captain but certainly that can’t be the reason you wanted to talk with me?” Erika said.
“I know it’s none of my business of how you conduct yourself with others.” Alexandria said as she refilled her mug. “As long as you aren’t a total ass and can keep personal grudges separate from duty then it isn’t my concern. However I do know of your history concern nobility and would like to warn you ahead of time, one of the ponies you rescued, the tall white one with the blue, green and pink mane?”
“She is a noble isn’t she?” Erika said with a sigh and got a nod from the Captain as she sipped her coffee. “Well… I had my suspicions on her status, despite the dust I could still make out the jewelry she was wearing. I had hoped she was just the atypical politician and dressed expensively as they tend to do but it’s obviously not the case now.”
“Is it going to be a problem?” Alexandria asked with a level stare.
“No… hopefully.” Erika answered with a thoughtful frown. “It’s been nearly two decades since the day, I’ve had plenty of time to cool off.”
“Even so, things like that stay with you Erika.” The Captain commented.
“They do… I’m going to try not to let it get in the way of reconnecting with my people.” Erika said firmly with conviction. “I and many people in Atlantis may not like the idea of nobility but I recognise it is still a valid form of government.”
“It’s good to see people talking Ezekiel’s words about nobility to heart.” Alexandria said with a nod. “Especially one of his children, that always adds weight to it. Dismissed Erika, we’ll be arriving at the capitol in three hours.”
“Captain.” The Unicorn Warmage said with a sharp salute before walking out the door of the break room.
Λ
Celestia lead her ponies into the massive hangar of the Sadistic Melody. The place of their arrival onto the ship was far calmer than before, understandable considering they were in combat before. Rather than the chaotic rush of golem fighters flying into battle and coming back for repair and rearmament it… actually it was still a bit on the chaotic side, since they were about to have tons of people getting sent off the ship for shore leave and thus preparations and deck clearing were underway.
Celestia and the mares made their way through the rushing Naval Mages as they moved large crates and, helped move ships on the decks about and lead Warmages to their transports.
“Did they actually tell us which ship was ours?” Dash asked.
“They said that the ship was still on the way Dash darling.” Rarity replied. “And that Erika would be our guide to help us reach our intended destination.”
“Oh my I do hope she can find us.” Fluttershy said and turned when she heard some shouting and crashing noises off to the side. “What is- EEK!”
Leaping through a baggage train came a dinosaur like creature. It was about the size of a rhino, had four legs that ended in paws with stubby claws, a fairly short but thick tail and a head very much like that of a T-rex. Its body was thick with slabs of muscle was wearing black armour around its chest and stomach.
Everyone started screaming and shouting when it tackled Fluttershy to the ground and Celestia was mere moments from unleashing her magic on the creature when the unlikeliest of noises met her ears, Fluttershy giggling.
“No, ahh! Stop please! Hehehe, ah!” Fluttershy shouted as she squirmed about, the large creature over her licking her and slobbering all over her like an over eager dog, it’s tail wagging only adding to the effect.
“Beethoven!” Someone shouted.
Over the pile of spilled bags came a Warmage looking rather confused as he quickly jogged over to the large creature still mercilessly licking Fluttershy. He then quickly took to the creature’s side and quickly patted it’s side, getting its attention.
“Sorry about that, Beethoven usually doesn’t bound off away from me like that unless I tell him to.” The mage said as Beethoven backed off Fluttershy and sat down his large mass beside his mage. “He must have seen something he really liked about you for him to just break away from me like that.”
“Ha yeah Fluttershy has a way with animals, pretty sure he would have made your… dog back off eventually.” Rainbow Dash said confidently as she subtly increased the space between her and the creature the mage had. Main while Fluttershy picked herself up off the floor and dejectedly started wiping drool off of herself, she still smiled at the obviously friendly creature panting like a big dog before her though.
“Sorry about that, here let me clean you up.” The Mage said and waved a hand towards Fluttershy, immediately sand appeared from his arm and briefly shrouded Fluttershy from view who squeaked in fright. An instant later the sand disappeared back into the mage’s form and Fluttershy was completely clean of drool.
“You really must have a deep empathy with animals to make a Gorg act like that.” The mage commented with an interested look. “We train these guys heavily and it takes a lot to get them to break out of that conditioning when they aren’t supposed to. Anyway you guys probably have somewhere else to be, come on Beethoven say goodbye to the nice lady you decided to maul with friendliness and let’s get on our way.”
Beethovan gave a sort of cheerful barking roar at Fluttershy before thumping off after his handler, shooting Fluttershy looks over its shoulder every few moments.
“What a friendly and fascinating creature!” Fluttershy exclaimed, waving her hoof in the air after Beethovan the Gorg. “I wonder if they are the local equivalent to dogs?”
“We have dogs.” Erika said, having somehow snuck into the ponies’ midst to their sudden and very vocal shock. “We created the Gorgonopsids, or gorgs for short, for Warmage use as war dogs.”
“They… they live only to fight in w-war?” Fluttershy said looking rather depressed at the idea.
“The same can be said of us.” Erika said with a frown. “It’s nice to have an animal companion, especially one you don’t have to worry about dying from a lucky shot.”
“Oh well that’s much better then.” Fluttershy said honestly though she still looked rather sad.
“Ahem… well you all likely know my name by now.” Erika said, looking over everyone and paused noticeably at Celestia. “I think it’s time I find out your names as well.”
“Well sugercube we… used to know each other…” Applejack said a bit sadly before perking herself back up. “Hopefully we can get ya memories of us back quick as a jackrabbit. I’m Applejack!”
“I second Applejack’s sentiment.” Rarity agreed and seemed to curtsy at Erika briefly. “I am Rarity, I too am a friend you used to know.”
“I’m Fluttershy and I hope we can still be friends…” The pegasus introduced herself softly.
“And I’m Rainbow Dash, your personal hero!” Dash said dramatically with total confidence, even adopting a heroic pose.
“Really…” Erika said with deadpan look and raised brow.
“Nah!” Dash said with a laugh. “Just pulling your leg, I’m a good friend though and you can count on it.”
It was only Erika’s personal restraint that kept her combat instincts in check when Pinkie Pie suddenly rushed her and wrapped her up in a tight hug.
“I’m Pinkie Pie and it’s super awesome to meet you Erika!” Pinkie said happily and suddenly gasped as she realised something. “Oh wow technically this is our second first meeting! This is a totally special event that needs a party to properly celebrate! Hmm… don’t got any bits or know any of the local shops to ask for favours… oh well! I like a challenge! Now I just need to macgyver a few things…”
Erika stared after Pinkie as she wandered off muttering plans under her breath; writing down notes on a gamepad she had pulled out from… somewhere. Erika then shook her head and focused her attention on the last pony to be introduced to her, Princess Celestia.
“I am Princess Celestia.” The alicorn introduced herself with a bow of her head. “I once was your mentor throughout most of your life… I am hoping we can return to something resembling such a relationship one day.”
“Princess…” Erika said softly, her mouth almost curling into a small frown as she stared up at the alicorn. “It is… a pleasure to meet you… are you a leader of my people?”
“The Kingdom of Equestria is a Diarchy, ruled by I and my sister Princess Luna.” Celestia explained and could not help the frown on her face as she noticed Erika’s attitude take a downturn when she spoke to her. “Erika, have I insulted or wronged you in some way?”
“No… no you have not.” Erika answered and took a calming breath. “I am glad to meet you and thankful for your assistance the day before during the battle, though truth be told I was not in too much great danger and had honestly been through worse not that I am belittling your help since it was very timely and made things much less painful for me and…” Erika paused as she stopped her rambling; Celestia looking down at her with a nostalgic smile. “What I am trying to say is I do not mean to dislike you for no good reason and do wish to get to know you.”
“It is alright Erika, I do not mind and wish to get to know you better as well.” Celestia smiled at the smaller pony.
“So… when is our ride going to arrive?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“Well…” Erika began, turning towards the mouth of the hanger. “I checked on its progress before coming here and it should be arriving about now.”
The unicorn Warmage then pointed out a long ship about the size of the transport they had ridden to get on the Sadistic Melody flying into the hanger. It was white and had blacked out windows all around it; it had four winglets that had an intense blue glow coming from under each wing. It lowered itself until it was half a foot off the ground and the side opened up.
“Come on.” Erika said as she stepped inside the shuttle. “Let’s get on our way.”
The inside of the shuttle was very much like a limo only with much more amenities. At each of the corners were coolers that no doubt contained the very best and expensive of drinks. The seats were covered with synthetic leather that was much more comfortable than the real thing, a plus considering what some people rented these high class shuttles for. The windows may have been impossible to see through from the outside but everyone had a clear view from the inside of the shuttle of the world outside. It may not have been apparent at first but the shuttle also had a constant Holonet connection and holo screens could be called on command for either TV or surfing the net. An added feature of the seats was the massage function that worked no matter where you on sat on them or how you sat on them.
“Oh my! Look at all this!” Rarity gasped in delight at the shuttle’s interior. “Donc luxueux!”
“Yay bouncy!” Pinkie shouted as she started jumping on the seats before flipping over and dropping onto her back and pulled out her gamepad. “Gaming time!”
“Well this is quite delightful.” Fluttershy commented as she settled on the soft seats. “Don’t you think so Princess?”
“Certainly my dear Fluttershy.” Celestia replied as she poked around a cooler. “Now just what are these? Hmm…”
“Here let me help you with those.” Erika said as she walked over, last thing that needed to happen was Celestia meeting with her father either dead drunk or slightly tipsy.
“Sweet!” Rainbow Dash commented, having somehow figured out there were holoscreens and was in the middle of watching an action movie right in the middle of the explosion heavy scenes.
“Oh my~” Rarity sighed as she thoroughly enjoyed the massage function of the seats.
“Well ain’t this just the high life?” Applejack commented as she looked out the window and watched the scenery go by as the ship lifted off and flew forward.
A few minutes later Erika had helped Celestia picked out a non-alcoholic drink the alicorn thoroughly enjoyed and everyone was fairly settled in. Fluttershy was simply sitting on her seat and enjoying the peace, Rainbow Dash was cheering on the hero in her cheesy action movie, Applejack amused herself with the space passing by, Pinkie Pie was breaking her high score and Rarity was still being turned into cooing putty by the massage feature.
“Whoa! That Atlantis over there?” Applejack asked Erika.
The unicorn walked over from Celestia and saw what Applejack was pointing at. A blue and green jewel of a planet, orbit swarming with ships and space stations, its visible night side twinkling like an over decorated Christmas tree. And over to one side of the planet, hanging like a second moon was a small sphere of white clouds, their intended destination.
“Yeah that’s home alright.” Erika said.
“Now that’s a sight to see.” Applejack comment as the shuttle neared it.
“You know you all are rather blasé about being in space for the first time.” Erika commented, looking back at everyone.
“What’s there to be excited about sugercube?” Applejack asked waving her hoof to the expanse of nothingness. “The view can be pretty no doubt there but otherwise it’s jus’ a whole lot of nothing. Everypony else has found their own little things that caught their attention like a flower to a bee, a whole lot of nothing ain’t so interesting to that.”
“True enough I guess.” Erika said as she looked back at the others. “I guess I’m just too used to people who haven’t been in space before getting all excited. Anyway, you see that ball of clouds next to Atlantis? The planet I mean.”
“Uhhh…” Applejack narrowed her eyes at the small sphere in the distance. “Ah think so… why? What is it?”
“It’s our destination.” Erika answered. “In that cloud is the Gefallen Family Compound, home of my family and where my father is waiting to meet Princess Celestia.”
“So a floating palace?” Applejack asked in rising excitement. “That there is a sight I want to see!”
“Well… I wouldn’t call it a palace…” Erika said with a frown. “It’s more of a flying fortress.”
“Well what’s the difference partner?” The cowpony asked.
“One is mostly decorative and the other is practical.” Erika explained.
“Well that sounds good to me sugercube.” Applejack replied. “Let’s see what yer home looks like.”
About twenty minute later and the shuttle was flying through the cloud sphere of the Gefallen Compound and revealed the definite superstructure within. The sure mass of the Gefallen Family compound floated in the air before the audibly impressed ponies. While the inner gardens and vegetation growing on the inside walls compound showed there were creature comforts here it was also clear what Erika said about the compound being a fortress was true, as guns of all sizes bristled the walls of the compound.
“Wow… that’s a fortress all right.” Applejack said softly.
“Father cares for his family.” Erika said with a warm smile. “Along with the Compound’s own defenses any enemy that manages to breach this far into our territory will have him to deal with.”
The rest of the trip was silent as the ponies watched the compound get closer and thus seem so much bigger with every moment. Finally the shuttle came in for a landing in one of the large courtyards of the compound that looked to be a docking area.
As the door opened the ponies exited the shuttle and stared about their surroundings, taking in the massive walls towering far above them. It quickly became apparent that someone had been sent to meet them as a woman walked towards them.
On her feet were a pair of sandals, she wore a pair of tight green jeans and an open brown vest that revealed a green tube top that bared her midriff. She also wore a pair of rose tinted half-moon glasses with a beaked baggy green and brown beanie atop her head. Her skin was fair and her hair was blond and made into long dreadlocks, some of which went all the way to the small of her back, and her eyes were a bright twinkling blue.
“Hey~!” The woman greeted cheerfully and started skipping as she neared them. “How are you guys? Did ya like your trip?”
“It was a fair trip Blood Beam ma’am.” Erika saluted the woman, causing the ponies to widen their eyes in surprise and wonder how the woman got such a name.
“Oh Erika you and your formalness!” ‘Blood Beam’ Said with half-hearted wave of her hand before turning her attention to the Princess. “And you must be Celestia! Nice to meet you~”
“I like this lady.” Celestia heard Pinkie say happily.
“I am indeed, I take it you are here to lead me to Emperor Ezekiel?” Celestia said.
“Oh ho ho, straight to business huh? Groovy…” Blood Beam said before she was gone in an intense flash of green and was suddenly off in the distance beside an open door, glowing green after images of her marking the seemingly zigzagged path she had taken to the door despite there being no obstacles.
“Just follow me!” The strange woman shouted. “Erika can entertain the rest of you till Ezekiel’s done talking with your boss lady!”
“Right… I’ll be seeing all of you soon.” Celestia said and began trotting after Blood Beam.
“Don’t worry Princess, whatever my father wants to talk about with you it can’t be something… threatening.” Erika called after her. “He isn’t the sort of person to do something like that.”
Celestia took Erika’s assurance at face value despite knowing the unicorn might have only known the political good side of her adoptive father all her life, it was better to hope for the vest best in this situation as otherwise she just didn’t really know what to do.
“Right this way, just follow the glow and watch out for cancer!” Blood Beam exclaimed and darted down a carpeted hallway, green after images in her wake.
Celestia paused at the threshold of the doorway for several moments. Her mind was suddenly filled with countless results of what her future meeting may bring to her and her ponies, unfortunately for her own peace of mind she seemed to be thinking of some rather bleak ones.
“You coming?” Blood Bleam said as she poked her head out from around the corner.
“I’ll be right along, just lead the way.” Celestia answered.
