Liberationem Lapsis

Chapters

Kicking the hornets' nest
Codex Page 1
Her mistake
Codex Page 2: The Great Powers
Interudes: The Rebellion
First Contact

Kicking the hornets' nest

(AN: This is the prologue for the story, Liberationem Lapsis. The chapter will cover the space-faring humans in the story.)

(AN: This is the re-edited first chapter of this. Most of the content has been unedited, but with a few tweaks, and some rewriting to it.)

Editor: Thardoc

War does not determine who is right - only who is left.
- Bertrand Russell

January nine, twenty-five eighty-three.

New York City, Capital of the Terran Systems Alliance.

One week after the discovery of planet E2-P3

“Are you sure this information is accurate, Anderson?”

Alex White, the current president of the Terran Systems Alliance asked. Looking up from the pad in his hand, he gazed at the admiral, his old friend during the insurrection. The president was about six feet and seven inches tall. His hair was black while his skin had a brownish tone to it. He was about seventy-eight years old, but due to advances in medical technology, he felt like he was still in his early thirties. His forty years of political experience as a senator and a military man during the Insurrection war has both added to his aged appearance and made him the perfect man for the job as president of the Alliance.

The information in his hand was completely unexpected.

The building where the meeting of the most powerful people in humanity took place was a spacious building in the district of Manhattan which, historically, was the headquarters of the United Nations before it had declared its final act of tying the human race into a world government known as the Terran Systems Alliance.

As the cities of East Coast grew, they soon encompassed all others, morphing them into the super city that was soon simply referred to as Washington which encompassed the District of Columbia, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Newark, and New York, all the way up to Boston.

The building was also changed as well, no longer stood the small building the UN back in the twenty century, but a massive skyscraper that reached nearly six miles upward. It was a work of modern art with a few artistic Gothic and Greco classic lines as well as modern uniformity that gave people below a sense of awe.

Across the far end of the round olive wooden table from him, Admiral Anderson of the Fifth fleet sat along with the rest of the chiefs of staff. Beside Anderson was Admiral William Norwich, native to the colony of New Britain, one of the many seven hundred inner colonies in Alliance space; he was in command of the Second fleet that was stationed in the Goral system, among them were the heads of the various departments of the Alliance, including the Secretary of State, and the other admirals that were in command of many of humanity’s fleets throughout populated space.

“Yes, Mister President, one of the survey ships, the Unyielding Hierophant, was scouting out one of the systems that we recently discovered in sector G5-47 until the ship scanners had picked up a gravitational anomaly on the third planet.”

As soon as he stopped, the room was dimmed and the tiny ‘X’ holoprojector in the center of the table lit up the entire room with a hologram of the planet.

The planet was about the same size as Terra, but with different landforms across the surface. The most noticeable landmass on the planet was the supercontinent in the middle of its oceans. The surface looked beautiful to the eyes of many in the room. The planet was like every other M class garden world that posed to be colonized along with the rest of the system, that is until the survey group found something that humanity had been searching since they took to the stars.

“What is so important on this planet, Anderson?” The President asked as he stared at the holo-projection of the planet.

Anderson’s right arm lit up as he activated his personal X-76 holo tool used by many in human space for doing various tasks in the private and military sector.

The projection of the planet disappeared and was replaced by a string of images showing the planet’s surface.

“When the Unyielding Hierophant discovered this anomaly, it launched several probes down to the planet to see what exactly was causing it. One of the probes discovered this.” Anderson pressed a few keys on the holographic keyboard, bringing up a new image.

What they saw made the various heads and the president himself pay immediate attention, eyes widening. The admirals shifted uncomfortably as they took hold of this new information.

In the image was a small settlement with what appeared to be Victorian Era buildings, in the background was a towering city on the side of a mountain.

The most interesting, and shocking, part was the beings that populated the town.

The creatures in the photo were four-legged equines eerily similar to the ponies’ native to Terra, but this is where the similarities ended. Anderson brought up another image, this one showing a pony in the sky flying around the settlement, leaving a rainbow trail behind a colorful mark in the pristine sky. The image also showed a purple equine, displaying some sort of bio-luminescence from the tip of its horn, perhaps psionic, holding a notepad in mid-air, suggesting a written language which further amazed many of them.

Regaining his composure the president finally spoke, breaking the shocked silence among the heads of the Alliance.

“Admiral Anderson…” The president cleared his suddenly dry throat, trying to find the right words to say. “… Is there any information on this species?”

Anderson waved his holo-tool and replaced the images with three holographic forms of the natives.

“This one…”

Anderson pointed to the winged equine from before.

“Is, from our accounts and the videos taken from the probes, a Pegasus that has the ability to walk on clouds and…” Anderson paused, trying to find the right words as his counterpart had earlier. “… The ability to manipulate the weather around them,” he looked around the table, absorbing many of the reactions, even William displayed complete shock while others showed signs of confusion to outright disbelief.

Continuing on, Anderson pointed to the middle equine, the purple one from the image.

“This one has been named a unicorn due to its resemblance to the mythological creature. From the images and data that the probes had recovered, this type of equine has control over some sort of unknown psionic energy. Scans from the survey ship had discovered strange energy readings on the planet, especially in the mountains where the highest forms of it are concentrated. Currently, the eggheads back in R&D are trying to figure out what the readings imply.

He typed a few keys and a video appeared on the holo, showing a different horned equine buying what appears to be food, completely unaware it being observed, using its powers to lift up some food and put it in a basket and then walk away from the vendor.

The video stopped and the holo-screen dematerialized from view. Anderson pressed a few keys, bringing up another video screen and pointed one of his fingers to the next race, an equine that has no horn or wings.

“This here is another race of the equines that is the closest relation to our own ponies, except the height and skeletal system recovered from the recordings of the probes differs in some areas. We believe that this type of equine’s role in their society is industry and agriculture.”

He typed a few keys and showed another video that materialized out of his holo-tool, it projected a few equines working on a farm, harvesting crops and pulling wagons.

Anderson stopped the video and deactivated the projector, making the screen and the holograms of the equines withdraw back to his holo-tool.

Many of the heads of the various departments of the Alliance were still staring at Anderson as he deactivated his holo-tool.

The silence in the room was tense. No one dared to say anything about it as their minds were trying to come to a conclusion. There were protocols for this kind of matter since the formation of the Alliance, but everyone’s mind was on one thing:

Are they friendly?

Of course, that type of thinking would have seemed very unlikely, due to the fact that the equines in the recordings that have been shown, and they don’t seem to possess any space travel capabilities and appeared… quite peaceful in their lives so far.

Breaking the very tense atmosphere in the room one of the admirals, named Alex Williams, rose up from his seat and spoke in his Australian accent. The man was about average height and had black hair along with aqua eyes. A scar ran across his cheekbone from the war during the Insurrection.

“I know every one of you may be shocked by this discovery, including me of course, but we cannot afford to act rash here. We must not make any mistakes with this amazing discovery, and we must take extra precautions in case these aliens are not friendly.”

He finished his input and sat back down in his seat. The others, in their thoughts, agreed with the man, despite the unusual attitude from someone from the military. It was somewhat unusual for them to vouch for peaceful contact instead of taking the ‘lock down the system and make sure that aliens aren’t a threat’ approach.

The other admirals didn’t have the same thinking as Williams did, but it was not their decision to make since the president and the Senate was in charge of deciding how to deal with the situation on hand.

Of course, there were still many things they missed.

“What about their language, we can’t just waltz in there, speaking gibberish without scaring the hell out of them.” The head of the department of Xeno relations, Alexis West, asked. The department was created in the possibility of finding extraterrestrial life forms or situations that would result in a first contact with other beings, especially many protocols that, in case, of first contact going wrong, would be enacted

“The probes we released did, in fact, pick up on the equines speech, but without more information, there is no way we can breach the language barrier without more samples,” Anderson explained, skimming down the information on his Holo-tool.

“In other means, we’re in the dark on this?” White deadpanned.

“Yes.”

White leaned back in his chair, trying and failing, to feel comfortable, he didn’t know what to do. Sure, he was a politician that knew his way around the Senate floor before he became the president, but these ‘ponies’ are a complete unknown to him. They almost certainly don’t have the same political setup as humans, meaning that any negotiations with them had a chance of going completely FUBAR if they fucked up.

The president took a deep breath, grabbing the glass of water and downing half of it in a single gulp, relishing the water on his dry throat.

Setting down the glass on the olive table, he rose from his seat and began to speak.

“Gentlemen, friends, and comrades, we have survived through tough times throughout our history: the energy crisis of 2065, the near breakout of World War three on Terra, and the Insurrection that nearly destroyed everything humanity had built since we took to the stars.

“This incident may be the greatest discovery in our history. These ‘ponies’, these ‘equines’” He corrected himself on the alien name.

“But we must not alienate the inhabitants of this planet or show violence to their nation. For too long humanity has thought it was alone in the galaxy, but no more. Today marks the day we’re not alone and we will extend our hands in peace, and not bring the horrors of war itself, in the name of justice for every human and sapient being in the galaxy.” He finished his speech and sat back down on his chair, he glanced at many of the heads and admirals who had begun to clap at his short speech, judging their reactions.

He had always been a good speaker in politics, it was one of the many reasons he had won the election against his opponent, Jason Alexandria, a left-wing republican progressive from the planet, New Philadelphia, one of the major economic hubs in Alliance space, home to fifteenth billion people who make their living on the planet and was once one of the battles during the Insurrection when the enemy had tried to capture it for its industrial and resource capabilities during the closing days of the war, but failed due to the actions of its defense force and reinforcements from the second fleet, destroying what’s left of their fleet and leaving their remaining worlds unprotected.

But despite his opponent experience in the political field longer than him. Alex was able to capture the hearts of the middle and poor classes with his voice due to the fact he was once a middle-class man himself before joining the military, which enabled him to capture about sixty percent of the popular vote and two hundred forty-five of the electoral college votes, about two points ahead of his opponent.

The military has also reaped in the benefits of the new technology, allowing them to create new weapons of war, and improving their previous weapons to match the new ones. Their old warships that had seen action during the war were quickly refitted with new armor plating and weapons on par with the newer warships that were churned out from one of the many shipyards.

He turned his head to one of the windows, showing the outside world through the polarized view of the window, keeping the light from penetrating the room. He knew down below the twenty-five point five billion of Terra would sooner or later find out about this, the reaction will be very mixed.

He imagined the reactions would vary from shock, fear and an excitement similar to what he now felt of meeting with another race, and of course there would be people who want nothing to do with the aliens themselves, seeing them of taking away their culture, and others that would have their own reasons for disliking the aliens, but he predicted they would be a very small minority in the Alliance.

Turning his gaze back from the window, his own holo tool was activated on his left arm. He pressed a few buttons

“By tomorrow afternoon, I will make a visit to the Senate and will authorize the sending of a Diplomatic ship to meet with these equines and establish re---“

“You better hold that speech for later, Mr. President.” A familiar spoke up from the entrance to the room, interrupting him.

All heads turned to the source of the voice stepping out of the darkness of the doorway was none other than the head of Alliance Central Intelligence, Director Selah Goliath
.
Selah Goliath was considered a beautiful woman too many in the room. She had deep red ruby eyes that glinted with a dedication to her line of work. Her body had an almost lithe figure to it, her hair a trace of blonde with blemishes of gray, showcasing her age. Her uniform was the same standard uniform for everyone that works at Alliance Intelligence, a black collar shirt with one of the buttons unbuttoned at the top. She also wore tight black pants with white lines running across the black with small pouches on the back.

To the many, her beautiful looks may fool them for an innocent woman. She is far from innocence to that. Born on the homeworld of Terra, Selah had joined the Intelligence community at the age of 18 when war with the Insurrection began after her mother and father died during the opening hours of the war when on a business trip. Seeking revenge on those who took away her childhood, she joined The ACl (Alliance Central Intelligence) after the agency saw potential in her abilities.

Soon she began to climb up through the ranks, masterminding top kills on rebel generals, capturing key Insurrection personnel, and overseeing their interrogations and then executing them on false promises of letting them go.

She soon became the new director of the agency when the previous one was killed in a car bombing outside a public area on the planet of New Louisiana.

Her cold personality mixed with her seven years of experience in the agency has made her a deadly force that makes her a serious threat to anyone who would be her opponent, and with her experiences in the political ring as long as the president himself she was not to be taken lightly.

“Greetings, Selah. Nice for you to join us for this historic occasion.” He greeted the Director with a tint of hostility.

The president and director weren’t exactly good friends in a sense, despite them working for the same common cause. The president didn’t like Selah due to her cold attitude and harsh actions against the enemies of the government, while Selah herself disliked him for being native and not seeing the big picture, as well as pardoning most of the people who were part of Insurrection instead of executing them.

“Hello Alex. It nice to meet you again too, still pleases those idiots at the Senate?” Selah smirked as the man across the table almost lost his composure and tried not to fume at the woman who insulted him while some of the heads and admirals just rolled their eyes, predicting that this meeting would turn into an argument between the two.

Letting out a sigh and hoping to get this meeting over it, Alex just simply glared at Selah, hoping the woman would just tell him what she wants and leave so he can end this meeting. He didn’t always see eye to eye with her due to some of the bullshit she had caused him and his administration over the years. Hell, he could barely tolerate her presence in this meeting.

“Tell me Mr. President, have you wondered why the survey ship left that garden world so early after they found it?” Selah asked, still keeping that smirk on her face.

“What do you mean by that?” Alex replied, a questioning look on his face while the others were thinking the same thing.

“If you had read the entire report, the survey ship began scanning the planet at exactly 1100 Hours ago on the day they discovered it, but at 1112 hours, the ship’s captain ordered all probes to be withdrawn and returned to the ship, and ordered the ship to leave the system.” She explained, activating her holo-tool.

The holoprojector began to light up for the second time, bringing up a black screen to everyone.
Selah continued without looking up from her holo-tool.

“When the Unyielding Hierophant returned to Alliance space, my operatives were able to contact the captain of the ship and some of the crew about the planet, but they refused to speak with them and the captain instead gave us the recordings from the probes.”

“And why didn’t the captain speak to your operatives?” He inquired.

“When the operatives were talking to the captain, they reported that many of the crewmen were angry, weeping or some were experiencing mental anguish.” She explained as she again, showing them a video from a helmet cam, watching as one of the operatives watch two crew members; One, a female, cry on her feet while the other was patting her on the back, comforting her with tears in his eyes as well.

The video then fast forwarded to a scene in a mess hall of a male crew member angrily smashing his plate of food before covering his face with his hands, sobbing into them while in the background, various cries and moans were heard.

Selah stopped the video and screen went back to its black color. The room again silence as the various occupants were shocked at the behavior state of the crewmen. What did they discover on the planet that caused them to act like this? Is this why the crew members didn’t want to speak out?

Growing uncomfortable from the silence in the room, the president broke the ice.

“Selah…what did the captain say and what did he give your operatives that caused the crew members to behave like this?” A certain power of command entered in his voice as he spoke seriously. The crew of the ship shouldn’t act this way of course, even though most of the crew of the ship was ensigns who were transferred to serve on ships for a non-combat purpose to help expand the Alliance since colonization of new worlds began booming after the Insurrection.

Yet what he saw still didn't make any sense. They were trained to control their emotions while on duty.

Selah frowned as she again tapped on her holo-tool, bring up a video.

She walked around the table and stopped at the president. The stare she was sending was telling him what she was about to show wasn’t good.

“This is why making contact with the equines is a mistake.” She tapped on her holo-tool again.

The video began to play, the president relaxes in his chair, wondering what got his enemy to act this way. Sure, they had their annoying arguments about policies during these meetings, and sometimes she can be of bltch sometimes. He could fire her and pick someone else for a replacement, but since she is so good at her job, stopping several people from killing him (Several pleas from the secretary of defense), he’ll ignore what she does if it doesn't hurt the Alliance.

But at least this meeting will almost over.

A few weeks later

The news of discovering sapient life spread like wildfire across the interstellar nation’s holonet. As it is expected, the various reactions were mostly shocking turned excitement at meeting a new race. Scientists and reporters across Alliance space asked many questions about what they looked like? What type of culture they have, and if they are space-faring like them?

The government didn’t answer and was silent for days, they didn’t even release on information on them except their name and their likeness, even their location was kept top secret from the public. This spurted up several theories from many, one of those theories was that that the equines were a race that looked like humans and even one to the point that the aliens want to wage complete genocide on the entire human race, and the government was trying to contain them.

Others, inside the intelligence community or have ties to many corporations, had noticed a high increase in arms and ship production, entire garrisons that kept security for many worlds and sectors for hundreds of years were being moved out to frontier worlds. Though people would have dismissed this as a simple build up securely against pirates, but those in the information business had been noticing repeating messages of ‘E2-P3’ before being tracked and arrested.

On January twenty-nine, 2583, after denying news agencies and the populace questions about what going on, knowing that the populace is becoming frustrated and protests are becoming planet-wide in other systems, as they demanded answers, they finally submitted. On every planet, on every television screen, radio, advisement screen, and neutral lance, they announced that the Alliance is at war.

This announcement caught everyone completely off guard as shocked silence took hold on many worlds than fear came as people panicked in the streets, fearing an alien empire to come in and destroy everything that their race has achieved.

The AIs, once created by the humans to serve their needs in society, who were now equal partners among the Alliance were horrified and somewhat curious on what cause their friends and love ones to act this way.

Others that hadn’t panicked and blamed their government were the former politicians, soldiers, and supporters that all but defended the Insurrection, proclaiming that the upcoming war was caused by them to expend their corrupted power and even to the point of them speaking out that the government is going to enslave the new species.

But then the Alliance dropped the bombshell: The video.

Across Alliance space, protesters and rioters stopped what they were doing and watched in shocked silence on many of large screens that usually shows ads for private corporations, began to show what will forever be buried in every human mind for generations to come.

The video showed of a human child, probably twelve to fourteenth years old, being hit and kicked by an Equine, shouting in its native language, bucking the undefended child in the stomach as the child screamed in pain. The video then showed another clip, displaying various humans being forced to do intense manual labor, the camera zoomed in as the humans worked under the repugnant gaze of the strange horse-creatures, who were armed to stop from any dissent among their 'property'.

The video stopped and the screen immediately changed to show the massive conference room of the UN building, filled with every senator and representative of the Alliance Space and in the center of the room, on the podium, was the president taking a deep breath to begin a speech.

“Ladies and gentlemen, friends, comrades across the alliance,” His voice boomed across space, “On the third of January of the year, 2583, Humanity had finally answered the question that we have been desperate to answer since our race first looked up to the heavens: ‘Are we alone?’.

"But the excitement and peaceful contact with the aliens has quickly to anger when this race use these…disgusting barbaric practices on a separate civilization of innocent humans for their own needs, wiping away their chance of freedom, their culture, their lives. All they know is being servants to these…ponies."

Brothers and sisters, sons and daughters of the Alliance, I ask you to forget the petty squaddies against your fellow man. This revelation will soon test our tenacity and our compassion. A week before, I've sent one of our best diplomats to try and reason with them, to forgone this stagnated and polluted system of injustice, but alas, they did not recede. They balked at our offers of compensation for freedom of our brethren. One of them insulted us, claiming it was for the 'best' for those they held in chains, claiming that they are civilizing them from their mongrel ways. Our diplomat expresses displeasure at their decline, and express, by my words alone, that we'll not accept any terms that'll keep our fellow humans in bondage in perpetuity. We tried to be civil, but they acted with savage reprisal, almost killing our ambassador, but due to the efforts of our valiant Marines, she was to return unharmed.

By the powers invested in the office of the presidency that I deeply held, and by the graces of the Senate, I've asked for a declaration of war against the Kingdom of Equestria and her Allies. The tetrarchy that holds sway and laps upon the suffering of our fellow people, will be dismantled and scatter to the winds. We'll no longer tolerate this injustice that has gone long enough. By the grace of God, we'll burn this disgusting disgrace of civilization from this galaxy.

We will unite.

We will not hesitate.

We will not show mercy to those who would harm the innocent.

We will liberate our fellow man from the chains of their masters.

And we will remove any leaders of this species who would continue this.

Men and Women of the Alliance, we’ll liberate our fallen brethren, may God be with us all.”

The room then soon exploded in cheers and clapping as the president stepped down from the podium, news cameras flashed and reporters immediately tried to get answers from the first human leader to declared war on an extraterrestrial race.

The next morning, News cameras across Alliance space recorded the last quote given by the president before he refused to answer any more questions before getting into his vehicle.

“There is no glory to be found in war, yet from the blackness of its history and effects there emerges vivid colors of human character and courage. Those who risked their lives to help their friends, to defend those who cannot defend themselves, and to bring an end to the evil has fallen upon them. When war comes, those equines will be at war with a force that has spent thousands of years doing little other than fighting itself, we have mastered war to the degree where it could be called an art, and soon, those ponies will know it.”

Author's Note

The first chapter for the story has been completed. Wow, I can't believe that a simple idea that was posted on a thread became well, this, of course. I would like to thank everyone who has asked me to do this story.

And I like to thank the editor, Thardoc, for his editing skills on this story.

4/12/19: extended the UN Speech.

Codex Page 1

History: The Terran Systems Alliance was created from the four remaining superpowers of Earth: The North American Republic, The European Union, the South American Union, the Asia Hegemony, and many smaller states after the creation of the Warp Drive in the year 2083, spearheading colonization and expansion beyond the sol system. The Alliance funded many colonial ships that are being sent to colonize many worlds that had been discovered by Warp Drive probes. Through out hundreds of years, the Alliance Advanced has spread across the cosmos; most Diseases that once plague the Human race had been cure except those deeply engrained in the genetic code. With the aforementioned medical advancements and life expectancy spike, older couples, whose children had already grown up, suddenly found themselves, becoming a new generation of parents having second kids after the first ones had reached maturity.

Before 2083, Earth and the human race were experiencing a Golden age of technological advances and hundreds of Industrial posts from the asteroid belt and Mars and Venus that has been completely terraform, allowing millions of colonists to start new lives from the overpopulate Earth.

By 2509, the Alliance has colonized over nine hundred forty two worlds. The human race, since the dawn of the information age had experienced a golden age, Life is pretty good in the Alliance; people spending their happy lives with their families. The future looked bright on the human race.

Until 2514, one of the outer colonies, Orion Pax, went dark.

Technology:

Warp drive: Invented in the year, 2083, in Geneva Switzerland, by two physicists, Kyle Weston and Julie Xian, The Warp Drive was consisted hypothetical faster-than-light (FTL) propulsion system that may travel at apparent speeds greater than that of light by many orders of magnitude. With the invention of the Antimatter Reactor, completely phase out fusion power, the concept was becoming more of a reality then in a Science fiction movie in the early 2080s when Space was beginning to run out. Eventually, a working prototype was created and was tested successful in the asteroid belt, finally allowing humanity to leave the cradle of their home system.

Holo-tool: A Holographic tool that is used by many in the alliance for work, social, and quick access to the holo-net. The tool has many apps, such as a hacking app, that can be added to benefit the user, similar to the IPhone made by the (defunct) Apple Corporation in the 21st century.

Terran Systems Alliance Facts: 2583 edition

Type of government: Federal Democracy

Total Population: 500 billion

Alliance Military Manpower: 16.5 billion

Alliance control worlds in the Galaxy: 987

Alliance Reserve Forces: 10 billion

Of Age and Condition for Conscription in Emergency: 24 billion

Alliance Fleet strength: 53,000 ships

-10,000 Medusa Class frigates

-3,000 Cradle Class Mobile Repair and Refit Platforms

-20,000 Goliath Class Destroyers

-2,000 Einstein Class Carriers

-12,000 Caesar Class Dreadnoughts.

-5,000 Zeus Class Super Carriers

Author's Note

AN: A little information dumped for those who are curious about Terran Systems Alliance.

Her mistake

(Au: Second chapter of Liberationem Lapsis is now out. Please Comment and review about any Grammar or spelling errors that my editors and I have missed. The character’s views about slavery do not reflect my own views about the subject in hand. Thank you and enjoy the story.)

You build on failure. You use it as a stepping stone. Close the door on the past. You don't try to forget the mistakes, but you don't dwell on them. You don't let it have any of your energy, or any of your time, or any of your space.

-Johnny Cash

She hated it.

She couldn’t agree more with that line of thought as she listened to the noble down below her throne, hearing him complaining about how his house isn’t big enough or how their slaves aren’t working hard despite the punishments they received from their masters, or any other stupid bucking shit that she had to deal with from many of the nobles in this city.

The Day court originally was supposed to solve many disputes in territorial, political, and even between the nobles, but this… trivial matter was getting on her last Faust damn nerve.

Outside the windows of her beloved throne room was the city of Canterlot, the capital of Equestria, a city of thirteen thousand ponies. It was one of the major economic hubs of Equestria besides the major port cities of Manehattan, Baltimore, and Fillydelphia.

Equestria is considered a world power by many, only rivaled by the militaristic Griffin Empire to the east and the Zebrican Empire in the south. Equestria has decent relations with Griffin Empire, though they’re not friends since the griffins want the untouched natural resources that dot Equestria, but haven’t invaded since the ponies themselves had one enormous advantage against them: magic.

Equestria is one of the few nations able to have magical properties infuse in its civilians, evolving and adapting from the energy that inhabits the land around them, giving them the power to use it for everyday life. It is the source of their powers to control nature itself. The ponies’ believe that nature should be controlled because it too chaotic to be left unattended by itself, which has given the ponies a huge advantage over any army that would try to invade their land.

With the control of the weather, they could stop armies from being resupplied or reinforced. Unicorn’s magic could be used from a great distance away and pummeled an opponent, and the earth ponies were granted incredible strength, lifting supplies that could break a single pony, and able to withstand devastating attacks when in close quarters.

These sorts of tactics has kept Equestria from being conquered for hundreds of years by enemies beyond.

But the continent that her subjects live upon isn’t inhabited by only ponies, but an another. Living in the south, there was a species that can withstand anything that nature can throw at them; a species that has been on this planet far longer than her kind; a species that has advanced further in such far shorter time than hers; a species that preach for peace, but when angry, they can unleashed untold destruction to their foes.

A species that she, herself, had to personally restrain a great time ago.

She could feel the scars that had long-since faded under her alabaster fur, the guttural cries of her royal guards being slayed by the swords of the humans, a warrior species that could make even the griffins during that era look like little chicks with swords. The humans, at the apex of their physical appearance, could rival her best earth ponies in hand-to-hand combat.

She could still recall the day war began when the panicky messenger burst into the throne and gave her the daunting message of the humans invading, destroying and ransacking villages as they marched forward. The memories of that day were chaos for her; messengers frantically running around the castle, relaying orders to guards and generals alike, whilst her people outside panicked in the streets. Equestria hadn’t been at war since the Chaos wars and the Nightmare rebellion. The memories of preparedness were long gone from her kind. Peace had long made them soft.

It wasn’t until the end of the war that she finally found out why the humans attacked, amidst the tears, the blood, and the fallen.

It was her kind that started it.

“Your majesty, are you alright?” A concerned voice said.

Breaking from her train of thought, she looked around to see that the speaker had stopped talking, his eyebrows rose in concern.

She hadn’t even realized that she was so caught up in past events that everyone in the room was watching her. She silently bit her lower lip and silently cursed herself for that little mistake.

“Yes, I’m fine, Lord Nero Crystal.” She lied, shifting slightly in her chair, trying to relax herself.

Accepting the lie, the noble just slump his shoulders and continued.

“As I said before, I believe we should lower the rations of the slaves to one half due to the slowness of their work this year and the rebellions that these animals are being agitate by traitors and turncoats. Clearly, I'm surprised they actually have a spark of intelligence in them. ”

She hated these proposals like these. No, correction, she loathed them. These idiotic nobles know seemingly nothing about workforce economies.

“Excuse me, Lord Crystal, but you’re proposing that we just starve them just because they don’t work very efficiently. It’ll just make them more rebellious because the slaves required more protein than us, and they might work more efficient if they're served with kind hoof than a ruthless one.” She countered, emphasizing the word ‘slave’ with icy contempt, thought the noble and guards didn’t catch the tone.

The noble just snorted in response.

“You may make a good point on that, your majesty, but these animals can’t be reason with. The only way is to punish those who refuse to learn their place.”

She couldn’t help but to want slap him for his ignorance. He didn’t know what the humans did; their intelligence along with their unpredictability can be very dangerous. A trait used during the war that had cost Equestria hundreds of lives.

The noble just stare at the princess in annoyance, but behind emotion, obvious contempt, even though she did make some sense in his argument.

Before he objected, she beat him to it.

“I’ll look over this proposal, Lord Nero, but I doubt the council will accept this.” She nodded to her guards to open the entrance to her throne room. The creak of the large golden doors echoed as it slowly open.

Nero bowed and left the throne, but without murmuring two words that she pick up on.

“Human lover.”

The guards closed the entrance. Their stoic expression on their faces never changed while on duty, their muskets holding up, the silver barrels of their weapons glistening from the sunlight penetrating through the windows.

It was no secret to some of the upper class in Canterlot that their leader, their eternal princess of the sun, had sympathy for the humans, which has earn her a few enemies in the court that had called her out on impeachment, believing she was the one that was making their pets rebellious against them, but was quickly shot by the council before any of them were up for debate. Her sympathy has, in ironic term, put her on the lease The common pony didn’t know about it, not even her student-turned-princess, Twilight Sparkle, knew of her sins that drove her into this current crisis that Equestria is facing now.

The ELA, known as the Equestria Liberation Army, a protest-now-turned-terrorist group was consist of, ponies who were opposed the binding of enslaving a race, calling out that it’s against the very stances that Equestria was once build on during the Chaos Wars, and was also made up of, Human slaves that escape their bondage, Zebras that were disillusioned with their species government, The Zerbican Empire, and moved here, only to find out that Equestria was no different than theirs. Even rumors began to flow that the Minotaur Republic has been supporting them in their campaigns, but they openly declined it, despite their distaste over the barbaric practice that the three mightiest and most powerful nations had been using for thousands of years.

Over the years, ElA was becoming more of annoyance to the nobility and the council, as they railed slave camps, land routes for commerce, causing the GDP to plummet, almost causing to enter a recession with the increase of raids on slave caverns, causing a slave shortage which led to no choice but to order her Royal Guard to intervene and to detained them.

The ElA soon lost further ground as the Royal Guard defeated them with their superior training and weaponry, with the ELA being pushed out of the many provinces, destroying their hideouts and siphoning their supporters. The nobility smugly acknowledge that the ‘traitors’ have finally surrendered and give up their foolish crusade of freeing a ‘barbaric’ and ‘savage’ race.

‘If only they knew the truth,’

But now, The ELA hasn’t been seen in months. No raids, no attacks on the guard, only the recent raid of the slave pens at Stalliongrad, taking the pony in charge, hostage, with no ransom letter. The ElA has gone completely silenced, only fueling her anxious and paranoid mind that the ELA is planning something big. There was a new feel in the high winds, a distressing sense that something big is coming this way, and the result would be a burning Equestria and cheering, vengeful slaves walking over the disfigured corpses of her subjects.

She had taken her concerns to the council of Nobles of this, but they only dismissed it in their own asinine and arrogant way, thinking that the little civil war has been won.

Despite the common belief that she and her sister, Princess Luna of the night and dreams, controlled the government, the council itself makes the decisions for it. It was created after the Chaos wars when Princess Celestia and Luna ascended to the throne that they needed a council for the common pony to be represented and take power of the land just in case one or both of them went mad for power.

But, as always, that decision to create the council slowly came to backfire on the princesses as soon as corruption swept in and reports of funds suddenly ‘disappeared’ that were supposed to go to social services for the common pony, despite the many reforms to stop corruption.

Of course, she did had the power to remove most of them that were corrupt and put in new ones that are more ‘obedience’ to her, but she couldn’t do it due to the fact that they have many connections in her inner circle that they have finally discovered something to use against her.

Her secret relationship with her slave.

They have finally found out about him, the one person that she loved through her career as she watched his brothers and sisters being enslaved by her own kind. He was the one that kept her sane through the darkest time. A time when her life was worthless in a world where she had failed to achieve harmony, but he was the one who brought it back to her heart. He was the anchor to her failing heart, a soul that made her smile, a kind soul that slept with her when she whimpers in her sleep, crying out for her sister while he whispers to her ear, trying to calm her down while brushing her hair. Someone who loves her for what she is.

Only her sister knows of their relationship, which she, of course, supported the relationship, though abet in secret, despite her disapprove of her ways, especially the enslavement of the humans when she return from her imprisonment.

But they, the council, threatened her in her very chamber that if she ever proposed even a hint of emancipation for the humans, they’ll reveal her secret to the public. The public repercussions of this will be big, dramatic at best. They’ll demand for her to be removed from the throne for this unacceptable behavior and probably be exile along with her lover.

“Mistress, is everything okay?”

She looked down from her throne to the glazing red eyes of the human who had the look of concerned on his face, looking over his shoulder. What he was wearing was the standard clothing, with the excreta magical black collar on his albino skin, carrying in his right hand was a scroll laden with today's appointments from many of the high nobles, lords. and diplomats from the many nations that had relations with Equestria.

Her magenta eyes gazed at his. She could see the human staring deeply into her soul. Her emotions were running wild through her mind. What could she tell him? Tell him, her love? Lie to him that she is okay, but isn’t? Her heart aches and her mental mind is almost exhausted from dealing with many of the nobles and meetings with the council.

She just wants this over with, and returned to her room with her lover.

“I’m fine, Lucifer.” How many times her subjects would ask this question?

The human just nodded sincerity to her answer, but underneath, there was a raging cauldron of emotions as by the unnoticed twitching of his hand while his other was holding the scroll.

Lucifer was internally a gift from the king of the Zebraica Empire for the relationship between Equestria and the empire in the slave trade, Lucifer, was a rare albino, born to fight in the gladiatorial arena, he fought against many warriors. From griffins to zebras to eventually fight to his brethren. The years of fighting had gained him popularity among the nobles from Equestria, and even the Griffin Empire, wanted to buy him to represent them for the status that would bring them. She could still remember the day they brought him here.

She can still hear the clinking and clanking of his chains bouncing off and echoing in her mind as was he led across the hallway leading up to her throne room. She saw the pride and determination in his eyes as he entered the throne room with the Zebra ambassador in tow. While she listened to the ambassador speech, she could feel the staring from the slave, turning her eyes downwards towards him, still listening to ambassador’s speech, gazing at each other eyes. There was no hatred or rage in him, just the pain he had suffered and the will of not giving up.

It was one of the reasons she fell in love with him.

She had seen the scars on his back when they made love, tracing them with her manicure hoof as he sleeps. The bruises and cuts he had gotten from the guards when he was not within her sights during the private meetings with council. Oh, how she wanted to punish them for hurting her love. She did have the power to send them all to Tartarus for doing this to him, but he always stopped her from doing something that drastic that would reveal their relationship to the public.

She has taken many mates in her long life, most of her mates just using her for the status that bring them, but some of them do really love her, only to stab her in the back when she finds out that they’re having affair with other mares, despite polygyny being legal.

But he was different from all of them. The feel of his skin on her fur as they made love, the fingers that clawed on her back, that will later show red markings in the morning that she need to cover from a quick healing spell. She could still feel the hot breath of him as he began to nibble on her ear. The feel of ecstasy when both of them climaxed, screaming to the heavens of their love between each other.

Breaking away from the arousal thoughts and not showing a blush about to appear on her cheeks, she tilted her head towards Lucifer. His back faced against her. He stood as a statue, carrying his boring expression with him as he awaits his next command from his mistress.

She continued to stare at her lover; unknowable her eyes begin to go downward towards his well-toned waist. She shake her head diverted her eyes away, blushing at what she just did. The loins in her nether regions were beginning to heat up inside. Her breaths were becoming shaky and muffle.

‘No, not again,’

The hormones in her body were raging throughout her body. The estrous cycle in Alicorns is far different from a pony one. The heat system for an Alicorns tens to start at much earlier time than normal ponies; instead of springtime as the starting point of the estrous cycle, winter has its claim on the Alicorns during its height.

If Alicorns have even a single thought of sexual thoughts, their hormones will start to take over the body, turning them into hot furnaces as their brain desperately fights off the heat if they’ve the medicine to contain it.

But if the hormones had already reached the brain, well, anypony, regardless of being male or female, in their eyesight will become their personal ‘fuck toys’ until it dies down in the spring.

She could feel some sort of wetness dripping down her left leg, slowly making a small puddle on her throne. She could smell it through her nose, almost making her eyes rolled over head in pleasure as her breaths were becoming shakier by the minute.

The guards in the throne room won’t notice the smell at their posting, but Lucifer probably can, gazing down to see him still in his stance, not making a sound.

It was now or ever.

“Guards, please leave the throne room, the next appointment is be private, ordered by council pony, Frostbite. Please head to your other assigned posts in the castle until the meeting is over.” That was a half-lie. There was really an appointment with the member of the high council, but it won’t start until a few hours later, but the guards didn’t seem to mind as they steam out of the throne room. None of them didn’t ask piped up any questions, they were drilled to follow Celestia without question, regardless of what she does.

With the last guard out, closing the golden double doors behind him, allowing silence to quickly settle in the room. With the guards gone, only leaving her and her lover still in the room, the only thing that could be hear was the shaky breaths of Celestia as the hormones almost completely taking over her.

“Lucifer, please…take…off your clothes.” She ordered. Her voice becoming sulky and lustily as the small puddle beneath her was becoming a big one, as the liquid was dripping down surface of the golden throne.

The human slung around in her direction and started to unbutton his collar shirt, revealing his well-muscular chest, showing off the scars that he had earned during the time when he was a gladiator. As he finally unbuttons his shirt and throws at the ground, about to undo his plants, he was throw off his feet, impacting the robe covered ground.

The unexpected weight on his chest was no other than Celestia who was nibbling on his ear and one of her hooves shakily making its way down to his crotch.

“Please…” She pleaded hotly to his ear, “Make me your princess.” She began rubbing his crotch, making him goad from the pleasure. The hormones in her body had finally taken control of her.

“As you wish…Celestia,” He obeyed, moving his hands to unbuckle his pants.

Soon the throne room was filled with sounds of moaning, screams, and heavy slapping of flesh on flesh as the goddess screams out in the heavens.
(Link Break)

Location: unknown

“You’ve lost,”

‘Excuse me?’

The black void was a place where the lines between the mind and reality blended together in unity. The mind has always been a place for those to escape the daily problems of their moral lives. It was always a home to those who construct sick fantasies of themselves, thinking that they’re gods like Celestia and her sister, Luna, but they’re not. They’re flawed like everyone and everything in the universe.

“They’ve found their lost brethren.” The voice boomed all around her, not knowing which direction where it spoke from in the void. The answer she was given made her more confused.

Before she even quirked what the voice meant, It beat her to it.

“Those beyond the heavens themselves have found your world. Your sister’s actions have angered them greatly.”

The voice was stained, anger evident in it. She didn’t know why it’s angry since it appeared in the void with her many times since she acquired her powers of entering the dream-scrape. The air around her was filled with tension.

'What are you talking about? There isn't any life among my stars since since me and Cele---'

“DON’T YOU DARE SAY THAT NAME IN FRONT OF ME! HER ACTIONS HAS ALREADY PROVEN SHE IS INCAPABLE OF LEADING HER KIND TO ASCENSION!” The voice viciously cut her off, verminous words punching right through her. She walked back a few paces, backing herself back against an imaginative wall behind her.

The void around her began to transcend, the liquid darkness shaping. No longer was the backdrop complete darkness. Trees began to grow of the newly formed ground, redden clouds began to form above her. Hills began to grow all around, including one beneath her hooves, allowing her a view of the formation of a field.

“This is the consequences of your actions once they come. They will be your judgment and your future.”

She watched in horror as the land before her suddenly turn into a battlefield as hundreds of blackest figures killed off as they traded blows against each other. Metal golems appeared from skies, screeching from the heavens as their bodies hit the ground, throwing up the dirt around them or crushing any of the figures below them as they shoot fire from their metal claws.

She looked on in disgust as the beings continually kill each other, usual by their strange weapons or fists. The metal golems from before continued to kill on the battlefield as one stomped on one of the beings, ending its life quickly.

Even though the concept of conflict and war wasn’t stranger to her throughout her long life, but it still made her sick when witnessing…this slaughter. The sound of explosions above her caught her attention as she look upwards towards the source. It wasn't glory or heroic as one may led to believe, as the princess of the night experienced, but a repulsive thing upon sapient life.

Her mouth opened in stock, letting a silence gasp at what she was seeing. Massive metallic ships in the sky, destroying each other as streaks of light impacted on their huts, ripping them apart as the debris fall to the ground.

"They’ll be your doom.”

The fighting below grew intense as flying metal birds flew overhead, dropping what look like bombs down below. Expositions trembled beneath her as the battlefield suddenly turned into an inferno. Bodies of both scream in pain on the ground as the heat melts their skin.

“They’ll be your destruction.”

Many of the colossal ships above her began to fall from the heavens. Fires break out across their hull as it hopeless tried to avert itself from falling to the surface. Other ships began to fall as well as massive rounds pour into them while the others in the air kept fighting.

“They’ll be your retribution.”

Her legs began to weaken as she continued to watch the carnage. The ship that was fallen before had finally hit the ground. It convulsed as the ship impacted, cracks appearing all around. The inside of it exploding into bright lights of ember fire, almost causing Luna to fall from the force.

But the explosion didn’t stop; it soon swallowed the lands, turning them into glass as it comes towards her. The remaining bodies were soon enveloped as well, their suit of armor soon burn off, then their skin as well.

She tried to run get away from the coming fire, but no response to her legs. They just shook and trembled. She tried screaming for help, but no help came because there was no sound coming from her voice, just silent screams.

“Your downfall will not be the last of them. They will help you ascend your kind, but you and your sister will be left behind as your punishment for your crimes.”

“Your inability to stop your kind from making the same mistakes we’ve made has made you incompetent of leading, my sweet Lulu.” The voice boomed through her mind, its word latched on to her as the fire was nearly here.

She tried once again to move, but her legs still weren’t moving. She as the fire was getting closer and closer by the second. The remaining ships were still fighting, their main weapons pumping out slug after slug at each other to come up on top.

“The gods will be your savior, my Lulu. The ascension of your kind will be finished.”

Luna didn’t get to chance to finally speak as she silently screamed when the inferno of fire soon enveloped her.

But the fire never came.

Luna gasped as she was torn from her dream; breaths came in heaves, trying to gain control of her breathing. Sweat dripped down her face as the events in her dream replayed in her mind.

She let out a groan of exhaustion, placing her head in her hooves. The dream really had an effect on her.

‘What did she mean by that? The gods from the beyond being our ascension? What she’s talking about?’

Removing her head in extreme exasperation, she flung the covers off of her and headed towards the bathroom to freshen up. Turning the faucet to the sink, letting the water pour down the drain. She splashes the water all over her face to help her stay awake up for the upcoming royal court.

Royal court to her was very boring. Despite her thousand year experience and the many advances that Equestria has done, Politics has stuck the same. Nobles arguing over who gets this plot of land or gets to serve on the council. They argued over the most simplest of things that made want her to just bang her head over the table or just sent them to moon where they suffer a quick death from no oxygen.

After getting a towel and drying her face, finish, she put back the towel and went back to her room to the dresser to put on her regular regalia. She didn’t have time to take a bath or shower. Her horn glowed as the dresser open, revealing standard dresses, crowns, shoes, for formal or social events.

One crown and two silver shoes appeared out of the dresser, moderate cobalt blue glowed around them as the crown was placed upon her head and her slippers were easily put on.

Blowing a strand of her hair from her face, she calmly connected her mind as her horn glowed, finding her sister so she may talk to her privately via telepathy.

Her horn found her sister, setting up the connection between their minds.

“Sister, we need to tal---”

“YES!”

“What?”

“MAKE ME YOUR PRINCESS! GIVE ME YOUR FOALS! I WANT EVERY LAST DROP!”

“WHAT!”

“MAKE ME SCREAM LIKE A WHORE, MY LOVE! MAKE ME SCREAM!”

Luna imminently cut the connection between their minds; her cheeks blush in embarrassment and irritation at what her sister doing with her human lover. If she had human hands, she would definitely pinch her nose in anger and annoyance.

Ever since she had returned back to her former self from her exile, she had loathed on how Equestria had become that was against her own morals, the very morals that she and her sister paid in blood during the chaos wars. The war that had cost her very own subjects blood to reinvent a nation in harmony.

But now, there is no harmony in this nation. Her home has enslaved entire species that, in her own eyes, reminded her of her past glory days as a warrior when battling against the armies of Discord.

Humanity is a species that does not bow down to others, but to conquer those they consider a threat to their people. She even loathed her own sister for not taking any action against the council’s blackmail. She shook her head in shame and disappointment at her sister’s decision to enslave them was a grant mistake. This is a species that, with a military, that could even the griffins a run for their bits.

A mistake she knew that would bring both their downfall in coming days. She had read about the war against the humans during her. The accounts of well-trained human warriors able to take on two, even three, royal guard ponies in single combat has made her have great respect for them, despite others might think that the humans are savages, they’re not.
Letting out puff of air from her nostrils and straighten her tiara in its rightful place, she parted open the doors to her bedroom to the spire stairs in the tower she resides in. Flank by the door entrance were two of her personal guard, with their signature armor to represent the colors of their queen of the night. They served, only, to Luna herself, even her own sister couldn’t get the same fanatic devotion from her own guards that protect the castle.

Both of the guards give affirmed bows to their mistress as she trotted passed them to the stairs. She stopped near the stairs, looking over her shoulder to her guards.

“You two followed me to the throne room,” Both the guards, again, give a bow to their mistress’s order as she began trotting down the stairwell to her destination, her hooves and the guards’ echoed across the narrow walls as their hooves clap on the clement.

Making to the bottom of the stairs was another door, also flanked by two guards of her personal legion. They both give their usual respects and open the door for her, letting a gentle cold breeze from the outside hallways.

Again, letting out her puff of air to add in the cold crisp air, winter is coming about in the coming months. Weather teams from across Equestria would begin to mass-product clouds in many of the cloud cities, especially Cloudsdale, up north. The mass amount of clouds would help bring down rain to critical farmlands down in the south that needed rain to help their crops.

Nodded to the two guards, finally entering the empty hallway, looking over her shoulder to see the two guards that had follow, and turning back to walked towards the throne room to meet with her; If she is done mating with her human lover.

She could only pray to the gods that their Mother’s prediction won’t come true.

(*)

YanHooyer Slave market

10:30 A.M

It was always the same to them. How they smiled, looking around for the right slave that would fit in their uncaring lives. The cries of human children can be heard as they’re forced to be broken away from their families to sold away to nobles who would abuse them for their own pleasure. How their mothers and fathers would cry out to stop them from taking their children away, only to be beaten by the guards when they misbehave.

He didn’t know what to do as he watched in disgust how his own species would be this low towards them. How they speak about friendship and harmony to others. Yet, they keep an entire species under chains simply because of one misunderstood each other which lead to war. The hearing of sale ponies auctioning off living beings made him want leave instead of completing his mission.

He was supposed to meet with one of his contacts in the city about some smuggling some escape humans that want asylum in the Minotaur Republic, one of the few nations on the planet that outlaws slavery on Humans. Even though the Republic isn’t powerful enough, Economic and militarily, to last against one of the three great powers in conventional warfare, but the large Samaria Desert between them acts it into a buffer zone whilst allowing armies to suffer huge attrition rates, making the Republic hard enough to conquer for the great powers.

The agent finally found the target location as he trotted his way out of the slave market: an old two-story tavern building, already filled with the brim with customers. A gentile cold breeze went through his fur, making him shake a little.
Heading towards the bar and his objective, he could pick up several conversions from the patrons as he entered.

“So, I told them, ‘No, I don’t give a shit about your Faust-Damned coffee. Go get your own, mare.’”

“Hey, Quickheart, hear about the newest edition of Daring Doo? I heard it completely kick ass.”

“Did you hear about the escape from Stalliongrad, over five thousand slaves had escape.”

“Was it the ELA?”

“Yes, and I heard they holding hostage to the one who was in charge of the pens.”

Passing by the many drunk pardons, he finally his objective; just sitting in the left corner of the bar, near one of the windows, allowing those to see what going on outside, seating by a circular table was a black unicorn mare, with the tail being lightest brown, and the mane being aqua blue. A brown mug was on her table as well, probably filled with an alcoholic beverage.

His contact recognized him and nodded him to take a sit on the opposite side of her table.

“Are you the contact?” He asked, getting straight to the point.

The mare nodded, “Yes, I’m am, you here for the job?” she took a slip of her drink as she waited for his answer.

“Yes, I’m here for the job. How many am I smuggling to Manehattan?” He queried.

“About sixty of them, mostly women and children,” She put up a map under her, probably from a saddlebag he didn’t notice.

“Okay, the only way you get them out of the country is by the ports. I have a stallion who owns a boat that could get them, but you need to avoid many of the routes that have heavy a Royal Guard presence.” She pointed and dragged her hoof towards some of the routes on the map.

“With the stunt the ELA had pulled at Stalliongrad, the train stations have been heavily watched, with the Royal Guard checking on each passenger carts. I believe you need go through either the river or lands routes where the Guard isn’t there.” She suggested.

He nodded, He has been in many situations like this before, with the increased attacks of the ERA, things have pretty hectic for smuggling business; with the Guard heavily searching for any ‘rebels’, but didn’t stop many smugglers from giving up.

“When do I get my payment?” He finally spoke.

She removed her map from the table and put it back in her saddlebag, and then took a slip of her drink again. “You’ll get your payment once you deliver the humans to the Manehattan docks. I’ll have someone meet up with you once yo---”

She didn’t get to finish her sentence as the entrance to the bar was kicked open.

“This is the Royal Guard of YanHooyer. We’ve evidence that this establishment is holding rebels and enemies of the crown; do not get involved in our search or you’ll be arrest for treason.” The familiar monotone voice of a Royal Guard bloomed in the tavern, stopping all actively as many of the patrons give the lone Royal guard direly looks for ruining their fun.

The smuggler looked around viciously, trying to find a way from getting arrested. How they find out about their little meeting was no surprised to him.There’ll always be traitors in the mist.

He looked towards his employer, seeing her putting out another map, this one different.

“Here the map to where the humans are, get them out of the city, now.” She handled him the map. Too bad he didn’t bring his own saddlebag if his mouth didn’t make a drool spot on the map and began sweating trickling down on his face as several of the guards were coming closer and closer.

But the tense atmosphere soon turned into chaos as his contact blandly thrown her, now warm, beverage across the air, hitting one of the patrons, drowning him in slickly liquid. The patron, with anger pasted all over face, looking over to the guy next to him. But with the amount of alcohol already in his system, the only logical thing that his remaining brain cells could think of.

His hoof quickly made contact with stallion’s face, pushing off his seat and to the ground, all actively creased as the offender jerked up and attacked his offender.

The lone fight soon turned into all out brawl as they made many miss punches, hitting random ponies, causing them to either smash their drinks or turn over their tables, repeating the cycle until the bar was turn into full on brawl as the pardons fought each other in drunkenness, even the Royal Guards joined in to bring in order, but it made the fright even worse as the pardons hatred against the government made them even more aggressive.

The smuggler looked on with please as the deteriorating bawl was giving him the advantage. His contact already left as soon she threw the mug. Now, standing here with the map in his mouth, watching the fight like an idiot.

He jerked up from his seat, and running towards the exit, dodging the multiple punches from the patrons and guards.

Seeing the door was still opened by the previous guard before.

He finally made it out, running out to the streets, avoiding many of the bystanders as the tavern window was suddenly broken by a throwing chair as it lands in the streets. The smuggler kept running as he heard the whistlers, signaling more Royal Guard coming.

Shaking his head and ran into an alley, looking over his shoulder to check he wasn’t followed; he dropped the map on the ground, pinning it with both of his hooves. The map was telling him that the location on where the escaped humans are; Looking over the map for a few minutes before rolling it back up.

Checking himself for any injuries and looking around again, he let out a sigh of comfort as he heads out of the alleyway to the streets. He has a job to complete and the payment from his contact was too good to pass up on or fail.

Above him, he didn’t notice the insect form on the rooftops, watching him as he entered the endless sea of ponies, flapping his wings a little bit; green smoke enveloped him, turning him into preachy Pegasus with an ivy mane. The insect flew, allowing the wind to guide him down the crowd. A few avoid his landing. Glancing around to see no suspicious, he began to follow the smuggler through the crowd, bumping into several others. The Smuggler still didn't notice he was being followed. The spy follow the Smuggler through the crowded streets, the Spy watch as the Smuggler made turns as he put out his map from his mouth, looking it over as he kept walking, looking up to make turns to other streets that would lead him to the port.

After a few minutes of walking, the spy finally made it to the port with the Smuggler still walking. The sounds of heavy industry and the smell of the sea were familiar to him, seeing workers fixing broken ships, or seeing slaves carrying heavy loads of equipment, with an overseer watching over them discreetly, making sure they don't do anything stupid. The sounds of the squawking seagulls flew overhead.

The Smuggler finally stop at what appears to be an abandoned warehouse, with several of the windows smashed and the sound of creaking wood being broken by the years of decay. Hiding behind by a stack of nearby crates, the spy watched as the smuggler glances around to make sure no one was nearby.

Thinking the coast was clear, the smuggler proceed to open the door, the sound of the door brought little displeasure to the spy's ears. Watching as the smuggler finally entering the building, poking his head out to make one last expectation to make sure he wasn’t followed, he closes the door, making the old wood moan out.

The spy vaulted over the crates and proceeded to the building with a smirk over his face.

His queen would be pleased once his mission is complete to bring in new food.

“Brothers and sisters of Equestria, our leaders that sworn to protect us from the dangers, guide us towards Harmony, has betrayed. Out there, they enslaved an innocent race to fuel their corrupt hearts. The lands we once had are now own by the wealthy up in their impenetrable homes at Canterlot. To feast on their food while we starved to death in the slums, we fight and die while they live the high life. I’m tired of seeing my people dying, but no more. Soon, brothers and sisters of Equis, we’ll begin anew world on the ashes of the old. We’ll finally be freed, my Repetition.”

-Pereque Incestus, proclaiming his ‘freedom’ speech in Fillydelphia and the impending formation of the ELA.

Author's Note

After about 4 months of constant working, reediting, and some rewiring, the second chapter to this has been completed. Tell you the truth, I'm not yet completely satisfied with this one, but it'd do for now.

I've also have a new editor that is helping me. Say hello to Poets Dream.

I'll releasing another Codex page that drive in the AU world of Equis to help you understand it.

Next Codex Chapter: The Great Powers

New Story Chapter: Recon

Codex Page 2: The Great Powers

(AN: Hello, my fellow readers, this is the second codex page for this story. This will cover the three great powers on Equis. So, please enjoy.)

Equestria: born after the ashes of the Great Winter Wars and the aftermath before the land, which, the ponies inhabited, were divided into three basic tribes: Earth, Unicorn, and Pegasus. The relations between them were bad, but when the winter came, it only made it worse as they fought against each other for the last remaining unfrozen lakes and food that hasn’t died from the extreme cold.

United under by their surviving leaders, the unification of Equestria had begun, but not with its early problems. With the end of the ever ending winter and food being plentiful again, many nationalist groups from all three groups erupted in protest in reclaiming their sovereignty over their own lands, counted with exempt uncooperative among the leaders on running the government, Equestria would have ceased to exist if not due the appearance of the spirit of chaos, Discord.

With the appearance of Discord, the country soon fled into chaos as the chaos lord took control and use the civilians as his playthings, controlling them as his slaves to help him conquer other nations that had refused to join the unification.

His rule soon came to end as the appearance of Empress Faust and her two daughters, Celestia and Luna, in their infancy. The appearance of the Alicorns had inspired the enslave populace to rebelled against the Lord of Chaos, beginning the Chaos Wars.

The Wars lasted only about twenty years, with much of Equestria in ruins. With the Armies of the Empress and the Lord of Chaos battling over the lands and seas they can’t hold, thousands die as starvation took hold.

With the war turning into a standstill, Faust and her husband, have devised into developing a weapon that could finally bring the war to an end: The Elements of Harmony.

Finally found the weapon to end the war, the empress launched an all-out attack on Canterlot, the center of Discord’s power base. The siege of Canterlot lasted the entire night as the hordes of Discord’s armies attempted to break out, regardless of them getting massacre, but to only please their insane master.

The siege, and the war, finally ended when Faust two Daughters, Princess Celestia and her sister Luna, use the Elements of Harmony, turning Discord into stone, finally ending the decade-long conflict.

As Equestria slowly recovered from the war, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna ascended to the throne after their mother died of poison and their father disappeared during the siege of Canterlot.

The country soon later came back to normalcy as the rebuilding progress through the years. Soon, ponies were now living normal lives as their nation was now entering a golden age. Yet, beneath this prosper, corruption soon bubble up in Canterlot politics and the increasing angst and jealousy of Princess Luna over Equestria’s subjects favoring her sister sun over her precious night. With her anger increasingly taking her over, devouring her as she plotted to overthrow her sister and take control of the nation.

The plot soon spurts into action as Luna and her loyal supporters storm the throne room, interrupting the daily hearings of the day court. Luna-in her new form- quickly accused of Celestia of high treason against Equestria, calling out that the government of old is filled with corruption and mindless bureaucracy; Proclaiming that he’ll bring a new age of Equestria under her eternal night.

Despite the shock of her sister’s betrayed, Celestia, try and attempted to plead her sister, appealing to her better angels to not doom Equestria into another war centuries ago. But Luna ignored it all, refusing to listen to the one who couldn’t be with her when she was needed; the sounds of pleading and cries of her sister didn’t matter to her anymore.

The Nightmare Moon Rebellion lasted for months as the county wage war upon itself again by the supporters of Luna and Celestia. Thousands die on the battlefield for the lands and the cities that could be barely held by either.

The final battle of the Rebellion soon came as the armies of Luna, now called Nightmare moon, and Celestia clashed over the city that ended The Great Chaos Wars, years ago. The battle rage throughout the ever ending night as both factions battled each other out, many of the city’s citizens had already fled, but some choose to stay in the defense of their home.

The climax of the battle came, as Celestia-while greatly wounded-successfully used the Elements of Harmony on Nightmare Moon, imprisoning her on the moon. With their leader defeat, the remaining loyalists’ retreated from the city itself towards the Everfree Forest; never to be seen again for centuries to come.

The end of the war was a shocking realization and a wake-up call to many that their once-prefect world has been shattered in the battlefields and atrocities committed by both sides that were against each other. The actions of one of the princess have set in an atmosphere of suspicion and distrust towards the solar princess, especially from the nobility, believing that she, one day, would become the same thing that her sister did.

As the years go by, and the wounds from the war were slowly healed, Equestria soon expands towards the outer regions of their native continent. Wishing for a new life, Ponies migrate in the thousands, settling into towns that have been quickly built due to the many mineral mines being discovered. Slowly, but surely, Equestria was able to recover and prosper, hoping that their last war was the last conflict to ever experience in their history.

But the quietness of a new peace soon came to an end, as reports of strange, bipedal creatures roaming around near the new settlements. The news of which has reached the ears of the solar princess. Hoping of not repeating conflict with an unknown species, Celestia sent representatives to nearby settlements, hoping for peaceful talks.

On the year 113 A.N, contact between the Equestria kingdom and the Imperil of Man has been established, but, as time went on, the peace will not last and war will come.

GENERAL INFORMATION FROM THE CANDERLOT ACHIEVES: 1515 A.N EDITION

Type of government: Diarchy with a mix of Oligarchy and Theocracy.

Total Population (not including slaves): Three hundred million

Total human slave population: Fifty-five million

Military power: Five million

Reserve Forces: Three million

Of Age and Condition for Conscription in Emergency: Ten million

Pre-spaceflight technological stage: Late Nineteen Century with bits of late Twenty Century.

The Griffon Empire: Border from the east to Equestria and the south from Zebraica, the Griffon Empire is one of the most militarized nations on Equus. Separate from a large body of water to the Equestrian Continent, The Griffon Empire has crafted a large empire that spans across their mountainous native homelands to the client states of the southern lands.

The Empire’s history was a bloody one, at most. Born from the ashes of the twelve tribes that had contested and fought against each other for resource, pride, land, slaves, or any other reason that’d allow them to go to war with their enemies, furthering developing a martial culture that has allowed them driven at the beginning of their imperialist ambitions in the world.

The Griffon Empire grew as they conquered and settle outside their native homelands, the various kingdoms of other species or their own that has settled before the Unification Wars were soon assimilated into the empire, effectively creating their stance on the world stage.

The Griffon Empire is sometimes, in the political ring, a ‘problem child’ to Equestria and the Zebraica Empire as the Empire bullied, even threaten, to get its way, causing the Relations with the rest of nations of Equus to be tense, if not, hostile towards the Empire.

Human Slaves, white not treated worse by the other two nations, still face discrimination by the Griffons, even to the point of being forced to be entertainment in the gladiatorial arenas.

The most notable practice was the taking of human newborns and indoctrinating them to become the core of the auxiliary corps, turning them into loyal ‘Griffins’, but in human bodies.

The practice was soon implemented to the Zebraica Empire, and then, slowly to Equestria, providing them a slave army to keep their non-indoctrinate brothers and sisters repressed.

GENERAL INFORMATION FROM THE GRIFFIN ACHIEVES IN THE HALLS OF KUNNSKAP: 1515 A.N Edition.

Type of government: Absolute Monarchy with bits of Military Junta.

Total Population (not including slaves): Four hundred twenty million

Total human slave population: thirty-five million

Military power: One hundred five million

Reserve Forces: Sixty Million

Of Age and Condition for Conscription in Emergency: Forty-five million

Pre-spaceflight technological stage: Late Nineteen Century with bits of late Twenty Century.

Zebraica Empire: Know as the ‘sick zebra of Equus’, the Zebraica Empire is a slowly, collapsing empire grip with internal rebellion from slaves and from the lower-caste. Once a thriving empire built upon from the establishment of the third age of Abimbola Afolabi, a sultan who united many of the Zebra warlords that ravaged the interior of their native continent, and at sea in the Mareterranean Sea, an empire that has, in a hundred years, gained complete monopoly of the major sea routes towards Saddle Arabia, and the other spice-export nations that have come under pretense of being vassals of the empire whether by persuasion or by military invasion.

Bordered by the ever-expanding Griffon Empire, The Zebras soon came into conflict with them over colonizing the disputed land. With no other option, the Zebras soon attempted to invade the Griffins, but due to their militarized nature, they were quickly repulsed back. These actions resulted in a number of conflicts with Griffons, causing one of the many factors of the slowly, declining empire.

With the discovery of more, shorter trade routes towards the spice-exported counties, the empire soon suffer an economic depression, along with rampant inflation due to the lack of capital, and one of the many factors was the lack of catching up, technological, with the rest of the world, due to intellectual conservation and the political deadlock.

The Empire continued to decline as their territory declines, causing civil unrest, calls came for modernizing reforms, but fell on deaf ears from the weak sultans that, rather than improve the nation itself, they had rather spend on their own expenses, further the eroding and declining of the Zebraica Empire on the world stage.

Though, it would seem that the Empire is about to collapse to many observers from both Equestria and the Griffon Empire, it is not the case. The leaders of their decline powerbase quickly buy off many of the tribes that were about to secede, hoping to keep their divided empire intact, even to the point of bankruptcy.

Despite the problems, the Zebra is considered a world power, with a large army and navy, despite being antiquated, was able to repress their rebellious populace, and has even conquered several primitive nations, posting a threat to some of the minor nations, especially tensions with the Minotaur Republic.

GENERAL INFORMATION TAKEN FROM THE ZEBRA ACHIEVES IN THE HALLS OF THE ANCESTORS.

Type of government: Absolute Monarchy with bits of Autocracy

Total Population (not including slaves): One hundred seventy-eight million

Total human slave population: two hundred thirty-five million

Military power: five point five million

Reserve Forces: Nine million

Of Age and Condition for Conscription in Emergency: five million

Pre-spaceflight technological stage: Eighteen century with bits of nineteen, and late twenty century.

Author's Note

Sorry for the lateness of this, My attention was diverted to other stories, pony and non-pony related, had me not finishing this quickly than I had hoped to. But anyways, The next story chapter is proceeded nicely, though, it may take a while due to school, and other things that have my life occupied other than this, but I hoped I'll finish it by the end of October or early November, based on if my life is too busy.

Anyways, I hoped you all will enjoy this little piece of this universe I've crafted.

Interudes: The Rebellion

Author's Note

Apologies for the long, agonizing wait that you've to go through. I hope this chapter satisfies your craving for this story. The next chapter will be up shortly.

Again, please comment on any grammar errors that appeared in this chapter. I greatly appreciate the support that you guys have been giving.

Please note that this chapter was written in the latter part of 2013 that included additional rewrites throughout the years. So, be wary of the quality dips.

Interudes: The Rebellion

“Die, IMPERIAL SCUM!”

The venom of a bellicose pony lashed out amongst the crowd of protesters on the steps and pavements leading to the city hall made of clouds, reverberating across the roar of the morning winds, as the ruby-colored pony propelled a bottle of alcohol with the top of it covered with burning paper, impacted the reflecting, golden shield of the Royal Guard, unleashing its scorching, liquid contents onto it. Pieces of the broken glass cascaded after painting the shield with remains of flames, passing through the cloud cover under him. Sweat began to bead down his alabaster coat as the lone guard, among his comrades, desperately tried to contain the escalating situation from erupting into a full-scale riot as more, and angrier, Pegasus began to arrive out of nowhere to join the rioters in their cause against the government.

Behind the bludgeoned guards was the second cordon of steel as they recomposed their fellow comrades. This time, not carrying shields but muskets, their silver color reflecting off the cloudless sun. Barrels of their ranged weaponry hung above the first line of guards, bolstering their defense. Aiming them at the amassing crowd of rioters ahead, stymieing them not to cross a certain line, but as the crowd continued to grow immensity, intimidation won’t work for long for them.

Inside the grand city hall, a place once housed many of the governmental functions of operating the city above the clouds, promoting the bureaucratic normalcy that always takes place, was now turned into headquarters for the military. With the previous governor fled, and running to who-knows-where with his family, had left the city in a very fragile state, waiting to be lit, and destroyed any in its path, swallowing any that is left in wake by the iconoclasts of the new order.

The chaotic cloud city was known as Saint Abdías, named after the general who served the Princesses during the Chaos Wars and was granted a charter for settlement by the princesses who ascended to the throne after their mother’s death at the end of the war. Originally, it was supposed to be a ground settlement for the Unicorn and Earth ponies to settle but was soon build to be a clouded city for the Pegasus. Though it did suffer criticism over it, the construction of the clouded city proceeded as planned, and was completed two years ahead of schedule.

As the Equestria nation expanded outwards and with the population growing from the aftermath of the war with the Humans, the city of Cloudsdale wasn’t able to produce enough clouds to provide rain to the ever-expanding farms that’d pop up, allowing the abundance of food to be exported to many of the cities, furthering increasing the population.

With these two factors, it quickly altered Saint Abdias from a small clouded backwater city into an economic powerhouse as one of the first new cloud factories was elected, curbing out clouds and other commodities for the average citizen that immigrated to the city for a new life.

Soon the small city soon transformed, grower larger and larger, as thousands of ponies, especially Pegasus, and a small minority of Unicorns and Earth Ponies that have access to cloud-walking spells and potions, that come to build new lives for themselves in face of overcrowding from the settlements down south.

But, it also raised a new problem as thousands poured into the city, bringing their sapient property along with them: Human slaves.

While the city itself was never attacked or pillaged, given the high altitude it was stationed, by roaming humans armies that lacked the expertise of flight, the fighting faculty did earn grant respect from some military Pegasus that heard of human victories against overwhelming numbers of their kind, but with the war dictating towards Equestrian victory, chaining humanity as a result to “tame” their violent nature to help them become civilized among the Equestria people, but to the Pegasus, the selling of flesh was somewhat moral.

Despite the concept of indentured servitude being known, the Pegasus never, in their history, had driven a slave economy, even before the unification of the three tribes. With the exception of only a small percentage of their population in bondage, but mainly in the nobility as servants and non-support staff in the military, the majority were free from these restrictions.

And then another factor was the fact that humans don’t have the innate ability to traverse the clouds like their horned and Earth cousins, furthering the point that an entire underclass of slaves would prove to be wasteful and ineffective for a warrior species that relies on its military power to have control over their economic duties.

These factors have exacerbated tensions between them and the other two breeds, the Unicorns and the Earth ponies.
While centuries have passed since the conclusion of the Winter Wars, the Unicorns, in their typical pseudo-superiorly complex, have abandoned their own feudal system, replacing their serfs with human slaves to work in the fields, promoting their gracious power. Or the Earth ponies with their breeding farms, making the slave population to explode in the millions, exporting out of the nation to sell to the Militate Griffin Empire and the festering wound that is the Zebraica Empire has boasted an entire monopoly for them, making their coffers inundate with riches from the backs of the slaves being shipped to other parts of the world to serve their masters, giving Equestria the economic power to influence or deterrent others from going on a warpath on the nation.

But to the Pegasus, they never experience this kind of social change in centuries. The auction of sapient flesh on the market down below was never something that they could truly comprehend. The centuries that whirl by, their children grow up and laid to rest in the clouds without even seeing a human slave in their own eyes without reading the historic scrolls or the occasion conversation from outside Pegasus that live with the ground walkers.

This has persuaded many Pegasus to decried slavery as ‘immoral’, a blasphemous affront to the Equestria ideas of Harmony and friendship of Empress Faust afford of unity. Several groups, though small, began to spread towards cloud villages-settlements that had been established by Pegasus around the major cloud cities that produced and churned out clouds for the ground walkers-spreading their beliefs across the continent in religious fever in the name of Faust and the newly formed rejuvenated sects of religious groups that began popping up in Pegasus cities, proclaiming that the old gods of the world would come and punish the wicked for their sins against Faust.

Even problems from the sky began appearing on the surface as massive numbers of Pegasus, in disgust with their cousins over the immoral economic system of trading flesh, migrated back to their cloud cities and small estates. Though some have stayed, simply out of potential economic interests or not abandoned their unicorn or Earth pony love ones, articulated their decision to not get involved in the schism.

The Diarchy, while having a history of proclivity towards the Pegasus, including dealing with numerous rebellions during the founding (and after) of the unification of Equestria. But the huge migration of Pegasus and reports of mass desertions in the Royal Guard has caused a backlash, mainly from Earth pony farmers that needed the rain to help saturated their crops and the Unicorns, despite their reputation as one of the few races to use magic properly, could not handle the task of regulating weather across Equestria due to having one of the smallest populations out of all of the breeds.

The government, especially the local council, in response to the disruption of their country and betrayed of their Pegasus brothers to the crown, immediately crackdown on the dissent, locking down every Pegasus under martial law- suspending all civil libraries as the Royal Guard soon dug in using the Cloud-walking spell and any loyal Pegasus Royal units that still serve the Crown. Airships patrol the skies around the floating cities, ready to fire their cannons at anyone in a moment’s notice.

The heavy crackdown, while overwhelming at the sheer power of the response of their tyrannical Diarchy, the people did not yield. Riots broke out across many towns and cities that house a Pegasus population as deaths began to rise.
But it only grew worse when the Royal Guard, lack of reinforcements due to containing the ELA on the ground, were ordered to bring in the auxiliumis units.

Much as the ponies could go on about their all-mighty Royal Guard during its military history, the hard fact was the equestrians made for shoddy military powers in open warfare. First Discord, then Nightmare Moon, whatever threat faced Equestria borders, they’ve, on occasion, proven to be poor leaders, neither in skill of fielding large-scale professional armies, nor possessing biological conducive to the long-term rigors of combat, despite the victories set against the Mad Spirit of Chaos and the Night Demon of the skies.

But as Equestria finally entered the industrial age along with the rest of the world, the old guard of its military coiled itself against the brash, younger generation of their military kin as they pull away from the old, ceremonial values of Equestrian martial tradition, learning rash tactics as they fought their rebellious Pegasus brothers in the skies and the human rebels on the ground. Even with the new version of the muskets, the Thunder Cracker, imported by the Griffin Empire, they still are having a hard time adapting to the changes, especially the unicorns with their reliance on their magic throughout their history.

The war with the humans nearly destroyed Equestria, despite the small population of their species. The humans had proven to be one of the few warrior species on the planet perfected at the art of war. Soldiers with both the strength of body and discipline of mind for the harsh realities of war and a well-equipped force that could defeat any foe in devastating results.
Even outnumbered, they still prove to be a lethal force in combat, especially in hand-to-hand.

The Equestrians, while proven to be equal in areas of close combat, could only apply that to others that carried physical similarities to their own kind. But to Griffins and Minotaur, given their physical dexterity in warfare, has given the Equines a detriment in that kind of warfare.

The Zebras, while genetically related to them, are the only non-pony species that is equal to them in this sort of combat, despite their declining power and pseudo-governmental paranoid over every nation. Their alchemy skills of potion-building emulate all others, including several of the mage guild’s top researchers in Canterlot, given them the advantage of vicious potion bombs that are more efficient and in quality than made by the ponies.

But since the Equestrians aren’t quite adaptable to attritional warfare in a prolonged war, they were forced to pool in large numbers of slave expatriates, mainly from the southern lands of Equestria. While the arming of slaves has been outlawed due to fears of rebellion, the recent bold moves made by the ERA and the situation with the Pegasus had drawn many of Equestrians armies and navies, leaving only internal policing actions against Equestria only client state, the Crystal Empire, and some of the most populous provinces suffer from attacks from Diamond Dog slavers, to be largely outsourced to either to guns for hire or to slaves that were inculcated through the ‘Uplifting’ procedures in several facilities in central and northern Equestria.

Yet, could it be enough to stop the chaos from unraveling thousands of years of civilization?

“This is outrage! You can’t utterly expect that the rebels would flee if you deploy the Auxiliumis, It’d only fuel the already, raging cyclone that could drown this city in blood!”

The voice, guttural and crisp with an eastern Manehattan accent, belches across the rotunda. Sunlight drape across the delicate tiled floor, enchanted by Unicorn magic keeping it afloat with the clouds. The grandiose hall was an ancient Agora, one of the first to be established when the burgeoning city was first starting out. One of the oldest edifices to weathered the coming changes to its home for centuries, it had become the official building for lawmakers or the local Pegasus Strategoi to converge for the daily bureaucracy to be held there, another norm of the diligent machine of politics in an Equestrian city.

But not anymore.

The high, arching columns stuttered as an explosion goes off in the distance, not close enough to endanger the inhabitants inside. The howling voices between the remaining nobles in the city and military personnel quickly died down as the pony ensconced at the very end of the great hall brought down his gavel, his thunderous voice punctuated throughout the room, silencing the vitriol and dissenters, quickly resuscitating order among the myriad ranks of noble in the room.

“As Mister Pocket Watch was… vulgarly speaking before our little interruption outside, does this grant council approve of his initiative: decline deploying the Auxiliumis to bolster the Royal Garrison in our home, or let our brothers and sisters in arms be slowly butchered by this insurgency alone?”

No one in the grand chamber made a sound, swiveling their eyes towards each other in their seating, ambivalent about the proposal. Eyes darting left and right across the room, silence prayers muttered beneath their crisp breaths to the gods above. The stillness of their voices permeated the grand chamber, stalking and prompting them to make a move, startled that their words would either bring chaos or order to their home.

One noble, a creamy-colored on from the far right of the seating, dressed to the nines, raised his foreleg in the humid air while the others were concocting on what to do. Some merely watch as they held the air inside their lungs.

“Nay,” He spoke amongst the seating. The Noble’s silk suit gleamed faintly in the dim light from above. Other behind and below looked at each other for a second before rising up and vocalizing their final decision.

A chorus of ‘nays’ and ‘yays’ billowed from the members, the head petitioner watched in absolute horror as he mentally counted the number of votes in his diligent mind. He quietly muttered prayers, hoping that the heavens above were on his side. The stallion knew that, despite the desolate situation outside the halls, calling up the reserves would only spark more outrage from the Pegasus. Beads of sweat trickled down the poor stallion’s jaw towards his impeccable suit, his teeth clenched and grind against each other as the final votes were tailored in. His breath slow to a crawl, the repugnant tang in the back of his throat was returning.

“The final votes are in: 20 to 40. The proposal of starving the royal garrison of reinforcements of our fair city is declined.” The stallion’s eyes widened, his brown irises retracted in petrified shock as the gavel struck down, destroying the final chance to stymied escalation has failed. His actions of saving his childhood home shatter into pieces.

“You may leave, Pocket Watch. Your services are no longer required during this time of distress.” The mediator nonchalantly waved him off, scurrying back from his high pedestal of impotent power to hide. Watch’s jaw grind against the upper parts of his teeth as he simply turns his back against them, fury making manifest in his mind. His face contorted in disgust as he trotted away.

“You asinine idiots will pay for this”. HE spat out as his hooves carried him to the grand entrance, flanked by four guardsmen, their eyes peering at him, observing his every move as he approached the giant, dark cloud doors.

But before he requests one of them to open them, the doors slammed open, causing a gust of stringing cold air to blow in the elongated grand hall.

Desperate and frightened eyes flashing left and right, heavy hoof falls pounding on the tile floor silencing as he came to a stop. The armor the guard adored was wrecked and scrapped, a far cry from the well-scrupled and gaudy form that echoes Equestrian military power. His breathing heaved in and out before he recomposes himself in front of the assembly.

“They’ve broken through.” The words belched out from his lips, hollow booms of gunfire exemplify his words. Shrieks and cries echoed out in the distance but were blotted out by the increasing cough of barking soldiers outside.

The building then began to tremble, columns shivered, tricking off the dust from them, pieces of stone intermingling. Cries and shouts once again pervade the assembly hall. Calls for order and reassurance were blotch out from the pounding of petrified hooves. Bubble fear that was once contained erupted from all corners of their mouth, tramping verbally over each other.

But Pocket Watch didn’t care, his hooves marching past the guard in front of him towards the hallway as chaos descent all around him. He knew his pleas for de-escalation were futile. That farce of a war council could see the chaotic example right in front of their eyes. The constant and insistent droning of gunfire did nothing to erupt his thoughts.

Passing frantic guards, their hooves pounding against the solid floor, and paralytic employees huddled in their rooms and under their desks, he enters the main reception hall. Gone were the piercing and insistent noises of business, the natural mechanism of governance; it was now a disaster. Detritus strewn around the room, shredded paper and turn over furniture obscured the once scented opulence that festers visitors and newcomers. Broken glass marred the elegant coal-colored tilts. Faded sunlight oozed down from the broken windows above, almost block by puffs of smoke outside.

The only objects in the room that were not scarred were the plants, their greenish tendrils long have lost their etiolated color due to neglect. Ember eyes scanned the area. Making sure that nothing was going to jump on him, the young politician trekked the ruined area. Hoofs crunched on glass, their angles sharp but not enough to draw blood. The riots outside were getting worse.

On the edge of his peripheral, his eyes caught another portal, the entrance leading to a hallway. Seeing that the front doors weren’t an option, punctuated by the physical diatribe outside, he took the latter. Striding through without getting cut, he made it.

Before he could take one on the polished hallway floor, a gust of wind wafted through, passing through layers of his mane. The clothes-his garment of noble importance-felt weighed against him. The air around his body lingered with dust, remnants from the destruction inside. He closes his eyes for a moment, preventing them from getting puffy.

Pocket Watch coughs, his throat beginning to hurt from his bellicose stance during the meeting dreadful memories coming upwards. They wouldn't listen. He had wasted his breath trying to convince they were wrong, and he was struck the right. He had used all of his persuasive power, his connections, and even blackmail, to make them come around; to realize that their arrogant folly would only get them, and everyone, kill in this city.

He turned his head back at the lobby again, his eyes spotting small, puffy clouds in the distance, small parts of their bodies obscured by the broken windows. The gunfire outside still continued, but it barely concerns him.

The clouds began to swell, their indolent forms expanding outwards, inky blackness creating a canopy. Pocket Watch’s eyes scrutinized then evinced in horrification. Lines of gold pierced through the sky, raining down thunderbolts, the very air vibrating.

To many, this would seem to be one of the roaming weather clouds that sometimes went off course, left neglected by the workers either left or joined the rioters tearing up the city. But it was different, it spoke of something deep inside the fearful pony. Something primal, something that festers finally began to gush upwards towards his rain.

He ran, heavy hooves galloping deeper into the hallway.

The clouds continued to compact, violent thunder whacking the air, drowning out the belligerent and rancor cries of the fighting. Then it struck the building, slabs of stone break off, falling and impacting in the maelstrom of violence. Tiny specks to large rock-size fragments made impact. Some merely spatter against golden armor, bent and warped by fighting; others simply struck unsuspected heads, painting the purity of the road in red.

But the ponies below continued to fight, regardless of the calamity above. Faces of the young and the old jeer at their once royal protectors as they crossed swords and hoofs. Faces, once innocent and wise, cast their pejorative senses onto them. Fury was borne upwards through their mouths and snouts, but their cries were again outspoken b the canopy of the storm.

Another dash of whip lighting came down, striking another large chunk of stone of the building, followed by another. The marvelous structure was beaten. The Equestrian flag placed on the top of its spire, smoke and filth chugging to it, vibrated once. Then it began to fall, the lower part of itself bending. The woven fabric of the flag torn away, losing itself amidst the swirl of the chaos below. Metal screech as the pole finally became separated, becoming yet another piece of a fallen epoch.

Pocket Watch slam against the emergency door, the ancient wood creaking loudly. The building around him continued to crumble. Applying more pressure to his hoofs, he hit the door once more. It works. And the door yawned open, revealing the corybantic scene of his home breaking apart in front of him. The pony ran, his elegant cloth now drenched in rain, sticking to his fur like glue.

His wings stretch out, muscles making tiny pops as they spread. The young stallion leaps, applying added pressure to his legs, and took to flight. His breathing labor, blood pumping faster into his muscles. As he flew over, his heavy eyes set upon a sad site.

Burning buildings, wisps of torched cloud materials choked the sky. His eyes watered from the ash and dust that lingered in the air. Some of the fires were already put out either from the torrent rains or simply losing their vigor after turning the last of their fuel into ash. Hollow husks remained, their likeness cutting out like deranged skulls.

He flew, avoiding the worst of the calamity that has claimed his home. The streets below were deserted, its people long gone, either hiding or fled to the outskirts, too petrified by the events outside, or had joined the rioters at city hall, fighting around a crumbling city.

He bowed his head in solemnly, remembering the good times before all of this: the cheering laughs, the blooming resolve in his soul towards his job, the admiring gratitude he always receive from his fellow co-workers, and the towering acceptance of emulating the ones he admired when as a simple colt in a tedious village.

Another flash of lightning crosses his vision. It didn’t even matter anymore. He felt tired, exhausted from what had occurred to him. Directing his wings to a new destination, he gave one last look towards one of the few monuments, relatively untouched by the fighting and the storm. A monument he considers special to him and the rest of his kind.

It stood erected amongst the carnage and the sheets of hard rain pounding on it, definitely excluding itself amongst the torrent masses of buildings that could not surpass its height. It was a simple pillar. Nothing more. Nothing less. A callback to the second age of Pegasus expansion into the southern regions of Equestria in the aftermath of unification. It was a constant reminder of those ashes scattered across the four winds. A reminder of the sacrifice and toils that hang upon many Pegasus, including himself.

The Earth ponies may have their magic reaving the ways of nature, preventing famine unlike the days of old and the Unicorns’ blossoming magic that drove the unified nation to new heights, exterminating the Sunder Beasts of the East and established contact with the lost tribe to the north. But for the Pegasus, it was their driven, unbending military might; it was the soaring, gleaming legions that made the enemies of Equestria tremble in fear. Their swords, lightly edged by fire from Celestia’s sun itself, would push the darkness away scurrying away by their resilience and their duty. Stories of untold heroics were inscribed into the very monument; stories of driven hope of the Legion, of the iron-bended strength of the warrior, and the pertinacious experience of the general. Every inch of the alabaster stone had words dung into its very skin, not willing to allow its gifts to be decrepit until the end times came about.

But the lone Pegasus continued to flap his staining wings, struggling against the slicked wings created by the prosthetic storms use to punish vultures and rioters staining the streets of his home. The air clasped around him as if processed by some godly power. His eyes stick to the scene of destruction; thunderclaps ring in his ears as lighting crisscrossed across the brutish-colored sky. Smokes from the fires, directed by the hostile wind current, brought on a charcoal tang to the air. It burns his lungs as he sucked in new air, his vision hazy from tears as it assaulted his eyes. The city behind him became a nebulous glow, rioting and the fires corroding its iron surface, its beating heart being torn from within.

He continued to fly, gliding towards whatever destination his strength would permit, leaving behind a defeated and ruin life, along with what detritus of it that’d be scattered to the winds when the sun’s set. Moving with soggy grace, his jumbled with thoughts on the future and what it would portend for the fate of his nation, his life, and his loved ones.

But the only one that answer was the swift and brutal crack of lighting.

First Contact

Author's Note

Well, this took four years, but I've finally done it. Editing, re-reads, more editing, and a couple of more re-reads, but I was able to something out of this. Apologies for the long wait, ladies and gentlemen.

I hope this'll satisfy your sci-fi and fictional cravings for a day or so until the next chapter is out. Progress on it is on and off, given other projects on Fanficiton.net. Until then, have a glorious day in the service of our species.

Hail Science!

First Contact

A mountain is composed of tiny grains of earth. The ocean is made up of tiny drops of water. Even so, life is but an endless series of little details, actions, speeches, and thoughts. And the consequences whether good or bad of even the least of them are far-reaching.

-Swami Sivananda

January 19, 2583

TAN Corvette Dupleix.

Alliance Military Standard Time: 0700

3 hours until arrival.

Space is an eternal realm of beauty and wonderment.

That was the many thoughts coursing through the minds of millions of sapient beings that looked up from their home world's skies, looking at the complex beauty of art that surrounded their planet. As their societies slowly advance, evolving themselves to fully understand how their universe works, they couldn't stop gazing up. The void outside the heavens tempted them to explore the outside of their cradle as their knowledge expanded all corners of their race.

The same thing happened to mine and yours alone. Humanity, an age-old species that have experienced many challenges in its history, a history marred with conflict. Ever since that man had learned to pick up a rock or made a spear for hunting, they fought against each other. The bloodshed poured over the lands of the Earth as they fought against each other for thousands of years.

Yet, when they stop and look up to the stars, staring up to the heavens themselves. Prayed to their ancient gods to safeguard them to the afterlife when they passed on from the plane of the living, to live among the stars themselves.

As humanly progressed throughout its history, it ravenous hunger to go forward towards the darkness, drove mankind ever closer to its ultimate destiny to achieve what they had always desired: to fully conquer the final frontier.

Many cultures formed, sprinting the development of civilizations that would nurture and grow humanity to its rightful destiny.

As Humanity's population exploded across the vast cradle of their home as civilizations rise and fall from war, so does their understanding. As they advanced themselves to help quell their nature from destroying themselves, but as always, the wars brew in man's hearts, craving for bloodshed on a never-ending scale.

Gone were the swords and lances as humanity use firearms and cannons. Gone were the horses came the tanks and planes on the battlefield, changing the entire concept of what is war itself. But always with humanity in warfare, they also crafted and forged beautiful creations that could make even the gods themselves to breathe in awe. The many monuments they had built to represent many of their beloved past glories and achievements. They are many that wanted to stop the bloodshed from continuing, even if they've to spill more blood to stop it.

As the world rage in war once again, Mankind split the atom, creating the weapon to use against their enemies. But as the bombs dropped from its carrier, destroying the cities to end the Second World War, humanity cried out in horror, knowing of the device capabilities that would destroy the world.

But instead of the victorious nation that had molded the weapon to conquer others, instead, they help rebuild with its allies, help to shape the world they knew, but economic ideologies exacerbate relations between two great nations, forcing them to enter a state of cold war between each other. Aiming their weapons of mass destruction at each other, they competed against each other to outdo the other, eventually bringing about the era known as the ‘Space Race’, after one of them launch a satellite into the heavens, effectively establishing Humanity status to bring their kind to the stars.

This curiously drove them to new heights. By the year of nineteen sixty-nine, they finally did it. One of them finally put a man on the moon. As the three men looked out in their spacecraft, gasping at the beauty of the stars that will forever be imprinted in their minds for their entire lives until their deaths. The wild beauty of stars glistened above them as they place their first tentative steps on their greatest achievement.

Mankind has done the impossible in their long blooded history of war and discovery: Landing on the Moon. The billions on the cradle were glued to their television screens as they watched their fellow humans, regardless of their nationality or loyalty to any nation, placed the flag of the stars and stripes that marks humanity's dominance on another celestial body.

As the years go by, Humanity progresses; nations fall, some rising from the ashes of the old, seeking to strive themselves to greatness. As Humanity resources began to stretch to the blinking point as numerous bushfire wars erupted; countries fought over the lands that hold the resources for them to survive.

The United Nations, the only uniting force to stop the bloodshed, attempted to enact its powers by its members to contain the violence that is slowly spreading across the world they called home. In twenty sixty-five, the world holds its breath as the most powerful nations were about to clash for the last ounces of the ‘Black Gold' beneath them.

But they did not. Instead of searing themselves in nuclear fire, they decided for peace with the announcement of the creation of an Antimatter reactor. The Holy Grail of limitless energy that’ll soon help humanity survived the darkness of space above them.

The people of every nation rejoiced at the grant discovery as their fears of an all-out nuclear war was soon put to rest, reaping the rewards of limitless energy.

Yet, it was far from a peaceful progress. The numerous nations on the planet that did not receive the benefits of antimatter tech rebelled against the UN as the remaining fossil fuels run out, but were quickly conquered by the technological and economic powerhouses of Europe, Asia, North and South America. As the world quickly reformed in the four collective groups that would soon help progress humanity to the stars, expanding out in the dark abyss to stake their claim.

After two decades of staking out their claim in their home system, Humanity soon colonized the newly-terraformed worlds of Mars and Venus, the worlds of red desert and an ocean of volcanoes soon give away to forests and oceans, spurting with life.

Millions of people from all nationals of their cradle, their home, migrate to make a fresh start on the colonies, bringing in a new age of peace and prosperity to Humanity. Yet, as the new decade began, problems soon arose over the availability of living space in the Sol System. With the increasing life span of the average person, and with the ever-increasing human population reaching near-critical, resulting in the world governments to impede population control laws to keep the populace in check, and pour billions into research of Faster-than-light travel.

But by the accidental discovery from the research of anti-matter had finally led the astonishing discovery of the FTL Drive; humanity was finally able to secure its place in the universe itself. So, humanity set forth, constructing the first colony ships in the industrial shipyards above Earth, Mars, and Venus, sending forth legions of ships, colonizing many planets and stars. They were united, for the first time in their bloodied history, by a government that represented all of humanity in its finest hour of need.

Humanity has always been a paranoid species, whether for better or worse, that mindset still follows them through the colonization era. With increased fears of the unknown, the Alliance had conceived several contingency plans, defining them…

“Ma’am.” A voice, almost grating, like the crunch of gravel, called out, interrupting her reading. A shadowy form cast down over her datapad, once reflected by its silver surface from the liquescent light above it. She shut it off by her index finger, placing it down as she glanced up. The man above her took up a seat on the other side of the table, placing his arms on the table, with one of his hands carrying a mug, possibly carrying some caffeine drink by the sizzle of gas from it.

Annoy at the adjourning of her reading, she set down her datapad onto the silver table and locked her eyes with the unknown male's own, his blistering in the light. Noticing the patch on the sides of his uniform, highlighting his rank, she replied.

"What is it, Lieutenant?" Her voice, though quieter than his, answered through the hollow, stale filtered air of the commons room. The contralto of her voice peered through the old soldier, crisp, cultured, yet strictly professional.

The room they are currently settled in was the local cafeteria of the Hahash-class corvette, a decommission class of ships that were once used during the early days of humanity carving their place in the galaxy. Though known as one of fastest ships ever created and well-maneuver to outperform any ship in the Alliance Navy, but due to its small size, it cannot take on a lightly-armed frigate or a heavily-armed Cruiser, quickly losing their purpose as a rapid-reaction force, but serve well as a defense force for minor colonies that could barely protect themselves from pirates after the closing days of the Insurrection War.

Alliance Intelligence, while serving more advanced ships for operations and such, found the decommission class to be the perfect ship for their operatives, giving the ship’s reputation of being another exemplary way of smuggling goods and other illegal vices any sapient creature could get, and its small size-about four hundred twenty meters-could slip away into and out to of any detection grids if equip with a stealth drive.

Yet, the Corvette gilded through the blackness of space, its engines bare amongst the tiny sparks of light among the darkness showed how far Humankind had come in the galaxy, but itcame with the shocking discovery of other lifeforms, a life that held an eerie familiarly.

The discovery of other humans not affiliated with the Alliance has shaken the upper echelons of the government to its core, including the president and most of the chiefs of staff. Dozens of theories from many top researchers, scientists, and biologists across the Alliance sprang up overnight as they tried to solve how there are different humans on another world instead of Earth.

Theories were argued; fromextraterrestrial uplifting when humanity was still fighting with sticks and stones, but it was contested amongst many academics who were called upon, given the state of the alien's technology pace. Some had brought the mere thought of experimentation to the debate; aliens who came and extracted DNA from earlier man, not wanting to submit itself to a wasteful invasion of a primitive world, to create a cloned workforce of the targeted species, but as with the problems of the first theory, it was contested by many.

One scientist conjectured it was simply parallel evolution, that humanity itself had evolved entirely on another planet along with another sapient species to coexist with, given the similar conditions between both worlds. The reaction to it resulted in raucous laughter and stringing insults that merely prompted the spieler to disconnect in shame.

Despite the traumatic horrors of the Insurrection he had experienced, the President has ordered the modernization of five of the Alliance fleets, numbered in the hundreds, to bolster the frontier colonies nearest to the recently-discovered system that contained the Equine homeworld. While the public response to the fleets that have long anchored to the core worlds would see the action yet another system purge of criminals hidden in some star system, regardless of the numbers used. But for those living on the frontier, it was seen as a change of pace in their repetitive cycle of incising a life on rustic worlds and the man and women in the uniform stationed on outposts see as an opportunity to honor their commitment.

As the result of the general modernization of most of the fleets and the impending media circus that would likely raise many questions as to why, the President has ordered a diplomatic corps to travel to the Equine homeworld, and speak to their leaders of convincing them of emancipating their slaves without firing a single shot.

The President, while angered at the atrocities of the Equines committed to the ‘lost humans', knew that, despite the predicted support of the public once the government decided to reveal the recordings, his administration would surely draw fire from many of his opponents in the Senate, hoping to use the situation as an opportunity to draw support for their own interests, causing acute political upheaval that would probably cause political infighting, stalling the Alliance to react

The Ambassador he had chosen for this mission was Sarah Williams, daughter of General Bastion Williams of the Alliance Fifth Army charged with subduing the Insurrection on New Tehran during the Twin Pocket offensive. Given her twenty-two years of experience in the corps and her pragmatic, but pacifist views had landed her this assignment, along with a skilled detachment of marines, to travel to the recently, discovered black water system and have an audience with the talking, colorful ponies.

At first, she thought it was some kind of an early April fool's joke sent by her good old friend, David. But after seeing the haptic photos on her holo-tool, she knew this ‘normal' assignment wasn't some trip to mediated with pirate warlords who had carved their little empires out in the farthest reaches of space, or stopping some holdouts of the insurrection from blowing up colony worlds to support their fanatical pablum, this was going either going to Humanity's greatest event in history, or Humanity first interstellar war with an alien species.

The Second Lieutenant, while his nuance was relaxed on the surface, slurping away at his coffee, was frustrated beyond belief in the past couple of days. First, dealing with the recent fight between Jenkins and Liz over something about some sports they were obsessed with, sending one down to the infirmary and one to the brig for insubordination. Second were the orders he had received from command to guard the woman across the table from him to traverse unknown space to some system that had drawn the attention of the Alliance.

‘Fucking colorful, talking ponies from some kid's show. I can't fucking believe this.’He had, along with the rest of his unit, been debrief about the source of the stirring in the upper echelons of the Alliance that had been swimming around back at his old post, but seeing the haptic photographs of those creatures running around on an undeveloped world was something he had never expected in his thirty-five years in the Marine Corps.

“Yes, ma’am, I was sent here by the AI, Jenny. She had asked me to come to find you and inform that we’ll be in the Equis system in three hours.” The Ambassador furrowed her eyebrows, mentality inquiring.

“And why is that, Lieutenant?” She tapped her holo-tool, its golden hue reflecting off her velvet uniform. Her hands manipulating the controls, tapping away as she brought up the comms to the AI.

"Jenny, this is Ambassador Williams. Would you like to explain why you've interrupted my leisure time by sending----"

“Nathan Striker, Ma’am.” The soldier on the opposite side of the table answered, indulging more of his coffee.

"…Mister Nathan Striker instead of just calling me." A scowl appeared on her face as the haptic interface gleamed absently, no reply coming from the AI on the other line, her right hand rubbing the bridge of her nose in exasperation.

Then, a slight, suited buzz chimed from her holo-tool, a cheerful voice buzzing through the inpatient air.

“So sorry for the delay, Miss Williams, I was tediously rebooting several of the systems that needed to be updated, and run some calculations on the translator programs for the cute, fuzzy inhabitants of the planet we’re heading.”

"But that doesn't explain why you sent a marine instead of calling me." The Ambassador retorted. The AI on the other end was silenced before the young voice chirped again.

“Miss Williams, please. My information and cognitive matrix can only take so much. That, and dealing with Engineer Adams with the engine calibrations when we made drydock with the closest outpost that had a port.”

Sarah nearly rubbed her nose yet again in agitation, her patience over the flippant AI stretching to the near breaking point.

“And besides, Skyrim remix version 5.5 is so awesome. No wonder my creators think this is kick-” The high chirped voice of the AI was suddenly cut off as the ambassador shut off the comm unit, had enough of the frivolous AI.

‘Why do I always have to pull up with this bullshit?’ She rubbed her hands as she shut off her holo-tool, wanting to forget what transpired a few seconds ago. She looked up from her hands and stare at the grinning lieutenant, being ostracized from the topic at hand. The woman observes the man in front of her, not taking account of what he looks like the first time.

A long, harsh scar bisected across his craggy face. His sapphire eyes scintillate amid the stale lights above them, speaking volumes of experience and history to her. His voice was melodious, yet gutturally crisp in his vocals. The old soldier's neck was marred and dotted with scars from the last war. His muscles on his exposed arms were taut, consequence from the rigors of marine training during his early days. The man exuded athletic grace, the epitome of the perfect human physique.

“I’m so sorry for this whole mess and wasting your time, Lieutenant. If I have known if this ship had installed one of those AIs, I’d had ordered the captain to restrict her programming.” She licked her lips, hoping she chose the right words as she awaited the marine’s answer.

The marine waved it off. “Nothing to worry, ma’am. The AI may be an Insolent SOB, but she has a kind h... err...matrix for us, marines. You will get used to it." He leaned against the table, setting his two taut muscles on the cold silver table. Cerulean eyes glanced down, staring at the datapad near the hand of Miss Williams.

"What is it you are reading there, Ambassador?" The woman's eyes looked down the same as the old soldier did earlier. The data pad's screen blacked by minutes of unused. Its silver coating still gleaming from earlier.

Williams picks the datapad up with her manicured hands, twirling it slowly to its front, displaying it to show the old marine. The black screen flickered, reflecting the orange hue on his craggy face. Lifting his hand to take the datapad, His eyes skimmed down, cognizing the words as he read, his fingers dancing across the lone scroll as his eyes peered at the words giving to him.

“The brief history of Humanity and the Alliance by Dustin Williams,” Nathan reiterated, scrolling up towards the top to read the title, his left eye quirked upwards as he stared back at the ambassador.

Williams' lips shape into a wry smile. "That's my son school report for his history class from last week. Thought I'd like to bring something to remind me of home." Her smile wavers as the lieutenant give the datapad back, rotated it around to her front.

Her delicate fingers traced on the pad as she scrolled down, her meticulous eyes reading the last few paragraphs of her son's school work, her mind being quickly assaulted by memories of his young life before her very eyes.

How his impeccable eyes pierced through her harden shell. His ear to ear smiles every time he gets a treat for his good grades, his sobering cries when his perfect world shattered beyond repair. The chirping laughter booming across the halls in their home as he played.

Her mouth breathed out a sigh, eyes blinked and swirled upwards, her eyes peering at the old Marine.

They talked for a few minutes. The interests of both began to spill from the words; philosophy, Nathan being more engross in Confucianism while she herself was in Late Antiquity; the current state of affairs of their fair nation, debating the finer points of how should the colonies should govern themselves under the auspices of the Alliance, economic reform on worlds they currently knew of; the events they've experienced, the worlds they visited, meeting others with different viewports they accepted and rejected. The Conversion soon became more intricate, more complex as they drive deeper into what makes them human, regardless of their rank and origin.

But the topics they have been discussing soon brought up feelings she had encased for years, the brittle cage of emotions she kept down in her subconscious. Each break in her shell crumbled as she spent time with the old soldier, listening to his stories of how he became a marine, how he bested against some exotic breast while on tour, and how he nearly died during the siege of Scarlet Five when an Oni almost wipe out his entire platoon.

She let out a laugh as he explained one of his many hijinks with his men, describing the planks he and his friends’ proclivity of annoying their superiors and enjoying the full vigor of youthful life. Yet, the stories left a string of sadness in her soul. Something that throughout her years as a stoic representative of her government she had kept from unleashing upon her.

She sighed as he began one another of his stories. Sarah raised her well-manicured hand to stop him from continuing, the happiness in his voice dying down, confusion reigning over his eyes.

“You can leave, Lieutenant. Apologies for the rudeness, I'd like to be alone right now." Nathan, despite the raised eyebrows and about to question why he needlessly compile when her eyes implored him. After watching the old war dog finally leave, seeing the metallic doors separated, parting him to the hallway, she relaxed her stance, letting out yet another breath.

Slouching in her seat, her hands danced on the datapad, replacing the scholarly report from her son on the screen with an oil painting of three people. The background was a canopy of cerulean sky, fleece by creamy clouds that hovered above countless trees, their withering leaves dancing around them as they blew off in the distance. Standing near the middle of them, closest to the right, stood Sarah. The woman was dotted in a beautifully crafted dress. Threaded and tailored by talented makers who dedicate their entire lives of mastering and honing the old skill. The grandiose outfit stood out, glossing from the setting horizon overhead, creating a vivid canopy of colors.

Below her was a young boy, clad in an elegant brown suit, stood in front of her. His smile gleaming in the light, his stance was ramrod straight. Hands and arms clearly folded along his lower torso, betraying the epitome of the guidance set out by his parents.

And lastly, standing beside her, was a grizzled looking man. Beseeched by scars lining down his face all the way to his square jaw, the man was dressed in a ceremonial uniform. Metals emblazoned on his uniform, each one a testament to courage, valor, and duty. A firm smile marred his claim lips. His left hand folded the same way his counterpart below him did. His composure was calm, orderly, and almost impeccable in its form.

A fist was clenched as Sarah's eyes peered down at the old photo, memories flashing through her mind. She recalled the choral laughs she shared with old friends, familiar faces before her ascension to ambassadorship; the days that have gone by where she was jubilant about the life ahead, the amicable moments with her, and the vehemence share with her husband in the bedroom of their estate on Earth.

Breathing out another sigh, she killed power to the pad. Activating her Holo-tool, dialing away with her left fingers as she contacted the captain.

A deep, baritone voice barked forward through the speakers.

"Yes, Ambassador. Is there something you need?" The deep tone of voice was grating, yet light.

"Captain," She raised up from her seat, still clutching the pad in her hand. "I need a list of my personal guard who are to accompany me to open dialogue with the aliens. And a meeting with the president in the comm room. I need to go over the specifics of our mission."

She strides towards the automatic door, her holo-tool shone as the captain answered.

“Yes, madam ambassador. I’ll get on the horn with Central Command, but it may take longer, given our position near a pulsar star that is slowly making our connection to Earth very difficult.” The link went dead as the captain finished; the automatic silver doors splitting open.

She glanced at each side, her eyes tracing the utilitarian details of the hallways. The hallway was lit up by lights several meters apart, showering tiny sprouts of it on the metallic floor. Her feet turned right towards the comm room, parting her way as she dodged several of the crew members and service bots that maintained the ship. She turns right towards a corridor, striding through the hallway in her gait. The thudding in her heart increased as she reaches her destination.

Her holo-tool chimed, her lips whispered a quick thank you to the captain.

She slowed her breathing, purging her anxious mind as she prepared herself. The doors in front of her side open, allowing her to past. The room wasn’t large, not surprising for a ship its size. The communication device sat near the center on a raised plinth, haptic screens were mounted all around it, displaying trillions of data lines, codes, and the constant beeping of updates.

Near the plinth stood a table, barred with nothing, its silver coating glossing from the haptic lighting, and a single chair, also coated with the same hue as it furniture counterpart. With her lips parting out a last breath of assurance, she activated her holo-tool. The comm device chirped, a blood-color dot blinking as she inputs the address to call, queuing it up.

“White, Alex. POTTA, Capital building, Terra.”

Cold lighting flickered in front of her, molting into a digitized humanoid form before finally taking shape. Solid blue eyes peered downwards, a ghost of a smile tugged at the lips of its face.

“Miss Williams, it’s good to finally contact you. I assume you’ve arrived at your destination?” The President clasp both his hands behind his back, waiting for her answer.

She straightens her posture in her seat a little. "No, mister president, I've not. There have been no interruptions on our trip for the past twenty-four hours, except for the occasional pulsar storms that had ravaged our sensors."

The man nodded, but burrow his eyebrows. Removing one of his hands, he scratched the little stubble that adores on his chin. "I see, then." He rubs his chin a little, then continues. "Well, I assume this call is not related to your mission, is it?"

She exhaled, air gushing from her lips, setting down the pad on the table.

She lay it out for him.

“No, sir. It’s more about the risks.”

***

The fifteenth day of Frost, Age of Sorrows.

Canterlot, Equestria.

It was cold, very cold.

The frosty air stringed her fur as she inhaled the fumes of her tea, tasting the scalding liquid as its heavenly scent washed over her. Her alabaster wings flapping before setting down, feeling the needle-cut of the wailing wind as it wafted by. Another slurp of her tea brought temporary elation to her frustrated mind. Swollen clouds swelled above her, slowing boiling up to, carpeting her home with crystal-white stars. Her forehooves were safely ensconced beneath her warm coat. The comfortable seating that was set up for morning tea by her slave was perfect: clean, gloom and no speck of dust flickered from it.

Her eyes darted towards him. The young, vibrant man stood still near the entrance to her room, feet ramrod straight. The slave was cladded in layers of tight, warm clothing, each one covering parts of his body, showing off the thick sinews of his muscles. His arms were kept to his sides, waiting for his mistress's orders.

Indulging another slip, she called out to him.

“Lucifer, would you please sit. I don’t want my lover to freeze to death in that dreaded outfit.”

He merely complied, his equestrian-made boots crunching against the soft snow. Squaring his shoulders, He crouched down on the pillow, his mistress making room for him. Exhaling condensed breaths, he relaxes as he sits down, feeling the comfortable touch of the improvised seat.

The fluttering of wings gushed chilly air in his face, feeling the soft, angelic touch of his mistress as she wraps around him, heat flush against his skin. He slides his hands down to his legs, the freezing surface stringing calloused flesh.

His mistress brushes up against him, her forehooves unfolding under her as she set one on his lap, his taut and gnarled face slightly relaxed from her touch.

"Relaxed, my dear lover." She whispers, nearly a sound of purring in her contralto. She leans her head on his shoulder, feeling the hammering heart in his chest thumping. He stirred, hands raising up to meet her hoof. Rough and rigid skin brushing against lavish fur.

Lucifer exhaled twice, muttering under his breath as he relaxes with his mate. His hand slithers across his leg, before rubbing against his mistress’s hoof.

"Your sister's stars were beautiful last night, Celestia." His voice was light and stained, almost guttural. His hand linking with her hoof. Fumbling with his other hand on the pillow to get a better position, he glances towards her. His blood eyes brimming amongst the vivid canopy of dark clouds.

Celestia lookup. "Yes, my sister had sculpted a very elegant night yesterday," She paused, taking yet another sip of her tea. Setting it down on the porcelain plate, she pressed on. "Though I do wonder why she wasn't at the Winter Solace."

"Probably didn't want to deal with those tit-sucking bastards that want to emblazon their glories on her, the same way they did to you." Lucifer cursed, rarely for a slave to spout profanely in front of their owner would seem unspeakable to commoners, but extremely disrespectful to nobles, which usually results in death by hanging.

Instead, his mistress just chuckles under her sizzling breath, letting out that majestic laughter of his mate ringing in his ears. Sliding it around her, he placed his right arm around her swan neck, her trimmed fur brushing against his covered skin. Recognizing the familiar form of intimacy, she deepens her hold on him.

Celestia closed her eyes, letting the warmness of her mate's body heat dilute her troubled mind. The sensations of his raging breath in her ears eased her tired soul. Blood pumped through her veins as her body work to warm her body against the dreaded cold.

But she didn’t need the warmth. Pressing her body more against him, she rested her head against his shoulder, forgetting her morning tea as she stared out into the city. Her magenta eyes trailing the spawning lights that made her home gleamed with beauty.

Her eyes trail down towards the crafted city. Memories flashed before her: the cheering laughs of her subjects, the diligent industrious hammer blows from craftsmen and artisans, inventing and weaving through the spark of innovation in their hearts, the sweet and sizzling aroma of dishes and sweets permeating the air around the stores, and the laughter of fillies and colts.

Oh, how she missed those times that marked her life, the epoch of harmony.

But it all change. The sweet voices of her subjects were long gone, replaced by the sin indulgences of life itself. Her subjects still venerate her, but hidden under that mercurial mask was fear: fear of her power. They had listened to the legends and tales of her godly power: the telling stories of how she tore the arch of the sky to defeat countless armies with her horn coursing with golden fire, marking the fields with ichor. The defeat of her insane sister during the bloody coup that almost cost her the throne. The war with the Griffin Empire that ended in a stalemate, leaving both sides with deeply embittered hate and jaundiced faces eyeing each other across the great prodigious ocean that divides them.

Her mind pounce on the memories she wished could forget; the slithering and deceiving laugh of her uncle, his lanky fingers trailing down her neck as he teases her and Luna during the decisive battle between them. The quelling of remaining rebellious ponies who wish to return to the old ways of government, their screams and cries for mercy as they were pulled to the sword sometimes stalk her dreams.

Life is a cruel mistress. She had thought that, after taking the throne and restoring order to the fledgling nation, that peace would finally settle, allowing her subjects to put behind the senseless killing, the cold-harden pragmatism that bloomed during the frigid winters of sorrow long ago.

“I forgive you.”

Reeling from her thoughts, Celestia’s eyes glanced towards her slave, eyebrows arching.

“Excuse me?” He lifted his hand away from her hoof, only reaching and bending upwards to cup her pristine cheek.

"Do you remember when we first made love? The day that you barged into your room, I remember the soft, angelic eyes of yours dripping liquid, redness puffed around the edges." His rough, growl voice turn soft, sympathy, and neutral.

His jaw tightened, but Celestia did not speak, only listening.

“I remember when you called for me, seeing you for the first time in a weakened form. Your words washing over me as you beg for me to hook my hands around your neck, supplicating to end your immortal life of sin.” His tone was now somber, quietness filling his voice.

Celestia clenches her eyes, blocking the coming flood of emotions bursting forth. She remembered that terrible day: recalling the cries and screams of the slave being castrated for rebelling and killing his owner. She watched as he screams when he was dropped, the creaking rope knots creaked tightly against the beaten skin of his neck.

But what disturbed her the most was that his screams were not out of fear or mercy, but shouts of defiance; words that croaked from his mouth as he was fallen, wincing as his mouth still gurgled when his neck crack. She left the courtyard after that, obstructing the roaring cheers from knave nobles and most of the family of the victim.

She remembered the sound of her heavy hoof falls drowning out the wet pats of tears on the elegant carpet, ignoring the passing servants and polishing furniture that had long lost its appeal to her. Death, in all of its terrible deeds, was the many listed she did not fear, giving her long life. But to mortals, it was something that was taken seriously to the deeply religious and the frightened ones that kept it opaque to enjoy their little ignorance in front of them.

Her memoirs were flaunted with melancholy and poignant, something that her mind pushed back with relentless effort. But it wasn't easy; never was for an immortal alicorn. Snapping out of her deep reverie, she watched her lover continued.

"I kissed you, instead. Silencing your siren cries as you finally indulge what you've forgotten."

He swallowed deeply, the lump that stuck in his throat giving way.

"I felt your hoof against mine as you bade me to your bed, to feel the touch of another being for so long. To forget the troubles that had haunted you, to heal what you've lost, and enjoyed the pleasures of a mortal man." His hand drifted up behind her back, moving upwards along his mate's fur, feeling the burning surface of it, despite the declining temperature.

“When your blissful lips touched upon mine once again, your hooves wrapping around my body as you dive deeper into my mouth. You begged and cried in my ear as I made love to your voluptuous body, feeling the sweet excesses of your flesh.” His eyes turned towards her, his body gentile twisted around, languidly, not want to disrupt his mate’s position on the pillow.

Rubbing one of his thumbs on her face, the soft, lanky hair stood up from his touch. The outlines of a smile quirk from her lips, her eyes drooping slightly at the surprising softness of her mate’s hands. Her breathing slow, feeling the barrel-chest of her body rising and falling gently.

“What are you trying to say, love?” Her eyes hardened, but the human in front of her did not cave. His eyes continued to stare, his hands still caressing her face. Glancing down, breaking the stare between them.

"You and I've lost so much, so much to the dark. My hands wrapped around your body as we laid in your bed, tracing the scars on your back from a past long forgotten. I witnessed things that would break a being in many ways. My soul is stained with the blood of many that I've fallen by my blade and hand."

He still looked down, his cold hands still on her, whether out of cowardice or penitence.

"But unlike you, my dear, sweet angel, you're no different than me. You've endured as much I've done, facing death himself many times while your people shroud you into a myth of invincibility. You fought against the lord of chaos, yet your people place you on a false pedestal of godhood as they did to him.”

Lucifer made a sparse gesture to the heavens with his head, his eyes looming over darken clouds, then back to Celestia. "I woke every night to see you thrashed in my arms, whimpering above me, your tears gushing onto me. I've listened to your pleas, your calls for forgivingness, the inevitable sound of your shattered mind torn me up even more so."

His fingers lightly pinch the skin of his lover, but not enough to cause pain. Crimson eyes borne upwards, pupils harden and angry. A flow of magma pumped through his veins, his teeth clenched in his mouth.

“I watched as they used you. Standing idly by as they throw their venomous words at you, their insipid mouths threatening you with abdication,” His tone soon turn even harder, wet with fury. “They indulge themselves with their wealth while you suffer from their writ, drowning themselves in their decadence. They used you to achieve their goals, allowing your people to languish.”

His hands trembled, feeling the glisten, heartbreaking tears of his lover, the wet coldness barely having an effect on his skin. He felt a lump form in his throat, almost making it harder to rasp out the words. His hands put back from her ruffled coat, appendages still soaked in her secretions.

Swallowing the blockage in his throat, He gushes out a shaky breath.

“I say these words not because I hate you, but simply I missed the old you. The fire in your eyes, the cadence of your laughter in my ears, and the impeccable smile that marred your lips.” His hands grab hold of Celestia’s, gripping them firmly.

The weather above them still hasn't changed. The sullen clouds still swirled, insipid patches of white clung to the dark beast, snowflakes cascade down, blanketing Lucifer's hackle in white. Shaking his head, he allowed them to pummel. Tantalizing her hoofs-each move ponderous- he comforts her, allowing the old alicorn to further sink in the words.

Smelling the moist air, further relaxing his taut muscles, he continued, his voice still quivered with sadness.

"This is why I forgave you long ago. You're like me, my brothers and sisters, chained, only to be abused by those who denied your rule. I've long forgiven those that were slain by my hand in the ring, my love. Celestia…Tia, it wasn't your fault."

Those words finally broke her. A new batch of tears trickles down her white marvel face, tiny whines erupting from her snout, piercing the cold air. Celestia's hooves tighten around his flesh, her body shaking. Realizing of the expected emotions on her countenance, Lucifer, once again, removed one of his hands, cupping her chin with his index finger and thumb, rubbing away the soaked hair from melted snow. Purpose providing him with new strength, his lips made contact with hers, the alluring perfume of her fur faring in his nostrils, permeating his senses. A moan rumbled in his lover's throat as she reeled back, allowing Lucifer's tongue to prowl deeper. Celestia moans, the sweetness and ravenous skill of his mouth never seem to lose its virility.

But the human stopped, the moaning dying in both of their mouths. Lucifer's lips parted with hers, leaving behind a thin, silver line of drool and saliva. His voice, barely a wisp in the air, drew the first words.

“I love you.”

Whatever Celestia was going to say soon die in her throat. Both heads turned upwards to the blotched canopy, her pointy ears flinch up in the air. A thunderous, thrashing roar vibrated the air, strangling the calmness that permeated the morning. It soon became a shriek, a thunderous, ravenous sound that appeared out of nowhere.

Then the clouds began to turn on themselves. Wisps of thick cloud cover slowly receded, their colors changing from a depression gray to sun-yellow. The rumbling still continued, but both the human and alicorn couldn't pinpoint the direction where it's coming from. The breeze from before soon die and changed direction, lashing out against Celestia's translucent hair, stopping its own individual breeze.

Until they saw it.

It appeared out as a small dot, merely obstructed by the turbulent weather. Its form growing larger and more noticeable as it strides closer. Its coal-brown skin was akin to an earth dragon from the west. Ember light spews forth from behind, casting its monstrous, perpetual roar.

Celestia stood in shock, watching the hulking beast inch closer to her home, her ears ringed from the constant wailing of the creature. Her caution eyes scrutinize at the peculiar object, not noticing the crack of knuckles beside her.

The object spat once more then took a drive below. Her heart began to beat tremulous, fearing that it may have crashed into her home. Frantic eyes darted down, scanning for the eluting metallic creature, or any signs of where it had gone to.

Celestia's head swayed back and forth between her lover and the balcony, her eyes signaling for him to come. Feeling the all familiar flow of her blood pumping through her veins, the signs of adrenaline and the familiar itch of trouble. A flush of warm air drowns both of them as Lucifer opens the entrance to her room, slabs of muscle showing in his hands as he gripped the handle.

"We've to alert the guard." Celestia finally found her voice, breaking the cold and stillness of the air. Her lover in front didn't reply but stood close as he opened the entrance to the stairway. Passing by the two guards on sides of the elegant doorway, fumbling in their armor as he strode by, their eyes projecting fear at the strong human, merely watched as heavy footfalls pounded the marble floor.

He turns his head back, the bronze surface of his skin ripped, ablaze by the flickering torches hanging above. Blood eyes pierced the lid veil, watching as his lover seeped past him towards the stone steps, guarded eyes never leaving.

Tiny clips of hooves echo throughout as each takes a step on the stone. The patience of both hung on a thread; their flight down the stairs, unlike the many treks, felt longer than usual. The ripple in the air was slightly wreathed with tension, each keeping their claim façade as they descend further down, heartbeats pounding frantically. Their hectic gait soon turned into a full gallop, feet and hoof making tiny trumps each time when hitting the stone steps when shouts began emanating from the very end of the stairs, vocals bouncing off in different directions.

They finally reach the bottom, the creaking of stone finally coming to a halt. In front of them was the foyer that connected to the rest of the Castile. Emblazoned with the mark of the sun on its ancient surface, it was soon garlanded with a golden hue. Gears of a forgotten age began to grind and churn once again as the door opened, moving at a slow pace.

Scatters of light broke through the tiny crack openings, bathing both alicorn and human in the radiance of its pureness, making the tiny spots of darkness around them crawl away in fear. They both waited until the door finally open, both of its sides impacting against the stonework, allowing the couple to enter, her human slave hugging close the entire time.

When they take their first steps on the creamy purple color of the rug, their eyes set on something that they rarely see in the castle.

Chaos.

Rows upon rows of soldiers, their armor reflected off in directions by lumen electric lights, phalanxes of ponies were in pristine formation while trotting down the yawning hallway. Invectives and orders roaring from their captains, some leading up front; others near the rear, curses being thrown around in the heating air. Some armored Pegasus flew through hurriedly

"What in the . . ." Celestia's voice die in her throat when one of the captains spotted them, charcoal eyes spotted amongst the shouts and the banging of hoofs on the stone floor. Stepping out of his position he approached the wide-eyed princess and blooming human, who obscured himself away from the open.

The captain bow in respect, the insistent thumping of hoof falls still echoing the hall, and spoke, action dripping in his voice with tidbits of exhaustion underneath.

"Your Highness. One of our patrols has spotted an unidentified object approaching the city. We've postulated that it was the approaching Griffin delegation until they reported back that is wasn't." The young captain's eyes strayed towards the moving column of guards then back to the princess and continued.

"Our patrols weren't able to intercept it, but we have tracked it near the north courtyard."

Celestia looks back to her slave, who shy away from the open. Despite the benign treatment he has received from the princess and her servants, usually under a strict caveat by herself, the rough man still had a hard time dealing with ponies, especially those with slaves under their hooves, and his arduous past.

Celestia then asks, voice regal and elegant. "Is there any activity from the ship when landing, captain. I'm worried about how my people will react." She flaps her angelic wings in irritation, causing the humble air around them to be thrown about. The curve of lips lowered deeper than ever.

The captain replies. "No, ma'am. It hasn't responded since it touched down. The city guard has already closed it off from civilians. They've already set up a cordon around it and are awaiting instructions."

The princess nodded, and the captain scurried away back to his unit, his armor molding in the morass of bodies. It never stops, just a sea of ponies performing their duty to the crown. The constant staccato of hooves on marble floor was music to Celestia the first time she heard it, but now it spills dread, a rotten musical cord that sings out only destruction.

“Should we go, my mistress?”

She didn't notice him next to her. Always the gentle step, given his size. Lucifer steps up, his clothing shining in the light, both hands clasping each other in the front. The man scans the room, making sure there were no threats as the last of the royal guard left, their metal chorus still leaving traces of their song in the air.

Sighing yet again for the umpteenth time, she trotted towards the opposite direction, her slave in toll. Passing by boggled servants that knead and whisper her name in reverence, she ignored it, her mind more spending on dealing with one of the biggest headaches she’d had to deal first.

And she hopes that they'll listen to her this time.

January 20, 2583

Thunderstrike Dropship Mark V (Old Hickory)

Alliance military standard time: 0639

The scraping of something solid violated the tranquil silence of the ship.

The dropship rumbled as it ploughed through the atmosphere. Temperatures rose in the hundreds as the shuttle fought reentry, it cold-gray armor turn scalding-hot. Tongues of trailing flames draw across the frame of its metal form, fighting what it sees as a never-ending stalemate.

But it soon ended. The ship reaches towards a more tolerant level, its fire coated skin now cooling, the fires long died out by the tumultuous winds. The dropship glide through the clouds, piercing and descending towards the surface.

James could see it all.

The titanium knife felt light in his hand. Twirling it slightly, flesh touching metal. It was a dedicated skill, something he and many others in this profession take for granted. He flung it upwards in the air before catching it, and repeat the motions again.

He looked around, eyes hidden under the helmet he had worn so many times in his service, watching his teammates indulged in their usual habits. The knife flipped.

The ship rumbled again, adjusting itself yet again. The knife was nearly let loose on his fingertips but was able to catch it in time. A hot sear of pain erupted from his hand, the serrated edge of the falling knife buried thinly into his thumb. He stares at the wound, eyes narrowing; it would heal, regardless of the advanced nanobots pumping into his system. He wiped what left of the blood on the surface, the carved flesh quickly re-knitting itself together.

Done with his little game, he dragged his attention towards the other members who’ve boarded with him on this important mission.

At the far right, near the doorway towards the cockpit was the old Sergeant, Cortez. An old wolf born before the insurrection had spurt up in the colonies. His black armor gleaming against the lights above, both of his arms clasping each other in front, making sure there was no disturbance. He was mean, bellicose on the battlefield, a mere frantic, but has a tendency to show compassion to his squad mates and a devotion to the Marines than anybody on this boat.

Next to him was Corporal Jim “Jimmy” Johnson. Situated between the standing statue of the weathered wolf and one of the snipers, currently scrubbing the long-barreled rifle in his hand with a rag, his fingers danced across the colored keyboard of his holo-tool, his eyes focused.

There were several of the Marines he didn’t quite recognize, soldiers handpicked from across Alliance Space for their experience and reputation. Some came from the prosperous inner worlds; others from the flung frontier outposts, inhabiting death worlds that could scar a man's soul and come back from a tour of duty a different person. But unlike many of them, James was born to a simple farming colony.

A titter of laughter drove his attention. Caning his helmeted head towards the source of the gleeful voice that had broken the quagmire of tension and apprehensive. Once his eyes were set, his mood went sour, the two burning orbs behind his helmet rolling in annoyance as he discovered the identity of the giggle.

Slouching against her seat, gun facing upwards and resting against the fine leather, sat a being that spells trouble for anyone under the sight of her weapon. Known to be eccentric to the point of instantly, a perverted mouth that spills out invectives that make even sailors blush in embarrassment, and a skilled sniper that could pop a tiny bird two kilometers away, the woman would be either a grateful ally on the battlefield or a screaming banshee that could rain death upon her enemies.

She giggles again.

“So, I say ‘Bitch, if you don’t back off from my man this instant, I’m gonna shove my rifle right up your ass and twist it until you shit blood all over my new rifle and the goddamn floor.’” The female marine chortle, her hands motioning all over as she retells one of her tales to another Marine seating next to her.

“Then what happened, Kate?” The curious teammate asks.

Kate nodded, waving away a piece of the growing tresses from her hair.

“She just stood there, eyes wide and mouth gaping; like she just took a fucking dick in the mouth. I had this big smirk all over my face, thinking that I show her place, and maybe she leaves my boyfriend alone." She blinked twice in rapid succession before coughing up another laugh.

"And then she punches me, right here on my cheek," Kate emphasized by making a fist and pointing it at her face, the chubby skin reeling back from the pressure.

She continued. “Everything after that was a bit blurry for me, but I do remember a few things, though; insulting my virally, a few tables and bottles being thrown or broken, strong hands putting me away." She releases the pressure from her face and scratches her forehead, plucking out more information from the maelstrom mess of her mind.

She drew up another one of her smiles. “Then when morning came, I awoke with a shitty headache in some shit stain apartment. I turn my head to see my big, cuddly teddy bear curl up all against my side, his face showing that cutesy expression I always love. But before I even got up to take a piss, I felt something else tangling in the bed with us.”

Kate grasps her armor chest with both of her arms and started to chuckle, releasing the side of her that could not be encumbered nor stop.

“It was that bitch from the damn fight; sleeping right there, her damn hands clinging my bloody arm and my left tiddy. That goddamn face she made almost want me to sucker punch the shit out of her.” She cursed the words out like honey. The ship around them rattled, causing her body to slightly vibrate.

"What happens after that?" The incredulous marine quip, the mark of surprise still posting on her face.

But the storyteller didn’t end her story. She simply laid back languidly against her seat, one of her lanky legs kicking off into the air. Arms flex and bend around the woman’s head, the stillness in her bones getting to her.

"Simply put, I went back to sleep. I didn't feel like kicking her out of the bed because of that fucking headache, and wasn't in the mood for some mere seconds." Her lips pulsed, fingers clapping against hair. She looks pleased, almost content, and looked out towards the rest of the group, the lights above giving her hair a shimmering appearance.

James' head hurled back, eyes escaping the gaze of the woman across from him, not wanting to be like the last guy who got caught peeping in onto one of her ‘conversations'. The dropship buckled yet again, and a buzzing voice spoke out from the intercom.

“This is call-sign, Echo Raptor, approaching LZ in five minutes. Visual contact of target city in a few seconds.”

That what spurt them. Gone were the leisurely and the playfulness that tarried around them. The snap clicks of ammo being slotted in. Energy weapons energize, the quiet startup of energy barriers mesh with the mush of flesh striking against armor. The pragmatic side of themselves took hold, lashing out against the thought that would harm them or poison the mission.

The dropship adjusts itself as it stopped descending, particles of clouds still sticking to its metal skin. The hole it left behind was soon patched by another layer of cloud, insouciant of being torn apart, simply being moved by the winds. The pilot depolarizes the cockpit windows, allowing, for the first time, to see an unspoiled world.

Rows upon rows of snow met his eyes. Snowflakes blowing through as the storm didn't relent, hitting the windshield of the ship, but was swept away. Hands on the controls, he guided the ship towards its destination, unhurried. Though the snowstorm is thick, he could see through his helmet, offering no difficulty without using the autopilot to carry him and the others.

The snow flaked out, but more kept coming. The hum of its engines spitting out blue flames, painting itself into a bright light on a coated canvas, but it was shrouded by the rancorous sound it gave; to any on the ground that heard its roar, it'd have been a dragon, searching for a prey to consume or its greed pumping purpose of gathering riches for its hoard.

The target city appears over the horizon. Splendid towers dotted across his vision. They stood tall, lumbering over their marginal ones below. One stands out peculiarly, its spire pole almost reaching the surface of the storm, its sublime gold leaf covering throwing off the embers of flames that surround it. The pilot's hands shifted his craft, gliding towards anywhere that could provide his beloved bird to land.

His left eye quickly inspects the radar at the bottom right of his helmet's interface. During the briefing, he was warned about the other species of the planet's inhabitants, the ones that could cognize flight with wings. Whether or not this was natural evolution giving the universe the finger or some fail primeval attempt by some psyker ponies of creating a sub-slave species to bow to their vacuous whelms, but the latter was his own theory to explain the different breed of pony on this world.

The ship steer onwards, finally entering the quiescent city. Shadows gnawed and rear back from the burning thrusters, sizzling lamb lights concurring an imagined path for the aviator. He slows the craft down, preparing for landing. He taps a few holographic buttons, the incessant humming ebbing down. He opens up the comm, informing his armed passengers that they're about to land. Getting confirmation from the old wolf, steel vocals mixed with the soft palate of Spanish, and the scratching sound of static, going through, the AI in orbit notify him of an idea target site near one what appears to be a castle.

She transmits the coordinates, voice full of vigor and cheeriness, telling them to stay safe and kick ass. The pilot broke a smile at that. Hands again moving off in a frenzy, setting the final preparations.

The ship's engines grouse once more, and turned, passing by another environ made of stone and thronged with shatter trees. The air around boiled, the coldness that once permeated now retreated. The thrusters diddle away its energies, propelling onwards.

The ship slowly reached its mark, stopping mid-air. Passing by grand alabaster battements cordoning around the largest stone structure, wrought in gold and cannons. Forward and afterburners balancing it for a safe and secure landing.

A flash of a notification covers his hub. Radar picking tangos all around, dots of ocean-blue washing across his swampy face. His features scrunched up in concentration, alarmed at this new development.

“This is Echo Raptor to Bravo team. Unidentified tangos closing on the landing site. Be on alert and be safe." He issued the caveat, which was soon buzzing with confirmations. The dots drew ever closer, some merging into one, obfuscated by one another. He quickly turned on the ship’s defenses. Even though the delegation was supposed to be not belligerent in order to secure first contact, the military had forewarned the use of weapons to prevent breakouts of hostile intent from the natives.

The ship continued its descent until it made contact with the ground. Both fore and aft burners still burn brightly, skinning away the layer of frost. The dying ember of green began to mold into coal black, the thrusters spiking the air with its scalding presence. Then the engines cool, once a thunderous machine of untold power, a war cry to its enemies, now felt silence. The snowfall continued unabated, the engines of the ship being cooled by the swinging crystal shards.

The marine company stood still, waiting as the hatch buckled smoothly, opening the crew to the alien elements of the world. Bits of snow seeped through, some landing on Cortez’s armor and some of the soldiers in the front. The comm was silent, except for the heavy breathing by some, but it did not distract them from what is in front of them.

They moved in sync, radio chatter silent. The neutral networks plugged into their brains sending the newest of information, the clutch of steeled boots onto snow stuck across like a jackhammer. The storm above never relent, snowflakes piled onto their armor before quickly melted, heated liquid running off before joining their frosted brethren.

James steadies himself before them, harden hands squeezing around his weapon, fingers ready, combat stims pumping into his blood. Nerves went off in his head before his training kicked in. The formation stopped as soon their feet laid their first print onto this new world, the place of unknowns and beings that have only witnessed nothing more than the truth of the universe being blown across them.

They all amassed around their landing zone, below and above. An army of shiny gold on the ground and watery blue in the air contrast greatly against the black ore of their armor. The standoff felt like it lasted an eternity, the whir of the dropship engines played well with the ongoing storm, now gaining momentum in its latest stage.

He looked towards the others around him, any change in their posture. Despite the change of not seeing their facial reactions behind the armor, their body language they showcased tell a different story. The winds around them buster passed between the two groups, two people of different circumstances. Two nations with vast cultural and social trenches that they could barely comprehend one another. The man had seen what they can do from the briefing; the power to wean matter around them without complex machinery, the unspoken brutally against his own kind he didn't know existed weeks ago. It haunted his dreams and distilled his nightmares. He had read of the atrocities on some of the contested worlds during the insurrection by the enemy and, regretfully, some of his own in the corp.

All the training, the situations and war games during boot camp he partook didn't prepare him for this, but dammit, he was going to give it his best to show what he was capable of. As James drown himself in self-doubt, he didn't notice the ambassador stepping off from the dropship, her suit a light blue from the others. Her gait was elegant, calm, it spoke of years of experience on her part, unfazed by the waning situation. The footsteps she makes are quite, pressing down the snow beneath her, the ubiquitous crunching sound it made chimed off.

She approaches the Sergeant, standing beside two other marines keeping watch, his dark, blue eyes behind his helmet peering off in the mass of aliens in front. His grim hands holding his weapon oppressively, augment appendages crushing down on the metal.

“Are you ready, Sergeant?" She asked. She finally stops her gait, taking her place next to him. Not knowing if the aliens were to discover if they were human, it was decided that only direct conversation will be by radio. And when it came time to converse with whatever representative these aliens would show, it was best to conceive of what they are, railing on the chance that their incentives would boon the chance of peace.

The man's guttural voice came through, his Spanish accent marking each word. "We're are, ma'am, but giving the little problem…." He waved his free hand across towards the armed alien horde in front. "The situation is still tense. So, unless we want this whole thing turned into a clusterfuck of fuck up proportions with horns stabbing our asses, I suggest we hold our ground here and wait until they make a move."

She chuckles wryly at his cursing. Though some that mirror her own profession would have balked at someone being so unacquainted towards someone who represents their entire species, she grew up around that, one of the many benefits of being raised around military folks. Williams could still hear in her head the bombastic and fury tone of her father shouting at holo-screen after the latest game of gav-ball, and the various words under his viperous breath that no children should never hear.

There was a disturbance in the massive wave of gold, all eyes around the dropship were raised at the prodigious shifting of armor. The eyes of the ambassador watched with a mild curiously, wondering if the aliens finally sent someone to speak, while the grayed eyes of the Sergeant watched with a heated caution, an instinct grounded into him since basic.

When the final barrier of gold and flesh finally parted, what stood a couple of meters away from them was enough to shook the ground and blacken the skies ten times over. Curses broke throughout the marines out amongst the public comms. The weapon in Cortez's arms was being crushed by rough arms, even more as he scrutinizes the new creature's every move as it came closer.

The pony was unlike the others. Its neck elongated unlike the brawny members of her kind around it. Like the rest of its body, its fur color shade in dark blue, some obscured by the obsidian lunula covering the alien. Lapis eyes stared across the snow-blanket scene as two long, elegant wings of power fluttered against the wind. But what mainly disturbs the humans most of all was the mane, gritting against the backdrop of the snow and armored ponies. Mints of what looks like stardust sparkle and grin across the span of translucent hair. It wavers almost like the storm, but instead, it undulates, not changing course in its projectile regardless of the change of wind.

Sarah sense power from this being, the hairs on her body rising in secure perturbation, but she composes herself. It was no time to frighten by something unexpected.

She takes one step, allowing the weight of her body to propel into the snow, hammering yet another mark of history. She could feel the sweat of her efforts beading down on her olive skin, each crush of snow as she pressed on reverberate against her own heartbeat. Each step took an immense amount of strength, not only on the body but on the mental level. Each touch of the air against her armor sent tremors down her spine. The alien's face looks defiant, proud etched in its very being, but her very bones were prime in alacrity, matching that of the being she was about to speak.

Sarah finally stops, just a few meters between her and the pony. Upon closing inspection of the creature, her eyes perused that not one single snowdrop has touched it. All around them, the sluggish snow rave around them. Some of the front row ponies closest to them were covered in snow, their reflective armor faded as the whiteness took over, making them look like snowmen from a distance.

Her right arm was soon embellished with digitized lighting, bushes of tawny light colored the air around her, reflecting off her. Neighs of a surprised tone summon amidst the few ponies in the front, some obscurely hold up their weapons pointing at her, but were restrained by the more decolorate among them. The pony in front of her shriveled back a few paces, its face perplexed, but its deepest emotions still guarded.

Sarah took a deep breath, allowing the crystal-clear taste of oxygen to settled into her lungs. Her mind vindicated of any doubts.

‘This is it. History in the making.’

She repeated the words, muttering, replaying them repeatedly in her mind. Her heart was to explode from her chest like a supernova, her breathing condensing against her helmet, but she placates them, allowing the years of duty to her race setting aside the petty emotions of her mind at ease.

She gulped down the resurge hump in her throat and finally spoke, the holo-tool translating the words and letting them out from the speakers of her helmet.

“We come in peace.”

“The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war.”

-Norman Schwarzkopf