Heart of Courage

Twilight Sparkle strolled alongside Socket Wrench as they made their way to the conference room. She asked the pegasus about life in the present and Socket was more than happy to oblige. She started out small, simply explaining the few culture shifts that transpired, but soon ended up in a longwinded spiel about all the things that had changed over the years.

It seriously shocked Twilight to learn that Harmony now boasted a staggering population of five billion UEN member species, with another billion scattered amongst the other planets in the solar system where the UEN called home. On Harmony, Canterlot and Ponyville rivaled each other economically, and apparently, there were even cities on Luna’s moon. Socket called them bubble cities. None of these revelations however, surprised her as much as the next thing she learned.

“So you’re telling me that there is a huge pony-made ring orbiting the moon that can teleport ships anywhere in the universe? How is that even physically possible?” As she learned more and more about the technology of today, Twilight couldn’t help but felt more and more lost. How could I possible adjust to a new world where daily life was so different from what I grew up with?

“Well, not the universe. Its range only extends out to our borders. But yes, the warp gate on Luna’s moon gives the UEN a large advantage in keeping our colonies safe. The humans brought us the technological experience and we built it together.” Socket Wrench eyed Twilight with a perceptive look. “I know you might be afraid about all these changes, but it will work out. You look like a tough pony and I'm sure with Princess Celestia’s help, you will be able to live a new happy life.”

“What about you and Victoria? Would I be able to see everyone again?”

Socket’s smile faded and the excitement in her eyes drained away. “Probably not, Twilight. We travel far from Harmony on our missions. I rarely get to see my family at all.”

“Oh… okay.” Twilight turned away. I am going to have to start making friends from scratch all over again. It was hard enough the first time I did it. I really miss my friends so much. Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by a sharp sarcastic voice in front of her.

“Hello, Socket Wrench. Is this… thing, the reason why we are wasting our time while other ponies are dying out there?”

Twilight Sparkle looked up to see a dark blue unicorn with a white mane and tail. Her yellow irises studied the lavender pony in front of her; sizing her up. The stranger’s horn began to lightly glow and Twilight felt a detection spell wash over her.

A simple spell; unicorns used it to judge another unicorn’s magical ability. Though, it was rarely used without consent because most viewed it as a rude invasion of privacy. This unicorn obviously didn’t care, but Twilight felt a small sense of satisfaction when the blue unicorn’s eyes widened at the realization of how powerful her magic was. She was the bearer of the Element of Magic after all.

This proverbial slap in the face only broke the dark unicorn’s composure for a heartbeat, but before she could speak, Socket Wrench jumped in, trying to diffuse the situation. “Azure, our orders came from the Princess herself. Captain Fletcher did what he was told and it’s our job to follow him.”

Shifting gears, Socket’s voice changed to a more intimidating tone. “You should also show respect. This is Twilight Sparkle, the last bearer of the Element of Magic.” Socket Wrench then waved a hoof in the air dismissively. “And once we drop her off at Harmony, I’m sure we will be sent back to the front lines.”

Socket Wrench then glanced at Twilight with an apologetic smile. “This is our squad’s battle mage, Azure Lightning.”

Twilight did not particularly like the unicorn at all, but before she could take the high road and be friendly, Azure opened her mouth. “I don’t care who you are. You are keeping us away from the fight so I have a problem with you, Twilight. Don’t cross my path.” Then she walked between Twilight and Socket, bumping into the purple unicorn hard as she passed.

When Azure rounded the bend, Twilight turned to Socket. “What the hay is wrong with her? I didn’t do anything!”

Socket Wrench had a distressed expression on her face. “I’m sorry about her, Twilight, but you have to understand something. Azure has nothing for her in life except fighting the cygs. She was in the regular navy when her home planet was attacked. They wiped out half the planet before help could arrive. Azure was forced from an escape pod as her home burned, and the experience changed her for the worse. Her new demeanor quickly got her into trouble and the choice was either a dishonorable discharge or volunteer for the Patrol Frigates, so James brought her on the team. Azure’s lightning magic has gotten us out of a few close calls. I know she is cold but I only hope you understand why.”

Twilight felt guilty for her outburst earlier. “Wow, I had no idea. I feel really bad now.”

Socket put a hoof on her shoulder. “Don’t be, she deserves your frustrations for the way she treated you. But she also deserves your pity and respect. She is the kind of pony where if you are in trouble, she will put her feelings towards you on hold and do anything she can to help.” Socket started walking down an adjacent hallway. “Come on, Twilight, we’re almost there.”

Twilight followed and she soon turned into another sliding doorway that had the words Conference Room above it. The room itself was rather small and had no chairs or a table; perhaps only the size of the upstairs room in the library where she and Spike used to sleep. That library probably didn’t even exist anymore. Her life had gone through so many drastic changes recently, what with the start of the Wulven war and now this whole mess. This is like a nightmare. What happened to the peaceful Equestrian way of life that I grew up in? Why is there so much darkness?

“Welcome to the Dash’s virtual conference room.” Socket said, interrupting her inner monologue.

“Virtual?”

A voice from the doorway caused Twilight to turn her head to see James Fletcher leaning against the wall. “This conference room uses virtual reality technology to make it seem like you’re somewhere else. We usually use it to communicate with Harmony, but today, Alice is going to give you a crash course in history.”

Suddenly, an earth pony popped out of nowhere in front of Twilight. This pony had a translucent greenish glow and a cutie mark consisting of a series of ever-changing zeros and ones. “Hi! I’m Alice, the Rainbow Dash’s artificial intelligence. We haven’t officially met yet.” The pony stuck her hoof out.

“… I’m … Twilight.” The stunned unicorn replied. When she tried to shake her hoof, Alice’s leg passed straight through Twilight’s, and she let out a yelp of surprise.

The green pony laughed. “I’m sorry, I couldn’t help myself.”

“Can we get back on track, Alice? I’ve got to take an important message from naval command in an hour.” James gave a deadpan stare towards the AI but he couldn’t completely hide the small grin that was there.

“Aye-aye, captain.” She turned to Twilight and spoke, “Let’s get this show on the road.” Then she vanished.

Twilight looked around the room for her but a moment later, the lights went out and pitch blackness took over. She reached a hoof out, trying to find James or Socket but she couldn’t see anything. All of a sudden, a light source popped on next to her, and Twilight turned her head to spot a floating ball of yellow fire.

“Eeep!” She cried out and jumped away. Once she reached an acceptable distance, Twilight studied the floating sphere and realized that it didn’t act like normal fire. Instead of burning upwards, it seemed to burn gently in all directions at once. At that moment, a smaller blue and green sphere floated in front of her face. This one had a smaller white ball orbiting it. Around the edges of the room, thousands of white dots hung motionless, clustering tightly in one direction. That’s when it finally hit her. “This is a solar system isn’t it?”

Alice’s voice from the room’s speaker answered. “Yes it is. That planet in front of you is Harmony; home of ponykind.”

Twilight walked around the planet that was her home. It had beautiful green landscapes, majestic mountain ranges, and large wild oceans. As she studied the world, icons appeared marking major cities including Canterlot, Manehattan, and even Ponyville. “Then that must be Luna’s moon and Celestia’s sun.”

“Indeed, you are correct.” James replied. “Ponykind reached out for the stars twelve hundred years ago. Our story though, begins two thousand, three hundred and ninety one years before even that.”

The Solar system shrank rapidly and the stars swung around as the virtual reality chamber centered on another solar system. This one had a bright, healthy yellow star just like Harmony’s system. Twilight noticed three small planets rotating around the star but only the last caught her eye.

It had the same sparkling blue water, artistically sculpted continents, and white swirling clouds as Harmony, but the landscapes and oceans were shaped differently. The little garden world drifted in front of her, looking as lovely and wonderful as her own home. This planet even had a natural satellite, though it seemed smaller and floated further away than Luna’s moon.

A pointer popped up labeling the planet with the name, Earth. A series of statistics under the name told Twilight that it had a similar size as Harmony, but less land area. Earth also had a matching atmospheric oxygen content but with slightly higher levels of carbon dioxide. “This planet is beautiful.” She continued staring at the colorful world. “So this where humans come from?”

Alice’s voice filled the room. “Earth was the birthplace of Humanity. It is the third planet from Sol, the name of their sun. The Sol system resides in the Orion arm which is a minor branch of the Milky Way galaxy where we all live. The most notable aspect of this portion of the Orion arm is a complete absence of any magical energy that graces the rest of the galaxy. Humans lived in a world where magic existed only in myth and legend.”

“No magic at all?” Twilight thought back to her first Winter Wrap Up and the hassle she had trying to fit in with the earth ponies. “How did they get anything done?” She remembered that most major construction projects of her time couldn’t be accomplished without at least few unicorn engineering specialists.

“Creativity and adaptability,” James interjected before Alice could respond. “Humans always had to work hard to survive on our world. We prospered for thousands of years without the abilities to control weather, use healing magic, or regulate our sun and moon. It was a hard life for a long time until our technology progressed far enough, but those experiences forged what we are and gave mankind the will and the tenacity to fight for survival. One unfortunate side effect humans received was our desire to fight amongst ourselves. We waged war against each other during most of our entire history up until the Sundering.” His voice wavered slightly at the end. Twilight could detect sadness with a touch of bitterness in James’ tone.

Alice once again started talking. “As far back as we can tell, humans have always looked upwards at the stars with curiosity. With their ingenuity, they began living amongst those very stars in a fraction of the time it took ponykind made the same trip. Many solar systems were colonized and eventually, the human sphere of influence grew to encompass planets outside of the magic-devoid Orion arm. The discovery that some humans could use magical energy shook society in a way never before seen in history. The only event to top that revelation was the first meeting between humans and ponies, but we will discuss that topic later.

“The rapid expansion of human worlds led them to encounter many alien species, a few of which were even sapient. There were arguments between humans about what to do with the new races that might compete with them. This led to mankind aligning behind one of two major powers.

“One group sought to enslave or eradicate anything not human. Going by the name Nida, their xenophobic view was to protect humanity from the threat of being outclassed by an alien race. These humans carved out a system of worlds under a dictatorship rule, utilizing propaganda to control their populace.

“The rest of humanity formed the Coalition where sapient alien races were given voting rights in a republic form of government based on Earth. They used their free market economy to keep innovation and prosperity high. Personal freedoms and liberties were highly protected and seen as unalienable.”

The room zoomed out of the solar system, leaving the tiny blue planet behind. The view halted to a topside perspective of the Milky Way. A blue, somewhat circular line appeared with a tag next to it that read; Coalition Controlled Space. Off to one side, a small section of the circle had a glowing red perimeter and a tag reading; Nida Controlled Space. Alice began focusing in on one of the many systems that dotted the border between the two nations. This one had a bright reddish star and three healthy looking planets orbiting on a narrow track. Twilight walked up to them to take a closer look when Alice spoke again.

“The signs were very clear that a war was going to be inevitable. As a result, both sides built up militaries in order to protect themselves. During the arms race, Nida realized it could never hope to compete with the Coalition in the long run. Their economy easily tripled the size of Nida’s, and the gap widened every year.

In a desperate move to save itself, Nida unleashed a fury of devastating surprise attacks all across Coalition controlled space.” Bright flashes covered the three planets in front of her. When they subsided, grey ash and black seas replaced what once were green fields and blue oceans. “Billions died and billions more were injured in the strikes. This act of violence started the last human civil war.”

The terrible scene in front of her shrank again as the galaxy map reappeared with the blue and red territory marking. A time scale appeared over Twilight’s head, marking the different battles as the blue Coalition circle slowly took over the red one. “The war was a long and bloody one. Nida’s indoctrinated populace mindlessly fought to the last man, woman, and sometimes even child. Eventually at great cost, the Coalition won the war; but with an economy in shambles, a populace in shock, and a weakened military, it was the worst possible time for mankind to defend itself from the invasion that followed.” A series of yellow arrows appeared, completely surrounding the Coalition territory.

“During human exploration in space, many alien species were discovered. More than a few were quite prone to violence, but the Coalition was able to find a balance to keep the peace. One race however, had no intentions of working alongside anything else. Called the Hive, their level of xenophobia put Nida’s to shame. The Hive was an insect–like race led by a single queen. They lived with only one goal in mind; to endlessly pursuit and totally eradicate every other species. The human civil war left the weakened Coalition ripe for the taking.”

Twilight watched as the yellow arrows began converging upon the blue circle. One by one, star systems marked with blue winked out and were replaced by yellow. Finally, only one star remained. The last stand of the Coalition would take place at Sol. Her view zoomed back into the solar system.

“The Hive surrounded the alliance of humans and aliens by capturing and destroying all colony worlds one by one as they made their way to Earth. The Coalition fought back ferociously, but their defeats outnumbered their victories. One by one, worlds fell and the allied species in the Coalition were rendered extinct, leaving humans alone once again. The final step for the Hive was to take Sol, with Earth as its prize.”

Alice didn’t have to narrate the battle for Earth as Twilight paced around the room to watch it herself. Hive ships swarmed into the solar system from all sides, and human ships, though outnumbered, flew to meet them. From the system’s planets, orbital fortresses and huge lunar based weapons emitted dazzling streams of fire in an unending barrage. The display was amazing but it was already perfectly clear who would win this fight. There were just too many Hive ships.

Humanity must have known this was a losing battle, but rather than give up, they just fought all that much harder. Time and time again, she watched the invaders forced away from the human colonies on the other planets and moons in the system. The warring fleets resembled two schools of fish engaged in a deadly, yet beautiful dance. Moves and counter moves played out as the two sides fought across the debris strewn battlefield.

Against all odds, the humans held their xenophobic enemy back. In the back of her mind, Twilight began to hope that maybe they could win. Unfortunately, that was when the Hive finally began annihilating the outer colonies. One by one, the human presence on the moons orbiting the outer gas giants went dark.

The outermost rocky colony, a red, green, and blue planet named Mars, had a major settlement there according to Alice’s pop up icons. The defenses orbiting the planet halted the Hive advance momentarily. Not long after, the innermost planet, Mercury, was captured followed by the second planet, Venus. The time scale hovering over the holographic solar system told Twilight that a full month had passed since the beginning of the siege.

It took another week for the aliens to wipe out Mars. Unlike their other conquests, they didn’t even bother landing to capture the planet. The hologram zoomed in on the colony to show hundreds of Hive ships bombarding the colony. Their weapons turned the planet’s surface to glass, vaporized its oceans, and burned away much of its atmosphere.

As the hologram zoomed away from the red planet, a label appeared, marking a handful of human ships that managed to escape to Earth. For the first time since the battle began, Alice spoke. “To split the human defenders, a Hive fleet had attempted to take Earth during the attack on Mars. Though they were pushed back, Hive ships managed to hit the planet hard.” In front of Twilight, she gazed upon the burning world. Much of its dark side now glowed a dull red at night.

“To add insult to injury,” Alice continued, “the Hive Queen moved to take up residence on Mercury to oversee the destruction of Earth herself. Protected by millions of Hive ships, human forces had no hope of reaching her. That is when the top levels of Human government and military finally decided that Earth was not worth defending anymore. During the battle for Mars, the hearth of humanity had taken too many hits from kinetic and nuclear strikes, rendering ninety percent of its surface already uninhabitable. At the Coalition’s peak, humanity numbered twenty one billion souls plus thirty five billion other member species. Now, only a few million humans remained.”

That brought a gasp from Twilight before Alice continued. “The remaining civilians boarded refugee vessels and joined the few remaining naval ships humanity had left. Then, their endgame went into effect. Using technology we still do not fully understand, humanity would force its sun to do something it normally couldn’t do. They would force it to detonate and destroy the solar system. The explosion would cover the survivors’ retreat and hopefully kill the Hive Queen during the process.”

Twilight looked at James “What? Make the star explode? How is that even possible? Why would they do such a thing?”

The human sighed heavily. “They had to, Twilight. Earth was already lost. Our home was gone, and the survivors had no hope of outrunning the Hive fleet to safety. Our best bet was to have our remaining ships jump out of the system at the same time we blew the star. If they made it, then our species would have a second chance. If they didn’t make it away in time, well, there was no way anyone wanted to let the Hive Queen escape to perform another… atrocity ever again. The risk was deemed acceptable.”

James turned to look at the star with sad, tired eyes. “The scientists and military personnel who worked on the project decided to not share the technology with the survivors so we still don’t know how they did it. Those same few saviors of humanity also volunteered to stay behind and make sure that technology died with them.” Twilight turned to look at the healthy yellow sun. Her eyes were also drawn to a dead, dark world that used to be full of life.

Twilight watched as the few remaining human ships left Earth and flew up and out of the solar system before blinking away. A splinter of the huge Hive fleet already had peeled away from the main force to follow the humans, but then something happened to the star. Sol began to grow bloated and red as flares popped up all over its surface. All of a sudden, the star vanished behind a blinding bright light, before detonating in a silent explosion that nearly made Twilight scurry backwards for fear of being caught in it.

She watched as the expanding ball of fire slammed into Mercury and absolutely vaporized it. The blast wave continued and burned up most of the second planet. When it reached Earth, the remaining atmosphere blew away immediately and its moon shattered into a million fragments. The nova scorched the surface and broke the planet into two large pieces.

Twilight glanced over at James and Socket. Both stared at the death of Earth with somber expressions. The blast continued outwards destroying, burning, annihilating… yet, also cleansing the solar system of the tragedy that befell here. Once the nova burnt out, a much smaller Sol glowed with a cool reddish color instead of the bright yellow it used to be. No trace of the Hive or humanity remained in the largest graveyard of the galaxy. Twilight felt tears trickle down her face as she stared at the sickly looking star marking the death of the humanity’s home.

She felt a small elation when the hologram finally zoomed back out to a galaxy view again, leaving the heartbreaking scene she just witnessed. A soft glowing blue line began tracing its way across the rotating spiral arm in the Milky Way. An indicator popped up labeling it as the path of the human survival fleet. Comprised of around fifteen thousand civilian ships containing just over two million civilians, they were escorted by only a hundred or so warships. This ragtag fleet made its way along the spiral arm.

While Twilight watched the last humans trek across space, Alice began speaking again. “To reduce strain on their ships, the human fleet traveled at sub light speeds and used their jump drives sparingly. Their main goal was to find another Earth like planet to settle down and start over anew. The journey took many decades but no suitable candidate was found. The Hive had destroyed every habitable planet in Coalition space during the war.

“I should mention a discovery that occurred during humanity’s initial expansion among the stars. Back during our first ventures into new solar systems, when we learned of magic and how to look for it, we discovered a series of unique spheres of arcane energy. Each a different size, they all expanded outwards from a small yellow star similar to ours. Its origin was so far away, that only a few scientists ever tried to study it. Well, after a century of no luck, our leaders decided to make their way across the Milky Way’s spiral arms for the magical beacon we had detected so long ago. Maybe it could lead our species to a better life.”

Twilight looked upwards to the ceiling. “Alice, you mentioned, jump drives? What are those exactly? Also, I noticed the ships in the hologram blinking away as if they were teleporting. Do your spacecraft have the ability to teleport?”

From behind, James spoke up “Before discovering magic, humans designed a scientific means of teleportation for spacecraft. It only works if there is no large gravitational signature nearby, meaning we can’t use it near a planet or star. As a plus, it’s much more efficient than using magical energy to move an object the size of a ship.”

On the map hovering in front of Twilight, a green triangular blob appeared, identified as pony-controlled space as Alice continued talking. “Eventually, we closed in with the expanding remnants of the large magical surges, and the human fleet reached the solar systems colonized by ponies and their allies. The initial meetings were strange and awkward to say the least, but once the shock wore off, regular communication ensued. It was especially confusing since they weren’t sure what caused the surge of magic that led our ships to them.”

“In the beginning, the elected representatives in pony government were worried about the amazing technologies these refugees possessed. A majority of the populace were initially afraid they would use them to take over new worlds to settle down on, but those fears were soon extinguished when both princesses spoke for humanity’s behalf and shared their recent history with all. Humanity had no desire to forcefully take a home from any sapient species. They just wanted peace.

“Princesses Celestia and Luna felt empathy for this wandering species of the stars so they allowed them to stay in an empty solar system in the heart of pony space until a suitable planet could be discovered. The solar system in question had no habitable planets but was rich in raw resources. In return for their generosity, humans traded many technologies to the ponies. They didn’t trust ponies completely so they withheld any knowledge dealing with spacecraft or space warfare. This relationship held steady until the cygnul appeared. Then everything changed.”

The galaxy map blinked out and on the far side of the room, a nightmarish creature appeared. It stood on two legs and resembled a cross between a reptile and an insect. Feline turquoise eyes seemed to glow with an otherworldly energy, and its bulging muscular arms ended with razor sharp claws much deadlier than any wulven’s. Twilight fully understood that this was just a hologram, but the sight of this creature sent chills down her spine. That is the definition of a monster if I’ve ever seen one.

James walked over to the alien and circled it. “Twilight, this is a cygnul warrior. We don’t know much about them except that they are artificially created soldiers designed with one sole purpose; to kill. In this war, surrender or forfeit aren’t options. Who or what created them is still unknown, but they seem to be controlled with some sort of telepathy. Cygs are as strong as any human or pony in a combat suit, and their talons can cut through steel like butter.” He walked back over to lean against the wall. “Alright Alice, lets show her.”

The nightmare disappeared to be replaced with the galaxy again. On the map, a dark turquoise force began eating away at the oblong triangle representing pony space. It attacked from the outer rim of the galaxy. Unlike what happened during the human war with the Hive, this enemy made a beeline towards Harmony, only taking over worlds that were in the way.

“The initial alien contact sent the Princesses’ government into chaos, and the pony military was not ready for this kind of attack. The cygs had numerous spacecraft and easily wiped out any defenses that were put up before them. The human fleet, fearing their species’ extinction, cut all trade agreements and communication with Harmony, and began making arrangements to flee further away.

“It wasn’t long before Harmony herself was under siege. For reasons we still don’t understand today, the cygnul landed on the planet intending to capture her intact rather than bombard from space. Their armies surrounded Canterlot and began a siege. Princess Luna barely escaped on her personal ship to try to gather any help she could muster from the griffons or maybe the dragons. Princess Celestia stayed behind to oversee Canterlot’s fortifications, most of which were derived from technologies traded from the humans, who didn’t mind selling planetary defenses. What followed was the battle for Canterlot.”

“Wait, Alice.” James halted the artificial intelligence’s history lesson. “Do you have the files from the actual battle?”

“Yes I do, Captain.”

“We have time before my meeting, let’s actually show her what happened.”

“Yes, sir. I am loading the virtual files now.”

Socket Wrench called out to Twilight. “Come stand back here, you’re going to want to see this personally.”

Twilight stepped back to stand beside her when the hologram expanded to encompass the whole room. Everything turned bright white and the next thing she knew, Twilight swore she could feel the wind blowing in her mane and smell the frigid mountain air. She now stood at the battle for Canterlot.