In 2018, a radioactive asteroid was discovered heading towards Earth. By 2027, the UN had built a bunker to hold 400,000 people and Cryogenics were used to keep humanity frozen for 1,000,000 years. When they awoke, they found the survivors enslaved.
One million years ago, in the year 2017 A.D., humanity discovered two new types of radiation that were being emitted from an unknown region up in space. Using the Hubble space telescope, scientists were able to discover that the radiation was being emitted from an asteroid, which was on a direct collision path with Earth.
These two newly discovered radiation types were dubbed Keifer's radiation (later nicknamed harmonic radiation) and Chaotic radiation. Keifer's radiation was found to be completely harmless to humans and animals, although it was later discovered that Keifer's radiation tended to be attracted to certain animals. Chaotic radiation, on the other hand, was found to be extremely harmful to humans in large amounts, causing fatal mutations to humans.
The discovered asteroid was found to be over twice as big as the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs. In the year 2018, scientists predicted that the radiation was expected to reach fatal, critical levels by the year 2027. The asteroid itself was estimated to only crash into Earth one thousand years later, long after the rest of humanity would be wiped out by the lethal Chaotic radiation.
As a result of this, world leaders got together and began construction of Utopia, a large underground bunker, capable of housing four hundred thousand people, two thousand from each country. The chosen few were gathered together within Utopia and would be the last of humanity.
However, the radiation was estimated to have a half life of at least 1,000,000 years. This led world governments to invest heavily in suspended animation and cryogenic technology. And finally, in the year 2024, the first cryogenic pod was invented, capable of freezing someone for an infinite amount of time, without the need for sustenance, as long as there was a power supply.
Exactly one million years later, the humans reemerged to begin recolonisation... only to find several sentient species currently inhabiting the planet that they once had absolute, unchallenged authority over.
One of them was humanity, which was able to recolonise and repopulate the planet from the few members of the human race that managed to survive the Second Flood, long before the Utopians woke up. But there was something wrong, humanity was being used as slaves by the ponies and several other species.
How will humanity answer to the fact that Planet Earth (now renamed Equus) is no longer theirs? Will they make peace with the locals, or will they attempt to wipe them off the face of the planet with their stockpile of nuclear weapons, that were there for the very purpose of reinstating human rule if another creature evolved to their level?
[Heavily inspired by the tv series The 100]
Featured from 19/7/21 to 23/7/21
Featured on 25/7/21
This is the old version of this story. The rebooted version is available here:
October 22nd, 2027. The day the first human on the surface perished. The day mother nature took back her planet. The day humanity's long reign over Planet Earth finally ended.
Most people had no idea what was happening. Scientists, the media, and generally anyone outside the chosen few had no idea. They had no idea why their body parts were changing. They had no idea why people on the streets were dropping like flies. Most assumed it was a disease. The superstitious ones assumed it was a curse, and the religious ones assumed it was a punishment from God.
The Second Flood, they called it. The second time God decided to hit the reset button on humanity after Noah's ark. Except it wasn't a disease. It wasn't a curse. A punishment, maybe. It was radiation. Two kinds, one called Keifer's radiation, named after Keifer Schmidt, a world renowned scientist that came from Germany, and the other, dubbed chaotic radiation.
Keifer's radiation wasn't dangerous. It didn't come into contact with humans at all. However, it was attracted to certain animals, including but not limited to ponies, lizards, cows, predatory birds, and lions. At the time, no matter how close we looked, we could not find any side effects caused by Keifer's radiation toward the animals which somehow absorbed it. So at the time, we assumed that there were no side effects, or that the side effects were so minimal that they were nearly invisible.
Chaotic radiation, on the other hand, triggered several rapid genetic mutations in humans, which had a one hundred percent fatality rate if one was exposed to it in large quantities. These mutations would alter human biology at the cellular level, changing internal organs, sometimes removing them completely, or rendering them useless. And in the worst case scenario, altering the outward physical appearance in someone either partially or completely. The strain of the radiation on our bodies, coupled with the oftentimes fatal mutations, and the speed at which they occurred, always led to death. And the worst thing was, these two different types of previously undiscovered radiation… were being emitted by an incoming asteroid, over twice as big as the one that wiped out the dinosaurs.
However, the asteroid itself was not a concern, seeing as it would only collide with Earth over a thousand years later. It was discovered that the asteroid's output of Chaotic radiation would double every twelve to sixteen months. From there, scientists were able to deduce that the world would become uninhabitable by the year 2027. As a result of this, world governments got together and constructed Utopia, a large underground luxury/military doomsday bunker, capable of holding up to four hundred thousand people, two thousand and fifty people from each nation, and all the tools and resources necessary to restart human civilization.
Through trillions of dollars of incurred costs, millions of workers, and having the best and brightest minds work constantly round the clock, Utopia was constructed in only about eight years. Built seven kilometres underground, Utopia was able to keep humanity safe from the harmful effects of Chaotic radiation while allowing them a chance of surviving the asteroid's impact. Utopia was an underground metropolis, with an area of about ten square kilometers (roughly the size of two thousand two hundred football fields) on the largest floor, and with an additional three levels consisting of at least five square kilometres each, which brought the total floor space of Utopia up to thirty square kilometres.
Utopia was separated into eight different districts, each representing one particular nation. As a result of being the most widely understood language, all countries and their citizens adopted English as their first language for ease of communication among the now much smaller population. There used to be a hundred and ninety five nations, but most combined with other nations as a result of the smaller space, and to build up power in the new world. Another reason for this was so that they could surpass the two thousand citizens per nation cap, because in the new world, more citizens meant more power.
Utopia, as it was named, was exactly that. Powered by twenty nuclear reactors underneath the bunker that was designed to absorb and convert Chaotic radiation to electricity, it housed dozens of facilities and many, many luxuries that ensured that if the ground was unsafe, humanity would be living in the best, most luxurious world possible. These facilities included a fully sustainable agricultural farm capable of supporting 450,000 people, four sports centers, two cinemas, a working internet connection, high class restaurants, a working train that travelled all around the bunker, extremely luxurious living areas, a small park that had a projected version of the Sun which actually gave out heat, a literal theme park, and many other facilities made to ensure maximum comfort for the remainder of the human race.
However, scientists were unable to predict when the surface would be able to support human life again. As a result, world governments had to think of another plan in case the ground could not be repopulated for an extended period of time. They invested heavily in technology that would allow them to live in suspended animation, and technology that would be able to cryogenically freeze humanity until Earth was habitable once again. And finally, after billions of dollars and the combined efforts of almost every single world renowned scientist, a method of cryogenically freezing humanity was discovered, on December 7th, 2024. The 'stasis chambers' as they came to be known as, were capable of suspending all bodily functions, while not harming the person frozen. This allowed the chambers to keep working as long as there was a power supply, without the need for any form of sustenance. While doing this, humanity would be gradually exposed to extremely small, nearly unnoticeable amounts of Chaotic radiation throughout the duration of humanity's suspended animation. The doctors carefully calculated the necessary amounts of radiation required to allow the human body to develop immunity to the radiation. Just the right amount to allow the human body to recognise and metabolise the radiation, but not enough to cause harmful mutations. To keep on the safe side, humanity was to be frozen for one million years, before they would wake up and commence repopulation if the ground was safe.
Due to humanity having to leave Earth unattended, scientists urged world leaders to bring along a large number of the most elite soldiers they could find along with a hefty sum of weapons, vehicles, and WMD's, to which they eagerly complied. Scientists suggested this for three reasons. The first was so that the soldiers could protect the people from wild animals, which would no doubt have taken back the planet in the one million year time span, including the possibility of certain animals having evolved in unforeseeable ways, possibly making them even more dangerous. That brings us to the second reason; which is if another species evolved to match the level of intelligence displayed by humans and colonised the planet, building a planet-spanning society, and proved to be hostile towards our species. The final reason, and probably the least likely, was if extraterrestrial life managed to claim our planet and proved to be hostile towards our species.
To allow for enough space for all humanity's military needs, level four was built. With an area of eight square kilometres, level four housed hundreds of the most sophisticated tanks, military aircraft, helicopters, and even several extremely large military transport aircraft for both transportation and deployment of soldiers and military vehicles. Due to the limited space, rather than having each nation have their own weapons and vehicles, they were made available to all nations and weren't the property of any one nation. Unlike levels one to four which were built seven kilometres underground, level four was built only one hundred meters underground to allow for the deployment of military vehicles. Level four also consisted of a runway for aircraft that was three thousand four hundred meters long while having a gradual rise of one hundred meters which led up to the surface so deployment of aircraft would not be an issue, and to shield level four from the radiation, the entrance to the level four runway was closed off by multiple five foot lead doors spaced at regular intervals along the runway.
Because of the heavily militarized nature of the new Utopian society, about sixty percent of all the citizens of Utopia were made up of the most elite soldiers in the world. Most of these elite soldiers came from the United States, seeing as how many countries decided to give up positions meant for their own soldiers to make way for elite U.S. army members, who were the most capable fighting force in the world at the time. The other forty percent consisted of both workers that were necessary for the day to day running of Utopia, the most renowned scientists the world offered, and world leaders together with their families. Apart from world leaders, nobody else was permitted to bring their families along due to the limited space available. Only essential personnel were allowed in, and there were hardly any objections to this rule since people had already recognised the importance in saving the entire human race rather than a few extra members of their family.
On the fourteenth of March, year 2026, the last of the four hundred thousand chosen humans entered Utopia, one year before The Second Flood, and the entrance was sealed. The cavern above it that had once allowed entry was collapsed by the use of explosives. The citizens of Utopia were given one month to settle in and get used to their new way of life underground, and on the twenty eighth of April, the last of the citizens of Utopia were put to sleep for what was to be the next one million years.
Among these citizens was Atticus Constantine, the president of what used to be the United States of America, but was renamed to the United States of Utopia after about half of the world's countries joined together with the US to form what was now, without a doubt, the strongest nation of the new world. Along with him was his wife Laura Constantine, his firstborn son Joseph Constantine, and his two other children who were twins; his second born son Gerald Constantine, and finally his only daughter and twin of Gerald, Eris Constantine.
The long, dark corridors and rooms that made up Utopia were eerily silent. The only sound present was the low hum of the nuclear reactors below the facility. For the past one million years, sound had been a very rare occurrence. The only time the silence was ever broken was when the entire facility underwent its automatic monthly cleansing, or when the yearly ding that sounded along with the number on the digital stopwatch increasing by one every time a year passed. Not a single glimmer of light was present in the bunker besides the faint glow emitting from the large stopwatch that appeared on a display screen in the primary control room. It had been that way for a very long time.
That was until, for the first time in one million years, a whirring sound resonated throughout the bunker, and lights that had not been turned on for an eternity buzzed to life, bathing the white walls of the facility in a bright light. This was followed by a loud hiss which originated from two thousand out of the four hundred thousand stasis chambers that were present within Utopia. Mist was discharged from the inside of the chambers as the doors slid open and moved to the sides of each individual pod in perfect synchronisation. As the doors of each chamber slid open, they gradually revealed the tall, bipedal entities that were still asleep within the chambers, just as they had been a million years ago. They were clothed in skin tight, pure white suits that hugged their skin, not in a revealing way, that clung to every part of their body up to their head. These were the suits that were designed to protect their bodies from getting frozen solid by the extreme cold.
This was followed by a monotonous female voice which emanated from all around the facility, "Initiating resuscitation procedure, act one." There was a second hiss as hot steam poured from several vents surrounding each body, which went on for about two minutes before the steam stopped. "Initiating resuscitation procedure, act two," the disembodied voice said as heat was generated by outlets around each body in the form of microwaves that lasted for about two minutes. "Initiating resuscitation procedure, act three," the voice spoke, as warm water flowed out of several outlets at the top of each pod and showered each body before being drained from an outlet at the bottom of the pods. "Resuscitation complete. Welcome back, humanity," the voice said before going completely silent.
Doctor Martin Brenner blinked his eyes as he awoke groggily. He unzipped the part of his suit at the top of his head down to his chin so that he would be able to see. He looked around the room from his position in the pod before he slowly and tiredly got out of it. He sighed as he once again confirmed that this was indeed reality and not some dream. Dr. Martin was one of the people assigned to assist in the resuscitation process of the other people who were awakened as well. He was part of the roughly two thousand individuals who were awakened before the rest of humanity so they could check if the ground was safe before they woke the others up. He shakily rose to his feet and took another look around. The chamber room was looking just as it had before he woke up. The automatic cleaning system ensured that the white walls of the chamber remained spotless for the past one million years. He then remembered the standard operation duties that he was required to carry out.
He needed to double check the clock to make sure that they had been woken up at the correct time, get the president himself coffee and check up on him, followed by performing basic maintenance checks to confirm that everything was in working order and that nothing was malfunctioning. He sighed as he made his way towards the secondary control room that was nearest to him. He walked out of the Central Cryogenics Chamber which was just one of the forty large rooms that each held ten thousand stasis chambers inside of it. All in all, the Cryogenic Chambers took up about one square kilometer of space.
He walked down the hallway which had pure white walls and was bathed in a white light coming from the bulbs that lined the roof along with the edges at the top left and right corridors of the ceiling. A blue strip of light was present as well, which lined the bottom of each wall, a few inches above the floor, which only made the place look even more futuristic. Along the walls stood blue stained windows that appeared at regular intervals, allowing him to look into the other Cryogenics Chambers. Every fifty meters, he came across a large blast proof door that was always left open and only closed in cases of emergency.
He walked for about ten minutes before he finally came upon a large metal blast proof door that read 'SECONDARY CONTROL ROOM 12' in large, bold letters. Martin placed his thumb on the fingerprint sensor and after a few seconds, the top half of the door slid into the ceiling while the bottom half slid into the floor. For anyone else, the inside (and outside) of the room would be like something straight out of a batman movie. Various screens lined the walls of the front of the room that detailed the statuses of lots of different bits and bobs. On the upper part of the wall lay over a dozen screens with cameras showing different areas of the bunker. In front of the wall of screens were two desks with two office chairs in front each of them and on top of the desks were two desktops. The fastest, most advanced computers known to man. These two appliances, which were bordering supercomputer level processing, were not necessary in the slightest, but everyone wanted only the best of everything for the new world. This was proven when they spent two hundred million dollars on the most expensive toasters in the world, worth five hundred dollars each, for every single one of the four hundred thousand houses in Utopia.
He entered through the door and made his way over to a desk, and sat down in front of one of the computers to begin his checks.
"Alright, ventilation active, reactors normal, farms ready to begin production, radiation levels still low…" he trailed off, "Oh yeah, almost forgot. Mandatory time check. And it looks like it has been… one million years," he stopped talking mid sentence and began typing frantically on his keyboard. After a few long minutes of rechecking and confirming, he got off his chair so quickly that it fell over, followed by running out of the control room in a panic.
Central Cryogenics Chamber 8 (Floor 1)
President Atticus P.O.V.
I had just made my way out of my room and into the hallway after changing into my suit and was surprised when I found no less than a hundred of Utopia's best researchers gathered in front of my door, discussing something amongst themselves. I had expected them to be in proper, presentable attire by now but almost every single one of them were still in their stasis suits. I cleared my throat and the hallway went silent, the scientists all turning towards me, but none of them saying anything.
"Well?" I asked annoyedly, "What is the meaning of this? Don't you all have maintenance to attend to, checks to run, and not to mention, clothes to put on?
"Um, Mr President Sir, the thing is… there's a problem. A very, very big one," came a female voice from one of the scientists, and because there were so many, I couldn't tell who it was.
"Well, spit it out then!" I told them.
One of the scientists stepped forward and I recognised him as Dr. Keifer, the world renowned scientist who discovered Harmonic Radiation. He brought out his iPad and began his explanation. "Well sir," he spoke in a thick German accent, "The problem is that according to the data that we all have, and please take note that we have all double, triple, and quadruple checked the data and have confirmed it to be true, there have been…" he paused and took a look at his iPad, before continuing while staring down at it, "Three hundred and seventy four dead with no discernible cause," he finished.
"What?! H- how th-" I was at a loss for words, "The chambers were supposed to be safe!" I then leaned against the wall and slumped down it until I was sitting on the floor with my knees up in front of me. "Three hundred and twenty four," I said, "How did this happen doctor? Any theories?"
"We don't know. But you can rest assured that we will find out," he told me, "For now though, Mr. President, the top priority is for us to see if the surface is habitable. We must vake everybody else up as soon as possible! There have already been three hundred and seventy four deaths due to unknown causes, and we don't know when these deaths had occurred. It could have been one years ago, it could have been five hundred thousand years ago, it could have been yesterday. The point is, every additional day our people spend in stasis, is a chance that someone, maybe everyone, will die. What are your orders sir?"
I sat there in contemplation for a few moments before responding, "Gather the other nation's leaders. Announce that a meeting is to be held immediately in the U.N. headquarters. I am sure the rest of them are well aware of the problem by now, and will attend the meeting immediately and without question," I told the doctor and walked off, before stopping and turning around, "Oh, and wake squads eleven and eighty two of Delta Force up."
Hangar Bay 12 (Floor 4)
Bellamy Blake P.O.V.
"Ay cap, any idea why the president wanted us here?" my squad mate Sheila asked me.
"No idea, but knowing him, he wouldn't have called us in together with eighty two if it wasn't something serious," I told her.
"But what could be so serious the president would wake us up for? Definitely not a policing job or to keep the peace seeing as, one, if it was he wouldn't have called us, and two, there are only two thousand others awake right now," my friend Octavia chipped in, "Oooh, might be an assassination! I really hope it's an assassination! I haven't killed anyone in a million years! Can you believe it?!"
"Or maybe, he's sending us up..." came a man's voice from behind me who I recognised as my good friend Nigel, "to the surface!"
That was when I decided to cut the conversation before the conspiracy theories began, "Well, whatever the reason is, I'm sure it's a good one if he wanted us geared up and ready to go so quickly," I told my squad mates. "So how about we wait till Atticus gets here and tells us himself? I'm sure he'll be here soon," I told them all while cleaning my rifle which had a million years of dust on it. Everyone went back to whatever it is they were doing before, and I was left in silence, which lasted about two minutes before I heard shouting and turned around only to find Borris pointing his six-shooter gun at Kelly with Murphy snickering in the background.
"Borris, what the fuck?" I asked him in an annoyed tone. "Put the gun down, dammit!" I shouted at him, "And Murphy what the hell are you doing?! Don't just stand there!"
"Kelly has done prank for last time! Now Boris is going to play Russian roulette with Kelly as good prank!" Boris said in a thick Russian accent.
"Hey, first of all, I said I was sorry. It was just water I put above your door. You literally bathe with it so why are you so made?" Kelly said in a nonchalant manner.
He then put a bullet in his six shooter gun and spun the bullet chamber one round and took aim. All the while, Kelly just stood there, not taking his threat seriously. Before I could intercept him, he pulled the trigger, and thankfully, it was a blank.
"You actually did it?!" Kelly screamed, "You had a one in six chance of shooting me asshole!"
"Firstly, Boris, what the fuck?! You could've seriously hurt her! And secondly, Kelly, do you have a death wish?!" I screamed at them both, "Boris, drop down and give me two hundred push ups, now! And Kelly, since you like being so childish, I'll treat you like a child. Go stand in that corner and face the wall until the president gets here," I said and pointed towards a corner of the room. They both tried to oppose but did as instructed when I shot them a glare, and I went back to shining my trusty rifle, "Idiots! I'm surrounded by idiots!"
About ten minutes later, the president entered the room together with the seven other world leaders of the newly formed nations. I immediately recognised them as Admiral General President Prime Minister Haffaz Aladeen of Wadiya, Prime Minister Bjorn Erling of the European Union, Supreme Leader Xi Mingzhe of Lian Meng, King Osas Uvuvuevue of the United States of Africa, Prime Minister Jack Byrnes of Oceania, President Alexi Kablishkibov of Russia, and Prime Minister Mateo Santiago of Hispanica. And following behind them was a team of about a dozen scientists, one of which I recognised as the famous German scientist, Dr. Keifer. Everyone immediately lined up and stood at attention, saluting the president of the newly formed United States of Utopia and the other world leaders. The other world leaders nodded at us while the president told us to stand at ease and we all paid attention to our leaders.
"Men," the president began. "I have called you all here today to give you all some extremely concerning news, and to ask you all to go up to the surface," he said,"When we all entered the chambers, we were supposed to be frozen safely, and for an infinite amount of time. So you can imagine my surprise when our scientists told me that there have been three hundred and seventy four deaths due to unknown causes," he paused as gasps and murmurs erupted from both squads present.
"But how did this happen?" I heard a voice that came from the far end of our line.
"That's what we're trying to figure out. And with each passing moment, there is a risk that more of our fellow Americans, our fellow humans, will die," the president stated and murmurs of concerned agreement were heard amongst the soldiers.
"But you want us to go up there? Anything could've happened in a million years. The overworld might be covered in lava for all we know!" came a voice from one of the soldiers.
"And that's precisely why I'm sending both of your squads. The twenty soldiers in this room are two of the most capable military squads humanity has to offer. That means that if the world is really 'covered in lava' as you suggest, both of your groups will have the highest chance of survival," he tried reassuring us, "I will not force this on any of you. If you wish to reject this mission, I will allow it. But your mission, should you choose to accept it, will be to use this device," - the president held up a device which looked like a highly advanced geiger counter - "to measure the radiation levels in the air, and use this," - the president held up a similar looking device - "to gather details on the atmosphere. All you have to do is click on this button and all the information we need will be relayed back to our computers. You will then await your next orders. If the surface is unsafe, your orders will be to return back to the lift immediately. If the surface is deemed to be safe, you will release the ten drones that will be provided to you. These drones will be controlled remotely by us and will perform an aerial reconnaissance of the area. While the drones are surveying the area, you will be asked to collect as many samples of the surrounding area as possible. Firstly, this means the soil, the rocks, water samples, and anything you can get your hands on. Secondly, you will be required to collect any samples of plants and any insects you may find. You are also to capture any and all animals you come across. We need them alive. For this, we have provided you with both tranquilizer dart guns, and tasers, should the need for them arise," the president explained, "Now, last but not least, I would like to talk about the subject of safety. Firstly, you will not be going up wearing your current attire. You will be wearing an airtight, modified hazmat suit that will still allow you maximum mobility. Although this mobility might be restricted by the oxygen tank you will all be carrying on your backs. Despite the mission being only an hour long, your tanks will supply you with oxygen for a total of three hours in case of an emergency. Secondly, upon exiting the lift, you should find yourselves in the same extremely large cavern that the bunker's main entrance was built in one million years ago. We have no idea what could be in the cavern as of now, or if the cavern's even still there, so be extremely cautious upon exiting the lift," he told us. "Now, if any of you wish to not partake in this mission, please make yourselves known," he told us. He gave it a few seconds and when none of us rejected the mission, he finished off, "Humanity thanks you for your efforts. Prepare to depart in thirty minutes."
Central Control Center (Floor 1)
President Atticus P.O.V.
"Receiving data now," one of the scientists said while looking at his computer. A bar then appeared on the screen he was staring at which read 'Analysing data 12% complete. Estimated time: 30 seconds.' After the bar was up, it was replaced with lines of data, most of which I couldn't understand.
"So, is it survivable?" I asked expectantly.
The man looked over the data a few more times before he turned and looked at me with a glint in his eyes, "It's survivable. THE GROUND'S SURVIVABLE!" he exclaimed. Joyful cheers came from all around the room and even the cheers of the soldiers were audible through the speakers of the computer. Everyone was jumping with joy and some of them were even hugging each other. That all lasted a few moments until a man in a lab coat burst through the doors of the central control room.
"Mr. President! Dr. Keifer!" came the man before he noticed the other world leaders, "And other great leaders of Utopia! We have a very, very big problem. Remember when the death toll was three hundred and seventy four? That number's already increased by seven in the three hour time span we've been awake,"
"What?! How?! Dr. Keifer?!" I asked in a panicked voice.
"Well, it appears that the four hundred and seventy four deaths occurred very recently, and that we were very lucky to have been woken up in time," he said.
"What are our options?" British PM Jack Byrnes asked, "Surely we can't just leave them to die?"
"Doctor, can we wake them up?" PM Bjorn asked Keifer.
"Ja, we should be able to, however I highly recommend we only do so after the mission is complete. We have to concentrate on the mission for the time being, and waking everybody up will make us have to shift most of our focus to our newly arisen citizens. I know that if we do this, there is a high chance that more will die, but this mission is too important to risk it being compromised," he told us.
The other leaders and I discussed it for a few minutes before we reached our conclusion. "Fine," I said, "Although it pains me greatly to risk the lives of others, we have come to an agreement. You have one hour doctor, then you will wake our people up."
"I thank you all," he told us before shifting his attention to the intercom, "Captain Bellamy, vat do you see?"
"We're in a very big cave. We appear to be at the base of three large… mountains within the cave? Yeah, for the most part it looks exactly like how we left it, except rather than one large tower there are three smaller ones… Wait! There are stairs leading up the mountain in front of us as well. There's also something at the top of the mountain thing but I can't really see it from here," he described, which only made us more confused.
"Could you please activate the drones captain?" Keifer asked, "I think we'll be able to understand better if we see for ourselves."
"Alright, activating one of the drones now," came the voice from the intercom.
"Drone active, establishing control and visual link," a man who I guessed was piloting the drone said, "Visual link established,"
The screen of the large TV in front of us lit up and showed us what the drone saw. It was an extremely large cavern with no discernable exit, with three, roughly one hundred and fifty to two hundred meter tall black pillars made of rock. Wrapping around them was a spiral staircase that went around each tower that led all the way up to the top. From the drone's location, we could see several metal objects at the top of the mountains. There were also several moving figures in the distance, though they stayed mostly stationary with the exception of a single, extremely large creature that we couldn't identify at the current distance.
"It would appear tat there is already an intelligent species inhabiting the planet. Although from their crudely constructed staircase, I would assume that their civilization is much less advanced than ours. If they prove hostile, they should not be much of a threat, although establishing a good diplomatic relationship with them would be in our best interests as we still do not know the full extent of their capabilities, or their numbers," the doctor monologued to us and I listened intently, both excited and terrified of the prospect of meeting an alien species with unknown capabilities.
"Doctor? Your orders?" came the captain.
"Release the rest of the drones and hold your position captain," the doctor said.
The captain did as asked and soon there were several frames on the screen featuring the different cameras of the different drones with one larger frame in the center that appeared to be the main focus with nine other smaller ones surrounding so that we didn't have to divide our focus amongst ten different frames.
"Take us in," the doctor said and the pilots complied. The drones rose up until it eventually reached the top of a mountain. What I saw left me utterly baffled. There was a conglomeration of cages housing all kinds of different animals and creatures, creatures that definitely did not exist in the old world. I saw what looked like an extremely large bear with multiple fur colours and red eyes, a strange one eyed fish, a crocodile with the head of a chicken, a strange chimera-like creature with the head of a lion, a head of a goat and a tail that was a literal snake, and a lion with wings and a scorpion's tail among many others. The creatures were all in cages that lined both sides of the pathway the drones were travelling down and some even attempted to lash out and attack the drones as they flew past while others simply shrunk back in fear at the sight of them.
"Magnificent. Truly magnificent!" Keifer exclaimed. "World leaders, I would suggest collecting all these creatures and transporting them down here for study immediately! These creatures will allow us to predict the evolutionary path that the planet underwent, and how Keifer's radiation affected these creatures!" he said with a large grin and a glint in his eye which made him look like a mad scientist.
I did agree with his decision, however, I was still worried about the danger they posed, and more importantly, the ones who trapped them here. "Doctor, although I wholeheartedly agree with you, I have to ask that you conduct your research in the cavern itself. This facility was not built as a prison to house massive, carnivorous creatures and if one of them were to escape, the damage to Utopia and the casualties could be catastrophic, especially considering its enclosed nature," I told him, hoping he would agree, but knowing that he would still press for the chance at transporting them to his lab for testing.
"But sir, this is the chance of a lifetime! To conduct proper research, I require my lab! I require - " he said but was cut off by Admiral General President Prime Minister Aladeen.
"We will allow you to transport everything you require up to the surface doctor," he said in an Arabic accent, "We do not need unnecessary risks at a time like this, and although I would love the chance to study these creatures, and to somehow turn them into weapons of mass destruction to be thrown at anyone who would oppose my glorious and extremely benevolent rule, which will definitely not be a dictatorship, and allow freedom of speech, I have to agree with Atticus on this matter," he said and the other world leaders all voiced their agreement.
"I understand your concerns, but I assure you that - " he was cut off once again by one of the drones picking up a loud noise followed by the camera turning to static. One by one, the cameras all turned to static as they were destroyed by something extremely large. They picked up several explosions, probably made by the destruction of the other drones and a large, black form that was extremely fast, and it was tearing their drones to shreds before the pilots could even react.
"Drone seven, offline!" came one of the pilots.
"Drone four, offline!" came another.
"Drone two, offline!" came the next voice.
"Drone ten, offline!" another pilot exclaimed.
The pilots continued voicing their alerts until the last three drones spotted what looked like an utterly massive three headed dog. The dog in question was a three headed bulldog which was around as large as a small house. It picked up two drones in its mouths followed by smashing them together, creating an explosion as they collided. It then jumped up and grabbed another drone in its mouth, and upon landing, threw the drone at another which was also out of its reach, causing another explosion to echo out across the cavern. The last three drones locked onto their targets and their pilots prepared to fire before the doctor stopped them.
"Hold your fire! Hold your fire! I want it alive!" the doctor said, to which the pilots reluctantly complied. The large canine then leapt forward and grabbed all of the three remaining drones, one in each mouth, and crushed them, cutting the feed and causing it to turn to static.
"What was that thing?!" The Russian president asked.
"Yeah, what the fuck was that thing? It's right above the entrance to Utopia!" President Mateo exclaimed.
"I do not know, but whatever it was, it was magnificent! We have to capture it! For science!" Keifer exclaimed to which silence was his only answer.
"Doctor? You there?" came the voice of the captain from the intercom which thankfully broke the awkward silence, "We heard explosions, doctor. What's going on?"
"The drones picked up a massive three headed canine from the breed known as pitbulls. The canine proceeded to attack and destroy our drones," he then turned to face us, "If you allow it, I would like to take a small number of soldiers with me to subdue the creature. Since these soldiers are all the best that humanity has to offer, I believe we will be able to manage this relatively easily," he asked us.
"I shall allow it. Go, and make sure you take this beast down. Once the creature is subdued, you will continue to keep it unconscious with sedatives," I told the doctor, "Then you will head back here to assist in the resuscitation process for the others. You will be allowed to move your equipment to the surface tomorrow and begin your research."
"Thank you, Mr. President. I shall request fifty navy seals for our operation," he said, "I recommend they be equipped with both tranquiliser guns and knockout gas, along with stun spears in case the creature is unable to be subdued by use of tranquiliser darts, in which case the best way to proceed would be to continuously stun the creature until it tires out or falls unconscious."
"Very well, fifty seals will be allowed on the operation following the desired specifications. You may begin the operation once the seals are ready. Please bring along a bodycam so that we may be able to observe the activities going on," I said.
Tartarus
Cozy Glow P.O.V.
"Hey Tirek, is it just me or did you hear that explosion too?" I asked, thinking I was just imagining it.
"First of all, it's Lord Tirek. And yes, I did. It was probably just Cerberus - " he was cut off by another explosion which was louder than the others and caused him to jump.
We both looked at where the sound came from, "So I assume you see the tiny flying things as well?" I asked.
"It's probably just some escaped creatures that are trying to get past him, although they seem to be failing miserably" he said as Cerberus tore through the rest of the miniature flying objects like they were nothing.
"I don't think creatures make explosions when you swat at them though," I told him before my confused expression turned into a hopeful smile, "Think someone's come to break us out?"
"No, of course not. And even if someone did come to break us out, they're doing a terrible job at it," Tirek said.
"Oh come on Tirek, stop being so negative," I said, "No wonder you don't have any friends despite being thousands of years old!"
"Why thank you for recognizing one of my crowning achievements!" he said proudly, "It didn't even take that much effort to accomplish! I reckon I'm just a natural at being evil!"
"You know that's not a compliment, right?" I asked annoyedly, "But let's just enjoy the show. I haven't seen anything this interesting since my imprisonment a month ago!"
Cerberus swatted one of the flying objects out of the air and it somehow exploded when he made contact with it. He then smashed two of them together and they immediately burst into flames and fell to the ground, still burning. He then switched his focus to one of the objects that were out of his reach. He lowered his body in preparation then jumped straight at the object and grabbed it in his jaw. Upon landing, he noticed another one of the things flying above him and used the one in his mouth as a projectile and casually flung it at the other, causing another loud boom to erupt across the cavern. The remaining three objects seemed to switch their focus towards him. I expected them to launch some kind of attack but they just hovered there for a few moments, for some reason not seizing the opportunity to strike. I guessed they were charging up an attack though, but before they could discharge, Cerberus grabbed all three, one in each mouth, and crushed them, followed by letting them fall to the floor.
"He just killed them. Those poor creatures…" I said in horror. I looked back at Cerberus and saw him limping on three legs for a few steps before coming to a stop and sitting down. I guessed that he did actually sustain a slight amount of damage from the explosion that came from swatting one of the creatures out of the sky.
"Well, I highly doubt that they were sapient in nature. Most of the creatures here are just extremely dangerous beasts that need to be kept locked away," he managed to soothe my thoughts as I realised he was probably right, seeing as the creatures couldn't have come from outside Tartarus since the door was never opened, and what brought me even more relief was the fact that the both of us were the only sapient creatures present in Tartarus.
"But aren't the things from in here supposed to be dangerous?" I asked confused, "He just swatted those things like they were nothing more than flies!"
"I would argue that large exploding flies that swarm around you are dangerous," he said, "Well, I'm going to take a nap. I have nothing better to do anyway."
"You could always… talk to me?" I said, to which Tirek just scoffed and went silent, and after a while, he started snoring. I was about to take a nap as well before I heard footsteps. Hearing footsteps was not unusual, since most of the creatures here paced back and forth to pass the time, however, this was different. There were dozens of them, and it sounded more like they were sneaking rather than walking. I wouldn't normally have been able to hear them but the echo of the cave, coupled with my sensitive pony ears, allowed me to pick up the sounds of the dozens of footsteps from quite a far away distance.
Then the next differentiating anomaly made itself known. The footsteps were coming from the other pillar… and there was nothing that was supposed to be trapped there. There was one extremely large pillar which housed the majority of the Tartarus' prisoners, which were all unintelligent animals. Then there was the second pillar, which was a lot smaller than the first with a slightly taller base at the top. It had a small, narrow winding staircase connecting it to the main pillar, and by extension, the gates of Tartarus. This was where Tirek and I were imprisoned, probably because they wanted to separate the sentient creatures from the ones that weren't. Then there was the last pillar, the smallest one. This pillar was also connected to the main one but it did not house any prisoners, it was empty and nobody ever went there. They didn't need to since the only function it had was to house a staircase which led to the base of Tartarus, which was just a barren, rocky floor that was completely empty. And That was where I heard the footsteps coming from.
But that wouldn't have been possible. To have come from down there, they would have to have originated from down there, but there was nothing there. There wasn't anything there the last time the gates of Tartarus were opened since the princesses would definitely have seen them.
'Well, if there was nopony down there, and the only way to enter Tartarus are through the gates, that must mean that there was either another entrance, that somepony managed to break in, or that whoever is coming was living down there in secret for Celestia knows how long,' I thought, and those thoughts quickly gave way to multiple possibilities for how I could utilise the situation, 'If somepony did manage to break in, maybe they were here to free Tirek and I, and if they weren't, I could hopefully convince them to. If there was a second entrance, I guess that's useful information for if we ever escaped and needed to get past Cerberus, and if there was somepony living down there all this time, it would mean that they've literally been living under a rock, and I could easily give them some sob story and get them to release me,' I thought as I grinned, but my optimism quickly turned to negativity as I thought about the next barrier in my plans, 'that is, if they could even get past Cerberus. I would have to warn them of the mutt just in case they were unaware, although I'm pretty sure they came prepared. Everyone knows about Cerberus and I'm guessing if they were living inside it they would definitely be familiar with a large, three headed dog. And I'm pretty sure the flying creatures weren't a coincidence.'
"Hey, Tirek? Wake up, there's something coming," I said and he didn't respond. "Tirek, something's coming," I said again and he didn't stir. "Tirek!" I shouted and he jolted awake with a gasp and a light scream of surprise.
"What do you want? Did you really have to startle me in such a manner? Can't you see I'm trying to sleep?!" he said in an irritated tone.
"I said something's coming. Many somethings. Don't you hear the footsteps? There are about a couple dozen of them, and they're coming from there," I said and pointed at the empty pillar.
"I don't see anything," he said, now sounding even more annoyed.
"I said hear, not see. And they're getting closer," I said as I listened intently. A few minutes ago, they were walking back and forth in roughly the same spot, but they had just begun walking towards us, "Maybe you can't pick it up because you don't have hyper sensitive ears, but there are, like, a lot of footsteps approaching."
"Maybe it's just - " he said but cut himself off as the first of the creatures were gradually revealed as it came into view over the edge of the pillar.
The creature looked extremely strange and… creepy. It was wearing a completely black attire that covered its entire body, making it impossible to see what it really looked like. It's head was not visible since it was wearing an extremely disturbing mask that was covering its face. The mask itself had what looked like straps that came out the success of it and wrapped around the back of the creature's head. It had two large eye holes that I guessed allowed the creature to see, but they were tinted completely black, much like the rest of the mask. I couldn't see clearly but it had what looked like a nose along with a weird looking, flat cylinder that came jutted out of the end of it, which probably served no purpose other than making the mask look even more disturbing.
More and more creatures were gradually revealed as they came up the staircase and in two lines, headed straight for the location of the main pillar which contained all the other prisoners… and Cerberus. They headed through the small, winding path that led towards the main pillar and stopped to regroup on the other side.
"Do you know what they are?" I asked Tirek.
"I can't see them from here, but from the masks they're wearing, they look dangerous," he told me, "Cerberus will deal with them, but if they manage to defeat him, it's best we don't get ourselves noticed."
"That's a little hard when your cell is separate from all the others," I replied, then refocused my attention on the strange, bipedal creatures, "They remind me of humans. They have similar shapes, but there's no way even a single slave could've gotten in, let alone dozens."
Upon regrouping, the creatures seemed to converse with each other before beginning to move once again. They separated into two groups, and they began to crouch down slightly, while simultaneously walking, with their backs hunched over and their knees bent, while the second group did the same but maintained a position several meters behind them. The first group carried strange hand-held objects that looked a lot like batons, but had a long, narrow, cylindrical part that extended out the end, which I assumed functioned pretty much like the sharp point of a spear, with a large hollow barrel-like cylinder under it. It had what looked like a green laser that was being emitted from the front of it, but it didn't seem to be doing any damage for some reason. All in all, they looked like a really weird cross between a night stick and a really short spear. They looked cool and dangerous, but I highly doubted they would be very effective.
The second group looked to be carrying much more practical weapons. They carried very strange looking, black and silver spears that for some reason, had a blunt tip, rather than a sharp one. The design was extremely unique, featuring what seemed to be handles, and had a very box-like structure with many edges along the handle of the spear.
"What are they doing?" I asked Tirek
"They don't seem to be heading towards the exit, so they're not looking to get out," he observed, "Seems like they're heading - "
I finished his sentence for him, "Straight towards Cerberus?" I looked ahead of their path once again, and saw that they were indeed heading straight towards Cerberus, who hadn't noticed them since he was facing the opposite direction.
"Why would they be heading towards the large dog rather than away from it?" Tirek asked, confused.
"Maybe they're trying to - " I cut myself off as I saw one of the strange batons shoot quite a large projectile from it, which hit the ground next to Cerberus with a metallic 'clink', which caused him to immediately turn around to face them, and dozens of other clinks soon followed.
The strange metallic projectiles began emitting some sort of red gas, while the masked creatures started surrounding the large canine. They pointed their strange weapons at Cerberus, and soon he was covered in green dots everywhere. The dog, meanwhile, tried to get rid of the red tinted gas by waving his arms about, unable to see its attackers properly due to his obscured vision.
The dog would swat out randomly, and occasionally slam his paw down on the ground, forcing the masked creatures to either dodge or jump out of the way entirely. None of Cerberus's attempts at swatting at the masked bipeds even came close to hitting them before they managed to dodge. It was like their reflexes were instant, like they knew what he was going to do before he did it.
Then, the strangest thing happened. I heard a muffled shout coming from one of the creatures. "Tranq him!" one of the creatures shouted before their batons started shooting what looked to be literal syringes out of the end of it. The syringes pierced into the flesh of the large canine, causing him to roar out in anger, and resume blindly striking at the ground around him, now with the strikes being faster and stronger.
But soon enough, the strikes slowed down, and became weaker. They were still powerful strikes, and Cerberus was still roaring furiously, but his strikes were becoming more sluggish and infrequent, and his roars almost took on a lazy-like tone.
"It's not enough! Taze em!" The voice called out once more, "And stop firing! We don't wanna kill this thing by overdosing it!"
The front lines with the syringe shooters stepped back a little, while the back lines stepped forward with their spears, and they began closing in on Cerberus. Cerberus retaliated by attempting to slam a paw down on one of the assailants in an effort to crush them, but he brought the tip of his spear to meet with the oncoming appendage. As soon as his paw touched the tip of the spear, he instantly recoiled it with a roar of pain. The spear produced a crackling shock the moment it made contact, leading me to believe that the strange device was using electricity to shock him. It had to have very powerful magic to generate enough power to be able to cause pain to Cerberus.
The masked creatures continued closing in on Cerberus, while thwarting all his attempts at retaliation by shocking him with their spears. They eventually closed enough distance to be within reach of his body, which they began to strike mercilessly. Cerberus's roars of agony echoed throughout the cavern, along with the never ending crackle of their electrical weapons. I stared in horror as they never allowed him even a second of rest, constantly using their weapons to prod at him. His roars gradually softened, until he was no longer able to produce anything more than pained whimpers. But still, they continued their relentless assault on the already half-dead dog.
"All together! Put em' to sleep on three!" I heard one of them call out. "One… Two… Three!" on the count of three, all of them ceased their jabbing, which was replaced by them doing something much worse. The beast's whimpers were once again replaced by a loud roar, this one sounding more agonising than all the others combined. But they still continued with the shocks, now even more brutally than before. Before that, they had been prodding at him with their weapons, shocking him then drawing their spears back and jabbing at him, each one doing the same, again and again. Now, they kept their weapons on him all at once, not even giving him that few seconds of relief that he previously got. As the shocks reverberated off the walls of the cavern, the beast began to spasm uncontrollably, still struggling about in a last ditch effort to thwart the masked creatures' onslaught. Then, with a last mighty roar, the beast slumped down to the floor unconscious, and the masked creatures finally stopped their attack.
Now with the battle over, I was once again able to focus on my surroundings, and that was when I realised something. The red gas was spreading, and it was reaching us. I looked back towards the other imprisoned creatures that the gas had reached, and deduced that it was one of two things. It was either going to render us unconscious, or kill us. And after witnessing the very violent display that the masked creatures put on, I didn't exactly like my chances.
"Hey, let us go! There's a foal in here!" I called out, and the masked creatures, in response, looked around in confusion.
"Quiet! You're going to get us noticed!" Tirek whispered from my right.
"Well, it's either that or we die," I said. Not waiting for a reply, I called out once again, louder this time, "Over here! Please, I'm just a kid!"
All eyes turned towards the general direction of Tirek and I in response, their lifeless eyes boring into our souls.
"What just spoke," came one of the creatures.
"Did that mini horse just talk?!" another said with surprise evident in its tone.
"Is that a horse with wings?!" another baffled voice came.
"Is that a focken centaur?!" another voice exclaimed in disbelief.
"Straight out of a fantasy!" Another voice called out.
"Magnificent!" called out another voice, which stood out because of its weird sounding accent, "Truly magnificent!"
"Um, Tirek, why do they seem so amazed to see a pony?" I asked, confused, "And how do they not know who you are?"
Before he could answer, he started coughing, and I noticed the gas was already upon us.
I looked towards the source of the strange voice and my eyes went wide at what I saw. There stood a human male in a lab coat, which was wearing the same mask that the rest of them were wearing. 'These are… humans..?' I thought in disbelief.
"Get them both back to Utopia," he said in his strange accent, "I would like to get to know the sentient species currently inhabiting the planet."
Before I could ponder further, I started coughing, just like Tirek did, and I looked towards him to find him already either unconscious or dead. I soon began coughing more violently, and began to feel my consciousness slipping away. I slumped to the ground, already feeling too drowsy and tired to be able to stand properly.
I looked up as I heard footsteps approaching me, and what I saw was probably the single most frightening thing I had ever seen in my life. The masked men were closing in on me, and now that they were closer, their masks looked like something straight out of a nightmare. The last thing I saw before I blacked out was a masked man emerging from the red gas with its weapon.
"Ugh… where am I?" I spoke to nopony in particular. I grogilly opened my eyes, but shut them again immediately afterward with a wince. That had to be the brightest light in the history of lights. It was like Celestia's sun was right above me and somehow not burning me to death.
I tried opening my eyes again, more slowly this time. I still had to use my hoof to shield my eyes from the light right above me, but they were gradually adjusting to the blinding light.
"Tirek, what is that?" I asked in a sleepy tone, thinking I was still in Tartarus. Of course, I was left with no response. My eyes were eventually adjusted to the light enough so that I could open them without going blind. What I saw left me both confused and amazed.
The room I was in appeared to be a bedroom. It was slightly below average in size, being only about ten meters by ten meters big. It was very luxurious though, having a bed which was slightly larger than an average king sized one, which was probably the comfiest bed I had ever slept in, and felt like it was filled with water rather than springs and fabric. The room itself looked like it had come straight out of a fantasy novel. It was nearly completely devoid of colour, having spotless white walls, white cupboards, a pair of white chairs on either side of a glass table, white bedsheets and pillowcases, a white light that emitted from the ceiling which made everything look even more white, and a white nightstand with a white table lamp that produced a white light when I turned it on. The only things that weren't white, were black, with a couple of black shelves on one of the walls, a wardrobe with one white door and one black door, and a strange flat panel that looked to have a sheet of glass over it and had several shelves lining the sides of it, which hung from the wall directly in front of my bed. The word 'Vega' was visible at the middle-bottom of the panel.
In the background, A strange song played. It was something I had never heard before, and its style was completely unique to me. Despite its strange and alien nature though, the song was calming, and worked well as a form of background noise.
On the wall on the right side of me, was something that finally broke the bland colours of the rest of the room. It was an open window which showed a clear blue sky, something I could use to pinpoint my location, if I was even still in Equestria. I got off the bed and slowly made my way towards the window and looked out of it. I guessed that I had to be pretty high up, because I couldn't see the bottom. The sky seemed to stretch on forever.
Wait… what? No matter which angle I tried to look at it from, it always showed the same side of the front view of the same clouds, which were slowly moving in the light breeze. Wait… light breeze? I didn't feel anything though, which I thought was strange, coupled with the strange window. It was almost as if it was a moving picture, but it looked so real. It was real, wasn't it? That's when I decided to stick my head out the window, only for me to bump my snout against something. That's when I realised, it was a moving picture. Either that or a magical barrier, which was the most likely option.
But it was so real though, looking exactly like what you would expect to find from looking out a window. I reached out to attempt to grab a passing cloud, only for my hoof to come into contact with the same barrier. I tried again, only for my hoof to stop at the same barrier once again. In frustration, I hit it with force, but nothing happened. I tried again, hitting it twice, and with more force this time, but to no avail. That was when I realised that I might be trapped.
I began to hit on the barrier repeatedly. Or, I would have if that hadn't happened. On the third hit, the scenery changed to that of a vast desert, which caused me to jump back in surprise, letting out a soft scream in the process. 'What the…' I thought as I recovered from my shock. I don't know if it was curiosity or stupidity, but I went back to the strange window one again, and tapped it three times in quick succession and flew back quickly. The window switched once again, now showing a luscious green rainforest. I tried it once again, and this time I found myself in the middle of a calm ocean, with a small island in the background. I triple tapped the window once more, and the display went blank, now completely black with a sheet of glass visible over it, similar to the other panel that was present in the room.
"I think I broke it," I said out loud.
"That deduction is incorrect," came a monotonous female voice. I tried to pinpoint the location it came from, but it seemed to come from all around me.
"W- what?" I asked, startled, "Wh- who are you? Where are you?"
"Three questions detected. Generating optimal response. Optimal response identified," the disembodied voice came again, "That deduction is incorrect. I am an Artificial Limited Intelligence System Emulator, also known as A.L.I.S.E. for short. The location of my Central Processing Unit is classified.
"Where am I?" I asked.
"Please refrain from asking further questions until you have regained a stable state of mind," the voice replied.
That was something I took offense to, "Excuse me? Are you trying to say that I'm craz-" the voice cut me off.
"You have, presumably, involuntarily inhaled an incapacitating agent known as Zephir Gas, or more commonly known as Knockout gas. Zephir Gas contains several different types of Nonbenzodiazepines, some of which may result in memory loss, temporary paralysation, temporary loss of cognitive function, permanent brain damage that may or may not result in a vegetative state, or in the most extreme cases, death," the voice said, "You are currently displaying several symptoms of memory loss, and as a result, I will be unable to assist you until you have regained a stable state of mind."
"And how exactly do I -" the voice cut me off once again, which was beginning to get rather irritating.
"Please proceed to the kitchen. An appropriate medicament has already been prescribed, and has been prepared for you," the voice said, "You may find your prescribed medication within the refrigerator."
"I'm sorry, but this is an enclosed room. How do I get to the kitchen if there aren't any -" I then noticed what I assumed were two doors. They blended in with the wall so well that I hadn't even noticed they were there. One of them was built into the right side of the same wall my bed was backed against, and the other was in the left wall. I didn't notice them before due to the lack of having any visible handles, and the only reason I was able to identify the doors was because of the faint black outline that surrounded them.
"Are these… doors?" I asked Alise.
I received no response, so I asked again, "Hey Alise, are these doors?"
"Yes," the voice answered simply.
"There aren't any handles, how do I open them?" I asked her, and was ignored.
"Alise?" I called out and received no reply.
"Helooooo? Alise?" I was ignored once again.
"Alise? Alise? Alise?!" I called out repeatedly and was met with silence.
"Hey Alise, you there?!" I said one last time, and unexpectedly, she replied.
"How may I be of assistance?" Alise asked.
"I called you like, a dozen times! Why'd you ignore me?!" I said, frustrated.
"Correction. You called me six times," she said which only served to irritate me further, "You did not use my activation phrase, and therefore I was unable to determine if you were referring to me. Use my activation phrase 'Hey Alice!' in order to request for assistance."
"Who else could I be referring to? I said alise," I retorted.
"There are three individuals with the name Alice. I was programmed to only respond to my activation phrase in order to avoid confusion," she said.
"Does it look like there are any other Alices in the room?" I asked.
"That is not programmed within my pre-recorded identifiable input questions. Please rephrase the question to one within the pre recorded input questions, or input a request for an additional Appropriate Input Question to be added at the Vega Corporation headquarters on 22nd Fegel Street in New York or input a request by calling 917-248-XXXX (not gonna put a real number cuz I don't want all 1.5k of my readers to call the random number up and get me sued)."
I fell silent for a while, attempting (and failing) to comprehend what she just said. "Okay lady, whatever that means," I said confused, "So how do I open the doors?"
She didn't reply. I sighed, followed by clearing my throat, "Hey Alise, how do I open the doors?"
"In order to open and close the doors, place a hand gently on the sensor beside the door you wish to open," the voice answered.
I would've asked what a sensor was, however, I spotted two squares beside each door. They looked to be built into the walls, having a slightly different colour compared to the rest of the white present in the room, along with having a slight depression compared to the rest of the wall, which was completely straight.
Thinking these were the sensors Alise was talking about, I walked towards the door beside my bed and placed my hoof on the 'sensor', and then proceeded to try pushing the door open, only for it to not even rattle. That was strange for such a small door, seeing as the hinges wouldn't be able to keep it in such a firm grip. It should've at least shook slightly, but shaking this door was like trying to shake a wall.
Then, the voice came back, "Apologies, but you may not exit until you have regained a sound state of mind," she said, "Please proceed to the kitchen. An appropriate medicament has already been prescribed, and has been prepared for you. You may find your prescribed medication within the refrigerator."
"I'm guessing that's the door to the kitchen?" I gestured at the other door. I received only an awkward silence in return. "Right," I said awkwardly and began to make my way towards the other door.
I placed my hoof on the sensor and was about to push the door open. But to my surprise, the door just moved forward slightly, followed by sliding towards the left, behind the wall of what I presumed was the kitchen. And this all happened… all on it's own, without anypony moving the door through magical means. 'Self-opening doors. This is some pretty advanced magic," I thought to myself,'Not powerful, but advanced.'
I entered the room and the contrast between the kitchen and what was probably the bedroom immediately made itself clear. While the bedroom clearly had a white coloured theme, with almost every single thing in the room being white in color, the kitchen was the exact opposite. I could tell because the lights automatically turned on the moment I entered the room.
There was a black kitchen countertop with chairs surrounding it in the middle of the kitchen, with several cupboards built into it, along with a sink on top of it which did not have a handle to turn the water on. Also present on top of the counter were a basket of several fruits, some of which I had never seen before, a rack of several knives, a bar of soap within a soap dish which was beside the sink, a small potted fern, a blender, and a literal gold plated toaster.
Against the back wall was another countertop, this one stretching nearly the entire length, beginning at the right wall and ending around two meters away from the left wall. On it was another sink with a dish rack beside it and a bottle of what I assumed was dishwashing liquid. Several glass bottles of unknown sauces and liquids; one of which I identified as vinegar were also on it, along with smaller glass bottles that contained various spices that included salt and pepper. On the extreme left side of the counter, built into the top of the counter itself, was another one of those black slabs, however this one looked different than the one hanging from the wall in the living room, and had two white circles printed on it which contrasted against the rest of the black slab. Below each circle, were several white symbols, along with small words below it. A clock with the word 'timer' below it, a plus symbol with the words 'temp. up', a minus symbol with the words 'temp. down', a fire symbol with the words 'view temp.', and a circle with a line cutting through it that said 'power'.
I then noticed what was probably the fridge. It was a large, black, rectangular box, containing two doors; a smaller one at the top which had a green light that read '-18°C' and a larger door which was twice the size of the one on the top which read '4°C'. It looked like they were measurements of some kind, but I didn't know what those measurements meant. On the bottom right of the smaller door, I saw the word 'Vega' written in small letters.
I opened the door to the fridge, and found it to be completely empty other than a single medicine cup containing a black liquid which was in the middle of the middle shelf of the fridge. Reluctantly, I picked the small cup up and stared down at it.
'This better not be poison,' I thought before gulping down all of the liquid in one big sip. The liquid was extremely bitter, which caused me to scrunch my face in disgust.
Then, it all came back to me. The flying metal creatures, the footsteps coming from the third pillar, the masked creatures, the red gas, the syringe shooters, the electrical spears, Cerberus's roars of agony and him being taken down by the masked creatures, and finally… the human in a lab coat who wore a similar mask.
"Hey Alise, Where am I?" I asked, now growing nervous.
"You are now in room 328,106 in Residential Sector 314. The floor you are currently on is floor two, and the next train will arrive in twelve minutes," she replied, with much more information that I needed, but without any info on my location other than the fact that I was probably a building.
"Wherever I am, let me go you primitive barbaric savages! Do you know who I am?! I know your backward species doesn't respond to reason but I am not somepony you wanna mess with!" I said in an attempt to intimidate Alise.
"You are of sound mind. You are free to leave," she replied.
"I am?" I asked confusedly, but received no answer in return.
I made my way outside the kitchen and towards the exit door. Hesitantly, I put my hoof on the white square and to my surprise, the door actually opened, sliding behind the wall. The hall was completely white, and extremely bright as well, done in the same theme as the bedroom. On the wall in front of me, slightly further down, the designation 'SECTION 60193' was written down in big, red letters.
At about the same time as my door opened, the door to the room in front of me opened as well. To my relief, the door gradually revealed a scrawny centaur with a red mane, and he looked just about as relieved to see me as I was to see him.
"Tirek?" I asked in surprise.
"You're here too?" he asked and I eagerly flew up to him, "How unfortunate."
"Do you know where we are?" I asked him.
"The last I remember, we were kidnapped by what was probably a ragtag rebellion of slaves," he replied.
"Greetings, aliens! I am a human! My name is Dr. Keifer, pleased to meet you," he said in a Germane accent. It was indeed a human, but he was too well kept. Its hair was short and tidy, unlike most slaves who had long and messy hair. It was also way to clean, unlike most humans that were messy and dirty. In fact, he looked cleaner than most ponies. And his supposed 'doctor' title together with his lab coat, oh… it almost made me laugh seeing a human in a lab coat, and I would have laughed if the circumstances were different.
I immediately flew and hid behind Tirek, "Please don't rape me, I'm just a little filly! Tirek, protect me from it please!"
"Slave, I am the one and only Lord Tirek and this here is the Cozy Glow. You have probably heard of us, and I would highly recommend you and your gang of rebels release us and subject yourselves to our command. You may have run from your previous owners, but that does not mean you are free. I will be your new master now, and any resistance will be met with punishment," Tirek told the human confidently.
"Excuse me?!" he said, clearly offended, "First of all, I would never rape someone, that's completely disgusting and all rapists deserve to be executed. Secondly, I am not a fucking slave, and I do not have an owner. Do you just look at random people and assume that they're slaves?! And that brings me to my third point; it seems your primitive civilisation still participates in the cruel and barbaric practice of slavery."
It was at this point that I could no longer hold in my laughter, and it seemed Tirek felt the same way. The both of us burst out laughing, while Keifer's expression looked more confused than anything else.
"Your kind is full of rape! You literally have… haha… a-a concept that… haha… the s-strong have unlimited dominion over the weak! You were… hahaha... literally s-slaves with slaves, and the problem got so big, and your practices got so disgusting that we had to separate the males and the females!" Tirek burst into laughter before continuing, "And even then, you know what happened? The stronger males started raping the weaker ones, and the stronger females did the same! You're animals!"
"And he's denying being a slave! All humans are slaves! Imagine a human doctor, how hilarious is that?! And that lab coat only makes it even funnier!" I stated, and we burst into laughter once more.
"Excuse me?! Is this some form of humor unique to your species?" he asked, "Because the last humans died a million years ago. We're all that's left."
"Have you been living under a rock?" Tirek asked, the laughter gradually dying out, "You animals are everywhere, and you filthy creatures are only good for being used as slaves."
"Th- That's not possible," the 'doctor' said, "The rest of humanity is dead. We're all that remain. If it weren't for the radiation, the asteroid would most definitely have finished the job."
"What are you talking about? I think this one's crazy, Tirek," I said, "Let's just leave."
"I apologise, but I can't let you do that," he said, walking towards us, "Not until you answer my questions."
"And you, a human, are going to stop us?" I asked him with a sarcastic tone.
"You may try, I dare you," Tirek said, "If not we're just going to find our own way out since you're clearly out of your mind."
"You coming?" he asked as he walked past the mad human, and I followed him. As expected, the human was indeed intimidated enough by Tirek's threat to not stop us when we walked past him. Or, at least, that's what I thought.
From behind us, he spoke once more, "Hey Alise, mark subject one and subject two as fugitives."
From all around us, Alise's voice echoed once more. "Subject one and subject two marked as fugitives. Commencing isolation procedure," suddenly, a few meters in front of us, a large black steel door began closing. One half of the door came out from the left side of the wall, and the other came from the right side, both meeting at the middle of the hallway faster than we could react.
"Fugitives subject one and subject two have been successfully isolated within section 60193. Peacekeepers may proceed to the designated area to apprehend the criminals," Alise said in her trademark monotonous voice.
"Thank you Alise," the human said before turning its attention to us, "Ready to answer my questions now?"
Tirek began walking towards the human with murderous intent, "Let us go you - " he was stopped in his tracks as water began sprinkling down on him from above. It looked like regular water, but it caused him to scream and begin to spasm uncontrollably. When the stream of water eventually ended, he laid sprawled out on the ground, his body now emitting steam.
"Electrically charged water," the human smiled and began making grand gestures as it spoke, "You see, Alise is programmed to protect regular citizens from… criminals. When she identified you as a fugitive and saw you walking towards me, with us being the only ones here, she immediately recognised you as a threat to my wellbeing and took the appropriate measures. If I was a class three citizen, she probably would have suggested I run into a room before locking you out and contacting the peacekeepers. But since I'm a class one citizen, she deemed it too risky to allow you the chance to harm me, hence all the buzz buzz."
He smiled, even wider this time, "Now, ready to answer some questions?"
"Fine, I'll answer your questions, on two conditions," I told the human.
"You are in no position to make demands," the human said, flashing a grin once more, "But I'm curious, so I'll humor you."
"The first is that once we're done, you let us go," I said, "And the second is that we do an exchange of information. You ask a question, then I ask a question."
"As I said, you are in no position to make demands… but I want you to get to know us just as much as we want to get to know you. And I have no intention of harming you and your friend anyway," it replied.
"Let's do this in one of the houses, shall we? The rest of them just some up and are still going through the briefing so I'm sure they won't mind," he said.
"Not like we have a choice," Tirek replied, still laying down on the floor recovering.
"Excellent! I'll get tea started!" he said cheerfully before merrily making his way into the room that I was just in.
"What should we do?" I asked Tirek.
"You heard the 'doctor'," he said, using his fingers to make air quotes, "We have no way to escape, and he can summon magical electric water any time he wants. He's human but he's clearly capable of powerful magic. In my current state, I will be unable to beat him in a fight. But don't worry, I'll catch him off guard and steal his magic, we just need to have patience."
The both of us started grinning evilly, before letting out full blown evil laughter.
Tirek and Cozy Glow eventually recovered from their fit of evil laughter, and followed the magical human doctor towards the room. Cozy Glow placed a hoof one of the sensors, but the door didn't open.
Inside the room, a monotonous female voice came from a speaker on the ceiling "Attention Citizen Heinrich Keifer, the fugitive known as Subject Two is attempting to enter the current residence. However, they are not attempting to breach through damaging and forcing their way into the residence. Would you like me to deploy defensive measures?"
"No, grant fugitives Subject One and Subject Two access to the current residence," the doctor replied.
"Citizen Heinrich Keifer, I would highly recommend - " the A.I. was cut off as the doctor spoke.
"Confirm action," he said and the A.I. responded not with words but by opening the door to the room.
Cozy Glow and Tirek entered the room. It was exactly like how Cozy Glow had left it, with the exception of a whistling sound coming from the kitchen that broke the calm music which was still playing from some non discernible source.
They headed for the kitchen door and Cozy placed her hoof on the sensor once more, causing the door to open. Upon opening the door, they saw the human grab three mugs from one of the cupboards, followed by closing it with his legs, and set the three mugs down on the table. He then opened a different cupboard, bringing out a teapot which he brought to the whistling kettle.
What was strange was that there was no fire to heat the kettle. It seemed to be boiling with no discernable heat source, and they both thought the strange human was using magic to heat it up. He then poured the contents of the kettle into the teapot. Setting all four items on a tray, he walked towards the duo.
"If you could be so kind, would you please get the door? My hands are preoccupied," the human said, lifting the tray up for emphasis.
Shooting him a hateful glare, Tirek reluctantly put one of his hands on the sensor, opening the door, and the human went through it with both aliens in tow.
"Grab a chair for yourself, centaur," the human said, setting the tray down on the glass table that was in the bedroom.
Tirek angrily stomped off to get a chair from the kitchen and the human began pouring the tea. When Tirek went back into the room, dragging a chair behind him, the human was halfway through pouring the tea into the last cup.
"Psst," Cozy Glow caught Tirek's attention. "He's distracted," he whispered.
Tirek smirked in response, putting the chair down slowly, before approaching the human. He then began to suck in air, and what he assumed was going to be magic. He formed his mouth into an O shape and and began to inhale, much like how someone would slurp up a noodle, or sip their tea.
But nothing happened. Nothing other than the doctor who finished pouring his tea and looked towards him in confusion.
"What are you doing?" he asked calmly and in complete and utter confusion, while he stared at Tirek, who was still attempting to 'suck in his magic'.
Tirek stopped dramatically inhaling the air around him for a moment. "This… this usually works the first time," he said, his tone one of complete confusion as well, "Give me a moment."
He then proceeded to do a little bit of stretching, followed by bouncing up and down quickly, much like an athlete preparing to run a marathon. "Just… a little stiff I think," he said before stopping his short workout routine, "Should work now."
He resumed attending to eat the human's magic while he just stared at him dumbfounded. "What are you doing?" he asked, now with a hint of irritation in his voice.
From a concealed earpiece, came the confused voice of the world leaders.
"What is he doing?" President Atticus asked.
"Is this some sort of intimidation tactic used by his species?" Prime Minister Jack Byrnes asked in a confused British accent.
"He looks like he's tryna suck cock," President Mateo of Hispanica said in a Spanish accent.
"I think it's some sort of mating ritual," General Aladeen stated.
"Aladeen, I don't think - " President Alexi began in a Russian accent but was cut off.
"No, no, I think it's a mating call! He's trying to attract a mate!" The Wadyian Supreme Leader exclaimed excitedly.
"I still highly doubt - " Xi Mingzhe began, but she too was cut off by the hyperactive dictator.
"The alien man horse is clearly attracted to him," Aladeen said, "Keifer would you like to have sex with the alien?"
Keifer just rolled his eyes at the extreme immaturity of the Wadyian dictator. "I think he wants to communicate," Keifer said, still utterly befuddled.
The human then began sucking in air at various different strengths, speeds, and pitches, which in turn caused the two villains to look at him, completely perplexed.
"What are you doing?" Cozy Glow asked in a befuddled tone.
A separate voice suddenly boomed throughout the room, seemingly coming out of nowhere, much like when Alise spoke, "You idiot child!" the voice of what sounded like a Saddle Arabian stallion shouted, "He's responding to the centaur's mating call! They are both about to have sex!"
All three of the ones present in the room suddenly got an extreme look of disgust, "What?! No, shut up Aladeen! I was just doing what he's doing," the human replied, gesturing towards Tirek.
"You can steal magic?" Tirek asked, both surprised and relieved.
"What? No!" he said, "Magic isn't even real! I thought you were trying to communicate!"
The two just stared at him like he was an idiot. Saying magic wasn't real was like saying the sky didn't exist. Magic is real, was always real and would always be real.
"Are you completely mad?! Didn't you just used it to summon both rain and electricity?!" Cozy Glow asked, "I know for a fact that humans are affected by something called a mental illness, which causes them to go crazy. I think you should go surrender yourself to one of the human rehabilitation centers and get yourself a purification."
"I have no idea what that is," he said, annoyed, "Just sit down, and we may begin our question and answer session."
"Well, guess what, crazy human?" Cozy Glow said in a confident voice, "Tirek just stole your magic. And now you're going to tell us how a literal human got himself some magic."
"So you're one of those civilizations, are you?" Keifer asked, "Having primitive superstitious beliefs of the supernatural. What's next? Are you about to tell me that unicorns are real? Maybe you believe in dragons as well! Or maybe there's a sun and moon God?"
They were now one hundred percent certain that this human really was completely mad. There was no doubt about it. Either that or…
"Have you been living under a rock all this time?!" Tirek asked sarcastically.
"Yes!" Keifer exclaimed in annoyance, "We have been living here for a total million years! That's exactly what I have been attempting to get you to understand."
"Where is… here, exactly?" Tirek asked.
"Utopia, an underground city," Keifer replied.
"A city?" Tirek looked around, "This looks more like a small hiding area. And cities usually have more than one resident, and most definitely more than one human."
"You're just in one of the tens of thousands of sections that make up Utopia," Keifer said, "I requested I come by myself to prove that I'm not a threat. And I thought you would feel a lot less comfortable with several hundred aliens around you, but it appears you are familiar with my species."
"What do you mean you've been living here for a million years?" Cozy Glow asked curiously.
"My question next, remember?" he asked, "You said that you have come into contact with - "
He was cut off by Cozy Glow, "Yes."
"What?" Keifer asked, confused.
"The condition was a question for a question. Your question was 'my question next, remember?'" Cozy Glow said, "So now it's our turn to ask a question."
Keifer smiled in response, "Yes, it is. Ask away."
"You said you had been living here for a million years," Cozy Glow said skeptically, "How is that possible?"
"We used cryogenic technology to freeze ourselves until the ground was once again habitable," Keifer replied, "Now, you have had previous contact with humanity. How many humans are left?"
"Are you kidding?" Cozy Glow asked. "Millions. You're all over Equs! And we thought all of the humans had been subjugated and enslaved," she gave him a disgusted look, "It appears we were wrong."
"Now for my question," Tirek said, "If you really have been frozen for a million years like you have said, why did you freeze yourselves?"
"Because of the second flood," the human sighed, "Over one million years ago, we discovered an asteroid that was headed straight towards Earth. Said asteroid also emitted extremely harmful radiation that caused fatal mutations within the human body. So we built Utopia, an underground bunker, and what we thought was the last of humanity was gathered and put to sleep until we could return to Earth. A thousand years after we went to sleep, the asteroid finally crashed into Earth, wiping out all life at the time."
"Just more of your crazy ramblings," Tirek retorted.
"I'm sorry, but may I have a moment to talk with my friend here?" Cozy Glow asked, surprising Tirek in the process.
"But I still have a questio - " Cozy Glow cut the apparent madman off.
"Please!" she raised her voice slightly.
Dr. Keifer, knowing that this news was probably both the most unbelievable, and the most terrible thing they must have heard of, relented, giving them their privacy, "Very well, take all the time you need." Or at least, they thought he did. He then left the room, exiting out into the hall.
"Alise, connect my iPad to the room's cameras, and enhance microphone receptiveness to one hundred percent," he said. A few seconds later, his iPad came alive, now featuring a live feed of the conversation going on in the room. The same conversation was also broadcast over a television in front of the leaders of Utopia.
"This human is clearly insane," Tirek said.
"I've been waiting for your signal. Why aren't we beating him up and escaping?" Cozy Glow asked.
"Well, for starters, he was telling the truth. He has no magic," Tirek explained as Dr. Keifer leaned in closer.
"What?!" Cozy Glow exclaimed, surprised, "Everything has magic. Even regular objects are charged with ambient magic! Even the air around us has magic! How is that even possible?!" Cozy Glow was as surprised as can be when she came upon this revelation. Saying something didn't have magic was like saying that the atoms in this facility only consisted of electrons without protons.
"Well, he isn't completely devoid of magic, but what he has is even stranger," Tirek looked around quickly, acting as if just saying this information out loud was an unforgivable sin, "He has… chaos magic."
Cozy Glow's eyes widened in disbelief. The only creature in the world that was known to have such magic was Discord. Like, literally… chaos magic was like a Discord exclusive thing, just like how only Luna could raise the moon.
Seeing the disbelieving look on Cozy's face, Tirek elaborated, "It's not a lot though. He has chaos magic, but he still has a lesser amount than anything else I have come to witness. He himself is a scientific marvel. The amount of magic he has is even less than that of the ambient magic present in the air."
This intrigued their eavesdroppers. Keifer immediately knew that what he was talking about, was in fact, Chaotic Radiation, and the rest of the Utopian leaders were slowly coming to the same conclusion as well. Their skepticism of the apparent 'magic' of this world, was now replaced with curiosity. They still didn't actually believe magic was real, how foolish could they be? But now they didn't just view their claims as absolute bullshit.
"So did you manage to get that at least?" Cozy Glow asked, sounding like an annoying teenager once more.
"No, it was too little. I couldn't absorb it," Tirek replied.
"What do you mean 'too little'?" Cozy Glow asked, making air quotes with her hooves, "I thought that the less magic somepony had, the easier it was for you to steal it?"
"That is true, but at a certain point, it becomes a burden," he said. "Why do you think I haven't absorbed all the ambient magic from the trees, the rocks, the ground, and the air itself? It's like a giant trying to pick up a single piece of hair. It's extremely difficult, and with such a small amount," he gestured towards the door that Keifer left through, "Nearly impossible. And even if it was possible, such a small amount of magic is practically useless. We'd be stuck here, unable to open those doors, and eventually starve to death."
"Do you think he was telling the truth the entire time?" Cozy Glow asked.
"I think it's a possibility. A small one, but still a possibility," Tirek replied.
"So, what do we do?" Cozy Glow asked.
"For now, we play along, answer his questions," Tirek said, "We make our escape when the opportunity presents itself."
They both burst out into evil laughter once again. What they didn't see were the people watching them, cringing in disgust. They sounded like cartoon villains when they laughed like that.
A sudden knock on the door, however, stopped their laughter.
"May I enter?" came the unmistakable Germane accent of the doctor.
"Yes, you may enter, 'doctor'," Tirek said, and the doctor entered, sitting down on his chair.
"So, shall we begin?" Dr. Keifer asked, and Tirek and Cozy Glow nodded simultaneously.
The interview would now continue in a new light, with both sides now not believing the other was completely lying, or completely mad.
"So, shall we begin?" Dr. Keifer asked, to which Tirek and Cozy Glow nodded.
"You know, I've realised something," the doctor chuckled, "Throughout our entire conversation, I haven't even asked what your names are yet. How rude of me. So, what are your names?"
"My name is Tirek. Lord Tirek," Tirek answered boastfully.
"And my name's Cozy Glow," she replied.
"I'm sorry, I think I misheard, but did you just say your name was… Cozy… Glow?" Keifer asked in confusion.
"Yeah, Cozy Glow," she replied.
"Very well then," he gave her a peculiar look, "For my first actual question, why, pray tell, were you in cages when we found you?"
"Well, if you must know, I drained the entirety of Equestria off of all their magic," Tirek said proudly.
"And I tried to destroy all of the magic in Equestria," said Cozy Glow.
"I'm sorry, but could you please elaborate on this 'magic' you speak of," he said with air quotes on the word magic, "Is it some sort of religious belief? Superstition? A type of metaphor?"
"Magic is… well, magic," Cozy Glow said, "I don't have any other way to describe it."
"You mean… figuratively though, right?" Keifer asked, now sounding even more confused.
"You mean you don't know what magic is?" Tirek asked with the raise of an eyebrow.
"Of course I know what magic is," he said before standing up. "Abracadabra!" he shouted, thrusting out his hands as if shooting something from his palms. "Alakazam! Hocus Pocus! Zim Zim Zala Bim! supercalifragilisticexpialidocious!" he said, thrusting out his palms with each magic word he shouted.
Tirek and Cozy Glow just gave him confused stares in response, reverting back to looking at him as if he were mad.
"Is that what you mean?" the doctor asked, "Well, I apologise for having to tell you this but… magic isn't real."
"What?! You really think that - " Cozy Glow was interrupted by Tirek giving her a slight nudge.
"He doesn't have any magic, remember?" Tirek said, "It's entirely possible that he is genuinely unaware of the existence of magic."
Dr. Keifer thought of a way to disprove the existence of magic. To show these primitive creatures that what they believed in didn't actually exist. Then, he could finally start getting some actual credible information without the possibility of it having being tainted by their superstition and utterly stupid beliefs.
'I got it!' he thought.
"Mr. Tirek and Ms. Glow, when was the last - " he was cut off.
"It's Lord Tirek, not mister. Lord." Tirek corrected him.
"Very well, Lord Tirek and Miss Glow, have you actually seen magic with your own eyes?" He asked.
"Obviously. I do magic myself," Tirek replied.
"Show me, then. Show me this apparent magic which you practice," Keifer said.
"I have to absorb the magic of others to be able to do it myself," Tirek said, "And I have not absorbed any magic at the moment."
"Fine, let's say this so-called magic is real. What does it do? What is it capable of?" Keifer asked, being genuinely curious.
"Many things; telekinesis, teleportation, energy blasts, shield spells, creating illusions, dream walking, moving the Sun and moon, and a multitude of other things," Tirek said, "Magic has far too many applications for me to list down. It would be like asking what wood was used for."
"And you've seen all of this? you've done all of this?" Keifer questioned.
"Yes, I have utilised magic in more ways than you can count," Tirek stated.
Keifer was extremely reluctant to actually believe that magic was real, but there was the truth serum that was put into their recovery medication earlier. However, truth serum wasn't completely foolproof, having about a ninety seven percent accuracy rating if the individual was unaware that they had consumed the substance, and around a forty percent accuracy rating if they were aware of consumption. And they seemed to be completely unaware of the fact that their medicine had been dosed with the serum. Judging from how primitive they were, and how they treated things which most people would consider trivial with such awe, he guessed that they probably didn't even know truth serum existed.
"You're serious, aren't you?" the doctor asked, sighing in frustration and resting his forehead on his hand.
"Yea, and I believe it's my turn to ask the question now?" Cozy Glow said.
"Já, já, go ahead," Dr. Keifer replied.
"If you're really from the futur- past, how come you speak the same language as us?" she then looked around the room in awe once again, "And if you didn't use magic, how were you able to do all this?"
"Well, the answer to your first question is obvious. Your species was built from the remnants of ours. Everything from your language, to your customs, to your technology, and probably even your building designs would probably be based off of the remnants of the first humans. Maybe not wholly and completely, but there would be at least a slight resemblance," Keifer explained.
"That's not possible! There's no way that the civilisations of every single species is based on… humans… of all things," she said in a mixture of shock and disgust.
"Believe what you want. That's the only logical explanation," Keifer replied.
"Either that or you're lying," Cozy Glow squinted her eyes at him.
"Well if you do not wish to believe what I am saying, I think I shall have to show you," he said, before getting up from his seat and walking towards the door.
Keifer put his hands on the sensor and the door opened. He looked back to see the two still seated and staring at him in confusion. "Come along now, I don't have all day," he said to which Cozy Glow and Tirek reluctantly got up and followed him out the door.
"Where are we going?" Cozy Glow asked curiously.
"Now that I have confirmed neither of you are a threat, I can safely show you around the rest of Utopia," Keifer said.
"Hey, we are very big threats! We are Equestria's greatest threats, in fact! We are some of the most feared villains in the entire world!" Cozy Glow said, clearly sounding insulted while Tirek just frowned.
"This Equestria must be a very powerful nation if they were able to defend against the likes of the great Lord Tirek and Cozy Glow!" Dr. Keifer said, feigning fear and amazement.
"They are the most powerful nation on Equs after all," Tirek boasted, "And they were able to defeat us, but just nearly. Both of us nearly brought Equestria to its knees!"
"Hey Alise, change the designation of Subject One to Tirek and change the designation of Subject Two to Cozy Glow," Keifer called out, "Grant fugitives Tirek and Cozy Glow escortee access, which is to be limited within ten meters of citizen Heinrich Keifer. Deploy defensive countermeasures if fugitives initiate violent behavior or go beyond ten meters away from me."
"Yes. If you're looking for an opportunity to escape, now would be a good time to tell you that if you go beyond ten meters away from me, you will immediately be doused with the same electrically charged water that you felt just now," he pointed at Tirek, "And if you initiate any violent behavior, you will be electrocuted as well."
Tirek and Cozy Glow shared a worried glance before switching their attention back to the doctor.
"I hope we understand each other," Keifer stopped in front of the massive metal door and turned around to face them, "It is not my intention to bring harm to either of you. The both of you are humanity's best bet at gaining information on these apparent slavers, and fair warning that if you keep that information from us, you will be standing in our way."
The doctor whipped around and looked towards the top right corner of the hallway. "Hey Alise, open this door." he ordered and the door immediately began to part, both halves of the door sliding back into both sides of the door.
What the door revealed as it opened caused both Tirek and Cozy Glow to shrink back in fear, with Cozy Glow letting out a small gasp of fear. The massive bulkhead gradually unveiled over a dozen human soldiers, the first line crouching down while pointing their guns at the trio, with the second line standing up, their guns being held overhead of the first line, which were pointed at the trio as well.
"Doctor?" One of the men, the captain, asked, "Are the aliens safe?"
"Yes, yes, lower your weapons," the doctor said annoyedly, "There are only two of them, an entire platoon was not required."
The soldiers did as asked, though they remained vigilant, watching Cozy Glow and Tirek fiercely, as if daring them to make a move.
"We intend to make our way to the train station," the doctor said, "But I will be unable to do so if you continue to block my way."
"Clear a path!" the leading officer said and the soldiers scrambled out of their way, leaving a parting down the middle of the hallway, soldiers lining both walls.
"When will the next train arrive, captain?" Dr. Keifer asked.
"Ehh… roughly ten minutes," the captain replied, "But the train's reserved for the people who just woke up. Y'know, to get to their designated doctors for their medical check ups."
"Well, I am having two aliens with me, so I believe it would be fine if we take the train," the doctor said before turning to Tirek and Cozy Glow, "Shall we?"
The two followed behind the doctor, and as they did, they looked around in awe. As far as the eye could see, similar rooms to the ones they had been in lined the walls. Cozy Glow noticed that the number on the wall had changed, now saying 'Section 60192' when it had previously said 60193.
Cozy Glow decided to start conversing with Tirek while they were trailing behind the doctor, "Looks like he was telling the truth."
"It would seem so, but - " he was cut off as the doctor began to speak.
"You asked how we did all this without magic?" the doctor said, looking back at Cozy Glow.
"Yea, you said you didn't have any magic?" Cozy Glow asked curiously.
"This is all because of the wonders of electricity. We use electricity to power everything. From our inventions powered by electricity, we gained the capability to improve upon those inventions, and make new ones," the doctor said, "Of course, we use nuclear power now, but that nuclear power generates electricity as well."
"So you do use magic?" Tirek asked.
"No, I said we use electricity," Keifer corrected.
"Electricity is generated by magic," Cozy Glow stated as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
"No, it's generated by - " Keifer stopped himself as he realised he was getting off topic, "You know what, nevermind. It involves a lot of technicalities, none of which you would understand due to your level of technology."
"Now I believe that was two questions, and now I get to ask two," he said before directing them to take a left at a four way intersection, leading them down another hallway of rooms.
"Firstly, I would like to ask, in your eyes, what is the most advanced piece of technology that you currently possess?" Keifer asked.
"That would have to be either the radio or the camera, both of which were invented over a thousand years ago," Cozy Glow said.
"Well, in my opinion, it's the train, which was also invented around one thousand years ago," Tirek said.
"So I'm guessing your technology should be actually extremely advanced then?" Keifer asked.
"Nope, there was something called a technological boom or something that happened a thousand years ago, but nothing has really advanced since then," Cozy Glow said.
"I see… this definitely warrants a thorough investigation… But back to the topic, you should have invented the gun by now ja?" Keifer said more as a statement than a question.
"What's a gun?" Cozy Glow asked.
"Maybe you call or something different," he said before thinking for a moment, "Remember those things we used to shoot darts at the three headed dog? Do you have anything that shoots projectiles? Something like that?"
"I mean, nothing like that exactly," she paused to think for a moment, "But we do have these things called bows and arrows. They function by - "
"I know what a bow and arrow is," Keifer cut her off. "So your timeline of technological innovations is all over the place, which should not generally be possible. And then there's the fact that your level of technology has been stagnant for what I assume is an entire millennia. We really do have to launch an investigation on why exactly this is," Keifer monologued before he realised he was talking to members of a primitive species which probably had no idea what he was saying, "Apologies, force of habit."
"Since that was all regarding your technology, I believe I should be eligible for another question, ja?" Keifer asked.
"Ehhhh… fine," Cozy Glow relented, "But just because I'm curious about what you wanna ask."
Attention then turned to Tirek. "I'll allow it, but only because you answered both questions," he said, "Not because I like you."
"You said earlier that I was a slave," Dr. Keifer stated. "You that followed up by stating," he took out his iPad and Cozy Glow and Tirek looked at it curiously. He scrolled through the recordings of the hallway camera that recorded the conversation.
It took him a few seconds but he eventually found what he was looking for. He hit the play button and Cozy Glow's own voice emitted from it saying, "And he's denying being a slave! All humans are slaves! Imagine a human doctor, how hilarious is that?!" before he paused the video.
"What exactly did you mean by that?" he asked, already knowing what she was probably talking about, but needing to hear it directly from the horse's mouth.
"Well, there's no easy way to say this, but, after the war," she glanced at Tirek worriedly, who glanced back at her, "The combination of all the other races defeated the humans, and kind of… um… enslaved them."
"The war?" Keifer asked curiously.
"All the other races used to live in harmony. War used to be a completely foreign concept, murder thought to be a myth, nopony even being capable of that in the past. But one day, the humans just suddenly demanded that they be ruler of… the world, I guess. Long story short, nopony liked that. They wouldn't submit, so the humans…" she paused for a moment, "They started massacring entire cities, threatening to continue if we didn't submit. That was when all of Equs's races worked together, and just barely managed to defeat humanity. We enslaved them… you… as a result. Now, a new age of harmony has been ushered in. It's like the old times, except we have humanity as slaves. The enslavement of your kind created a kind of utopia for ours. We no longer had to do hard work for long hours, since the humans could do it for us. The homeless started to have homes, since humans didn't need to be paid to build. We started to have an abundance of food, harvested mostly by humans."
"When was this war?" Keifer asked.
"About a thousand years ago," Cozy Glow replied.
'Around the same time that their 'technological marvels' were invented. Might be a coincidence, might not be. I'll have to look into that,' Keifer thought, before another question came to his mind.
"You said our kind was full of rape. What did you mean?" Keifer asked.
"As a result of the war and enslavement of humanity, your kind fell far," Cozy Glow said, "You became complete savages, most humans not even knowing how to use a simple fork and spoon. Your kind was deprived of education, and as a result of lawlessness, all manner of crime became more prevalent. Of course, we cracked down on the murderers and thieves, and hard. But as for crimes such as rape… Human society became one based on strength. The stronger ones literally owned the others, with the 'alpha' being at the top."
"I see…" the doctor was mortified at what he was hearing. This could not go on. But before he could contemplate further, they arrived at the train station.
"We're here… and right on time..." Keifer said half-heartedly as the train pulled into the stop.
Cozy Glow and Tirek looked at the train in amazement.
'This is their apparent 'train'?It looks like an arrow! This is so cool!' Cozy Glow thought, squealing internally but keeping a relatively unimpressed expression.
The train seemed to hover above the train tracks slightly, and it looked to be built into the ground, rather than above it. It was extremely streamlined, looking like a long bullet and having an extremely long nose. Black tinted windows lined the sides at regular intervals, obscuring what was inside.
The rest of the train station looked relatively advanced to the both of them as well, containing more of those light generated images, but rather than display scenery, these displayed what they could only guess were locations. Beside each location, were two sets of times, which they assumed were for arrival and departure. The ceiling was slightly higher in the station, and several benches were present for those waiting for the train.
Cozy Glow looked back at the doctor, only to find him looking at the floor, his fists clenched. He looked to be shaking with rage at the moment.
Back in the UN headquarters, the world leaders were appalled by what they were hearing. However, their attention was quickly taken away from the camera screen that displayed the doctor and the two aliens when a man dressed in a lab coat barged into the room.
Cozy Glow and Tirek stared at Keifer worriedly.
"Doctor?" Cozy Glow asked softly and carefully.
"What?!" Dr. Keifer screamed in anger, causing them both to flinch.
"Are you okay?" Cozy Glow reluctantly asked.
"What do you think?! I've just found out that - " the doctor cut himself off as a voice suddenly sounded in his ear.
"Dr. Keifer? Dr. Keifer, come in," the voice came.
He pressed the button on the side of the earpiece, "Speaking."
"It's the president's daughter, she's dying," the voice said.
"What?! Eris?! What's happening?!" Keifer asked in quick succession.
"Firstly, we've found out the cause of death of the others," he paused, "It's chaotic radiation. There's been a leak."
"And Atticus's daughter has been affected?" Keifer asked.
"Yes sir, she's already begun displaying external mutations," the voice on tmr comms said.
"Put her back in the cryo-pod and freeze her. That should slow the effects. Grant the train express to whichever chamber you're keeping her in. I'm on my way," Keifer said before turning off his earpiece.
"Lord Tirek, you said to Cozy Glow earlier that you could absorb 'chaos magic' didn't you?" Keifer asked with air quotes.
"How did you - " Tirek began to ask but was cut off.
"Doesn't matter, there are more prevalent matters now. You are needed… by the president," Keifer conveyed it in a way that made it sound like the president was someone important.
Dr. Keifer looked for the appropriate train car, passing a few doors that had the words Maintainance, Cargo, Military, Restaurant, Bar, Nightcar, Hotel, Lounge and several others over it. He soon came upon the door to the appropriate car which was labeled 'Passengers' and hurried into the train with Tirek and Cozy Glow following in tow. The doors, as expected, opened automatically, and the three of them entered the train.
The inside of the train was just as luxurious as everything else. The interior was completely white, as expected, having white walls, white leather seats with cup holders, and a white light. The seats were arranged in a way that there was one singular row on the left, and a double row on the right. The odd thing was that the windows were completely black when Tirek and Cozy Glow were looking through it from the outside of the train, but were completely transparent when looking through it from the inside. The back floor was lined with a fluffy white carpet that felt extremely soft and comfortable upon Tirek and Cozy Glow's hoofs. At the back of the car was a wall with a door built that looked to be made out of a high quality wood, and crafted to perfection, being completely flat and straight and having an excellent contrast of different shades of browns. On the wall beside the door was a label which said, 'Lounge'.
Tirek and Cozy Glow sat next to each other in the double seats, with Tirek taking the window seat. The seats were soft but uncomfortable due to them being designed for bipeds rather than quadrupeds. The doctor took the singular seat next to them.
A few seconds after they entered, the doors closed automatically, followed by Alise's voice coming on, "Attention all passengers, welcome aboard Snowpiercer. You are currently on an express course to Central Cryogenics Sector 1. Wilford industries thanks you for choosing Snowpiercer and we hope you enjoy your ride."
"Doctor Keifer?" Cozy Glow asked, which got his attention.
"Yes, Miss Glow?" Keifer answered.
"What's a president?" Cozy Glow asked.
"Well, the president is the leader of the United States of Utopia, or USU for short. It is a conglomeration of many pre-flood nations, and is currently the most powerful nation in Utopia, if not the world," Keifer answered.
"So he's your king?" Cozy Glow asked.
"No, he's a democratically elected leader," Keifer answered, but continued to elaborate upon seeing the confusion on the young pony's face, "He is a chosen leader, appointed by the citizens of what used to be the United States of America. Elections are held every four years, and the president is elected by the people and for the people."
"You use democracy as a form of government?" Cozy Glow asked surprised, "I always thought of democracy as a way to choose class monitors and stuff like that."
"It is the same concept, but on a larger scale," Dr. Keifer explained, "Speaking of which, how old are you? You seem very young, but I have no way to properly gauge your age because I have never encountered your species before. And while you're at it, would you mind telling me what species you are as well? I know Lord Tirek is a centaur, but I do not know what you are. Are you a horse, or something else?"
"A horse?!" She asked, offended, "I'm a pony!"
"Ah… a pony…" Dr. Keifer said, "Still a type of horse."
"Excuse me?!" Cozy Glow said while Tirek snickered, "I'm nothing like a horse!"
"You look like a horse," Dr. Keifer stated.
"And you look like a monkey!" Cozy Glow retorted, which caused the doctor to shut up immediately while Tirek burst out laughing, "And I'm fifteen."
Once his laughter died down, Tirek asked what was on his mind, "So why does your… president need my help?"
"It is the president's daughter. She is under the effects of something we call chaos radiation, which causes the human body to undergo harmful mutations," Keifer explained, "And I believe that this chaos radiation is the same as what you call chaos magic. The radiation is still lingering in her body, doing more harm every passing second. You told Miss Glow that you could absorb this 'chaos magic', and we would like you to suck all of it out of her."
"Let me get this straight. You want me to steal her magic?" Tirek asked, confused, "And not just normal magic, but the most powerful magic there is?"
"Já, it's killing her," Dr. Keifer said, "Keeping her frozen might slow down the process, but only by a few days at most. She will be dead within minutes of exiting cryo, unless you help her."
"I will gladly assist you in helping your president's daughter," Tirek said, "You don't have to tell me twice to steal some magic."
"Excellent!" Dr. Keifer said, "It seems there are good people in your world. We might not have to go ahead with the reset operation after all."
"Reset… operation?" Tirek asked.
"Oh, nothing to worry about - " the doctor paused, "- Probably..."
It was then that the train came to a stop, and the voice of Alise came from the speakers once again. "Attention all passengers, you have arrived at Central Cryogenics Sector 1. The floor you are currently on is floor one. Wilford industries thanks you for choosing Snowpiercer. We hope to see you back here again soon," Alise said before going silent.
"Let's go," Keifer said and they got off.
The doors opened to reveal something completely unexpected to Cozy Glow and Tirek. There were hundreds of humans standing in the train station, all wearing full white. Most of their outfits were all exactly the same, featuring clean white t-shirts, white track pants, white socks, and white shoes. The ones that weren't dressed in white were dressed in full black combat gear, most of them holding rifles and glancing around menacingly, while the ones that weren't holding rifles directed people into the train. Several men in lab coats were also present, most of them paying attention to the iPads which they were holding.
The station was loud, with sounds of chatter coming from all around, much like a school canteen. All chatter stopped however, upon them noticing Tirek and Cozy Glow. Everyone turned towards them, with the scientists looking at their iPads and the soldiers all turning their piercing glares of pure justice towards them.
Dr. Keifer, however, just dismissed them, "Yes these are aliens. No, they aren't any of your business. So get back to talking, scientists please resume staring at your iPads in an attempt to appear busy and important, and soldiers continue standing there menacingly and looking around."
He turned his attention back to Tirek and Cozy Glow, "Ignore them. There are much more pressing matters at hand than the people staring at you. Let us continue forward."
They made their way out of the train station and into the hallway. Unlike the previous residential floor area, this floor was teeming with activity. Men in lab coats walked back and forth, looking down on iPads while humans in strange skin tight suits emerged from the rooms. The hallway looked pretty much the same as all the others, but instead of clear windows with the blinds closed, the windows that lined these walls were tinted blue, and with no visible curtains or blinds.
"Hello, anyone there?" Keifer spoke after tapping the side of his earpiece.
"Hello, hello? Uhh, Dr. Keifer?" The voice replied.
"Is that Keifer?" A voice was heard in the background.
"Yes, sir. It's Keifer sir," the first voice replied.
"Give it to me," the other man said, sounding closer and more distinct, and Keifer identified it as president Atticus, "Hello, Keifer?"
"Yes sir?" Keifer replied.
"What's taking you so long?!" the president raised his voice in frustration, "You get your ass over here, NOW!"
"Yes of course, sir, but I still do not know where you are," Keifer replied.
"Chamber 8, and be snappy about it!" the president shouted before the line cut off.
As they were making their way to the designated location, Tirek looked into one of the windows, and found hundreds, if not thousands of metal casings shaped like pea pods. Some of the pods looked to have a sheet of glass over it, while the ones that didn't have the glass coverings were empty.
Cozy Glow looked through the windows on the opposite wall. She saw one of the glass sheets slide into some unseen compartment. To her surprise, it revealed a human that was lying inside of it, looking to be asleep. She watched as steam began emanating from the inside of the pod, and one of the men in lab coats rushed over to check up on the man inside the pod.
"In here," Keifer said before he entered a large open door and Cozy Glow and Tirek followed him in.
Inside, laid thousands of cryogenic pods, stretching as far as the eye could see. The room was, as expected, white, with the pods arranged in a circle around and connected to pillars that delivered power to them.
Central Cryogenics Chamber 8 was bustling with activity, with doctors checking up on the newly awakened and soldiers directing people out of the chamber. In the distance, a bunch of pods were sealed off by a sheet of plastic, and people in hazmat suits were seen entering and exiting the makeshift containment that was set up. On its exterior, there was a radiation sign, and below it were the words 'DANGER RADIATION'. It would have been more impressive to Tirek and Cozy Glow, but after what they had seen so far, they expected as much.
Dr. Keifer looked around, and managed to spot the president and his wife, who's daughter was in a nearby pod. They were surrounded by four secret service agents and about a dozen doctors, one of which they were talking to. One of the secret service agents spotted Keifer, and made his way over to him.
"I'm guessing that's the president?" Cozy Glow asked upon noticing the crowd.
"Dr. Keifer?" the agent asked upon reaching them, "And… a horse and a centaur?"
"They're with me," Keifer confirmed, which did nothing to ease the agent's confusion.
"Very well, come with me sir," the agent said and began leading them to the president.
The president noticed them approaching and turned his attention towards them. "Dr. Keifer? Oh, thank God!" the president looked at the other doctors, "Give Keifer the details."
"Good day, Mr. President. I've brought someone I believe can assist your daughter," he stepped aside, revealing the centaur.
"What the fuck, Keifer?!" Atticus asked in outrage, "You brought the fucking human slaver… to help a human?!"
"He's her only chance," Keifer said, "And he said that he would gladly help her."
"If I may, president, I would be more than happy to stea- help remove the chaos magic from your daughter," Tirek said.
"No, you may not!" Atticus turned towards him with an expression of fury, "How the hell do I know I can trust you?! You said your kind partakes in slavery for God's sake! And the people you enslave are humans!"
"You can trust me because absorbing the magic of others makes me more powerful," Tirek said.
"Já, his species has apparently evolved to utilise chaotic radiation in some… unique ways," Keifer explained.
"I don't care! I'm not letting one of these savages have anything to do with my daughter!" Atticus screamed in anger.
While all that was going on, Cozy Glow had managed to get close enough to sneak a peek through the glass of the pod. What she saw came as something completely unexpected.
"Your daughter's a draconequus?!" she asked in a surprised tone and all attention turned towards her, "What? It's just that… I thought Discord was the only one. And no offense but a species that is nearly devoid of magic being related to one of the most powerful beings in existence is kinda weird."
The expressions of the doctors present, including the president, suddenly changed to one of surprise and worry, their mouths agape. The expressions of the secret service agents, on the other hand, did not shift at all. They were confused at everyone else's surprise, but they didn't show it.
"How do you know about the draconequus project?" Keifer asked, "That was supposed to be top secret. Not a single person outside of those involved should know it exists, let alone someone from an entirely different species that we had no prior contact with."
"Draconequus project?" Cozy Glow asked in confusion, "What do you mean?"
"Once it was discovered that chaotic radiation gave people some… abilities, we held a project to expose them to more concentrated doses over a longer period of time," Atticus answered, "We were trying to create a superhuman which would have access to these abilities by putting them in a separate bunker and exposing them to chaotic radiation in higher doses. Of course, the people involved were all volunteers. But you already know all about that, don't you?! Seeing as you were SPYING ON US!"
"I have no idea what you were talking about," Cozy Glow said, "A draconequus is what Discord is. It's his species!"
"Elaborate!" the president commanded.
"A couple thousand years ago, Discord - " she was cut off by Tirek putting a finger to her lips and shushing her.
"I'll tell you all about Discord… if you give me her magic, that is," Tirek pointed at the pod that contained Eris. He smirked at Cozy Glow, and she smirked back at him.
"You do know we can have that information tortured out of you, don't you?" Atticus said dismissively, "I hear electrical waterboarding is almost guaranteed to make you talk."
"Well, if you want to save your daughter, you're going to need me," he said.
"I'm sure we can find other methods," Atticus said.
"Well, you can always take your chances with Princess Twilight Sparkle. She's very experienced with magic, though I somehow doubt she'll help a bunch of humans," Tirek paused upon seeing them listening attentively, "Well, assuming we are under Tartarus, since that's where you emerged from, you can find her in Ponyville. It's just north from here, she lives in an entire town full of the beings that enslave you."
"So, leader of the slavers, that lives in a town full of slavers… or a convicted felon," Atticus said, "I think human medicine is much more advanced than whatever you can provide."
"It's not medicine. It's magic," he said, and the president let out a chuckle.
"Oh, I almost forgot," he said, "You can teleport and move stuff with your mind."
"Mr. President, sir," Dr. Keifer said, "He was under the effects of truth serum when he made that claim."
"Wait, wha - " Cozy Glow was cut off as Keifer began to speak again.
"I highly doubt he's telling the truth, but on the off chance that he is… he's her only hope," Keifer said.
"I'm sure you can - " the president was startled by Keifer raising his voice.
"No! I'm sorry sir, but it's too bad. If this doesn't work, we can't save her," Keifer said solemnly.
"Fine, I've made my decision," he pulled a handgun from one of his agent's holsters and pointed it at Tirek's head. "If you try anything, you die," he undid the safety, "If you fail, you die."
"Sir, please - " one of the doctors tried to reason with him.
"No, no. He seems very confident, so let's give him a chance, shall we?" he said before directing his attention towards one of the doctors, "Open it."
"Yes, sir," he said and tapped a button on the screen, and the glass slid off, revealing Eris.
Her face was round, similar in shape to a regular human, but being purple in colour. Instead of having a regular one, her mouth was replaced by an orange beak. From the side of her head, two ram horns protruded, which was shaped into a spiral that went around multiple times. Her hair was now made up of multiple colours, and was curled instead of straight. The white suit concealed most of her body, but what was visible were a pair of regular human arms and a pair of two-toed bird legs.
"Get to work," Atticus said.
Tirek opened his mouth, preparing to suck Eris's magic, but before he could, he disappeared in a puff of black smoke.
Everyone turned towards Cozy Glow and she shrugged, "Wasn't me who - " before she could finish, she disappeared as well.
"Mr. President, sir!" the general saluted. He spoke in an Italian accent, signifying that he was from pre-flood Italy, which had joined the USU.
"Ah, General Marcel, what's the update?" Atticus asked.
"We were able to breach the cavern, however, we are currently unable to deploy any aircraft. We will have to make use of helicopters and ground based vehicles to initiate contact, sir." the General said.
"And why is that?" Atticus asked in annoyance.
"We are unable to open the main door to the runway. The main door itself has a larger surface area than the cavern itself, and the cavern is right on top of the main doors," General Marcel said, "If we open it, the cavern might… no, the cavern will cave in and come crashing down on us."
"Who's bright idea was it to build the main door to the runway underneath a mountain?" the president asked sarcastically.
"Well, it wasn't a full on mountain back then. It has been a million years after all," he replied.
"It was a rhetorical question, general," the president sighed.
"I knew that sir, I thought it would have been funny," the general replied.
"Well, it wasn't," Atticus said.
"I agree sir," he paused and let the awkward silence take hold for a while, "I apologise, sir."
"Whatever," he said irritably, "What course of action do you suggest?"
"I would suggest using drones to scout out this… Ponyville… before proceeding. If they really do have the rest of humanity enslaved, I would suggest showing up with a considerable military force," he noticed the president's confusion and continued, "Of course, we should send a diplomat with a smaller guard detail first. If we send an entire army to the town which one of their nation's leaders supposedly lives in, they may take it as an act of war. If regular diplomacy fails, then we send an army, not to invade, but instead resorting to gunboat diplomacy by a show of strength."
"And if diplomacy, gunboat or not, fails?" the president questioned.
"Well, that depends. They literally used torches to light up the cavern, so if they really are that primitive… we could always resort to an invasion," the general said.
"Well, let's do everything we can to avoid a war," Atticus advised, "But I do agree with your suggestion. We should send in some drones to scout out the area first."
"Should I start preparing the drones, sir?" General Marcel asked.
"Not yet, I need to get approval from congress first," he sighed in frustration, "Then after that I'm going to have to address the UN and it would be better if I could get their approval as well."
"Yes, of course, sir," he said, "I'll get reception to put out an announcement right away."
"Very good. You go and do that. Dismissed," Atticus told him. He offered one final salute, and was on his way.
"Is everyone here?" the speaker asked the coordinator.
"We're still missing the leaders of… Laos, Singapore, South Africa, New Zealand, and Greece," the coordinator said.
"Please make an announcement and remind them of the meeting that is about to be held," the speaker said, straightening his tie.
The coordinator brought out his phone, "Hello, hiba?" He paused as someone on the other side of the call spoke. "Yeah, I wasn't listening," he paused once again as the voice came from the other side. "Well, check the cams!" his voice raised in frustration, "Send a team to get them to hurry up! I'm gonna have to start the meeting now, we can't wait for them. Tell them to get here as soon as they can." He hung up the phone.
"What's up?" the speaker asked.
"No idea what's taking them so long. Probably getting themselves ready," the coordinator said, "You can go ahead and begin without them."
"Very well, how do I look?" he said, throwing his hands to the side to showcase his black suit.
"You look great," the coordinator said in a hurried tone, "Go on, get going. I've got to go find the rest of the representatives."
The speaker headed into the USU House of Representatives. The representatives in question were all the leaders of the pre-flood nations that joined together to form the USU. President Atticus may have been the elected leader, but for something as important as this, he still needed to hold a majority vote for their course of action, where all the leaders of the pre-flood nations that joined America served as the voters.
The speaker walked up to his stand. There were three stands in the front-middle of the room. The president's stand was in the middle of the three, which was flaked on the right side by the vice president's stand, and on the left side by his own stand.
"Attention, attention everyone!" he called out through the microphone and the chatter died down, "Hello everyone, and welcome to the third USU congress meeting. My name is Ralph Lawson, and I will be your speaker for today. So if you could all kindly take your seats, we may begin shortly.
Suddenly, a voice called out that broke the silence. "Sorry I'm late, I took a bit longer than expected getting ready," the ex Greek prime minister, and current representative of Greece, scrambled to find his seat.
"Ah, Minister Mytsoakis! You're just on time, actually. Glad you could make it," Ralph spoke into the mic, "Let us begin."
The large display screen behind Ralph suddenly came alive with various images of the cavern and the creatures found within them. At the center of the screen, an image of Dr. Keifer, with Tirek and Cozy Glow flanking him on either side was displayed.
"Let's begin with the first topic. I'm sure you have all been briefed on the situation we are currently in. The type of animals present on earth have changed drastically, but that is not the main issue at hand," the screen zoomed in on the image of Keifer and the two aliens, "These are members of the dominant species that are currently inhabiting Earth's surface. More specifically, the one on the right is." The screen zoomed in on the face of Cozy Glow, "These are ponies. They are - "
"We've already been through the briefing. They are the dominant species, they enslaved humanity, and they have magic," the Swedish representative called out, "And yes, we know that the capabilities of this magic is currently unknown."
"Well yes, but I was just going through the briefing," Ralph defended, "Very well then. If you wish to move on and skip the recap, we may. Let's have a vote, green to go through the recap, red to move past the recap, and grey to refrain from voting."
He set up the poll and everyone turned their iPads on, pressing on the congress app. The large screen in front of congress changed, now showing a pie chart with green, red and blue sections. The portions and percentages kept switching for a few seconds, until it showed that everyone had voted. The green portion took up more than one third of the pie chart, having the number 69% displayed on it. The red section displayed 14% and the grey section displayed 17%.
"Very well, we'll skip the recap and get straight towards the action then," Ralph said, "We have done several autopsies on those that had passed away while frozen. What we found was that there was a radiation leakage. Whatever mechanism that was supposed to limit the amount of radiation we were exposed to malfunctioned, which resulted in a small scale beach between the ground and the inside of Utopia."
"How could this happen? We have the top engineers! The top scientists! This is their fault!" one voice called out and the others voiced their agreements.
"Everyone, please!" the speaker raised the volume of his mic, quieting down the sudden uproar of chaos, "This was not due to human error. This happened because of the natural degradation of those mechanisms. They may have been top quality, but one million years would still take its toll on even the sturdiest of objects."
"Was there any foul play involved?" Someone asked.
"The engineers and mechanics have already looked at the mechanism, and Head Peacekeeper Yang himself has officially ruled out foul play," he said, "But do not worry, the situation has been contained. Our developed immunity, coupled with the lessened radiation levels ensures that whatever chaos radiation that does manage to get in will not be of any danger to us."
"Now, if we could move on to the next topic," the speaker beckoned Atticus to stand up, "President Atticus, if you please."
The President stood up and a cameraman zoomed in on him. The top of his head, up to his belly was now projected onto the large screen at the center of the House of Representatives. He straightened his suit, and placed both hands on the podium. He began to speak.
"Hello, all of you. The reason I called for an emergency meeting, and on such short notice, is to begin discussion on a first contact operation. I know that it has only been two days since our awakening, but I wish to make first contact as soon as possible. And by as soon as possible, I mean either tomorrow or the day after," Atticus said to which a massive uproar of arguments suddenly erupted. What they were saying was completely inaudible, due to the fact that almost everyone was shouting all at the same time. But all Atticus had to do was raise a hand. It didn't work immediately, with everyone still shouting, but the awkwardness of essentially shouting at a wall that wasn't responding eventually set in, and after about a minute, the uproar had died down to a complete and awkward silence.
"I'm going to be frank with all of you. I'm doing this for selfish reasons," Atticus admitted, to everyone's surprise, "The reason I am doing this, is because my daughter, who is one of the last remaining children, is about to die because of chaotic radiation."
There were sudden cries of shock, gasps of surprise, and worried looks being thrown around. Most of the pre-flood nations' leaders knew Atticus's daughter quite well. Atticus had regular meetings with his allies, both business and casual, and Eris was present at most of his casual meetings with the other leaders of the pre-flood nations. Most of them knew her as a lively teenage girl with a happy go lucky attitude. She was fun to be around, nice to talk to, and extremely funny. In fact, most of the people here considered her their friend, and she had even offered some of them a shoulder to cry on. And now, she was dying. But someone still needed to address the elephant in the room.
"Atticus," Polish prime minister Olesia Piertreik began in a solemn tone, "I know that you must be very worried, and you might not be thinking clearly. How exactly is first contact going to help your daughter?"
"There is an individual known as Princess Twilight Sparkle. She was mentioned by the Centaur, Lord Tirek, who expressed that she might be capable of assisting," Atticus explained, "He informed us that she was extremely well versed in… magic."
The entire room fell silent. That was, until Minister Olesia broke the silence. "You can't be serious?" she asked in disbelief, "I know that eyewitness accounts said that the two creatures… vanished, but we know nothing about this apparent magic. I can hardly believe it myself! They could have easily been using advanced technology, and telling us it was magic."
"They said that their most advanced piece of technology is either the train, radio, or camera," Atticus said, "I highly doubt a civilisation that has technology from the 1800s would be capable of something like that through technological means."
"But even so, magic?" another representative asked, "Seems too far fetched."
"There's absolutely no way I'm voting in favor of making first contact without even knowing what they're capable of," another representative said, and strong voices of agreement were heard.
"You don't believe me? Fine, watch," the president said before tapping on his iPad. He turned to the cameraman, "Disconnect your bluetooth. I wanna connect mine," he said.
"Of course, sir," he said and did as asked, and the screen feed that previously displayed Atticus was replaced by a bright blue one which said 'no input'.
"What's the password?" the president asked the speaker.
"01ns10ejd2j9" the speaker replied, speaking each letter slowly and carefully so the president could catch it.
The massive screen came to life once again, now showing the home screen of Atticus's iPad, which had a wallpaper of a photo of him, together with his wife, two sons, and daughter smiling at the camera. He accessed his gallery and flipped through it until he found the video.
He played the video. It was a camera view from the top left corner of the room which showed Tirek disappear in a puff of black smoke, followed by Cozy Glow. The video was only two seconds long, but got the desired effect out of the representatives when murmurs began erupting.
"My daughter is one of the last remaining children in Utopia. This video… it shows all of you that she has a chance to live," the president said, "I ask you… no, I beg you, please allow me to initiate first contact. We are going to have to contact the ponies sooner or later, so why not save a life while we're at it?"
"I'm sorry Atticus, but this is still a bit far-fetched for me," one of the representatives said.
"It's too risky. We know next to nothing about their species, and we do know was information gained through a fifteen year old child and someone who isn't even a pony himself," a representative spoke up, "That's not even taking into account that those two individuals are convicted felons."
"We have to find out more before we act," one representative spoke, and yells of support emitted from the others, "We cannot go in blind. We must observe them first, determine their capabilities, and see how much of a threat this 'magic' is."
"If they can teleport right into our nuclear weapon storage facility, it's game over for all of us," the Italian representative stated, and an outcry of worried ministers all began shouting at the same time upon this revelation.
The speaker muted their mics, but when that didn't work, he began banging his mallet on the granite hard. It took some time, but the representatives eventually quieted down.
"Act in a disorderly manner again and you will be removed from this meeting!" the speaker said in a stern tone, "President Atticus, you may continue."
"I have a proposal," the president said, "I agree with all of you. We simply do not have enough information. However, I plan on sending in drones for a twenty four hour observation period, and what we observe will determine how we initiate first contact."
"I disagree," a representative opposed, "We need a minimum of one month of observation before we begin to even think of first contact."
"President Atticus is right. If Eris is in trouble, we should use this opportunity to help her. We're going to have to initiate contact anyway so why not do it now, and have a chance at saving her?" arepresentative voiced her support.
"Twenty four hours is more than enough time to make observations!" another called out.
"Are you stupid?!" another rudely shouted, "What are we going to determine in twenty four hours?! The town's most used brand of toasters?!"
"What do you expect to gain out of an entire month of surveillance?!" the previous representative asked.
"The capabilities of this newfound 'magic'!" he retorted.
The entire parliament devolved into arguments and insults. Each side's ministers voiced valid points, all of which the ones on the opposing side didn't care about. The only ones not participating in the argument were the president, vice president, and speaker.
"I'm not paid enough for this," Ralph said to himself, "Wait… I'm not even paid."
"QUIET!" Ralph screamed at the top of his lungs after raising his microphone's volume to the max. The effect was instant, with the entire room going silent. "Thank you. I believe you've all made your points very clear over the past fifteen minutes of arguing. Now, can we please continue this meeting in a proper and organised manner?" the speaker asked rhetorically.
"What makes you think that their apparent magic can help your daughter anyway?" Olesia asked.
"Nothing makes me think it can help her, but it at least gives her a chance," Atticus stated.
"So you're being this on a hunch?" Olesia asked.
"If saving Eris isn't a good enough reason, let me give you another one," Atticus began, "Both of these individuals stated that humanity was enslaved by the other species inhabiting this planet. If not for my daughter, do it for the rest of humanity. They have apparently been enslaved, and have been reduced to a bunch of savages. They need our help as well, and every minute wasted is another minute of humanity having to endure the barbarism of the ponies."
"I'm sorry Atticus, but I can't take that risk," Olesia said, "I vote against the motion!"
"I'm not asking to initiate first right now. I'm putting out a motion to scout out the area, then send a diplomat," the president said.
"Attention everyone, we have a motion to vote on," Ralph announced, "As usual, green to vote for the motion, red to go against the motion, and grey to abstain from voting."
Atticus disconnected his Bluetooth and the same pie chart that appeared earlier appeared on the screen. The numbers and portions kept switching, until the results eventually came on screen. The results ended up being 45% for, 45% against, and 10% abstained.
"Well, looks like we have a tie. This means Vice President Felix will get to vote, and will function as our tiebreaker," the speaker said before turning to the vice president, "Your vote, sir?"
"We all know I'm gonna support Atticus on this one. I vote for the motion," Felix said and Atticus sighed in relief.
"You're making a big mistake, Atticus," Olesia said.
"We'll see," Atticus said.
"Very well, the motion has been passed. If approved by the UN, drones will be sent to locate and observe the town known as Ponyville. Determining the course of action afterwards will be left completely under the jurisdiction of the United States army," Ralph said, "You will be notified of the course of action that will be taken. Any information pertaining to the nature of the ponies and of magic itself will be given to you privately, and will be discussed in the next meeting."
The screen switched to show the image of the Gates of Tartarus.
"Now, next on the docket, the doors leading to the cavern. They seem to be made of regular stone, however, they seem to be nearly indestructible. Further proof of this fact is that when we used a diamond tipped drill to get through, it merely scratched the door slightly, while the diamond used literally broke into pieces," the speaker explained, "This is presumably either a new, undiscovered substance, or further evidence of 'magic'. Do not worry though, the walls are just as tough as regular stone, and we have managed to break through it easily using regular explosives."
The meeting continued, discussing other matters pertaining to both Utopia, and the surface.
"Do you think Eris is gonna be okay?" Atticus overheard his son Gerald ask his big brother.
"Of course she's going to be alright. Our dad's the president!" Joseph chuckled, "If anyone can make sure Eris is alright, it's gonna be him. And besides, remember when dad told us that the new surface dwellers have magic?"
"What makes you think they'll even help her?" Gerald asked.
"You mean aside from helping the daughter of the most powerful man in the world?" Joseph smirked, and Gerald let out a chuckle.
"The kids are worried, Atticus," Laura came up to him, which interrupted his eavesdropping session, "And you still haven't told me about the meeting with the UN."
"Well, the usual I guess. Russia suggested we nuke them, as expected. Aladeen suggested nukes as well. Oh, and so did China," Atticus said, "But, surprisingly, it was Kim Jong who came up with an alternative suggestion."
"Really? Well that really is surprising. What did he suggest?" Laura asked.
"Labour camps, extermination camps, gas chambers, dropping down cans of nerve agents, injecting nerve agents into their clouds and letting it rain down on them, bio weapons that specifically target their DNA," Atticus listed the plethora of ways the North Korean leader suggested to kill the surface dwellers, "And what's scary is that we are probably genuinely capable of doing the last two."
"So I take it you got the approval of the UN?" Laura asked.
"About half of the UN approved. I didn't need their approval anyway, I just thought it would be better to have it," Atticus replied.
"But even then, you said it yourself. The ponies are slavers. What makes you think they'll help her anyway?"
"Well, the fact that I have the authority to launch a nuke directly at them," he gave her a goofy smile.
"Atticus, be serious! This is our daughter we're talking about!" Laura chastised.
"I know dear, I'm doing all I can," he replied sullenly.
"And what exactly are you doing?! You're just prolonging the inevitable at this rate!" she shouted.
"And what do you expect me to do?!" Atticus shouted back. "I… I'm sorry, it's just…" he apologised upon seeing the hurt look on his wife's face, "I'm trying my very best to save her, but I can't do much. All I can do is speed up first contact, which is exactly what I did, and hope that they have a way to help her."
"So what're you going to do if they refuse to help her? What are you going to do if they can't help her? Kill them?" Laura asked.
"Yes," Atticus replied simply.
"You can't just commit a war crime!" Laura exclaimed in horror.
"War crimes apply to other people. It doesn't include farm animals," Atticus replied, "The most that they can possibly do according to the law is fine me for animal abuse, which I highly doubt the peacekeepers will be bold enough to do."
Before Laura could come up with an argument, three knocks were heard on the front door.
"Who is it?" Laura asks.
"Corporal Banks, ma'am," a male voice replies from behind the door.
Atticus walked over to the door and lightly tapped the sensor. The door slid out of view to reveal a young man in a military uniform.
"How may I help you, corporal?" Atticus asked.
"I've been sent to inform you that General Marcel believes the drones have located the town known as Ponyville," he said, "They're waiting for you and the other leaders to get down to the Central Drone Control Room before infiltrating. That way you will be able to observe what's happening live.
"He could've just called. Didn't have to send you all the way here," Atticus said.
"I was on patrol in the area," Banks replied, "And may I just say that it is an honour to meet you sir."
"Pleasure's all mine," Atticus replied, "I'll be there in a few. You may go back to your post, I have my agents to escort me."
"Yes, sir," the corporal said before walking off, the door sliding back into place.
"They found it?" Laura asked.
"Well, you heard the man," Atticus said, "I've gotta go. I'll be back for dinner."
"We'll continue this later!" Laura called after Atticus as he made his way to their bedroom, closing the door and locking it.
Laura made her way into Gerald's bedroom, where she found Joseph and Gerald talking to each other.
"Oh, hey mom," Joseph said as he noticed his mother enter.
"Hey kids, dad's leaving. Go say goodbye to your father," Laura told them.
"Okay mom," they said before making their way to the front door, with Laura following behind them.
A few minutes passed as they chatted, before the bedroom door slid out of the way, revealing Atticus. He was now dressed in a navy blue suit, which went together with a pair of navy blue slacks, while wearing a white shirt and tie to top it all off.
"Hey kids, Laura," Atticus greeted.
"Hey dad," Joseph returned the greeting.
"Where are you going, dad?" Gerald asked.
"I'm going to see the live drone footage from a town called Ponyville, which is one of the towns that these creatures called ponies live in," Atticus explained enthusiastically, causing Gerald's eyes to go wide.
"Are they those surface dweller aliens that are all over the news?" Gerald asked.
"Well, they look like the tiny horse, not the centaur. They're the ones who are gonna help Eris," Atticus told his kids.
"Well, I best be going. Better not to keep them waiting," Atticus said. He then gave Joseph and Gerald each a kiss on the forehead, followed by giving his wife a goodbye kiss. "Be good, kids," Atticus said, "I'll be home for dinner, bye guys." He left through the door and it automatically closed behind him.
Outside, the two secret service agents stood guard, one on each side of the door. They heard faint bits of muffled conversation between Atticus and his family, before the door opened, and the president stepped out.
"Gentlemen," He greeted, "Good day."
"Good day to you too sir," one returned the greeting.
"Good day sir," the other replied.
"Well, lead the way gentlemen," Atticus told them and they began to make their way to the drone control room.
The drone control room was bustling with activity. The top military officials stood all around, observing. Hundreds of drone pilots sat in front of rows upon rows of TV sized monitor screens. It looked like a school computer lab, except they were all using state of the art supercomputers, with each one controlling military grade infiltration and observation drones. These drones were the most advanced infiltration drones ever developed, each individual drone being smaller than a fly and emitting virtually no noise while they flew. They could literally be flying right in front of your eyes, and you would think it was no more than an insect. The pilots had a mission; to infiltrate and obtain all information that could possibly prove useful.
There were nine different squads of a hundred drones each. Each squad was led by a general, who would relay orders to the drone pilot commander. The other drones were assigned to just gain any information they could, and report if they found anything interesting.
The world leaders all sat in front of a large screen, along with the top scientists that Utopia had to offer, Dr. Keifer among them. The screen was separated into nine squares, each showing the point of view of a separate drone which was assigned to infiltrate different areas of the town. These screens were from the feed of the drone pilot commanders, which now showed the view of a small town that was in the distance.
"Shall we commence the operation?" one of the generals, a Russian, asked the world leaders and received his confirmation. "Proceed with the infiltration," he commanded, "And spread out. A thousand flying insects in one area would definitely raise some eyebrows."
The drones began to head for the town in batches. Once a hundred of them had successfully infiltrated the town, the next batch would begin heading towards it. Each batch was relatively spread apart, with them spreading themselves evenly over a hundred meter radius. The drones began exiting from the cover of a forest of some sort, heading for the town while flying relatively low to the ground.
The town was extremely primitive in nature. It seemed to be done in a medieval style, with most of the buildings being made of stone rather than concrete and having nothing more than a thatch roof. What was the most striking thing, however, was the massive castle that was literally made out of gems. The castle was built into what looked to be a tree made out of Crystal. All in all, it was some magnificent architecture, and it was something that such a primitive society should not be able to accomplish.
As they headed into the town itself, they came across a massive farm of some kind. The plantation had a farmhouse and a barn, and was full of apple trees, which signified it as an apple farm. But something else surprised all those present within the room. Instead of those miniature equine creatures working on the farm like they had expected, they found that it was being worked by humans.
People were either climbing ladders to pick the fruit or jumping to get at them, before depositing them in a basket below the trees. There were ten people on the farm in total, but also present were a single pony.
It was red in colour, and was extremely large and muscular compared to Cozy Glow. They could tell that it was male because, unlike normal ponies, these ones seemed to have the ability to express a wide variety of facial features. Another thing they observed was that unlike Cozy Glow, this one didn't possess any wings. The strangest thing, however, was that he was farming by literally kicking the trees with his back legs, which made most of the apples fall into the baskets set under the trees.
"Should I proceed further into the town sir?" the drone commander asked the general.
"Yes, go ahead," he said before addressing everyone else, "But I want a couple of you to stay here and observe!"
"Flight commander, advance," the general ordered, and the drone began moving further into the town known as Ponyville.
There were hundreds of ponies present within the town, and they were able to determine that there were three different types of ponies; regular ponies which possessed no additional traits, the ponies that had wings and could fly, and the ponies with a horn on their foreheads.
There were also just as many, if not more, humans in the town. They listened to the command of three ponies and acted subservient, but were not chained like animals as they expected. Surprisingly, they all wore what looked like gold necklaces around their necks. They were still clearly slaves though, with their dirtied, worn out clothes, and the fact that most of them were doing work.
It was at that point that they saw something that really surprised them. It was four people that were pulling an open chariot without a roof. In the chariot were three normal ponies; a brown male pony with the collar of a suit around his neck, along with a tie with a dollar sign on it, a magenta female pony which wore the sleeves of a dress on her front legs, and a female pony child who wore a tiara.
"Isn't the horse supposed to be the one pulling them?" Aladeen asked, eliciting snickers from the other world leaders.
"I have never, not even once, seen something this fucking dumb," the Russian prime minister stated.
Suddenly, one of the men pulling the chariot stopped, causing the rest of them to nearly trip.
"What is your problem?!" one of the people pulling the carriage asked him.
"Mistress Spoiled's gonna be irritated with that bump," one of them said fearfully.
"Who did that?!" the female pony asked, clearly annoyed. They all pointed at the man who stopped, and she switched her gaze towards him, "Why did you stop suddenly?! I almost bumped my head!" she angrily shouted at him.
"I… can't go on, ma'am," he said in between pants, "I'm… too tired."
"Well, the rest of them can't pull this thing by themselves. Go on, or I'll sell you to the diamond dogs!" she said.
"Please, mistress, I'm too tired. Can I have a break?" he pleaded.
"We're gonna be late! We already have a reservation, so hurry up! We can't keep the baron waiting!" she replied, "Go on!"
"Dear, I'm sure we can give him a few minutes," the male pony said in a much gentler tone.
"No! I will not be made late because of a human!" she shouted. She then outstretched her hoof towards the man who had stopped, and he began shouting in pain while clutching his neck. After about ten seconds, she retracted her hoof and the man stopped screaming, now panting even harder than before. "Slave! I said go!" she shouted.
The man slowly got back onto his feet, and resumed jogging along with the others. He was clearly making every effort to push himself, as he nearly tripped soon after he began jogging once again.
All the world leaders were shocked by the savage display of slavery that they had just witnessed. All, except one.
"Kinky," Aladeen stated, and all the other leaders' faces shifted into a look of disgust.
For the next few hours they witnessed several feasts performed by the ponies that simply defied all science and logic. They witnessed several pegasi literally sit on top of clouds, and that's not even mentioning seeing several of these flying horses literally move the clouds.
The unicorns deserve their own paragraph. Their abilities included, but we're not limited to: teleportation, projecting images out of their horns like a literal projector, moving objects with their minds, shooting what looked like concentrated energy blasts, and walking through walls. All that made the unicorns the biggest threat to the humans, and they certainly knew it. The generals all promised an increase in security, and the Chinese prime minister requested blacklisting ponies from Utopia so that Alise would deploy her defenses if one of them managed to teleport in.
They also observed the way the humans were treated. The first thing they noticed was that there was a slave market of sorts, with people in cages being bought and sold like everyday objects. Unlike the first instance, however, the rest of the humans seemed to be treated relatively well, for a slave at least. They were still forced to do hard work, but most of them weren't quivering with tiredness, while working in extremely good conditions. The only ones who were suffering in agony seemed to be those working in construction, with several buildings currently being built. The construction workers were, in fact, quivering with tiredness, while anyone who stopped work for too long got their magical shock collars activated as punishment.
The world leaders noticed that not a single human fought with any of the ponies, most not minding following the ponies' orders, which they found strange. They were all controlled by the threat of being sold off to either the diamond dogs, the mines, construction companies, labor camps, or just being sold in general. They seemed to take the threat of being 'sold' very seriously, which led the observers to deduce that this was probably one of the better areas for a slave to be in. It made sense as well, with the town not having any major constructions going on that required backbreaking labour or mines for the slaves to be treated badly in. It was mostly escorting their masters, helping do some heavy lifting, or doing household chores; all of which was heaven compared to what they could be subjected to if they were sold.
It was after a few hours in when the cool evening suddenly switched to a dark night, almost instantly, confusing them greatly.
"Did something happen?" one of the generals asked in annoyance.
"The drones are fine," the drone commander replied, "It's probably something to do with the environment."
"One of you commanders observe the area. This is highly unusual," one of the scientists ordered.
"Yea, sure, I'll just go - " he was cut off as one of the other pilots spoke up.
"I believe I've just found Twilight," he said, "She just arrived on a flying carriage that was being pulled by one of the horses with wings."
"Ponies," Dr. Keifer corrected with annoyance, "And how do you know it's her?"
"One of the horses called her by name," the pilot answered.
"Put your feed through to the main screen," Keifer commanded.
He began typing a few things on his keyboard, and his drone's camera replaced one of the commander's. What they saw made the world leaders scrunch their faces in confusion. This pony had both a horn and a pair of wings, and she was the first one of their kind that they saw. Beside her were six others; two normal ponies, two flying ones, and one horned one. Also tagging along was a strange purple bipedal lizard of some kind, which they guessed was probably one of the ponies' pets.
"So Twi, how do you think Sombra even came back?" the orange one asked in a southern accent, "I thought we managed to end him after we got the crystal heart?"
"I thought so too, and I honestly have no idea how he came back AJ," the purple pony answered, "But I'm way too frustrated to think right now."
"Twilight, he destroyed the tree of harmony, and the elements along with it," the white one said, sounding worried.
"I know, but I think we should all go home and get some well deserved rest. It's been a long journey, and I'm way too tired to think," Twilight said, "We'll reconvene at my castle in the morning."
"I second that," the blue one with a literal rainbow mane said in a rough voice.
"I've gotta go feed my animals as well," the yellow one said in a soft, gentle tone.
"Well, I guess we should all head back then," the white one said.
They said their goodbyes, and Twilight began heading back towards the castle, all unaware of the hundreds of people watching them.
"Well, I guess we should come to a decision," Atticus said, "We've been watching without anything happening for about an hour now."
"Didn't you tell congress that you'd observe them for 24 hours?" one of the generals asked.
"I'm sure they won't mind. We've gotten tons of information anyway," Atticus said.
"What are you planning, Atticus?" the Russian leader asked.
"I'm sending a diplomat to meet with the princess tomorrow," Atticus replied.
"And what if we disagree with your decision to send a diplomat the day after discovering an alien species, one that is currently enslaving ours?" Supreme Leader Xi Mingzhe of Lian Meng asked.
"I would say that you have no authority over the USU," Atticus said before turning to General Marcel, "Prepare sixty men as an escort for the diplomat general."
"A sixty man escort?!" General Marcel asked with surprise, "I highly doubt we need - "
"They're creatures that enslave humans. They can move stuff with their mind. Get me my escort. Have them ready to go by eleven in the morning" Atticus demanded.
"Yes sir," General Marcel saluted before walking off to perform his assigned task.
"Atticus, listen to - " the prime minister of the EU began, but was rudely cut off.
"Now if you'll excuse me, I have a diplomat to find," Atticus said before getting up and walking off.
"You're making a big mistake Atticus," the Oceanian prime minister said, but Atticus ignored him, still walking away.
"He is making a big mistake," the European prime minister agreed.
"I agree," General Aladeen stated, "He should have brought sixty thousand soldiers, not sixty."
"Atticus, listen to me, please! You can't do this!" Laura pleaded with her husband.
"Please Laura, listen to me," Atticus said, "If congress catches wind of this, they'll no doubt shut this whole operation down! I'm doing this for our daughter, Laura."
"You think I don't know that?! She's my daughter too!" Laura screamed in anger, "I want to help her too, but we have to do this the right way. Keeping this away from congress, it's… it's not right."
"I'll tell them. I'll schedule a meeting, just not right now. We have this one chance. One chance, to save Eris, and if they find out about the slavery, the magic, there's no way they'll let me initiate contact this early," Atticus explained to his wife.
"What about the repercussions? You yourself saw what these… things are capable of. If they find out about us and they don't like us, it's game over," Laura said in a much more serious tone, "All they have to do is literally teleport into nuclear storage and light one bomb. Humanity will fall, because of your incompetence."
"That's why we've taken precautions. We've added ponies to Alise's blacklist, and we've increased security. There's now five times as many guards, and patrols are now five times as frequent," Atticus said confidently," Our soldiers are the best of the best, the best in the, the literal John Wicks of humanity. There's no way they'll be able to get in and out alive."
"So I'm assuming your… John Wicks can teleport and walk through walls?" she asked sarcastically.
Atticus sighed. "You know what I mean. This entire bunker is currently more heavily guarded than Area 51. I would know, because I've been there," he reasoned.
"Well that's not gonna stop them from teleporting in, killing you, and then teleporting out, all before anyone even knows they were here," she said, "Just think, Atticus. Think of the possible ramifications of what you're doing. Think of the consequences."
"We have nuclear weapons! We have chemical weapons, biological weapons, fighter jets, attack helicopters, and tanks! They don't stand a chance. Even if the only weapons we had were guns they still couldn't compare," Atticus said.
Atticus knew this wasn't true, but he was still trying to find some way to justify his actions. He was trying to find some reason that would make it so that he wasn't risking all of humanity. He was trying to somehow justify what he was doing to save his daughter's life. He knew it was wrong, he knew all the possible reasons he could come up with were just lies, but he believed in those lies so that he could believe he was doing the right thing.
"Humanity does have better weapons. We could wipe them all out, but we would be wiping out our own people as well," said Laura.
"Listen, I just need you to believe in me," - Atticus looked into Laura's eyes while putting both hands on her shoulders - "I need you to believe that what I'm doing is right. What I'm doing is for our daughter."
"If congress finds out, you might be deemed unfit and impeached. You could lose your presidency," Laura said.
"I'd rather lose my presidency than lose my daughter," Atticus said.
"But what if they wipe you? What if they wipe all of us?" Laura said with worry, "You know the rules, you made them. Anyone who is not part of the ruling body must be wiped to keep the peace."
"It won't come to that," Atticus reasoned, "We're already here, together. They won't wipe us if there's no reason to disrupt the peace because we're together."
"How about Kerry and Sampson? They were married and they were both considered essential personnel, but they were both still wiped," Laura said.
"That's different. They weren't part of the ruling body. They didn't have the strength the rest of us did. They could've started an uprising for all we know," Atticus replied.
"You didn't even know them, yet you denied their request yourself!" Laura said.
"They could've threatened everything we've worked for," Atticus responded.
"You thought that two people that you didn't even meet were too risky to leave unwiped," Laura stated, "So what makes you think they'll leave an ex-president, who they fired, unwiped? Don't you see what I'm getting at? Those two people were just regular folk, and they were wiped. They'll consider you even more risky than a regular citizen because you might hold a grudge against them!"
"So what do you expect to do? Let Eris die?" Atticus asked.
"No, I expect you to handle this the right way. If you tell congress the truth, I'm sure they'll hear you out. If you lie, not only will you put our family at risk, you'll be risking the safety of all of humanity," Laura said.
"I'm taking precautionary measures to ensure they don't discover Utopia," Atticus said, "I know the risks. I'm not an idiot!"
"Precautionary measures? Like what?" Laura asked with skepticism.
"I'll have the diplomat and his escorts wiped off of Utopia's location. If they prove hostile, I won't send another diplomat. I'll send an army," Atticus said.
Laura sighed in frustration. "Don't you see it, Atticus? You're becoming a dictator!" Laura exclaimed, which caused Atticus to take on a shocked expression, "Increasing military presence, going being congress's back, putting your own selfish needs before that of your people, wiping people for no reason, and now you're threatening to send an army?!"
"Don't ever call me a dictator! I was elected by the people!" Atticus shouted in anger.
"You were elected for the people!" Laura retorted, "Sixty percent of our population are soldiers! The majority of Utopia's population don't even know what it's like having a family! You classify the people who fight against the law of wiping memories as terrorists! You force them to take the pills!"
"It pains me to have to do this to my own people, but it is required for society to function! Everything I do, I do for the good of not just my people, but for the good of all of humanity, and you know it! If I never wiped them, none of them would have agreed to come to Utopia in the first place!" Atticus said.
"And now you're putting us at risk. Eris has time, she's frozen!" Laura tried to reason.
"She'll only be kept alive by cryo for about at most a week, maybe two. We need help now! What if their magical procedures take a week to complete? What if it takes them a week to figure out how to help her in the first place? She'll be dead by then!" Atticus yelled angrily, "Now dear, if you'll excuse me, I have a diplomat to prepare."
"Atticus! Atticus, wait!" Laura called after him but he just ignored her and left.
Atticus stood in front of a large glass window which looked over the hangar. This hangar was designed for helicopters, and instead of having a runway, had a large blast door above it designed for vertical takeoff and landing. The good news was that this part of Utopia extended beyond the cavern, and the doors opened outside it. This meant they didn't have to blow a hole in the wall of the cavern to get out.
"Is he ready?" Atticus asked Marcel.
"Yes, he and his escort are boarding the choppers now," the general replied.
"Have they been wiped like I ordered?" Atticus asked.
"Of course, sir," General Marcel confirmed.
As Atticus was looking out of the window, the door behind him opened. He didn't turn around, thinking it was just another soldier.
"President Atticus, we can't allow you to do this," the voice of Bjorn Earling, Prime Minister of the European Union came from behind him.
He turned around to find three other world leaders beside him; Jack of Oceania, Mateo of Hispanica, and Osas of Africa. They were flanked by several of their soldiers, sights trained on him.
"You wouldn't dare arrest me. It would be an act of war," Atticus said in a smug tone.
"You wouldn't dare let a war ravage Utopia," King Osas replied in an equally cocky tone.
"But you're right," Prime Minister Jack confirmed, "We're not here for you. Look out the window."
Atticus looked out the window. The diplomat was currently chatting with the escorts. Then, the door opened, and hundreds of soldiers, wearing Hispanican, African, European, and Oceanian outfits burst through the door, guns at the ready.
General Marcel was quick, rushing for the comms almost immediately, while Atticus turned the camera's volume on.
"Step away from the vehicle and put your weapons down or we will open fire!" one of the soldiers called out.
"Get to the chopper!" General Marcel shouted once he reached the comms.
"What is this?!" Atticus asked, outraged.
"This is us saving humanity from an idiot," King Osas said angrily.
"Move! Move! Move!" the voice came from the monitor that showed a camera view of the hangar.
As soon as they started running for the helicopters, the enemy soldiers opened fire. The USU soldiers returned fire, but focused primarily on heading for the helicopter. The good news was that the helicopter was only a few meters away from them, and they boarded it almost immediately.
There were three helicopters present. One of them was a transport helicopter, while the other two were a cross between a transport helicopter and an attack helicopter. Fifteen soldiers entered each of the attack/transport helicopters, while thirty of them entered the transport helicopter.
The USU escort was still under heavy fire, and they closed the doors as quickly as possible. That didn't deter the enemy forces, however, as they kept on firing at the helicopter, while gradually making their way closer and closer.
"Permission to take off, sir?" one of the pilots asked.
"Go now! Take off immediate-" he was cut off as he was apprehended by one of the soldiers that escorted the other world leaders.
It was at this point that everyone in the room began looking towards a large red button. Everyone shared a look, before the people in the control room made a mad dash towards it.
"Don't let them get that door open!" One of the soldiers shouted, and they began apprehending the control room workers.
They were all apprehended before they could reach the button. One of them was talked to the ground, one of them was tased, and one of them was dragged away by two men, just inches away from the button.
But one man had not been accounted for. Atticus rushed for the button, the soldiers not being able to react in time, his sudden dash being completely unexpected and catching them off guard. Before they could do anything, he slammed his palm down on the button. An alarm began to sound, and orange lights began flashing throughout the hangar. Then, the door was opened.
"Do you have any idea what you've done?!" Prime Minister Bjorn asked.
The helicopters gradually lifted up through the door, heading for the town known as 'Ponyville'.
Idiot ponies come into contact with civilised people and a guy literally named Bob
Twilight Sparkle and her friends headed out of the main doors of her castle. They were headed for Canterlot, where they would discuss Sombra's recent appearance and the consequences of the destruction of the tree of harmony with the princesses.
"What do you mean, darling?" Rarity asked.
"I'm just saying, I'm genuinely worried about my human. He's been acting kinda… hostile towards me," Rainbow Dash explained.
"Well, you know the law, Rainbow. If ya think he might pose a threat, ya gotta hand em' over to the keepers," Applejack said.
"I know, but he's been my human for nearly three years now," Rainbow Dash replied.
"That's the problem when ya get attached. Ya forget what they really are. I hardly talk to the humans I own, not interacting with them keeps your position as master clear. If ya start getting friendly, they'll take advantage of you," said Applejack.
"I find it's always better to treat the humans with kindness. They show their gratitude and work harder without complaints. There's less of a chance of them going rogue if you treat them well. And besides, there's no need for unnecessary cruelty," Fluttershy reasoned.
"Treat them with kindness?! Did ya forget about the Manehattan rebellion?! They killed hundreds!" Applejack exclaimed, "They're the only species capable of killing in the Modern Harmonic Era! They're nothing but monsters!"
"Barbaric savages!" Rarity agreed.
"They're bad," Pinkie added.
"What if there's more to them?" Twilight asked.
"What do you mean, Twilight?" Rarity asked.
"What if keeping them subjugated is the reason why they do all this? What if they just want their freedom?" Twilight asked.
"If we let them go free, they'll enslave us! Or worse…" Rainbow said, "We keep them subjugated because they're dangerous."
"How do you know that? It's not like we've tried," Twilight reasoned.
"Come now, you're not going sympathizer on us are you? We're the elements of harmony, we can't sympathize with them," Applejack said, "And we know it because they're nothing but evil. Do you have any idea how many they… killed… during the war?"
"It's been like, what, a thousand years?" Twilight said, "Things have changed since then."
"Yea, things have changed," Rainbow Dash said, "The humans haven't. The recent rebellion just proves that. They're evil, and without us to keep them in check, they'll destroy everything!"
"Didn't you just get attached to your human?" Twilight asked.
"What?! Of course not! I've just gotten used to him," Rainbow replied.
"Yea, I suppose you're right about them probably destroying everything," Twilight relented, "But I can't help but think there's more to them than their barbaric and savage nature."
"Twilight, don't you think you're overthinking this just a little?" Pinkie asked.
"I mean - " she was cut off as she noticed something flying towards them.
"Twilight?" Fluttershy asked and she didn't reply, still trying to figure out what those things were "You okay?"
Slowly, they all noticed that Twilight was in fact looking at something. They turned around to figure out what it was, and to their surprise, they found three large objects heading for the town.
"Um… does anypony know what those are?" Fluttershy asked.
"They might be dragons," Pinkie suggested.
"Maybe, we can't get a good look yet,"Twilight said.
"They might be some kind of carriages," Rarity stated.
"Carriages need to be pulled. I don't see any pegasi pulling that," Rainbow Dash said.
"Maybe it's being levitated using magic," Twilight suggested.
"Should I fly over there and see what they are?" Rainbow asked.
"Well, they're probably vehicles of some kind," Twilight observed as they came closer, "And no, you don't have to fly over there. They seem to be making their way here.
At this point, every pony and human in the town noticed the strange UFOs heading straight at them. They were now very clearly not dragons. Soon, a faint 'whomp-whomp' sound could be heard, the sound increasing in volume as the trio of strange objects headed for the town.
As the objects came into view, more of their features gradually became more discernable. There were two smaller objects that were escorting the bigger one. One of the smaller objects was flying in front of the larger one, and one of them was flying behind it. They all seemed to keep a constant pace, without bumping into each other crashing flying in a straight line.
As their features became more and more discernable, their method of flight became clear. The two smaller ones had two wings, along with strange rotating objects attached to the top of those wings, while having a tail attached to the back of it. Underneath these wings were what looked like a row of arrows, which while being larger than normal arrows, featured an extremely blunt tip rather than a sharp one, leading Twilight to quickly take note of its probable ineffectiveness if it was indeed a weapon. Right beside the worst arrows that Twilight had ever seen, was a box of some kind, the purpose of which was completely unknown to any of the ponies. The strange object also featured two holes near the bottom of both sides, two sets of vents on either side, and a multi-panel window on the front. The overall look of the two smaller ones was extremely sleek and box-like, with it having lots of edges.
The larger object was at least twice the size, and featured four 'circles' with rotating blades rather than wings. It was made in a completely different style to the other two objects. Unlike the previous one which was sleek and boxy, this one was rounded and extremely bulky, looking almost 'fat'. Rather than having one singular window at the front, this one had small windows along the sides as well, while not having any of those blunt tipped arrows that the previous one featured.
They stared at the strange objects, watching them and waiting for them to come closer. Unbeknownst to them however, they were being watched as well.
The UN headquarters was packed full of people. Every single leader of every single pre-flood nation was watching as the diplomat sent by Atticus approached the small town. All eight world leaders sat at the head of the room, right in front of the screen, with the other representatives sitting in rows behind them.
"What is the meaning of this?!" One of the African ministers asked.
"Trust be when I say, even our own ministers are asking that question," One of the USU representatives stated.
"What were you thinking?! Without congressional approval and despite the other leaders advising you not to?!" USU representative Olesia asked in an outage.
"You're not a king! You're not a dictator! You need congressional approval for these things dammit!" Another USU representative exclaimed.
"This man has to be removed from power! If this doesn't turn out to be a complete disaster, we just might not try you for treason!" Another USU representative shouted.
"What do you have to say for yourself, Atticus?" Olesia asked.
"Pardon me, I hope I'm not interrupting?" Russian President Alexi asked rhetorically. "I believe this is a UN meeting, not a USU congress meeting," he said and the USU ministers stopped their bickering, "And last time I checked, this meeting is meant for the observation of first contact. You can discuss the consequences to Atticus's actions during your own congress meeting later."
"Congratulations, Atticus," Oceanian PM Jack said, "You might have single handedly doomed all of humanity."
"Put us through to them," European PM Bjorn asked.
"Establishing communications," the IT guy said, "Communications established."
"Hello?" came the voice from the other side.
"Hello, can everybody hear me? This is Supreme Leader Xi Mingzhe on the line," she said, "You're already there, and seeing as your loyalties clearly lie with your idiot of a leader, I'm assuming you're not going to turn back?"
"This is diplomat Bob on the line. No ma'am, we are not going to turn back," he confirmed.
"As expected," King Osas said.
"We are not asking you to turn back," Hispanican PM Mateo said, "We're calling to give you direct orders that you will be required to oblige throughout the duration of the first contact operation."
"I'm sorry sir, but with all due respect, we take our orders from the president of the United States," he said.
"Not anymore," Aladeen said, "Tell them."
"Hello, this is Present Atticus," he said, "You are to take orders from all of the world leaders. I do not want to hear any objections, is that understood?"
"But sir - " he began, but was cut off.
"Is that understood?" Atticus asked sternly.
"Yes, of course," diplomat Bob replied.
"Good. Now since we're on the same page, you are to say exactly what we ask you to say, and do exactly what we ask you to do," Bjorn ordered.
"Yes sir, of course," diplomat Bob said.
"And remember, we're watching," Aladeen said.
The alien aircraft was now flying directly over Ponyville. It was approaching Twilight's castle, and it was closing in quickly. The sound of the 'fan blades' slicing through the air was a lot more noticeable now.
As they neared the castle, and the elements who were near the castle, the objects gradually slowed down, eventually stopping and hovering in the air, in front of the castle doors.
Royal guards began flooding into the area, adamant on defending the ponies against whatever these things were if they proved hostile. About a hundred royal guards were recently assigned to Ponyville for a few reasons. The first was because of the influx of attacks on the small town, and the fact that monsters and other threats seemed to gravitate towards the small town. The second was in order to protect the element bearers, who were probably the most important ponies in all of Equestria. The third was to keep the town safe from any possible rebellion. After the revolt in Manehattan, security was tightened nationwide in order to avoid something like that in the future.
The objects then rearranged themselves into a horizontal line rather than a vertical one. The two smaller ones flew towards the sides of the bigger one, while the bigger one stayed stationary. Then, the metal goliaths started making their descent. As they were lowering themselves, wheels seemed to pop up from seemingly nowhere, and they soon landed, with their wheels touching the ground and their backs towards us. Thankfully, everypony who was under the objects made a break for it as soon as they began hovering above them, so nopony was hurt.
The royal guards soon formed a defensive perimeter around the three objects, with the earth ponies pointing their spears at the objects from the ground while the pegasi pointed their spears while hovering in the air, and the unicorns charging their horns. Every single pony and human was silent, waiting with both fear and anticipation. For about half a minute, nothing happened.
Then, a mechanical whirring sounded, followed by some clanking. The back 'wall' of the largest one began opening, with the top part of it descending. Soon, it was fully opened, with the large doorway forming into a ramp. The other two objects opened up as well, but they were just regular sliding doors.
What stepped out surprised every single creature present. There were roughly four dozen of them. They wore mostly brown clothes, along with a helmet with a black tinted glass visor that obscured their faces. They wore some kind of strange long sleeved t-shirts that had a checkered pattern of brown, gray and extremely dark green, along with a thick brown vest over it. Going along with this was a pair of cargo pants that had the same pattern, and a brown waist bag with multiple pouches and straps. To complete their full body coverings, they wore a pair of gloves and ankle length boots. The strangest thing they had on them, however, was a complicated contraption of metal that clung to their arms and legs. They wielded some strange double handed staffs that looked like batons, though they looked like they would be extremely ineffective. Despite them wearing helmets and clothes that completely obscured their body, from the way their body was shaped, they were clearly humans. And the one that stepped out next confirmed this fact.
Right after all of the ones with the strange metal exoskeletons excited through the ramp, one last human followed, and this one was dressed differently. A young man, looking to be in his early thirties, stepped out. He was slightly overweight, not a lot, but it was visible in comparison to the rest of the slaves. That itself was highly unusual, as nopony fed their slaves more than what was necessary, certainly not enough to make them overweight. He wore a currently unbuttoned three piece suit, complete with a broad cut black coat, a slim grey vest, a pair of broad cut black slacks, and a pair of shining black boots. Underneath his suit, he wore a white shirt, along with a red tie that was tucked neatly into his vest. All in all, the suit was of the best possible quality, its tailoring far surpassing even the best pony-made suits, and made even the likes of Rarity jealous.
A regular human wearing a suit would already have been extremely strange, and a human wearing such a finely crafted one was even stranger. Nopony would have even given a human a suit to wear. The suit was, first of all, extremely expensive, with only the richest of ponies being able to afford the cheapest ones. In fact, the cheapest of suits would have the same price tag as an entire mansion. It was a sign of wealth, class, and importance. And seeing one, especially one as exquisite as this, was an insult, a mockery to pony culture. Just like that, they had already gotten off to a bad start. It was like a human was trying to outshine a pony, like a human had the audacity to 'one up' their masters.
The humans with the strange uniforms began to form into a circle around the three objects and the man in the suit. The royal guards kept up the perimeter, too stunned by the humans' sudden and dramatic appearance to do anything more than just stare while keeping their guard up. The humans took a slightly crouched down position, pointing the ends of their batons at the guards. They stayed silent and still for a full minute, nobody and nopony moving, waiting for the other to make the first move. The only reason the royal guards didn't rush them immediately was because their numbers were nearly equal, with about five dozen humans, and six dozen guards who had already arrived on site. The guards were gradually growing impatient though, wanting to put these showy humans back in their place.
"People, people!" the man in the suit said before things could get too heated, "Put your weapons down, we're not here to fight!"
"Well, these horses certainly seem to want a fight. Just take a look at how these savages are treating these people," one soldier replied. His words made everyone furious. Not the part where he called them savages, but the part where he called them horses. The term 'horse' was an extremely derogatory and racist word to call a pony. It was pretty much indirectly saying that they weren't even sapient.
"Excuse me?!" a female voice came from one of the guards, "How dare you?! You'll be put in the mines for that!"
"I think we should just all calm down and STOP POINTING GUNS AT THEM!" the man in the suit shouted.
"Lower your weapons. If they attempt to harm you, shoot to incapacitate, not kill," the voice of PM Jack came over their earpieces, and the soldiers and diplomat replied with variations of 'yes sir'.
The humans lowered their strange weapons, but the guards did not lower theirs. They were determined to capture these rogue slaves.
"You will be given one chance to surrender. Hand over your weapons, step away from the flying contraptions, and submit yourselves to our custody. You have sixty seconds to do so, or we will use force to subdue you," one of the guards, the sergeant who was a unicorn, ordered.
"We are not here to fight. I am a diplomat sent by the United States of Utopia in order to enlist the aid of the one you call Twilight Sparkle," the man in the suit said, and the guards just burst into laughter.
"A… a h-human d-diplomat from some unknown nation?!" The command said in between laughs, "Where exactly is this… United States of Utopia?"
"I apologise, I am unable to disclose that information," the 'diplomat' replied.
"In that case, surrender now, or face the wrath of the Royal Guard," he said in an amused tone.
The human 'diplomat' ignored the guard and began walking forward, towards Twilight and her friends. "Good afternoon, Miss Twilight," he said, buttoning his suit as he approached. "Would you be so kind as to have a chat with me?" He asked.
"Whoever you are, I recommend you surrender now," Rainbow said.
"Who exactly are you?" Twilight asked, "And what do you want from me?"
"I am Diplomat Bob, and I have been sent by the USU to enlist your aid," he replied, still walking forward.
Two of the guards immediately converged on him, shoving their spears right into his face, while two unicorn guards immediately turned their lit horns towards him.
"Not another step," one of them said.
"This is fun and all, but I really have somewhere else to be," the sergeant said, "So hand over those weird staffs of yours, hand over your flying machines, and surrender. You have ten seconds to comply."
"Miss Twilight, I'm sure we can come to some sort of - "Twilight cut him off.
"No! You're all clearly a part of a rebellion of some sort, and I can't allow you to endanger the lives of these ponies," Twilight said, "And you're clearly delusional, thinking you're some kind of diplomat from some unknown nation. Just come quietly. You'll be returned to your owners, and you won't be harmed."
"Your time's up," the lead guard said, "Toss your weapons over and put your hands over your heads."
"Like I said, we come in peace. We're not slaves, we never were, so I see no reason for all this aggressio - " he was cut off as one of the unicorns hit him with a powerful energy blast. The bright light came into contact with his stomach, but to their surprise however, the energy blast did nothing. There was no burn mark, not even a scratch, and he didn't even flinch. Even one as powerful as the Alicorns themselves would have suffered a slight amount of recoil from the kinetic energy of the blast, like being suddenly shoved, but he stood completely still, as if a powerful blast of magic didn't just hit him. The light of the blast seemed to disappear into him, like it would with all other creatures, but there was no effect. Diplomat Bob looked down at his tummy in confusion, where the light seemingly absorbed into it. "That was cool," he said absentmindedly, "Was that supposed to do something?"
Every single pony and human now stared at Diplomat Bob in shock. Even Twilight and her friends had looks of disbelief plastered on their faces.
"That should have flung you back a few metres," the Sergeant said in disbelief. "Hit 'em' again!" He ordered, and Diplomat Bob was struck with three powerful energy blasts in quick succession. The result was that not even his suit was harmed. "Fine, I'll do it!" The sergeant yelled, before firing off his own blast of magic, which was about three times as powerful as the others'. This time, he was affected. He was pushed back, very slightly, and even he himself hardly seemed to notice. But still, he remained completely unharmed.
"That tickled," Diplomat Bob stated.
"Umm, princess, what do we do?" The sergeant asked.
"I don't know," Twilight said.
"Maybe you and I could have that chat I requested," Diplomat Bob suggested.
"Just tell me what you want," Twilight said.
"I want you to come with us. We require your assistance," Diplomat Bob said.
"You want to kidnap our princess?!" The sergeant exclaimed. "I have no idea why Princess Twilight decided to entertain your nonsense, but I will not allow a bunch of rebels to run rampant!" He shouted, before lifting one of his hoofs above his head. "Attack on my command!" He ordered loudly. The humans lifted the tips of their batons and pointed them at the guards. The guards took up ready stances, and began pointing their spears and horns at the humans.
Back in Utopia, the entire UN was in a panicked frenzy. Every single representative of every single country was shouting out ideas or opposing the ideas of others. The entire UN headquarters was like a fish market, at least until…
"Shut up!" The Russian President shouted, and everyone fell silent. "Thank you," Alexi said, "Now let's discuss our course of action. We don't have much time.
"Three!" The leading pony called out, which they saw and heard through the view of the drone. Everyone then began speaking in rapid, hurried tones, scrambling to find an appropriate course of action.
"We can't just let them stand around and do nothing!" PM Bjorn Earling said.
"So what do we do?" PM Mateo asked.
"Well it's either allow them to be captured, or allow them to use lethal force," King Osas said.
"Two!" The lead pony called from behind the screen.
"I vote we use lethal force. We shall put these colourful horses in their place!" General Aladeen suggested, "We shall assert our dominance!"
"We should ask them to surrender," PM Jack suggested, "We may still be able to avoid a war."
"Look at the level of savagery these creatures display!" Supreme Leader Mingzhe said, "There's no hope for peace with them! We need to proceed with a show of strength! If they fear us, we'll be able to control them! We must show them that humanity is not to be messed with! We must take back our planet!"
"One!" The sergeant said.
"There's no time to argue! Let's put it to a vote!" PM Jack said. "All in favour of using lethal force, raise your hand," the hands of President Alexi, Supreme Leader Xi Mingze, General Aladeen, King Osas, and President Atticus were raised. "As much as I hate to say this, I guess it's settled then," PM Jack said, "Atticus, relay the orders. They're you're men."
"Attack!" The voice came over the speakers. The ponies began charging forward with their spears, while the unicorns started charging their spells from the backlines.
"Diplomatic team, you are clear to use deadly force. Eliminate all enemy combatants, protect Diplomat Bob, and retrieve Twilight Sparkle, unharmed if possible," Atticus ordered, and the soldiers immediately got into action.
I would've included this in the author's note, but you can only put it in one spot (either top or bottom). I always put it at the bottom to write a short discussion of some of the events of the chapter, the events playing out in the next chapter, and occasionally some minor spoilers for upcoming events.
Someone asked me what a Utopian soldier looks like in the comments. I included it in the last chapter, but it was one of those clickable links that some people might miss. I think it's important to know what they look like to enjoy the chapter, so here's what they look like:
Now, back to the story. Enjoy!
"Attack!" the royal guard sergeant shouted.
All at once, the earth ponies and pegasi charged at the Utopian soldiers, while the unicorns began blasting at them from afar. Of course, the unicorns' energy blasts weren't even a threat, more of an annoyance; being constantly struck with blinding lights tends to irritate one quite a bit. The constant flashes did nothing to disorient the soldiers, however, since their helmets had an anti-flashbang system already built into them.
The earth ponies let out a battle cry and began rushing at the nearest enemy soldier, with spears at the ready. To them, they were the superior force, with the humans' strange batons looking completely useless in a fight, and their lack of armour already making them more than easy targets. It was clear to them that this battle would be short and quick. A ragtag bunch of escaped slaves didn't even stand a chance against the likes of the Equestrian Royal Guard. The fact that a bunch of humans dared stand up to the ponies, who were superior in every way, was completely laughable.
The pegasi also let out a battle cry of their own, followed by swooping down towards the nearest target. It was clear who the superior fighting force was, with them being capable of flight, and being able to attack from all angles. That, and the fact that they had spears as opposed to blunt tipped weapons.
"This won't even be a battle. It's gonna be a massacre. Foolish apes," the sergeant confidently spoke to the elements.
For a moment, they just stood there, with the tips of their weapons pointed at their target of choice. They seemed to be in defensive positions, which made sense, seeing as the superior force was usually the one on the offense. Then, the order came in.
"Diplomatic team, you are clear to use deadly force. Eliminate all enemy combatants, protect Diplomat Bob, and retrieve Twilight Sparkle, unharmed if possible," Atticus ordered over the comms in their helmets. The sergeant was right about one thing however, this wasn't gonna be a battle, it was gonna be a massacre.
The ponies thought themselves superior, thinking the humans must be cowering in fear behind those helmets of theirs. The reality was very much different though. To the most highly skilled soldiers in the entire world, these creatures were barely even a threat. In fact, these equines were nearly laughable, with the tallest one being just over four feet tall. If they weren't holding spears and charging at them, the humans would've actually considered them a little cute. Not Cozy Glow level adorable, of course, but still really cute. That didn't mean they weren't prepared to slaughter every single one of them though.
The earth ponies and pegasi continued in their charge, completely confident in their ability to win. From their point of view, they didn't even consider the ragtag band of slaves to be a threat. They considered them as something to do to pass the time; guarding a small town is typically very boring. At least, they continued their confident charge until all of them suddenly died.
They didn't even manage to get halfway from their positions to the humans before the constant bags started. They began shooting simultaneously, but each person only had to shoot three times, at the most. The soldiers of Utopia never miss, and the only reason the ponies didn't all fall in one shot was because some of them went for the same targets.
The grand battle of the Utopian soldiers against the Equestrian Royal Guard lasted a grand total of two seconds. What was supposed to be a complete and total victory for the ponies ended in them just suddenly dropping dead.
Every single human, pony, and whatever else was present were wide eyed at what they had just witnessed. They weren't terrified, they weren't horrified, they weren't even scared. The battle didn't even last long enough for fear to set in. Everyone stood still and unmoving, their brains were just in complete and total shock, currently being unable to process any information. Every single creature present was completely stunned. No words could describe how utterly, completely rekt they were.
They were brought out of their stunned state once Diplomat Bob spoke. "Well that was easier than expected," he nonchalantly stated. "I mean, I honestly never thought that a bunch of cute, mini horses would be that much of a threat. But seeing as you were able to enslave humanity, I expected something a bit more," he turned towards one of the soldiers, "Well, commander, let's get this over with. Kill the horny ones and get the winged horny one."
Most of the soldiers then turned their focus towards the unicorns, while some cast their gazes on Twilight. This was enough to elicit a feeling of fear, and the royal guards began shaking in their armour.
"Sir, what do we do?" A female unicorn guard asked the sergeant in a shaky tone.
"Run," he whispered fearfully.
"What?" She asked again, not fully being able to come to terms with the fact that their sergeant was asking them to run away from humans.
"RUN!" The sergeant shouted, and began hightailing it. The rest of the soldiers would normally be way too prideful to run away from humans, but even they knew better than to run towards what would undoubtedly be certain death.
The guards began running as well, following behind their sergeant. They were escorting the elements away, who were also running alongside them. The ponies who were present during the aircraft's landing immediately scattered as well. Despite it being an excellent opportunity for a rebellion, the humans were unable to rebel due to their shock collars, and were forced to retreat alongside their masters.
They would not get far, however. The Utopians knelt down on the ground for better accuracy, since at this point the unicorns were about fifty metres away, widening the distance fast. Green lights began appearing all over their retreating bodies as the Utopians targeted them with their laser sights. The humans looked through their scopes, and took aim. In one quick burst of shots, every single one of the retreating royal guards were cut down. They all dropped down to the floor. Some were still alive, with the bullet not hitting them in an area that would kill them instantly, but they were still writhing in agony, and would probably die anyway. Except the sergeant, of course. He was given a shot to one of his legs, incapacitating him. He would be a useful source of information.
Twilight and her friends were unharmed as well, but they did jump when they heard the shots. They stood there stunned for a moment, looking around at all the guards who had just been put down. They didn't have time to linger however, as the Utopians immediately gave chase.
"Twilight, we gotta go!" Rainbow Dash said as she looked back and saw the approaching humans.
The rest of the elements looked back as well, and saw the humans running towards them. Then, something else came into the picture; the most dangerous of Utopian weapons. High tech military grade drones began pouring out of the aircraft, all armed when tranquilizer darts and taser bolts.
The drones were a metallic black, with a camera on the front of it. It had two propellers with rotor blades attached to it, one on each side, that allowed it to fly in the same way a helicopter could. It had an extremely streamlined and sleek build, with the exception of the head which was extremely boxy. The tail of the drone was split into two blades, allowing it to easily cut through the air and reduce drag. At the bottom of the drone was a long double barrel gun. The top barrel was twice as large as the bottom barrel, allowing it to be able to shoot the relatively large taser bolts and gas canisters, while the barrel on the bottom was smaller to allow it to shoot tranquilizer darts. These drones were supposed to be used as nonlethal methods to police the residents of Utopia in case of a riot or other large scale illegal gatherings, but they were now being used to allow for the capture of Twilight without having to harm her.
"Umm… what are those flying things?" Pinkie asked. As if in response to her question, the drones began zooming towards them.
"I don't know, but they seem to be heading toward us! Everypony run!" Applejack called out and they began to run like hell. The six of them were all being led by Rainbow Dash, who needed to slow down for them to keep up with her due to her fast flying speed.
"What are those things?!" Rainbow Dash asked as she flew overhead.
"I don't know, but whatever they are, they look dangerous," Twilight replied.
"How were the humans capable of that?!" Fluttershy asked. "I thought that they didn't have any magic, but they just… just…" She began sobbing as she ran, "They just killed them! They killed them!"
"You were right guys, the humans are monsters," Twilight said sadly.
"Uhm, guys," Rainbow called out, "The flying things are gaining on us!"
"We need a plan, and fast!" Applejack said.
"Why can't you teleport us, Twilight?" Pinkie asked as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"I can't bring all of you with me. If you were to teleport the six of us, I would need to have a few minutes to change the spell. They'd catch up to us before I could charge it!" Twilight replied.
"Then why isn't anypony else trying to help us?!" Pinkie asked.
"You saw what happened to those who tried! And they were trained soldiers!" Rarity responded, "We need to find a place to hide!"
"There's no time!" Twilight said, "They're gaining on us and we can't break line of sight! We can't get to a hiding spot without them seeing where we're going!"
"If we just keep runnin', they'll catch up in no time!" Applejack stated.
"But how are we gonna hide from or outrun them?!" Rarity asked.
Rainbow Dash was flying above them, with an aerial view, and that gave her an idea. "The corner up ahead!" She called out, "We'll be able to break line of sight long enough for us to take refuge in one of the buildings there. Hopefully you'll be able to change the spell before they find us!"
"It's risky!" Twilight yelled back.
"It's the only chance we've got!" Applejack stated, "If we just keep runnin', they'll catch up to us eventually! We don't have a choice!"
"Fine, we'll do it!" Twilight said, "Rainbow, the furthest building we can get to before they go round the corner!"
"You got it!" Rainbow said, and went to look for the best option.
The rest of the group rounded the corner to find Rainbow beckoning them into one of the closed stores; a furniture shop. They immediately headed into the store, and the moment they did, the drones came round the corner.
They panted heavily from the marathon they had just ran. They were safe, for now at least.
Well, that's what they thought. Unbeknownst to them, however, the mini drones that had been sent to scout out the town were still present; all nine hundred of them. In fact, their 'hiding spot' had been spotted by three of the mini drone pilots. The humans knew exactly where they were.
"Where the fuck did they go?!" One of the drone pilots asked.
"Check each building, they could be anywhere," the drone commander instructed.
"That won't be necessary," one of the mini drone pilots called out, before walking towards the combat drone pilots. He went up to the commander's screen, which was still showing the row of buildings they could've entered. "That one," the mini drone pilot pointed to one of the shop lots, "They're in there."
"How do you know?" The commander asked.
"I was piloting one of the flies and picked them up as they entered," he replied.
"Very well. All units, converge on that furniture shop," the commander ordered, "Prepare gas canisters."
"Who are they?!" Rainbow Dash asked.
"They're definitely not your run-o'-the-mill humans, that's for sure," Applejack observed.
"Are they even human?" Pinkie asked, "No human could've done that."
"What even was that thing that they used?!" Rarity asked, shellshocked, "It didn't even do anything. It just… killed them. They just pointed it at them and it… killed them. No spell is capable of that!"
Fluttershy was just curled up in the corner, sobbing. "Why… why would t-they - " she didn't even finish her sentence as she broke down into cries.
"I've never seen anything like them," Twilight said.
"Do you think they're part of a new rebellion?" Pinkie asked Twilight.
"I… I don't think so," she responded, "No rebellion would be capable of such a thing. I'm starting to think that that Bob guy might've been telling the truth."
"What are you saying?" Rarity asked.
"I'm saying… only an entire nation would have even a fraction of the magical power they would need to create something like that," Twilight said worriedly, "Objects that just kill somepony when you point it at them… not even Celestia has that kind of power."
"But humans don't have magic," Applejack said, before correcting herself, "Well, they do, but they don't have the ability to cast spells."
"I don't even know if they themselves were carrying the spells," Twilight said, "It was those objects… those terrible weapons of theirs. They might've found some artifacts of some sort."
"If they were artifacts, they wouldn't have so many," Rainbow Dash stated.
"I don't know who or what they are, but the princesses have to know about this," Twilight said. "Now guys, I need to concentrate," Twilight said, "Now we have to join hooves. The teleportation spell needs us to be in physical contact with each other for it to work." They all did as instructed, joining their front hooves together while they balanced on their back hooves. The reason ponies were able to defy gravity in such a manner has baffled scientists for hundreds of years.
After a few seconds, they all began glowing slightly. That glowing very slowly increased as Twilight charged the teleportation spell. Since she was taking five other people with her, she wasn't able to teleport very far, so her destination was at the other end of Ponyville, where they could slip out of the town undetected. This would still take a few minutes, but it would take at least a few minutes for the humans to find them… right?
Suddenly, the sound of glass breaking filled the store. This was followed by several more sounds of windows being broken. They were hiding near the back of the store so that the humans wouldn't be able to see them through the windows, but the sounds thankfully came from the front of the store. There was no doubt about who it was that broke through the windows. They had been discovered.
"We've been discovered," Twilight stated the obvious. She peeked out from the backroom to find several of those flying things hovering in front of the windows. Now that she could see them in real detail, they looked much more terrifying than what she saw from a distance; they looked like metal dragons. They were shining extremely bright lights into the store, and soon all the lights converged on her.
She then noted that none of them seemed to be attempting to enter the store, despite them having seen her. What was strange was that the windows were broken… but none of them had entered. She then took notice of several spherical metal canisters strooned about the floor. They then began emitting a red gas of some kind, which was slowly filling the store. She didn't know what that gas was, or what it did, but she definitely did not want to find out.
She retreated back into the backroom and began telling her friends of their predicament. "The metal flying things aren't trying to come into the store," she said before getting a worried look, "But they've positioned themselves right at the front. What's worse is that they threw in some metal objects that emit some form of red gas. I don't know what it does, but I for one don't wanna find out. So, how do we get out of this?"
"You could form a barrier to keep the gas out!" Rainbow Dash suggested.
"And then we… we could fight our way out! We're the element bearers, and you're an alicorn! The humans don't stand a chance!" Applejack added, trying to inspire them despite their miniscule odds.
"Maybe Rainbow could fly extremely fast and generate wind to clear the gas?" Rarity suggested.
"Or… we could just use the back door?" Pinkie suggested, pointing to a door that was right in front of all of them.
"I think we should go with Pinkie's idea," Twilight said.
"Definitely," Rarity confirmed.
"Ah' guess that's much better," Applejack agreed.
"Yep," Rainbow added.
They then all looked at Fluttershy, who was still curled up in the corner. "Come on, we need to go," Twilight said. "If we don't go now, we might not be able to leave," Twilight revealed the harsh truth. "Come on, we'll be okay. We're not going down. Not today, not ever. But you have to be strong, at least until we get out of this. Can you do that for me? For us?" She said in a gentle tone.
"O- okay," Fluttershy relented, before getting up slowly.
"We need to be quiet about this," Twilight said, "If they don't know we've escaped, they won't follow us."
They all walked up to the door. Applejack led the way, with Rainbow Dash, Twilight, Pinkie, Rarity and Fluttershy following behind. Applejack opened the door very slightly to get a peek and confirm the coast was clear. "It's clear," Applejack confirmed. Unbeknownst to her, however, human soldiers were, in fact, waiting right outside. The door opened outwards, so she was only able to get a peek at one side of the alleyway, while human soldiers hid right behind the door, out of sight.
"Come on everypony," Applejack opened the door. "Let's get ou - " she was cut off as a shock spear came into contact with her torso, producing a painful crackling, buzzing sound as electricity began coursing through her body. The shock lasted for thirty whole seconds, each passing second causing her agonizing pain. The others were stunned as they watched Applejack, gritting her teeth and screaming in agony, until she fell to the floor, unconscious and with steam coming from her body. They were brought back to reality as human soldiers began walking towards the now open door.
"Come on everypony!" Twilight called out and headed towards the door leading to the front. She opened the door to find the red gas only a few feet away from the door, and slammed the door shut once again. "We can't go out that way. We don't know what the gas does," Twilight said. They all turned around to find the human soldiers all already in the room, pointing their weapons at them.
"Please! We didn't do anything!" Rarity said, but they didn't budge.
"We'll come quietly. Just please - " Twilight was cut off as one of their weapons shot what appeared to be a syringe at her.
"Why you!" Rainbow Dash shouted in anger and began flying at the nearest human. "You're gonna pay for that - " she was cut off as well as one of the humans shocked her with a spear. It wasn't a long lasting shock like Applejack's, but it was enough to interrupt her advance and cause her to crash into the floor. "Stupid apes! I'm gonna," - one of the humans shot her with a dart - "Make… you… pay… for tha - " she fell unconscious before she could finish her sentence.
One by one, the remaining three elements were brought down. Rarity and Pinkie tried running, but were shot before they could even reach the door. Fluttershy, on the other hand, just stood there with tears welling up in her eyes. She had no idea her friends were just unconscious; she thought they were dead.
"Hey!" One of the humans, a girl, called to her, getting her attention. "I know you're not a threat. Don't worry about your friends, they're not dead. And I'm sorry about this, but I've gotta follow protocol," the human said apologetically, before shooting her with a tranquilizer dart.
"Let's move it boys!" Said the same soldier shot Fluttershy. "Take them all. Atticus could use them as leverage if the princess doesn't wanna help," she ordered, and got a 'Yes, ma'am' from her soldiers in response.
That was the day that Equestria tasted a mere fraction of Utopia's power. Out of every single one of the biggest threats in Equestrian history, none of them were able to defeat the elements, and it took the humans only sixty of their men to do so.
"Good, the location of Utopia has been transmitted to you. Make your way back with the prisoners immediately," Atticus spoke into the comms.
"Yes sir, I've received the transmission. Heading back now," A female voice replied, before the comms were cut off.
"Good. Now that that's over," Prime Minister Jack turned to Atticus, "Care to explain yourself?"
"Yes Atticus, do you have any idea what you've done?!" Representative Olesia said in an outrage, "You've just committed an act of war against the dominant species! We don't know their numbers, nor their capabilities!"
Atticus leaned back into his seat and sighed. "As you have seen, we clearly have superior firepower," Atticus said confidently.
"Actually sir," General Marcel, who was also present, spoke up. "We can't actually determine that unless we are fully aware of their capabilities," he explained, "The soldier we have captured will help us determine if we really are the superior force after we have gained all the information we can from him."
"Stop calling him sir," one of the USU ministers said angrily, "He's about to be impeached and tried for treason. He's no president of ours."
"Actually, I still am," Atticus said, "You don't have the authority to impeach me… until congress reconvenes, that is."
"Then congress is in session now!" One of them shouted.
"You know you can't do that," Atticus said, matter-of-factly, "You can only impeach me with a two thirds vote in congress, and the next congressional meeting is only required to be held in a year."
"That is true, though I think you'll hold it much sooner," one of the USU representatives said, "You're going to need congress's approval to do a lot of things in the next twelve months. Don't worry we'll get you then."
"You jeopardised not only the USU, but all of Utopia! If that doesn't warrant a meeting, I don't know what does!" He replied, "You have the authority to initiate congress meetings, and you know that you have to!"
"I don't have to do anything," Atticus said, "The law doesn't include first contact scenarios with aliens."
"Atticus, let's be real here. You know what you did was wrong. You put humanity's safety at risk. You know you should've consulted us before making any rash decisions. You know you're getting impeached at the next meeting," Olesia listed down, "You're just prolonging the inevitable. You might be able to get out of this without any charges right now, but if you insist on holding on to power, we will have no choice but to arrest you for treason."
"You put everyone else's people at risk as well, 'president'," another representative stated.
"So do you wish to hold a meeting now and stay out of prison, or hold one later and be put in prison?" Olesia asked.
"The next meeting will not be held anytime soon," Atticus said.
"Dammit Atticus!" Oleisa stood up and slammed her hands onto the table, "We all joined America because we thought we would be heard! We thought our opinions would be valued! What you're doing now is usurping power!"
"I understand why all of you are angry, I do, but my decision is final," Atticus said.
"We won't stand for this! Singapore won't stand for this! Do you want to spark a civil war, Atticus?!" One representative asked, "Because what you're doing is going against every other country that has agreed to join you! You are taking away the democracy that you promised us!"
"You promised to adhere to the laws of the USU. According to the laws of the USU, I'm not doing anything wrong," Atticus said. "In fact, I wish to make a statement," he stood up, "The USU is currently in a state of emergency. We are under the threat of possible invasion by a force with as of yet unknown capabilities. Therefore, as of this moment, I, Atticus Jerome Constantine, President of the United States of Utopia, by virtue of the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the USU, I hereby declare that the national emergency has existed since October 22nd, year 001 Post Flood Era. This proclamation immediately shall be published in the Federal Register or disseminated through the Emergency Federal Register, and transmitted to the Congress. This proclamation is not intended to create any right or benefit, substantive or procedural, enforceable at law by a party against the United States, its agencies, its officers, or any person. Due to the severity of the current situation we are in, I wish to exercise the full extent of the emergency powers that have been granted to me by the USU congress." The entire USU congress… no, the entire UN was in an outrage almost immediately.
"We cannot allow a reckless idiot like you to command the most powerful nation of Utopia!" Prime Minister Jack shouted.
"This man is putting the entire human race at risk!" King Osas announced to everyone present.
"You put Utopia at risk for one person! You are a selfish, reckless fool with no care for how your actions affect others! We will not allow you to destroy everything we have built! The United Nations demands you resign!" Prime Minister Bjorn said.
"None of you have power over USU law! Your power is over your own nations and you do not have any authority to order the USU to do anything!" Atticus countered.
"New Zealand will not allow this!" A USU representative said, "We wish to pull out of the USU!"
"I'm sorry, but you can't do that. Turning your back on the USU… that's treason," Atticus said.
"What's treason is you declaring an emergency just to stay in power!" A USU minister spoke.
"My declaration of emergency has nothing to do with attempting to stay in power. This is a national emergency!" Atticus said.
"Yes, it is, but your motive for a declaration of emergency isn't to help the people now, is it?" Olesia asked. "Poland wishes to pull out of the USU as well," she said.
"Albania wishes to pull out of the USU!" Another representative said.
"The Czech Republic wishes to pull out of the USU" the Czech minister said.
"Latvia wishes to leave the USU" another USU representative called out.
"We will not be oppressed by the Americans!" A USU minister stated, "Singapore wishes to leave the USU!"
One by one, countries were leaving the USU. Out of the sixty one countries within the USU, twenty two had pulled out so far… or, they would have pulled out if Atticus gave in to their demands. All the while, the other nation's ministers were watching the USU bicker amongst themselves with relative amusement.
"Everyone, please! This is an emergency situation. We already have an outside threat to deal with. This is not the time for you to just - " he was cut off by one of his own ministers.
"Then grant us independence! We don't want a civil war now, do we?" He asked, "Like you said, now's not exactly the best time."
"Are you threatening me, Minister Harris?" Atticus asked, "You know, in a state of emergency, it is my duty to imprison rebels and insurrectionists, even without judicial review when in cases of rebellion where public safety may require it. Are you attempting to start a rebellion, Minister Harris?"
Minister Harris maintained his glare, but now took on a slightly worried look. The entire room was silent, they all knew what Atticus was getting at, but they all also knew he technically wasn't breaking any laws. Minister Harris started sweating slightly, glancing around at the other ministers, hoping for any kind of support, but receiving none. "N- no, of… of course not," he said in a tone of fake confidence.
"Good, then I believe - " he was cut off by Olesia.
"Atticus, you are clearly attempting to usurp power," she said.
"This is an emergen - " he was cut off again.
"Exactly! It is an emergency! All the more reason for congress to reconvene," Olesia insisted, "Do the right thing. Don't be a dictator."
"I am not being a dictator. I am utilizing the power provided to me by congress!" Atticus countered.
"You asked Minister Harris if he was threatening to start a rebellion. Well, all of Poland will start a rebellion unless you step down!" She threatened.
"You know what?" Minister Harris began. "I honestly had no idea why I was afraid of a complete idiot like you! Estonia will start rebelling against you unless you step down!" He shouted angrily.
"Singapore will rebel unless you give up your seat of power!" The Singaporean representative stated.
One by one, every single country began threatening to rebel against both Atticus, and the Americans that they joined in hopes of actual democracy. Everyone has realised what Atticus was trying to do, and they weren't happy about it. Atticus was left with only two options. Step down and be tried for treason, or maintain his seat of power and risk civil war.
"Let's have a poll, shall we?" Olesia asked in a smug tone, "Whoever supports Atticus and his presidency, raise your hand." Only twelve out of the sixty one ministers raised their hands. "Well Atticus, only one fifth of congress supports you. Now, what's it gonna be, hmm?" Olesia asked.
"Fuck!" Atticus whispered to himself. He was getting worried at this point, his plan had completely backfired. Olesia wouldn't have even thought of that if it weren't for his attempted fear tactic. He had to do something to please the ministers. He knew what he did was reckless, but he never thought it would have escalated to something like this. He thought that these ponies would have enough sense in them to at least attempt diplomacy. Now, he had inadvertently declared war against the entire planet.
"I will hold a congress meeting tomorrow. You can impeach me if you wish," he said. He had hoped that he could make sure his daughter was going to receive the help he wanted to give her.
"No, you step down now!" One of the USU ministers shouted.
"If you don't resign now, and are instead impeached tomorrow, you and your family have to be wiped according to the law that you yourself made," Olesia said, "Please Atticus, it's nothing personal. We have to wipe you according to the law unless you resign."
Atticus thought about that. His wife had told him the exact same thing, but he didn't listen. After a few moments of thought, he decided to relent. His family shouldn't have to suffer for his own wrongdoings, and although he would probably win in a civil war, with there being a very large portion of American soldiers in comparison to that of other nations', Utopia would not survive a civil war. The amount of deaths would be too great, and with a possible risk of invasion, it made infighting that much worse.
"Very well. I know what I have done is wrong. I put my own interests before that of my people, and put our entire species at risk, and for that, I am sorry," he said in an apologetic tone, "As of this moment, I, President Atticus, relinquish my post as president of the United States of Utopia. Vice President Felix will be the current acting president until another candidate is chosen by congress."
President Felix was at a loss for words. He wasn't sure if he was ready to be president, though it was only temporary. He was sitting in the oval office itself, and he was now behind the desk! The USU president's office was an exact replica of the oval office that was in the White House before the second flood. Even the positions of the furniture were placed in the exact same spots, down to the millimeter. It was truly an honor to be sitting behind the desk.
Suddenly, there was a knock on the door, which brought him out of his thoughts. "Enter," he said, and the door opened to reveal his secretary, Jennifer.
"Mr. President? The diplomatic team is going to arrive with the prisoners in around twenty minutes, and there's some things you have to take care of before they arrive," she said.
Felix sighed. "Not even an hour into my presidency and I've already got things to attend to," he said, "Well, lay it on me."
"Firstly, have you decided upon a date for the next congress meeting?" Jennifer asked, "If you wait too long, they might get impatient and jump to the conclusion that you are attempting to usurp power… like your predecessor."
"Well, let's not give them the wrong impression then. What day is it today, Jennifer?" Felix asked.
"Today's a Saturday, sir," she replied.
"Alright, schedule the next meeting for Monday. Don't wanna give them the wrong idea," Felix said.
"Well sir, you could stay in power for about a week if you wished. You're required to hold it within the month, but you can hold it in a week if you wish to avoid suspicion," She said.
"No, I will not do what Atticus did. What he did was wrong, and he is a disgrace to our country," Felix replied.
"I thought you were good friends with him," Jennifer said.
"That was before he threatened the house of congress. I was with him up until that point. I am a firm believer of democracy, and what Atticus did was disgraceful," Felix said with a scowl on his face.
"Very well sir, I'll be sure to get Alise to notify the representatives of the day of the meeting," she said, before she remembered something, "Oh! What time should the meeting be held at?"
"Eleven," Felis said, coming up with his answer in no more than a second . "What's next?"
"Remember back when the USU was assigned the task of demolishing the cavern above us?" Keifer asked.
"Yes, have the explosives been placed?" Felix asked.
"Yes sir, and congress has requested your proceed with the demolition when the prisoners arrive," She said, "One of them is a princess, and congress thinks that with that display, we could commence gunboat diplomacy. They want to show these ponies what we are capable of, and since they would not be capable of such a feat with their current technology level, they wish to use the demolition as a fear tactic."
"Do it as they come in. Contact the diplomatic team and inform them of the demolition. Tell them to be careful, and to make sure the princess sees what Utopia is capable of," Felix ordered.
"Clearing out the debris from the demolition will take at least a week, so are you sure you wish to proceed now?" Jeniffer answered.
"Yes, the faster we can get our planes in the air, launch our satellites, and shoot PR missiles, the better," Felix said, "I don't think the locals are friendly. What's next?"
"Well, the next subject is on Atticus's trial. They wish for you to testify against him in court," Jennifer stated.
"When's the trial?" Felix asked.
"After the second election," she answered.
"What are the charges?" Felix questioned.
"Treason, abuse of power, extortion, crimes against the constitution, and contempt of congress," she replied.
"I'll be there. I'll testify against him," he said, "Now, what's next?"
"Ugh, what the…" Rainbow Dash said as she was getting up, "I just had the weirdest dream…"
"It wasn't a dream, Rainbow," Applejack said.
"Wha… What the? Where are we?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"No idea," Applejack replied. The room they were in was completely empty, aside from six ponies that we're currently waking up. There were no furniture or windows present, and the walls of the room looked to be made of grey painted metal. At the top of the room were several lightbulbs, the only source of luminescence. There were also cameras present at all four corners of the room, along with a singular speaker on the ceiling, though the ponies had no idea what those things were. Despite it being a completely metal walled room, it didn't seem to be a secure bunker type room, with the walls not being reinforced or anything.
"Is everypony alright?" Twilight asked groggily.
"Depends on what you mean by okay," Rarity replied.
All of a sudden, the sound of a door opening on the other side of the door was heard. The sound emitted from a slight distance away, but their hypersensitive rats were able to pick it up. This was followed by quite a few sets of footsteps that were gradually getting closer.
"Are they the humans that rampaged through town?" Fluttershy asked fearfully.
"Probably," Rainbow replied, equally as fearful.
Soon enough, the footsteps were only about ten meters away. Out of the blue, a loud voice suddenly shouted, "Captain on deck!" This was followed by two voices from right outside the left and right side of the door, saying the word "Ma'am!" In an equally as serious tone.
"At ease soldiers," a female voice replied, "We're about to let them out, the president wants them to watch as we demolish the cavern."
"Why would the president want them to view the demolition?" One of the voices asked.
"My guess? Fear tactic," the sergeant said, "With their current level of technology, they wouldn't be able to make an explosion half as big as what we're about to do. It's a show of strength."
"Are you sure we should be talking about this right in front of the door?" Another voice asked.
"Relax, door's soundproof… well, not exactly since it's metal, but close enough," the sergeant answered. Little did she know, these doors were not designed to go against pony hearing.
"Do they not realise we can hear them?" Pinkie asked, confused.
"Probably not," Twilight said.
"So, what? We just take them to a widow and ask them to look out?" The same voice from earlier asked, cutting off any further conversation.
"No, the president ordered us to 'play it cool'," the sergeant replied, "Like, y'know, let them see it without us thinking we're trying to make us see it."
"What?" Another voice asked in confusion. In fact, the element bearers themselves were confused.
"He wanted us to make it look effortless, like such a feat is nothing to us, not even worthy of praise," the voice paused, but the sergeant continued after noticing the confused looks the soldiers were giving her. "Y'know how sometimes when you do something really cool, but you play it off as natural just to seem cooler?" She was just met with even more confused looks. "Y'know, like shooting and hitting a bottle a hundred and fifty meters away, but not pointing it out and showing your excitement just so you can make it look like such a feat is normal to you," she tried one last time, and was met with oh's and ah's of realisation.
"Yeah, I suppose that makes sense," one voice said.
"So, how are we gonna do this without them rushing us immediately?" Another voice asked.
"Simple, we give them a warning, and tell them what happens if they try to fight," the sergeant replied. She then took out a communication device from one of the lights on her waist, followed by taking out a tablet from a separate pouch. She then linked them both to the speakers and camera in the room.
"What should we do?" Pinkie asked.
"Well, magic was ineffective against them earlier so… the only way to combat them would be by physical means," Twilight observed, "Rainbow and Applejack, both of you stand guard near the door. The moment they come in you two rush them. We'll be right behind you. Only one of us has to escape, then we can tell the princesses where we are and they'll send a rescue party.
The voices from outside suddenly started snickering. "Imagine when they find out they're in an aircraft," one voice said, to which the rest of them laughed even harder.
"Well, looks like I'm gonna have to burst their bubble," the captain from earlier said. Suddenly, the same voice began speaking once again, but this time, it came from inside the room, with no discernable source. "Hello, hello? Uhh… attention aliens, please step away from the door if you want us to let you out. Or, you could just stay here if you want," the captain said.
"Wha-? Where's that coming from?" Twilight asked, confused.
"Oh, did we forget to mention? We're telepathic," the captain said, which caused them to shift their expressions to that of worry. "Nah, just kidding! We're just using the speaker," the ponies started looking around for the apparent speaker, to no avail. "Look up, idiots!" The voice said, and they all looked up to find a small, circular speaker built into the ceiling.
"W- who are you?" Fluttershy asked timidly, "What do you want from us?"
"From you? Nothing. You're just leverage. I believe Diplomat Bob made it clear what we wanted just now," the voice replied.
"Do you have any idea who we are?! We are the element bearers!" Rarity shouted.
"Also known as 'people you don't wanna mess with'," Rainbow Dash added.
"Oh, well, we are the soldiers of the USU," the voice replied, "Also known as people you don't wanna mess with, especially with your primitive weapons and technology."
"Whoever you are, I'll help you if you let my friends go," Twilight said.
"Let us outta here!" Applejack shouted angrily.
"That's what we were planning on doing," the voice in the speaker replied, "But we can't let you out if you're gonna immediately rush at us, can we?"
"Of course you can!" Pinkie replied matter-of-factly," All you have to do is open - "
"Pinkie, it was a rhetorical question!" Twilight groaned, cutting her off.
"What she said," the voice confirmed, "So if the orange meanie and Skittles could get their yee-yee asses away from the door, that would be very much appreciated.
"Hey!" Applejack yelled, clearly unamused.
"You can see us?!" Twilight asked, surprised.
"Skittles?!" Rainbow asked in confusion.
"It's an advanced species thing. Primitives like you guys probably don't have that," the voice explained.
"Shut up! Your voice is annoying!" The voice replied. "So... yeah, get away from the door if you want it opened," the voice ordered, "And don't think about fighting back. We're not going to hurt you… unless you try to fight us. If you do, we'll just have to shock you in response. Trust me, getting electrocuted is not pleasant, just ask the orange."
"You mean you electrocuted Applejack?" Twilight asked in horror.
"Seriously?! That's her name?!" the voice asked incredulously, "Fine, whatever. Yes, we electrocuted her, and that's what's gonna happen to the rest of you if you try to fight with us. What did you think we did?"
"I thought you knocked her out with some kind of magic, but you electrocuted her?!" Twilight asked.
"Yes, now can we get on with this? Or would you like me to leave all of you in here? We don't have to let you out, you know? We're being hospitable," The captain said.
Twilight tried to think of a solution, but deduced that if the humans wanted to harm them, they would have already done so while they were knocked out. The weapons they humans used on them were also like nonlethal variants of the ones they used on the royal guards, which only further proved that the humans' goal was not to harm them. This led Twilight to make the only rational decision she could at the time.
"Guys, we should listen to them. If they wanted to hurt us, they would've already done so," Twilight said.
"It's not like we can fight them even if we tried. You saw what their weapons did to the royal guard," Rarity said.
"Excellent choice!" The voice said, "Now back up. Against the wall."
"We should do as she says," Twilight told her friends. They all complied, backing up against the wall. All except for Rainbow Dash.
"Twilight, I don't trust them!" Rainbow said, "I think we should rush them. We might be able to escape."
"Ya saw what happened to those ponies who tried fighting back, Rainbow," Applejack said, "As much as Ah would hate surrendering to these monkeys, Ah know when Ah'm outmatched. No point doing anything rash and risking our lives when they don't plan on hurtin' us."
"But… but…" Rainbow trailed off as she realised Applejack was right. She hesitantly walked up to her friends and stood beside them up against the wall.
A sound of a latch was heard, followed by the door opening outwards. The door opened to reveal a long, extremely narrow corridor. At the entrance to the room stood three human soldiers, with their exoskeletons and helmets still on. The two soldiers that flanked the one in the middle held long spears of some kind, which ended in what looked like a two pin plug, and produced crackling noises. The one in the middle held no weapons, with her hands behind her back.
"Hello, Miss Twilight. I am Captain Sandra of Delta force squad fourteen. If you want out, come with me," she said, before she and her escort turned around and began walking, their backs turned.
"Now's our chance!" Rainbow Dash whispered to Twilight, preparing to get the jump on the three 'unaware' humans.
"Rainbow, wait!" Twilight whispered back. She then addressed the captain. "Aren't you going to restrain us or something?" She asked, confused.
The captain looked back, an amused expression under her helmet. "There's no need," she said, "You're not a threat."
"Then why did you need us to back up against the wall if we 'aren't a threat'?" Rainbow asked, offended that a bunch of humans wouldn't consider the element bearers, of all ponies, a threat
"That was because we didn't wanna have to hurt you," the captain replied smugly before turning around and continuing on her way.
At this point, Rainbow had had enough. These humans, of all people, were treating her as if she was nothing. She'll just have to show them who's boss. "You don't think I'm a threat?!" Rainbow shoueted, and the fact that the captain didn't even turn around to address her made her even more furious. "Fine! I'll show you how much of a threat I can be!" Rainbow shouted, before dashing straight for the captain.
"Rainbow wait!" Fluttershy shouted, but Rainbow was already charging towards the captain. Suddenly, as quick as lighting, the captain turned around. She had whipped out a handgun and aimed it at the oncoming pegasus. Two loud bags echoed through the hallway. The bullets flew right past Rainbow Dash's head, then in between Twilight and Fluttershy, who were standing behind her. This shocked Rainbow Dash, and she tried to stop her momentum immediately, which led to her crashing on the ground, right in front of the captain. The captain then pointed her gun at Rainbow's forehead, causing her to be unable to move due to the fear. She had never stared death in the eye like this before.
"So, Miss… Rainbow, was it?" The captain asked. "Seems like you got quite angry that we didn't consider you a threat," she then pressed the gun up against her forehead, causing her to start quivering in terror, "So, would you really like me to consider you a threat?" Rainbow responded by immediately shaking her head at a quickened pace. "Good, so I trust there won't be any more attempts at retaliation?" She released the safety, which produced a menacing clicking sound, only serving to terrify Rainbow and the others even more, "From any of you?" Rainbow Dash and the rest of the ponies began nodding their heads extremely quickly. "Good, then we won't have a problem," the captain said, before holstering her gun. "Well, let's go. Chop chop, don't wanna keep Diplomat Bob waiting," she then turned around and started leading them away.
The captain silently led them past a few doors, before coming up on one and opening it. They stepped through, and found themselves in a large hall of sorts, with many windows along its walls. This was, in fact, the main (and pretty much only) area in the helicopter, with many unhelmeted humans sitting around and chatting. They all paused before stepping out of the hallway, seeing that many soldiers was… intimidating, to say the least.
"Something wrong?" The captain asked upon noticing they weren't following her. They immediately started shaking their heads quickly, not wanting to risk upsetting her. "Good, then let's get moving," she said, and they began walking.
The groups of humans paid them no mind as they walked past, acting as if they weren't even there. It made them feel a tad bit safer that they weren't being swarmed and attacked by every single human soldier present. But it was only a matter of time until the humans turned on them.
"Twilight, how on earth are we gonna escape?" Applejack asked. Twilight thought for a moment before deciding on something that she could try, although it probably wouldn't work.
"Why would you need a pointless hallway?" Twilight managed to ask, although she was still shaken up by the captain's violent display.
"The room you were just in was for drone maintenance, although we took out the tools meant for said maintenance so you couldn't use them against us," Captain Sandra said.
"And what about the hallway?" Twilight asked, hoping to be able to pry more information.
"That's classified. Well, not really, everyone knows what it's for. It's classified for you," Sandra replied, and Twilight frowned. It was actually meant for quick, in flight deployment of drones. The 'hallway' could fit about ten drones, and the right side of the wall actually opened up to deploy said drones. It was, in fact, a compartment, though they took all the drones into the main hangar so they could move through the hallway more easily.
"Twilight, how can you still talk to him after that display?" Rarity whispered.
"I'm trying to get the lay of the land to better prepare for our escape," Twilight said.
"Yeah, well, good luck with that," the captain suddenly replied. "And yes, I heard you," she tapped against the side of her helmet, "The helmet isn't just for show, you know?"
They walked silently the rest of the way, knowing they couldn't whisper amongst themselves. After a few seconds, they came up on a group of humans, and they immediately recognised one of them as the apparent diplomat.
"Diplomat Bob," Sandra said, getting his attention, "The president's already given you orders. You're on babysitting duty." She then spoke to the two guards who were escorting her, "You two, stay with them. If they try anything, try your best not to kill them. But if you do have to kill one of them, don't kill Twilight." She took a look at the prisoners and saw them shaking in fear. All, except for Twilight, who had a face that looked like she had just thought of an excellent idea. "Oh, and if the princess here tries anything, kill one of the others," she said, and Twilight's face shifted to one of horror.
As the captain began walking away, Diplomat Bob began approaching them. "Hello, ponies," he said, "I believe I've already introduced myself, but I'll do it again. I am Diplomat Bob, and I am here to answer any questions you might have. I ask you not to think of yourselves as prisoners, but as guests."
Diplomat Bob began approaching them. "Hello, ponies," he said, "I believe I've already introduced myself, but I'll do it again. I am Diplomat Bob, and I am here to answer any questions you might have. I ask you not to think of yourselves as prisoners, but as guests."
Despite their fear, that request still managed to enrage them. "Excuse me?!" Applejack shouted in anger. "You literally foalnapped us. You killed dozens of ponies! And not only that, you threatened to… kill… us…" Applejack's rage was quickly turning into fear as she began thinking of the possible consequences of her outburst. She noticed that every single human in the vicinity was now looking at her.
"I have no idea what a foalnap is, but the dozens of ponies that were killed were attempting to kill us first, so I believe our actions in defending ourselves are completely justified,” Bob said, “And we never threatened to kill you, just shock you if you… misbehaved. Getting shocked by a prodder is painful, sure, but it’s far from lethal. You should know better than anyone, seeing as you got shocked for quite a while.”
“Your captain threatened to kill us,” Applejack said.
“No, threatening implies she told you that she was going to kill you herself, which she didn’t. She told her soldiers to try her best not to kill any of you,” Diplomat Bob responded.
“She ordered them to kill one of us if Twilight tried anything,” Pinkie said.
“Again, she didn’t tell you she was going to kill you if Twilight tried anything. She told her soldiers to kill you if Twilight tried anything in front of you. Would you rather she have relayed the order in private so that Twilight wouldn’t even know that you would be killed if she tried to attack us or leave?” Bob asked.
“You said we aren’t prisoners,” Twilight said, “So let us go.”
“Yes, you aren’t prisoners, you’re more of… forced guests, until you help the president’s daughter,” Diplomat Bob replied.
“Who is this ‘president’ anyway?” Rarity asked, “I’ve never heard of someone being called ‘the president’.”
“You don’t know what a president is?” Bob asked in disbelief.
“No, never heard of one,” Twilight said.
“He’s our leader. He was elected by the people of the USU to lead the country,” Bob replied.
“What do you mean he was ‘elected’?” Twilight asked.
“Umm… you don’t know what the word elected means?” Bob asked, now doubting the intelligence of one of the ponies’ princesses.
“Of course I do, it means chosen. What I meant to ask, is what do you mean by him being chosen by the people?” Twilight asked.
“We chose him. The USU is a democracy. You couldn’t have guessed?” Bob said.
“You really expect us to believe that? Not a single kingdom in all of Equs has managed to pull off a democracy, despite trying multiple times,” Twilight said.
“Really? And why is that?” Bob asked her.
“Firstly, they were unable to create a proper system which would allow for a completely fair election. In every single proposal they came up with, the candidates could cheat extremely easily,” Twilight explained, “The one race that had managed to pull it off, due to their smaller numbers, were the dragons. Even then, the country erupted into civil war because the supporters of one side would not bow down to another. After seeing what happened to the dragons, no other kingdoms ever tried it again. And now you expect me to believe the humans, who are even more uncivilised than the dragons, would be able to pull off an actual democracy? Oh please, at least come up with a more believable lie.”
“Well, I don’t know how you see the humans currently inhabiting your world, but I can ensure you that humanity is most definitely more civilised than a race of horses that practice slavery,” Diplomat Bob said, causing Twilight to recoil at the derogatory word used. “And as for not being able to create a fair system of voting, I’m pretty sure a primitive society like yours hasn't come up with identification cards yet. And I’m sure such a primitive species probably hasn’t thought about recording the names of the individuals who are voting. Wait, sorry, I forgot, you don’t have ID’s.”
“Stop calling us primitive!” Rainbow Dash shouted, her anger rising so much at their ‘insults’ that she had broken out of her fearful state. Even though it was true, she didn’t know that, nor anypony else. So it just seemed like the humans were extremely cocky, overconfident, narcissistic, and just all round rude. It looked to them like these humans had some sort of ‘superiority complex’, which was almost humorous, considering they were humans.
“Why you mad bro?” the diplomat asked, “It’s the truth.”
“You humans kill dozens of innocent ponies, take us prisoner, and almost kill me and you have the audacity to ask why we’re angry?!” Rainbow Dash barked.
“They weren’t innocent. They were part of a slaver race, and so are you. And like I said, you aren’t prisoners. If you were, we wouldn’t have let you out,” Diplomat Bob said.
“Fine. Prove it. If we’re not prisoners, and just ‘forced guests’, tell us where we are,” Twilight said, already thinking up possible methods of escape.
“Alright, why don’t you just see for yourselves?” Bob asked, gesturing towards the window.
They all went towards the window and looked through it. What they saw both frightened and amazed them. They were hovering in the air, and right in front of them, was tartarus. They were hovering right in front of tartarus. It seemed this was the cavern they had talked about demolishing.
“What..? W- where are we?” Fluttershy asked, “How can we be flying?”
“I think we’re in one of those flying things we saw coming towards ponyville. The size of this place certainly matches the size of those large flying carriages,” Twilight observed.
“Yes, indeed,” Diplomat Bob confirmed, “And we can’t land yet, the cavern is going to be demolished soon, and it would be unsafe to land right now.”
“What? That’s tartarus! Why would you be trying to ‘demolish’ tartarus?” Pinkie asked, just as confused as the rest of them.
"As if some humans could pull off destroying an entire mountain. I doubt even the princesses themselves could pull that off," Rarity said.
“Tartarus? O- oh, you mean the cavern!” Diplomat Bob said. “Ah yes, it’s to allow our other planes to - “ he was cut off by one of the soldiers who were assigned to stand guard beside the ponies.
“That’s classified,” he said sternly, “And sir, I would appreciate it if you stop trying to give our secrets away to one of the monarchs of a possibly hostile nation. You’ve already revealed our location, something you should not have done, and I suggest you think before acting next time.”
“Ah, yes… yes, of course. I apologise. I’ll think before acting next time,” he said before turning towards the ponies, “We’ll be landing in about ten minutes. Any other questions for the time being?”
"What do you want with us?" Twilight asked, "And who exactly are you people? No other humans have flying carriages or weapons like those."
"We simply need your help," he said.
"With what?! You keep saying that but you never actually tell me what exactly you need my help with!" Twilight said, now growing annoyed, "And that still doesn't answer the question of who exactly all of you are!"
"Well, to answer both of your questions, you're going to need to learn a bit of history regarding the human race," Bob said.
"Oh please, we already know all there is to know! The world used to live in harmony, until one day, you declared yourselves the sole ruler of all of Equs. And then, since we didn't submit to your rule, you began killing and massacring the populations of entire cities," Applejack said.
"Well, that may be your version, but here's our version," Bob said before taking on a narrative voice. "A very, very long time ago, about a million years back, we used to be the most powerful beings on the planet. We were destined for so much more. Until that fateful day when god decided to chuck a stone at earth. You see, the asteroid itself wasn't the issue, we detected it a thousand years before it would collide with Earth, and in that thousand years, we would have, without a shadow of a doubt, had technology advanced enough to redirect it or possibly even destroy it entirely. No, the problem was that it emitted a harmful radiation that caused harmful mutations to us, causing us to become deformed and eventually die. We had little time. We knew we needed to preserve our race. In the goal for survival all the nations of our world worked together to create arguably the greatest ever man made feat of engineering. Utopia. However we couldn’t save them all. While we saved so many that day, we left much more to die. Seven and a half billion people, my family among them, die. So we slept, we remained dormant for the next one million years, and what do we find? Our people, reduced to slaves."
"So, lemme get this straight. The humans, of all people, used to be a super race until an asteroid hit Equs?" Applejack asked in disbelief at the sheer ridiculousness of that statement. If a member of any other race said that, it would still be completely ridiculous, but a lot easier to believe.
"No, we weren't a super race, we were the super race. We stood completely unchallenged, and we were the only sentient species inhabiting the planet at the time," Diplomat Bob said, to which the ponies let out stifled laughs, though it was clear that they were getting their best to stop the laughter. "Is something funny?" Bob asked, rather insulted.
Twilight was the first to stop laughing, and therefore was the first to reply. "I mean, it was a pretty funny joke," Twilight said, and it took her a while to notice the strange looks she was receiving from the other humans. "Oh… it wasn't a joke, was it?" She asked sheepishly.
"No, of course not! Whatever gave you that idea?" He asked, confused.
"So out of everything you could have come up with, this is the best ya can do? Ya honestly expect us to believe that humanity once ruled the world, before an apparent meteor crashed?" Applejack asked, "And that's not even taking the fact that you were apparently able to live for one million years into consideration. Ah don't remember humans being immortal."
"We were cryogenically frozen," Bob replied.
"I don't even know what a cryogenic is, but you still haven't answered one of my questions. What. Do. You. Want. From. Me?" Twilight asked, rather sternly this time.
"Like I already said previously, we need - " he was cut off by an irritated Twilight.
"Don't! Don't say you need my help. Tell me exactly what you want! If it's to interrogate me, or build some kind of weapon, you won't get anything from me!" Twilight shouted.
"I assure you, we have no shortage of weapons. And we already have one of your military leaders that we captured for interrogation," he replied.
"Then?!" Twilight asked.
"I'll tell you… if you can SHUT UP!" Diplomat Bob shouted, growing annoyed with being constantly cut off. The ponies all flinched back in surprise at the sudden outburst, and they all immediately stopped asking any more questions.
"Thank you," Diplomat Bob said, "We need your help to cure the president's daughter of her chaotic radiation sickness. We had encountered some kind of centaur earlier, and he said that he could help remove the radiation from her, though he called it 'chaos magic'. Unfortunately, before he did help us, he disappeared into thin air. So, we need you to remove this 'chaos magic' from her, and revert her back to her unmutated form if possible." This worried all of them greatly. The only one who had the reality warping power was Discord, and if the humans somehow got a hold of it, the consequences could be devastating.
"Chaos magic? Why would you want to remove her chaos magic? Chaos magic is literally the most power - " Pinkie was cut off as Twilight clamped her muzzle shut.
"What my friend here meant to say, was that we'll try our best to help you if you let us go. I don't know any spells that can do it yet, but I'm sure I can come up with something, on the condition that you let us go," Twilight said, hoping her friend's slip up wouldn't be noticed. She definitely didn't want them knowing about the power of chaos magic, let alone utilising it if they found out.
Fortunately for them, Diplomat Bob was not the perceptive type. "Well, that is the plan," he said. He then paused for a moment as someone spoke to him through his earpiece. "Well, the demolition is starting. You can watch if you want," he said before looking out the window. The moment he turned around, Twilight put her hoof to her mouth and made a soft shushing sound, followed by pointing at Bob, then pointing at her ear. The message was clear: stop talking, the humans can hear us.
Twilight and her friends headed for the window and looked outside, at Tartarus.
"As if they could 'demolish' Tartarus," Rarity said, making air quotes.
"Let's just watch and see," Twilight said. It took a while, but eventually, they heard it. Dozens, possibly hundreds, of massive booms began emitting from the mountain. The mountain itself began crumbling, and some parts of it even completely exploded outwards, with tiny pieces of rock hitting against the window and making tapping sounds. Some of the outer parts of the mountain were completely pulverized, completely reduced to nothing but pebbles. In the end, only half of the mountain's original mass remained, with the rest of it being reduced to dust. The ponies' mouths hung open as they gazed upon the display in fear and awe. They had never seen such destruction, and there had never been anything that was capable of something even remotely close to what they had just witnessed. Despite having prior knowledge of the humans wanting to 'play it cool' and utilise this display as a fear tactic, they were still left completely terrified.
"Oh, we just demolished the cavern," Bob said nonchalantly.
"You… you just destroyed Tartarus!" Rainbow Dash exclaimed.
"Yea, so?" Bob asked.
"How… how is that even possible?! Nopony, and I nopony has that kind of power. There isn't a single recorded spell in history that's capable of this destruction! What kind of magic did you use to be able to accomplish such a thing?!" Twilight asked.
"Spell? Oh, no, no, no, we didn't use a 'spell', as you call it," Bob said, using his fingers to form air quotes, "We used technology. Explosives. As I'm sure you are fully aware, we don't have any magic, and we don't even know much about what magic even does. Still don't believe me when I said we were the most powerful species on the planet?"
"Wha- what? B- but technology is powered by magic. How could you use technology without using magic?" Twilight asked.
"We use mostly electricity," he replied.
"Electricity is magic!" Twilight shouted.
"See? How primitive," Diplomat Bob said, "Anyway, if you still don't believe me about us laying dormant for a million years, you're about to. We're landing now, and you'll get to see Utopia for yourself. Let's see if you think that's still not enough proof."
The helicopter then slowly began descending, as a thick metal blast door that was built into the ground opened up, and they entered.
The leaders of Equs… the real world leaders, all sat around a large round table. In the immediate aftermath of the attack, they had all been teleported by Discord, where they would discuss their course of action.
"Celestia, why have you called us here?" Asked Ember.
"You only ever summon us when there's something extremely urgent," King Talon of the Griffons added.
"Let alone make Discord teleport us here," High Priestess Ada of the zebras said.
"I'm sure I speak for everycreature here when I say the only reason we aren't in an outrage right now is because you had a good reas-… well, I think you probably had a good reason to teleport us all away from the kingdoms we have to rule," the minotaur king, steel horn, assumed.
"Speaking of which, why is Discord present for the summit?" Cadence asked.
"Well, to answer all your questions," - Celestia grew a worried look and hesitated, before continuing - "They have returned."
"What? Who has returned? Is it Tirek? Sombra once again? Chrysalis? Or… God forbid..." - thorax whispered softly - "...Grogar?"
"No, this is something far, far worse. I don't know if the changelings passed down the knowledge, but the rest of you should know about them," Luna said worriedly.
"Well, who has returned?" Price Rutherford of the yaks asked impatiently.
"The first humans," Celestia finally said after an intense build up. The whole room then immediately fell silent, with almost all of the Equs's leaders going wide eyed.
"But how is that even possible?" King Steel Horn asked.
"We… killed… every last one of them when we blew them up. There's no way they could have survived that," King Talon stated.
"I'm sorry, but you're all worried about a bunch of humans?" Queen Novo asked, confused.
"I don't get it either," Thorax added.
"They aren't just any humans," Luna said, "These are dangerous. Their power is nothing like you've ever seen!"
"But who are they? Can somecreature start making sense around here?" Queen Novo asked.
"They go by many names," High Priestess Ada said, "The first humans, the originals, the primordial men, the boom-boom boys, the masked men, among many others. But we know very little about them." She was cut off by King Talon as he took centre stage.
"What we do know is that a very, very, very, very long time ago, the world was populated only by humans. They had advanced to great heights, using technology to propel their species so far that it was rumored they had even gone to mars and back. They were the most powerful civilisation to have ever lived, and they had weapons so terrible that they put even the Elements of Harmony to shame," King Talon continued.
"The humans were the most powerful civilization to have ever existed?" Thorax asked.
"Indeed," Luna confirmed.
Thorax took notice that most of the other leaders had a serious look on their face. No doubt that whatever they were saying was the truth, since it would have simply been embarrassing for one of the leaders to speak of the humans with such amazement, and no doubt hurt their image. Thorax had to know more.
"So, if they were some big bad super civilisation… what happened to them?" Thorax asked.
"It was a meteor that wiped them out… or, more accurately, what the meteor was emitting. It emitted chaos magic, and while it is the most powerful form of magic, it proved to be harmful to humans. That magic is what wiped them out," Ember said.
"So, if a large meteor crashed into Equs and apparently wiped them out, how did they return?" Queen Novo asked.
"As we've already discussed, the first humans had a society very much like ours, only with the addition of extremely advanced technology," Celestia said, "Therefore, they also had large megacorporations, just like us. One of those corporations was known as the Vega Corporation. They were a huge conglomerate company that spanned the globe and provided their customers with things ranging from food and drinks, all the way up to providing First Human militaries with weapons. Therefore, they were the only other first humans with the capability and resources to construct this 'doomsday bunker'." Celestia was cut off as another continued narrating.
"Now, you may be asking what exactly this doomsday bunker is," King Talon said, "They essentially constructed a massive underground basement with reinforced walls. That itself is already amazing, considering they constructed it several kilometers underground. But not only that, but through their technology, they found a way to keep themselves frozen for one million years, before they reemerged. Yes, that’s how much power they possess."
"Wait… if they're just returning now, how do you already know so much about them?" Thorax asked.
"I'm glad you asked," King Steel Horn answered, "Remember the Great Equs War, when we defeated the humans and subjugated them for the atrocities they committed?"
"Of course, we all learn it in school," Thorax replied.
"What you know isn't the whole truth," King Steel Horn said, "It's true that they started conquering lands and killing everyone, but it wasn't just out of the need and want to take over other kingdoms, it was because of the Vega Corporation. You see, before they began their conquest, the First Humans granted us many gifts. They granted us the knowledge to create radios and speakers, trains, fridges to keep our food fresh which nearly eradicated starvation, a lot of pieces of medical technology and granting us medical knowledge which saved hundreds of thousands of lives, and many more wondrous inventions that you couldn't imagine living without. They even granted us a way to generate electricity without using magic, though that particular piece of technology had been long lost to time. However, their generosity quickly came to an end once they realised what they themselves could do with magic.” Celestia then picked up where the minotaur king left off.
“You see, magic is part of everything and every creature… except for the First Humans. They themselves found a way to take away the magic of others and give it to themselves and found out how to replicate exactly what Tirek does, only on a larger scale. You see, what magic that Tirek steals is only a mere fraction of what magic we actually have in us. The magic he steals is what gives us our power, but the magic the humans wanted to steal is what gave us our life. The magic we actually use is half of the magic we actually have, with the other half functioning as a sort of ‘life force’. Without the other half, if even a fraction of it was stolen, we would die. As creatures of magic, we cannot survive without it,” Celestia then took her breath and thought about what to say next, “The magic that we actually need to have coursing through us in order to live is what we call ‘passive magic’, and the magic that we use is what we call ‘active magic’. And what the humans did is oh so much worse than what Tirek did. Tirek intended to steal our active magic for power, but the First Humans intended to steal our very life force.”
“But… why would they do that? You mean all the people they killed… they stole their passive magic? Their life force?” Thorax asked.
“Indeed. The First Humans found a way to utilise our passive magic… for immortality. They created a machine that would remove our passive magic, killing us, while transferring it to them and elongating their lives,” Luna said, “They made a machine that would take away our life and give it to them. That’s how evil they are. The First Humans are a threat the likes of which we’ve never seen. We’ve faced nothing like them.”
“But you said you already defeated them, no?” Queen Novo asked, “So these should just be survivors, just remnants. Even with their weaponry, I’m sure we have larger numbers than them, correct? In fact, if they were really only the remaining survivors of a long dead civilisation, how many were there that they were able to cause you so much trouble? A hundred thousand? Five hundred thousand? A million?”
“Three thousand,” Celestia replied.
“T- three thousand? And they were able to cause so much trouble that every nation on Equs had to band together to defeat them?” Novo asked in disbelief.
“The problem wasn’t their numbers. The problem was that these First Humans… the members of the Vega Corporation, were able to unite the entirety of the human race, and assumed command of hundreds of thousands of soldiers. As we all know, a human with a weapon could easily beat any pony, griffon, or yack in melee combat without breaking a sweat. The only way we were able to defeat them was with the help of the minotaurs, dragons, and unicorns, and that had already effectively cut our military in half. The First Humans were able to defeat us only with the help of the native humans, but that doesn’t mean they weren’t dangerous as well,” Celestia replied., “As I’m sure you’ve heard, when the first humans attacked, they used these weapons called ‘guns’. These guns are essentially invisible spells that almost always instantly kill you by shooting tiny miniature cannonballs at their targets. On top of that, these weapons are able to fire several hundred of these mini cannonballs a minute.” Luna began to take over next.
“As a result of this, nocreature was able to even get close to them. Normally that wouldn’t be an issue for we could just use our magic, however, as my sister said earlier, the First Humans don’t have any magic,” Luna said, “You see, when magic affects somecreature, it reacts with the magic inside that person. Since the First Humans had no magic for ours to react with, they were completely impervious to it. Therefore, nocreature was able to get close enough to attack them physically and we could not attack them from range. The only option we were left with was to use ranged physical weapons, so we developed the bow. Of course, bows were nothing compared to the First Humans' guns, having a much slower rate of fire and a much shorter range, but we were able to take down a couple of them."
"So how were you able to defeat them the first time?" Thorax asked.
"We received help from Discord. At the time, we were unaware of the existence of the changelings. So Discord himself infiltrated the 'doomsday bunker' of the First Humans by shapeshifting into a high ranking First Human. He then discovered the First Humans' most devastating weapon, the thermonuclear warhead, or as we call it, the World Ender. Thank goodness they only had one of these, or they could very well have the power to end the world," King Talon explained.
"What the World Ender is," Luna picked up where he left off, "Is some sort of superweapon capable of generating an explosion big enough to destroy entire cities, maybe even entire kingdoms. Discord however, used it to his advantage. Once he infiltrated the First Humans' bunker, he figured out how to donate the weapon. So, he detonated it inside the human military's main, and only, base of operations, which they called Area 69. It was just our luck that a lot of the human soldiers were actually present within Area 69 at the time, so we were able to eliminate over a third of the human army, along with the First Humans themselves. The other two thirds of the army immediately fell into disarray, with a lot of their top generals being killed in the blast. And without the First Humans to guide them, their armies made stupid decisions and we were able to pick them off by using concentrated assaults. In fact, the badlands were as a result of the explosion of the World Ender."
Thorax and Queen Novo's eyes grew wide upon discovering this. "But like Queen Novo said, these are just their remnants, right?" Thorax asked worriedly, “They shouldn’t be as hard to deal with right?”
"Yes, it is a good thing that that is probably the case. This time it’ll be much easier to put them down. They don’t have the World Ender, they don’t have an army, and they don’t have an impenetrable fortress in the ground,” King Steel Horn said.
“That may be the case, but in order for them to remain less of a threat, we need to strike now. If we don’t eliminate the First Humans soon, they’ll spread. They’ll spread the idea of human superiority to the slaves, their power will give the humans a newfound confidence to rise up against us, and they will rebel. Usually, rebellions aren’t that hard to put down, seeing as a band of slaves just get together and charge at every single pony in sight without any strategy or clear goal in mind,” King Talon said, “However, the First Humans are much, much smarter than them, and if the First Humans utilise their war strategies, combined with the numbers and complete savagery of the human slaves, they will be unstoppable.”
“They won’t even need to get an army to follow them this time. All they have to do is free a few slaves and word will spread, causing rebellions to spring up all over Equestria. We will not be able to deal with them if they are able to convert the slaves to their cause,” Ember said.
“We must act now, before they are able to spread their influence throughout the slave population. What’s worse is that if they attack all at once, we won’t be able to defend against them. They will tear us apart from the inside,” King Talon said.
“But how do we even ‘strike now’? We don’t even know where they are,” High Priestess Ada asked.
“Well, we’ll just have to find them, won’t we? I’m sure if we launch a nationwide manhunt, we will be able to track them down,” Celestia said.
“Yes, but how long will that take? By the time we find them, they could very well already have an army by their side. And I’m sure I don’t have to remind you what it was like to fight against an organised human army, seeing as you yourself fought in the war,” Prince Rutherford said.
“We already know that wherever they are, they were able to launch an attack on Ponyville, so they should be nearby. We could send scouting parties in all directions and just hope that one of these parties finds them,” Luna said.
“So, you’re playing this by chance?” Prince Rutherford asked.
“We have no choice. It is our only option now,” Luna replied.
“Fine, I can see how that may be the case. But, I’m sure you’re not going to strike while they have the element bearers, are you?” Steel Horn asked, “Unless, of course, you are willing to strike while the bearers are in their custody?”
Celestia sighed. She knew that this was going to come up, and that it would be too much of a risk to attack the First Humans with Twilight and her friends in their custody, they had probably captured them to use them as leverage. No doubt that they would threaten to kill them if anycreature tried taking any action against them. But, fortunately for her, the First Humans no longer had their bunker, which was devoid of magic, to protect them. If they were hiding somewhere, no doubt wherever they were hiding would have ambient magic already present in the area. This gave Celestia an idea.
“We will be carrying out a rescue operation before the First Humans would be able to harm them, or worse. We weren’t able to teleport into their ‘doomsday bunker’ beforehand, because everything, including the air within the bunker, lacked any magic. We weren’t able to teleport because there would be nothing for our teleportation spells to react with. However, they no longer have a ‘doomsday bunker’, and theuer bunker was the only place in the world without a shred of ambient magic, which means that wherever they are, we would be able to teleport there. My plan is simple; we teleport in, get the bearers, then teleport out. After that, we attack them with an army large enough to completely overwhelm them,” Celestia suggested.
Discord then began speaking for the first time, and everyone turned their attention to him. “And with my help, we’ll be able to deal with them with no issues whatsoever. It’ll be a walk in the park. The most challenging part of this operation is finding them, not fighting them,” he said. He then got a more serious, menacing look. “The First Humans are going to pay for taking Fluttershy.”
“I guess that could work,” Rutherford agreed.
“I support your decision,” High Priestess Ada confirmed.
“Yeah, that’s definitely our best course of action if we wanna get the bearers out without them being harmed. They’ll never see it coming,” Ember said.
In the end, the decision was made to send a scouting party that would fan out from Ponyville and cover an area that would hopefully be large enough to locate the First Humans’ hideout. Of course, they weren’t expecting four hundred thousand humans, a heavily armed modern military, and tens of thousands of ‘World Enders’ to be at the humans’ disposal.
"Lieutenant Sharp!" A voice called out.
The Lieutenant turned around to find one of his indirect superiors approaching him. "Special Agent Sweetie Drops!" He said, saluting her.
"Good day, Lieutenant," she replied, "I'm sure you're wondering why I'm here. Well, I've been sent to check on you and make sure you know exactly what your mission entails. So, describe your mission and objective."
"It's a scouting mission. We are to fly straight ahead" - he pointed in the general direction ahead of him - "And see if we find a human rebellion base. If we do find a rebel base, we are not to engage them or let them know of our presence. Once we hit our mark, a hundred miles ahead of Tartarus, we'll begin turning back."
"And if you do encounter the human rebellion, remember to be stealthy. Don't stick around longer than you need to. Remember, these humans are extremely dangerous, and as with other humans, they have no qualms against killing innocent ponies," Agent Sweetie Drops replied, "And most of all, be careful out there, lieutenant. You may depart in ten minutes." The lieutenant gave one last salute, and Agent Sweetie Drops left to go and brief another scouting party.
The three helicopters slowly began descending vertically downwards, as a thick metal blast door that was built into the ground opened up, and they entered. They were all silent as they descended down a large cylindrical tunnel, with rings of bright white lights built into the wall at regular intervals. This created the effect of the lights 'flashing', much like how the lights of a train would when going through a tunnel. For the humans, this was completely normal, but for the ponies, who had never experienced the quick flashing of lights in such a manner, it was rather… trippy. Enough that all of the element bearers kept their eyes closed for the entire duration of the descent.
Eventually, the flashing of lights ended, as the entire helicopter was bathed in a constant, bright white light. The helicopter rocked ever so slightly as it landed, and the ponies opened their eyes slowly, so as to not be blinded by the bright light before their eyes could adjust. What they saw once their eyes were fully adjusted completely terrified them.
They found themselves in a large white room that was lit by a bright white light, seemingly coming from nowhere. Even the ceiling of the room was about as high as that of Celestia and Luna's throne room in Canterlot Castle. The walls of the room looked completely flawless, and didn't seem to have the roughness that concrete walls had. The room itself wasn't what terrified them though, it was what was within the room. Through a large, heavy duty metal door, dozens of human soldiers gradually filed into the room, all making a beeline towards the helicopter. They weren't able to concentrate on the human soldiers for long though, as a cranking noise, followed by a loud bang suddenly came from inside the helicopter, making them all turn around.
Upon turning, they saw that the back of the helicopter had functioned as a large doorway, opening outwards and turning into a ramp to allow them to exit the flying vehicle. The door opened to reveal dozens of human soldiers pointing their staffs towards the inside of the flying vehicle, terrifying them even more. Then, one of them stepped forward and spoke.
"Commander Sandra," he said in a Zebrican accent, "I see you have everything under control, yes?"
"Who's asking?" Sandra stepped forward and replied with a question of her own.
The one who has stepped removed his helmet, revealing the face of a black man underneath. "General Chwawua of the African army," he replied, "King Osas himself sent me to secure the area in preparation for the world leaders' arrival."
"World leaders? They're coming here?" Sandra asked, "Including President Atticus?"
"No… well, yes Atticus is coming here, but only because President Felix allowed him to come here and ask the ponies for their help himself," he replied.
"President Felix? What are you talking about… sir?" Sandra added after realising that she was speaking to a superior officer. Although the African general wasn't her superior, Sandra would show him the respect that a person of his position deserved.
"No, actually. President Atticus was impeached for the reckless act of establishing first contact without the approval of the other leaders, nor the USU congress members themselves," General Chwawua replied. "The ex VP, Felix, is now the USU's acting president until a proper election can be held among the USU congress. Felix himself ordered that the election be held in two days. Everyone else is praising his decision, saying that it is good that he is not trying to hold onto power longer than he should like his predecessor. I think it's all an act though, no way to know for certain. It's a real… 'shitshow', I believe you Americans call it."
"Serves him right, calling for a reckless action like that," Sandra replied.
"Wait, you mean you did not approve of Atticus's actions?" Chwawua asked.
"Course' not!" She replied, "It was stupid. And he did it to save one girl. I don't know why his daughter is so important to him anyway. She's just another citizen, and I don't think he would've done something so reckless for the rest of us. I just don't see why the congressmen and congresswomen treat their families with such care, they're just citizens like the rest of us anyway."
The ponies were both shocked and disgusted at what the captain had said. The other humans, despite being barbaric savages, still recognised the importance of family, treating their loved ones with much care. And even the ponies themselves would never even do something so evil as separating families, they always sent all the members of the same family to one place. Yet, here, it seemed the captain not only did not care about her own family, but failed to recognise the importance of familial relations altogether.
"If you think it was a stupid decision, then why did you take off?" The general asked.
"My loyalty lies to this country, and to the people of this country. He was chosen by the people, and therefore represented the people. Disobeying a direct order from him would be like disobeying every single USU citizen. At least, that's how I view it," Sandra explained.
"Very well, I can understand where you are coming from. Anyway, let us not waste any more time and get the prison-" he paused, before correcting himself, "Guests… ready to be presented to the leaders." He then turned around, and saw that everyone still had their weapons pointed into the vehicle. "What are you all doing?" He asked in a confused tone, "Why do you still have your weapons up? It is clear that everything is okay."
"You never ordered us to put them down, sir," one of the soldiers replied, his weapon still trained on the ponies.
"Oh, apologies," he said, "You may all lay down your weapons and take up ceremonial formation." They did as instructed, lowering their weapons and immediately rushing to form two lines that were spaced roughly five meters apart. They took positions on either side, forming a sort of walkway in between both lines of soldiers that led all the way to a large metal bulkhead that was in front of them. The soldiers themselves stood completely still, holding their weapons closely against their bodies at a forty five degree angle. What was strange was that these human soldiers seemed to act like they were a part of a professional, organised, and disciplined military, even more so than the royal guard themselves. The ponies didn't think the humans would be capable of such organisation and discipline, considering how barbaric and uncivilized they were.
One of the soldiers walked up to them and towered over the ponies. He gestured towards the door with his weapon, followed by sternly saying "Move." Twilight and her friends all did as instructed and walked towards the ramp, not complaining as they had once again been cowered into submission by the intimidating display of the Utopian military, mostly due to the fact that the Utopians could kill them without a moment's notice.
They slowly, hesitantly, exited the vehicle and began walking in between the two lines of soldiers. They only made it about ten meters before they were instructed to stop. The ponies complied, stopping in their positions and standing still. It was only now that they could grasp the full scale of the room they were in. The room itself had to be just as big, or even bigger than Celestia's throne room, with several more of the flying vehicles parked nearly in rows. In the middle of each of the four walls stood a large steel door, all of which were closed except for the one the soldiers came from, which was located on the right wall and was currently open, revealing a small part of what looked to be a hallway which they couldn't really get a good look at because of their current angle. They were eventually brought out of their observational streak, however, as the large blast doors before then began slowly opening.
With the sounds of cladding and whirring, the door split in half, with the right and left side of it sliding into both sides of the wall. As the door opened, it gradually revealed several humans dressed in black business suits, who were flanked by several more humans in black business suits and black sunglasses that seemed to be constantly on edge and looking about. The door opened with impeccable timing, sliding into the walls completely right when the first human stepped into the room. All of the newly arrived noticed the ponies the instant the door opened, and immediately started heading towards them.
Before they could reach them, however, Captain Sandra walked into view as she came from behind them, approaching the men in suits. She stopped in front of them and stomped her right foot into the ground firmly while raising her right hand to her forehead and giving them a salute. "President Felix, sir!" She said loudly.
"At ease, captain," one of the men in suits, looking to be in his early thirties, replied, "I see you've heard the news?"
"Yes sir, this is Utopia sir, word travels fast," Sandra replied.
"Well, that is true," the president replied. "Come, captain, introduce me to our guests. Let's not keep them waiting," he said enthusiastically.
"Of course sir, right this way sir," said Sandra, stepping aside and outstretching an arm towards the ponies. The group of suited humans then approached the ponies, a few of them with welcoming smiles on their faces and a few of them remaining stoic.
"Good day, all of you," one of the humans said. "I am Prime Minister Jack Byrnes of Oceania, and I am accompanied by," - he began pointing at each of them as he called out their names - "Prime Minister Mateo of Hispanica, President Alexi of Russia, Supreme Leader Xi Mingzhe of Lian Meng, Prime Minister Bjorn of the European Union, King Osas of the United States of Africa, President Felix of the United States of Utopia, Ex-President Atticus of the USU, and last but not least, and trust me this is a mouthful ever since he changed his position of leadership a day ago." He took a deep breath, "Admiral General President Prime Minister Supreme Leader Emperor King Commander in Chief the Great and Mighty Lord God Haffaz 'better than you' Aladeen, or AGPPMSLEKCCGMLG Haffaz 'BTY' Aladeen for short."
The ponies just stared at Aladeen in confusion. "What?" Twilight asked in confusion.
"Just call him Supreme Leader Aladeen or sir. Don't call him by his first name, if he doesn't deem you worthy of addressing him by just 'Aladeen', he'll order for you to have your tongue chopped off followed by being," Prime Minister Jack said, "Anyway, would you like to introduce yourselves? I've heard that you're a princess, aren't you?"
"Who are you and what do you want from us?" Twilight immediately snapped.
"It is very rude for guests to not introduce themselves to their hosts, is it not?" King Osas asked, irritated.
"Guests?! You foalnapped us, and you have the audacity to call us guests?!" Applejack asked, "If we're guests, we'll be able to leave freely. We ain't stupid, so let's just stop this charade and cut straight to business. What in tartarus do you want from Twilight?!"
"Well, you're prisoners that are being treated as guests, and are currently going to be given the same luxuries that we give to our other guests," President Felix said, "How you act, how you talk to us, how rude you are to us, and how cooperative you are are all factors that contribute to whether you will keep your status as guests, or be treated as prisoners. Now, I believe we got off on the wrong foot, so allow me to introduce myself again. My name is Felix, and I am the acting president of the USU."
Twilight looked around awkwardly at first. Being forced to introduce oneself tends to make the situation awkward. She eventually relented though, as she thought about the potential consequences for both her and her friends if they continued to act aggressively towards the humans.
"My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I am the princess of friendship. I am one of the four ruling monarchs of Equestria, and bearer of the Element of Magic," Twilight hesitantly said, followed by introducing her friends by stating their names, and the elements that they bore.
"See, we're already off to a great start," Felix said, before taking on a confused tone, "And why are you still unaware as to why you're here? We were literally briefed on how much you know before you landed. And if I'm not mistaken, Bob already told you who we are and what we want with you. So, why are you asking again?"
"Just wanted to confirm," Twilight said with venom in her voice, "And if we refuse to help her, what then?"
Atticus then stepped forward. "Please, Miss Twilight. Help my daughter, she's only sixteen, and she's dying," he then got down on his knees, "I'm begging you, pleading with you. If you don't help her, you might as well have been the one to kill her."
Twilight on the other hand, while slightly saddened by the fact that this man was going to lose his daughter, quickly reminded herself of who… what she was dealing with. The most evil race to ever exist, and their level of wickedness was once again proven by them foalnapping Twilight and her friends.
"If you wanted my help, you shouldn't have killed all of those innocent ponies," Twilight said angrily, "I'm not going to help a single member of your species. You are evil incarnate." Atticus looked up with teary eyes. He no longer had the power, nor the influence to be able to force these equines into submission. Felix did have the power though, and he was gonna show these horses why you don't say no to the president of the United States.
"Well, Atticus, you asked and you got your answer. She said no," Felix said while looking down on the ex-president, who was still kneeling, and Atticus looked up to him with desperation in his eyes. "But now it's my turn to ask the question," he looked towards Twilight, "Miss Twilight, would you please help Atticus's daughter Eris?"
"In case you missed it, allow me to remind you of what Twilight just said," Applejack aggressively said, "We will never, ever help a single one of you, so ya might as well let us go."
"Very well, allow me to put this in a way you can understand," Felix said, "Twilight, you will help us. If you don't, we will not only kill you, but your friends as well. And trust me, your death will not be pleasant." The ponies' eyes widened in fear at the threat. They had never been threatened in such a way before, and not a single creature other than the humans would blackmail them in such a way. And what was worse, considering they were humans, the ponies had no doubts about the fact that they would follow through with their threat.
Twilight and her friends began to cast worried glances at each other, unsure of how exactly to react to such a violent threat. They didn't want to react aggressively, for fear of provoking their captors. They didn't want to react with fear and show weakness either. Well, all of them except Fluttershy, who was now shivering in terror and had tears coming down her eyes. She wasn't sobbing though, she was trying her best to put on a confident facade, hoping that her show of weakness wouldn't prove to be their downfall. But alas, humans weren't as stupid as ponies, and even in the off chance that she managed to stop crying, they would have seen straight through her false expression of confidence.
Twilight put on a face of determination upon seeing her friend crying. She was determined to keep her friends safe from harm, and eventually escape this prison of theirs. "I will help you, but only on the condition that you let my friends go," said Twilight firmly. Her request was met with the humans in suits all bursting into laughter.
"How stupid do you think we are?" Aladeen asked.
"The moment we let your friends go, we would lose our leverage. There would no longer be any incentive for you to comply with our demands," Alexi stated, as he and the other humans gradually calmed down.
"I'll make a deal with you. I'll listen to you if you let my friends go. I'll still have to listen to you even if you let them go anyway," Twilight said.
"You have to listen to us now," President Felix retorted smugly, "Why would we give up our leverage and take our chances trusting you to keep your word rather than keep our leverage and guarantee that you'll keep your word risk free?"
"Ah thought humans were supposed to be stupid?" Rainbow Dash whispered to Twilight.
"So did I," Twilight whispered back.
Twilight looked around, glancing towards her friends, then back to the humans. She looked to be in deep thought as she thought about her current situation. She eventually came to a decision, realising the futility of trying to bargain with the humans when they held all the bargaining power, realising that if she tried anything they deemed unacceptable, the consequences could be deadly. She was left with only one option: to comply with the humans and hope they keep their word. The more she thought about it, the more it seemed like a good idea. If she managed to help this 'Eris', the humans would be thankful, they would be indebted to them, and would probably either let them go or make their stay as pleasant as they could. Or, she could bide her time, gaining their trust until they presented her with an opportunity to make their escape. But she knew that would be extremely difficult; she wasn't a schemer like Chrysalis, and she wasn't a trickster like Cozy Glow. That was why she would help Eris if she could, using the other plan as a last resort if she was unable to assist. She made her decision.
"Fine, I'll help you," Twilight said defeatedly.
"Good, then you should come with me," Felix said, "Time to meet your patient." He then turned towards Diplomat Bob, who was standing behind the group of ponies, observing the conversation. "Bob, please get six rooms within the same section ready for our guests. Take them" - he gestured to everyone besides Twilight - "To their rooms while I get Twilight and Keifer to begin their work in healing Eris."
"Yes sir," Bob said, before calling the ponies to follow him with a gesture of his hand, "Come along now, I'm gonna take you to your rooms."
Twilight immediately protested. "But they - " her immediate protest was immediately cut off by Felix.
"They will be treated well, just like how we normally treat our guests. They won't be separated either, their rooms will be back to back. Your room will be together with theirs as well, and you may go there after you're done with your work for the day," Felix said.
"Erm… Uhh... " Twilight looked back and forth between Felix and her friends, before relenting. "Go with them, it'll be okay," she said. They said their goodbyes, and the rest of the ponies followed Bob as he led them towards their lodgings.
Captain Sandra then stepped forward, "Sirs… and ma'am," Sandra addressed all the leaders, "What about the pony soldier that we captured?"
"Put him through enhanced interrogation. Get every last bit of information you can out of him," Felix said, and with the approval of the other leaders, he added something else, "And after you're done, give him to Keifer to do as he wishes."
Sandra actually looked worried for a moment, before answering. "Yes leaders, it will be done," She said before turning around and walking out the large door in the right wall.
"Well then, let us proceed," Felix said, and Twilight followed him into the door in front of her.
Twilight trailed behind Felix as he walked through the seemingly endless white corridors that made up Utopia. It was a maze, with it having the most intricate and complex layout of any structure that Twilight had ever seen. The architecture and just the sheer flawlessness of the structure amazed Twilight, it was done in a style she had never seen. What was strange was that it was extremely fancy, but it wasn’t regal like the castles, it wasn’t fancy like the large Mansions of canterlot, and it wasn’t modern like the buildings of Manehattan. Well, it was for them… when she had asked Felix about it, he called it ‘modern architecture’, guess these humans have a different idea of modern than most others. It was rather… futuristic, like something straight out of a comic book. As they walked, many humans passed them by, with a lot of them saluting Felix as he walked past, while others offered simple, polite greetings. The passersby all stared at Twilight as well, looking at her with what seemed to be surprise and amazement.
The walk was mostly silent aside from the one question Twilight asked, Felix was talking to one of his escorts while another two heavily built humans flanked Twilight on either side. She would’ve teleported out, using one of the many opportunities she was given, but this place seemed to lack any magic of any kind. She would’ve teleported out while she was in the aircraft, seeing as the magicless air there had mixed with the air outside, and giving Twilight something that her spell could react with. But the humans watched her like a hawk, and the moment her horn started glowing, she would’ve been dead. That, and she never thought it was possible for a place to be this devoid of magic, she thought she would’ve been presented with a better opportunity later on. But now, she was completely trapped, with no way out. Well, there was one she knew, but it seemed that the only way out was through a door, several kilometers up, which only the humans could operate.
Soon enough, one of the corridors led to a large, open area with many humans. The entire area was bustling with activity, at least until the president entered with Twilight. More and more of them gradually noticed their presence and soon, the entire area fell silent, with everyone staring at both Felix and Twilight. The area itself was a large room of some sort, with white spaced apart benches and white concrete pillars placed at regular intervals. The left side of the large room had a strange depression, or hole, built into the ground, which they were approaching. As Twilight got closer, she was able to get a look at it from a better angle, and she saw that the hole had some extremely advanced looking railway tracks. The tracks gradually emerged from a dark tunnel on the left side, and went all the way to a tunnel on the left side, where it disappeared from view.
Twilight’s escorts just quietly stood there for a moment, which made the situation feel rather awkward with the pin drop silence that had suddenly encompassed them the moment they entered the large hall-like area. All the humans, including Felix and his escorts seemed to be waiting for something as they stared intently ahead in the direction of the hole. The wait lasted for about five minutes of pure, unbridled awkwardness, before a sudden sharp whistling sound began to pierce through the silence. The noise was coming from the tunnel on the left, and gradually grew louder as a light began appearing that gradually grew in luminosity. Soon enough, a long, slender object appeared, racing round the corner at speeds that could even rival that of Rainbow Dash’s. It was a train; a large, slender, futuristic white train that sped towards them and gradually slowed down as it approached, eventually stopping as its whole length left the confines of the tunnel and now laid in front of them.
It was an extremely streamlined, white coloured train. Just lume everything else in this place, the train was extremely futuristic, right out of science fiction. 'Their 'bunker' has a train?!' Twilight thought to herself, once again being amazed by the level of technology that these strange humans possessed. She would've attributed its speed to magic, if it weren't for the fact that the entire bunker was devoid of it. There were several doors lining the long structure, each with a sign above it that designated the different sections of the train. The doors of the train opened a few seconds after it had 'landed', and more humans began flooding out of the train, while the humans that simply stood still while staring at Twilight began to enter the train, most of them heading for the doors labeled 'passenger'.
Felix, on the other hand, led them towards one of the doors designated 'lounge’. The door opened by itself, just like all the others, but instead of it opening to reveal a regular passenger section, it revealed one of the most luxurious setups that Twilight had ever seen. The train car was done in a different style to that of the other parts of the luxury bunker. It had a light brown as its predominant colour as opposed to the rest of the structure’s white theme, and it had much dimmer lights which gave off a vibe of relaxation in contrast with the bright white lights that dominated the rest of the bunker, which made Twilight feel slightly more alleviated and a lot less tensed and on edge. The curtains of the windows were open, which revealed the nice scenery of a beautiful mountain range with clear blue skies, birds flying by, the occasional animal walking about, and a beautiful lake in the distance. The car also featured several brown sofas with pillows on them, all surrounding some cute, miniature coffee tables which already had several steaming cups of coffee ready for them. At the far end of the car laid a fancy looking bar with a wall behind the counter that had had a couple dozen bottles of what Twilight could only assume was alcohol, that was being tended to by a single human, probably the bartender.
Twilight stood still for a moment, in deep thought, she could hardly believe her eyes. These were humans, and while she did believe that their claim to previously being the most powerful and only sapient species on the planet to some degree after witnessing their destructive display, she never thought that mere humans would be capable of creating an environment of such… class, such fanciness. It was just as luxurious as Celestia’s personal lounge, maybe even more so, and it had been built by humans. She was brought out of her thoughts as Felix called out to her.
“Miss Twilight?” Felix asked, and received no answer as Twilight was still in deep thought. “Miss Twilight?” He asked, raising his voice slightly this time, which successfully managed to grab her attention.
“Wha-... huh?” Twilight turned around to face Felix.
“We’re about to start moving. Would you like to take a seat so we can maybe chat a little before you start your work on rehabilitating Eris?” Felix asked.
“Uhh…” Twilight was still lost, until a sudden thought came to her. What about Tirek and Cozy Glow? She was so caught up in the moment that she forgot about them. She needed to inquire as to what happened to them after Tartarus was destroyed. Were they set free? Do humans still have them? Were they killed? All of these were terrible options, but they were the only possibilities Twilight could think of. “Yea, yes of course,” she said, walking over to one of the two seater couches and taking a seat. Felix sat in the single seater armchair in front of her, and the other men in suits sat in the other couches surrounding them, leaving them to speak privately. Before she could speak, however, a loud voice of a woman with no discernable source started speaking.
“Attention all passengers, welcome aboard Snowpiercer. You are currently aboard Snowpiercer's exclusive first class lounge experience. The next stop will be in the Mall District. Estimated time of arrival is one minute. Wilford industries thanks you for choosing Snowpiercer and we hope you enjoy your ride,” the voice said, before going silent. The train then started moving, and to Twilight's amazement, even the background outside moved past as the train traveled. Twilight didn't know how they did it, but it was amazing nonetheless.
“Our destination is five stops away, we’ll arrive in about ten minutes,” Felix told Twilight, “I recommend you get some rest, you’re gonna need it. You’ve got a long day ahead of you, and I’m putting you under our very own Doctor Keifer’s direct command and supervision. He can be a bit of a workaholic, so I hope you’re prepared for OT.”
“I have a few questions, can you answer them?” Twilight asked.
“As long as they’re not questions about our capabilities, how our weapons work, the layout of our bunker and other things that would obviously be classified, I’ll try to answer your questions to the best of my ability,” Felix said.
"There was a pony… and a centaur, who were imprisoned here. I'm sure you would've encountered them, they were the only sapient people present within Tartarus. What happened to them? Do you still have them or..?" Twilight asked.
"We did encounter them, Lord Tirek and Cozy Glow, but we no longer have them. The centaur actually really really wanted to help us for some reason. He said that he could 'absorb' the Chaotic Radiation, which he called chaos magic, from Eris, which would heal her. He was just about to do so, but before he could, both he and Cozy Glow vanished in a puff of black smoke. We don't know if they teleported, or died, or if something else happened to them, but they're gone now and we don't have them," Felix said.
"You let them out?!" Twilight exclaimed nervously.
"Yes, though we never allowed them to leave Utopia. We weren't done questioning them yet," Felix replied.
"W- we have to warn the princesses. You have to let me go, they are both extremely dangerous!" said Twilight.
"Unfortunately for you, they don't concern us," Felix said.
"But you don't know who they are! Do you have any idea what they - " she was cut off by an extremely irritated Felix, who really didn't appreciate her yelling at the top of her lungs while she was right in front of him.
"I know they are. We already know what they did. Tirek tried stealing all the magic in existence, and Miss Glow tried destroying all the magic in existence. And frankly, we don't care. In fact, we care so little that we couldn't care less even if we tried. We have reached the peak of not giving a shit. If we could rate how much we care using a matter of how many shits we give, we would give like… negative shits. That's how much of a damn we don't give," Felix said harshly.
"You didn't have to put it like that!" Twilight said angrily, "You don't understand the severity of the situation! These people are - "
"Yes, I understand perfectly. I understand that this is a you problem, not a we problem. I understand that your witchcraft doesn't work on us for some reason, since your pathetic little army peppered the diplomat that we sent with what looked to be quite a light show, but left him completely unscathed and left the rest of you completely baffled," Felix explained, "So we don't care because even if they succeed with whatever they're doing, it's not gonna affect us. In fact, even if your entire country combined all of their magic and tried to go up against us, we would decimate them. The fact that your entire nation almost fell as a result of the 'schemes' of a child just proves that you stand virtually no chance. It wouldn't even be a fair fight."
Twilight didn't know what to think. If it were anycreature else, she would just have marked it down as them being overconfident, or just 'spewing a load of shit', but in the case of these humans, she had no idea what their capabilities were. And based on that display they made earlier when they completely destroyed Tartarus itself, there might be some ground to that claim. These humans could very well be a very large threat, on par with the changelings before they were reformed or maybe even Tirek. Twilight knew that, but even she herself was having trouble coming to terms with that fact; every other major threat to Equestria had always been using magic in some way, but these humans weren't. Yet, when they destroyed an entire mountain, they displayed more power than any magic Twilight had ever seen… well, except for Discord and Tirek at full power, but they did it without magic. Who knows what they could be capable of if they could destroy an entire mountain.
Twilight was extremely worried, but she didn't want Felix to see that. So she kept her cool, and maintained a calm facade that betrayed what she was actually feeling. She was about to respond to Felix's statement, but before she could, the disembodied female voice spoke once again.
"Attention all first class passengers, you have arrived at Central Cryogenics Sector 1. The floor you are currently on is floor one. Wilford industries thanks you for choosing Snowpiercer's one of a kind first class experience. We thank you for your ride and/or stay, and we very much hope to see you back here again soon," The voice said before going silent.
"Well, let's hop off," Felix said, getting up from his chair, with his bodyguards following suit. Twilight responded by getting off of the sofa she was sitting on, and trailing behind Felix. Two of the bodyguards took up positions on the left and right sides behind Twilight once again, and they began waking.
The rest of the walk was mostly a rather awkward silence, with neither party speaking to the other simply because there was nothing to talk about. For most of the walk, they went through the same white corridors like they previously had, with the occasional human passing by. There were a lot less of them here, while the previous area they were in was bustling with activity. Another noteworthy difference was that these hallways seemed to be a lot longer than the previous ones, with the nearest junction being very far off in the distance, and these long hallways gave Twilight an idea of the sheer massiveness of Utopia.
Soon enough, Felix led them through a door, and the whole scenery changed. This new room was full of strange metal pods, that oddly enough, shared an uncanny resemblance with the changeling hive. These pods however, looked much more artificial, and were much more neatly arranged, with the pods in the middle being arranged in a circle around a strange looking pillar of sorts. Twilight stood in fear and awe as she stared at the sight in front of her, which were no doubt the 'cryogenic pods' that they had been told the humans used to freeze themselves.
'They were telling the truth. They really are… wait - ' Twilight thought, and her eyes widened as she realised something. 'How many of them are there?! And given the room's size, and the layout of this section of the bunker, how many more of these rooms are there?!' Twilight began to visibly panic as more thoughts flooded her mind.
Felix realised she was panicking and was confused as to why she was doing it now, and didn't do it earlier. "Miss Twilight?" He asked, but she didn't answer, still caught up in her thoughts. Felix then cleared his throat, her moments of unresponsiveness were getting irritating. "MISS SPARKLE!" He shouted at the top of his lungs, and she immediately snapped to attention, while the scientists who were working on Eris noticed they had arrived.
"Yes sir!" She said quickly, snapping to attention after getting the shock of her life. She then realised how stupid she must have looked, and loosened up her stance and tried correcting herself. "I… I mean yes, how may I help you?" She asked politely.
"Are you back with us, Miss Twilight? Your constant daydreaming sessions are getting extremely irritating," Felix said, annoyed.
"I'm sorry. Yes, we may continue," Twilight said.
"Ahh… President Felix," A Germane voice suddenly spoke up, and she looked towards the source, to find a young man in a lab coat smiling as he walked towards them. He had a tag that had a picture of him smiling, with the words 'Heinrich Keifer' underneath the photo, and the words 'USU Head of Department of Biology' in a smaller font underneath his name.
"Who is that?" Twilight asked Felix. Keifer heard her question, however, and decided to answer it himself.
"Princess Twilight Sparkle, I believe?" He asked. "My name is Heinrich Keifer, and I am the head biologist of the USU," he offered his hand, and Twilight reluctantly offered up her hoof as he gave her a handshake, "I'm very pleased to meet you. We are going to accomplish such marvelous things."
"I'm sure you are," Felix said, "Now, let's get Twilight to meet her patient, shall we?"
"Yes of course, right this way," Keifer replied. He then led them towards one of the pods. A makeshift work/research station was set up around the pod, with many desks, filing cabinets, and various types of Twilight assumed to be very futuristic looking medical equipment, together with over two dozen scientists holding tablets, clip boards, and talking to each other. "Attention everyone, I would like all of you to meet someone who is going to help us," Keifer called out, before turning to face Twilight, "Go on, introduce yourself."
After a very awkward round of introductions, during which Twilight spent around forty five minutes getting to know everyone, it was finally time for her to meet this 'Eris'. She was led to one of the pods, the one that contained Eris, and asked to look through the glass. She complied, looking through the glass to find a human gir- a female draconequus?!
"B- but that's impossible! Discord's the only draconequus in existence! Who is - ? How did - ?" Twilight stuttered as she spoke. She was caught completely off guard by who… no, what she saw before her. The scientists, on the other hand, looked extremely intrigued by her statement, their curiosity peaked.
"Again, one of the new inhabitants of this world knows about a top secret project from a million years ago, and knows one of the codenames we gave to one of our subjects," Keifer announced, followed by addressing Twilight. "How do you know about Tom Brady, or Discord, as you refer to him as? Tom volunteered for the experiment a million years ago. There would be know way for you to have ever known about him, nor this experiment. When we linked up to the experimentation bunker and checked up on the project, every single one of the test subjects had been marked as deceased. Unless…" Keifer trailed off. He came upon a moment of realisation, there was only one possible way they could have known. "He survived. But woke up before us, didn't he? That's why his pod didn't detect any life signs when we checked up on it. Ohhhh… this is amazing! The experiment worked! We just made a breakthrough! Ohh, you must tell me everything princess! What does he look like? Does he have any special abilities? Tell me everything!" Keifer said with all the excitement he could muster.
Twilight just stared at him awkwardly, as he looked at him with a wide smile. 'Is this what I look like when I come upon something interesting?' Twilight thought, and began to reply. Before she could though, one of the bodyguards spoke up in a serious tone, taking center stage.
"Mr. President, General Holden needs to meet with you in the drone room, it's urgent," one of the agents said after receiving a call through his earpiece.
"General Holden? Why would he…" Felix trailed off as he began to worry. Something serious had definitely happened, especially if Holden wanted to see him. "Very well, let's go," he then turned to Twilight, "Twilight, listen to Keifer, and behave. Don't worry, you're in good hands. I'll check up on you in a few hours."
"President Felix, so glad you could join us," General Holden said, approaching him.
"General Holden, I hope you're doing well," Felix greeted, "So, what seems to be the problem?"
"As you are probably aware, three hundred of our mini drones are still deployed for surveillance of the town of Ponyville," General Holden said, "Approximately thirty minutes ago, an entire army of around two thousand soldiers teleported into the town, they appeared out of thin air. Approximately twenty minutes ago, they began forming groups of one hundred ponies each. There were twenty groups, and each group strategically spaced themselves an even distance apart in a circle around the town. Around fifteen minutes ago, what we could only assume were 'special agents' began briefing each group about a scouting mission, of which the goal was to locate our bunker. Around ten minutes ago, each scouting party took off, and one of these scouting parties are headed straight for Utopia."
"Right. Though, I'm disappointed in you general. I would've thought you would be able to deal with a couple of primitive horses by yourself," said Felix.
"I normally would, however, we have a few options here, and I would like to ask which of these options I should go through with," Holden said, "We can either intercept them before they reach Utopia, box them in and capture them once they get closer, or take the more peaceful approach and ask them to turn back or be fired upon."
"Hmm… well, I think we should go through with the third option and get them to turn back. I wish to show these people that we are not violent, nor are we looking to do them any harm. Once we prove to them that we are not hostile in nature, they will hopefully try to establish peaceful contact with us," Felix explained, "I'm not as impulsive as Atticus when it comes to my actions. If we attack them or take them prisoner, they will view us as a hostile and violent alien species, and will react as such."
"Wouldn't we just be defending ourselves from a hostile species?" Holden asked.
"That's why we ask them to turn back before we attack. We give them a chance to comply, not just immediately attack them the moment they approach. Just imagine this scenario," Felix began thinking of an example. "Let's say we found aliens on mars. Obviously, we would want to get a closer look at these martians to determine what they're like, see if they are a threat, and establish contact if it were possible. Now, imagine how we would react, and what we would think of these martians if they immediately attacked and obliterated a scouting party of a hundred people that we sent to scout them out. We would immediately view them as an advanced, hostile alien species, and we would react in kind," Felix explained. "But don't mistake my hopes for peace for weakness. If they prove to be a big enough threat, and if they try to straight up attack us, we will crush them," he added.
"Ha! We'll nuke them back to the stone age!" Holden joked, eliciting a soft chuckle out of Felix.
"Now, wouldn't that be a sight to see…" Felix responded.
"So sir, should we send a couple drones and ask them to turn back? Of course, if they don't comply, we'll have to attack them," Holden asked.
"Yes, that's my decision. Carry out the operation however you see fit. You're the general, and you're much more experienced," Felix said.
"Yes sir, but wouldn't you like to… oversee the operation?" General Holden asked.
"What for? You're the general," Felix replied with amusement in his voice.
"Oh… it's just… Atticus always oversaw our major operations, and would give me orders directly," Holden said.
"Well, I'm not Atticus. You're more experienced than me, and you should know better," Felix said. "I still wanna be here for the show though," he added.
"Shouldn't we be able to see Tartarus in the distance by now?" One of the soldiers asked.
"I would've thought so too. Where on Equs is it?" Asked another.
"Hey, quit your yapping!" Lieutenant Sharp ordered, "The enemy could be anywhere, so stay vigilant! We don't wanna miss them… or worse yet, get caught in an ambush. So keep a lookout!"
Lieutenant Sharp, a pegasus, was currently leading a squad that was mostly made up of pegasi. Most of them were flying independently, but a group of them were currently pulling a flying carriage through the air. The carriage itself carried a group of unicorns, all of which were using their magic to scan the surrounding area to see if anything felt off, or if they could detect the human presence. Normally, carriages would be detrimental for a scouting mission, however, they could scan a much larger area with the help of the unicorns' magic, and with any luck, would be able to locate the humans without even having to go near them.
"Uhh sir, we really should be seeing Tartarus by now. I don't think we're going the right way," one of the soldiers observed.
"Relax, there's no way we could mess up going in a straight line. I thought we would've seen Tartarus by now as well, but apparently not. But not to worry, there's no way a mountain could just disappear, the journey's just even farther than we expected," Lieutenant Sharp tried reassuring his men.
"What was the estimated time it would've taken us to get there again?" One soldier asked.
"Four hours if we remained at a constant speed," the lieutenant replied, "Once we pass Tartarus, we'll take a one hour break, and then head back. It's a nine hour trip."
"And we've already been at this for over an hour. I think we've veered off course, there's no way we wouldn't have seen the mountain by now," another stated.
The lieutenant already knew that was the case, however, he wasn't willing to accept it. If they really did veer that far off course, that would mean that they were lost and the higher ups would think something went wrong and assume that they were found by the humans. They would send an army in that direction, thinking that's where they went missing, only to find nothing there. When they did finally find their way back, he would no doubt look like an idiot, being unable to follow the simple instruction of flying in a straight line. No doubt he would be demoted for being such an idiot, maybe even fired. But he didn't want to believe that they had indeed veered off course, because he both didn't want to be fired, and because he didn't want to believe that he was in fact that stupid.
"If we don't see the mountain in the next… let's say thirty minutes, we'll turn back. I highly doubt that we could have failed at flying in a straight line," Lieutenant Sharp relented.
"I don't think we would've failed at that as well sir, but all evidence suggest - " the soldier cut herself off as she began to hear a strange sound.
"Private? You alright?" The lieutenant asked.
"Wait. Don't say a word. Do you hear that?" She asked.
"Hear wha - " the lieutenant cut himself off as he noticed the sound as well. What was most concerning was that the sound was coming from in front of them, and it was getting closer, and fast. The sound itself was, to a pony, an eerie noise. The lieutenant had never heard anything like it, nor could he attribute the sound to anything he knew of. The sound itself was that of a soft roar and a screech, and it was getting louder. He, of course, didn't know that it was the sound of a jet engine, or rather, a drone engine. The engine of the most advanced high altitude drone ever made, the drone itself was shaped like a jet and functioned like a jet, and had the same capabilities as a jet, only it didn't require a pilot.
Soon enough, they saw two small, white specks approaching them, the source of the strange noise. The flying objects were approaching fast, and the roaring noise it emitted was getting louder and louder. The lieutenant had no idea what those things were, and he was actually quite curious to find out.
"Uhh… sir?" One of the soldiers got his attention, "You're seeing this too, right?"
"Yes, I am. I have idea what they are, but we're about to find out," Lieutenant Sharp replied.
"It might be a bird, but considering their size, they might be dragons," one soldier suggested.
"Or they may just be other pegasi… or griffons," another offered up.
"I highly doubt birds, dragons or griffons could fly at such speeds. They're probably wonderbolts," stated another.
As the UFO's got closer, however, they were able to see it in much more detail, and it became apparent that these were no normal creatures. The objects were completely white, and their bodies were definitely not made of skin or fur or any other organic materia. They were shaped like fat arrows, and had two large fin-like wings that protruded from the middle of its body, while two smaller finds protruded from its 'tail'. On the 'head' of the object, laid a sort of flap, producing a dark shadow underneath, creating the illusion of some form of eyes. The look of the approaching objects caused all of them, including the lieutenant, to gradually slow to a full stop.
"What are those things?!" One of the soldiers worriedly asked.
"Those things definitely don't look friendly, and they're headed straight for us!" Another fearfully stated.
"What do we do?! We can't just float here, what if those things attack us?!" A soldier asked, afraid.
"Everypony relax! Did all of you forget that we have some unicorns with us as well?" Lieutenant Sharp asked rhetorically. "And besides, we don't even know what they are, they might not even be aggressive," he began to take on a more confident tone, "But if they are, we have a dozen well trained unicorns that'll turn them into paste."
"Yeah, you can count on us," one of the unicorns replied.
Everypony hovered still and grew nervous as the objects came closer. "Unicorns, only attack them if they attack us!" The lieutenant shouted back over the roaring of the objects. The objects began to slow down drastically as they neared the squad, with one of them moving towards the left of the group, and the other taking the right.
They were initially supposed to fly beside the ponies and escort them as they flew. The fact that the ponies had stopped, however, worked against the drone pilots since the drones didn't have the capability to hover in place and needed to keep moving. The pilots adapted by circling around the group of ponies, making sure to keep their distance to avoid provoking them unnecessarily. To the ponies however, they saw the drones beginning to circle around them as a rather intimidating display, as if they were eagles waiting to strike, which only served to increase their fear and anxiety about the precarious position in which they were now in.
"Steady…" the lieutenant said, "We don't know what they want. With any luck they're just observing and are just gonna pass us by." They had no such luck however, and were surprised when one of the circling objects began to speak.
"Attention ponies, this is President Felix himself and… uhh…" then the voice spoke to more voices, which all seemed to be different sounding voices coming from the same voice of the same object. "Umm… what should I say? General Holden?" The voice asked.
Then, a different voice replied. "You were the one who always said you wanted to do the 'restricted airspace thing which they always do in the movies', so I assumed you would have known what to say," the voice annoyedly replied.
"But those were just… y'know… movies. And there were many variations when it came to how they did the restricted airspace thing, and they were always escorting another plane, not circling around a bunch of flying horses," Felix replied.
"Just… wing it. It's not that hard," Holden replied, now even more annoyed. "That's what I did whenever some idiotic commercial airline fight came into military airspace," he said.
"Oh, just… just wing it? Alright, I can do that. Well, here goes," the voice said confidently. The voice then went silent for a moment. "Hey, general? Don't get mad okay, but I might have accidentally left the mic on throughout the duration of the conversion," Felix said nervously.
"Oh, for God's sake, move over. You're embarrassing yourself," the General said with irritation in his voice. The general's voice was the next one that spoke, and it was clear he wasn't having a good time. "Attention ponies, I am General Holden of the USU air force. You are currently approaching Utopian airspace. I repeat, you are approaching restricted airspace. Divert your course now or you will be fired upon," the voice said sternly.
"What are you?" The lieutenant asked.
"What?" The voice asked.
"What are you?" Lieutenant Sharp repeated.
"A middle aged man?" The general offered, not knowing how to reply to that question.
"Sir, we should turn back," one of the unicorns said nervously.
"Yeah, we don't know what these things are capable of," another soldier stated.
"Turn back?!" One of the soldiers asked in anger. "We can't turn back just because a bunch of metal creatures are threatening us with being 'fired upon'. We have a duty to Equestria, to scout out the area and locate the human base if it's in this area, and we are going to fulfill it! Equestria is counting on us, we can't give up now!" He said. The ponies were not properly briefed on the capabilities of the humans, since all of this was supposed to be top secret, and if the capabilities of the First Humans leaked, it would cause mass panic. As such, they still weren't able to make the connection; the drone was being controlled by a human.
The lieutenant saw both sides of the argument. These really were just some random metal birds that could speak. They were unusual, yes, probably a new undiscovered race. But they were threatening the Equestrian Royal Guard, completely unprovoked. If these creatures made it to Equestria, they could cause all sorts of chaos. In the end, the lieutenant determined that what was going on was probably one of two things: either these creatures were extremely territorial and aggressive, which made them a danger to anypony who would come across them, or, these things were protecting the human rebels. In both cases, the creatures would still need to be put down. The lieutenant had made his decision. A smart decision, considering he didn't know who he was messing with.
"I don't know what you creatures are, but I'm going to give you only one chance. Leave us be, let us pass and there won't be any issue. Continue to obstruct us and you will feel THE FULL MIGHT OF THE EQUESTRIAN ROYAL GUARD!" The lieutenant said confidently.
One of the creatures just repeated itself. "You are approaching a restricted airspace. Divert your course now or you will be fired upon," it said, before both creatures flew back in the direction they came from.
"Did… did we win? Did we scare them off?" A soldier asked.
"It looks like we did," the lieutenant answered. "Onward! Continue with our current course!" He ordered, and they responded by resuming their fight ahead.
They were able to fly undisturbed for around another thirty minutes, before one of the soldiers looked back by chance. The strange objects had returned, but this time, there was no roaring noise. This time, the aircrafts were travelling at supersonic speeds for the purpose of stealth; the aircraft would reach them before the sound would. The drone pilots noticed that they had been spotted, however, and reduced their speed to below supersonic levels. A few seconds after they did this, a sudden deafening boom emitted from their location; the sound of the sonic booms had caught up with them. At supersonic speeds, there is no sound heard as an object approaches an observer because the object is traveling faster than the sound it produces. Only after the object has passed will the observer be able to hear the sound waves emitted from the object.
The booms were heard before the soldier who noticed them could alert the others, and the deafening sound startled them all. Before they could react, however, the two aircraft were already flying beside them, escorting them. This time, both of the UFO’s started ‘speaking’ with the same voice, at the same time. “Attention ponies you are currently within Utopian airspace. Turn back immediately or you will be fired upon. You have thirty seconds to comply,” Both said at the same time, still flying beside the ponies.
“Lieutenant, what do we do?!” One soldier asked, with terror in his voice. The flying things were much closer to them now, and their size, looks, and the fact that they apparently constantly shot fire from behind them made them both look much more terrifying.
The lieutenant thought for a moment. He didn’t have much time to think. He didn’t know those were drones, and he definitely didn’t know what ‘Utopian airspace’ was. Due to his lack of information, he made the worst decision he would ever make in his life.
“Unicorns, target those flying objects! Attack!” He shouted, fully confident that the unicorns of the Royal Guard could dispatch some flying pieces of metal.
And they did, the unicorns began bombarding both creatures with energy blasts. They fired shot after shot after shot, peppering them with dozens of powerful energy blasts in the span of thirty seconds. The blasts did completely nothing though, there was not even a scratch on the objects. But the unicorns did not stop their bombardment, even upon realising the futility of their actions.
The objects then did something completely unexpected. They took off, zooming ahead of them at speeds that they could not match.
“W- what happened?” One of the soldiers asked, still confused as to why the flying objects just left.
“I think we scared them off,” Another suggested.
“Yeah, they seem to be retreating,” One of the unicorns suggested as she saw the UFO’s fading away into the distance.
“Of course we scared them off,” Lieutenant Sharp said confidently, “Did you really think two pieces of talking scrap metal could even hope to stand a chance against the Equestrian Royal Guard?”
As if they were waiting for that overconfident, cocky statement from the lieutenant, the objects suddenly turned around, and were now coming towards them from the front. One of the objects then started spewing out smaller objects, small yield homing missiles, each of which dropped out of an unseen compartment near the nose of the object.
Fortunately for the ponies, the small yield missiles were much slower than regular missiles. Unfortunately for them, however, these missiles would home in on them and follow them to the ends of the earth. The lieutenant didn’t know what those strange projectiles were, but he was determined to ensure their survival.
“Unicorns! Target those projectiles!” The lieutenant shouted, and the unicorns began aiming at the missiles. They got a few lucky hits in, but magic did nothing and the missiles just flew on towards their targets, completely unphased.
“Pegasi, get your weapons and form up into defensive position - “ he was cut off as the first of the pegasi blew up in a fiery explosion, charred guts flying everywhere. Most of the remaining pegasi began rushing towards the chariot, where their weapons were being held. Most of them weren’t even able to get to their weapons before blowing up, however, and most of the ones that did blew up soon after.
Lieutenant Sharp looked around, seeing all of his men being blown to bits around him by the terrifying power of those metal dragons. Some of them tried retreating, attempting to fly away from the ensuing battle. The surrenderees were shown no mercy as well, however, as the projectiles just trailed after them, almost like they had a mind of their own, and blew them up as well. Not a single one of them was able to outrun the missiles.
The two drones had finished launching their first wave of missiles. The result of the first wave was that less than half of the pegasi infantry was left alive. With the first run now over, the two drones then separated, with one drone baking left, and the other banking right. They then began to circle round in preparation for their next bombing run. Fortunately for the ponies, they were making an extremely wide turn to reposition themselves, which would've given them about half a minute of rest before they fully circled round.
The lieutenant saw an opportunity to make their retreat while the aircrafts were making their rounds. "Go back! Retreat! Retreat now!" The lieutenant ordered, though he didn't need to since they had already begun retreating before he even gave the order.
The humans couldn't allow that, however. If there was to be any hope of negotiation with their leader, it would be best that their leader didn't hear of this. The next reason is that it would've given away their capabilities. A miniscule display compared to what they were truly capable of, but the humans definitely didn't need them getting the idea of developing some sort of magical defense against explosive type weapons. To them, it wasn't evil to kill the retreating enemies, it wasn't mercilessness, it wasn't even hatred for the beings that enslaved them. It was just being thorough.
The ponies had managed to get a good distance away from the drones, but they had finished circling back. And the pegasi definitely weren't able to outrun them. Once they were in range, one of the drones began releasing more of the small missiles. On the other drone, a kind of trapdoor began opening underneath it, and as it opened, another large, blunt tipped object emerged; it was a much larger missile, and its target was the carriage that the unicorns were riding in. They had to get rid of all of the pegasi first though, so they wouldn't accidentally 'body block' the larger missile.
The smaller missiles homed in on the pegasi, and one by one, they began exploding into bits. The lieutenant took one last look at his scouting party. Seeing all of his 'good' soldiers dropping like flies, he knew all hope was lost. So he turned around and hovered, already waiting for his oncoming doom. He saw that one of the missiles was heading towards him. It was almost like it was in slow motion, the last few moments of his life.
Then, it hit him. The voices, the fact that they used weapons that he had never seen, the fact that they were talking about 'restricted airspace'... these things were golems. Or, that's what he thought they were. And they were being controlled by - SPLAT! His thoughts were interrupted by him dying.
The last of the pegasi to die were the ones who were still pulling the chariot, who exploded just like the rest. The only ponies remaining were the unicorns, who were in the carriage. Luckily for them, the carriage was still floating despite there being no pegasi pulling it. Unluckily for them, the drone pilot had already begun on getting the missile locked onto them.
"What should we do?!" One of the panicked unicorns asked.
"It can't end this way!" Another said.
"WE'RE ALL GONNA DIIIIIIIIIEEEEEE!!!" One of them started sobbing uncontrollably.
Then, the missile launched.
Before everypony could even finish voicing their panic, it was headed towards them, about to turn them into a pile of guts, charred wood, and ash. By this point, all of them had already been resigned to their fate.
All except one, a unicorn who had just remembered she recently learnt a teleportation spell. And so, less than a second before the missile made contact, she did a short distance teleport to the forest down below, and was able to remain undetected by the drones because of all the trees.
She looked up just as the missile impacted against the back of the chariot. The explosion itself was bigger than a house. She had never before witnessed something capable of creating an explosion of this magnitude. Of course, expert mages who were at the top of their field could do such a thing, but she had never seen such destruction firsthand.
The carriage itself was blown to bits, with pieces of wood being blasted all over, and raining down on the ground. The other unicorns, most of which were her very good friends, were blasted apart as well, with charred limbs, guts, and organs raining down beside the wood and ash. Her friends were all dead, exploded before her very eyes.
She wanted to mourn. She wanted to sit there and cry. But she couldn't, not yet at least. No doubt whatever those things were would scout out the nearby area to check if they had finished the job. She wasn't safe where she was. So, she began to walk back the way that she came. She would have to tell her superiors what she had just witnessed. With any luck, they could return here to collect the bodies. A proper burial was the least they could do for these good soldiers.
“General Onyx!” One of the soldiers knocked on the door and entered his makeshift office once he gave the go ahead. General Onyx was the overseer of the scouting operation, tasked with locating the First Humans. He was the only soldier who had known who they were truly after, and what their capabilities were; he had been informed by Celestia herself when he was tasked with overseeing this operation.
“Ahh… have a seat, have a seat. Mr…” He trailed off, indirectly asking the one who had entered for his name.
“Colonel Sweeper, sir,” he answered, before taking a seat.
“Alright colonel, how may I help you?” General Onyx asked.
“I have been sent to inform you that the scouts should be returning soon sir,” he replied.
“Soon? How soon?” Onyx inquired.
“In about five to ten minutes,” the colonel answered.
“Excellent! I’ll be out in just a moment, just have to finish writing my letter to the princess,” said Onyx.
“Would you like me to wait for you sir?” Colonel Sweeper asked.
“No, that will not be necessary, you go on ahead. Dismissed,” the general replied. The colonel then gave a salute and exited the room.
“Agent Sweetie Drops!” General Onyx walked up to her.
“General Onyx,” Sweetie Drops greeted.
“I decided to head on out of my office to come check up on how the operation went, and you’re the first one I spotted. So, tell me, which party are you waiting for?” Onyx asked.
“I’m waiting for group eight. It’s being led by Lieutenant Sharp,” Sweetie Drops informed.
It was at this point that the other scouting parties began returning to Ponyville. It was a good thing they were all in one piece as well.
It had been around ten minutes, and most of the other groups had already landed. A few of them were late, however, and group eight was one of them. Neither the general nor Agent Sweetie Drops had thought that anything had gone wrong yet. It had been only ten minutes after all. But then, they spotted something moving in the distance, coming out of the everfree forest.
“What is that?” Agent Sweetie Drops asked.
“What’s what?” General Onyx asked, still not noticing the figure moving in the distance.
“T- thats a pony!” Agent Sweetie Drops observed.
“What’s a pony doing in the Everfree Forest?” The general asked, sounding quite surprised.
“Not just a pony. It’s one of the guards, from the direction she’s heading from, it looks like she’s from Lieutenant Sharp’s group. But what’s she doing alone?” Sweetie Drops asked, as the both of them began to make their way towards the guard.
“Excuse me, soldier?” The general addressed her while the duo walked towards her. “What were you doing in the forest? And where is the rest of your squad?”
The unicorn soldier looked towards the general. She was now out of danger, she had managed to lose the drones the humans sent after her by giving them the slip. She had even managed to destroy one of them when she levitated a large log and rammed it into one of the rotating fans that functioned as its propellers. She had managed to down another one by throwing a boulder at it, though the large rock only managed to slow it down, the damage was clearly visible.
She knew who he was, and knew she shouldn’t have made such a display in front of such a superior officer. But now that she was safe, she had time to think of all that had occurred. She could no longer stay strong, and she just broke down into tears.
“Hello? Excuse me, are you alright?” The general asked with concern. “What happened? Where’s the rest of your squad?”
“T- they’re all… all… “ She couldn’t finish her sentence as she once again started sobbing uncontrollably.
“Hey, hey,” Sweetie Drops tried comforting her by putting a hoof on her back. “It’s okay, you’re safe now. But we have to know what happened. Where’s the rest of your squad?” Sweetie Drops asked.
“They’re… they’re dead. They’re all dead! Every single one of them!” She said in between sobs.
“All ninety nine of your squad members are dead?” The general asked in disbelief.
“How?!" Sweetie Drops asked. She doubted a human rebellion could accomplish this.
"W- we were slaughtered. B- by two metal dragons!" She said, still crying her eyes out.
"Metal dragons?" The general asked, now worried.
"I know what I saw! They had weapons the likes of which I've never seen!" She then began to take on a tone of regret. "Th- they warned us. They warned us twice! They showed us mercy! We should've listened."
"Now soldier, I need you to listen to me very carefully. I don't know your name, nor your rank, and I don't know what happened at all. But I really, really need to know what happened, very urgently. We might come under attack very soon, and I need to assess the situation," he then took on a more understanding tone. "I know all this is a lot for you. I can't imagine how you must feel, losing your friends like that. But we can't afford another minute of wasted time. I do understand your plight, however, and I'll give you ten minutes to mourn, although I shouldn't. And after that you better be ready to tell me exactly what happened, detail for detail. Understand?"
The unicorn soldier just nodded her head as she continued crying, with Sweetie Drops still comforting her.
"Thank you. Agent Sweetie Drops, I trust you will take her directly to my office?" General Onyx asked.
"Yes, of course," Sweetie Drops replied. The general then headed back, about to write to Celestia about how they had found the First Humans, and how the scouting party they had sent had been attacked, with only one survivor remaining.
"Celestia, we just had a meeting less than a day ago," King Talon said, "Why have you called us back?"
"Well, we've located the First Humans. They're set up nearby Tartarus, and I think they've destroyed it," Celestia explained.
"What? What do you mean destroyed?" King Steel Horn asked, confused.
"I mean they've demolished it, and for that reason, we believe that the First Humans are currently working alongside Tirek and Cozy Glow," Celestia explained.
"What? How do you know this?" King Rutherford asked.
"Well, the only reason they would have for destroying Tartarus would be to break Tirek and Cozy Glow out of prison. And I believe they could've easily dealt with Cerberus," Luna replied.
"Right, then when are we attacking?" Ember asked, "The longer we leave them to fester, the more powerful they get. And God help us if they are able to once again rally the slaves to their cause."
"That's exactly why I've called all of you. We wish to assault them as soon as possible, however, I think they've gotten more powerful over the years," Celstia stated.Ember asked.
“Well, Tartarus is a rather large landmark. I think it would be rather obvious if it just randomly disappeared. But if you want to know the more intricate details, we tried to spot it in the distance, but we couldn’t,” Luna stated, “So it’s either the first humans, or Tartarus just vanished with no discernible cause, and I highly doubt the latter is the case.”
“And how exactly would the First Humans have been able to accomplish such a thing in the first place?” Ember asked, still skeptical.
“We believe there are two possibilities. The first, is that in the last thousand years, the surviving Vega Corporation employees have been biding their time and getting stronger, and that they are now either back to take over the world and attempt to gain immortality once again, or that they are back just for revenge. Knowing the First Humans however, they are both intelligent and efficient, so the most likely scenario is that they have reemerged once again to do both,” Celestia explained, before Luna took over.
“The next possible scenario, and the least likely, is that these are First Humans, but they’re not from the Vega Corporation. As we’ve already discussed, the First Humans’ society was very much like ours, with their extremely advanced technology replacing the need for magic in their daily lives. As such, we can assume that this Vega Corporation was not the only one to try to build an underground fortress to try and escape the radiation that was brought upon them during the second flood, and we can assume that among all the billions of First Humans that there were, the Vega Corporation was not the only faction that had the required resources to build their ‘doomsday bunker’. They had other corporations as well, bigger corporations. And that's not even taking into account the fact that, before their betrayal, the First Humans told us that they used to nearly two hundred independent nations, all of which we can assume were probably capable of much more than what the Vega Corporation was capable of," said Luna.
"I think the second option seems more likely. Why do you think it's probably the first?" High Priestess Ada asked.
"The explosion that killed them was as big as the badlands itself. I don't think they survived," Prince Rutherford stated.
"If a mere company was capable of creating a bunker, obtaining the technology required for a million year slumber, and nearly ending the world, I shudder to think of what actual First Human nations would be capable of," said Queen Novo.
"But if these really are just surviving Vega Corporation members, we must prepare to both launch an assault against them and defend our countries!" Said King Steel Horn, "Now that they know that we know of their whereabouts, there's no doubt they would try to attack us before we attack them! So we must attack them before they try to attack us before we attack them!"
"Yeah, what he said," Ember agreed.
"Umm, Celestia?" Thorax got her attention. "Why exactly did you say that the First Humans got more powerful? What exactly led you to believe that?"
"You mean other than the fact that they were able to demolish Tartarus? Well…" Luna then explained what happened with the scouting party that they sent. She retold the story of how they used missiles, both large and small, to utterly decimate the scouting party, and the fact that their magic was completely useless against their aircraft.
"That… does not sound like the Vega Corporation," King Talon stated.
"The Vega Corporation did have those metal dragons which you said they used, and although they had extremely powerful guns mounted on these vehicles… they didn't shoot our large, metal arrows that follow you around and then explode upon making contact with you," King Steel Horn added.
"The Vega Corporation never had weapons like these! They had guns, bigger guns, throwable bombs, and bigger guns that shoot out explosive arrows. But they never had aircrafts that shot out explosive arrows, let alone explosive arrows that follow you!" Prince Rutherford raised his voice.
"The Vega Corporation has grown in strength. Either that or we are facing an entirely new threat altogether," said High Priestess Ada, stating the obvious.
"Well, it's clear what we should do. We should strike now! Before they attack us first! Even with their upgraded weapons, I highly doubt they would be able to contend with us if we overwhelm them with our numbers. Seeing as they've just emerged, they probably haven't indoctrinated the other slaves yet, and I still stand by my opinion that we should strike them before they are able to grow their numbers by indoctrinating the human slaves," King Steel Horn proposed.
"Well, that could work, but what if they really are a different faction of First Humans? What if they're not Vega Corporation?" King Talon asked.
"Then we'll be able to catch them by surprise! They won't know much about our capabilities, nor our numbers. If we let them fester, they'll become a much larger threat, but if we strike now, en masse, we should be able to take them by surprise, and overwhelm them with our numbers," King Steel Horn suggested.
"Yes, well, there's a small problem with that," said King Talon, "We don't know anything about their capabilities and their numbers as well. For all we know, the moment we show up, we will be the ones getting taken by surprise by their weapons and their numbers. As Celestia had told us, they only sent out two metal dragons to deal with the scouting party, which I remind you, was a force of a hundred ponies strong. Yet, the metal dragons utterly decimated them, although they outnumbered the metal dragons by fifty to one. And not only that, but they took no damage whatsoever, not even a scratch. These metal dragons were similar to the ones the Vega Corporation had, but much more powerful. So we can assume that whoever they are, they are much more powerful than the Vega Corporation when we fought them a thousand years ago."
"Well, even if they are more powerful, how many First Humans can really fit in one of their doomsday bunkers anyway? From the knowledge we have gained from the Vega Corporation members themselves, we know that these bunkers were extremely difficult and expensive to make. Even the corporation's bunker apparently costed over three hundred billion bits to build, just put that into perspective. The construction costed more than all of the money in Equestria's royal vault combined. And even with their construction machines, it apparently took them nearly ten thousand humans to construct the bunker. They definitely couldn't have built one big enough to house too many humans, and they probably wouldn't have been able to fit too many metal dragons either," King Steel Horn countered.
"King Steel is right," Luna agreed, "Considering the cost and effort that was required to build a bunker that housed just three thousand individuals was already so high, I doubt they could build a bunker to house much more than that, and have enough space for their metal dragons and other weapons."
"But all of you are forgetting one factor. The most important factor," Cadence finally spoke up, "The world ender."
"She's right. What if they use the world ender on one of our kingdoms?" Thorax asked worriedly.
“The world ender? They won’t use it,” King Steel Horn said confidently.
“How do you know that?” Thorax asked. “I think the only reason that they didn’t use it a thousand years ago is because they only had one of these devastating weapons. If this is the Vega Corporation, how do we know that they haven’t made more of these weapons over the past thousand years that we have left them to their own devices? And if the threat we are currently facing is not the Vega Corporation, how do we know that they don’t have any world enders at their disposal?”
“Because through the information that we have gained through Discord infiltrating their ranks, we know that their world enders are extremely hard to make and obtain. Only a select few of the strongest First Human nations out of the hundreds they used to have had world enders at their disposal. So I highly doubt that whoever we are up against have more of these weapons,” Cadence replied.
“That is the reason that they probably don’t have any, but let me tell you the reason that they won’t even use them if they do have them,” King Steel Horn took center stage. “Firstly, even if they do have these weapons, if they use them, they would be killing their own people as well. All of our nations use humans as slaves, so they would be killing a lot of humans alongside us,” he said with a confident tone, “The second is that even if they do have let’s say three of these weapons, the moment they use them, we will have nothing left to lose. If they use all of their world enders, we will be able to launch a full scale assault against them without fear of any possible repercussions. Basically, they won’t have anything left to blackmail us into leaving them alone.”
"I think you're missing another important detail, King Steel," Cadence spoke up?
"What?" He said, annoyed, "What is it this time?"
"The Crystal Empire doesn't condone slavery. In fact, it's illegal there, although we immediately deport any humans that we find within our territory," Cadence answered.
"Yeah, so?" He asked, still not understanding what she was getting at.
"So, the Empire would be the perfect target for the First Humans to use their world ender on," Cadence explained.
"Well, the Empire doesn't have to worry as well. You're probably even safer than the rest of us," King Steel Horn replied.
"What? And why is that?" Cadence asked, now confused.
"Because you don't enslave the humans," King Steel Horn replied.
"What? But, according to what you literally just said, slavery is the only thing that can - " she was cut off as King Steel began to explain his reasoning.
"They wouldn't even attack you with such ferocity in the first place. The knowledge of the First Humans had been passed down through generations of monarchs, and despite their extremely violent nature, my forefathers passed down a very specific detail. The First Humans are a fair and just society, which, although hypocritical, always punishes crime, and the severity of the punishment always match the severity of the crime, they have an 'eye for an eye' policy. Sometimes even 'two eyes for an eye'. Once they learn of the fate of their species, they will most definitely want vengeance against the rest of us. In fact, they will probably try their very best to leave you out of the war as a form of 'reward' for what they consider proper conduct," King Steel Horn explained.
"I… never thought of it that way," Cadence replied.
"Of course. You ponies hippogriffs, and changelings value peace and harmony above all else. The rest of us value strength. I'm not trying to offend you, but a pony would never match a minotaur in terms of military tactics and analysis," said King Steel Horn.
"Well, that I can agree with," Cadence replied.
"Well everycreature, I believe this meeting has gone on long enough and we have already gone through every possible scenario," King Talon said, "Now, since the First Humans have been found on Equestrian soil, I believe our course of action should be decided upon by Princess Celestial and Princess Luna since they have the final say on what we should do. So, princesses, could you come to a decision?"
"We already have," Luna replied. "We shall take King Steel Horn's advice on the matter. We will launch a surprise attack, and overwhelm them with our numbers."
"But Equestria cannot do this alone," Celestia took over, "This is a threat to all of us, and as such, I believe we need to make this a combined effort. So, who will join us, and put an end to the First Human menace once and for all?"
"Well, of course, the minotaurs will join you in your crusade. Frankly, we would've been offended if we weren't invited," King Steel Horn said with a chuckle.
"The Crystal Empire shall assist Equestria in this time of need, to put a stop to the First Humans once and for all," Cadence answered the call.
"The Dragons answer the call to action," Ember said simply.
"The changelings will not help in direct combat, but we will join the war and assist the Equestrian forces in terms of infiltration and information gathering," said Thorax.
"The yaks will not assist in the first assault, but we will assist if things escalate into a war," Prince Rutherford answered.
Then, there were a few more moments of silence, before Celestia finally broke it. "So, I assume the zebras, griffons, and hippogriffs will not be joining Equestria in the upcoming battle?" Celestia asked, and received confirmations from their respective leaders.
"Very well then, for the rest of you, ready your forces. We attack under the cover of the night!" Said Luna.
"Umm, how exactly are all of our forces gonna get here by tonight?" Ember asked.
"Well, I'm glad you asked," Celestia replied, "With the help… of… Discord..? Where is Discord?"
"You're right. If these… humans," Chrysalis practically spat out the word with disgust, "Really do have such powerful weapons, we should take them over instead."
"What? Why? I mean, I get that they have powerful magic and all, but at the end of the day, they're just humans after all. They might be powerful, but they're still kinda worthless," Cozy Glow said, "Especially if we're going to be in charge of a kingdom full of them.
"Because once we control the humans of Utopia, we will have the power to take over all of Equestria by force instead. Our plan will be fool proof," Chrysalis began to take on a dreamy tone, "Imagine having weapons that can destroy your enemies just by being pointed at them. That is how you said those weapons work, correct?"
"Well, we only saw their 'syringe shooters' in action, but when their leader put it to my forehead, he said he could use it to… kill me," Tirek explained, "The way I understand it, if you don't like someone, you point at them, and they won't live anymore."
"But I am still skeptical about this… draconequus project you speak of. I highly doubt that a bunch of humans would be able to create something as powerful as a draconequus, even if they are an ancient, million year old species. Speaking of which, do you really believe them?" Chrysalis asked.
"I think there's some truth to their words," Tirek replied.
"Yeah, I mean, you should've seen them. Utopia was like something right out of a science fiction novel!" Cozy Glow added. "I know they're just humans, and I know that we're about to invade them, but still… respect where it's due."
"So, I need to ask the both of you once more. Are you really, completely certain, that with these humans under our control, that we will be able to take over all of Equestria?" Chrysalis asked, wanting confirmation.
"Heh, all of Equestria?" Tirek chuckled, "With them under our control, we'll be able to take over all of Equs. Especially with having a reality warping draconequus as an attack dog to call upon whenever we want. We'll be unstoppable, because they'll be unstoppable."
"Wouldn't you just steal Eris's magic?" Cozy Glow asked.
"Why should I? If I stole her magic, neither one of us would be able to warp reality. If I have her under my control though…" Tirek noticed that both of them looked like they were getting aggravated. "I'm sorry, I mean that if we have her under our control, we'll basically be able to do whatever we want," he corrected himself, making them begin to slowly form malicious grins.
“Wait, how exactly are we going to take over Utopia anyway?” Chrysalis asked. “I mean, I have no doubt we could easily accomplish taking over a bunch of humans, but we do still need a plan. And I don’t think that old goat is going to be too agreeable with us breaking away from him,” Chrysalis reminded, “Grogar is definitely going to be our biggest problem for the time being.”
“Well, I’m glad you asked. Grogar’s long absence has give me time to prepare the next part of our plan,” Tirek replied. He then blew out a torch, followed by sliding out a piece of the stone wall; a secret compartment. He then brought out an old, worn out looking iron bell. “Grogar’s bell,” he said as he levitated it in front of all of them. “This artefact can steal any creature’s magic. It holds that magic until it is released by this spell,” he showed them a page of the book he was holding, which showed the directions to how to perform the spell. “Which means all the power inside is ours for the taking,” Tirek said with satisfaction in his voice. He then began kissing the bell, before Cozy Glow snatched it up from him.
“You’re drooling on the bell,” she said, annoyed.
Chrysalis then snatched the bell from Cozy Glow as she tried to hold onto it. "Let's perform the spell before Grogar gets back," Chrysalis said, "I don't think he would be so agreeable with us doing this."
"Take my hands," Tirek said, but they didn't, giving him a 'wtf?' look. "So we can all be part of the spell," he added after a few moments. "Unless you'd prefer I take all the magic myself?" He asked with a grin.
"Our path stands, what we do we do together. We force these humans to serve us, then we can use their weapons… and their draconequus. Once we have control of them, we can use them to claim this land and take over whatever kingdoms we want. Then we can all rule our kingdoms, alone," Chrysalis said, putting emphasis on the word 'alone'.
Tirek then started the spell. The bell floated up, followed by making an echoing ring. The bell then blasted them with a ray of orange and black energy, making them a lot stronger than before. They then laughed a magical laughter, fully confident that the entire world was soon about to be theirs.
"I have returned," Grogar announced. "Unfortunately for you, our little get together has to come to an end. I'm breaking up with you," he chuckled. "The only reason I decided upon uniting with the three of you was to actually help Twilight Sparkle in getting a confidence boost by beating the three of you. However, things have changed. The biggest threat that Equestria has ever known has returned once again, and I definitely don't need the three of you on the loose while they're around. I love chaos, but letting you three run around at a time like this isn't chaos, it's stupidity. So, unfortunately, I'm gonna be sending the three of you to Tartarus," he explained, still not noticing that the three of them were absent. "It's not you, it's me. We're gonna have to… break… up..?" He noticed that the three of them weren't there… at least, that's what he thought.
All of them were confused at Grogar’s words. They knew that he now planned on betraying them, but they didn’t exactly know why. Though, considering that these strange humans had emerged recently, they did have an idea as to who this ‘biggest threat ever’ was. What they didn’t understand was why Grogar wanted to betray them in the first place; everything was going according to their plan, so betraying them would only serve to work against him. It would make him three very powerful enemies, and make it even harder for him to conquer Equestria. Another thing they didn’t understand was why he would want to betray them now; the return of the biggest threat to Equestria ever would be a perfect opportunity for them to take over while the princesses and the elements were preoccupied. But in the end, they didn’t care much that Grogar planned on betraying them, because they were going to betray him first anyway.
As Grogar looked around, two glowing green eyes appeared on the ceiling ahead of him. “Oh, way ahead of you, Grogar,” It was the voice of Chrysalis. She then spat out a sticky substance that was aimed at his two front legs, glueing them to the floor and rendering them immobile. Then, there was a short rumbling, followed by the doorway to his right bursting open, revealing a much larger and much more powerful Lord Tirek. A bright light then began glowing from the doorway to his left, which was followed by the entrance of Cozy Glow, who was now a mini Alicorn with a charged horn. Cozy Glow then shot an energy blast at grogar, which was poorly aimed, allowing him to easily dodge it. Cozy Glow then floated the bell towards him, with a dark pink aura surrounding it.
“The bell? You had it all this time? Why didn’t you tell me?” He asked, now growing worried.
“We’re villains, duh,” Cozy Glow said as if it was obvious. The three of them then simultaneously shot a spell at the bell, causing it to activate with an echoing ring. It then began absorbing ‘Grogar’s’ magic with the same yellow and black aura, and as Grogar’s magic was torn from him, he slowly began shifting into something very… unexpected. With all his magic gone, he shapeshifted back into Discord, and fell to the ground with a thud.
“That was unexpected,” Tirek stated, his voice full of confusion.
Discord gave an embarrassed wave, then got up, followed by snapping his fingers… which did nothing. He tried twice more, but to no avail. The trio then began approaching him slowly, causing him to quickly scurry out of the cave.
"Wait… Discord was Grogar? Like the whole time?" Cozy Glow asked, her mind still wracked with confusion. "Should we follow him?" She asked.
"Without magic he's no threat," Chrysalis replied dismissively. "Besides, we have plans…"
"So lemme get this straight," Ember said angrily, "The First Humans have returned, but now not only do we have to deal with them, but the combined forces of Cozy Glow, Chrysalis, and Tirek?"
"Yes?" Discord replied sheepishly.
"And not only that, but we no longer have the means to teleport all of our forces to the First Humans' lair and launch our surprise attack!" King Steel Horn said angrily, "And even if we came by hoof, do you have any idea how long it would take to move an army here, along with the necessary weapons and supplies to help maintain said army?!"
"Remind me again, Discord, how exactly would uniting those three have actually helped Twilight?" Celestia asked, irritated.
"Well, it appears I may have made a lapse in judgement," Discord replied.
"You could've given her reassuring words like everypony else, but no, you decided to unite those three for whatever reason!" Said Celestia angrily.
"You are an idiot!" King Steel Horn shouted at Discord angrily. "We are having a global crisis! These First Humans could very well spell the end for every single creature in the world and you know that! Yet, you still somehow manage to mess up! How is it even possible for somecreature to be this stupid?! Congratulations draconequus, you might have single handedly ended the world!" King Steel Horn said.
"Discord! What on Equs was going through your mind when you did that?!" Cadence asked, surprised at his stupidity.
"I had all of this planned before the reemergence of the First Humans," he replied, though his voice lacked its regular confidence, "I couldn't have known this was going to happen."
"How did you even manage to come up with such a stupid way to 'help' Twilight in the first place?!" Ember asked, "It honestly baffles me how somecreature would even be capable of such a high level of stupidity! I didn't even think such idiocy was possible before you did that!"
"Well, note that we can't get our soldiers here, what do you propose we do?" Ember asked.
"Well, at this point, there's only one of two ways this can go," King Steel Horn spoke up, "Either Equestria launches the preemptive strike by themselves, or we lose the element of surprise. It'll take at least a few days for our forces to arrive, which will allow the First Humans to anticipate and prepare for our attack, leading to a long, drawn out conflict. If the Equestrian military chooses to strike now, we could eliminate the First Humans quickly and efficiently, with very little resistance and without the need for a full on war."
Celestia scoffed. "You can't honestly tell me you're really expecting me to risk my ponies' lives," Celestia said.
"That's what I AM expecting," Steel Horn replied.
"So, you're saying that you want me to risk the lives of - " Celestia was cut off.
"King Steel is right," Luna agreed, unexpectedly.
"What?" Celestia turned towards her sister in disbelief.
"King Steel Horn is right," Luna repeated.
"W- what? You can't tell me you're siding with him? These are your subjects too!" Celestia reminded.
"I know, and that's the reason I agree with him. We must protect our subjects," said Luna.
"I- I'm confused Luna," Celestia said, "I can't believe you! You just said you wanted to risk our subjects' lives, and now you're saying you're trying to protect them?"
"If we don't attack them now, and with the element of surprise, the First Humans will be fully prepared for our attack. Rather than a quick execution, things will escalate into a war, a war that will see many, many more of not just ponies killed, but everycreature else as well. Being so close to Equestria however, would mean that the ponies would be right in the middle of the war. The ponies will suffer the most if we don't destroy this threat with haste," Luna explained.
"But still, the army will be full of Equestrian soldiers. We'll be risking so many lives!" Celestia said.
"If we attack now, we'll be risking many lives. But if we don't, we'll be dooming many more," Luna replied.
"Your sister is right, Celestia," Cadence said, "If these humans are as bad as you say they are, their only purpose right now would be to kill… or rather, drain as many of us as possible to extend their lives. If we let them be, they will bulldoze through Equestria, destroying everything in their wake and becoming stronger with each advance by indoctrinating more humans into their armies. Equestria will be destroyed, and then the empire, and then Yakyakistan, then Griffonstone and so on."
"I'd like to share a revelation that I've had during my time here," King Steel Horn spoke up suddenly.
"I'm sorry, King Steel, but now isn't exactly the best time to - " Steel Horn cut Celestia off as he continued his explanation.
"It came to me when I tried to classify the First Humans, and I realized that they're not actually mammals. Every mammal on this planet instinctively develops a natural equilibrium with the surrounding environment, but the First Humans do not. They move to an area and they multiply and multiply until every single living creature that isn't a human is consumed, and the only way they can survive is to spread to another area. There is another organism on this planet that follows the same pattern. Do you know what it is?" He paused, and when he received no answer, he continued. "A virus. The First Humans are a disease, a cancer of this planet. They're a plague and we are the cure," he paused for a moment, thinking about what to say next. "If antibodies are introduced during the early stages of infection, the antibodies overwhelm the virus, eliminating it quickly. If the antibodies are introduced after the virus is left to fester, it becomes stronger; strong enough to then overwhelm the antibodies. At that point, the virus ravages the host, now becoming completely unstoppable as it multiplies and mutates as it spreads. Do you know what happens next?" He asked rhetorically and paused for dramatic effect. "The virus moves through the body, killing everything until only the virus is left. It kills the host," he said, with everybody present understanding the imagery he was using. "I just hope you understand what I'm saying, Celestia, and choose the former option rather than the latter," he said, ending off his speech.
"WHAT? How in the nine circles of hell did one little pony escape the most highly advanced drones humanity has to offer? And not to mention the most highly skilled drone pilots in the world!" Felix shouted at General Holden. He was now furious.
General Holden audibly gulped. "She… gave us the slip," he said nervously. "And destroyed one of our drones and damaged another," he admitted. Hiding the truth would do more harm than good, especially when the president would find out rather easily.
"Heh… haha… hahahahhahaahah!" He burst out in fake laughter. "You mean to tell me she escaped because your men couldn't do the simple job of using some of the most advanced pieces of technology known to man to track a horse? A horse, that I remind you, doesn't even know what a drone is!" He said angrily, "And how the FUCK did it manage to destroy one of our drones in the first place?!"
"It ambushed the drone sir. It used a piece of wood and rammed it into one of the drone's propellers, causing it to explode," General Holden replied.
"Congress is going to be choosing a president tomorrow! Your shortcomings are going to be attributed to me, and they're definitely not going to overlook this! How am I supposed to win over their support when I have to tell them about this?!" Felix yelled. "General Holden, I'M GOING TO… I'M GOING TO!" Felix took a few deep breaths to calm down. "I want whoever was piloting the drone that got ambushed fired. Transfer him to construction," he said, now in a much calmer and more professional tone. "Why didn't you just perform an aerial reconnaissance to find the pony?" Felix asked.
"The forest canopy was quite thick. It would be extremely difficult to spot her among the trees if we were to do aerial reconnaissance. And we couldn't use thermal imaging since thermal imaging can't see through forest canopies. Well, it can, but it's very hard to pick out a distinct heat signature, so it could have easily been missed. And the in-built AI's are programmed to detect the shapes of human heat signatures, not horses. So, we had to fly extremely close to the ground, below the forest canopy," Holden explained.
Felix sighed in frustration. "Well, get it fixed as soon as you can. Tell our programmers to enable it to detect pony signatures as soon as possible," Felix ordered. "Now, one other thing. The one that escaped was a kind of… military scout, yes?" Felix asked.
"Yes sir, they were scouts for their primitive military," General Holden replied.
"So, given their hostility towards us in both of our encounters with them, we can only assume that they sent these scouts for a reason. Can you tell me what that reason is, general?" Felix asked.
"Well, scouts are usually sent to locate and observe a target," Holden replied, too worried to give the full answer.
"Let me help you finish that, general. Scouts are usually sent to locate and observe a target of attack," he corrected, "So, as the USU's highest military authority… well, except for me… what are you going to do about it?"
"All Utopian nations are currently working together. We've begun readying the drones, along with transporting whatever jets aren't in the main hangar outside. The surrounding area is being cleared of trees as we speak, to ensure no obstructions are within our makeshift runway," Holden then took a look at his tablet. "Four thousand troops from all of our nation's have already been posted around the area. We currently have eight tanks on the ground, and two more waiting to be deployed. Scientists are working round the clock and experimenting on the pony soldier we've captured. All of the information that we've gained from him has been recorded down, and there's some pretty crazy stuff there… such as their leaders apparently being demigods of some kind and being capable of moving the sun and moon."
"Good… good. We're well defended then, I assume?" Felix asked. "How many drones do we have ready?"
"Over a hundred thousand medium helicopter type drones, along with several dozen large jet type ones. Most of our larger drones are within the main hangar though, so we only have several dozen that can be deployed," Holden explained.
"Hmm… excellent work, despite your previous shortcomings that got us into this mess in the first place," Felix complimented.
“I apologise, sir. None of us could have foreseen the creature literally teleporting out of the chariot. But sir, you can rest assured that if they do indeed attack us, they will be but lambs to the slaughter,” the general said confidently. “Unless of course, you would like us to try to scare them off rather than fight them?” Holden asked.
“No. We’ve already given them two chances, and with both chances they were given, they showed nothing but hostility. Even if they had no idea what a drone was, they still threatened to attack it, completely unprovoked, when we just asked them to leave… rather nicely, I might add. These creatures have shown that they are extremely violent and aggressive in nature, and the only way we can coexist with them is if they know exactly who’s boss. And not to mention the fact that they apparently use all other humans as slaves as far as we’ve seen. If they don’t want to negotiate with us, and choose to constantly attack us, we must control them through fear. We must show them that their actions have consequences, that they can’t just attack us and expect us to just sit there and take it. And, of course, if they don’t wish to put an end to their enslavement of our species, we’ll just have to force them to do so,” Felix replied. “That right there was a part of the speech I was gonna give to congress, whaddya think?” Felix asked.
“Well, it is something sir. It’s pretty great,” Holden replied.
“I know. It was made by me after all,” Felix replied.
“Will that be all sir?” Holden asked.
“Yes, yes. I would love for you to stay and chat, but I’ve gotta check up on Keifer,” said Felix, “Dismissed.”
“Sir!” Holden said with a salute, followed by leaving the oval office.
“Ahh, good evening Mr. President,” Keifer said as Atticus entered his lab.
“Good evening doctor. I’m sure you know why I’m here,” Felix replied.
“You wish to know what progress I’ve made, yes?” He asked, “Well, it’s a good thing that you came as well, because I wanted to ask you for permission on something.”
“Permission? You’re the USU’s head biologist. You already have the highest clearance level available, along with near unlimited resources and the authority to get almost anything done. What could you possibly need permission for that you aren’t able to authorise yourself?” Felix asked.
“Well, I do have the authority to order it done, but I thought it wise to consult you first,” Keifer answered.
“Well, lay it on me then,” said Felix.
“You see, we’ve discovered why the ponies’ magic doesn’t work on us. It’s the same reason that the princess and her friends couldn’t teleport out of Utopia as and when they like,” Keifer explained, “The ponies’ ‘magic’ is easily explained away by science. What they call ‘magic’ is actually Keifer’s radiation, and that same radiation has somehow given them the ability to manipulate said radiation to accomplish a whole plethora of different feats. Now, you might be wondering why their ‘magic’ doesn’t affect us. You see, when their ‘magic’, which is actually radiation, affects someone or something, it reacts with the radiation inside that object, and since we have no radiation for theirs to react with, we are completely impervious to it. An example would be that when they levitate something, they are actually levitating the radiation inside that object. Of course, there are more technical bits, but the full explanation is a bit complicated, and I have simplified it to allow you to understand it better.”
“Doctor, that is an excellent discovery! It’ll no doubt help us in our future endeavours, especially with our research on their ‘magic’, which is scheduled to begin after the election,” Felix complimented. He then remembered the main topic for their discussion. “But you said you needed permission for something, right? What is it?” He asked.
“You know how magic is unable to react against objects without magic? Well, since the air in Utopia doesn’t have any Keifer’s radiation, magic doesn’t work in Utopia either. Which means that we don’t have to worry about the ponies teleporting into Utopia and ambushing us and destroying everything,” Keifer explained, “But it also means that the princess can’t use her magic in here as well, which means she can’t help Eris while she’s in Utopia.”
"Right… so I assume you have a way to rectify that?" Felix asked.
"Yes, and that's what I needed your approval for. I want to take her outside of Utopia, and allow her to freely use her magic. Of course, it will be for the purpose of resuscitating Eris," Keifer answered.
"Go right ahead. Permission granted," Felix said unexpectedly.
"W- what?" Keifer asked, "Just like that?"
"She needs to use her magic in order to come up with a way to help Eris, correct?" Felix asked.
"Yes, that is correct," replied Keifer.
"Then why shouldn't she be allowed to do so?" Felix asked.
"I mean… aren't you afraid that she could escape? That she could teleport away? Or that she'll use her magic to attack people or something?" Keifer questioned.
"Not at all. She wouldn't teleport away, not when we've threatened to kill her friends if she does. And she wouldn't attack anyone either, she knows that there'll be consequences for her actions," Felix said confidently.
"R- right. So, I guess I'll take her outside now then… so we can begin our work," said Keifer.
"No, no need. It's already getting rather late. I think the princess should already be worn out from her four hour long chat with you. Get someone to escort her to her room, I'll be having dinner with the ponies tonight," Felix ordered.
"Yes sir, I'll get her to her room," Keifer replied.
"Dismissed," said the president.
"Twilight!" All her friends cried out all at once as she entered Pinkie’s room, which they were all in. They hadn't seen her for a few hours, ever since the humans had kidnapped them. They weren’t allowed to leave the confines of their rooms either, other than travelling between each others’ rooms.
"Hey gir - " she was cut off as they all tackled her into a hug, piling on top of her.
"Are you okay?" Fluttershy asked with concern.
"They didn't hurt you, did they?" Rarity asked.
"They had better have treated you well! If they so much as scratched you, I'll - " Applejack was cut off as Twilight spoke.
"Hey girls, relax. They didn't hurt me, they treated me rather well," Twilight interjected. "How about the rest of you? Are you okay?" Twilight asked.
"Yeah, we're doing just fine. Honestly, this place is amazing! They have trains, underground! Their rooms are super comfy! And they gave us a lot of entertainment too! We got to watch a kind of moving picture that they called a movie! We watched something called Anchorman: the legend of Ron Burgundy! It was hilarious!" Pinkie said excitedly. "It only featured humans though, and we could do with some food though," she said, finally calming down.
"I think what Pinkie means to say is that this place would be amazing, if it wasn't being run by humans," Rainbow Dash corrected.
"Well pinkie, it's a good thing you mentioned food, because I'm pretty hungry myself," Twilight said. "I have both good news and bad news. The good news is that we're gonna be having dinner at the most high class restaurant that Utopia has to offer, with the head chef being someone named Chef Ramsay who is apparently one of the best chefs in existence. The bad news, however, is that…" Twilight hesitated, "We're gonna be dining with their leaders. The humans' leaders, I mean."
"So we're going to have to deal with uncouth barbarians that literally eat with their bare hands?" Rarity asked, forgetting the scene from the movie when they had dinner in a fancy restaurant.
"Yeah, do you have any idea how messy the humans are when they eat?" Rainbow Dash asked, forgetting as well.
"Well, that's the bad news. The ones we’re eating with are basically their equivalent of Celestial, Luna, Cadence, Thorax, and Ember," Twilight explained.
"Well, at least it's something. I'm very very very veeeeery hungry. So when do we leave?" Pinkie asked.
"Well, it's a good thing you asked," a voice came from behind them. They all turned around to see a group of four men in suits entering the room. "Because we're here to take you there now."
"Man… The Golden Plate… you're very lucky to be able to experience Chef Ramsay’s cooking. Well, except the princess because she’s technically a… well, princess," one of the men said, "Did you know only the Utopian leaders and the people who invested at least twenty billion dollars into Utopia's development get to go there? We
“Psst!” one of the men in suits whispered to the other. The sensitivity of the ponies’ ears allowed them to hear what he was saying, however. “I don’t think we’re supposed to talk to the aliens.”
“Relax,” the other whispered back, “I’m sure a little chat wouldn’t hurt anyone.”
“You do know that they enslave humans, right?” The first one whispered.
“Whatever. Fine, I’ll shut up,” the other replied.
“So, ready to go?” One of the men asked them.
“Yeah, we’re ready,” Twilight replied.
“Alrighty then, follow us,” one of the men instructed.
So, the ponies walked through another set of corridors, followed by entering the train, where they rode in the lounge cart alongside their escorts. The train ride itself wasn’t that long, it only lasted five minutes. But during that time, they were all talking about how truly marvellous this place was. It was like something from a fantasy, especially with it being run by humans. Twilight had told them about how Eris was a draconequus, along with telling them about the cryogenics chamber and how she had to spend four hours just answering whatever questions one of the human ‘doctors’ had.
The rest of the ponies told Twilight of the technological marvels they had witnessed. How they saw a movie on a strange black screen that the humans apparently call a ‘TV’. They told her about how they saw what Equs once used to look like when they saw the movie, and how Equs was apparently once populated primarily by Humans, who were the first and only dominant species a long time ago. They talked about how these humans acted a lot differently than the ones they kept as slaves; how these humans actually acted with a degree of… civility. How it seemed that these humans didn’t seem to have a social structure as savage and basic as the slaves’ social structure, where it was a dog eat dog world and the strong could do anything they wanted to the weak, and the weak pretty much functioned as the stronger slaves’ slaves. Here however, it looked like strength didn’t matter since all of them respected each other just the same, especially considering their leaders weren’t strong, muscular people and looked rather average. They also talked about how they had never once seen any of the humans force themselves on another, or sexually assault another, while it was extremely prevalent among the slaves. Their short talk was cut to an end though, as the train came to a stop.
"Attention all first class passengers, you have arrived at The Penthouse, within the Mall Sector. The floor you are currently on is floor three. Wilford industries thanks you for choosing Snowpiercer's one of a kind first class experience. We thank you for your ride and/or stay, and we very much hope to see you back here again soon," The regular announcement came from the speakers, before going silent.
"Well madams, we're here," one of the agents said as the door opened. "Let's get off," he said, and led them out of the train, then out of the train station.
The doorway of the train station opened onto the second floor of a large hall of some kind, in front of a balcony overlooking the ground floor, and two sets of stairs leading downwards. The first floor had a kind of pattern that was made from the tiles. At the very middle of the first floor, right in front of the staircases, laid a kind of reception area, with two humans; one male and one female, manning the counter, which was surrounded by four trees that nearly reached the ceiling. There were several high class restaurants of different cuisines, lounges, hotels, and high class bars built into the sides of the structure, wrapping all around it. The second floor looked like it was pretty much all balcony, and overlooked the first floor. The balcony itself was made up of both metal railings and glass panes. The outskirts of the second floor was lined with the same grand looking restaurants, lounges, and other things as well. Along with this, there was a small area above the second floor as well, which was lined with grills that contained air conditioning devices within them. The ceiling of the 'hall' was made completely out of a sunroof, which stretched the entire length of the hall they were in. The sunroof baffled them, seeing as they were so far underground, and that there should've only been dirt above the bunker. The only other exit besides the train station was another doorway at the end of the long hallway, leading to the rest of the mall.
"Welcome…" one of the agents said, pausing for dramatic effect, "To The Penthouse!"
The area was bustling with activity, with humans in suits walking all around, some emerging from the other doorway, and some exiting through it.
"How do these humans seem to have an unlimited amount of suits? Do you have any idea how expensive suits are?" Rarity whispered to the rest of the group.
"It's expensive for us because it's really hard to make one. With their technology, it might be much easier," Twilight explained.
"This is where you find the most exclusive bars, restaurants, hotels, and lounges. There's even a nightclub over here, but it's not open yet," he explained. "Well, let's head to The Golden Plate. Better not keep them waiting," One of the agents said, followed by leading them towards one of the staircases. To the ponies' surprise, it turned out that the staircase was actually moving downwards by itself.
The two agents that were escorting the ponies from the front causally got on the escalator, and began descending. The ponies however, hesitated, not knowing what to do.
"Is there a reason we've stopped?" One of the two agents escorting them from behind asked, "Is something wrong?"
"What are we supposed to do?" Twilight asked, looking at the moving escalator.
The agent sighed in frustration. "Just pick a step and walk," the agent then went to 'demonstrate' how to get on an escalator. "Just walk like how you normally do. It's not that hard," he said, and the ponies were able to follow suit without much difficulty.
"First underground trains that travel a few kilometers at most, and now moving staircases?" Rainbow Dash asked in disbelief as they got off the escalator and walked towards the restaurant. "These humans have actually reached the peak of laziness. They can't even walk down some stairs! What's next? Moving chairs?" Rainbow said sarcastically.
"Well, I highly doubt moving chair - " Rarity was cut off as a woman in a moving chair on wheels rolled by. "Well, I stand corrected," she said in disbelief.
"I wouldn't mind getting one of those! Pinkie remarked excitedly.
They walked towards one of the expensive looking restaurants, one with the sign ‘The Golden Plate’ plastered above it. The front and only entrance was made up of two open doors, which revealed a grand, high class setting within the restaurant. The first thing inside the restaurant, right through the door, was a formally dressed female attendant at a podium with what looked like a menu on it. Outside the restaurant, four large men in suits stood at attention; the restaurant’s security guards. You do need some form of security if you’re going to be hosting the world’s most important people. Other than the security guards standing outside the restaurant, there were several small groups of formally dressed humans conversing with each other; those who had just finished eating and were saying their final goodbyes to their associates or just chatting. The agents walked up to the podium, and were greeted by the attendant.
“Good evening sirs, how may I help you? Do you have a reservation?” The woman asked.
“No, but they do,” one of the agents replied, pointing at the ponies.
“O- oh! I didn’t even notice them, how silly of me. Princess Twilight and company, you have a reservation with the world leaders themselves, correct?” She asked.
“World… leaders..?” Twilight asked. She was confused by their title, seeing as they apparently rule over just one small city.
“Yes, they do,” the agent replied.
“Very well then. The rest of you will have to wait outside though,” she gestured at the four agents who were escorting them.
“That won’t be a problem,” the agent replied.
“Excellent! Now for the rest of you,” she turned to face Twilight and her friends. “Right this way please,” she said, and began leading them deeper into the restaurant.
The restaurant itself was mostly done in the same white theme as the rest of Utopia, but rather than the ‘futuristic’ vibe the rest of the bunker gave, this one gave more of a vibe of relaxation and class. There were tables and chairs placed strategically throughout the restaurant, most of them seating formally dressed men and women. From the ceiling, dangled lines upon lines of mini chandeliers which were made up of strings lined with crystals. At the very middle of the restaurant, stood an elevated circular platform with railings all around it, featuring a flat, curved ramp that led up to it. That’s what the attendant was leading them towards.
"How can humans even be this… fancy? And why aren't they messily using their hands to eat?" Rarity asked as they walked.
"Don't you remember the film?" Fluttershy reminded, "Their society used to be very much like ours."
They all walked up the ramp, and upon reaching the platform, it revealed all of the suited humans that were present for their landing earlier. They were all seated next to each other at an eleven seater table, where the humans took up seven spots of the table, while the remaining six were left for the ponies. They were immediately noticed upon their arrival.
“Ah, the purple horsey princess that I’ve heard so much about,” Aladeen said immediately upon seeing them. “I have a spot saved for you right here,” he tapped the empty seat on his right.
"Aladeen, what are you doing?" PM Jack asked. He was the only other person who had an empty seat to his left.
"Oh, I'm showing these aliens my hospitality, of course," Aladeen replied.
"I really think that the princess should sit next to me. You have a tendency to be… overly hospitable," Jack replied.
"Nonsense, I'm just treating a foreign dignitary well," said Aladeen.
"Well, you're definitely gonna try to treat her very well, and that's what I'm afraid of," Jack said.
"What are you implying?" Aladeen asked, taking a sip of wine, knowing full well Jack wouldn't spell it out in front of all these people. Unfortunately for him, someone else would.
"What he's saying is that some of your recent Google searches were 'Why is purple such a sexy colour' and 'Is it bestiality to have sex with an animal if the animal is extremely cute and of above average intelligence'," Felix said outright, eliciting snickers from all the other leaders present, while Aladeen spat out his wine, "And your last Google search before coming here was 'How long do horses last during sexual intercourse'. Do I have to continue?"
"No!" He impulsively shouted, before immediately correcting himself. "I mean… no, that will not be necessary."
"Good," Jack said. "Now princess, come over here and take a seat," he told Twilight, and she did so as her friends found their own seats as well.
"So, shall we get started on the main course?" King Osas asked.
"Yes, we shall," PM Mateo confirmed, followed by pressing a button on the table labeled 'call'.
"So, Princess Sparkle, I believe we still have some things to clear up," President Alexi addressed her. "Why is it that when the ex USU president, Atticus, sent a diplomat to enlist your aid, you attacked him and his escort?" He asked. His voice was calm, but his Russian accent made him sound menacing.
"Well, we thought they were slave rebels," Twilight answered.
"Ah yes, while we're on the topic of slavery, why is it that you practice slavery in the first place? And how did humanity apparently become your main source of slaves?" Xi Mingzhe asked.
And so Twilight explained the war to them as they ate. She told them of how all creatures once used to live in harmony, and how war was once a completely foreign thought to all the creatures of Equs. She then explained how one day, the humans just decided to take over everything out of the blue, and randomly started massacring entire cities. She then told them how through the power of friendship, they were able to defeat and subdue the humans.
"And… how long exactly have you been enslaving all of humanity?" Bjorn asked.
Twilight hesitated. "A… thousand years," she said, eliciting gasps from everyone at the table.
"You mean to tell me… that you've reduced our great species to nothing but slaves, and kept them in chains for a thousand years?" PM Mateo asked with venom in his voice.
"You can't just forget about what your 'great species' did," Applejack said mockingly.
"Your kind killed so many! We gave you mercy by enslaving you rather than wiping you out!" Rainbow Dash said.
"So because of what they did literally a millennia ago, you've kept them enslaved until now?!" Felix retorted.
"We have to keep them subdued! They killed people. They killed millions. They were monsters. If we let your kind go you'll just go back to your savage ways What would you have done?" Twilight asked. "Surely you would've done something similar?" Twilight asked, trying to regain the moral high ground.
"Exactly what we did with the fucking Nazis! Sanctions on their military, keeping them subdued through the threat of overwhelming force should they act, arresting and trying their leaders in court! We didn't fucking enslave them, and they killed tens of millions!" Felix shouted back. The whole restaurant was now staring at them.
"Felix, I think you sound calm down," King Osas tried to get him to stand down, "These creatures are primitive in their mindset. They're not as intelligent as we are."
"Excuse me?!" Rainbow Dash shouted, "We are more intelligent than you! You're the primitive, barbaric, uncivilized savages! How dare - "
She was cut off as a human soldier, a Russian, rushed up the ramp and into their eating area. He was panting heavily, and immediately addressed them the moment he saw them. "World leaders, why on earth aren't any of you answering your phones?" He asked in between pants.
"It is rude to pick up a phone call at the dinner table, so we all most likely left our phones on silent, and I didn't pick it up when it vibrated," PM Jack said.
"Yes, I did feel my phone vibrating as well," King Osas stated, followed by the other leaders all saying the same thing.
"Well, what is it? What's the matter? Why's it so urgent?" Alexi asked his soldier.
"It's the ponies, sir. Our surveillance drones have detected a large amount of the pony forces, as well as several other creatures, gathering at the town known as Ponyville," he explained, "All of Utopia's generals are currently preparing a large defensive force as we speak."
All of the world leaders quickly got up one by one. "Sorry, but we have to cut this dinner short," PM Mateo said.
"Finish your food and head out, my agents will escort you all back to your rooms. We have other matters to attend to," Felix said, before they all left in a hurry, without uttering another word.
"Twilight, what are we going to do? We can't let these humans harm all those innocent ponies," Fluttershy said, as caring as usual.
“General Ivan, report!” President Alexi ordered as the world leaders entered one of the drone control rooms, where pilots were controlling the mini drones that were still observing Ponyville, having remained undiscovered. Ivan was the first one they had spotted, and rather than go to their generals individually, the leaders thought it more convenient to just listen to one of them explain it to them all at once.
“President Alexi!” He said, saluting. “The reason you have been called here is because something disastrous is afoot. The Equestrian forces have begun rallying a large number of their troops in Ponyville. At our current count, there are approximately seven thousand pony soldiers gathered in the area, with more soldiers coming in as we speak. They have already begun getting into attack formations, with their formations being similar to the ones used during the medieval era. Their weapons and armour are primitive, with most of them being clad in gold, or gold painted armour, along with spears, swords, and bows being their main weaponry.”
“And I assume you and the other nations’ generals have come up with a defensive plan?” Alexi asked.
“I apologise sir, but that’s not all I have to report. There’s more,” Ivan said.
“Well, go on ahead,” Alexi replied.
“There are also several undiscovered species of other (presumably) sentient creatures among them, along with three additional ponies with protrusions similar to that of the pony princess Twilight Sparkle. From the information that we have gained from the pony sergeant currently in our custody, we have learned that these ponies are a combination of all pony types, having the increased strength of ‘earth ponies’, the flight abilities of ‘pegasi’, and the magical capabilities of ‘unicorns’, although the power of an alicorn is vastly superior to that of almost any other living creature. The alicorns are apparently the most powerful creatures alive that… as he put it, ‘aren’t evil’,” Ivan explained.
“Okay, and what of the other creatures, what are they?” Alexi asked.
“Well, there are several types of other creatures, but due to their smaller number, we believe them to either be diplomats sent by these other creatures, or their leaders themselves. It appears they are not part of the army, but rather observers,” Ivan explained, “And as for the creatures themselves, they consist of what look to be a combination of animals and fictional mythological creatures that exist only in the realm of fantasy, and I’ll show you a photo in a while. These creatures include zebras, yaks, colourful bug-like quadrupeds, mixtures of horses and birds that a mythological expert identified as hippogriffs, actual griffins, real life minotaurs, and what we can only describe as… dragons.”
“Dragons?” Felix asked.
“Yes sir, that’s exactly what they look like sir,” the general replied.
“So, what have you and the other generals come up with? What is our defensive plan?” King Osas asked.
“Well, we currently have two different plans to choose from. The decision on which option to use will be left up to all of you,” the general said. “The first option is that we use our jets to launch a preemptive strike against their forces, completely wiping out their army, along with their leaders in one swift motion; it is the safest, easiest, and most cost-efficient solution to our predicament. The second option is that we don’t attack them, we let them attack us and we defend ourselves accordingly. This option is the less efficient and cost-effective solution, because the only way we could defend ourselves from their soldiers, without risking any lives, would be to retract our soldiers and let our medium drones swarm them and do the work for us. Depending on how effective they are at combat, they might manage to eliminate hundreds, maybe even thousands of our drones. Then we have room to launch a counter attack and capture the town with little to no resistance,” General Ivan explained. “The first solution would be best if you want to go to war with these people, while the second would be best if you still wish to take a diplomatic approach. That way, once they inevitably beg for us to come to the negotiation table and talk things out, we will be able to take the moral high ground by claiming that they attacked us first, while we only acted in defense. If we attack them however, they could easily claim the moral high ground, which might significantly restrict our ability to make demands and impose sanctions upon them once this conflict has concluded,” the general added.
“Why can we only use drones?” Xi Mingzhe asked, confused, “Don’t we have heavy artillery? Missiles? Tanks? Even a few jets?”
“Well yes, we do. We can’t get the majority of our war machines out however, seeing as all of our artillery, the majority of our tanks, and the majority of our jets are still within the main hangar,” Ivan replied.
“What about the missiles? Surely we could launch them and utterly decimate our opponents?” Xi Mingzhe asked.
“That’s another problem. The rubble from the mountain we had just demolished are currently burying all of the launch points of our missile silos,” Ivan explained.
“Missile… silos?” Mateo asked. He didn’t know what those were; he wasn’t a military man after all.
“The little holes in the ground missiles shoot from,” Ivan replied.
"Well, I think I speak for all of us, or at least the majority, when I say this, but we simply cannot attack them first," PM Jack stated.
"What? Why not?" President Alexei asked, "A preemptive strike would eliminate the threat without them even coming near us."
"Because, if we strike first, they'll see us as the villains of this conflict. I do not support the fact that they are enslaving the rest of our kind, but they are doing this out of fear for us, and that fear is very much well placed seeing as the rest of the human race apparently went berserk one day and started killing everything. That's also the reason they're attacking us, out of fear… or at least, that's what I think," PM Bjorn told the rest of the leaders, "But even if we aren't, what do you think is gonna happen if we strike first? Considering their relative stupidity, they might not even realise it was a preemptive strike that we launched so they couldn't attack us. They might just think that we're simply a hostile alien species that's attacking them."
"And what's the problem with that?" Aladeen asked, finding the thought of being thought of as a hostile alien race quite appealing.
"Utopia is currently undergoing its first impressions, and it looks like we're going to be stuck with these creatures for quite some time. We are entering the new global stage of this world, and I don't think I need to tell you why it's in our best interest to not be thought of as hostile aliens," said Felix, "Even if they aren't a threat to us, attacking them could have disastrous consequences. Whether we like it or not, these are the new countries and governments we are going to have to deal with. If we attack them, the news will spread throughout the globe. Imagine what everyone will think if we attack them first. We'll just prove to be the 'barbaric, primitive savages' that the ponies in our custody currently believe us to be for some reason, despite it actually being them who ate all those things. Hypocrites, really. From what I've seen from these creatures thus far, I completely and utterly despise them, but we're gonna be stuck with them for now. At least until they either give up slavery, or we are forced to launch a full scale invasion against their country and take over Equestria. But for now, launching a preemptive strike would only do us more harm, especially on the political side of things. And if we do end up having to invade, doing this will only make it much harder to keep control of the country since the creatures would no doubt try to rebel with much more ferocity if we did attack them."
"I think we should put it to a vote," King Osas suggested, “It seems we have differing opinions, and in this situation, we must all act as one. That means that we can’t just go and do what we want using our own authority. For the time being, Utopia must act as one nation, rather than several independent nations.”
“Osas is right. We must act as one body, and put this to a vote,” PM Bjorn said.
“I agree. We shall have to vote,” Felix said, before thinking of something to add that would hopefully convince the others to participate and honour the results of the vote, “Of course, all of you are still the completely independent rulers of your individual nations, which means you have the final say on whether you wish to participate in the vote and honour the decision or not. Since we act as independent bodies, there is no law that states that we must vote on an action together, and I want to tell you that by participation and honouring the vote, you are not being stripped of any authority over your nations.”
“Of course, if you don’t honour the vote, you and your entire nation would look like assholes, but you have the right to do so,” King Osas stated.
“Well, as much as the Russians would hate to agree with the Americans, I must say that our best course of action is acting as one body,” President Alexi stated.
"Very well then, since everyone else is agreeable, my main will agree to participate in and honour the final decision made as well," Xi Mingzhe agreed.
"Hispanica will join in this decision making as well," said Mateo.
Everyone then looked towards Aladeen. "What? You expect Wadyia to - " he stopped himself mid sentence as he noticed the stern looks he was receiving. "Fine, Wadyia will honour the vote as well. Whatever," he relented.
"Excellent," King Osas said, "Now, who here votes for the preemptive strike?" Only one of them raised their hands, and that was Aladeen.
"Well, it's settled then. We will let them come to us, and we will mount a defensive assault once they have clearly trespassed into our territory. Which means, they'll have to be right on top of Utopia, or at least very near it. If they aren't, they could twist this into an argument against us, saying that we still attacked them first, which might restrict our ability to make demands as well," PM Jack advised.
That was when Keifer burst into the room, running in a panicked state. "World leaders! World leaders!" He said, followed by stopping in front of them, panting. "World… leaders. We… we've overlooked s- something," he said in between pants. "T- the ponies… they h- have the ability to destroy us all," he said, recovering.
"What?" Felix asked, confused, "Doctor, I mean no disrespect, but what is the meaning of this intrusion?"
"We've overlooked something that could spell the end for us all. Remember the draconequus project?" Keifer asked.
"Yes, what about it? The project was mostly a failure, and we know next to nothing about the only survivor," PM Bjorn replied.
"Well, we know a lot more about subject Discord now thanks to the princess," he said, handing them a tablet with a detailed report of their conversation.
The world leaders read the report. It detailed Discord's apparent ability to do whatever he wants with pretty much near unlimited power. It detailed the fact that he was able to shift the location of the sun and moon on a whim. It told of how he was able to manipulate the entire planet and warp it into a chaotic mess, seemingly on a whim. But the most worrying thing was the fact that Discord apparently played a crucial part in defeating the rest of humanity during the war.
"You're right. This… warped version of the former Tom Brady could very well end us all," PM Mateo stated.
"We must find Tom, capture him, and bring him back to Utopia as soon as possible. And if it isn't possible to capture the subject, we must terminate him," PM Jack said.
"Yes, but how exactly are we going to go about doing that? From what we understand, he's basically omnipotent," Xi Mingzhe stated.
"Yes, but not omnipresent or omniscient. We could attack him by surprise, without giving him any time to react," PM Bjorn suggested.
"But if Tom Brady… or rather Discord, is about to attack Utopia with the Equestrians, we must go with the preemptive strike instead. We have to eliminate him immediately; if he manages to reach Utopia, it could be game over for all of us," said Felix.
"World leaders!" General Ivan suddenly addressed them.
"Not now general, we're - " Alexi was cut off as the general quickly addressed them.
"It's the leaders of all the creatures. They're convening. I thought you might want to listen in on what they have to say," the general replied. This did pique their interest.
"Show us," Alexi ordered, and the general directed their attention to the largest screen present, which was in the middle of the drone room.
"Are we ready to attack?" King Steel Horn asked.
"In a moment, we're still awaiting the arrival of five thousand soldiers. But, what do you mean 'we'?" Celestia asked, confused, "Are you going to be participating in the assault?"
"Yes, of course I am. Not doing so would be a show of cowardice," Steel Horn replied.
"But… you don't have your army with you," Celestia said, "Just ten minotaurs as an escort."
"Yes, and together, we are the eleven strongest minotaurs alive," he stated in a cocky tone.
"Yeah, me and my escort are gonna be joining in as well," said Ember.
"Cadence and I will join you as well, though you've probably already expected that," Said Shining Armour.
"There are already a thousand changelings hidden among the ponies," said Thorax, "If we don't win this battle, the changelings will foalnap and take the place of whatever First Human soldiers we can. We'll infiltrate their ranks and relay any necessary information back to you, and we'll bring them down from the inside if possible."
"Hmmm…" Celestia put her hoof to her chin, assuming a thinking pose, "As much as I would like all of you to stay safe, being the leaders of the other nations and all, your participation in the battle will be extremely helpful. The help of the strongest minotaurs, along with a few dragons fighting with us during the battle will be invaluable. And the changelings would be able to tear them apart from the inside if this battle doesn't go according to plan."
"But we can't get cocky either. We must fight this battle as if it's the last thing we'll ever do. Even with our numbers, the Vega Corporation… or whoever that is, will be able to mow us down with their guns. We already know those who are on the front lines will be completely slaughtered, but once we flank around behind them and surround them, we'll have the upper hand… hopefully," said Shining Armour.
"But we can't forget that the First Humans have explosives at their disposal as well. Although their explosive weaponry are small in number, a few well placed missiles or artillery shots could allow them to kill us," she gestured to the leaders present in the room, "And knowing them, they'll probably immediately target us to plunge our nations into chaos."
"And that's not even mentioning the fact that they have these things called tanks. They're essentially indestructible, moving, buildings. If they employ even one of these war machines, we'll be completely defenseless. We can't even scratch those things, they'll pretty much be able to freely murder us," said Ember. Now that the battle was nearly upon them, she was worried. "We should've thought this out better."
"Actually, thanks to me, we do have a defense against them. I've given several pegasi carriages full of barrels of gunpowder, which they'll drop on the tanks if the First Humans employ them. This will essentially allow us to match the strategy of the 'bombing runs' that the humans used against us during that one battle. It immediately shifted the tides of that battle," said Luna.
“So, how long until we attack?” King Steel Horn asked impatiently.
“Patience, King Steel Horn. We shall commence the attack when the last of the soldiers arrive, which should be very soon,” said Shining Armour. “For all the participants, be ready to leave in approximately ten minutes,” the other leaders all vacated the room, leaving only Shining Armour along with the other three princesses.
Cadence sighed. “What if this doesn’t work? We don’t even know if these First Humans are remnants of the Vega Corporation. They could be the remnants of one of the First Human nations for all we know. If they are, peace might be an option,” said Cadence.
Celestia sighed. “If Tirek, Chrysalis and Cozy Glow didn’t steal Discord’s magic, then maybe we could’ve approached them diplomatically. But without Discord being able to put them down if they proved to be aggressive, it’s too much of a risk. Once we lose the element of surprise, it’ll be much harder to attack them if they are aggressive. Not only that, but they have, in fact, already proven to be aggressive. They’ve foalnapped the elements, killed dozens of guards in ponyville, and an additional one hundred ponies from the scouting party we sent. If we could make peace with the humans, I would. But I can’t,” said Celestia.
“And even if the humans do make peace with us, the rest of the pony population would never approve of us abolishing slavery. Remember that Celestia did try to do so while I was banished, three hundred years before the war. Luckily for her, she saw that Equestria could no longer sustain itself without the use of slavery before she did so. Our economy would crash, our people would starve without anycreature working to produce any kind of goods, and our nation would probably be plunged into a civil war," Luna explained. "I know nopony in this room is an active supported of slavery, but we no longer have a choice. Stopping slavery would doom our nation," she added.
"Well, that's that. We have to get ready," said Shining Armour.
Cadence began getting up from her chair, alongside the other princesses and the prince. "Oh!" Cadence suddenly called out as she came face to face with a fly and smacked it away.
"Allow me," said Luna as she tried to grab it with her magic and toss it out. It didn't work. She was now staring at it intently, trying to grab it again, but to no avail.
"Umm… Luna? You okay?" Cadence asked.
The final nail in the coffin was when the fly immediately tried to flee, further arousing suspicion. As the fly was exciting through an open window, Luna quickly closed it at the most opportune moment, smashing it to bits. Her suspicions were confirmed when rather than seeing blood and guts, she found a small, nearly unnoticeable, sparking metal object. She felt around the room with her magic, feeling up to twelve more objects devoid of magic.
"Luna?" Celestia asked, "Why did you do that? It was already leaving."
"We're being watched," Luna replied.
"What?" Celestia asked, confused.
"Feel around with your magic. We're being watched," Luna replied. "We're being watched!" She exclaimed in a panic, followed by her and the other princesses running out in a panic.
"Attack! Attack now, before they can prepare their defenses!" Luna called out in the Royal Canterlot Voice, "Now! Attack, post haste!"
"What?!" President Felix asked, "Who was piloting that drone?!"
"We can either berate the pilot now or later, but there are more pressing matters at hand," said Alexi. "But rest assured," he raised his voice so the whole room could hear him, "That whoever that was will be dealt with appropriately!"
"We have to talk about what we've just witnessed," said Xi Mingzhe, "This changes everything!"
"They've had an encounter with us before… well, not us, but I think we'll all be able to connect the dots considering the Vega Corporation was mentioned," said PM Jack.
"No wonder the owner of the corporation didn't invest in the creation of Utopia. He was too busy creating his own Utopia behind our backs!" Said Mateo.
"Yes, whoever was here first might have messed things up, but that's not all we had to take from their conversation. There's something else that, although helps us immensely now, is rather… concerning," said PM Bjorn.
"Yes, of course," King Osas and most of the others already knew what it was, "The fact that 'Discord' lost his magic, and that it was somehow 'stolen' by Tirek, Cozy Glow and an unknown individual."
"Yes, and also the fact that they are most likely criminals. For all we know, them 'stealing' Discord's magic could mean we now have to deal with three omnipotent criminals," said PM Mateo.
"Yes, so what should we do about them?" Xi Mingzhe asked.
"There's nothing we can do," said Felix, "If we had our satellites online, we might be able to track them, but we don't. The best we can do is be prepared in case they really do show up, and try to put 'em down the moment their heads pop up."
"There's another thing. What exactly are 'changelings', and how have they hidden amongst the ponies? And how exactly are they going to infiltrate Utopia?" Osas asked.
"They're probably experts at subterfuge or something, and they've probably used camouflage techniques to hide themselves for some reason. They're most likely not a threat; we can easily differentiate between humans and aliens," said Felix.
"I guess that's that for our meeting then?" Aladeen asked, getting impatient.
"Actually… there's one more thing," General Ivan spoke up, "It's about the subject of taking prisoners when they attack. Or should we just kill them all?"
"Well, we now know that the other creatures besides the ponies are the leaders of the other nations, along with their escorts. Killing a nation's leaders would definitely be terrible for PR with the rest of the world, so I believe I speak for everyone when I say their leaders should be taken as prisoners of war rather than killed," said Alexei, receiving agreement from everyone else in the group, "And we have to take their 'alicorns' prisoner as well if it's possible.
"As for the subject of the other ponies, I would say taking fifty of each kind would be enough for us to study them and learn more about them. We can't take very many prisoners anyway, we have nowhere to house them," said PM Mateo, and the rest of the leaders agreed with him.
"Now then," Alexi addressed the general, "Begin pulling our troops back into Utopia and ready the drones. Instruct the other generals to do the same."
"Yes sir, we'll be ready. At their current speed, they should be here within approximately eight hours. I trust you'll be here to observe the battle?" Ivan asked.
"Yes, though I think we're all gonna have to catch up on some much needed sleep. It's been a rather hectic few days," said Felix, and with that, the meeting was adjourned.
"Sir! Three unknown targets are approaching from the air! They're heading right this way!" A soldier rushed up to the group of gathered generals from each nation.
"Don't worry sirs, I'll take care of this. Probably a false alarm, the ponies are still an hour away," said General Holden, before getting up from his seat and following the soldier to an observation room.
Upon reaching the room, he looked through the screen of the camera. The camera itself was one of the cameras situated outside Utopia, observing the general area, and the AI had detected the targets, and zoomed in on them. Upon reaching the observation room, he found that there were indeed three targets, and it wasn't a false alarm. The targets themselves were three Alicorns, with the pink one pulling a flying carriage filled with wooden boxes and barrels, who had just teleported ahead of the army.
They had a plan in mind. Upon the recent revelation that they were being watched, it was immediately obvious that the Utopians might've indeed had time to prepare and whip out the big guns, so they needed to improvise. Their current plan was to launch a surprise attack and destroy their heavy weapons and vehicles swiftly so that they couldn't be used, and get out of there before the enemy had time to react. They had already failed at the 'surprise' part of the attack, but the humans still had no idea what they were up to.
"What? What the hell are they up to? Their army's an hour behind them, it makes no sense for them to just come here ahead of them. Attacking solo would be incredibly dangerous and stupid, especially considering they're their leaders. They're literally flinging their most valuable people directly at us," said Holden. "Though, I can think of another reason why they would travel ahead of the pack. They might've come to negotiate," he added.
"Shall we deploy the drones sir?" One of his men asked.
"No, no. How many men are still on the ground?" Holden asked.
"Now? About a hundred. The lift is still on its way to pick them up. It'll reach the surface in about two minutes," the man replied.
"Tell them not to enter the lift. Have them be prepared to deter the targets if they prove to be aggressive, and to escort them in if they come in peace," said Holden.
"Look sister, the remnants of Tartarus," said Luna. A large portion of what used to be Tartarus was now covered with rubble, along with various large vehiclular looking pieces of equipment being left there, most of which were tractors. Just beyond the rubble lay hundreds of tents, arranged in an organised manner. Along with the tents were dozens of cages, containing the creatures that had been imprisoned in what used to be Tartarus, and around most of the creatures were various pieces of complicated looking scientific equipment. Lastly, surrounding the camp was a sturdy looking metal fence that had been laid out along the entire perimeter. What was strange was the fact that there was clearly a large presence here, but all of the tents, equipment, and even the creatures of Tartarus had seemingly just been left there.
"They knew we were coming, and it looks like they just up and left. Do you think they fled?" Cadence asked.
"It would seem that wa - " Celestia was the first to spot it. Twenty six neatly arranged jets, all facing an area where the trees were cleared, forming a makeshift runway. "No, that's not possible. They wouldn't just leave some of their most powerful weapons here," she pointed a hoof at the jets.
"Then where are they?" Luna asked, "This place is empty."
As if on cue, a group of First Humans made their presence known as they stepped out from the cover of the rubble. A row of rubble was cleared out first to allow ease of access towards the lift leading down to the bunker, forming a sort of trench that unintentionally hid the humans' presence. Of course, the princesses didn't know that, and immediately jumped to conclusions.
"Look!" Luna directed their attention towards the emerging group. "They're trying to ambush us!" She stated, and given all the information they had, the other two princesses immediately assumed the same thing.
"Towards the flying vehicles! Quickly!" Celestia said, and they immediately began to form a beeline towards the group of jets, which were situated about a kilometer to the right of the group.
"What the hell are they doing?" Holden asked, confused, "They saw the group and rather than attack or make contact, they're… retreating?"
"No sir, it appears they're heading towards the group of jets we have posted," said one of the soldiers.
"What? How many guards do we have posted there?" Holden asked.
"None sir, the last guard shift is currently with the last group that was being recalled," the man replied.
"God dammit! They're trying to go for our drones!" Holden shouted in frustration, "Have them take off, now!" They were too late however, and couldn't take off fast enough. The alicorns were already upon them.
Celestia levitate a wooden barrel and three crates full of gunpowder, and Luna did the same with her own mixture of crates and barrels. They took aim at the nearest jet, followed by throwing the explosives at them, and upon the wooden containers making contact with the jet, they either bounced off or got destroyed upon impact. The three of them then began charging energy blasts, aiming for the crates that were still intact. Then, they released their shot.
Upon the the powerful energy blasts hitting the crates the gunpowder immediately exploded, causing a chain reaction that lit up the rest of the gunpowder, generating one big explosion. That wasn't the end of it however, as the vehicle itself then lit up, making the explosion even bigger. That still wasn't enough however, as the fifteen high yield missiles within the jet, together with the one hundred small yield missiles then lit up, making the explosion even bigger. Even that wasn't the end for it though, as the explosion was now large enough to engulf the jet next to it, making the explosion even bigger. There was still one final part to the compilation of explosions however, as a chain reaction was made, with each drone creating an explosion big enough to destroy the ones next to it, and so on until eventually all twenty six drones were reduced to a pile of scrap.
General Holden then took a long, deep breath. "FUUUUUUUUUUUUCCCCCCK!!"
The princesses stared in awe at the destruction before them. Never in all their years had any of them witnessed anything on such a level… well, except for Discord and Tirek.
"How did… what did…" Cadence was lost for words, "T- there's no way… no way a few kegs of gunpowder could do that."
"I don't think it was the gunpowder," Celestia replied. "It think it was their vehicles expl - " she was cut off as machine gun fire suddenly came from the distance, causing Celestia and Luna to instinctively begin retreating from the area at a quickened pace. Cadence had never fought in the war, so she didn't have that 'run when you hear gunfire' instincts in her yet, but she immediately picked up on why they were retreating, and quickly followed after the alicorn sisters. Since the soldiers were shooting upwards at them, they were quickly able to get out of the range of their guns, and the soldiers weren’t able to hit any shots while they were in range either due to the distance.
The princesses had no idea guns had a limited range however, and continued to fly away in a quickened and panicked manner. “Quickly! Teleport back!” Luna called out, and the three of them disappeared in a flash of light.
“Ahh, General Holden. You do realise you’ve woken me up an hour early, right?” Felix asked upon seeing him in the Central Control Room.
“Well, sir… The problem is that we aren’t gonna be able to quickly and efficiently decimate the entire army like what was outlined in the report. We aren’t gonna be able to bomb them to death, but worry not, we still have other ways of defending ourselves. I just thought I should inform you, since you’re the president,” said Holden.
“And why is it that we can’t just blow them up?” Felix asked.
“Well…” he then began explaining the events that had occurred, and how three primitive pony princesses were able to destroy twenty six of their jets.
“Heh…” Felix didn’t know how to react.
“Heh? You’re not mad?” Holden asked.
“Normally I would be, but this was entirely out of your control, and you did say you still have other ways of defending ourselves, correct? Well, lay it on me,” Felix replied.
“Remember when I said we have a hundred thousand drones ready to go? We’re planning to use some of those hundred thousand drones. We could use all of them, but that would just be overkill,” said Holden.
“Okay, a hundred thousand sounds enough. So, would you please tell me about the new plan?” Felix asked.
“The plan is simple. We have about a hundred and fifty Apex drones that we’ve managed to transport to the sub-hangars by way of train. They’re larger than the Swarm Drones and pack a bigger punch but much smaller than the jets. The fact that they were larger, however, meant that they were harder to transport, hence why we only have a hundred and fifty of these drones at the ready,” Holden then showed Felix an image of the drones in question on his tablet.
“As you can see, these ones are equipped with both several small yield missiles and one medium yield missile, along with two miniguns and two precision fire machine guns. These drones by themselves should be able to decimate their army,” said Holden, “But we’ve prepared the drones from the swarm just in case. The, although basic, state of the art Swarm drones come equipped with a singular precision fire minigun, and will be making up the bulk of the drones that we are going to send out. We have over ninety thousand of these ready, and around ten thousand already within the sub-hangars that can be deployed within a moment’s notice.”
“Well general, you really have outdone yourself this time. I trust that not a single soldier will need to be deployed, and we won’t have to risk any actual lives, correct?” Felix asked.
“That is correct sir,” Holden answered.
“And I assume the other nations’ generals have already been notified of the situation and are currently informing their nations’ leaders, correct?” Felix asked.
“Yes sir, they have already been informed,” Holden replied.
“Excellent. Now, how long until the pony army arrives? Do I still have time to get to the Golden Plate for breakfast before watching the show?” Felix asked.
“You should have enough time. They’ll be here within approximately forty five minutes,” Holden replied. And with that, they said their goodbyes and Felix headed off for breakfast… which was actually lunch because of his messed up sleeping schedule.
"We're almost there! Prepare to attack the camp!" Princess Luna spoke to her army using the Royal Canterlot Voice, "Keep your eyes sharp for any potential ambushes and prepare to charge on my command!"
They walked slowly through the trees of the forest, knowing there could be enemies already lying in wait. The fenced off military/research camp was already in sight, as was the fence. It was just a few hundred meters off.
"Stop!" Luna commanded, and the rest of the army immediately came to a halt. Luna then turned to her sister. "Something's not right. There's not a single First Human in sight," said Luna.
"Well, they were hiding amongst the rubble in an attempt to ambush us the last time we came here," Celestia stated.
"They're either hiding inside their camp, or hiding amongst the trees outside the camp, waiting to ambush us," said Luna, not knowing that the camp wasn't even a real part of Utopia, and assuming that was the First Humans' base.
"It's either that, or they fled after we destroyed their flying machines. We should still occupy the area though, and subdue them if they're still here. Although we should take extra caution to make sure we aren't ambushed," Celestia told Luna.
"You're right, we should send in a scouting party to scope out the area, they should be able to warn us of any surprises we might encounter," Luna replied. She then addressed the troops with the RCV. "Seventy fourth pegasi division, scout out the area in an around the camp and warn us of any potential amb- " she cut herself off as she spotted a lone drone slowly heading towards them.
"What is that?" A voice asked.
"Is it a bird?" Another voice came from the army.
"It looks like metal," stated another observer.
It was at this point Cadence had flown to the front lines, approaching Celestia and Luna. "Is that what I think it is?" She asked.
"Seems a little small for a steel 'dragon'," Ember said mockingly as she gathered with them as well.
"That's what they plan to use to fight us?" King Steel Horn asked mockingly as he walked towards them. "I don't know what you were all so worried about in the first place. I mean…" he began to laugh mockingly as well. They're… they're using a f- flying box to f- fight us?" He asked in between laughs.
"Take aim!" Luna ordered, and her soldiers began aiming their bows and arrows. Before Luna could order them to fire however, the drone stopped about fifty meters away from them, and began to 'speak'.
"Attention ponies and… other creatures, you are currently approaching Utopian territory. Vacate the area immediately or we will use lethal force. You have five minutes to comply," the Swarm Drone said, before 'retreating'.
It didn't get far though, before Celestia spoke to it. "Where are the bearers of the elements of harmony?!" She asked angrily. The drone then began to slowly rotate.
"The what?" The drone asked.
"The ponies you foalnapped! Where are they?!" Ember asked.
"They are currently within our custody. They are being treated well, and will be returned to you after Princess Twilight has completed her task," the drone replied.
"What task?" Luna asked.
"As the leader of your nation, you should be fully aware of the reason we required her services," the drone replied.
"And where are they, exactly? Don't say within your custody, I demand to know their location," Celestiainsisted.
"Well, I guess since you're demanding… we have to tell you now. We no longer have a choice," the drone replied, and stifled laughter could be heard in the background. "But very well, the leaders of Utopia shall humour you. The 'bearers' are underneath you," the drone replied, before leaving, ignoring any further inquiries on the matter.
"Umm… world leaders… President Felix, do you think it was a good idea to give them our location?" General Holden asked.
"It doesn't change anything," said Felix.
"So, what now? Are we finally going to kill all their soldiers and capture their leaders?" Aladeen asked impatiently.
"That depends on whether they leave or not," Holden replied, "We'll stand by our word and give them five minutes to leave. If they attack us or choose not to leave, which they probably will, we'll launch the drones."
"Why can't we just destroy them now?" Aladeen asked.
"Because, if we are seen as the aggressors, they'll have the moral high ground. It might restrict our ability to make demands and impose sanctions on them if this escalates into a war," Felix explained.
"We can just invade their country," Aladeen pointed out.
"Yes, quite easily. But we only have around two hundred thousand soldiers. We won't be able to maintain control over their territory," Alexi pointed out.
Suddenly, a loud war cry was heard coming from one of the speakers, diverting all of their attentions towards the camera screen.
"Is it happening?" Aladeen asked.
"Yes, it is," Holden replied as a swarm of thirty thousand armored ponies began running towards Utopia. They separated into three groups, with the main group of twenty thousand soldiers along with the leaders of Equs going for a direct frontal assault, while two groups of five thousand troops broke off towards the left and right side of the base, flanking around the enemy to surround them if possible. The unicorns and earth ponies began running towards the fence, prepared to bring it down, while the pegasi, princesses, dragons and the few undisguised changelings flew above it.
"Now, if you'll excuse me, the other generals and I have to deal with this," Holden said, before the other generals came together to direct their soldiers and oversee the battle.
"Increase voltage of perimeter fence to maximum capacity," one of the generals calmly ordered.
"Increasing voltage," one of the men at a control panel said, "Electric fence running at maximum output."
"There's literally nobody there. What exactly are they attacking?" Aladeen asked.
"Well, at the moment, nothing, but we still can't let them try to attack us freely and without consequence. And looking at their level of barbarism, they'll most likely destroy the camp, and we have a lot of valuable scientific equipment there," said Holden, before he directed his attention back towards the battle.
Suddenly, and alarm sounded, and the voice of Alise came over the speakers, "Intruder alert! Several unknown entities have bypassed the perimeter!" With the alicorns taking charge, the first few pegasi had already flown over the fence.
"Sir, care to do the honours?" Holden asked Felix, opening the plastic cover of a large red button on one of the control panels.
"Yes, of course," Felix replied, stepping towards the big red button, "Do you have the song ready?"
"The song's ready," Holden replied.
"Well then…" Felix paused for dramatic effect. "Hit it!" He said as he smashed the button down.
From all the speakers set up around the camp for announcements, a song began playing. Several doors that were built into the ground, leading to the sub-hangars then opened.
"FOR EQUESTRIA!" A group of earth ponies and unicorns collectively yelled out as they reached the metal perimeter fence, about to cut through it with ease or simply climb over it if they couldn't. Or, at least, that's what they thought. The soldiers in the frontlines, who were made up of earth ponies, positioning themselves to give the fence a hard buck. Then, they began kicking hard at the fence with their back legs, and the soldiers of the frontlines began dropping like flies. All of the ponies that had reached the fence and attempted to damage it, began violently convulsing as their bodies began to emit smoke. Everpony who tried to pull their comrades away from the fence began to get electrocuted themselves the moment they touched their allies, creating a string of ponies getting electrocuted. Most of their screams of agony were lost, unable to be heard over their war cries.
"Stop! Stop!" The soldiers who had noticed what was going on tried to stop their fellow ponies from advancing.
"Stop advancing!" A soldier shouted.
"Go back! Go back!" Another called out.
"Don't touch them! The curse moves through them!" A more observant soldier tried warning the others.
"Retreat! Retreat!" A more cowardly one exclaimed.
"What's going on back there?" Cadence asked as she noticed the unicorns and earth ponies had halted their advance.
"No worries Cadence, the fence was quite reinforced. They're probably trying to get through it or go over it," said Celestia, completely unaware of the rest of the army's predicament.
"We should land, aerial reconnaissance is proving ineffective. We might be able to more easily locate the First Humans' hiding spots if we land," Luna suggested.
"Luna's right," said Thorax, "We're not getting anywhere."
"Very well, if we're all agreed," Celestia then began to speak to the pegasi with the Canterlot Voice, "Prepare to land!"
Before they could land however, a loud song began playing, its source being the speakers that were on top of large poles around the camp. In the distance, nine large doors arranged in three rows of three then began opening at the very back of the camp, at the area opposite of where the main assault force had approached Utopia. They were spaced a good distance apart, with the nine doors and the space in between them covering over a kilometer of the ground themselves. What made it extremely strange was that these doors were outside the perimeter fence, and they were over a kilometer away.
"What is that irritating noise? And what are those doo - " Ember tried to question the song and the doors, but was cut off as hundreds, then thousands of large flying dots began emerging from the holes in the ground. "This is bad, right?" She asked.
"Oh no…" Cadence simply said. She didn't know what those things were or what they did, but considering where they were, they were definitely sent by the First Humans. And knowing what she did about the First Humans, it couldn't be good. Both Ember and Thorax felt the same way, but the princesses were just frozen... or rather hovering on the spot and lost for words since they would plummet to their deaths if they were to freeze.
Their eyes were wide in both fear and surprise. The two princesses were the only ponies in the world who were still alive who had fought against the First Humans. They knew the power of First Human machines, which were devastating whenever they were deployed. They were the only ones who had been at the receiving end of First Human war machines. But the Vega Corporation never had such a large quantity of their death machines. They had never thought they would experience the same kind of fear they experienced when they fought against the First Humans the first time. They were wrong. The moment they saw the sheer number of the emerging drones, they immediately knew one thing. They fucked up.
"Attention all Apex drone pilots, on ground based targets. Your missiles will fare better on clumped up grounded targets than they would against aerial targets. Swarm drone pilots, focus on aerial targets, your bullets will do very well in bringing down the winged ones," General Holden ordered through the intercom, allowing every Utopian drone pilot to hear him, "And don't attack their leaders… at least, not yet. That order comes directly from the world leaders, so if you harm them, you're gonna have to answer to them. Oh, and also, drone fleets one to ten intercept the group flanking at nine o clock, and fleets ten to twenty intercept the flanking group at three o clock. Good luck."
"Attention all Apex drone pilots, on ground based targets. Your missiles will fare better on clumped up grounded targets than they would against aerial targets. Swarm drone pilots, focus on aerial targets, your bullets will do very well in bringing down the winged ones," General Holden ordered through the intercom, allowing every Utopian drone pilot to hear him, "And don't attack their leaders. There are already some pilots with designated incapacitator drones after them. Oh, and also, drone fleets one to ten intercept the group flanking at nine o clock, and fleets ten to twenty intercept the flanking group at three o clock. Good luck."
"Sister, what do we do?!" Luna asked worriedly.
"We have to retreat, we have no choice," said Celestia as the oncoming swarm came closer and closer.
"We can't just retreat! There are more of us than there are of them! We can defeat them and get the element bearers back!" Ember tried to convince them.
"I think the princesses are right," said Cadence. "We don't know what these things can d- " she was cut off as the sound of gunfire began to permeate the battlefield.
"We have to go, now!" Celestia said, with fear clearly in her voice.
"Don't worry, we can still - " Ember was cut off this time, as one of her escorts began to come under fire. Due to the dragon's thick skin, he was able to resist the gunfire for a while, but the fact that it was a minigun shooting at him killed him in about three seconds. "Firebreather!" Ember called after him as he began plummeting to the ground.
"We have to go now!" Luna said, grabbing Ember's hand with her hoof. In a quick flash of light, all three princesses along with one dragon teleported back to the ground, far away from the drones just as they came into direct contact with the rest of the army.
They teleported straight to the ground, right below where the aerial dogfight was occurring. The three of them then looked up, just as the drones began fighting with the rest of the pegasi.
"Attack!" One of the pegasi called out, with the rest of them letting out a war cry and charging for the drones. The last thing they would ever do.
The drones themselves continued flying towards them, undeterred by their 'ferocity'. And before the pegasi could even come close to the drones, the sound of gunfire rang throughout the battlefield once again. The screams of the pegasi as they were shot down were nothing short of horrible. They were falling like wheat before a sickle, and more and more of them were killed as the drones advanced.
Colonel Sweeper charged forward alongside his fellow pegasi, expecting a regular, physical fight against their enemies. Oh boy was he wrong. The soldiers at the very front of the army were the first to fall. They got within about three hundred meters of their target, the roaring sound of minigun fire began.
"What is that infernal sound they're making?!" Colonel Sweeper asked. Then the screaming began. Colonel Sweeper watched as one by one, his soldiers started plummeting to the ground. By that point, the bodies of the falling ponies were so deformed and mutilated by the intense bursts of minigun fire, that the falling bodies were barely recognisable. They had holes in them, missing libs, were covered in blood, and barely even looked like ponies anymore. To the soldiers who were closer to the action, they looked more like pony shaped chunks of flesh rather than actual ponies. To the princesses observing on the ground, it was like the sky was raining flesh, blood, and gore. Fortunately for the colonel, he hadn't witnessed the bloodbath firsthand yet, since he was commanding the army from slightly further back, behind the frontlines. "What's happening?! Why are they falling?!" He asked no one in particular.
"I think it's the flying things sir, they're doing something!" One of his subordinates, a lieutenant, flew beside him and told him.
"There's no spell that can just make pegasi fall. What in Celestia's name is going ok?!" He asked, both confused and afraid.
"I don't know what's happening sir! It looks like they're jus - " there was a loud whirring noise, and the lieutenant then fell to a barrage of bullets. The colonel watched in horror as the bullets hit him right in the face, killing him instantly. The bullets cut straight through him, and came out the other side of his body, causing him to instantly 'explode' into a mess of flesh, blood and guts. In less than a second, all that was left was an unrecognizable pulp, along with some red mist which lingered in the air for a few moments before dissipating.
The colonel let out a loud, fearful scream. The sight was so violent and gory, that it made him completely freeze up in fear. He wasn't even able to concentrate on flying; his sudden shock had caused even his wings to stiffen up, causing him to plummet. He was fortunately able to regain his senses after falling for a few seconds, his survival instincts kicking in. But he was still unable to focus on anything other than flying for a few more moments.
"Colonel! Colonel!" A group of eight soldiers came flying down towards him. "They're killing us! We can't fight back against them! We can't even touch th - " the whirring noise then came back. "Run! That means you too colon - " the soldier who was talking to him was then reduced to a mush of flesh and red mist, with blood once again spraying everywhere, causing the colonel to need to shut his eyes. Upon opening his eyes, he watched in horror as the drone flew after the remaining members of the group, slaughtering them all in another quick hail of bullets.
Colonel Sweeper gasped at the brutality of the attack. A single one of those flying objects just offed eight of his soldiers. He decided to fly upwards once more, going back to the battle, if only to order a retreat. That got him thinking about why they hadn't begun retreating yet. Anypony with half a brain could easily tell they were drastically outmatched. He looked around, only to find something that had terrified him even more. The majority of the drones were in a circle surrounding them, thinning the herd from the outside, and the circle was getting smaller as more and more pegasi were killed. Anypony who tried retreating were immediately pulverized by their invisible spells, while anypony who didn't try retreating were being chased down by the other half of the drones. There was no escape. Unless of course, he could get all his soldiers together and all of them could attack a single point and overwhelm the drones in that area.
He charged back into the fray of battle, trying to remain as unnoticed as possible, trying not to stand out by not making any quick and sudden movements. He wanted to look as uninteresting as possible, so he wouldn't be targeted before he could rally his troops. The pegasi that tried running, attacking, or just flew about frantically were the ones who were being chased down, while the ones who were just hoveringin place or making slow movements were being targeted much less. So, he slowly flew back into battle, and as he was flying, he passed by several pegasi, mostly with drones chasing them.
"HEL- ARGGHHH!" One of his soldiers flew a few feet in front of him, trying to outrun a drone, but was disintegrated right in front of him, causing him to quickly recoil and begin heading the other direction before the drone could pick him as its next target.
While he was flying the other way, he saw something unexpected. A group of pegasi were latched onto one of the flying things, some trying to tear it apart, while others tried to cut at it with their weapons as they tried their next to hold it in place. Rather than ask them to run, he decided to hover and observe for a moment.
It had two circles by its sides, with rotating blades on them which probably allowed it to fly. It had a large light on its 'head' that probably functioned as its eye. And lastly, its weapon was underneath it, and it couldn't get the ponies off because they were on its back. That gave the colonel two ideas on how he might possibly be able to defeat this thing. It was clear it probably couldn't see without its eye, and probably couldn't fly without the fans spinning. The colonel flew up to the group, ready to test his theory.
"Yes, good work soldier. Just make it look like you're tryna shake them off. Lure them in, it'll make things much easier for us," General Holden ordered.
"Colonel?" One of them asked, "What should we do? We can't hold it much longer!"
The colonel unsheathed his metal sword, followed by ramming it into one of the propellers. Unfortunately, that didn't do anything as the sword was bounced around a bit, before falling through to the other end, doing very little damage. So the colonel decided to try his second idea. He asked one of the soldiers for his sword, then used the sharp part to try destroying the creature's 'eye'. He let out a war cry as he hit it again and again, but even after over a dozen attempts at cutting the eye out, all that he managed to do was scratch the glass and crack it slightly.
"Die! Die! Die!" The colonel shouted with hatred as he slashed and stabbed at the glass with the ferocity of a lion. What he didn't notice was that while he was trying to damage the drone, several others began surrounding him and observing as he failed spectacularly.
"Umm… sir?" One of the soldiers tried getting his attention, still trying his hardest to hold the drone in place despite the fact that they were surrounded.
"What?! Can't you see I'm trying to kill the beast?!" He said as he never ceased his relentless assault.
"Sir, we're surrounded!" One of the soldiers shouted at him, getting his attention.
"Wha - " as he looked up, he saw that he was in fact surrounded by hundreds of the flying machines. He looked around to see why the machines were surrounding them and not attacking anypony else. He once again froze up as he realised the reason nopony else was being attacked. They were the only ones left. He closed his eyes as the whirring noise began once again.
"Sir, we've gotten everypony to halt their advance. But the pegasi need our support! They're dropping like flies!" One of the lieutenants went up to the colonel leading the assault; a middle earth pony stallion named Shimmering Shield.
"We need a way to bypass this accursed fence first! Have some of the unicorns teleport through to assist the pegasi immediately, and have some of them stay and help levitate the earth ponies past the fence. Relay the message to the other lieutenants as well," Colonel Shield ordered.
"Sir, yes sir!" The lieutenant answered, before heading off to relay the colonel's orders.
Colonel Shield looked up. He tried to make out what was happening, but couldn't since the battle was happening so far away. What he could make out however, was that the pegasi were dropping from the skies left, right and center. The other… objects seemed to be winning the fight, evident by the fact that there were several retreating pegasi. Their chance to run would soon be over however, as the colonel observed the objects gradually begin to surround them. Hopefully the pegasi's highest ranking CO would be competent enough to realise that the enemy was trying to box them in.
That's when he spotted them. A group of bigger flying objects, numbering well over a hundred, headed straight towards them. He knew they were headed towards them specifically because they completely ignored the raging battle, choosing to fly above it.
"Sir!" The same lieutenant came back, "There are several targets headed straight for us at high speed! What should we do?!"
"Have the troops get their bows ready and take aim. Prepare to fire on my command," another voice spoke up. The colonel looked around to see who would dare try to order his troops while he was standing right there. To his surprise, it was Shining Armour along with the minotaur king and his escort, who had been standing behind him.
"P- Prince Shining Armour?" The colonel asked.
"Yes, and because of the dire situation, I am now assuming command as the most experienced highest ranking military officer. Now, go relay my orders to the rest of the troops," Shining Ordered.
The colonel knew that Shining Armour technically no longer had any authority over the Equestrian military, but he wasn't about to question royalty, especially if that royalty was indeed more experienced than him in the field of battle. So he decided to listen to Shining Armour rather than piss him off and create a problem. He was going to order them to do the exact same thing anyway.
"Well you heard the prince. Order the troops to - " he was cut off as a sudden, loud explosion rang throughout the battlefield.
Shining Armour turned towards the source of the loud boom, only to see smoke rising in the distance somewhere around the frontlines. "What in Equestria was that?! Did someone accidentally light up some of the gunp - " he was cut off as another boom echoed, rocking the very ground beneath his feet. This time, he saw the flames of the explosion as it completely annihilated a group of over a hundred ponies. Explosions then began ringing throughout the battlefield. The sources of said explosions were immediately obvious: the flying objects that were shooting fast moving projectiles at them.
"Everypony get into position! We're under attack! Prepare to return fire on my command!" The colonel ordered, but the ponies could not hear nor respond to the order. The entire pony army was now in chaos, with several thousand ponies having already been wiped out.
"What are those things?!" King Steel Horn asked, "The First Humans don't have the power to cause this much destruction!" The entire frontline was now reduced to nothing. Corpses littered the ground, most of their bodies were charred and burnt, completely unrecognisable. Those were the lucky ones; the unlucky ones no longer had any bodies at all, being completely disintegrated from the heat of the blast. Several wounded ponies were being pulled to the backlines, most of them having charred skin from the heat of the blast or broken bones from the impact of the shockwaves.
"They're still coming!" The lieutenant reminded as he remembered what the source of all this destruction was.
"Get into defensive formations! Prepare to strike back at the - " King Steel Horn tried to command the ponies despite him having no authority over them, but was cut off as a second wave of explosions began, this time much closer to the group.
No more than thirty yards ahead of them, a missile landed. The moment it did, a large explosion, louder than the ones before, boomed out. The ground exploded in a hail of smoke and flame, with the explosion destroying everything within its twenty meter radius. The resulting shockwave was strong enough to throw Shining Armour, the colonel and the lieutenant back a few feet, while the minotaurs simply fell over, dazed. Steel Horn looked back towards where the explosion had occurred, to find several trees uprooted and several more burning. The ground was completely scorched, and the grass surrounding the area of the blast had caught on fire. That wasn't the end of it however, as there were several more explosions as the drones continued to bombard the next line of soldiers .
Steel Horn watched as everything in his direct line of sight was decimated by hundreds of explosions, leaving behind only the scorching, heated ground. He shifted his attention back towards the drones. They were almost upon them now, and with the roar of a dragon, they soared overhead, passing by the army. Steel Horn followed them with his vision, and they looked to be going further and further away, causing a sudden feeling of relief to wash over him.
That feeling of relief quickly changed to a feeling of sadness and pity as he once again focused back on the army. He watched, horrified, as a wounded mare was carried past her on a stallion's back. She was missing a right back leg which looked like it had been blown off, with the stump having been slightly cauterised, which was the only reason she hadn't passed out from blood loss. The fact that she hadn't passed out made it all the more painful however, as she cried and screamed in pain as she was carried away.
He shifted his sight away from the mare, being unable to stand looking at her anymore. He turned around to find something much worse. A stallion who was almost completely covered in third degree burns was being levitated by a unicorn, also crying in pain as he was moved away. Most of his fur had been burnt off, leaving charred, blacked skin, even some parts of his bones were visible. There was no way he would survive long.
Screams and cries of agony permeated the battlefield. Everywhere he looked, dead or injured soldiers were being carried further into the back lines for their medics to treat them. Steel Horn actually coughed a little from the smoke. The whole battlefield was covered in it, tinting everything gray, which only made everything look even more gloomy and depressing. As the smoke cleared away from the recently bombarded areas, Steel Horn gagged at the sight. Thousands of charred corpses littered the battlefield, as far as the eye could see, with the occasional twitch coming from those who were still barely clinging into life.
"How could this happen…" he whispered. Even though they weren't his people, he was still horrified at the atrocity. He looked up to try and figure out why the pegasi weren't coming for backup, and as he did, he saw that the drones were now just mopping up the battlefield, killing the last few pegasi that were still in the air.
"What did we do to deserve this…" the colonel next to him asked no one in particular.
That's when Shining Armour finally spoke up. He was the only one of the group who had noticed. "They're… coming… back…" he said, his voice both defeated and quivering with fear.
"What?" The colonel asked, then looked to where Shining Armour was looking. King Steel Horn and the lieutenant followed suit. Their eyes widened as they saw exactly what was coming back… the drones.
"Run! Everypony run!" The colonel ordered.
"No!" Shining Armour immediately overruled the previous order. "Everypony gather round! I'll use a barrier spell to protect us!" Shining Armour then immediately cast a shield spell, engulfing as much of the battlefield and as many ponies as he could. The other soldiers immediately flocked towards him, wanting to come under the protection of the powerful barrier.
The drones began releasing their payloads for another set of bombardment. The ponies watched the missiles as they headed towards them. The ponies nearest to the drones, the ones in the back lines, were the first to fall as the missiles once again blew them to pieces.
"No!" Shining Armour yelled, heartbroken by even more deaths. But he couldn't let his sorrow get the better of him, he needed to concentrate on the barrier. And so he did, using so much raw magical power that he began to feel his body burn from the strain it caused him.
The drones were now upon them, ready to rain down another set of hellfire. Fortunately, everypony was now safely within the barrier… at least, that's what they thought. Despite there clearly being a powerful magical barrier powerful the ponies from the drones, the drones showed no sign of hesitation as they flew towards the ponies, followed by releasing their payloads. They all watched as hundreds of missiles headed towards them, with Shining Armour hoping to God, or rather Celestia, that his barrier would be powerful enough to protect them.
Unfortunately for them, the barrier did nothing to thwart their impending doom. They all watched in shock and fear as the missiles passed through the barrier, completely ignoring it as if it wasn't even there. At that point, they all knew they had completely no chance of survival. They were all crowded together, and nopony would survive the barrage.
King Steel Horn and the rest of the group closed their eyes, awaiting their impending doom as the once mighty army was completely destroyed. The screams and cries of the ponies would have been enough to give Nightmare Moon nightmares. Ponies were being thrown about by the shockwaves of the blasts, blown to bits, and burned alive. There were even a few ponies emerging from the smoke, running while still on fire. But Steel Horn and his escort, Shining Armour, along with several hundred more soldiers were still left standing, completely untouched by the blast.
It clearly wasn't luck, the fact that the national leaders survived the blast was too much of a coincidence for it to have just been chance. They looked around as the smoke cleared, with one of the few remaining soldiers even vomiting at the sight.
"Oh my Celestia…" Shining could hardly believe his eyes, "How could they do this…"
"Sir…" the lieutenant said shakily, getting Shining's attention, along with the rest of the group's.
"I know this is hard to look at, but as members of the royal guard, we have to stay str - " the lieutenant cut him off.
"No, sir… look b- behind you," he said, and the whole group turned around. Thousands of Swarm drones were headed towards them, along with several incapacitator drones which were indistinguishable from the rest.
"We should run," the colonel suggested.
"No, we can't outrun them. Unless we have any other way to escape, well... " King Steel Horn trailed off, "I don't think I need to finish that sentence."
"Well, if this is the end, I'm gonna go down fighting," said Shining, charging his horn and picking up a few pieces of broken, charred wood that had been thrown their way.
"Minotaurs, prepare for battle!" Steel Horn commanded his escort, and they all took aim with their bows.
The colonel looked to his army. "Soldiers!" He called out to them, "Let's show these things what the Equestrian Royal Guard is made of! If this is going to be our last stand, let's not make it easy for them!" He tried to motivate his troops, but did not receive a war cry like he was expecting. Most of them had already given up.
The group let out a war cry, but before they could begin running towards their deaths, something unexpected happened. Two bright lights, one white and one blue, suddenly flashed right in the middle of the group. This was followed by a second flash in quick succession. The flashes blinded the nearby soldiers, but when they looked back at the source of the flashes, they found that both Steel Horn and Shining Armour were no longer there.
Cadence, Celestia, Luna and Ember teleported to the ground below as a massive battle raged throughout the skies.
"W- what just happened?!" Ember asked in shock.
So many creatures… slaughtered like tissue paper,” Luna said, still shaken from witnessing many of her subjects cut down by the mechanized menaces.
"Yeah, I got that!" Ember replied angrily, "But what I don't get is what in Tartarus those things are!"
“The Vega Corporation never used any weapons like these..” Celestia said, more so out of shock than in response to Ember’s query.
"Well, obviously! You never told any of us that the corporation could shred dragons in seconds! And Firebreather wasn't even a regular dragon! Only the strongest dragons are allowed to be a part of my escort!" Ember said angrily.
"That's because they can't!" Luna replied, "That's why the dragons played such a crucial part in their defeat. They were the only ones who could withstand the power of their guns."
"Well not from what I just saw! And you've never mentioned them having tens of thousands of flying machines… with guns on them!" Ember shouted. She was in shock, therefore not thinking clearly. So she blamed the princesses for the death of her escort. That's when she remembered something. She had several more dragons escorting her. "Wait! What about my other guards? You have to go get them!" Ember tried convincing them. That's when the body of a rather large dragon suddenly fell right in the middle of the group, making a squishing sound as it splattered blood everywhere, causing them all to scream in shock.
The dragon was clearly already dead. It had been completely shredded, with dozens of holes, both large and small, going through his body. Strings of skin and flesh hung loosely away from its main body, while the creature's organs leaked out through some of the many holes on its body. It was nothing more than a bloody pulp at this point. The only thing that even made it recognisable as a dragon were its scales, although most of them had been blown off, and its size. It was so mutilated that Ember couldn't even tell who it was.
"How?!" Ember asked in disbelief. It was hard to even defeat a dragon, let alone pummel it like that. But before anyone else could answer though, the 'rain' began. It started with small, red droplets at first, making them look up.. That’s when they witnessed one of the most disturbing sights they would ever see. Up in the sky, hundreds of pegasi were being shredded, their bodies being mutilated until they were nothing more than slops of flesh, blood and bone. With each passing second, dozens of bloody, mutilated bodies began raining down on the ground they stood on. The drones were slaughtering them with ease, as if they were nothing more than pests.
“No!” Cadence called out, tears in her eyes, as she saw her little ponies being murdered. “Why?! Why are you doing this?!” She called out to the flying things, although she knew she wouldn’t be noticed. She fell on her knees and broke down crying. “Monsters! Monsters! Monsters…” she sobbed.
“C- Cadence… we have to go. They’ll be looking f- for us,” Celestia said, barely attempting to not fall to the same sobbing as her niece.
"But what about…!" Cadence shouted.
"If we don't go now, they'll do the same to us!" Celestia shouted, tears welling up in the corners of her eyes. "I… feel for them as well, but we cannot let our sorrow be our downfall.”
The Alicorn of the Sun took a deep breath to stave off sobs before continuing.
“We have subjects who need us, and if we fall, Equestria falls with us,” she said, in a slightly calmer tone. “As heartbreaking as it might be, we have to keep going. For Equestria."
"Can you get us out of here?" Ember asked, now afraid. Her previous confidence had completely vanished, having been replaced by fear and sorrow.
Then loud explosions began booming out in the distance. They looked towards the source of the noise, to find that it was coming from the soldiers who were launching the ground assault. They watched as the army began getting blown to bits, with bursts of flame rising up from the ground and black smoke rising up into the sky. The power of the explosions shook the very ground they stood on.
"…. Because if those things don’t get us, they probably will!” Ember added, her voice rising in panic.
"Stay as quiet as possible, so we don’t attract their attention," Luna whispered to the shellshocked dragon. “Sister…”
Celestia did not need her sister to finish to know what she was asking of her.
"Yes, it’s going to take a few seconds to perform,” Celestia whispered before turning towards her niece, whose tears had run out at this point. “Cadence, we need to go. Can you join Luna and I for the teleportation spell.”
The pink alicorn gave a small nod as she got up and approached her aunts.
All at once, their horns began glowing with their respective auras.
“Clink!”
The soft clinking noise had gone unnoticed by everyone except for Ember, who had felt something make a soft impact and bounce off her scales. She turned to where she had felt the sudden impact, and noticed what looked like a syringe with red feathers lying on the ground. She looked up, confused as to where it might have come from, and her eyes widened at what she saw. A group of drones were approaching them.
"Can you speed this along a little bit!" Ember called out, “They're coming!" Her call caused them to shift their focus towards the oncoming drones, while still concentrating on the spell.
"Just a few more seconds!" Celestia replied. And in a flash of light, they were gone. They appeared just outside the fence. Seemingly safe for now, the quartet took a second to catch their breath.
"Everypony… alright?" Celestia asked.
"Yes…. sister," Luna replied.
"Did you really have to cut it that close?" Ember questioned, her panic subsiding, at least for now.
Cadence however, did not reply. She just mumbled something that was completely incomprehensible. They all looked over to her, only to see her tiredly looking at one of her forelegs, which had one of the syringes sticking in it.
"Cadence!" They all yelled in unison, before she collapsed to the ground.
"What happened to her? I- is she dead?!" Ember asked. Just when she thought she could relax for a second, something else had to go wrong.
Luna immediately went to check on the downed princess.
"Her heart rate has been drastically decreased," she stated.
"Good. She's just unconscious," Celestia replied.
"Oh, then - " Ember cut herself off as she looked behind her, taking in her surroundings. The other two conscious princesses began to observe their whereabouts as well. They were in the midst of some trees, and right in Ember's direction, laid the aftermath of the bombardment. Scorched corpses lay throughout the now burnt and barren ground. Most of them were pony corpses, with several changeling bodies being visible as well.
A profound sense of dread washed over the three rulers. However, with the fourth of them out of commission, they still needed to act quickly.
“We should… regroup with the survivors," she said, pointing towards where the remaining half of the army stood, though her eyes could somehow not be turned away from the carnage that the drones unleashed.
"Argh! What the…" Steel Horn looked around to find the source of the bright flash, only to find himself in another location entirely. He was in the midst of some trees, with the battle no longer in view, other than the smoke rising up from the battlefield about a hundred metres away. He looked around to see what the hell was going on, and found himself surrounded by the three Alicorn princesses, one of which was unconscious, an equally as confused Shining Armour, and Dragon Lord Ember. "What just happened? What is the meaning of this?" He asked, confused.
"The meaning of this is that Celestia just saved your life," Ember replied.
"Saved my..?" Realisation dawned upon him, "Ohhhhhh… my apologies then. The entire Minotaur Kingdom thanks you, Celestia."
"Well, you're most welcome. It wasn't anything any other pony in my position wouldn't do," Celestia replied.
"So… what now?" Ember asked.
"We need to head back to Equestria, regroup, and tell the others what happened,” Luna said.
"Considering the First Humans just incapacitated Cadence, they’re likely trying to track us down,” Celestia explained. "We need to go now, before it's too late.”
What they didn't know was that it was already too late. Several drones had picked up the sudden flash in the midst of the trees, away from the battle. Given the two most valuable individuals had just vanished in a bright light again, it was pretty clear that was where they reappeared, and it was clear who helped them escape.
"I agree. Let's - Gah!" Steel Horn felt a sudden jolt of pain on his arm. "What on Equus…" he turned towards where he had felt the jolt of pain, finding a syringe sticking out of his arm.
“Steel!” Ember said, fearing Steel Horn would be incapacitated the same way as Cadence was.
“I’ll be alright,” he assured. “It’ll take a lot more than one of these to bring me down.”
The majority of the drones were still quite far away, but two of the drones were ahead of the pack; the ones who had seen them teleport into the jungle.
“Run!” Celestia called out, levitating the unconscious Cadence and making a break for it. The rest of them immediately followed after her, with the dragons and alicorns taking flight as they fled.
Luna looked back towards the approaching drones. “They’re gaining on us!” She called out, “We can’t outrun them!” The drones were holding their fire, waiting until they were in range so that they could be more accurate.
"What do we do?" Ember asked as they ran through the forest.
"We should at least try to fend them off if we can't escape them," Steel Horn suggested. "If it does come to that, Celestia and Luna, you should teleport as far as you can. The three of us will hold them off as long as we can to buy you time. Once you’re ready, come back for us with a larger force. Unfortunately, if we are to win this fight, I fear some of us will have to lose," he added.
The sound of tranquilizers being fired, which sounded a lot like suppressed gunfire, began coming from behind them. They were focusing on Ember and Steel Horn, since they were the ones in the back. They were also much easier to hit considering the dart's slower speed. Ember was flying in a much more predictable manner and much more slowly than the Alicorns, while Steel Horn only stayed on the ground. The Alicorns had begun making evasive maneuvers, zipping about erratically and unpredictably using their faster movement.
Steel Horn yelped in pain as he was hit by another tranquilizer dart. Then another, and another and another. He was hit by several, yet still did not go down, much to the surprise of the drone pilots and the leaders observing the confrontation back in Utopia. Steel Horn did feel himself getting more tired however, and had to try his best just to keep his eyes open.
Ember on the other hand, was having little to no trouble dealing with the darts, as her scales rendered her pretty much invulnerable to them. The two Alicorns just did their best to dodge the few shots that actually came their way.
"We can't keep this up!" Ember said.
"There!" Celestia pointed to an area down the path they were following, "Once we take the turn, we immediately go into the trees and lose them. Once they’re far enough away, we'll go back down the path we already took, back towards the camp. They shouldn’t expect that."
"At least… it's a… plan…" Steel Horn said tiredly. As they were approaching the bend, there was a sudden loud shriek from Luna and everyone turned to face her.
"Luna, are you alright?!" Celestia asked, worried. "Are you hit?"
"I… I am," said Luna as she flew. "I have been hit in the leg, but I will be able hold out a little while longer," she said, the tranquilizer not having taken effect yet, "We have to keep moving."
"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Celestia asked.
"Yes, we can rest once we're safe," she answered. And so they ran, and flew, down the winding path. But then they came face to face with the last thing they would've ever expected. Ahead of them were Tirek, Chrysalis and Cozy Glow, conversing with each other as they headed their way. One by one, they each noticed the frantic group in front of them, making them slow down for a moment.
None of the creatures knew what to say, as if both had been caught with an appendage in the cookie jar.
"Ignore them!" Ember said, "They'll be the least of our problems if the First Humans capture us. If we’re going to do this we need to do it now!” So, they did proceed with the plan, ignoring the villains' presence.
They then heard a loud thud, and looking around for the source of the noise, they found Steel Horn on the ground. The many tranquilizers he had been shot with had begun to take their toll on him, and he was far too drowsy to continue running. With Celestia currently occupied with carrying Cadence, Luna went back to get him. She couldn't get close however, and immediately flinched as two darts flew past her, just barely missing her head.
"Go!" Said Steel Horn. "Get help and… come… back for… me…" he said, as he gradually blacked out.
Just as that happened, they heard the voice of a certain centaur. “After them!”
"Must everything go wrong today?!" Ember asked.
"How dare they not tremble in fear at the mere sight of us!" Chrysalis said angrily.
"After them!" Said Tirek, but before they could give chase, they came face to face with the last thing they would've ever expected. Two flying metal machines, followed by a group of a few dozen more flying machines behind them. The machines slowly came to a complete stop as they came face to face with them, hovering in place. They just stared at each other awkwardly for a few moments, both parties extremely surprised that they had encountered the other.
"These things are what they were running from? Flying pieces of scrap? Pathetic," said Chrysalis.
"Well in their defense, how often do you see flying pieces of scrap metal?" Cozy Glow asked.
"Well, I… guess that makes sense," Chrysalis replied.
"Sir, we’ve found Tirek and Cozy Glow?" One of the drone captains asked the general.
"Yes, it seems like Cozy Glow has now become a hybrid, Tirek has become a lot fatter, and I’m presuming the other one with them is Chrysalis," said Holden.
"Your orders, sir?" The captain asked.
"We may very well be dealing with three omnipotent megalomaniacs. I'm not taking any risks. Tranq em'" Holden replied.
"Yes sir," The captain replied, before reaching for the intercom, "All units, open fire. Tranquilizers only."
"What are those things doing?" Chrysalis asked.
"They don't seem to be attacking," Tirek stated the obvious.
"Then we should attack them first. We should get them before they get u - " Chrysalis was cut off as the drones all began to open fire. Most of them focused on Tirek, with him being the biggest and most striking target, with Cozy Glow having the least amount of focus directed at her.
Tirek roared in anger as the Tranquilizer darts impacted against him, though they were unable to pierce through his skin. Chrysalis was also able to withstand the barrage, with her chitin being much stronger than a regular changeling's and serving as a form of about that protected her from the darts. Cozy Glow just hid behind Tirek once they started shooting.
Once the two heard the drones cease their fire, they checked themselves and felt nothing out of the ordinary. Upon realizing the darts were having no effect on them, they looked towards the drones with hateful eyes.
“Destroy them!” Chrysalis shouted. Cozy Glow came out from behind Tirek, and the three of them all began charging their magic simultaneously. An orange ball of magical energy began forming above Tirek’s head, while Cozy Glow’s horn began emitting a red aura, and Chrysalis’s horn a green aura. All at once, they began assaulting the drones with powerful magic blasts, expecting them all to be destroyed once they were done. However, to their surprise however, the drones remained hovering in place, having not even been phased by their energy beams.
"Any other ideas?" Cozy Glow asked, looking at the drones, who were just hovering in place.
“It appears we ate at an impasse," Tirek observed. "Or, we would be, if it wasn't for this."
Tirek then uprooted a nearby tree with his bare hands, followed by throwing it at the group of drones. Some of them managed to dodge the projectile, but the tree did manage to hit two of the drones, one of which exploded upon impact, while the other got crushed by the force of the large projectile and fell to the ground, sparks flying from the downed drone.
Tirek gave a hearty laugh upon realizing his success.
"Is that the best you can do?!" He shouted at the drones, mocking them. The drones then began doing something unexpected. Instead of darts, the remaining drones shot out metal canisters, surrounding the three. Chrysalis was confused by the seemingly futile action, but Tirek and Cozy Glow both knew exactly what the canisters were, and what was coming next.
"You had to ask…" said Cozy Glow.
Soon enough, the canisters began emitting the same red gas that the two former prisoners. Saw take down Cerberus.
Chrysalis and Cozy Glow attempted to teleport themselves and Triek away, but it was too late. It was the last thing the trip knew before everything went dark.
"Sir, we've managed to count the number of ponies that are still alive, we're holding them in place with the drones. There are seven pegasi, nine-hundred earth ponies, and six-hundred unicorns still alive. Additionally, we have successfully tranqed Tirek, Chrysalis and Cozy Glow," said a soldier. “How shall we proceed?”
"Good," one of the generals said before turning to the others, "We should have a team go up to the surface to retrieve them, and send a few helicopters to carry Tirek back to the surface camp."
"We have a limited number of prisoners we can actually house, so we should send out some of the scientists alongside the retrieval team to pick out whichever specimens they want. We’ll execute the remainder," said one of the generals. "Anything else, soldier?”
"There's one other thing. There were several other unidentified corpses littered among the ponies. These creatures are, believe it or not, even more colourful than the ponies themselves, and seem to have an insectoid appearance. We did some digging and reviewed some of the footage from the battle, and we found this," he gave them a tablet, which played a video of a 'unicorn' being killed by the shockwave of a blast. The corpse of the same unicorn then gradually began transforming into the body of another creature.
"Great…” said Holden, "We're dealing with bloody shapeshifters now?! Tell the science team to collect any of those bodies they can find to see if there’s a way we can expose them. If any of them manage to infiltrate Utopia, who knows what kind of havoc they can wreak.”
Holden took one more second, trying to think of the best solution to counter this new threat.
“Keep the prisoners under twenty-four hour surveillance,” he concluded. “Any one of them could be one of these creatures. Better be safe than sorry."
And so the soldiers and scientists got themselves ready to go 'attend' to their 'guests'.
“What are those things?” A lieutenant asked, trying to discern exactly what the fleet of ground-bound helicopters were.
“Do I look like I have all the answers?” Colonel Shield asked his fellow soldier, annoyed at his incessant bugging.
It’s just that they’ve been surrounding us for thirty minutes, just hovering there” the lieutenant explained, “At first, I thought they were going to kill us, but if it is, why haven’t they done it yet?”
As if answering his questions, several helicopters began emerging from the ground and began heading towards them.
“Well, one thing’s for sure,” Shield answered. “After what we just went through, there’s no way they’re just showing us mercy.”
The ponies all stared in fear as the helicopters neared them and landed. The doors of the helicopter opened, revealing hundreds of masked humans.
The force exited the helicopter and began advancing toward the ponies. The humans began, walking past the line of drones without provoking them, and taking up positions in front of the group. One of the humans stepped ahead of the group, definitely their leader if Colonel Shield was guessing correctly.
"Attention, equines!" He announced, "My name is Major Abbott, and my job is to watch over you lot. If you do anything deemed unacceptable, then you will be executed on the spot. Now, which one of you is the highest ranking member of your army?"
Colonel Shield looked around, and saw multiple soldiers staring at him. He gulped, then made his presence known. "That would be me!" He announced, walking up to the major. As he was walking, two masked men approached him.
"Stop!" One of the men announced as he walked up to him. He removed his sword from its scabbard, and observed it for a moment, before losing interest and holding it at his side. The two soldiers then walked behind him. "Proceed," one of them said, and they began to approach Abbott. As he was walking, a second wave of helicopters began emerging from the ground, which split into two groups. About five of those helicopters approached the ponies, while the other four seemed to be headed somewhere else.
"Name and rank?" Major Abbott asked as Colonel Shield stood in front of him.
"Colonel Shimmering Shield of the hundred and thirty first brigade of the Equestrian Royal Guard," the colonel answered.
The colonel heard a few snickers from some of Abbot’s men.
It didn’t take long for the snickering to turn into full blown laughter. Even Abbot looked like he was trying to suppress his own laughter. Colonel Shield was confused.
"Is something funny?" He asked.
After composing himself, Abbot responded. "We Utopians are still getting used to your horsey names, and it seems like my men are having some issues in maintaining professionalism.”
With that, the laughing from Abbot’s men quickly ceased.
"Aaannywayy, I need you, Colonel Shield to hand over all the weapons of your soldiers. If I, or any of my men, find any weapon after this has been done, the offending soldier will be executed on the spot," he said, as the four helicopters landed nearby them.
“Understood?” Abbot finished. The doors of the arriving helicopters opened revealing fewer soldiers than the previous group, but this time they were followed by dozens of men in lab coats.
"Yeah, collect their weapons, got it," Colonel Shield answered.
"Good, glad we have an understanding,” Abbot said, though his smug smile gave off a sense of triumph to the major. “Now I've gotta go tend to the scientists. I expect all of your weapons to be handed over to us when I get back."
20 Minutes Later…
"We're ready, you can tell the major to start sending the subjects in now," A scientist told one of the soldiers.
Ten separate tents had been set up around the Utopian surface camps. Each one manned by multiple scientists, with soldiers standing guard, and equipped with various pieces of equipment that would be used to run tests on each pony.
Two such pieces of equipment were machines that measured Keifer's and Chaotic radiation. Upon receiving this data, the scientists will determine which of the prisoners would be of use for further study. As for the rest, well, it wasn’t up to them.
"Bring the first batch!" Major Abbott ordered, and the soldiers went to bring over the first ten ponies.
Major Abbott watched the ponies as they were processed. The majority of them apparently were unworthy of further study, evident by the said subjects looking rather relieved once their tests were finished. Of course, he “conveniently forgot” to mention the fate of those that would not be taken by the scientists, a thought that brought a smirk to the major’s face.
Just then, his left pocket began vibrating. Who would be calling at a time like this?
Upon seeing name on his smartphone, the major became a bit puzzled. It was General Holden himself. The generals usually didn't personally check up on any operations or relay orders themselves, usually sending a lower ranking officer to do it for them.
"General Holden sir, to what do I owe the pleasure?" Abbott asked.
"Major Abbott," he greeted, "There's been a change of plans, we're no longer executing the unwanted prisoners."
A shred of disappointment came over the major’s face upon the ruining of his little “practical joke. “I see. In that case, what is to be done with them then?” Abbott asked.
“The other generals and I have discussed it and it was just approved by the world leaders,” Holden explained. “After having taken more time to discern the ponies’ capabilities, we decided we want to put those abilities to good use. Thus, the surface camp will be converted into a labour camp and the prisoners housed there as POWs.”
“It’s going to be a lot harder to police the prisoners, considering the force you sent with me was only enough for the number we originally planned to keep,” Abbot pointed out.
“Precisely,” Holden replied. “To remedy this, we’re going to be sending you a shipment of 1,500 remote-activated shock collars to put on each pony, which will be preset to go off if they tamper with it or leave the perimeter. ETA in an hour.”
“Understood sir. Those collars should be enough to compensate for the unplanned increase in prisoner population. What of the scientist’s tests then, if not to determine who we keep and who we dispose of?” Abbott asked.
“The scientists will be given free reign to take any prisoner from the camp any time they wish. However, they will still need to run their tests before the prisoners enter the camp, so they can discern which subjects to prioritize,” Holden explained. “Any more questions?”
“No sir,” replied Abbot.
Chrysalis groaned as she began regaining consciousness, slowly opening her eyes to find she was trapped in a rather large cage, alongside a still-unconscious Cozy Glow.
There was a second cage next to the one she was in, this one containing Tirek, who was regaining consciousness as well.
Both cages sat in a rather large tent, along with various pieces of what looked like modified medical equipment, among other things. Ahead of her was the flap that functioned as the entrance of the tent, with some sunlight coming through the crack.
Cozy Glow was now beginning to regain consciousness. “What on Equus happened…” she asked no one in particular.
“You mean you do not recall?” Tirek asked groggily as he stood up.
“It was those flying things…” Chrysalis answered, a slight growl in her voice.
“So then, where are we?” Cozy Glow asked.
“We’re in a tent, obviously,” replied Tirek.
“I mean where have they taken us?” Cozy clarified. “Our location.”
“No idea,” Tirek replied.
“Well then, let’s find out who was stupid enough to attempt to imprison us,” Chrysalis said, followed by shooting a blast of green energy at the door of the cage. To her surprise, the door didn’t budge, just rattling slightly but receiving no visible damage. That was odd. Nothing a stronger blast couldn't fix… or so she thought.
She shot out another blast of energy, stronger than the last. However, the result was just the same as before.
"What is the meaning of this?!” Chrysalis shook the cage bars violently.
"Well, it’s not magic, since the Utopians are devoid of it…" said Tirek, thinking out loud. He touched the cage bars and, sure enough, felt no magic. “… and this cage has no magic to speak of. Just as I suspected, we're in Utopia."
"Devoid of magic?” Chrysalis asked, "How are we going to take over if we can't even get out of these prisons?!"
"Don't worry, I can still easily get us out. All I have to do is…" Tirek tried pulling the bars apart, only to find that he couldn't. He strained as he tried again, using all his might to try and pry the bars open. He eventually gave up, panting and completely out of breath. The result of his efforts was that the two bars he had tried to pull apart had barely moved.
“Well this is a new development.”
That was when Cozy Glow realized something. "Hey, what’s with the collars around you guys’ necks?" She asked.
"What?" Chrysalis asked, both her and Tirek raising one of their hooves to confirm Cozy’s observation. Sure enough, there they were.
Chrysalis immediately began trying to take hers off, but to no avail, as her hooves couldn't properly grip it.
Tirek seemed to be having more luck, with him succeeding in getting his fingers under the collar. The moment he tried pulling however…
Tirek screamed in agony as he was shocked by the collar as it made a mechanical crackling noise. This was nothing like the electric shock he had experienced previously, the pain was unreal. He felt like every single nerve in his body was being set on fire all at once. He started spasming, unable to move his body as it vibrated uncontrollably. But after a few seconds, it stopped, just as suddenly as it started. Fortunately for him, there were no lasting effects, the pain had completely faded. He did suddenly feel extremely fatigued though, and he fell to the ground, no longer having the strength to stand.
"Tirek!" Both Chrysalis and Cozy Glow called out, slightly concerned about him. A few seconds after he had been shocked, two men rushed into the tent, hearing his screams. Both men had their helmets off, and stared at the newly awakened prisoners with worry.
"What happened?" One of them asked.
"You tell us! That thing shocked him!" Cozy Glow said in anger.
"Who are you people?!" Chrysalis asked angrily. "Release us at once!" Chrysalis commanded.
"We need to go get the major," one of them said.
"Agreed," the other replied.
"What are you waiting for?! Did you not hear what I said you overgrown monk - " she stopped talking as both of the men ignored her and left the tent.
"What the…" she said. She was in disbelief that humans of all creatures would show her such sheer disrespect.
"How dare a bunch of humans defy the queen of the changelings?!" She asked, outraged. She started blasting away at the cell door in rage, energy blast after energy blast.
"I am a queen! And I will not tolerate such - " she was cut off as another voice came from just outside the flap of the tent.
"Such what?" The voice said, before a man flanked by two soldiers stepped in. He pulled out a pack of cigarettes from his pocket and took one out, followed by taking out a lighter and lighting it. He put it in his mouth and inhaled slowly, followed by breathing out a puff of smoke. He looked rather menacing, especially with the dim lighting of the tent, and that was the only thing that kept Chrysalis from snapping at him then and there. The moment he walked into the tent, it was clear who was in control. He slowly walked up to the cell Chrysalis was in. "Were you saying something?" He asked.
"Who are you?” Chrysalis asked with venom in her voice, “And why have you brought us here?”
“I am Major Abbott, the officer who is currently in command of this camp,” the major introduced himself. “And the reason for your current condition is two-fold. One, you three were hostile towards our drones, and secondly, we received intel that you have absorbed the ‘magic’ of the creature known as Discord. Considering that you are well… criminals, you can see why we might view that as a threat.”
Chrysalis could only growl in response, but it did not phase the major.
“According to our current intel, Discord is omnipotent or near-omnipotent. Since you’ve ‘stolen’ his power, we were left with the assumption that we were dealing with three criminals with the power of God himself. What I want to know is that if this is indeed the case, then you shouldn't got have been able to counteract our drones with ease? So, tell me, what exactly happened when you absorbed his powers?" The major asked.
"Clearly you haven't even the slightest idea of how magic even works if you think absorbing his magic will make the three of us gods," said Chrysalis. "Now that you know we're not 'omnipotent criminals', what exactly do you want with us?"
"Well, once we had you three in our custody, we took your radiation levels. You know what we found?" He asked rhetorically, "Each of your levels of harmonic radiation, or what you call “magic,” are off the charts. In other words, you three are in fact the most powerful individuals we've ever come across."
"Obviously we're the most powerful," Cozy Glow said proudly, "We're probably more powerful than all the Alicorns combined."
"Precisely," Major Abbott asked, "Therefore, this means you're also the biggest threat to Utopia, and considering your criminal history, well, it wouldn’t be prudent to have you all running loose, now would it?"
"So what are you going to do? Keep us imprisoned forever?" Tirek asked, before giving a confident laugh. "I've escaped the most secure prison in the world a total of three times, and my friend here," - he nodded towards Cozy Glow - "Has escaped Tartarus once as well."
"Afraid not,” Abbot revealed. “It was us who freed you the first time, followed by the one known as Discord teleporting you away," said Major Abbott.
"How do you know all of this?!" Chrysalis asked.
"The people of Utopia know a lot more than you think, Ms. Chrysalis," said Abbott.
"So, what are you going to do? You can't keep us locked up forever," Cozy Glow asked.
"I'm afraid, little miss, that we can,” Abbot replied. “I have no idea what's going to be done with you. So, I will be off to go find out what the higher ups want done with you and return once I do," he said, before turning around and walking away.
He stopped just in front of the tent flap, turning around to face them once again. "And by the way, I wouldn’t tamper with those 'necklaces'. It'll shock you if you go beyond the camp's perimeter or tamper with it."
"Why doesn't she have a collar?" Tirek asked, gesturing towards Cozy Glow.
"We're not going to shock a child," Abbott said with disgust. “For the monsters this world’s inhabitants think we are, even we have lines we do not cross.”
He then turned around and exited the tent.
"So, any suggestions?" Asked Felix.
"Well, if you want, we could get Tirek to help Eris," said President Alexi.
"Since when do you care about Atticus's daughter?" Felix asked.
"I don't, at least not until recently. If there is a chance that Eris might become a... 'draconequus', as they call it, she will gain the same abilities as Discord once she wakes up.”
"I won't allow you to take advantage of a minor," Felix said firmly.
"I didn't say anything about taking advantage of anyone," Alexi replied.
"We should also find out how exactly they were able to defeat the Discord creature," said Xi Mingzhe.
"Yes we should, but I highly doubt they're just hand that information over to us," said PM Jack.
"We can use some enhanced interrogation methods," Aladeen suggested
"We’re not going to torture them, Aladeen. We could easily drug them, but we want them to work with us," PM Bjorn said. "We potentially have three extremely powerful assets at our disposal, and although we wouldn't need their help on the battlefield, imagine what else they could do for us. Imagine what we could achieve if they worked with us. We could have real life teleportation stations, laser guns, tanks and jets with energy shields around them, and super soldiers. It doesn’t just have to be military technology either, imagine what magic could do for us in the field of medicine, construction, energy production, and agriculture."
"Or we could just use some enhanced integration methods," Aladeen suggested.
"Listen Bjorn, those are all excellent suggestions and things that could very well happen in the future, but don't you think it's a little far-fetched?" PM Mateo asked.
"Yes and no," Bjorn answered, "This is magic we're talking about, literal magic. The possibilities are… well… endless. From what I understand, harmonic radiation can do pretty much whatever you want it to do as long as you manipulate it in the right way. These ponies, especially the unicorns, have evolved in a way that allows them to harness the unique properties of harmonic radiation. Say we can combine magic, technology, and let's say genetics. Imagine what the human race could achieve with the power to manipulate harmonic radiation in combination with technology. What if the draconequus is the final stage of human evolution? With their help, all of this can become a possibility."
"That sounds an awful lot like playing God, Bjorn,” Felix pointed out.
"We've already done it, haven't we?” Bjorn pointed out. “We created Discord, and if Eris survives, that’s one more draconequus completely by accident. We have the final stage of human evolution starting us right in the face, we just have to figure out how to do it again.”
Major Abbott entered the tent, along with four other soldiers. "Good news, you three," he said as he and his escort walked towards the cells.
"So, what do you people want?" Chrysalis asked.
"Well, you're about to find out. The leaders of Utopia themselves wish to meet you," he said, followed by giving a small nod to one of the soldiers. The soldier took out a pair of keys from his pocket, followed by walking towards the cell that held Chrysalis and Cozy Glow, followed by inserting the key into the lock and turning it. What was strange was that none of the soldiers seemed to be carrying any weapons, and Chrysalis saw it as an opportunity.
The moment the door opened wide enough, Chrysalis leapt at the soldier with murder in her eyes. Before she made contact however, she received a powerful shock just like Tirek. She began spasming, which caused her to miss her target and fall to the ground beside him. Every single nerve in her body burned as she jolted back and forth on the ground. The constant shocking lasted for about ten seconds, during which she felt like she was being burned alive, before the pain abruptly disappeared, leaving her lying on the floor, too weak to move. Chrysalis looked up at the major with both fear and anger, and saw that he had some sort of device pointed at her.
"I'd recommend not doing that again," said the major, putting down the remote. "You can only take so many of those," he said, before looking to the soldiers, "Help her up, let's get them to the leaders."
Tirek, Chrysalis and Cozy Glow shielded their eyes from the bright light upon stepping out of the tent. The dozens of spotlights set up several meters high on large metal poles lit up the entire camp. The trip witnessed hundreds of humans running about between hundreds of different tents.
There were several ponies visible as well, wearing shock collars just as they had. Unlike them, however, the imprisoned ponies were organized in lines with gun-wielding humans guarding them. In the distance, several hundred meters away, a tall metal fence surrounded the camp with even more guards patrolling the outskirts.
Almost all eyes turned onto the group as they made their way through the camp. A creature as large as Tirek certainly helped attract attention. While most of the humans stared at them with curiosity, the ponies had looks more akin to fear and confusion.
What caught the trio by surprise, however, is that the ponies actually had greater numbers, yet they weren't attempting to overpower their captors. It was the exact opposite actually, with the ponies looking defeated and having their will to fight completely sapped out of them.
"What happened to them..?" Cozy Glow whispered, though Major Abbott was still able to hear her.
"These are what remains of the Equestrian force that attacked us," he answered, "They came in the tens-of-thousands. And yet… these are all that’s left. We didn’t even suffer any casualties. It’s sad, really."
"Lies," Chrysalis stated simply.
"Pardon?" The major asked.
"You're lying,” the deposed changeling queen repeated. “You expect me to believe that you decimated an entire army, tens of thousands strong, without suffering a single casualty?"
"Just goes to show you what a likely centuries-wide technology gap can do," said Abbott.
"Even with all your technology, how could you possibly avoid any casualties?" Tirek asked.
“Quite simple, actually,” Abbot explained. “We used those bad boys over there.”
Abbot gestured to a small clearing between tents, where the trio saw the flying objects they had encountered earlier, though they were not in flight at this moment and appeared to be wired up to some kind of large box.
"Those are our drones,” Abbot elaborated. “We have a highly skilled force of pilots remotely operating them within Utopia itself.”
"What does 'remotely operated' mean exactly?" Cozy Glow asked.
"Geez, you really are primitive people, aren't you?" Abbott replied. “How do I put this? So, you know how unicorns can move things though the air with their horns? Replace “magic” with good ole electricity, and fill the thing up with guns up the wazoo, and you have a drone.”
As the group continued to make their way through the camp, a pattern was beginning to emerge. All of the imprisoned ponies were being segregated by subspecies. Earth ponies were with earth ponies and unicorns were with unicorns. Despite actively trying, Cozy Glow could not find a single Pegasus, prompting her to wonder if she was the only winged pony in the entire camp.
Soon enough, they made their way towards a particularly large tent.
“Wait here,” said Abbott before he entered the tent. He returned about a minute later.
"They're ready for you," he said, "No funny business, understood?"
They all boxed in response.
"Alright, go on in."
Upon stepping into the tent, the trio found a large round table, with ten chairs set around it. Seven of the chairs were occupied with humans of varying ethnicities all sitting beside each other in a row. The three closest chairs remained empty.
"Welcome," said a woman with a Chinese accent. “Please, have a seat," the woman gestured for the three empty chairs.
The trio silently sat down, and stared at the group ahead of them. All was still for a moment, as an awkward silence permeated the air, and the tension in the room rose.
"I sense a lot of tension in the air,” said PM Bjorn, breaking the silence. “The three of you need not worry, we aren't going to harm you.”
Chrysalis almost countered that with a “That’s rich,” but thought better of it. Whether she liked it or not, she did not have any leverage to work with at the moment, and she hated every second of it.
"Who are you?" Cozy Glow asked
"I don't believe we've met,” Alexei said. “We are the leaders of the last remaining nations of the human race.”
"Hold on, the last time we checked, wasn’t one of your leaders named Atticus?” Cozy Glow said.
"You would be correct,” Felix explained. “I have recently taken up the position for the time being," Felix explained.
"And why is that?" Tirek asked.
"Atticus made some… unwise decisions and that led to him being removed from power, or rather forced to resign," Felix replied.
“You all don’t seem like leaders to me,” Chrysalis was one step away from snarling.
"Excuse me?" King Osas asked.
"Your race is all brawn over brains,” Chrysalis explained. “It's what caused your race's downfall.”
"I have no idea where you heard that from, but I can assure you that is far from accurate,” Mateo explained. “While humanity does praise its strongest among them, the role of leader comes down more so to intelligence than anything.”
"So how exactly was your 'great species' reduced to this if you were so smart?" Chrysalis sarcastically asked.
"We can either keep talking about irrelevant topics or we can get down to business," said PM Jack impatiently.
"Fine," stated Tirek, "What do you want with us?"
"What we are asking of you is two-fold,” PM Bjorn explained. “One, we want Tirek to cure Eris of her radiation sickness. Two, we want to know how exactly you drained Discord of his “magic” and what it did to you. After you fulfill these tasks, you will no longer be considered prisoners and we may proceed with further discussion.”
Tirek thought for a moment. Obtaining the magic of a second draconequus… and she was about to be served up to him on a silver platter. He nearly started drooling just thinking about it, but he couldn’t, lest the humans realize how powerful chaos magic was and change their minds.
"Very well,” Tirek said. If it will lead to our release, I will comply.”
Chrysalis did not look all too enthused at the prospect of complying with the leaders’ requests. As for Cozy Glow, she was still trying to size up everyone at the table.
"Excellent!” Bjorn replied. “Now, if you don’t mind me asking, have you ever partially absorbed magic out of an individual?"
"Of course not!” Tirek asked. “If I absorb a creature’s magic, I make sure I get every last sliver of it.”
"Let me rephrase then," Bjorn asked. “Are you capable of partially absorbing magic out of an individual? If you are as powerful as you claim, then it should be no problem.”
"I don’t why one would do that, but I can if that is what’s required,” Tirek replied.
"Good, then you should have no trouble removing only five percent of the radiation in her system," stated Bjorn.
The centaur was hoping that comment did not mean what he thought it meant.
"If you thought that we were unaware of the abilities that a large dose of chaotic radiation provides an individual, then you are completely mistaken,” Bjorn explained.
It was exactly what he thought it meant.
“I’m afraid we cannot just allow you to run free with all of that chaotic radiation, Mr. Tirek,” Bjorn continued. “After some further study by Dr. Keifer, he has theorized that there must have been a certain point at which Eris’ body became strained due to overexposure to chaotic radiation. After further testing, we determined that the overexposure should be at around five percent. Any more than that and she likely would have perished already. So, you will remove only five percent of the radiation in her body, understood?"
Tirek pondered for a moment.
"No," he firmly refused. "If you want my help, I want all her magic. That's my price."
"I don't think you fully appreciate the gravity of the situation you're in, Mr. Tirek," said Alexi. "You're in no position to be making demands. There are other methods we could be employing right now to ensure your cooperation, but we are not doing that because we want to work with you.”
"I think you'll find that if we wanted to, we could easily force him," said Alexei.
"And what exactly are these “other methods?" Chrysalis asked.
Aladeen began to open his mouth.
“We’re not torturing him, Aladeen,” Felix immediately put the idea down.
That sentence took Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow by surprise. Humans have been known to rape and murder, sure, but they had never been known to resort to something as brutal as torture. The fact that it was so casually mentioned might have been the most disturbing part though.
“Felix is right, we’re not going to resort to that,” Bjorn agreed. “We need your help, and we believe that if you help us, we can give you something in return as well,” said Bjorn, going along with his plan.
Felix took it from there.
“While you were unconscious, we gathered some intelligence from the prisoners about your previous escapades,” Felix explained. “All three of you have attempted a coup on Equestria at least once, and each time you were stopped by the so-called Elements of Harmony. Luckily for you, should you comply, you won’t have to worry about them anymore…”
Chrysalis was hoping he didn’t say what he thought was going to say.
“…because we also have them in our custody.”
“Oh, come on!” Chrysalis asked.
“How?” Tirek asked.
“You… what!?” Cozy Glow asked.
“I’m sure you recall, Mr. Tirek, that you suggested that one Twilight Sparkle, one of the Elements, can assist us with our plight,” Bjorn asked.
“I wasn’t being serious!” Tirek exclaimed.
“Well, after you pulled your little disappearing act, Atticus ordered Twilight Sparkle to be retrieved,” Bjorn explained. “However, she does not have the same expertise in draining magic as you do. So, we want to ask you again.”
“Well, I can’t just do this for my freedom,” Tirek countered. “If I can’t have all of Eris’ chaos magic, I need something else.”
“Alright, then how would you three like to actually succeed in your objectives to rule Equestria?” Bjorn asked.
That piqued the trio’s interest.
“You mean you want to help us take over Equestria?” Cozy Glow asked, confused.
“You misunderstand,” Bjorn corrected. “Once we’ve cleared the rubble from the main door and deployed the jets and tanks, Utopia will be able to invade Equestria with or without you.”
“So, why even ask us that?” asked Cozy Glow.
“What Equestria did when they attacked us was an act of war,” Bjorn explained. “They have made it clear that they are not interested in peaceful negotiations. It’s either us, or them. What we are offering you is the opportunity to be on the winning side…”
The trio still did not seem all too convinced.
“…and as they saying goes, ‘to the winner goes the spoils.’ Queen Chrysalis, so long as you maintain friendly relations with Utopia, we will re-install you as the ruler of the Changeling Kingdom.”
Chrysalis had an evil smirk on her face at the prospect of regaining her rightful title.
“Lord Tirek, so long as you pledge to not attack any Utopian lands, you can absorb magic of all four of the Alicorns and do with it what you please.”
Tirek licked his lips at the prospect of regaining his once massive stature.
“Miss Cozy Glow, since you are still young, we can give you the finest education that Utopia can provide, as well as a job within our ranks upon completion of said education. Though, if you wish to pursue other endeavors, so long as they don’t include any untoward action on Utopian lands, we will not stop you.”
The prospect of being the only pony in existence to know the ins-and-outs of human technology did sound quite enticing to the young pony.
“In addition, we have no interest in ruling Equestria, even if we have to resort to invasion,” Bjorn explained. “However, if you three wish to continue your activities against Equestria once we are finished, then we can provide you with all the resources you want to ensure your success.”
The trio were curious before, now Bjorn had their attention.
“All we ask is that you heal Eris and tell us how you defeated the draconequus,” Bjorn finished.
As much as Chrysalis hated the idea of being beholden to another power, the opportunity to get her kingdom back seemed like too good an offer to pass up. She and Cozy Glow turned and nodded their heads to Tirek, since the conversation pointed to him being the main speaker for the three of them collectively.
"We will require some time to think over your proposal, but since you are forcing us to assist you, I guess we don't have a choice," said Tirek. "When do we start?"
"Will you be able to extract Eris’ magic in Utopia, since magic is rendered ineffective within its walls?" Felix asked.
"The process of absorbing the magic of another creature is not actually powered by magic,” Tirek explained. “It's more of a transfer process which does not require any medium whatsoever.”
"Perfect,” Felix responded. “And Discord?”
“We simply worked together and were able to catch him off guard with three powerful energy blasts,” Tirek explained. “Once he had been hit, he fell into a daze-like state, and during that time, I used a spell of my own design to absorb his magic and split it amongst the three of us."
"Well… that sounds way too simple," said Osas, "It's not that we don't believe you, we just need to make sure, so you'll have to make your statement once again when we've hooked you up to the lie detector."
"Lie… detector?" Cozy Glow in a nervous tone, which was easily noticed by everyone else in the room.
"Well yes, it detects lies with a one hundred percent accuracy by literally scanning the neurons in the brain themselves, but you shouldn’t have anything to worry about, unless of course you're lying right now?” Aladeen asked with a sly smirk.
"W- what?! Of course not!" Tirek said worriedly.
"Then like we said, nothing to worry about!" PM Jack stated.
"Chrysalis, prepare to have your mind blown!" Cozy Glow prepared Chrysalis as the trio and the world leaders made their way into Utopia. The changeling was the only one amongst them that had not yet been inside.
"I'm sure that a hole in the ground built by humans isn't going to be all that exciting. It's probably like every other diamond dog den, dirty and crude," Chrysalis replied.
"Well, you'll see…" said Cozy Glow, before changing the subject.
"Do you think they’re actually going to keep their end of the deal?"
"Probably not,” Chrysalis replied.
"Even if they do, would we actually not attempt anything against them afterwards?" Cozy Glow asked.
"Goodness, no," Chrysalis explained.
"We already did it with Discord,” Tirek explained. “This will be no different.”
"So, what do you think? Like every other diamond dog den?" Cozy Glow asked Chrysalis, "I hate to say I told you so, but - "
"Then don't say it," Chrysalis quickly cut her off.
The changeling was becoming shocked at just how technically advanced humanity was.
"How is this even possible?” she wondered aloud. “An entire railway underground… and within a building as well," she said with awe.
They eventually made their way towards the cryo chamber in which Eris was being held, surrounded by a bunch of scientists.
"Keifer, we're here!" Felix called to him as the group approached.
"Ahh, world leaders. It's a pleasure to have you," he greeted. "Oh, and Tirek and Cozy Glow, along with the changeling queen I've heard so much about! A pleasure to have you, Fraulein Chrysalis," he looked to Tirek, "And you've decided to help us save the girl, yes?"
"You would be correct," Tirek asked.
“Excellent,” Keifer said, eager to begin. ”When shall we begin the rejuvenation process?"
"As soon as you're ready, doctor. We can even start now, but I'm assuming you probably wish to record the process?" Felix asked.
"Yes, and we should have a geiger counter brought here as well, one that measures both harmonic and chaotic radiation," Keifer answered.
"Very well, get your things in order and will begin as soon as possible," Felix ordered.
"Yes sir, of course," Keifer turned around and faced his legion of scientists. "You two, get me a geiger counter that can measure both harmonic and chaotic radiation.”
"Yes sir," they both said before scurrying away.
"You there!" Keifer pointed to one of the scientists, "Get me a latte with steamed Austrian goat milk with precisely five teaspoons of sugar."
"Right away, sir," he answered nervously, before leaving.
"So, Lord Tirek, are you ready?" Felix asked, "Remember, once we extract her from cryostasis, she doesn't have much time before she succumbs to the radiation sickness. Also, as a reminder, remove about five percent of the radiation within her. Are we clear?"
"Understood," stated Tirek, "Just beware that the process of stealing one's magic is quite uncomfortable, but harmless. Though for such a small amount, it'll probably be over before she can even feel it."
"Alright that's fine," said Felix before turning his attention towards the secret service agents, "How long until Atticus gets here?"
"He got off the train a few minutes ago," said one of the agents, "He should be arriving right about… now." And he was right, Atticus entered the cryo chamber at that moment, flanked by two soldiers who were guarding him. He was still under house arrest, and would only be let out through a direct order from Felix himself.
"Felix," Atticus greeted with a nod.
"Atticus," Felix returned the greeting.
“You look like you're doing….. well. Presidency suits you,” he remarked.
"Acting President,” Felix corrected. “We haven’t had the election yet. I had to push the congress meeting to tomorrow because of all that's happened.”
"Look, after things cooled down a bit, I just want to apologize for my actions. I fucked up. I was blinded by sadness and worry and…" he was cut off by an impatient prime minister.
"Excuse me gentlemen, could you do this another time? We're all waiting, and Tirek is ready to begin," PM Jack said impatiently.
"Right… yes of course," said Felix, before turning his attention towards Tirek.
"You ready?" He asked, to which Tirek nodded.
"Then you may commence the resuscitation procedure.”
“Is it gonna be painful, dad?” Eris asked. The activity within the cryo chamber was at its all time peak, the busiest it had ever been since Utopia had been built. Scientists and doctors were running back and forth, and the most important people in the world were about to be frozen for the next one million years.
“No, no. It’ll be completely painless,” Atticus replied.
“But I’m being frozen right? I’ve heard frostbite is extremely painful,” Eris said worriedly. She was extremely nervous about being frozen, especially since she had been reading all about what it feels like and how painful it was to actually be frozen to death.
“This isn’t frostbite, and you won’t even feel the cold. The pod will be pumped with some knockout gas, and you’ll only be frozen once you’re asleep. There’s completely nothing to worry about,” said Atticus. He thought about something he could do to ease his daughter’s fears. “Hey, you know what? Since we’re about to be frozen for a million years, you’ll be a million and sixteen years old once you wake up,” he said.
Eris gave a light chuckle. “I’ll be older than you and mum,” she said.
“Well, I’ll be a million and forty years old, and your mother as well,” he replied. "You gotta get in now," he said, "Your mother's already frozen you know."
"One million years," - she said as she entered - "That's a long time, and it worries me."
"Everyone's worried. Your mother's worried, the battle hardened soldiers are worried, the scientists are worried, even I'm worried," Atticus gave her a warm smile, "But there's no reason to be worried. It'll be over in the blink of an eye." He zipped up the suit to cover her face, and the world went dark as she began to slip out of consciousness.
She then began to gradually regain consciousness, and as she did, she heard a few indistinct voices speaking around her. She was still way too groggy to make out what they were saying however, but she expected that they were probably doctors.
She then felt… something. Eris felt something happening. She couldn’t tell what it was since it was like nothing she had ever felt before. She felt like a part of her soul was being ripped out of her. It didn’t hurt, but it did feel extremely uncomfortable, and extremely worrying. She tiredly opened her eyes, pushing through the pain of not giving them time to adjust to the light, and immediately came face to face with a ‘man’ covered in red fur with two horns that was... sucking out her soul?!
Considering she was just waking up from a millenia-long slumber, one might forgive Eris Constantine for her first thought being that her soul was being sucked out by the devil himself.
He did fit the description: red body, horns, and, of course, the soul-sucking.
Thus, she immediately tried to recoil from the centaur on reflex. However, all she did was slightly push back against the padding of the cryo pod.
Upon the completion of his task, Tirek ceased absorbing the chaos magic, leaving Eris gasping for breath after receiving quite the wake-up call.
Eris looked around, still in a panicked state, until she eventually noticed she was surrounded by scientists who were all staring at her. What was even stranger was that all of the world leaders were present as well. She didn't question it, thinking they had probably just had a meeting and decided to come along, but she did find it odd. With the knowledge that she wasn't in any immediate danger, her breathing began to slow down, the adrenaline wearing off.
“Okay,” Eris meekly said as her breathing began to slow back down to that of an average person again.
No longer in a state of fight or flight, she slowly leaned forward to embrace her father.
"So, wasn’t it like the blink of an eye?" Atticus asked.
"Not… exactly,” Eris said, trying to recall the feeling. “It was more like sleeping, but I guess sleeping is pretty much the same."
She released herself from the hug and shifted her attention towards Felix.
"Hey Uncle Felix," she said to him.
"Hey, Peanut,” Felix responded.
Felix approached the pod to give Eris a quick hug, but unfortunately there was still business that needed to be attended to.
“I’m sorry if anything that happens in the next hours or so is overwhelming, but we have a lot to talk about," he said, followed by helping her out of the pod.
"As long as I can get out of this suit first," she requested, "It's feeling a lot tighter than when I first wore it. Did I still grow while I was frozen?"
"Like I said, we have a lot to talk about," Atticus told her, "And yes, of course you can change yourself into something more comfortable."
"Alright," she said as she turned towards the exit. "I'll just - " it was then that she spotted Chrysalis and Cozy Glow, with Tirek standing beside them.
"Dad… isn’t hallucinations one of cryosleep’s side effects?" Eris asked, perplexed why she was still seeing the trio.
"Well yes, hallucinations are one of the side effects of cryosleep,” Atticus replied. “But I assure you, these creatures are as real as you and me. They are, well, for lack of a better term, aliens.”
Eris just stood there and stared at the trio. She had no idea what they were and despite two of them looking rather dangerous, especially the bug horse, they made no aggressive actions. Instead, they just stared back at her. They seemed to be just as surprised to see her as she was to see them.
"Aliens?" Eris repeated as she exited the cryo chamber, pressing the implications of the word.
"Like I said, we have a lot to talk about," Felix reminded her.
"An actual draconequus…" Chrysalis said in an amazed tone as she stared at Eris, "You really were telling the truth."
“You know, for a split second, I thought you were a sleep paralysis demon,” Eris remarked at Tirek, now getting the chance to get a good look at him with a sound mind. Once again, Triek just looked confused.
“Should I be proud or offended right now?” Tirek asked, though no one really entertained him with a response.
“Right then… step one, get changed, step two, get something to eat," Eris told him. “ I haven’t had an American-style cheeseburger in a million years and I am cravin’ one.
"Wouldn’t you like to see your mother first, at least after you get changed?" Atticus asked.
"It’s not that I don’t love Mom, but if I go 10 more minutes without eating something, I’m gonna get hangry" she replied. "Do we need to go home to change?”
"Nope, we brought a change of clothes right here," said Atticus, pointing to one of the desks.
"Good,” Eris grabbed her clothes and headed for the nearest washroom, "I'll be back. The sooner I can get some food, the better."
"We’ll need to check her radiation levels before she leaves," said Keifer, "If the radiation's not out of her system, she's going to need to get back in the pod right away."
"It is out," Tirek reassured, "I'm certain of it."
"I'm not doubting your abilities in radiation removal, but we've still got to run our tests." Keifer replied.
"Fair enough," Tirek told him.
"The three of you can take your leave now," PM Jack shifted his attention towards the villain trio.
"What?" Cozy Glow asked in confusion.
"He means wait outside," Osas informed them and pointed towards the two grand doors that led into the chamber, "Right outside the door."
"And don't go wandering around, PM Mateo warned. “Utopia is a big place, even our own people would've gotten lost a few times if it weren't for Alise.”
"That and people are probably going to freak out if they see you just waltzing around unsupervised," Alexi added.
"I wish to see the tests," Chrysalis stated, which caught the world leaders and scientists off guard for a moment.
"Sorry?” Felix asked.
"I wish to be present when you perform your tests on the girl," Chrysalis said.
"I don’t see why not,” Felix acquiesced.
"Mr. President, are you sure that's a good idea?" Jack asked.
"Relax Jack, we're all on the same side now," Felix turned towards the villains. "Right?"
The trio nodded in affirmation.
"See? Nothing to worry about,” Felix reassured. “Besides, they're going to bear witness to a lot more than our testing equipment if they stick around. It's not like them knowing how we run our tests is going to be a detriment to us.”
"Fair enough," Jack relented.
"So doctor, what have you recorde - " Felix was cut off by a screaming teenage girl.
"Daaaaaaaaaaaad!" Eris shouted as she once again entered the chamber, unchanged.
"What the hell did that fuckingpod or that fuckingalien do to me?" she said as she approached Atticus. “Either I’m still hallucinating or that thing changed me into a fucking Picasso.”
“Language,” Atticus muttered, though he couldn’t really blame her for that one. It was obvious what she was talking about. He hoped he would get more time to think about how he was going to explain everything to her.
"It wasn’t the pod that did this, sweetie,” Atticus replied, electing to just come right out and say it. “You were… mutated by chaotic radiation.”
"Well how the fuck did that happen?!" Eris asked. “Seriously, am I gonna die? I don’t feel like I’m gonna die, yet I really fucking look it.”
"No, sweetie, no, you’re not gonna die. Tirek made sure of that," Atticus nodded towards Tirek, "In fact it'll be the exact opposite. You'll be better than ever!"
"How in the shit is this better?!” Eris's eyes began to tear up. "I look like a zoo got fused together! Just tell me if I’m gonna die! I can take it!"
"No, Eris, you are not," said Keifer, interjecting. "Usually, chaotic radiation mutates human cells at such a rapid pace that the body can’t handle it and kills it. You survived because your cryosleep reduced the rate of mutation to less than 0.1 percent the normal rate. However, your cells still mutated, thus…" he gestured towards Eris with both hands, "... your appearance."
Eris took a moment to properly feel her new body. The colour of her skin looked like that of an alien from Star Wars, with it being a dark shade of pink rather than that of a regular caucasian. Her face itself was much rounder than how she remembered it, with the only exception being her arms and legs. She no longer had a nose and mouth, now having a sharp yellow beak in its place. She no longer had ears as well, with both of them being replaced with ram horns that were far too ‘curly’, though she could still hear perfectly. Both her arms remained completely unchanged, with them still being regular human arms without any weird colours. Her legs however were no longer human legs, now having been replaced with the legs of some kind of bird, having only three toes and sharp talons on the end which curved inward. That was when she noticed something else, something much odder that everything else. She now had what seemed to be bat-like wings on her back. She gave her wings a little flutter and surprisingly, they moved.
"Am I even human anymore?” Eris absently said.
“No, Eris. You are so much more,” Keofer explained. "If empirical evidence is correct, your condition has given you many abilities far beyond humanity’s capabilities!"
“Okay….” Eris said, not really knowing what that meant specifically. “…and….?”
“You basically have superpowers now, peanut,” Uncle Felix chimed in.
"So… what?” Eris asked. “Am I some kind of Woman-Thing now, or something?”
“Look, why don't you go get changed and freshen yourself up?” Atticus suggested. “We can all talk about this back at home with your mother," Atticus told her.
"Dad, I think I have a right to know what on God’s green earth I turned into," Eris said with a slight sternness in her tone.
"There’s a lot to talk about," Atticus said.
"We have a lot of time," Eris countered.
Atticus sighed once again. "May I speak with her privately?" Atticus asked Felix.
"Go ahead, we'll be back in an hour," Felix replied. "And after you have your talk, Keifer needs to run his tests," he reminded, before leading all those present out of the chamber.
"So, what now?" PM Mateo asked.
"Firstly, we should get these three situated," Bjorn gestured to Tirek, Chrysalis and Cozy Glow.
"Quite right," PM Jack said. "I'll make a call and get some rooms prepared. First, however, are you hungry?"
"I could eat," said Cozy Glow.
"Quite," Tirek replied.
"I'm not hungry yet, but it's not like you will be able to provide me with sustenance anyway," said Chrysalis.
"Ah yes… speaking of sustenance, our intel tells us you can 'feed' on… love, somehow," Felix said, as if it was completely ridiculous. "How often do you eat?"
"An average pony can last me about a week before it's completely drained,” Chrysalis answered. “Why do you ask? Are you offering?"
"Considering the amount of POWs we have, I think we can,” Felix replied.
“Would everyone be alright with Chrysalis being given access to one pony a week for her sustenance?”
None of the world leaders objected.
“Alright, with that taken care of, we can take the three of you to one of our finest restaurants where you can have your meal, followed by being brought to your rooms. We'll meet you once we're free for further discussion, as well as that lie detector test," said PM Jack, before shifting his attention towards the ones escorting them.
"Take them to the penthouse and get them something to eat. Remember, no meat. Don’t want a repeat of what happened with Twilight’s group," he ordered, and they began walking away. "Oh, one more thing," they paused as he spoke, "Get those shock collars off of them, they’re not necessary anymore."
“With that out of the way…” Osas got the others’ attention, “I believe we have an enemy leader to interrogate.”
“Ah yes, I forgot about him. Well then, let’s go see him,” said Alexi, and they all began making their way towards the room in which Steel Horn was held.
Steel Horn was pacing back and forth. He had woken up about thirty minutes ago and had found himself in a bedroom, which was completely empty apart from having a single bed in the corner. What was even stranger was that the room had no visible doors or windows.
What was he doing in here? Were the First Humans just leaving him in here to starve?
Before his thoughts could go further into their downward spiral, he finally heard something coming from behind him and turned around. What he saw left him completely confused.
Part of the wall slid inwards, followed by sliding to the side, revealing two helmeted humans with guns pointed right at him. That was the only thing that kept him from charging right at them.
"Put your hands on your head and turn around," one of them ordered.
"Who the buck are you?" Steel Horn asked.
"Now!" The other one shouted. Left with no other option, Steel Horn reluctantly complied with their demands.
"Walk towards the wall and face it," one of them instructed and Steel Horn complied.
"Do you have any weapons on you?" One of them asked.
"Well, seeing as you took everything I own, no, I do not," Steel Horn answered.
He heard one of them walking up to him. The man then patted him down and checked his pockets. His armour had been removed and only his clothes were on now. "He's clear," the voice said after he was done and walked away, followed by walking back a few seconds later.
"I'm going to be putting something around your neck. No funny business," he instructed, followed by fitting him with a metal 'necklace'. "Now, some very important people are about to meet you, and if you don't want any trouble, you'll behave. Understood?"
"It's not as if I have a say in the matter," Steel Horn replied with venom in his voice.
"That's right," the man told him, "You don't." And with that, both men left the room.
With all of that over, Steel Horn turned around, preparing to make a dash out of the room. He heard some people talking outside, and since it seemed they were distracted, this was the perfect opportunity.
Before he could run however, several men, and a woman, in suits began entering the room. Now having to take more time to think things over, he reasoned that he probably couldn't take all of them on at once. Even if he could, there would no doubt be more guards outside, and they were probably armed with guns as well. He decided to wait a little longer until a better opportunity presented itself.
"What do you want from me?" Steel Horn growled. The men just stood there and stared at him for a moment, before one of them spoke up.
"Last I checked, you all were the ones that attacked us" Aladeen asked in mock confusion, "So shouldn't we be asking you that question?"
"Of course, we attacked you!” Steel Horn fired back. “You honestly think we would just sit around until you inevitably came for us?! We already know you were First Humans, but Vega never had anything like what I saw out there, at least to that magnitude. So, are you Vega or somecreature else?" Steel Horn asked.
"Some… creature?" PM Jack asked, "I understand that there might be some change in the English language in the past millennia, but it’s not like the term ‘somebody’ can’t also be used in that situation, right?"
"Look, I’m not a fan of how it sounds myself, but we only coined it because it was the most generalised term one,” Steel Horn explained.
“We actually used to say ‘everybody.’ Know why we changed it?” Steel Horn’s voice lowered into a growl. “It's because we didn't want to be referred to by a word used by a race of slaves! One that's only use is to be treated like dirt!"
"I have to applaud your audacity," Alexi began clapping his hands, "Do you really think it would be a good idea to insult us, considering your position?"
"I wasn't insulting you, I was describing you," Steel Horn retorted.
"You better watch yourself, minotaur" Alexi said, also growling slightly. "Anything that you say in here could lead your people not to be looked on very fondly in the eyes of Utopia."
"Alexi, calm down. There's no reason to get all worked up over nothing," Felix told him.
"Stay out of this, Felix,” Alexei countered. “You Americans might tolerate this, but not Russians. I don’t think our guest properly grasps that we could blow his country to kingdom come if we so choose."
"Well it’s not like he knows we have 50,000 nukes at our disposal," Felix reasoned with him.
"Ha!" Steel Horn guffawed at the notion. "Now that’s a lie if I ever heard one. No one could possess that many world enders. Even the corporation only had a few."
"World… enders…," said Mingzhe, trying the name on for size. “Fitting, honestly.”
"I assure you, we do have that many… world enders… and the only reason we're not using them is because you haven't made us mad enough yet,” Osas warned. “So, I recommend you choose your words wisely.”
"Whatever… so what do you humans want with me?" Steel Horn asked.
"Right now, nothing,” Mingzhe explained. “You are an enemy leader, so you are a prisoner of war for the moment. Once the time comes though, we will want to negotiate with you soon," said Mingzhe.
"There's nothing to negotiate. I want all of you dead or enslaved, and I won't settle for anything less," said Steel Horn.
"You say that like you know us… you talk as if you have the capabilities to defeat us," said Osas, "I don’t think we saw the same battle outside.”
"So what if you have more weapons?” Steel Horn fired back. “We defeated you before, we can do it again.”
"That would be true, if it weren’t for the massive difference numbers,” Felix explained. “Tell me, how many of us do you think there are?" Felix asked.
"No more than 10,000," Steel Horn replied.
"Try 400,000," Felix said, and Steel Horn's eyes widened, "And if you thought the Vega Corporation was a difficult enemy. They were just a fraction of what Utopia is capable of."
"I sincerely doubt that," Steel Horn said.
"We can show you around, if you like. I’m sure that might change your mind,” Felix said. “For now, we’ll leave you to contemplate what you would do on the off chance we are telling the truth.”
The leaders then vacated the room soon after.
"Well, looks like you've been busy while I've gone," Eris said, wrapping her mind around her father’s recap of the past couple of days.
"Only for the first day or two, because… well… y'know what happened," said Atticus, "I hope you don't hate Felix for supporting my impeachment."
"If I were in either you or Uncle Felix’s shoes, I would have done the same thing," said Eris. “I appreciate the lengths you went to, but did you really have to go and do that?”
"You're right, and I know that now,” Atticus said. “That's why I'll have to accept whatever punishment comes my way. I just hope they won't be too harsh.”
"I doubt it,” Eris answered. “Your daughter was dying and the rest of them wanted you to sit back and watch. You were just being a father before being the President, which I couldn’t ask for anything more. I’m sure they get it, too. The most you'll get is a simple slap on the wrist, I’m sure."
"I hope so," Atticus said.
"So, how did you know about the Surface Massacre if you weren’t the president?" Eris asked. She hadn't thought about it before, just noticing it now.
"Some pilots leaked information to the media,” Atticus replied. “Not ideal, but I’m glad it allowed me to know how it all turned out.”
"So, how are everyone else taking it?" Eris asked.
"Well, some are already whipping out Nazi comparisons and that we’re trying to commit genocide. They’re mostly advocating for a diplomatic approach to these new peoples. The supporters are kind of split: some say they agree because we were fighting in self-defense, while others are saying they deserve it for enslaving our kind, which also somehow got leaked, and sometimes both.”
That was when the Utopian leaders began heading back into the chamber.
"Is Eris up to speed yet, Atticus? Has Keifer finished with his tests?" Felix asked as he approached the duo.
"Yeah, Doctor Keifer just completed his tests a few minutes ago," Eris answered for him. “We’re just waiting for the okay.”
"Excellent. So, Eris, I assume your father told you about the impeachment… and the role I played in it?”
"Don’t worry, Uncle Felix. I get it," Eris told Felix. “You did what you thought you needed to do. I would have done the same thing in either of your shoes.”
"Well, despite his rash actions, I see now that they came from perceptive thinking. I honestly might have done the same thing too, Felix told her.
"So, does that mean you forgive him?" Eris asked.
"I have… Felix looked towards Atticus with a friendly smile, "I already know I want to pull a Ford and pardon you, but I don’t want to do it now in case it looks upon me unfavorably with the reelection. Once I win, though, I promise it’ll be the first thing I do after the inauguration."
"That reminds me… who else is running?" Eris asked.
"Olesia,” Felix replied. “I know she commands a lot of influence among the Congress members, but I think my campaign is going to hold more water. Her platform is based on establishing peace, despite the hostility we’ve been shown. As much as I wanted to do things peacefully, we have to establish dominance over the other races if we are to carve a place for ourselves in the geopolitics of this time. Plus, we have the moral high ground here. We offered them peace and they shoved it right back into our faces, and if they don't want to talk things out, then we’ll make them realize we’re better off being talked too," Felix explained.
"From what I’ve seen, Felix is leading the polls at the moment," Atticus added.
"Well, now that I’m caught up, I think I’m ready to see mum now. I'm sure she's worried about me," Eris asked.
"We’ll do that just as soon as we hear back from Dr. Keifer," said Atticus. “We just want to make sure you’re good to go.”
"Tell your mother I said ‘Hello,’ and be sure to rest up, Peanut,” Felix said. “We have a busy day tomorrow.”
“Really?” Eris asked.
Felix nodded in confirmation. “Remember those superpowers I mentioned?”
Eris nodded.
"Well, tomorrow, we’re going to go up to the surface to test them out!”" Felix told Eris enthusiastically, hoping to get his practical niece excited at the idea of testing out her new abilities. However, instead, her face showed more trepidation than anything.
"Are you sure it’ll be safe to do that?" Eris said, looking at herself. “I don’t exactly know what I’m capable of just yet. I don’t wanna laser-eye somebody or something.”
"That's why you'll have three perfectly good teachers," said Felix.
After a quite eventful last couple of hours, Felix was now finally able to handle some preparation work for the upcoming election in the Oval Office. At least, he was until one of the agents assigned to tend to Princess Sparkle and her companions arrived.
"Mr. President, sir, Princess Sparkle is requesting you at once, and she’s being quite insistent," he said.
Felix groaned in response.
"Of course she picks the one time today when I time to prepare for the election? Is it at all possible for someone else to handle this?” Felix asked, the irritation in his voice quite clear.
This made the agent slightly nervous, already knowing the acting president wasn’t going to like his response.
"Unlikely,” he replied. “She refused to speak to her attendants beyond asking for you. She just completely ignored them.”
"Fine,” Felix relented. “Tell her I'll be down there in an hour.”.
"Yes sir," the agent said, before making a call to Twilight's escort.
"Is there anything I ought to know about before I speak with Miss Sparkle?” Felix asked one of the peacekeepers stationed outside the chamber that contained the purple alicorn.
"Her friends were separated from her about an hour ago," the man replied. “I didn’t catch all of it, myself, but they were being pretty aggressive as they were escorted back to their individual rooms.”
"Let’s hope that perhaps she’s more willing to cooperate then, certainly would make my life a bit easier," Felix remarked, before making his way towards Twilight's room.
He opened the door to Twilight's room and found her just staring out the 'window'. It was now set to display a bustling pre-flood city, namely New York, and the distant sound of car horns and traffic permeated the room. It was an unexpected dose of nostalgia for the acting president.
"Is it true?" Twilight asked without turning towards him.
"I’m sorry…?" Felix asked.
"You know what I'm talking about!" Twilight yelled, turning towards Felix.
"Are you referring to the news?” Felix tiredly asked, the hope he had before entering the room dashed.
“Your TV can only access a pre-set list movie," Felix explained, irritated that Eris’ awakening seemed to be the only thing that was going his way for the past few hours.
"Yeah, well, Rainbow managed to nab this from one of your waiters," Twilight picked up a tablet that was on the windowsill and slid it to Felix's feet, her flat and cold tone indicating her current mood.
"It was actually quite easy to use,” the alicorn explained, the tiniest hint of excitement in her voice as her passion for knowledge peaked through. “All I had to do was touch one of the things that said 'Utopia News Network' and I was able to find out."
"I’m going to have to have a word with my men later about the importance of password protection," Felix muttered, pinching the bridge of his nose in irritation. "Look, just because you read something on a tablet doesn’t make it true. Even your people must have misinformation," he said as he reached down to pick up the tablet.
"Maybe so, but this most certainly isn’t one of those times," Twilight said, the coldness in her voice returning.
"I don't know what you saw but -" Felix was cut off by Twilight.
"The 'Surface Massacre',” Twilight began rattling off, the subdued anger in voice rising with each passing headline. “30,000 ponies killed. Enemy leader Steel Horn now in Utopian custody. Ponies being subjected to forced labour to clear rubble over main hangar door. Any of that ring a bell?”
"Miss Sparkle, I know you're angry but - " Felix, irritation now replaced with a mission of easing the hostility that was clearly evident in the alicorn at the present moment. However, he was cut off once again.
"YOU COMMITTED GENOCIDE AGAINST MY PEOPLE!" Twilight screamed. She took a few deep breaths. "I think we’re far beyond angry at this point," Twilight said with venom in her voice.
“They were the ones who attacked first!” Felix raised his own voice in his species’ defense. “You think I wanted this. What were we supposed to do? Your people gave us no choice," Felix told her.
"I Gave you a choice!" Twilight yelled back, "I told you I would talk to them, but instead you kept us in here while you slaughtered innocent ponies!"
"They brought an army to our doorstep,” Felix countered. “How would you have handled that?”
"I would have - " Twilight stopped yelling as she didn't know exactly what to say. But she soon thought up an answer. "It doesn’t matter what I would have done! I could have stopped this! Those ponies have families! So many foals are going to grow up without one or possibly both of their parents!" Twilight shouted as tears began flowing from her eyes.
"We couldn’t risk your escape,” Felix explained. “Who knows what kind of ammunition they could have been willing to use if we did not have you or your friends in our custody.”
"So, you would have rather seen 30,000 ponies massacred than risk my escape?!" Twilight asked, taken aback. The interim president could only sigh in response. He couldn’t deny how bad this made Utopia look in the eyes of the alicorn.
"If I could've done anything else, I would've," Felix told her in an apologetic tone. “But from our intel, you and your friends have a perfect record with the ‘Elements of Harmony.’ We couldn’t risk that powerful of a weapon entering the field and possibly turning the battle against us. If that means 30,000 ponies had to die so that any one of Utopia’s citizens could be spared, then so be it.”
Twilight stared at Felix with hate-filled eyes. "You're a monster…" she said, "I'm not going to work with Keifer and I'm not going to save Eris. None of you deserve to be saved."
As much as her hostility frustrated the acting president, at least her refusal to help was not as dire as it would have been days ago.
"Well, luckily for you, you don't have to,” Felix explained. “As I imagine you already saw, Tirek, Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow have aligned themselves with Utopia, with one of the conditions being that Tirek would remove enough of the chaotic radiation to stabilize Eris’ body. It might take some time for her to get used to some of the changes though. Chrysalis called her a “draconequus,” though, if that word has any meaning to you.
Twilight's eyes widened. She knew all too well. If Eris was a draconaquiss and her body still possessed chaotic radiation, which is what she recently realized humans called magic, then that meant the humans had someone on their side with the capabilities of Discord.
If Utopia got a hold of chaos magic, they would easily be able to beat Equestrian, maybe even destroy it if they wanted to, and there would be no elements of harmony to stop them.
However, after a moment where she was able to think rationally again, she realized that Discord being reformed was going to come in handy more than ever now. He would have more experience using chaos magic and would easily be able to beat Eris and possibly even destroy Utopia. Equestria was far from doomed. She just needed a way to get this information out to the other princesses.
"So, what do you plan to do with us now?" Twilight asked, knowing her ignorance of the question and changing of the subject will keep suspicion off of her planned intentions.
"Well, it's too much of a risk to have you running around, so you will likely remain here until we deem it safe for you and your companions to leave. Not to worry though, you will be prisoners in name only," Felix replied.
"And if Equestria attacks again…" Twilight confronted, already knowing the answer.
"Well, I don’t know how experienced your nation is with warfare, but the worst-case scenario with POW situations like this…" Felix didn't finish his sentence, but Twilight knew exactly what he meant. One of them would be dead.
She thought of how she could convince them to let her and her friends go. He likely wouldn’t believe her if she told them the truth, that the elements have already been destroyed.
Even if they did have the elements, as Felix made it ever so clear, the First Humans will never let one of their best bargaining chips go just like that. It seemed to her that Utopia genuinely feared Equestria, or more precisely, feared them.
"What about the other ponies you captured?" Twilight asked, "What's gonna happen to them?"
"We're gonna study a few of them and find out how exactly you are able to manipulate harmonic radiation…”
“…magic…” Twilight interrupted.
“Fine,’ Felix was in no mood to correct her at this point. “We're going to study what each of the pony subspecies are capable of with “magic,” and in the meantime we’ll put them to work clearing the debris blocking the main door. Luckily, your ability to levitate objects and your increased strength will help us speed up the process significantly. How ironic.”
"Ponies enslaved humanity because if they didn’t they were going to rise up and kill us, " Twilight countered. “This is completely different.”
"Different how?!" Felix asked, "You claim your kind had no choice because they were acting extremely aggressively and trying to kill you all. So, what do you call an army led by your nation’s leader matching toward our home base? The only ones we're putting to work are our prisoners of war, and even that's just temporary.”
Felix stopped to catch his breath and calm down.
"We tried to come to your kind for help, and yet we were met with hostility at every turn,” he continued. “Considering we have no reason to say otherwise, every second your kind continues to exist is a risk to us… not a big risk, but a risk. I’m sure you know by now we have the means to not only free your slaves, but also enslave your people, which, honestly, would be a fitting punishment.”
A pregnant pause filled the room as the weight of what the acting president said sunk in.
“But we won't, because humanity is better than that,” Felic began to finish. “So, before you call us monsters, remember that we have the means of eliminating your people, and this world, ten times over. If we really wanted to do that, we would have done it by now.”
Not another word was exchanged before Felix left the room, leaving Twilight to turn back towards the window and look upon the human city, pondering the acting president’s words.
“So… let’s begin,” a doctor said to Tirek, who was strapped down into a device that looked a lot like an MRI which was just barely large enough for his head.
Tirek flinched slightly as the ‘bed’ he was on began moving backwards into the machine, until his head was completely inside.
“Please be sure not to move, otherwise we’ll have to do all of this over again,” the voice came from speakers inside the device itself.
“Understood,” Tirek replied.
“Alright, we’ll start with a couple of simple test questions. Firstly, what is your name? Your full name,” the voice said.
“My name is Tirek,” he replied. “Lord Tirek.”
A second of silence passed, likely the voice checking the results on his end.
“Alright, that was the truth,” the voice confirmed. “Now, how old are you?”
“Look, you already had one test question and it was the truth. Clearly the machine is working fine. You called me in here to ask one question specifically, so let’s get to it,” Tirek said, annoyed.
“Mr. Tirek, there is - “ the doctor was cut off.
“It’s Lord Tirek. Lord,” Tirek corrected.
“Yes, of course. Lord Tirek, there is no need to be aggressive,” the doctor tried to calm him down.
“You think I don’t know what you’re doing? You’re very subtly trying to pry more information from me without me noticing and making it look like ‘it’s all part of the process,’” Tirek firmly told the doctor.
Unknown to the centaur, two of the doctor’s colleagues, each with $20 bills, were looking on eagerly. The doctor slid his hand horizontally across his neck, pocketing his own $20 bill he had laid next to the microphone.
"Fine, yes, I apologise. I shouldn't have pressed for more than what was necessary. I guess we'll proceed with the question then," the voice said, before clearing his throat. "How were you, Chrysalis, and Cozy Glow able to defeat Discord and remove his abilities?"
"My answer remains the same. The three of us were able to catch him off guard and overpower him, using my abilities to steal magic. I then shared said magic with Chrysalis and Cozy Glow," Tirek replied.
The voice was silent for much longer than Tirek would have liked.
‘Don’t tell me that the humans actually have a machine that can detect lies,’ Tirek thought.
"Why are you lying, Mr. Tirek?" The voice asked, catching Tirek off guard.
‘Of course they do,’ Tirek mentally grumbled.
“I- I'm telling the truth!" he yelled, hoping that the doctors would relent and move on.
"A lie of omission is still a lie, Mr. Tirek,” the doctor explained, as he looked at the yellow color of the machine’s readings, indicating there was some truth to what Tirek said, but it wasn’t the full truth.
“This doesn't have to be difficult. Trust goes both ways, and if you want us to make good on our word, you're going to have to tell the truth," the voice instructed.
Seeing no way out of this, Tirek sighed and decided to talk. Clearly he and his comrades will have to be on the top of their game in order to get any kind of upper hand on the humans.
"We used the bell,” Tirek explained. “It belonged to this ancient warlord named Grogar, and he used its power to steal the magic of others. It still had some magic stored in it, so we were able to activate it and absorb its magic with a spell. We then used the same bell to drain Discord of his magic. None of us could handle all of it alone, so we split it amongst the three of us," Tirek replied.
"Bell?" The voice asked, confused.
"I assume your people have it somewhere in this blasted rock," Tirek then started to sound a bit worried.
"We’ll have to check the confiscated objects, but I’m currently unaware of any bell being among them," the voice said, followed by a clicking sound before there was silence.
The voice suddenly came back on, "Is the bell in question teal colored, with some markings on it, one of which looks similar to an eye, and having several cracks on it?"
"Yes! Yes," Tirek answered, sounding relieved. "That's the bell, and I expect to have it returned to us. Now, can I leave?”
Outside, Chrysalis and Cozy Glow sat on the seats provided.
"So? How did it go?" Cozy Glow asked.
The centaur sighed. "I had to tell them about the bell," Tirek replied.
"You what?!" Chrysalis shouted, enraged.
"Turns out the machine actually did know that I was lying," Tirek told her.
"Well isn’t that just wonderful. Now what?” Cozy Glow asked.
"They've already taken the bell from us,” Tirek explained. “They just never knew it was an item of such power until now, and we couldn't ask them to give it back immediately without arousing suspicion.”
"Well they aren’t going to give it back now!” Cozy Glow said.
"We can easily demand to have it back. If they want us to work with them, they probably won't try to steal it from us, lest we leave," Chrysalis pointed out.
The door then opened up, and Aladeen came through, followed by the rest of the world leaders.
"I guess we're about to find out," said Cozy Glow.
"Thank you for telling us the truth, Tirek," PM Jack told them.
"It's not like I had a choice…" Tirek softly mumbled, though he was unheard.
"We apologise for keeping your bell, we had no idea it was so valuable to you, and we do intend to return it to you," PM Jack informed them.
The trio was caught slightly off guard, which seemed to be a common theme with First Humans.
"Excellent!” Tirek said at one of the first pieces of good news he’s received in a while.
"However, we were wondering if we could… well… borrow it?" PM Mateo asked sheepishly.
“Of course, there’s a catch,” Tirek muttered.
"For what purpose? It's not like you can activate it, you have no magic," Chrysalis pointed out.
"We were hoping if… you… could activate it for us,” PM Bjorn explained. “We want to run some tests on it and perhaps find a way to weaponize it. Once we’re done, regardless of the results, the bell can remain with the tree of you," PM Bjorn stated.
"And if we refuse?" Tirek asked.
"At worst, you would be depriving us, and yourselves, of a huge advantage that could turn the tide in a potential war with Equestria," Bjorn replied.
"What do you guys think?" Cozy Glow asked Chrysalis and Tirek.
"If they're just going to borrow it, I don't see why not," Tirek replied.
"If they can really make the bell an even more powerful of a weapon than it is already, well can’t say I’m not intrigued," Chrysalis stated.
"I guess that settles that then,” Felix said. “I will notify Dr. Keifer and we will summon you all for the tests when they are ready.”
“There is one other thing that we would like your help with,” Bjorn added. “We want you to assist Eris in mastering her new abilities."
Training a being to master chaos magic was not something the trio expected to hear from the world leader.
"You see,” Bjorn explained. “If Discord is capable of what our intel says he is, then the limitations of what Eris could do to Utopia would be limitless. We will be able to create things we would have taken thousands of years to do otherwise, all we'll need is a design or a blueprint and she can make a perfect match, like a Dyson Sphere.”
“A what?” Cozy Glow asked
A Dyson sphere,” Bjorn replied enthusiastically. “It’s device which will capture all the energy of our parent star, allow our technological advancements to skyrocket and making us a type two civilisatio - "
“Bjorn,” Felix stopped. “I think they get the point.”
It was then Bjorn noticed he had completely lost the trio, who were looking at him as if they were five-year-olds that had just been told to multiply three-digit numbers.
“Besides, we’ve already gone over this, “ Felix continued. “You are not taking advantage of Eris!"
"Of course we’re not,” Bjorn answered, seemingly offended at the notion he would consider doing that. “All of this hinges on her voluntary participation, of course.”
Somehow, Felix didn’t believe that.
"So, what do you three think? Will you train her?" Felix asked.
"Hmm... " Chrysalis pondered, "Give us a moment." The three of them then turned around and began whispering to each other.
"I don’t know how to train someone in chaos magic, but imagine if we can have a draconequus on our side for once," said Cozy Glow.
"Very true, but now that it doesn’t seem like our freedom is on the line anymore, I say we attempt to get something out of the humans," Chrysalis suggested.
“What else is there?” Tirek asked. “They've already promised us pretty much everything we've ever wanted."
The three silently pondered for a moment until an idea struck Cozy Glow.
"I think I have an idea," she said.
"We’ll do it, but not for free,” Cozy Glow said.
“Fair enough, name your price,” Felix said.
"Well, that’s the thing,” Cozy said. “We’re not entirely sure about that yet ourselves. So, what we propose is that each one of us receives two IOUs. One from the Utopian governments, and one from Eris herself."
"So, just to be clear,” Alexei said, taken aback by such a price. “That is six favors owed in total, three from us and three from Eris," Alexi asked.
"Correct," Chrysalis replied.
"Now, look here, we are the most powerful people in the entire world. This isn't some - " Alexi was cut off by Felix.
"The USU is willing to accept your deal, but we will need to ensure Eris is willing to fulfill your requests,” Felix responded. “If she is unwilling to do so, I am willing to let her IOUs be fulfilled by Utopia to keep them at the six in total you desire. In addition, I’d like for us to record this deal with a legally binding contract and negotiate the limitations of your requests. If nothing else, we want to ensure that these IOUs can reasonably be carried out." Felix asked.
"Sounds good to me," Cozy Glow answered.
Felix then offered his hand for a handshake, but all of them just stared at it, unfamiliar with the gesture.
"Oh, right,” Felix realized what was going on. “When humans agree to something, we shake hands. In this case, it’s usually done between the leaders of two parties. So who is that for you three?" Felix asked.
"That would be me," all three of them answered at once. They then began turning towards each other very slowly, almost menacingly.
Sometimes, Celestia is quite envious of her little ponies. As she stared out the windows of Canterlot Castle, toward a small playground as foals played in the middle of the bustling city. Every single one of those ponies innocent to the horrors and atrocities she and her fellow world leaders have witnessed and that, if Utopia chose too, it could be inflicted again right where they stood.
It was a helpless feeling, not knowing if Utopia would take the fight to Canterlot or not. She prayed they didn’t. Regardless, Equestria and its allies' next moves still need to be decided. With a sigh, Celestia turned away from the window to get right to it.
Celestia pushed open one of the doors, revealing the world’s leaders, or at least those that remained. She appreciated that, despite already being on their way back to their respective domains, that upon hearing the news of the massacre at Utopia, they immediately turned back.
"Good evening, everycreature, I assume you've all heard the bad news?" Celestia asked solemnly.
"We have," answered Prince Rutherford.
"Is it true?" asked Queen Novo. “Did they really kill thirty thousand ponies?”
"Regrettably, yes,” Celestia told them, causing a reflective hush to fall over the group, processing the ramifications of such an act. “I can safely say that the attack on the humans' camp was a resounding failure.”
"… and Steel Horn?" asked King Talon.
"He was captured," Ember replied. “He stayed behind so he could buy the rest of us time to escape.”
King Talon only sighed.
“Of course the fool would do that,” he said, knowing that’s just the kind of soldier Steel Horn was.
“Did we at least inflict heavy casualties on them in kind?” Talon asked.
Celestia silently stared at him for a moment, contemplating on how she was going to reveal this information. She could sugarcoat it, but it'd be best not to. They needed to know exactly what they're dealing with.
This time, it was a stunned silence that permeated the meeting room.
“You’ve gotto be kidding me,” Talon frustratingly said, his claw going to his face.
"None?! None?! How?! Even the corporation couldn't have defended against an army that large without suffering a single casualty!" King Talon said, though those that knew him could sense the panic in his voice.
"I think we should listen to what she has to say before yelling at her," High Priestess Ada told him. "So Princess Celestia, what exactly happened?”
"We never engaged with any of the First Humans directly," Celestia explained. “Instead, they employed the use of drones, a weapon that can fly and fight without a pilot.”
"Didn’t the corporation only have a few hundred of those particular types of machines?” Ada asked. “That’s nowhere near enough to defeat an army of that size before we brought a substantial amount of them down. How many of these machines did they have? " Ada asked.
"Well, we're not dealing with the Corporation anymore, that's for sure. These guys are so much worse," said Cadence.
"By the last count I heard, Ten thousand," said Celestia.
"What?" Ada asked, stunned.
"Additionally, these drones were nothing like the Corporation's. They couldn't be brought down with a few well-placed arrows like theirs could. They had some kind of armour surrounding them, and whatever metal they used for the plating couldn't even be damaged by our weapons," Celestia told her.
"So, what exactly are we dealing with here?” asked King Talon. “And more importantly, what are we going to tell the minotaurs and the general public? We can’t just say nothing," asked King Talon.
"I’m going to have to let the changelings know what happened as well,” Thorax said. “So many of our people… died… during the attack. I can’t just not tell them.”
"I agree with Thorax, “Ember said. “My personal guard were among the casualties as well. At least their families deserve to know what happened.”
"We'll…" Celestia let out a solemn sigh.
"We'll compensate their families,” Luna said. “Those who… passed… paid the ultimate price to defend our nation. They were good ponies, and the First Humans just slaughtered them without a moment's hesitation.”
"I'll visit them personally," Cadence offered.
"Cadence, even I want to see all of them and tell them what happened, but there were roughly thirty thousand -" Celestia was cut off.
"It’s the least we can do for them!" Cadence yelled, "The least we can do is visit their families. Like Luna said, they were heroes, and we should treat them as such."
"Alright, if that’s settled, then what are we going to tell the general public? About the First Humans?" King Talon asked.
"The truth, every word of it,” Celestia answered. “We can't lie, not after this. Not after their sacrifice. I'll tell the same thing to the minotaurs so they can send another stand-in representative in King Steel Horn's place. We’ll send identical messages to all of your respective nations."
“Well, in that case, what’s next?” Queen Novo asked.
"The first thing we'll have to do is fortify against a potential attack," said Luna, "We'll have to deploy a considerable number of soldiers at all of our major cities, and have them send updates back to us regularly, preferable every half an hour so we'll be able to send reinforcements if any of them are attacked.”
"What makes you think they're going to attack us? Surely their lust for blood has already been quite quenched," said Cadence.
"We attacked them, do you think they'll just ignore that?" asked Luna
"Yes," Cadence replied. “As it stands now, we pose no threat to them, so why come attack us here?”
"Let me ask you this,” Luna posed. “If some other nation were to attack the Crystal Empire, even if you managed to defeat them, would you just let it go? Or would you launch an attack against them in retaliation?"
"I know what you want me to say, but this is completely different," Cadence reasoned.
"You're right, this is different,” Luna rebutted. “This is much worse.”
"That's enough, both of you," Celestia told them.
"Well, they can't get away with this, and they have to be dealt with," said King Talon, "From what you've seen, they're pretty much indestructible, so what do you propose we do? We can’t just surrender and watch our world burn!"
"That's where you're wrong,” Celestia countered. “They aren't indestructible. They're just immune to magic. Their war machines may resist any and all of our weapons and their weapons may have ranges of several kilometers, but they're not indestructible," said Celestia.
"Sounds pretty indestructible to me," King Talon muttered under his breath.
"We've been going about this all wrong,” Celestia said, ignoring Talon. “So far, we've been using magic and swords and bows and arrows to fight them and if we continue to fight this way, we stand no chance," Celestia told them.
"Then how do you propose we fight them if we do not use our most powerful weapons?" asked King Rutherford.
"We fight fire with fire,” Celestia said. “We have to use more powerful, more physical methods, like bombarding them with cannonballs both from the ground and from our military airships. We focus on what humans can’t replicate, and that’s our magic. We create massive storms to protect us from their jets, we launch our own projectiles at them, we utilize magic as the propulsion of the weapon and not the weapon itself. For example, I sincerely doubt any of their war machines would be able to withstand lava, and our unicorns should be able to launch magma-based projectiles at them with relative ease. I’m not saying that’s the best option, since it would be extremely inefficient, but the point I’m trying to make is that they aren't invincible. We can defeat them, we just have to get more… creative," Luna explained.
"Even if we started throwing large rocks at them, hitting them with balls of weaponised magma, launching tsunamis at them, or hitting them with bolts of lightning, they're still going to have the advantage. As devastating as your methods may sound, a shot from one of their guns is much quicker and more likely to hit its target than everything you've just mentioned," King Talon pointed out.
"Then we’ll make our own guns," said Luna.
"How exactly do we do that?" asked Ember.
The Sisters looked to each other, making sure the other was alright with what Celetia was about to say next.
"We… still have some First Human weapons in our possession,” Celestia revealed. “We already have a point of reference to base them off of, and we've just recently discovered something similar to what the First Humans call gunpowder, the final component we need to start making our own guns. We've already began using them to make working cannons, and a gun isn't that far behind. I'd say it's even easier than making cannons since the projectile is much smaller, " Celestia replied.
"Now, hold on!” Priestess Ada shouted. “You told us all the First Human weapons had been destroyed!"
"You even asked all of us to destroy whatever First Human weapons we had in our possession! You were the one who said such weapons should never ever be used!" Ember yelled.
Soon enough, the entire room was full of the enraged screams of the other leaders of Equs, who had been lied to by Celestia.
"Everycreature, please,” Celestia silenced the room. “I apologize for our dishonesty, but we had to have something to defend against any threat that showed up that was much too powerful. Considering our current predicament, it seems like we made the right choice.”
"And I'm guessing you would have used them on any kingdom that opposed you as well, am I correct? I'm sure that counts as a threat," High Priestess Ada asked her.
"Of course not,” Luna denied. “We didn't keep them for the purpose of taking over the world or something. We kept them to defend against actual threats!"
"Are you trying to say that you wouldn't consider my kingdom a threat if we were at war?" King Talon asked, insulted.
"No! I- I mean yes! Argghhh! We don't have time for this! The First Humans could show up at any time! We need to be figuring out a way to combat them, not bickering amongst ourselves!" Luna shouted.
Priestess Ada signed, relenting on her anger. Luna did have a point, after all.
"Luna is right. Despite the fact that Equestria has betrayed our trust, we have much more pressing matters at hand now. We can deal with this later, but if we don't figure out a way to beat these much stronger First Humans, there won't be anything to deal with anymore," High Priestess Ada tried to calm everyone down.
"The priestess is right. We need to be discussing strategy. Our fight is with them, not with each other," Queen Novo backed her up.
"Fine!" King Talon relented. "But this conversation isn’t over," he said, facing Celestia and Luna, "I hope you'll stay back for a while after this meeting is done. I wish to speak with you, and I'm sure some of the others will wish to as well."
"I will. For now, shall we discuss on how to best approach this situation?" Celestia asked the rest of them. "If anycreature has any ideas, now would be a good time to tell us," she said.
There was a pause for a moment, before one of them raised their hoof, someone rather unexpected.
"Thorax, you don't have to raise your hoof to speak,” Celestia told him.“This isn't a classroom. Just voice your opinion.”
"Okay, thanks," he looked around at everyone else. He was still a bit new to this whole leader thing, and was quite nervous to be at the centre of attention. "Umm… well… it's clear we can't fight them face to face, they're far too strong. So, if we can't fight like every other creature, we have to fight like changelings.”
"I think I might have an idea where this is going, but can you please elaborate?" Cadence asked.
"As much as I would hate to admit it, the changeling kingdom is probably the weakest nation out of all of us when it comes to brute strength and raw power. Yet, under Queen Chrysalis, we were able to consistently conquer entire nations with superior military power despite us having much lower numbers by replacing some of their moderately high ranking leaders, such as nobles, and gaining information about the nation we wish to conquer. Then, we make our move and replace their top leaders. Once we've replaced the higher ranking officers of their army, we already have the nation completely under our control, but the rest of the soldiers wouldn't just give up and willingly submit the citizens of their nations to be fed on. So, we replace about half of the nation’s army before we attack with an ambush. Due to the sudden shock of it and our sheer numbers, we were able to easily overwhelm their defenses and defeat them," Thorax explained.
"That would be an excellent way of waging this war! Except for the fact that Utopia is immune to magic, and even if it weren’t it’s too heavily fortified. None of you will be able to get into Utopia, let alone be able to replace thousands of their troops. Besides, the First Humans now have hundreds, maybe even thousands of ponies to interrogate, and one of them is bound to have revealed your existence, and even if they didn’t, they have still encountered Chrysalis. Hay, they probably have some changelings in their custody right now as well. That means increased security," King Talon pointed out.
"Actually, I think we can find a way around that particular obstacle," said Celestia, "The First Humans are likely to launch another attack in retaliation, the question is where. We can easily make Ponyville look relatively unguarded, luring them there for an easy win. During the battle, some changelings can slip in and replace some of them. From what I've heard, they wear helmets, so they won't recognize the changelings at all if they take the appearance of some random human. We can’t risk replacing a high-ranking official just yet, so the changeling should replace some of their regular soldiers and citizens and try to find some information that suggests a weakness of any kind, while also getting us some insight as to what exactly we're dealing with. If possible, the changelings might even be able to steal some of their weapons for us to examine."
"Alright, I am in favor of this strategy, but it can only work if we all can put up a convincing cover so that the changelings can do their part undetected," King Talon told everyone.
"That's correct,” Luna confirmed. “Once we've revealed the situation to the public, we can begin producing more weapons and ready the airships with them," said Luna.
"That's good. In the meantime, Thorax, send several of your changelings to Ponyville disguised as regular Equestrian citizens. Once the First Humans attack, we'll go through with the plan for infiltration. For now, we should speak about the actual war that we'll have to wage. I assume all of you are with us?" Celestia asked them.
"Yes, I'll begin transporting soldiers and weapons to Equestria to assist in the war effort at once. With our armada of airahips, I expect we'll be able to have roughly four thousand airships carrying about one hundred and fifty Griffin troops each brought here within the week. We can also use the armada to assist the rest of you in bringing troops and equipment as well, if you wish" King Talon offered.
"The Empire should be able to provide over three hundred thousand soldiers in about roughly two to three days," Cadence said.
"Yaks will provide six hundred thousand troops to assist, however, we will need the griffin's help to transport them since we only have a few hundred airships," said King Rutherford.
"The hippogriffs will be able to spare roughly two hundred thousand troops to help defend Equestria," Queen Novo offered.
"I hope fifty thousand dragons will be enough for you. A single dragon is worth a hundred soldiers, they say," said Ember.
"I apologize, but the zebras still shall not participate in this war directly. However, we are still on the side of Equestria and we do hope you win," High Priestess Ada told them.
"Very well," Celestia said, "I shall have over five hundred thousand ponies ready immediately to help the cause, with a few hundred thousand more in reserve. I'll send a messenger to the Minotaur Kingdom and inform them of what has happened. I imagine they’ll provide us with a surplus of soldiers and supplies to aid in the war effort, especially since they'll want their king back. For now, shall we conclude this meeting? I have a speech to write, followed by answering the questions of many angry and worried ponies, especially after what happened with the army we sent to Utopia."
"Celestia, I did say that I wish to speak with you and Luna," King Talon reminded.
"Of course, King Talon, ask what you must, but my point still stands that I did it to ensure our safety if a larger threat ever did show up, and that time is now upon us," said Celestia.
"Citizens of Equestria! I am sure many of you know about the rather large army that was sent to deal with what we told you were human rebels," Celestia announced, "Regrettably, in the effort to avoid a nationwide panic and potential slave rebellions, we could not tell you the entire truth.”
Loud murmurs began to erupt amongst the audience, some were slightly worried that their ruler had to hide anything from them while others were wondering what the army had really gone.
Celestia raised up her hoof and the crowd began to gradually calm down until there was nothing but silence.
"The threat was indeed human in origin, but they were not rebels. Instead, they were a highly advanced faction of humans that we call the First Humans. These humans are nothing like the slaves you keep. They are much… much worse, and they are a huge threat to the entire world. They possess a near absolute resistance to magic and have weapons that one could only find within the realm of fiction, or in one's very nightmares," Celestia told them.
"I’m sure you all have plenty of questions about this new threat, and I will try to answer them as best I can," Celestia paused for a moment to take a look at the ponies' faces, most of them full of shock or confusion.
"First of all, the humans we fought in the Great War, at least at first, lived alongside ponykind, and were thus able to be effected by our magic because of it. However, this is not the case with the First Humans. They are the remnants of an ancient civilization that once ruled our world long ago. This particular subset of First Humans had managed to isolate themselves long ago in an enormous bunker built beneath Tartarus. Since the First Humans hail from a time before magic, they do not contain any, rendering magic useless against them. When the First Humans first appeared, they gave us many gifts, most of which we find in the technology we use to this very day. Their generosity and benevolence ended, however, when they discovered the path to immortality, one that involved us. This was what led to the Great War" Celestia then continued describing the war in great detail.
She told them about what the world was like over a million years ago and how the First Humans used to rule over everything. She told them about how the First Humans were much more technologically advanced than they were and how they had such an understanding of science and maths that they were even able to go to mars.
She described the First Human weapons in great detail, telling them about guns, tanks, military aircraft, and even the “world enders.”
She told them of how the goal of the humans during the Great War wasn't just the complete eradication of ponykind. She told them of how the First Humans discovered a way to use an amplified version of Grogar's bell to absorb the passive magic from the people of Equs and transfer it to themselves, extending their lifespan.
She told them of how the Vega Corporation indoctrinated the local humans and corrupted them, turning them into a cold, violent species who captured anyone they came across to go through the process.
She told them of how Discord was the one to help defeat them by figuring out how to arm a nuke and destroy them with one of their very own “world enders.”
She told them about the fact that these newly emerged First Humans seemed to be much stronger than the ones they had first fought against. She told them that the First Humans were the greatest threat to have ever emerged, far greater than Tirek or Chrysalis or even Grogar.
"But let me tell you this, my little ponies. What happened several days ago shall not happen again. The last time we fought, they had the element of surprise. We knew nothing about them, while they knew all about us. Such a tactic only works once. Now, we know all about them, and this time, they won't be able to turn any of our local humans into soldiers to help them commit their atrocities. Their numbers are only in the few thousand, while there are over five billion of us. They continue to hide in their hole which they crawled into millenia ago, too cowardly to emerge because they know now that they do not have the element of surprise, they stand no chance in direct conflict. The First Humans, both then and now, have partaken in despicable actions that not even I can begin to describe. We do not yet now what they wish to do to us, but we know that it will end with either the complete destruction of society as we know it, or the complete genocide of all ponykind. However, they cannot fathom the experience of ponykind over the last several years, as we’ve proven again and again that good always triumphs over evil… and once evil comes knocking on our door, we and all of our fellow nations of Equus will declare in one voice, ‘We won’t go quietly into the night! We will not vanish without a fight!’ We are going to live on! We’re going to survive! And we’re going to show the First Humans exactly what Equestria is made of!”
In including this here so no one will miss it. Read the authors note (the section underneath this) since it'll be very important this time and have something relevant to the story.
“Look, I don’t know how else I’m able to say it,” Eris explained, irritated. “It’s just not working.”
"Of course, it's not working! You're not doing what I told you! I said to visualise what it would look like for you to perform an action!" Chrysalis yelled back in frustration.
"You don’t think I’ve been trying that this entire time?!" Eris shouted, followed by taking a few deep baths to calm down.
"Alright, look" she refocused on the moderately sized rock which she was trying to levitate. "I'm imagining a larger version of my hand gripping it…" Eris began to stare at the rock intensely, a stagnant pause as the trio looked on at the rock with anticipation.
However, yet again, Eris lets out a sigh of defeat. This was soon echoed by Chrysalis, though hers sounded like it was driven by rage rather than disappointment.
"Don't 'imagine' yourself doing it. Do it!" Chrysalis looked like she was about to strangle the teenager.
"Wait, wait, wait. Maybe we're going about this all wrong,” Cozy Glow stepped in.
“Eris doesn’t have the same magic you have," Cozy Glow explained. "She has chaos magic. So, we have to think less like us and more like Discord.”
“And how exactly does that help us?” Chryslis asked.
“Actually…” Tirek interrupted. “I think the child might be onto something. That draconequus is the most impulsive creature I’ve ever met, but now that I think about it, that might just be how his magic works. Perhaps, rather than visualise the specific process of moving the rock, you should just imagine what you want to happen to the rock.”
Eris took in Tirek’s explanation.
“Alright…” Eris started. “Now can you please explain it to me like I’m five?”
Chryslais facehoofed. Even she understood what Tirek had asked the new draconequus to do, and she did not even think it would work.
"Come on, we've been at this for hours and it's almost time for the election… can't we go back now?" Eris asked.
"Your sheer laziness disgusts me. If you want to be able to help us th -" Chrysalis paused, "I mean help Utopia, then you'll need a lot more than two hours of practice!”
“Alright, Alright,” Eris relented. “Sheesh, don’t have to get your tail in a twist.”
She focused her attention back to Tirek. “Can you please simplify what you want me to do please?”
"Just think of what you want to happen to the rock and nothing else,” Tirek said. “Don’t think about the how, only the what.”
Eris sighed. She’s already been met with failure enough times the past few hours.
"Alright," said Eris. “I’ll give it a try, but I don’t really think that makes much sense.”
“That’s the idea,” Cozy retored.
The former human took a deep breath, almost as if she were beginning to meditate, just with her eyes open.
She imagined the rock moving, lifting up. And by some miracle, it worked… kind of. She was only able to nudge the rock ever so slightly. It wasn't even able to lift off the ground. Yet, that was enough to make her ecstatic.
"Holy shit,” Eris said bluntly, as if she was still processing what she just did. “I just did that.”
“HOLY SHIT! I just did that!” she exclaimed ecstatically.
She turned too the trio, expecting to have impressed them. “Did you guys just see that?!”
While Tirek and Cozy Glow had small smiles of satisfaction at the progress made so far, Chrysalis was a completely different story.
"Congratulations, you've managed to move the rock a millimetre," Chrysalis said unenthusiastically. "I guess you're so happy because that means you might be able to tickle someone with your magic if you get into a fight, correct?" she asked rhetorically.
"Sheesh, don’t get too excited," Eris quipped. She checked her watch.
“Come on,” she said. “We really need to get back so we can see Uncle Felix off before the debate starts.”
"So, what is a debate, exactly?” Cozy Glow asked.
“Well, you know how Uncle Felix is one of Utopia’s leaders, right?” Eris explained.
The trio nodded in understanding.
“So, Uncle Felix took over from my Dad, but it was only on a temporary basis until a proper election can be held for a permanent replacement,” Eris continued. “Basically, a debate allows everyone to see both candidates make their cases for why the ministers should vote for them in the election. You guys want to watch?”
"I do, actually,” Tirek answered. “I wish to see how this debate functions. Sounds entertaining.”
"I suppose so," Chrysalis added.
"Me too!" said Cozy Glow.
"Sweet!" Eris told them. “I can take you guys with me back to your room where you can watch the debate on TV. I on the other hand, will be watching the debate from my own room alongside the rest of my - "Eris paused, "You know what? I think I'll join you guys instead. Get in a little bonding time, y'know."
"Why can’t we just go to the debate?” asked Chrysalis.
“We are… in a way,” Eris replied. “It’s being broadcasted live.”
The trio stared silently at the draconequus for a second before Eris realised what she said.
"Oh! Right. Basically, you’ll see what’s happening on the screen at the same time it’s happening in real life," Eris replied.
"Ahh… I see…," Chrysalis muttered, still trying to figure out how such a concept could be conceivably done.
"Sir, are you ready?" asked Jennifer, his secretary.
"I should be. I finally have my speech prepared and managed to gain the support of a solid number of ministers," Felix replied. He looked into the mirror and straightened his tie. He then turned to face Jennifer. "How do I look?" he asked.
"Presidential," Jennifer replied. "You look good. You look important. You look confident."
"I am confident. Honestly, this is the most normal I’ve felt since I woke up," Felix replied.
He reread the script for his speech one more time.
“Time to show these creatures what a proper democracy looks like,” Felix muttered.
He took a deep breath, like a boxer getting ready to enter the ring.
"Alright, let’s do this.”
"Good luck sir," Jennifer said.
Twilight Sparkle turned on the TV and switched to channel 4 as she was told. The guards had, moments ago, configured her television so that she could watch the debate along with her friends.
Once she turned on the machine, the first thing that came on was a view of what looked to be some kind of stage with two podiums on it with some sort of fancy desk situated in front of it, with a human sitting facing the podiums. Behind the desk, stood a sea of black, though she was slightly able to make out the silhouettes of the humans that made up the audience. On the top right-hand corner of the screen was the word 'LIVE' with a small red dot next to it. On the bottom left of the screen was the acronym 'UNN' in a custom font and written in smaller letters under it were the words 'Utopia News Network'.
"Good evening, Utopia, and welcome to the USU Special Presidential Election, live on UNN," said the voice. “I am your host and debate moderator, Lester Cooper, and tonight we will have Polish Minister Evelyn Olesia and Acting President Felix Kutler make their case for who will lead the USU into this new era of human history.”
"So this event has a mediator for it, interesting. I suppose it makes sense to make sure that the candidates don’t devolve into bickering," said Twilight.
"That's a good observation, Twi," said Applejack.
The screen then zoomed in on a confident looking woman and followed her as she walked up towards the left podium, followed by Felix who took his place at the right podium.
“Welcome, Minister Olesia and Acting President Felix,” Cooper began. “Before the ministers cast their votes, you will each have the opportunity to make your case to them and the public. Minister Olesia, since you won the coin toss we held earlier tonight, you will go first. As a reminder to both candidates, you may not interrupt the other candidate while they are speaking. Minister Olesia, you have the floor.”
"Who's Olesia?" Pinkie asked, considering none of the ponies have seen Olesia yet due to their restrictive television offerings.
"Good afternoon, everyone," the ponies listened intently as she spoke.
“Let's jump right into it, shall we?" Olesia began. "As most of you probably know, I am an advocate for peace. You don't win the Nobel Peace Prize for nothing. So, you can probably imagine how strongly against it I was when it was discovered that roughly thirty thousand pony civilians were massacred on the surface. Recently, I learned of allegations that nearly two-thousand survivors were put into concentration camps in all but name. The fact that the peacekeepers are not letting anyone without presidential approval up to see the surface following the massacre, including myself, gives me some serious concerns that these allegations could be true. As a minister wanting to take a look at what exactly is going on around here, I was very angry to be disallowed from doing my job.”
She took a second to let her words sink in to the audience, giving a side-eye to President Felix to her left.
"Do you really think that's true?" Pinkie asked.
"Humans enslaving ponies? As if," Rainbow said with a dismissive chuckle.
"Forced labour of prisoners of war and slavery are two different though similar things. We can just hope that those allegations are wrong, and that they aren't subjecting innocent ponies to such brutality," answered Applejack.
"But that still begs the question of what exactly they're hiding up there. It could be important," said Twilight.
"Or maybe they just want to keep their people safe," suggested Fluttershy.
"That would make sense, but safe from what? They had an established camp that had a nearly impenetrable defence, and if somepony somehow made it across their fences and they took them down, they could easily retreat back down into Utopia, which does have an impenetrable defence," said Twilight.
"I do not want to rule over everything and everyone,” she explained. “I don't want to conquer anyone. I would like to help everyone if possible. I would like to help all the species of this world, whether it be human, pony, minotaur, and every other sapient species who deserve the same rights as us. We all want to help one another, that's how we are made. We can still help the ponies get past slavery and coexist alongside us. We have to at least try and do this without anyone else having to get hurt, and considering recent events, it does not look like the current regime is interested in doing that," Olesia said.
"Do you guys really think that's possible? That we can coexist with them?" asked Fluttershy.
"Well, that depends on who they choose," Rarity replied.
"After what they did, I highly doubt that. They are far too evil to live alongside us. And they can't just get away with what they did without consequences," said Twilight.
"Considering the actions we’ve already known this... regime to have taken, the relations between us and the creatures of today’s planet are undoubtedly strained. However, I believe the Earth has room for everyone so it won't be a hassle to find a place to settle that we wouldn't have to conquer. Even after the rest of humanity is liberated and slavery made illegal once again, there is now than enough room for the over one and a half billion people who will live alongside us and adopt our mannerisms. The world is bountiful and can provide for all of us, and if we were to help the ponies by giving them some of our technology for them to obtain their own resources, the transition to a free society will go much more smoothly. We have developed machines that give us an abundance, so why keep that to ourselves? If we make peace with them, the world can become what it once was.
“They hate us because they fear us, and that fear is well placed as well considering what Vega did. In fact, the fact that we have genocide as an option is enough proof that perhaps they should fear us. People fear what they don't understand, and we can make them understand that what they are doing is wrong. They attacked us not out of spite, but because in their eyes, us and Vega are one and the same. They thought we would have done exactly what Mr. Vega did and start committing genocide against them once again. In this situation, as much as many will not want to admit, we, humanity, were the Nazis. The question is if the humanity of today is willing to follow in Vega’s footsteps. I honestly hope we do not, because if we wage war against them, regardless if we win or lose, we are no better than them," she paused for a moment to let her words sink in.
"Who or what is Vega?" asked Rarity.
"They did say corporation so I think it's some kind of company," suggested Pinkie.
"If what she’s saying is true, then I think we’re missing something about what exactly happened in the last war with humans,” said Twilight. “Why haven’t we heard of “Vega,” and what atrocities did they commit?”
Olesia continued.
"In the 17th Chapter of St Luke it is written: "the Kingdom of God is within man" - not one man nor a group of men, but in allmen! In you! We have the power - the power to use machines that can bring life or bring death. We have the power to both help others and harm others. We have the power to create happiness! The suffering of the old world is gone. We have another chance, a chance to make life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure. Then - in the name of democracy - let us use that power - let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world - a decent world in which there need not be any more suffering. A world in which there need not be any needless killing. We are already safe within our bunker. We are well defended. They pose no threat to us, they can't even get in. So why should we even go on the offensive?"
"Well said. Very well said," Rarity stated as she clapped.
"Yeah, well… except for that fact that we'll take them down the moment we get the chance," said Rainbow.
"They're far too dangerous to live with us," Twilight said. "However, like it or not, the results of this election will likely impact how Utopia is going to proceed moving forward. If this one wins, she seems like the type of person who would let us go. Plus, it will gives us more time to figure out how to counter everything Utopia has.”
Olesia began to wrap up her speech.
"So, if you want this new world to be a peaceful one, without the horrors of war of our old world, if you don't want any more unnecessary deaths, if you want to use this second chance we have to make this world one of peace and prosperity rather than one of war and destruction, than choose me. This election may very well define humanity’s place in the order of this new world, and I hope we will choose the option that will involve the least amount of misery for all parties involved. Thank you."
The entire room politely clapped, with even a few giving some whistles, showcasing their agreement with what she just said.
"Well, that looks like a good sign for her, right?” Fluttershy asked. “I really hope they listen to her. They're doesn't need to be any needless fighting since this whole thing seems to be a misunderstanding. If she wins, what she spoke about might actually come true and we could have peace between Equestria and Utopia," said Fluttershy.
"Oh, we’ll have peace alright, but that ain’t gonna happen until we've captured every last one of them," said Applejack, to which Fluttershy actually looked mildly disturbed.
"Like it or not, Olesia winning would be the best option for Equestria,” Twilight explained. “If Felix wins, things will be a bit more complicated. We’ll need to find a way to escape and warn Equestria, because Felix will likely want to declare war as soon as possible, and if they attack now, then Equestria might not be able to deal with them without us.”
"Come on, we have around three billion people on our side, and two billion slaves which we can use to produce weapons,” Rainbow Dash argued. “They don't stand a chance.”
"And they have machines that can produce machines that could destroy us," Twilight said, "If Felix wins and really wishes to wage war against us, there won't be any winners. Even with a victory, there will still be heavy casualties.”
"Thank you, Minister Olesia,” Cooper began to move the proceedings along. “Acting President Felix, the floor is now yours.”
"Do you think Felix is going to want to launch a counterattack if he wins?" Fluttershy asked in worry.
"We can only hope that the princesses are prepared,” Twilight assuaged Fluttershy’s worries as best she could. “Hopefully I can convince them to let me come with them and try to escape, or at the very least, try to come up with a deal that would benefit both them and whoever it is they're attacking so they wouldn't need to fight.”
"Why wouldn't you want them to fight?” Applejack questioned. “They might be able to defend themselves or drive em' off. Even if they got some fancy schmancy technology, they're only human after all.”
"True, but that technology is clearly capable of some monstrous deeds, considering it let them massacre thirty-thousand trained soldiers without losing a single one of their own,” Twilight explained. “The way I see it, we’d need an army about five times the size of the last in order to stand a chance. As it stands now, the best case scenario is that we manage to take down a few of the humans, but if that happens, we might provoke them into using more dangerous weapons…”
“When the army sent by Celestia attacked, they said they only used a fraction of their power. If that’s true, then if we start to gain any kind of advantage, it'll only make them angrier, and they'll use more force," Twilight continued. She didn't know if they were telling the truth about that really being just a mere fraction of their power, but if they were… she dared not think about what else they could do.
"Thank you, Mr. Cooper," the acting president's voice came from the TV, attracting the attention of everyone in the auditorium.
"I will concede my opponent on the fact we have been less transparent on the happenings on the surface than we would like to be. However, I assure everyone that this is only done in the name of our species’ security,” Felix said before pausing to let the audience know he was thinking about these words carefully.
“Look, I appreciate Minister Olesia’s campaign for peace,” Felix explained. “Considering I only just assumed the office as Acting President not too long ago, a peaceful interaction with the new species of this world would have honestly made my job a heck of a lot easier, and I would've had to do much, much less paperwork. Unfortunately, the ponies made it very clear to us their intentions when they sent an army right to our doorstep unprovoked. We tried to limit as many casualties as possible, but the more we held back, the more their army began getting the upper hand. We had to do what we had to do to defend Utopia, and unfortunately that had to include the deaths thirty-thousand ponies you’ve been hearing about on the news. Honestly, I still look back and wish that things could have gone differently, but war is a zero-sum game, and I’d rather see humanity come out on top rather than letting our second chance to thrive as a species get nipped in the bud.”
"Regardless of how cute or innocent these creatures may appear visually…” Felix continued
"Excuse me?!" Rainbow Dash shouted at the TV.
"Fight me like a stallion and I'll show ya cute!" said Applejack.
"… they are just as capable of vile acts of bigotry and violence as any of our own forefathers. They believe that the actions of those that have long since passed justify their act of enslaving the entire human species, which we now learned they have done for generations. Regardless of color, character, or creed, the entire living human population that was not in our fair city became second-class citizens, forced to endure the discrimination and abuse that we learned about in our history books. And just like in the annals of history, the masters did not consider their slaves… for lack of a better word… human.” Felix explained.
"I'm pretty sure we consider them human," Rarity stated.
"And I'm not even sure why they wanna be considered human. It's an insult!" said Applejack.
“For a millennia, we’ve slept under the surface, waiting for the chance to return and reclaim our world once more. We weren’t there for our fellow man as they became enslaved, but if I am elected to a full term, then that changes today. No longer would we sit idle as the rest of our species suffers. Utopia is the last bastion of human evolution that began millions of years ago in Africa and has spread to the vast corners of the Earth. Now, it is time to do so again, if only to at least spare the descendants of those we had to leave behind from subjugation.”
There were some “here here!”s heard amongst the crowd of ministers.
"If this is what humans could evolve into, than it’s a mighty good thing we subjugated them when we did!" Applejack yelled at the screen.
"Yeah!" Rainbow Dash voiced her agreement.
"They're proud of their race,” Twilight observed. “They think that just because they managed to spread across the world once that they rule over it. We'll have to show them that they don't, if only to protect our people.”
“I don’t like the prospect of a war so soon after waking up just as much as anyone might, but we are an unknown quantity to the creatures of this world. If we do nothing, then that will only embolden them further. It doesn't even have to be a massive attack; we just have to show them who we are and what we're capable of. The world leaders and our combined military forces are strategizing as we speak on a prospective response, and while I cannot discuss specifics, I can assuage my opponent in that the thought of genocide is the furthest thing from our minds. Ideally, we will get them to surrender before any more needless deaths are suffered, both for us and for them. With every action we take, we demand the release of all humans currently enslaved into our custody and continue military engagement as needed if our singular goal is not met," Felix informed the ministers.
"Wait wait wait, what's this about giving them a chance to surrender? I thought the attack was confirmed, and that I was going to get an all you can eat buffet!" Tirek pointed out.
"It is confirmed.” Eris explained. “Uncle Felix is just saying it like this so it is easier for people to support it. Besides, do you think the Equestrians will willingly give up their slave labor without a fight?"
"Hmm… I guess not…" Tirek conceded.
"Exactly! So, by the time they finally come to terms with the fact that they stand no chance, we'll have already conquered half of Equestria! By then, it'll be too late, and we would settle for nothing less than an unconditional surrender, which will result in their leaders imprisoned and a complete annexation of their territories, and you guys will get what you want," Eris explained.
"I like the way they think!" Chrysalis, surprisingly, complemented them. Tirek and Cozy Glow looked at her in surprise while Eris simply had a smirk of satisfaction.
"What? You're looking at me as if I've grown a second head or something, and it's been a few years since I last did that," she said.
"No, not that. Did you just…" Cozy Glow trailed off.
"Did you just compliment them?" Eris asked, her smirk indicating she already knew the answer.
"Heh. You're acting as if I've never complimented any pony before," she replied.
"That's because you haven't," Cozy Glow replied.
"I'm pretty sure I have," she said, looking towards Tirek for confirmation, who looked to be trying very hard to think of an appropriate situation, and failing.
Eris just refocused her attention back to her Uncle, but not before getting one last word in trio Chrysalis.
“I figured we’d impress you eventually,” she said.
"As simple as my opponent might make the diplomatic approach seem, it is unfortunately not the reality we find ourselves in. If this wasn’t the only way to free our people from their oppression, I would go with the alternative option. I can never apologize for the truth. I don't mind apologizing for things, but I can't apologize for the truth, and the truth is, unfortunately, given our current information, there is none," Felix explained.
"Well, I guess it isn't propaganda if it's the truth… kind of…" Cozy Glow stated.
"We were once a great species… the greatest species. If we are to establish ourselves in this world once again, to reclaim our positions as the dominant species, we cannot allow attacks against our home to go unpunished. They think themselves as superior because they do not know anything else. Compared to the human race, Equestrians are children, and when children act out, they have to be disciplined for their own good.”
"Did he just… insult me?" Cozy Glow asked, eye twitching with anger.
"Well, that depends,” Eris replied. “Do you consider yourself Equestrian?"
"I mean… I guess maybe? I don't know! All ponies are from Equestria, even our more foreign states are considered part of Equestria, like Saddle Arabia. But I was imprisoned, exiled. So, I don't know…" Cozy Glow answered.
"And who took you in when they wouldn't?" Eris asked, "You're one of us now, Cozy Glow. You're on the right side, the winning side."
“So, let us free our brothers and sisters from bondage and show Equestria and beyond just what the human race is capable of!” Felix began to wrap up, his voice rising every sentence. “Show them that this world has, and always will be, our world! Show them that there is a reason why the human race became the dominant species. Vote for me, and I shall make humanity great again!" he announced grandly.
The room erupted into fervent applause. Felix glanced back at Olesia with a confident smirk on his face.
“This isn’t good,” Twilight said, disturbed by just how much enthusiastic applause Felix received.
As the applause died down, Lester Cooper was heard once more.
“Thank you, Acting President Felix,” Cooper said. “With that, this election is now in the hands of the ministers. Ministers, you have ten minutes to cast your votes. When we come back on UNN, Don Carlson and our UNN correspondents in the studio react to the speeches from both candidates and later, we will reveal the election results. We’ll be right back.”
"Yes sir,” One of the changelings answered. “If any of those apes show their faces here, we’ll be ready.”
"It’s not a matter of ‘if,’ soldier. It's just a matter of when," Pharynx replied.
"As most of you probably know, I am an advocate for peace. You don't win the Nobel Peace Prize for nothing.”
As much as President Alexei wanted to only focus on his meeting with General Markov, he had to keep at least half of his attention on the television at the other end of his office.
“How fast can we get our battalion’s dispatched?” Alexei asked.
"Unfortunately, we are at the mercy of China - " Markov paused, "I mean Lian Meng on that. They estimate it will take a week at the earliest before we're able to completely clear it off the main door. However, we should be able to get some of our vehicles out with the door partially opened."
"Good,” Alexei said, his eyes still glued to the television. “Our efforts to subdue Equestria’s forces could take a huge hit if Olesia is elected, so we must begin our strike soon, before the USU can potentially elect her. Markov, due to the urgency of this matter, I am giving you the full authority to conduct this operation as you see fit as long as it fulfills our objectives: decimate Equestria’s soldiers, minimize civilian casualties, and most of all, emanate strength and rationality. Understood?”
"Yes, sir. I will not let you down," the general replied. “And if they surrender?”
That gave Alexei an idea.
"Actually, Markov, make sure you ask the opposing force if they wish to surrender before you engage,” Alexei ordered. “Make it extremely clear that this will be their one and only chance to surrender and that resistance is futile and will not be tolerated. If they surrender without a fight, bring them back to Utopia unharmed. If they do not, then engage.”
"It will be done," said Markov.
“Good,” Alexei said. “Be swift. Dismissed.”
“With that, this election is now in the hands of the ministers. Ministers, you have ten minutes to cast your votes. When we come back on UNN, Don Carlson and our UNN correspondents in the studio react to the speeches from both candidates and later, we will reveal the election results. We’ll be right back.”
General Markov and all world leaders that currently weren’t engaged in a presidential election, which was playing out on the television behind them, looked on to the main hangar behind a large stained glass window.
The hangar itself was busy, with Russian soldiers running around and preparing for the assault. From what they had seen through the eyes of their spy drones, Ponyville was quite well guarded, with around two thousand confirmed enemy troops in the area, though it wasn't as well guarded as one would expect for a settlement literally right next to the enemy's base. The soldiers themselves used medieval style weaponry, all of them using spears, swords and bows to defend the village. Their 'heavy' artillery consisted of a few dozen medieval style trebuchets alongside several dozen primitive renaissance era cannons.
The assault force was powerful but relatively small in size, with only five hundred Russian soldiers assigned to participate. Such a defense from Ponyville should not require that many soldiers to overcome. Plus, a smaller force meant a faster strike.
Once that occurred, however, the soldiers would need a way to hold the town and avoid any resistance, so Markov arranged for five heavy lift helicopters to be included as a part of the assault force, each housing a light tank that would be deployed on the front lines. Alongside them were ten attack helicopters and ten large transport helicopters holding fifty soldiers each.
His plan was simple; the attack helicopters would blow up their 'heavy' weapons so they wouldn't be able to shoot a giant arrow or a cannonball at one of their aircraft, then proceed with a ground assault so as to minimise the risk of civilian casualties. After that, they would land, deploy the tanks and troops, and commence the ground assault, killing any enemy combatants that stood in their way.
Once the town was captured, they would send out a second group to reinforce the defenses of the town and enact martial law, while simultaneously freeing any human slaves they came across and bring them back to Utopia. What President Alexei wanted to do with them, Markov did not know, but he imagined he would get those orders once fulfilled this current objective. Right now, time was of the essence.
"General Markov?" A man sitting at one of the terminals called to him in Russian, getting the attention of the world leaders as well. He pointed at the screen in front of him, "It's for you," he said, offering his headset to the general.
Markov looked to Alexei.
"Unplug it," Alexi ordered, and the man unplugged the pair of headphones, allowing everyone in the room to hear what was being said.
"Markov speaking," the general answered back in Russian.
"General, this is Sergeant Major Lev reporting. The maintenance checks have been completed, the tanks are in the helicopters, and the cargo has been loaded. Permission to begin boarding the helicopters?" The voice came from the other side.
"Granted," ordered the general.
"Yes, sir," the sergeant replied, before the call was cut off.
"You made sure to tell your forces what we talked about, Alexei?" PM Bjorn asked.
"I made sure to heavily emphasize it," Alexi replied. “Right, Markov?”
“Yes, sir,” Markov confirmed.
"Well, forgive me for having to remind you,” PM Bjorn told him. “ We cannot tolerate a 'shoot first, talk later' mindset in this situation. And given your country’s history…”
"Well, you Germans don't exactly have a history of being merciful as well, do you?" Alexi said.
"Excuse me?" Bjorn asked, getting agitated.
"Both of you, calm down for heaven's sake," PM Jack told them, "We only have so long to get this attack sent off before we could potentially be faced with a new USU President that will be in opposition to our engagement strategy. Now's not the time to be bickering amongst yourselves."
"Bjorn is right. Enough of this nonsense. There's no reason to get aggravated over nothing. Now, can we all please just attend to the situation?" asked PM Mateo.
"Yes, I completely agree. I don't see why you're getting upset over nothing, Prime Minister Bjorn," Alexi told him, causing him to clench his fists in annoyance, before taking a deep breath and calming down.
"Fine, let us attend to the situation," Bjorn relented, looking back out the window of the observation deck.
A few minutes later, the Comms came alive again, followed by Alexi, General Markov and Sergeant Lev having a short conversation in Russian.
"What did you talk about?” Aladeen asked.
"The Sergeant was just reporting back and asking for permission to take off as soon as the door was opened, which I granted," Markov replied.
"They're still waiting on reports from the surface to see exactly how much we can get the door to open without causing all of the rubble still on it to come raining into the main hangar," Alexi continued.
"Sir, the reports are in. We're ready to begin deployment," one of the men at the consoles said to Markov after an uneventful few minutes.
"Excellent. Open the doors," Markov ordered
"Yes sir," the man replied, before relaying his orders through the comms.
After a while, there was a loud mechanical whirring, alongside a lot of crashing and banging as the machinery came to life for the first time in a million years. Alexei would not be surprised if all of Utopia had heard it.
The entire upper level of the bunker began shaking as if it was a mini earthquake, before eventually everything abruptly stopped. After a few moments, a loud metallic creaking noise was heard, the sounds of the machines coming to life again as a sliver of bright light came through as the two massive blast doors covering the runway, several kilometres long, began slowly opening. This was the first time the Sun had shone upon Utopia in a long time. The doors continued opening, with small pebbles, sand and dust began raining down upon the runway. The doors opened to a length of about thirty metres before they stopped moving.
General Markov just stood and stared at the sky for a moment. From his perspective, this was the first time he had seen the sky in over a month, and he began to smile slightly. He snapped himself out of his trance after a few moments though, and began to refocus on the matter at hand.
"Give them permission to take off," he commanded to no one in particular, and one of the tech guys relayed his orders.
The rest of the world leaders watched as the helicopters began to rise above the ground, slowly at first, but gradually speeding up, until they finally left the confines of Utopia itself and began their flight, heading off in the direction of the town of Ponyville.
"Colonel," one of the ponies whispered to Shimmering Shield. He didn't hear the pony however, as he was focused on his work. "Colonel!" The same soldier whispered shouted at him again.
Colonel Shield removed the shovel from his mouth and held it with one of his hooves, followed by turning to the one who had addressed him.
"What is it, private?" He asked, exhaustion clear in his voice.
"You might wanna get a look at this," the private replied, and the colonel turned his head towards where the private was looking. He saw several helicopters, large and small, gradually rising up one after another. These ones, however, somehow looked more menacing than the other helicopters he encountered. Colonel Shield then turned his attention to the nearest human soldier and addressed him.
"Hey," the colonel called to him, and the soldier didn't reply.
"Hey!" He called to the helmeted trooper, and was ignored once again.
"Hey! Can't you hear me?!" He called to the human once again, and the human finally responded, turning his head towards him.
"What?" The man asked with a tone of irritation.
"What's going on?" Colonel Shield asked him, pointing a hoof at the rising helicopters.
"None o' your damn business,” the human soldier sternly ordered. “Now, back to work, horse.”
Colonel Shield turned his attention back to the pile of rubble and gravel he was shoveling into a wheelbarrow, taking a glance at the helicopters that were leaving the camp, as the sun began rapidly setting and the moon began rising in the opposite direction.
While he could not gleam any more information, Shield’s gut instincts were telling him this as bad. He said a silent prayer for his homeland as the sky above him began darkening rapidly and the floodlights around the camp were turned on.
Several kilometres away from Utopia, two battalions of pony soldiers stood alongside a battalion of changeling soldiers disguised as both pony soldiers and civilians. Both units were fully prepared to face off against the First Humans should they attempt to launch an attack against Ponyville. The ponies needed to defend and distract while the changelings infiltrated.
Even if only a quarter of changelings were successful, that would be at least two hundred and fifty traitors that the First Humans would have to find. It was a dangerous mission, but each and every single creature there knew it was necessary to put their lives at risk in order to protect their loved ones from this new monstrous threat.
"Hey, I'm here to take your shift. See anything interesting?" One of the soldiers asked another as they stared out at the open field ahead of them, where the forest stood a couple hundred metres away.
"Nothing but green," he replied as he peered out into the darkness. “You’d think that an assignment like this would see action a little more quickly. We’d normally be fighting on Day 1 when quelling slave rebellions.”
"So what if it’s taking a little longer?” the other replied. “What’s even the difference between the slaves and these weird alien humans, anyway? We're literal knights in shining armour! Nothing can stand in our way!”
His fellow guard took his eyes off his binoculars for a split second to give him a pointed look, "Technically not aliens… but that's besides the point. We've been here for days now. It’s not like the humans stand much of a chance anyway, so why can’t they just get here so that we can kick their butts and go home."
At that moment, the stallion noticed several floating, bright white lights in the distance ut of the corner of his eye.
“Well, looks like you’ve got your wish,” he quipped.
"What?” The soldier asked, looking back into his binoculars again. After a second of surveying the area, he found the lights his comrade saw.
“Finally!” he said, dropping his binoculars.
"Go get Agent Sweetie Drops, now! I'll alert Starlight," he said.
“Yes, sir!” the stallion said before going to fufill the order.
Spear then addressed his fellow perimeter guards as he began running to notify Starlight.
"Sound the alarm! We're under attack! Everypony wake up!"
"Look Out, how far off are they?" Agent Sweetie 'Bon Bon' Drops asked the pony on her right as she and Starlight quickly scaled the wooden stairs leading up to the battlements of the makeshift fortifications they had quickly erected all around Ponyville.
Look Out, a pony with a telescope for a cutie mark, raised up his pair of binoculars and looked through them once they reached the top of the wooden wall. "Roughly eleven kilometres, seven hundred and forty nine meters," replied Look Out.
"How long until they get here?" Starlight asked him.
"At their current speed…" Look Out stared at the oncoming lights and performed various way too complicated calculations in a matter of seconds, "Approximately three minutes and thirty seven seconds, give or take a few milliseconds."
"Logic Sticks, do we have enough time to load the catapults, trebuchets and cannons before they get here?" Starlight asked.
"If we run at peak performance, it'll take us about two minutes to load up all our defenses, and we'll be ready to fire once they're within three to four kilometres from our current position," the pony replied.
"Great. Everypony, you heard him! Load up the cannons, trebuchets, catapults, everything! And double time! The enemy will be upon us in a matter of minutes!" Sweetie Drops ordered, and everypony began running around and attending to their designated tasks.
"90 seconds!" Look Out yelled as he stared at the floating lights that were closing in on the town.
"Everypony, ready the artillery!" Sweetie Drops ordered.
"They're not within range yet, ma'am," Look Out informed.
"I know," Sweetie Drops acknowledged, before relaying her next orders, "Hold your fire! Fire on my mark!"
As everypony stared ahead at the impending mechanical monstrosities, far before they could get into the range of the ponies' artillery, dozens of smaller lights began streaking towards them, way faster than the other lights. They looked almost like rocket -
"Everypony look out!" Starlight yelled before immediately teleporting herself and Bon Bon to safety before the missiles could hit. The rest of them however, weren't so lucky.
"Two seconds…" Look Out whispered to himself in shock and horror as his wide eyes stared at the oncoming missile.
*BOOM*
Dozens of loud explosions reverberated throughout the small town as the battlements of the wooden fort around them exploded in grand spheres of flame that were targeted at every single cannon, trebuchet and catapult the lined the battlements, completely destroying the top parts of the makeshift fort along the top of the east side of Ponyville and setting fire to it. The flaming pieces of wood that had landed on some of the unlucky houses cause them to catch fire as well, and soon ponies were running everywhere with buckets of water trying to put out the flames of the houses that caught fire, and trying to put out the flames of the fort before they could reach the houses. The flames caused by the small pieces of wood were dealt with easily enough, but the ponies could not douse the fire that burned the fort fast enough, and the fire quickly began to spread to nearby houses.
Starlight and Bon Bon looked around once their ears stopped ringing and they had gotten out of their shocked state.
Despite Starlight's quick thinking, not having any time to charge the spell meant they could only be teleported a short distance, so the blast was still able to do a number on them. By the time they had, the flames were all around them, setting fire to house after house as it raged through the small town.
While Starlight ran off to use her powerful magical abilities to contain the flame before it could spread any further, Bon Bon looked out in the direction where the lights came from, but couldn't see if the enemy was upon them due to the obstruction of the flaming ruins of what used to be the fort. She soon received her answer as the flaming wooden wall in front of her blew up as a result of another explosion that, while much smaller than the others, opened up a considerably large hole in the wall and threw her back a considerable distance, where she hit her head on the wall of one of the houses that managed to stay safe from the flame.
Through the roaring flames, Bon Bon made out a very large shadowy figure that was obscured by the smoke that was coming through the breach in the wall. This was slowly followed by the appearance of smaller figures that approached beside the behemoth. Time seemed to slow down for her, and she watched everything in slow motion as she rubbed the back of her head, which was bleeding slightly.
Ponies ran by her with buckets of water only to high tail it out of there as they caught sight of the mostly obscured figures. The guards and changeling soldiers that weren't busy helping put out the flames approached her position to see what the source of the explosion was.
That's when the first part of the behemoth came into view. Through the smoke, emerged a long, slim barrel, before the abomination abruptly stopped moving with a creak. As the smoke gradually cleared away, the object in question was slowly revealed… and what an object it was. To Bon Bon, it pretty much looked like a small house on wheels, although it was far more menacing than any house could hope to look. Beside the object, several dozen bipeds that were lined head to toe with thick brown clothing and blue helmets that emitted a dim light, with metal beams lining their frame.
"Attention soldiers of the Equestrian military!" the tank seemingly spoke with a strange but menacing accent that Bon Bon didn't recognise, "That was a warning shot. This will be your only chance to surrender. Do so, and you will not be harmed. Resistance will be futile and result in the deaths of all military combatants. You have three minutes to make your decision.”
"Well, we're all in agreement, correct?" Felix asked all the other world leaders, to which they all replied with a simple nod.
"Well then, let's proceed with the reset operation," Alexi announced.
Felix then took out his phone, and after dialling a number, began to speak into it, "General Holden, commence the reset operation."
In one of the control rooms of Utopia, General Holden stared at a big red button with a plastic cap over it.
"Well, let's get this over with…" he said before opening the cap. "We didn't like this seed so decided to create a new world," Holden chuckled, before pushing the red button.
All around Utopia, the sound of hundreds of rockets were heard as the ground began shaking. On that day, fifty thousand nuclear warheads were launched to all corners of the globe, intending to destroy everything and let life evolve once more, hopefully with a more favourable outcome to humanity.
In an alternate universe…
December 5th, 2056, over a year after the doors to Utopia were closed…
Six months after the Utopian Civil War…
Atticus Constantine stood on a stage alongside Felix, Aladeen and Alexi, together with their families, as they faced a line of men with machine guns. Behind them, in the large hall a crowd of over ten thousand people stood watching and crying out insults to the group. Camera crews from various news studios from different countries stood alongside the crowd as they filmed what was happening.
The yelling and jeering eventually quietened down after a man in a suit walked up on stage and stood at the middle of it.
"Ladies and gentlemen! Loyal citizens of the One Empire! Those stood before you have been found guilty of treason against the saviour of humanity, His Excellency, the emperor!" The man announced and the crowd erupted, taunting and throwing insults at their former leaders. The man raised his hand and the crowd gradually quietened down once more.
"They have been found guilty of crimes including but not limited to: attempting to usurp power from the rightful emperor, spreading false information and attempting to start an uprising against the emperor, attempting a coup against the One Empire, attempting to reform their former nations and break off from the One Empire, leading the rebel faction known as 'Justice' against the One Empire, attempted regicide, terrorism, and many other treasonous crimes that would only be worthy of death!
"For all of these terrible crimes and more, His Excellency has deemed it suitable to sentence not only them, but their families as well to death, for the suffering they have caused every single one of us! In the words of our great emperor: 'none of you were allowed to bring your families along, but they simply used their influence to bypass that rule. While the rest of your loved ones lie dead, their families live here in luxury! This is only the tip of the iceberg of their corruption, and I shall act upon this immediately. This is only the first of many injustices committed against the people that I shall seek to correct. This, I promise you.'
"Today, true justice is being dealt! Fair justice! And all because of our glorious emperor and the sacrifice of his nation. We all know we live in thanks to the Lord and to our emperor and the sacrifice his nation made. It is because of them that all of us are still alive, after all, and they deserve our gratitude.
"Yet there are traitors like these," the man pointed to the ex world leaders, "Who took our emperor's great sacrifice and spat it right back into his face! And more importantly, they insult the sacrifice the citizens of the United Commonwealth made so that we all may live!
"This is a message to all the members of the terrorist organisation known as 'Justice' and anyone who seeks to betray the emperor's kindness and generosity," the man pointed towards the ex world leaders and their families, "There will be consequences for your actions! The remainder of humanity will not devolve into anarchy as your organisation sees fit! We will not tolerate such acts of treason and rebellion, and the mighty hammer of the empire will crush any who tries to oppose it!"
The crowd erupted into cheers once more, and the cheering was heard all throughout Utopia as even those watching the proceedings on television began cheering their support for the One Empire.
"Long live the empire! Long live the emperor! Praise Emperor Wilford!" The man shouted as he raised a hand straight up above his head and stretched out his pointer, middle and ring fingers, spreading them apart.. To anyone unfamiliar, it might simply seem like a number three, but to the citizens of Utopia, they knew it was meant to represent a 'W' and their support for their emperor.
The man then turned around and looked at the ex world leaders and their families.
"Ready!" The man yelled and audible clicks were heard as the gunmen loaded their weapons.
"Aim!" He ordered, and two dozen gunmen pointed their rifles at the leaders and their families.
"Wilford!" Atticus yelled as he looked at the man who was seated on a fancy looking chair and desk in front of the stage as he watched the execution. "Don't do this Wilford! Let our children go! Please!" He pleaded as he locked eyes with the emperor.
The emperor's gaze passed over the children in question and looked as if he was contemplating his answer. His eyes passed over Joseph, the eighteen year old son of Atticus. He then glanced over Gerald, Atticus' second born sixteen year old son and twin of Eris. And finally his gaze fell on her as he looked into her teary eyes as she begged and pleaded with him to let her live. For a moment, Atticus thought that the emperor was going to do as he requested. His hopes were immediately dashed as he heard the emperor's next words…
As you all know, I've actually already begun writing the reboot version for this story, which was gonna feature a kinda brainwashed populace dictatorship instead of the current 'good' Utopia we all know and love. I've actually already written the first three and a half chapters, however, I've decided to cancel that particular reboot version which I was writing.
Now y'all are probably gonna be wondering why, and the answer is because, a couple days ago, I actually found another story that was heavily inspired by mine. The story in question is Beyond Earth Phoenix Rising, and if I'm being honest, this story is much, much, much better than anything I had written or could've written.
And so, I decided to reach out to the author and asked him if he was willing to 'take up the mantle' and continue writing that as the reboot version in my stead, and he agreed to it.
Anyway yea, the reason I decided to ask him to do the reboot version instead is simply because he's doing much better than I ever did. Trust me, his story is an absolute banger.
The story in question is obviously not gonna be a copy paste of this story, since it only used this story as inspiration for the scenario and some of the characters. But other than that, it's still a unique take on the whole premise for this story and the storyline is shaping up to be completely different as well.
So anyway, yeah. I'm cancelling the reboot I was writing and decided to give you guys something better.
So without further ado, here's the reboot version:
