On-board the Ship

“This harvest is rather boring don’t you think?” Asked my second in charge. Blue Note is his name, a young and adventurous stallion. His dark blue mane accompanied by his blue coat stand in stark contrast with our surrounding, an observation room painted orange for unknown reason. He had been working under me for almost two years, and had been rising in position far faster than anypony I know. I will be retiring soon, and he will most likely take my position, who else can match his organizing skill? My job isn’t easy, organizing and directing all these harvests took a toll on me, I am not young. I can no longer spend days without sleep getting something done, I simply do not have that kind of energy anymore.

“Miss Twilight?” Asked Blue Note again, pulling me out of my musing.

“Hmm? Oh yes, yes, its rather uneventful. But isn’t that good?”

“But just sitting here watching is soooo boring. Watching harvests stops being interesting after a few dozen times.”

I could still remember his face when he saw his first harvest, he was just a colt back then. Brought to watch by his mother, one of the scribes. His face was that of amazement, of excitement. I don’t share his feelings though, I never enjoyed harvests. I simply couldn’t. Creatures are killing each other down there, down in the massive growth deck. Endless swarm of these bugs called Tyranids fought and devoured a similarly endless tide of greenskins, or orks as they called themselves. Both are monsters, one born with unsatisfiable hunger whose sole drive is to eat, and the other born with extreme aggressiveness who fight everything, pony, tyranid or even human. Even thought those fighting below were monsters they are still living creatures, looking at them tearing each other apart still made me sicked.

In the end the tyranids will devour all the orks, I need to make sure of that, then they will be guided back to their digestion pool. There some of them will be digested, and be remade into foodstuff or other essentials. The remaining tyranids will be used for the next harvest. This system was developed Emperor... Hehe, funny how I now use that, Celestia knows how long ago by the humans. Maybe a few centuries after the Ship was finished? I will never know. The brutal harvest was developed for the generation of materials and as a solution for the Ork and Tyranid infestation problem. Recycling isn’t 100% efficient, and new raw material is needed to sustain everypony and everyone on board. I learnt that the orks are actually fungus, a fungus that can grow on almost anything. They grew even if all common sense told you that they should have not. I still do not know where they get the necessary nutrients for growth, nor where they get all the materials to build all their crude war machines. All I know is that they do, and it will sustain us. The tyranids were used as a biological processing machine, they were directed to the orks by purposefully inserted genestealers. Cut off from the hive mind the tyranids are but mindless beasts, attracted to the psychic, or magical as we use to call it, beacon of the genestealers. This is why it is called the harvest. We are harvesting the orks like one would harvest wheat.

It is my job to ensure this cycle goes on without any problem, for it will be disastrous if something went wrong. It is not a job I liked, but it is a job I must do. Last time some tyranids got loose, being severed from their hive mind they did the only thing they could do, kill and devour. They rampaged through the hive city I called home, killing hundreds of millions before they are stopped. It was a tragic day, it gotten so bad humans need to be called in. It was only with the help of the imperial guard that we managed to stop the escaped tyranids. Luckily the lost of human life was minimal, or I will most certainly be executed. Even though that was an incident that happened almost a century ago it still haunts me to this very day. The screams of innocent ponies, shouts of the brave royal guards that try to fight the swarm off, the cries of despair. It was too much, much I had seen during my life, too much, and that was the worst. I blamed myself for what happened, and I was depressed for a long time, but eventually I got over it. I realized that getting depressed over it is unproductive and so I pull myself back together, and I swear to never let something similar to happen ever again. It was no wonder that I find a perfectly uneventful harvest being good.

“You are still young Blue, you will learn to appreciate a calm harvest eventually,” if harvests can be called calm that is.

Blue Note sighed, “yeah, you said that every time. The harvest is still going to go on for HOURS, and there is nothing to do but wait,” said Blue Note before he sighed again.

“How about I tell you a story?”

“Really?”

“Yes, and I will tell you one that I had never told anypony before, the story of the boarding.”

“REALLY!?” Blue Note exclaimed, excitement clearly in his voice.

“You heard it right,” I said with a smile, “do me a favor and call the others too, this is a chance none of you want to miss.”

“OK, I’LL BE RIGHT BACK!” Shouted Blue Note before running off.

I do not need to wait long before a sizable crowd gathered. All of them radiating excitement and curiosity, for this was a tale shrouded in legend and mystery. I am one of the few ponies still alive who had been there to experience it, the boarding, the boarding onto the Ship, the Ship that is all, the Ship that moves.