The March of the Giants

Chapters

The Change of Fate (REWRITE)
The Meeting that went Wrong (Rewritten)
The Road South (Rewritten)
Finding the Engineer (Rewritten)
Of Knowledge Shared (Rewritten)
Of Progress and The Beginning (Rewritten)
Contact and Ideas (Rewrite)
The Prelude to a New Era (Rewriten)
End of an Era (Rewritten)
Interlude (Rewritten)
The Build Up (Rewritten)
The Powder Keg
The Crystal Empire (Rewritten)
The Rising Moon
Lunar Novus' Rise to Stage
Meddling of Monsters
The Prelude to War
Building on the Moon
Preparations for the Future
Operation Barbarossa Pt.1
Planning on Reboot
Time Passes
Rewrites complete!

The Change of Fate (REWRITE)

Chapter One : (Rewrite)

The taste of iron in her mouth was slowly becoming a familiar taste to her as another thick branch was smashed against her muzzle. As her mouth slacked open from her swimming from unconscious state to a conscious one for what felt like every second, one of her growing fangs fell out of her mouth followed by her light green blood mixed with saliva. A small pool of blood had formed on the ground around her severed right foreleg.

The ponies surrounding her and her former protector all were yelling at her suspended body, but she had long since stopped comprehending words after the sixth swing from makeshift clubs across her head. As a young queen, she could take some nourishment from solid foods; and that had been the bait that had strung her up against a tree. Her protector didn’t even have chance to respond as a dozen bolts of lighting from the sky impacted him from different angles, which was followed up by a dozen magically thrown sharpened sticks went through his body.

Through her bloated, bruised eyes; she could see the ponies all trotting away happily as a match was thrown in her direction. She could barely comprehend the fact that they had placed dry wood against the tree she was tied against. As the match spun in the air, all that was on her mind was her trying to comprehend what was going on.

Why was this happening? She knew that the ponies hated her kind, Changelings, due to the fact that they can change shape; but the fact remained that Changelings would die if not for the ponies. Given half the chance, a hive would build cities for the ponies if it meant that they could consume the love of those who would live in the cities. So as a young queen, she appreciated the ponies for being so ‘lovable’ and had even appreciated the ponies for doing what her kind couldn’t.

As her conscious completely faded from reality, she barely recognized the fire blazing to life around her. Then... Nothing.

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A sharp pain jolted her awake and immediately regretted trying to move her body. Pain. So much pain shot through her body as she felt scared. She was no longer in the forest she had been dragged into. But she couldn't really judge her surroundings as she could hear screaming. Or was it her? Pain clouded her senses as something was jabbed into her throat and she could feel liquid being pumped into her. She could barely turn her head to look at who had stabbed her neck.

What was it? She felt her mind shut down again, this time from drugs, as she noticed a tear stained face of a alien. Why was she crying? Why was she in pain? Why...

She lost consciousness again.

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"I can't believe she woke up the moment the needle pricked her skin." A male voice spoke from behind a glass wall that seemed to be glowing from some form of light. "How much painkillers?"

"Enough to put a Clanner to sleep for a week." A sorrow filled feminine voice spoke as she tossed the needle into a bin. "This world's 'magic' makes them much more durable and her kind is ever evolving, so it was necessary. We could go ahead with the operation."

"Doctor..." The male voice sounded worried.

"What did she do to deserve this?! She was young, barely even knowing the sins of her kind and-... and..." The woman sobbed as she caressed the Changeling's bloody muzzle before placing a oxygen mask on. "W-why?"

"Well, after we save her, let's ask the captain if he’s willing to let her stay. I can't imagine what might happen to her when she's returned back to the surface." The woman nodded silently as she left the room still with tears flowing down her face. "And I'm damn making sure this little one survives. No young children should suffer like this... If I could I would-" He paused before various mechanical arms adorned with medical tools descended on the young Changeling Queen. "Forget it. Let's get started."

With many machines whirring to start, a lone woman sobbed on the ground outside of the surgery room.

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"Are you telling me, doctor, that this Changeling learned our alphabet, the periodic table, and physics in less than the the year she has been with us?" A well dressed man, wearing a crisp black robe with armor underneath, said as he watched the Changeling through an one-way glass window that served as a mirror to the room she had been given. The Changeling had an bionic limb that could expand to work as hand with four fingers, but still needed a regular dose of modified antibodies; but had rapidly adjusted to life in space.

"No, Captain. She's learned more than we have anticipated. She had just recently finished the advanced portion of Mathematics, linguistics, sciences, our history and I can say with confidence that she would learn military level material within a few months at the rate she is learning." The doctor, while wearing a white doctor's coat, handed over a tablet and pointed out a certain chart. "And even more surprising is..."

“Is this her blood work?” At the doctor’s nod, the military officer could only look wide-eyed at the results. “Her body is adapting to the bionics to the point where she would no longer require medicine?”

"Yes. I can guess that if she was to finally birth her hive, they would be an entire race of-"

"It's medicine time!" A cheerful nurse walked in with a metal tray with several needles and a several large bandages. The Changeling looked up from her book and smiled. Her bright orange eyes gleamed happily as her horn glowed the same color as her eyes. Immediately, the book was closed and placed on a cabinet next to her while Patina sat patiently for the nurse to give her the shots that she was beginning to feel unneeded, but didn’t realize it was her body adapting to the advanced medicine of the crew she was with. “Such a nice girl! I’ll give you a treat after your shots!”

The injections were made, bandages were placed over the area, and Patina displayed something that had always interested the doctor. The Nurse gently hugged the Changeling and a small pink light passed from the Nurse's body and into Patina's slightly open mouth. Even if she didn't have her fangs, it looked strange to see something eat that was essentially a highly potent mix of ‘love energy’.

"Now don't forget to press the button if you need something~" The Nurse singsonged her way out and the door closed behind her allowing the young Changeling to smile and ease deeper into her soft bed. Within minutes, the Changeling was asleep.

"Well Captain? Do you think our ship could raise a love-eating equine?" The doctor glanced sideways at the Precentor. He already knew the answer to his own question. The opportunity was far too large to merely throw away.

"Indeed. We will leave our legacy with her in this forsaken part of the universe." With his piece said, the armored man merely turned around and left the observation room.

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"How's your new leg, Patina?" The doctor asked as he finished adjusting a few of the settings on the artificial leg. As Patina continued to grow up within the ship, she had become a favorite amongst her crew despite her black coat and insect like wings. Her brilliant orange eyes, long flowing orange mane that she rather liked having tied into a ponytail and her orange tail was considered unique seeing as she was the only Changeling that was on board the ship.

The Changeling in question was balancing on her new artificial leg by walking, trotting, and galloping in circles around the ship's relatively large recreational area aboard the WarShip. It had only been a mere day since she had her new leg replacing her old one and she was already using it just as proficiently as her old one. Her once burned coat and wings had grown back, and were just large enough for her to take flight for a short time. Where she once had a stump was now a copper-colored metal leg that moved smoothly as if it had been a real limb.

"It's incredibly light and not too uncomfortable. In fact, I like it very much!" Patina giggled as she walked to the Doctor. "Thanks, Doc! Now I can train within the simulators again!"

"Don't forget Patina. The leg is tough, but no matter how tough something is..."

"It will always break. I remember very well, doctor." The Changeling smiled as she left the gym to most likely where the mechwarriors trained and kept their skills up out of battle. But he did have to admit that Patina was a genius. No, calling her an genius would be an insult. She was a godsend. The decade she had been with them aboard the massive space WarShip that orbited her home planet, she had learned every thing from simple mathematics to surgically installing bionics. It was unheard of and yet, here she was... now learning to pilot the battlemechs in simulations.

Of course, there was the issue of her developing a hive. It was not strange to see her unwilling to birth her hive aboard the ship. He knew she suffered from heat cycles much like a equine and those were the moments in which she could easily birth her hive with the artificial love energy he had managed to create after four years of research. And it was only last year she had birthed her first few ‘drones’ to which the crew had taken to their cute baby forms instantly. Their rapid growth had them all surprised, but medically was even more shocking.

"Doctor? We really should get working on that present for her..." Another woman, wearing a uniform with a lab coat over it, whispered as she watched the Changeling skip her way through the halls.

"Of course... With this, we could easily solve her food problem and finally send her on her way." The last part weighed so heavily on his heart. Most of the crew was reluctant to see their 'mascot' go, but orders were orders. They had year to return back to the Inner Sphere and with the sheer amount of energy required for the Kearny-Fuchida Drive, it would take them a months to go back home. In one month... She would have to return home to the planet below and them back to the Inner Sphere.

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"I-I'll miss you!" Patina was trying her absolute best to not cry her eyes out as she adjusted on her seat aboard the DropShip along with the two dozen of her children manning the console. They all wore black skintight armor with helmets with orange lenses over the eyes. "W-we'll make you all proud!"

"W-we believe you, Patina." Even the ever stoic commander's voice shook through the video comms. "I'll make sure to come back and visit with the crew!" Various acknowledgements and cheers followed that comment, making Patina hug the goggles that she was given earlier by one of the engineers. It was a simple thing with a surprise that had her filled with joy. Along the inside of the goggles and on the metal that framed the high-tech glass was every single name of the crew etched into it. "Now go carve your future into the world! Attention!" She could see through the screen on the bridge to show numerous infantry, engineers, mechwarriors, the doctor, her caretaker, and the commander saluting her. "Salute!"

As her DropShip was detached and launched into space, she 'took' a mental photograph of everyone waving at her and began to sob loudly within the 165 meter tall spheroid DropShip’s bridge. She could hear her children choke back their own sobs, but they had to focus on making sure the DropShip landed safely.

As the ship entered the atmosphere, and began to descend, Patina swore to herself that day. She swore that she would elevate her species to travel in the stars like her caretakers. And instead of them coming to her, she would go to them to the fabled Inner Sphere.

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As the 20,000 ton DropShip made its way down to the surface, a pair of golden eyes opened and grinned ferociously as they tracked the DropShip.

“It would be unfair for the Changelings to have such a immense leap in tech. I wonder what would work with the Griffons... Or even those detestable ponies.” A soft voice spoke to no one in particular. “The griffons want to play with the concept of Imperial Rule, so why don’t I sneak a few ideas in?”

“But the ponies...? They can burn with their precious ‘Harmony’.”

Author's Note

And the Rewrite begins.

I’ll leave the other chapters up, but make no mistake. They are all being replaced soon.

So the Changeling goes with Battletech, Griffons will be going partial Warhammer 40k, and the ponies? They’ll be fucked until some’pony’’ decides to take drastic measures. So expect the same events without anti-magic shenanigans.

You know... magic shield vs lasers, ppc, autocannon, and missiles followed by gauss rifles? Yeah, if that magic shield Shining makes, albeit weakened, breaks by Changelings smashing their bodies against it...? Yea no chance in hell.

The Meeting that went Wrong (Rewritten)

"How's the reactor output?" Patina, now noticeably taller and slimmer, asked out loud as she levitated several pens over a blueprint. While the cave walls she and her hive were inhabiting were primitive and lacked many of the tools they were used to using for the past fifteen years, they were near achieving breakthrough on her project. Case in point, dozens of wires that were connected to an large bulky Barouche Military Transport onto a massive device in the center of the massive clearing in the cave.

"Reactor output is 87% and holding, Miss Patina.'' An another Changeling with a feminine shape, nearly a head shorter than Patina, but with similar features like with orange back, orange tail, smaller than normal wings; reported next to her while looking at several monitors at once. While Patina's horn looked like a flat screw if it was eight inches long, this Changeling's horn looked like a flat circular wrench with a thick handle.

"Good. Now reroute 20% of the power to the LGE to start it." Patina ordered the Changeling as she continued to work on the schematics of a new small cockpit that would allow an unaugmented Changeling to pilot an battlemech. She smiled as she saw her firstborn click several of the larger, hoof- friendly switches to carry out her orders. Since landing back onto her home planet, she made her first major choice after hiding the DropShip. And by using a gift given to her by the Doctor and the scientists aboard the ship, she had more time in solidifying her place in this world. Oh, she had at times come down with crew members to scout the world and the neighboring planets, and had already chosen many locations she could use as her temporary bases or labs. “With that meeting coming up within a month, I have to have some solid results for them to even consider joining up with me.”

"Well, if this test goes right, couldn’t we just recruit other hives, Mother?" And there it was. She had forbidden within her hive to call her a Queen. She had told them to call her mom, mother, Miss Patina, and at times Precentor Patina; but she really hated being called a Queen. It simply didn't feel right...

"Sadly, they would most likely not believe me unless I had the backing of a major hive." Patina knew that she was a ‘newcomer’ to how the Changeling hives were run and the politics that followed it. While she was most likely the most intelligent, many other minor Queens had advantages over her in the sense that they had survived off sheer determination and not technology. Her hive, only being born barely seven years ago and at a shockingly small number of thirty drones, was the smallest in all of the hives that existed in Equestria. Oh, she intended to build her hive up later, but as of now, she intended to keep her hive small and as invisible as she could. Not to mention that the other Queens were known to be rather territorial and had the tendency to ‘teach’ her how their politics worked. “If I hear how I should collect love and capture the rare pony in the next meeting, I will bring a portable flamethrower and burn them all alive.”

"Don't worry, mother. I'm sure at least one queen might listen to you." Patina really appreciated her firstborn, but this was Changeling Queens she was talking about here. They were all either assholes with an one track mind
or just plain idiots who thought she was the weakest one there from the size of her hive.

Patina merely sighed as she rolled up the edited blueprint and slipped it into a plastic tube and sealed the top with tape. Tossing the tube into the open door of the sizable hover APC, Patina walked over to the terminal hooked up to the device her firstborn was looking over.

"LGE is at 17% operating capacity." Patina glanced at the progress chart on the screen and sighed. She knew using a vehicle reactor would be different from using a DropShip’s reactor. “It’s building 0.4 percent charge every hour, so it's not a complete failure.”

“It’s not, but...” Patina sighed as she walked over to another terminal being operated by another one of her drones. “And what is it with the Griffons? They somehow went from muskets to automatic weaponry in three years time.”

“Still can’t find out what had happened to them, but their military build up is worrying.” The drone operating the terminal reported as he, with a stockier build and a male voice, brought up a series of pictures that revealed the beginnings of a tracked vehicle. “While not using composite armor like ours, they will become a threat eventually.”

Thank the HPGs that she had access to the few satellites that her saviors left behind. She had been tracking how other ‘nations’ were doing and found out that the Griffons were building up rapidly in the military and civilian sector. If the sheer increase in factories and the amount of military bases weren’t a sign of military build up, then she would eat an assault mech whole.

"Now go take a nap, mother. You’ve been awake for thirty seven hours worrying about a meeting a month away." Her firstborn nudged her as she was semi- forced into the APC so that she could at least get some shut-eye. It was nice to develop new ways to survive and thrive, but to get her kind to use them without abusing them? Ugh. She just wished all those hives didn't have a 'Look a pony! Drain it of its love!' mindset. She really didn't hate the ponies, but at times, anyone- anypony would do the craziest things to stay alive.

“Fine...” Patina let out a yawn as she walked into the APC. So much was on her mind, but she still had a lot on her mind. One of which was the upcoming biannual meeting between hives and the encroaching air fleet that had originated from the Griffon Imperial Aerial Fort far to the North. And those feather-brained fools were approaching the Chaotic Southern Continent... Where her DropShip and the remaining drones of her hive was building an underground factory. “Still going back to the South afterward to make sure those feather-brained idiots can’t get a foothold there.”

The seven drones that had followed her here for the meeting all shared a knowing look and could only continue their efforts to maximize information and the success of their mother’s device. As powerful as their weapons were, they couldn’t take on an entire air fleet with infantry mixed in.

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Patina mumbled incoherently as she approached the small cave where the other queens were gathering for the biannual meeting implemented by some idiot that possessed the largest hive and even began to call herself the Queen of Queens.

"For the betterment of our species my damn ass..." Patina grumbled as she approached an earth pony who was reading a book in the middle of a forest while seemingly guarding a rundown shack. She herself was disguised as a pegasus with rust orange coat, dark red eyes, bright orange mane and tail, along with a cutie mark of a wrench. Her left eye twitched violently as she finally noticed why the pony had not reacted to her. He was asleep. While holding the book up like he was awake.

With a flare of bright orange magic, she sent a pebble with a bit of force at the pony's head. With a pained grunt, the pony sat up growling after falling over until she dropped her disguise in a blink of an eye. He swallowed nervously while tapping the ground twice.

"Same disguise as the last meeting, again? What does your queen even teach you? Change your damn disguise every meeting so even if a passing pony sees you again later, he or she would ignore you! The coincidence of the same pony sighting you way too high!" She scolded the poorly disguised Changeling muzzle to muzzle while she adjusted the bag slung over her body. Wordlessly glaring at the Changeling, she felt surprisingly refreshed at his worried look.

At least her hive wasn’t as incompetent... yet.

Descending down a long array of straight stairs down after a wooden/metal trapdoor, she could hear the idle chatter of her fellow queens half of the way down. Over three dozen queens resided in Equestria alone and some queens came from across the seas just to see what the hell is going on. She was just here to present her idea. A design that the doctor started and she had recently been working on perfecting it. As she walked through a solid metal door that opened for her, (how they got it, she’ll never know) she sighed in despair at the scene before her. The room was a massive stone amphitheater set in a semicircle with a single large table in the center to where the Queens of larger hives sat while she and other 'minor' queens were 'coerced' into sitting around in the half circle of the large amphitheater. And in the very center, on a stone throne would sit the 'Queen of All Queens'. Now if she could somehow smuggle in some machine guns, she could easily take over them all...

She hung her head as she threw that particular idea away. It was stupid. She'd most likely cause this 'order' amongst Changeling hives to crumble so that they would once again fight each other over borders and what-nots. This idea of this loosely created 'Order' that settled border disputes, new methods of securing love, and other concerns was nothing short of brilliant; but it lacked the organized power she had learned from. ComStar was well- organized if anything.

Taking out a small rectangular case from within the bags she had over her barrel, she turned it over in her hooves before placing it before her. She might be young compared to the other queens and possessing what was most
likely the smallest hive, but she had long ago decided to make it up with quality. Using her magic, she felt around her bags, locating the Needler Pistol with three extra blocks of the polymer-composite blocks that served as ammo, the plastic case, and a couple of flashbang grenades. Other than her data and its results, that was all that she had carried here. She ignored the various bickering of the other queens that sat around her. She merely ignored them for her sanity and merely focused on the major queens that sat at the stone table at the center.

Possessing the second largest hive, was Queen Miasma of the Miasma Hive. The only thing that made her 'different' were the openings to the side of her mouth that showed her inner jaw far too clearly and the extremely bad smell of rotting... things and the strong smell of some potent perfume. Her violet coloring of her back, mane, and tail gave her a sort-of regal look that was ruined by her smell. (Patina hated her for being so haughty. That and the bitch had bumped into her once. She smelled horrible for days!)

Sitting next to her with a stack of scrolls and a pair of red glasses, was Queen Myxine of the Hagfish Hive. While the hive itself was small along with their queen, she was considered a major hive due to the fact that she maintained the only known ‘navy’ that her Changelings ran. Myxine herself was slightly shorter than Miasma, but held a strict stance in the way she was sitting and acted. Both her mane and tail were rather short and under her blue eyes were lines that were most likely not from age. Her horn looked rather unique with two grooves that seemed to give a feel of a shark's fin unlike Miasma's own looking like a curved blade almost. (Would make such a great finance manager for a mercenary company in the Inner Sphere.)

Sitting across from her and who was most likely the most 'playful' of all the Queens present. Queen Ambrosia and her Honeycomb Hive was by far the third largest and their young queen was... something else. She was tall and both her bright orange mane and tall were long enough to be on the floor and her young greenish yellow eyes looked excited as she played with some glowing bugs that flew around her. Her horn was relatively curved with a single curve within. But Patina knew that the ‘playful’ attitude of the Changeling made her all the more dangerous as she was unintentionally sadistic as was her hive when extracting love.

Noticing one of the major queens were not yet present, she turned her eyes on Chrysalis. The self-proclaimed Queen of All Queens and this was not an assumption. Her hive was the largest, most aggressive, and their queen was just as volatile. Noticeably taller than most queens, both her long mane and tail were colored a dark bluish green and her jagged horn gave her a near sinister look. Her green eyes looked bored at the surroundings, but her posture was enough to read. There was something major happening today.

A slight buzz by her side made her sigh in an annoyed manner before turning to address whomever had decided to sit next to her. She had made it known that she didn’t like others sitting too close to her, but froze upon recognizing the Changeling Queen that had the gall to plop down next to her.

Her breath hitched as she tried to breathe normally and trying her best to stay calm at the sight of the wayward major queen. Queen Calliphora of the Nekropolis Hive sat next to her with her extra set of milky white lens was
over her crimson eyes and her even more so 'perforated' limbs than the normal Changeling look over Patina’s form ever so slowly. Her back and barrel were colored a reddish pink color and both her mane and tail were colored a light reddish peach color that gave her a ghost-like appearance. As Calliphora slowly finished inspecting Patina, the pair of clear eyelids slid vertically upwards to reveal her brilliant crimson eyes focusing entirely on her.

"Patina, was it? Would you like to join me at the table?" Her voice was silky and smooth, nearly sounding like a whisper. A whisper that silenced the hall and had all attention focused on her. She quickly looked around her in a slight panic and noticed several jealous looks from the other hives, a puzzled one from Chrysalis, an amused one from Miasma, a tired one from Myxine, and a cheerful looking Ambrosia. But before she could answer properly, Calliphora spoke again.

"You would? Very well." With a glow of crimson colored magic, Patina felt her artificial hoof being ‘gently’ pulled by Calliphora’s magic. With a squeak of surprise, Patina quickly shot to her hooves to prevent herself from falling over and tried her best to walk on three's with her artificial leg being dragged along by the Queen of the 'Order of the Fly' as the ponies lovingly named her.

"Can I ask why you are dragging me to the center? My hive is small and I have nothing to contribute as of yet." Patina asked the most mysterious Queen, but got no reply even as she was forced to sit between Calliphora and Ambrosia. "Erm... Greetings?"

"You look so adorable with the armored hoof~" Ambrosia's voice was young and held a youthful quality to it. "Names Ambrosia, what's yours?"

"Didn't you just hear Calliphora say it?" Miasma hissed as she glared at Calliphora. "And repeating the minor's question, why'd you bring her here, Calliphora?" Miasma's voice was a mix of an hiss and something that she couldn't get her hooves on.

Said queen merely looked at her right foreleg with little interest and ignored the question once again. Myxine let out an exasperated sigh and offered a hoof across the table towards Patina. She shook the offered hoof slowly and tensed as Miasma glared at her intensely.

"Ignore Miasma's blabbering, my dear. I'm Myxine." Myxine's voice reminded her of the ocean waves smoothly moving in and out. "Hope you don't mind sitting here."

"It's fine..." She glanced at Miasma's frustrated glare and whimpered. They had their advantage in possessing large hives, but she had the smallest one; so it was understandable that she was rightfully nervous. "My name is Patina Gear of the Ferrugo Hive."

"Nice to meet you, Patina." At least Myxine didn't seem to care for her sitting here... "Miasma, stop being a grouch and introduce yourself." A glance at Calliphora and the disgruntled queen grunted before offering her own hoof. Patina shook the queen's hoof hesitantly before quickly withdrawing her hoof. She was not going to risk having a smelly hoof from this encounter.

"Miasma. Now can we start the meeting before the minor decides to feint or run?" Patina gulped as she felt Chrysalis' curious look made her even more nervous as her former courage, annoyance, and anger fade away all at once.

"Let's begin!" Chrysalis shouted as the hall immediately quieted down. "Let's first go over the borders we share and with the current supply of love in each hive."

As each and every queen listed their positions and total stock of love in crystal form, which was the best way to store them, Patina's mind began to race. Did she give the samples now?

"Calliphora, how much love does your hive currently possess?" Chrysalis' voice turning her attention onto the steadily humming queen next to Patina.

"A hundred seventy crystals. I have to say that the collection has been slowing ever since ponies began to avoid graveyards more and more." To Patina's horror, Calliphora smiled at her. "But if I have to guess, don't our dear ‘engineer’ have a solution to that?"

Patina's nerves froze over. She had not told anyone that she was an engineer of any type and had definitely not revealed her origins to anyone!

"The minor? What can she do about our love supply? She doesn’t even possess any significant presence in any pony settlement." Miasma scoffed as she glared at Patina's wide-eyed form.

"Oh dear... I believe Patina is in shock." Calliphora genuinely looked surprised at Patina's reaction. Just as Calliphora said her name, Patina quite literally exploded, figuratively.

“H-How’d you even figure out that I was an engineer? Not to mention, I’ve told no one about the project that I’ve been slaving over for such a long time!” Patina shrieked at Calliphora as she pointed her artificial hoof accusingly at the Queen. “I’ve even made sure that none of my drones were followed by any being! There can’t be any way you know of what I was doing!”

Every Changeling was shocked at Patina's outburst, but Myxine seemed more interested in how Patina was speaking.

"She didn’t say anything about a project. What project are you even referring to?" Patina's eyes widened considerably at her own mistake and began to push herself backwards as every eye followed her retreating form. Her mind roared with confusion, panic, and was about to bolt when she noticed that she had stuck her hooves onto a golden syrup that had not been there. A quick glance at Ambrosia and Patina noted the slight amount of the same material on the childish Queen’s lips.

“There’s no need to run, Patty!” Patina blinked at the nickname Ambrosia gave her before trying to pull her hooves out of the sticky trap. She managed to pull her artificial limb free, but failed to pull her other limbs free. “Come on, tell us about your project!”

Patina idly thought about tossing the flashbang in her bag, but knew that some of the Changelings were used to such exposure and would work to capture her the moment she tried to run. Biting her lower lip, she slowly withdrew the small plastic container from her bag and placed it on the stone table with narrowed eyes glaring at the Nekropolis Queen.

“My project is a personal objective of mine.” Patina began as she stuck her artificial hoof into the bag and allowed the fingers to grip the needler pistol. “I am not the only one to notice the ever decreasing amount of love each hive reports nearly every meeting. Not to mention that the ponies and Griffons are getting better and better at detecting our presence. My project was to turn our species into a self-reliant species without relying on them to survive.”

With that said, Patina, having been freed by an unapologetic Ambrosia and her magic, tapped the plastic cover open to reveal four vials filled with luminescent pink fluid. Quickly glancing at Calliphora, she noticed the slight smile the older queen sported and vowed to find out how that weird queen found out about her project.

“This, fellow queens, is artificial love.” Patina declared quietly as she levitated the vials for all to see. While her voice was barely above her normal speaking volume, she knew every queen had heard her. “Far more potent than crystallized love all of us use, but far more versatile. Dilute into water to grow vegetables that are infused with love. Mix it into bread, and it will fill you with love as if we sucked love out of crystals. So on and so forth.”

Ambrosia swiped one of the vials without much resistance and quickly sniffed the liquid before looking at it with a surprised look on her face. (Incidentally, the cork Ambrosia popped off had hit Miasma on her eye to which no one really cared about...) Slowly tipping the rather thick liquid downwards, she took a light sip of the pink liquid. As Ambrosia closed her mouth, every eye had focused on Ambrosia; whom instantly lit up and... let out a hiccup. “That’s ‘love’ alright! Ish so gooood!”

Patina sighed before taking the vial back with a sigh and acknowledged the confused looks on the faces of many queens.

“Like I said this is a highly concentrated liquid form of love.” As Ambrosia giggled madly before her blushing face hiccuped once again and collapsed onto the stone table snoring. “It’s like the heavy cider ponies drink that makes them drunk in seconds. This stuff is potent damn it.”

As the others began to eye her vials greedily, including Chrysalis, she silently unpinned several of the flashbangs in her bag and held the arms of the grenades so they didn’t detonate soon. As she placed them back into its container, she spotted Miasma moving towards her and acted instantly. Tossing the half-dozen non-lethal grenades out of her bag and into the air, Patina swiftly dashed away towards the door just as the flashbangs went off. The shrill screech from the gathered queens weren’t what she wanted, but these fools weren’t ready. Not to mention, she had seen Chrysalis’ glare at her
ever since Ambrosia had fallen asleep after declaring that it was indeed ‘love energy’.

It was the look of someone who felt threatened of losing what little power they possessed.

As she zoomed out of the meeting place, all she could think about was getting out of here and headed back into the Southern Continent. She had silently decided that she would hold back her innovations for now. These fools were nowhere near ready to form a permanent ‘nation’ upon her inventions. Not with Chrysalis in charge.

But she had other matters to solve. Like the Griffon Air fleet encroaching upon her territory.

_!_!_!_!__!!_!_!__!_!!__!_!!__!_!__!

After somehow managing to get the other minor queens to leave, it was just the five major queens left in the amphitheater. Or rather four, as Ambrosia was still asleep from being ‘drunk’ off of love. Chrysalis, studied one of the vials closely as Patina had decided to ‘abandon’ her samples there after escaping in a rather ‘flashy’ manner.

“It gives off no magical traces, indicating that it is clearly artificial.” Chrysalis muttered as she used her bright green magic to levitate one of the untouched vials that was on the table. “Calliphora, how did you even know about the minor’s efforts in her... project?”

The strange queen of the Nekropolis Hive merely tilted her sideways and frowned slightly.

“Even I only found out by chance.” Calliphora said quietly as she levitated one of five vials to herself and studied the liquid within. “One of my drones hiding in one of the more remote cemeteries found her bribing diamond dogs with jewels to buy raw metal ores alongside other ores that I have no idea what it is being used for. Finding it strange, I had the drone follow her from afar.”

“...From what she ranted on, she was rather paranoid about being followed.” Myxine commented as she had already taken a vial into her own bags.

“Imagine my surprise when I saw her enter a rather well-hidden cave hidden by a fabric wall that appeared to blend into the surroundings. Within it, my drone found part of her hive and her working alongside a large metal dwelling that had many hoses coming from various parts of the dwelling into a device that had at least a dozen magic crystals embedded within and was generating the liquid you see within the vials.”

“...So her hive is elsewhere.” Chrysalis narrowed her eyes as she began to smile slowly. “Why don’t we make this a game amongst ourselves?”

“Game?” Miasma arched an eyebrow as she shook the liquid within the vial she claimed for herself.
“Whoever ‘catches’ Patina Gear gets to take her under your hive as... a protected hive.” Chrysalis grinned as she spread her forelegs apart and thought it was a great plan.

“Very well.” Myxine narrowed her eyes and frowned as she could literally feel the greed rolling off the ‘Queen of Queens’. “Whoever manages to ‘secure’ Patina first will secure her project. Very well.”

As the five (One who will be informed later by Myxine when she wakes) agreed silently about Patina Gear. Whoever got to her first would secure what amounted to unlimited love.

The race to ‘secure’ Patina Gear was on.

Author's Note

Now then... Apologies about the wait. Haven't exactly abandoned the story, but when the army usually comes first...

But then again, that is just as excuse. I sincerely apologize about the wait and will attempt to upload every two to three days until the rewritten chapters are all up and slow down from there.

Thank you for your patience!

The Road South (Rewritten)

"Damn it!" Miasma screeched as she looked at her injured and scattered drones struggling to get back on their hooves as something far too sweet smelling was hindering her hive's soldiers that had resulted from a tripwired gas bomb. "I almost had her too!"

This was the aftermath of Miasma descending on what was assumed to be Patina's most recent hideout. Of course, all five major hives moved secretly to all those that lived around them and not to alert that they were moving large amounts of drones to capture one Patina Gear. But of course...

"HALT!"

"ARGH!" Miasma screamed angrily as her horn glowed a dark pinkish glow and promptly faded out of view along with her drones.

It was impossible to completely blind the eyes of the Pony Princesses to their ‘discreet’ movements. And every major hive moving was enough to make the Equestrian Guard that 'protected' Equestria to act. As the guards broke through the metal bulkhead that had trapped/protected Miasma long enough for her to use the rather convenient air ducts to escape. As the Royal Guards thundered into the room with their golden armor and spears, swords, and their unicorn horns aglow with magic, they found an abandoned stone-like bunker with absolutely nothing in it. As their commander cursed their luck, from nearly a kilometer away, three queens sat with their looks rather 'fuzzed' up. Ambrosia's normally smooth mane and tail were all 'scrambled' as if intense static electricity had passed through her, Myxine's own coat smelled suspiciously like vinegar, and Calliphora seemed to have pieces of strange grey colored material stuck in her mane and tail, which was nearly impossible to take off without cutting off her mane and tail. They all shared an annoyed look as they watched Miasma retreat to her temporary camp north of this 'hideout'.

"So... Friends for now?" Ambrosia stuttered/coughed slightly as comical blue arcs of electricity arced through her ruined mane.

"That..." Myxine sniffed her foreleg briefly before gagging. "would be nice..."

"This is the most simple trap I had ever seen though..." Calliphora mused as one of her drones held a pair of shears with its magic cutting off the ruined mane and tail as carefully as possible. "I think we are getting closer and closer to her."

Myxine nodded until two of her drones dumped a large bucket of water over her. She didn't bother reprimanding them as she relished the smell of vinegar being washed off. Ambrosia merely patted her mane and tail down best she could with her magic.

A flash of light erupted from the bunker then a loud sound of explosion forced the Changelings to flinch.

The hideout had detonated spectacularly, most likely killing all two dozen Guard ponies that had been chasing Miasma’s hive. If there was one thing common every hideout of Patina they found was that they, the Changelings, were assaulted by what could be called practical jokes; while when ponies entered, the base would explode once they reached the end of the hideout just as soon as the Changelings escaped using conveniently placed exits that only they could use..

All five major hives had done their best to track Patina after the ruined meeting down past Equestria's borders and down south, going straight past Ambrosia's former 'stomping' grounds, and into chaotic territory. A territory that no sentient creature claimed as their territory due to being 'wild' and 'uncontrollable'. But to Patina's hive, they appeared to be at home in such ‘wild’ territories.

That was an entire year ago.

Every time a former hideout was found, it was empty and had signs of being used, but always they were behind by days or at times, hours. And every hideout they found, a shards of knowledge in the form of documents, blueprints, and prototypes of various machines that the Queens were trying to figure out how they worked internally. The documents delved into strange technology that were far beyond their current abilities, the blueprints showed devices that seemed to be the stuff of science fiction stories, and the prototypes merely proved how ‘impossible’ the blueprints were at times. And if not for those prototypes of some of the blueprints they had seen, they would have disregarded Patina for a crazy nutjob with valuable technologies.

"She's most likely gone farther south seeing as she left another locational hint in the code within the documents.” And it was written in that strange language of hers that they barely managed to learn to read. Well, they had begun to read it after the three queens had 'joined' forces and began to share information amongst each other. Ambrosia had found the language book, Myxine had found the digital map within the lightweight tablet and Calliphora somehow always found the next coordinates. Miasma had preferred to always work alone and had even admonished them for working together. But every time, Miasma retreated the most humiliated. Chrysalis on the other hand had abandoned the search for a 'surprise' she had for the ponies that would be enacted soon.

"These next coordinates go rather far south." Calliphora commented dryly as she studied the paper the next coordinates were on. "I daresay this is the last location she can hide in."

Myxine took out a device made of flat hard plastic that appeared to be a frame until it activated to her magical signature. The central rectangular screen lit up with their location as a red dot and the area in a rather detailed topographical map.

"Let's see... 1...7..., 3... 1..., 5 South" Ambrosia read off the coordinates that Calliphora handed over to the younger Queen with the decoder document. "71, 45, 55 West. How's that for a change! No more of those papers to help!" Ambrosia boasted as she sat a bit taller.

"Brilliant. Now... What in the-" Myxine's eyes widened briefly before groaning.

"What's wrong, Myx? Is her hideout on top of a mountain?" Ambrosia asked as she looked at where the device had shown where Patina was next. "Or it could be in the middle of a massive river. How did she do that?"

"No, wait." Calliphora said as she quickly made her way to the cart that specifically carried documents on some alien fictional material that she had found interesting. "A base in the middle of a large river..." All that the two Queens could do was to watch Calliphora look through numerous gathered documents. The sun was already setting and their respective hives were already setting up a small camp to sleep the night knowing the next day would be more marching. At least Patina left large stores of her diluted artificial love at each camp to feed them for a while alongside canned fruits soaked in the diluted love.

As the three queens sat in the cart filled with the books with a makeshift tent over them, looking through them for any clues to the location of Patina's hideout. Ambrosia, like the young queen she was, was sleeping with a open book over her head and lightly snored as her hind leg twitched every so often as she was curled at one corner while the other two were looking through the books with enough focus to burn said books with their eyes.

"Do you still think this is all worth it?" Myxine softly spoke as she read the document slowly. "No matter how I look at it, this could all be just for a wild goose chase."

Calliphora merely smiled as she read her own book with her own pair of pink- frame glasses. 'It makes me look brilliant' she had said to Myxine when she had taken the glasses out for the first time. "Oh yes. She's more than she seems, you know. And you've seen her blueprints enough to determine what she is going for, don't you?" Myxine's ears flattened against her head as she sighed deeply as if all her fatigue caught up with her.

"Patina Gear... She better be worth all of this effort." Myxine's blue eyes narrowed as her speech suddenly gained venom. "If this is a wild goose chase, I'm going to smash her head open with a rock."

"Jaburo..." Calliphora said out loud as she began to intensely read something.

"What? Jabu-what?" Myxine looked up tiredly from the document she was levitating in front of her and looked at Calliphora.

"Here, read it. It matches the location, coordinates, and if Patina built it like it reads there..." Calliphora giggled tiredly before she released a yawn. "I... think I'll sleep before we discuss any further..." And as if the strings to a puppet were cut, Calliphora snoozed off rather quickly while Myxine continued to read the specific document handed to her.

"If that minor did create such a location, then we would be detected long before even reaching this place." Myxine dreaded whatever surprise Patina had in store for her and her fellow queens. She knew that to capture a fortress defended by an heavily entrenched force was nearly impossible to bypass with a simple frontal assault. Sadly, no blueprints, plans, or even documents existed on this underground 'mega-city' that Patina supposedly was building; so Myxine knew they would have to do this on the fly.

Myxine looked at the other two queens and smiled. She had never seen eye to eye with other Queens, but now? It felt rather good working together. Not only did working together make them slightly more efficient, it also gave them a wider array of options of act from. Each hive had their specialties and by combining their specialities, they had succeeded in 'capturing' every hideout with ease instead of struggling through them much like Miasma. As she lowered the document in the favor of sleep, Myxine wondered how Miasma was doing.

"WHY IS THERE A SWAMP HERE! IS THAT A HYDRA? RUN!!!"

Myxine shrugged. That arrogant prick was probably doing just fine.

Author's Note

Another rewritten chapter up.

I'll probably do two more by today.

And just so you know, my info for the battletech universe will come from and some technical books; while the Griffons will be inspired from the Astra Militarum mixed with the Imperial Navy.

Finding the Engineer (Rewritten)

The air detonated with hundreds of explosions as the entire skyline above a massive river as dark ‘clouds’ of explosives were shot upwards from somewhere along the river banks. Large wooden airships armored with bolted metal plates that flew above the river rained down their own fire from armored turrets down to the ground below, but due to the thick foliage below they couldn’t accurately direct their fire. On top of a small forested hill sat a large hidden ball turret fitted with a single weapons platform that had numerous wires and armored hoses that appeared to be filled with light blue fluid that maneuvered to aim with massive motors. A brilliant blue ball of what appeared to be lightning erupted from the end of the barrel with the sound of a slight whine of the air ionizing. Alongside the large armored turret were smaller turrets that looked similar to the larger turrets firing a staccato of rounds rapidly from their quad-linked cannons against the airships with their armor-piercing high explosive shells. As the large gun rotated to target another airship and released its bolt of ionized energy again, this time aimed at a ariship that had been hidden behind another airship that had been torn into two by the earlier blast of energy, and scored a direct hit into the middle of the armored airship.

The effect was instant. The flying vessel armor boiled away while the wood instantly burst into flames and detonated as the searing energy from the naval particle projector cannon (N-PPC) detonated the black powder within. None would survive the explosion and the subsequent crash.

Four of these massive weapons were all firing upwards as armored Griffon airborne infantry descended to the ground wielding halberds, black powder rifles, and small round shields to fight their enemy on the ground to either capture the turrets or destroy them.

But it was not to be.

From well-hidden concrete bunkers hidden by camo nets, effective camouflage patterns, and local foliage; large caliber machine guns were locked, loaded, and aimed at the descending Griffons. With a press of a button, the weapons roared out their tracer rounds into the steel armored Griffons while releasing a stream of ammunition casings into the floor of their bunkers. The ‘battle’ was utterly one-sided. Their steel armor became their undoing as metal shattered and bent, turning the shattered armor into a weapon against its wearer, which was compounded by the large caliber rounds of the heavy machine guns that tore the attackers in half or into lumps of feathers and flesh. The attackers desperately fired their own weapons to little effect. Their rudimentary ‘autoguns’ lacked uniform rifling, and were highly inaccurate unless fired in groups or in close range. And in these situations where the enemy was protected by several feet thick reinforced concrete and metal; that also fired out hot stinging death at speeds their own weapons were not capable of?

It was a massacre for troops descending or even in the air.

Within minutes, nearly all of the infantry had been utterly annihilated, their airships retreating as fast as they could with only three airships afloat with massive damages across their hulls, and their morale utterly crushed from losing an airfleet of fifteen ships. Their enemy was far too entrenched and protected behind strange powerful weapons. Nothing short of a full scale invasion with soldiers in the millions would be capable of breaching the hidden fortress.

Hundreds of dead bodies littered the ground with their armor, weapons, and their airships rendered into nothing but burning scraps of wood and melted metal slowly cooling. As the day turned to night from the ‘siege’, the three allied hives had arrived onto the field of carnage with mixed opinions and trepidation.

Calliphora understood why Myxine and Ambrosia would throw up at the sight before them. She was used to seeing the decomposition of a corpse and was familiar with the stench of death due to where her hive used to live, but this?

"Thei- *Urp* Their Griffons, aren't they?" Myxine held back the sour aftertaste of bile in her throat while Ambrosia was being tended by her drones with cups of water mixed with the sweet taste of love.

"Well, dead Griffons." Calliphora levitated a somehow clean piece of shattered armor and wiped some of the blood off using magic. "Now this is interesting."

"What is?" Ambrosia weakly asked as she turned her head away from the gruesome sight. She might be somewhat used to dying bodies, but the sheer carnage before her was too much for even her.

On the piece of armor was a rather ornate insignia with brown wings and a single circle in the center with two golden 'claws'. The official insignia of the Griffon Empire and it brought many questions to Myxine. Why were the Griffons even here? As far as she knew, this land was unclaimed and-

"So that's it." Myxine nodded as she turned to face the two other queens. "These Griffons were most likely here to 'claim' these lands until they seemed to have ran headfirst into our quarry."

"Then..." Ambrosia paled under her black coat. "Little Patina's hive did all this?"

"Most likely not." Calliphora said as she motioned to their drones. "It takes a full three months to birth a single drone and we know she is young. If I remember, her hive was at fifty drones last meeting, was she not?" Myxine nodded. "Even if she spent an entire year sitting here and gorging on love to produce more drones, she would only have a maximum of a hundred at the cost of damaging her ability to birth more."

Funny how Changeling reproduction worked. When a queen birthed eggs during their moments in ‘heat’, they would have normally been in the dozen. But if they had gorged on love, they would be able to birth more, usually at the cost of damaging their reproductive organs. All that is then required is a 'goop' produced by Changelings from the holes in their legs and a little bit of love to begin the growth process which is three months and then they emerge fully grown.

"No. Patina would not risk that. If anything, she would have relied on her technology." Myxine concluded as she lit her horn in a deep blue glow and tore a piece of cloth from their carts and wrapped it around her muzzle so that some of the smell didn't get to her. "We should look for the entrance of this fortress before it gets too dark."

The drones and the two other queens followed how Myxine was blocking the smell of partially cooked flesh and death before them. They stopped before a crashed airship that was still burning and decided to determine how far the Griffons had advanced technologically compared to what they had seen with Patina's technological progress with the found documents.

"It's certain that the Griffons are much more advanced than the ponies if all of this wasn't in pieces. Look at this." Myxine motioned to where her drones had dug out a rather sizable engine with several massive metal propellers. "If four of these lifted this vessel in the air, carried weapons, and ground troops; then imagine their larger vessels with larger engines or multiple versions of these."

"Impressive... For a bunch of bird brains." Ambrosia grinned behind her mask until one of the wooden pile of scrap exploded outwards to reveal a fully armored Griffon wielding a large autogun with a large war-hammer strapped across its armored back and the Changelings could see the madness behind the helmeted head of the Griffon.

"Bird Brain?! I'll show you scum BIRD BRAIN!" The Griffon screamed as he jumped at them while squeezing the trigger of his weapon. His wings were broken due to how they looked, but didn't seem to hinder him at all. Ambrosia dove to the side as large rounds erupted from the barrel while the rest of the Changelings all quickly maneuvered to defend their respective Queens. "We came here to claim these uncontrollable lands and you scum claimed you were on it for more than three years ago! I'll kill of of you an-"

The Griffon's infuriated rant was halted by something that was most definitely out of a fictional book. A bipedal machine standing almost 11 meters tall and armored head to toe by blocky armor and had a large rectangular glass panel that revealed an armored changeling wearing a fully enclosed helmet with a vest worn on its barrel within the ‘head’. Its left arm was different from the right as it possessed a small shield with a four-fingered hand. The right arm was nothing more than a large bore cannon emerging from where the hand would be that was aimed at the Griffon. The surviving armored Griffon could only whimper pathetically as the machine simply brought its massive feet down on him without any ceremony and the Changelings couldn’t hear the crushing of bones and metal due to the sound of the bipedal mech’s joints.

The three queens could only swallow the dry lumps in their throats as they watched the massive machine aimed its cannon at them and motioned quickly to the right. One of the Changelings under Ambrosia's hive hissed foolishly, and was met only by silence as the machine merely aimed its blocky torso at the ruined airship and fired two lances of green energy that burned far too easily into the remaining armor platings of the airship. It turned back to the assembled Changelings with two slightly cooling circles in its chest with a haze of heat swirling around them. It once again motioned to the right with its cannon arm while Myxine began to hear more and more heavy stomping.

When they crested a hill to where the giant war machine was motioning them to go, every Changeling froze at the sight of nearly seven more of the giant machines walking around with its massive weapons.

"Look. Several seems different from the one we just saw." Calliphora pointed out as she glanced at the machine watching their movement with its massive cannon still aimed at them. And indeed in the distance were slightly more bulkier machines alongside smaller ones that moved much faster than their larger cousins. The other seven occasionally fired their weapons downwards, most likely killing any Griffons that had survived the battle. "We should move. The one behind seems to be agitated."

Myxine and Ambrosia quickly took a peek backwards and immediately began to trot as the mech behind them was aiming the cannon directly at them. The three queens were led to a rather large clearing where they finally noticed two Changelings with smaller wings than normal, feminine shape, and bright orange mane and tail; wearing what appeared to be a bulky olive green vest wearing fully enclosed helmets with tinted visors. They merely shared a look before one of the helmeted Changeling’s horn lit up a reddish orange hue. Instantly, the ground behind the strange drones rumbled and the queens and their hives noted that the ground was nothing more than a facade for two massive metal doors that were sliding into their housing sideways. Under the massive gates was an entirely armored ground that was smooth and revealed a tunnel going downwards, deeper in to the ground.

"Where are you taking us?" Myxine simply asked seeing as there were the two giant machines behind them. Any antagonization would be a disaster for them. The lead Changeling, merely pointed deeper down the tunnel. "Are you..."

"They are my drones, Queen Myxine." A voice from within the tunnel immediately alerted their attention to the voice that they had been searching for. "I apologize for the messy situation upstairs. The Griffons were getting too pushy for my liking and attacked me to 'claim the land for their Emperor'."

And in that instant, their goal stepped out from the shadows flanked by strangely armored Changelings. Patina herself still had her goggles on the top of her head and also had the same olive drab colored jacket draped over her body. It had a strange sewn badge that looked like four silver diamonds placed in a cross pattern with a black circle in the middle. And on the top of her head was a beret cap with the same symbol on it as well. The two armored Changelings to her sides had the similar uniform on, but also had strange dark grey colored armor plating that held two mounted devices attached to mechanical arms. One of which sported a rectangular device with a slim barrel that had a coil of wires that were attached to the right mounting while the left weapon was a slimmer weapon with a strange white block attached to the side. The Changelings also wore armored helmets in the same color as the back mounted devices that shielded their horns and had smooth clear orange visors over their eyes. The device didn't seem to hinder their wings, but seeing as the devices moved with their heads, it was easy to tell that the devices on their back were weapons.

"Patina Gear?" Calliphora seemed to be most surprised at the young queen, who looked to be far too tired and frustrated for her liking. "Are you alright?"

Both Myxine and Ambrosia could also see the signs of lack of sleep and some form of burden on the younger queen’s shoulders. Under her eyes were bags and even her entire body seemed to be lackluster in movement. The Patina from an year ago somehow always had a bright look in her eyes, a spring in her step, and the eagerness to do something. But now?

"Me? Oh, I'm absolutely fine." The sarcasm in her voice was very thick and impossible to miss. "For an entire year, I laid about twenty more drones, fought off wave after wave of Griffon attacks, concentrated on building this base, building defenses while being attacked, maintaining battlemechs, and did I mention that I have not slept for a full week?" She was snarling now. "But you don't seem to care about that do you? I might have used your search for me to 'unite' some of the major hives and show what I can do, but I can tell that’s not why you are here. So don't mind me, I'm just going to go to my command center and determine what the Griffons are cooking up next after this loss."

With her piece said, the young queen angrily stomped back further into the tunnel, prompting Calliphora to move forwards, but was halted by a bulkhead closing behind the young queen after she had turned into a hallway on the side of the tunnel. Another entrance, headed in the opposite direction of Patina, opened up revealing a drone, dressed similarly like Patina with a patch that possessed a blue triangle with two slim blue bars above said triangle with an smaller golden triangle on the top of the larger triangle finished with a slim golden bar on the top of it all, stepped forwards with an awkward smile on her face.

"Please follow me. I'll show you to your quarters while you are here." Her voice was low, yet smooth as she waited for the three queens to walk up to her. "Please excuse mother. She has been under extreme stress due to the Griffon attacks for the last few months."

"Mother?" Myxine looked at the drone strangely before looking at an equally confused Calliphora and Ambrosia.

"Oh, our 'queen' hates to be called 'queen' and seeing as we are her flesh and blood, have been cleared to call her as such. We also call her mostly by 'Miss Patina', the military sector calls her ‘Kommandant-General’, and the science division calls her 'Professor Patina'." Myxine nodded in slight understanding and moved to follow the drone that was now leading them in the brightly lit tunnel.

"So, your 'mother' has been under stress?" Calliphora asked in a worried tone as she walked alongside the drone.

"Indeed. At first, she was dismayed at being found out on her Love Generation Engine project; but that was turned into 'lessons' for your chasing hives. Did you not find it strange how each hive found different things that led you here eventually?" There was no arguing there. They had found it strange how each hive found different things that 'combined' into one thing, but that was a 'lesson'?

"So... we have been going through the mucky south to learn to work with each other?" Ambrosia asked with a slightly awed look in her face. "That's so brilliant~"

"But alas, the recent skirmishes with the Griffons had... upset her." At this, Myxine looked at the Changeling with a curious glance.

"Since when?" The drone stopped and pawed the ground with her foreleg.

"Nine months ago." Her voice was lower than before. "They came out of nowhere and 'ordered' us to cease all we are doing because they ‘declared’ that they had just claimed these lands for their emeperor. Miss Patina took offense to that and tried to negotiate with them, but..."

"That sounds like them, headstrong and thinking they own everything that the ponies don't touch." Myxine muttered as she remembered her own dealings with the Griffons.

"Yes, that describes them well. And when she merely threatened to drive them off, they attacked us at the negotiating table." Ambrosia moved next to the drone and peered at the drone’s barrel not covered by the jacket. It had been slightly bugging her the entire time that the drone had hidden her wings under the jacket, but had noticed something strange. The drone merely sighed as she stopped and took off the jacket to reveal broken chitin under the jacket, but that was not what shocked them the most. It was the layer of silver metal that adorned most of her barrel. "I... might not be alive right now if she had not sealed my wound with an artificial replacement of half of my organs."

"B-but how can a blade-"

"Not a blade, Miss Myxine. An autogun round that was designed with the express purpose of exploding within one’s body, but I was lucky as it detonated just as it exited my body. And technically speaking, I'm a cyborg seeing as I have machines within me." She put the jacket back on and continued to move. "Let's continue. I will have some of the staff bring up some food for you along with water. You must be thirsty after all of that walking." They could hear the faux cheerfulness and it rather worried them.

Two days later, the three queens could only look around their surroundings with both a mix of wonder and horror. They could see how efficiently the seventy plus drones work on various machines, but also some machines piloted by said drones setting up scaffolding and others working with strange tools that attached metal platings onto walls and worked with small wires using their magic.

But what really took them back was the massive cavern that currently housed two massive warehouses and three massive buildings that appeared to be living quarters combined with various facilities within. One of which was being used by them now.

"...I... really don't want to take the artificial love thingy now." Ambrosia whispered as she watched the Patina’s drones carrying various crates out using wheeled vehicles and were loading up larger ones into vehicles that hovered above the ground. "It doesn't seem right to just take it from her."

Both Calliphora and Myxine were in silent agreement. They had seen what Patina had been planning for an entire year by reading, studying, and learning the material she left behind to 'unite them’; but their goal had always been to take the artificial love generator for themselves. But seeing the wounded, tired, and some graves nearby; it made their greed seem so petty in the long run. Without Patina, all of their efforts would have been wasted and it would lead to their downfall seeing as they had abandoned nearly everything back in Equestria.

But what could they do?

Just as they were about to turn around and head towards their temporary quarters without any words being spoken amongst them, a shrill alarm that sounded sent Patina's hive into a frenzy of movement with wide eyes and frantic movement.

"All to your positions! The Griffons are back with their Bombard Ships and skirmishing cruisers! All to your positions!" Patina's voice screamed from the loud speakers mounted on metal poles that also mounted electric lights.

"I don't know what Bombard ships and skirmishing cruisers are, but I do know that it doesn't sound friendly." Calliphora had a serene feel about her as she closed her eyes and looked at the high ceiling of the underground base. "Nekorpolis... To me!"

Instantly, crimson colored Changelings moved quickly from their resting positions and moved before their queen. Calliphora opened her eyes to reveal her semi-clear eye lid over her real eye and hissed. The hive mimicked their queen and moved. The entire Nekropolis hive, excluding Calliphora zoomed to where Patina's drones were loading the boxes as quickly as possible and began to assist Patina’s drones. Immediately shaking their own shock off, Patina's uniformed drones took control as they barked out orders to which the Nekropolis hive moved to fulfill.

"Queen Calliphora, cease your actions! This is general quarters against an enemy that will kill on sight! I will not have the deaths of your-" The loud speakers were silenced by a smug looking Ambrosia who grinned as she floated over a bunch of cut wires from the tower and landed where one of the box-loaded hover vehicle was.

"My dearies... Can you help the poor little Patina's hive out? I can't bear seeing such brave Changelings go to Tartarus so early." Ambrosia 'begged' her hive with a cute pout on her muzzle as she looked on with large ‘tear-filled’ eyes. "Oh, and make sure those mean birds get roasted well." With that said, the Honeycomb hive flew to wherever Patina’s drones directed them to the massive machines rotating and rumbling as dusts fell to the ground from the shockwaves from incoming fire and retaliatory fire from the fortress. She herself began to trot to the command center of the underground base where most could feel the helpless anger from the young queen.

"Ugh." Myxine rubbed the base of her horn with annoyance and glanced at her hive, who seemed to be unsure of what to do. "What in Tartarus are you bumbling idiots doing! Get out there and help! And if I hear that you idiots slacked off, I'll see to it that you dig all of the rock with your bare hooves!"

Myxine's Hagfish hive moved as if they were being chased by mountain sized dragons that had a taste for Changelings. Myxine herself joined Ambrosia on the way to the circular command centre that had various drones coming in and out. Just as they and a slightly winded Calliphora reached the door of the base, a tired Patina greeted them with an annoyed look on her face.

"We'll talk after we burn the birds to dust. But I'll let you know that I am not happy right now."

Ambrosia giggled as she merely brushed her tail across Patina's muzzle as she walked past her and into the command centre.

"Patina dear, just know that we are no longer here for your device." Calliphora said simply as she walked past the annoyed queen and walked through the metal blast doors. Myxine merely walked up to Patina and glared at her.

"I can frankly careless if you are happy or not. But right now, you need our help and we need yours." Myxine took a deep breath and sighed. "I'm willing to put aside my pride to work alongside you, Patina Gear. Those two might have accepted you for one reason another, but as of yet, I am not impressed." Patina merely glared back as she hissed.

"Well, then. Allow me to impress you after the battle." Myxine merely glared and moved to enter the room. Patina watched Myxine enter and hid a tired smile. "...At least we can work together..."

Perhaps it was this moment to which the Changelings began to properly unite. Perhaps it was not. But nonetheless, it was the first step into a much brighter future for the Changelings.

Author's Note

And so it begins.

The battlemech they see is the Centurion! https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Centurion_(BattleMech)

Visually, its the Mechwarrior Online version. As much as I enjoy the Battletech franchise, their older art is a bit... lacking.

Of Knowledge Shared (Rewritten)

"She won’t ever agree to anything I put out." Patina ground out loud as she sat in the warm pool of water within a large bath that was in one of the facilities built by Patina’s drones. Sitting across from her were Myxine, Ambrosia, and Calliphora; whom were all relaxing in the warm water. Ambrosia was snoozing at the edge with her head on a soft pillow, Myxine was using her magic to levitate a datapad and was reading reports compiled by Patina's hive, and Calliphora was merely washing her mane thoroughly with the warm water via letting her mane sink beneath the water.

"I understand your annoyance, but having her on our side is better than having the other." Myxine commented dryly as she placed the datapad on a distant shelf so the device didn't break in the water. "And considering she does have the numerical advantage, she would provide the perfect military while you could focus on developing more technologies that you want or need to develop."

"But I can-" Patina weakly started as Myxine gently placed her foreleg on the younger queen’s shoulder.

"And as I said earlier, one mind is not enough to start a technological revolution." Myxine tiredly said as she slid into the warm soothing water. "Just... show us what to do and let us help you."

Patina looked away as she used her free hoof to rub the location where her artificial leg used to be. Her limb was waterproof, but it was glitching twice a day; so she had removed it to undergo maintenance.

"But I can't just teach you." Patina muttered lowly as she sank deeper into the warm water. "I really can't."

"Why? Is it some kind of world ending secret?"

"No, not really."

"Worried that we're going to abandon you afterwards?"

"No, I know I am too valuable."

"Then why?!" Myxine hissed in annoyance as she jabbed an accusing hoof at Patina.

"I had been taught theories, principles, and numerous things since I was a hatchling." Patina sighed as she looked down into the water glumly. "It's just too complicated to just 'learn' within less time."

Myxine blinked owlishly and deflated as she sank back in the water in a drained manner. Calliphora merely shook her head with an amused grin that both queens could see to their utter dismay.

"Don't you have some kind of thingy to... I don't know, dump raw knowledge into our noggins?" Ambrosia yawned out loud as she woke up from her warm bath induced nap.

Ambrosia woke up quickly and backed up slightly as Patina rapidly approached with a bright grin. The stars in her eyes were bright and it appeared as if she had 'regained the spark of innovation'.

"It's so brilliant! Thank you, Ambrosia!" Patina jumped out of the water, balancing excellently on her three hooves, quickly dried herself outside of the bath, smoothed her mane and tail with a brush within seconds, and zoomed out of the building towards the large spheroid structure that was the center of the underground fortress. The three major queens blinked owlishly at the ridiculously quick departure before they all simply just burst into soft laughter.

"What are you planning to do now, Myxine?" Calliphora inquired of the coastal Changeling Queen as she brushed her mane with a provided brush using her magic.

"Depending on what Patina is planning now..." Myxine's face softened for a moment. "I have to say that the brat could do much better than Chrysalis could, despite her age."

"I’m going to stay here! The food Patty's drones make is so delicious!" Ambrosia squealed in delight as she drooled slightly upon remembering what they had been served. The other two nodded in silent agreement. Thanks to the artificial love being more liquid than crystal, she had been able to use it to make bread, noodles, candies (which were far more sweeter than their normal counterparts), and many more seeing as it could easily be substituted for water upon dilution. Her claims of utilizing the diluted love as the liquid substitute for growing various products had been validated. Not to mention that a single loaf of love-infused bread could have a Changeling drone live off it for three months if rationed. Add Patina's thick vegetable broth and numerous noodle dishes that tasted savory with a hint of sweetness from the infused love, to which their hives and they themselves fell in love with. "I want to eat another one of those ramen things again!"

"I am also considering staying, but I would like to convince Patina to come to a meeting with her technology and show them what we could become if united." Myxine raised an eyebrow at Calliphora’s suggestion.

"Chrysalis wouldn't allow it. That idiot likes her current position far too much to risk all other Queens to join Patina’s cause. Even with our support, we wouldn't..." Myxine paused as she noticed Calliphora pointing outside at the two ‘lances’ of the battlemechs. "Calliphora, ponies won't like seeing ten to twelve meter tall metal giants stomping around in their country."

"That's not what I meant. We bring them here." Calliphora smirked as she placed a brush back onto its holder. "We bring them here and show what Patina is capable of. And if you think it's a risk by revealing it within a meeting, we'll bring one hive at a time."

"That sounds much better for the current situation. One of us can go out with a few examples of what Patina makes and reveal that three major hives are actively supporting her. Then we could bring their entire hives here and could assist us with this location’s construction..." Myxine smiled as she rubbed her fore hooves together. "And when we've made sure we have their loyalty and combined numbers with Patina's weapons, not even those pansy Princesses of the ponies would be a match."

"Then it's decided. We'll inform Patina when we meet her." Myxine and Calliphora nodded in agreement, but Ambrosia was far too busy tending to her looks and noticed that it was silent.

"Did something happen?" The sound of Myxine's hoof meeting her face was audible even from a sealed room in which Patina was working in.

Myxine looked suspiciously at the massive array of screens and wires that had four helmets with wires ranging from large to small connected to it. Ambrosia, on the other hoof, was strangely focused intensely at Patina's explanation of the machine.

"This could either be our solution or it would just make us brain dead from information overload. But the risks outweigh the faults. By using neurohelmets’ ability to synchronize with the mind as a basis, It would theoretically allow me to sync our minds to 'pass' my understanding and knowledge of the technology I have developed or hope to develop to you. And what could be weeks in our minds would be seconds or minutes as our minds 'move' faster than our bodies. And I personally can't wait to try it out."

"Brain dead?" Myxine deadpanned as she jabbed a hoof into Patina's chest. "You want to risk us going brain dead to share your knowledge?! I refu-" Myxine blinked as she suddenly found herself tied into a chair bolted down to the ground with the helmet above her head. "What in the- CALLIPHORA! RELEASE ME!"

Said queen merely whistled a random tune as she placed another helmet on her head and smiled demurely at the tied down queen. Myxine also noticed that her hive were being tied down by both Ambrosia's and Calliphora's. Just as she was about to screech, a golden honey colored goo suddenly wrapped around her muzzle, silencing her. She glared bloody murder at Ambrosia and then at Calliphora.

"Miss Myxine, I was actually joking about the brain dead thing. That could only happen if someone purposefully attacks us while using this machine." Patina comforted the older queen with a smile to which Myxine began to struggle more when she noticed the slight madness behind her eyes. "Let's begin!"

As Patina placed her own helm on her head, one of her drones pressed several buttons and the massive behind them lit up with a golden glow. Immediately, Myxine's struggles ceased rapidly alongside hesitant looks shared by the drones. Seeing as they were connected to their queens via the 'hive mind', they would also partially receive the knowledge that Patina shared in a less invasive method. And for a brief moment, the golden glow switched to a bright green color before changing back into its golden hue without being noticed by the worried drones of all four hives.

+++

"P-Patty..." Ambrosia sobbed as she hugged the smaller queen intensely, making said queen quite uncomfortable. The transfer was more or less successful, but it had transferred more than Patina’s intricate knowledge. "That's so sad..."

"I got over it a long time ago, Miss Ambrosia. Please don't treat me like a invalid, I'm anything but." Patina struggled to escape Ambrosia's grasp while Myxine looked at the massive cave ceiling seemingly in silent thought.

"Aliens from outer space..." Calliphora, sitting on a comfortable cushion around a picnic table in a grassy part of the base, asked Patina with a far away look in her eyes. "While being so convenient and troubling, is how we are going to survive?"

"Sadly, that is the basis for my technology and the LGE" Patina groaned as she gave up trying to escape Ambrosia's hold. "The benefit of ridiculously advanced technology was just a bonus."

"But you did something that made your LGE's primary core? The fusion of magic and machines?" Calliphora looked at the massive spheroid ship that sat a distance away.

"Indeed. While the machine requires pure love as a starting ingredient for the magical components, all I had to do was to figure out how to make the mechanical part produce it as accurately as possible by utilizing the man-machine interface that the humans used on a day-to-day basis. That took a better part of two year to make, and the best produced was in liquid form. And seeing as I've been feeding my own hive with the artificial love-grown produce and foods, we have had no abnormal rejections and have been great for my hive." Patina hummed as she looked over where some of their drones were working together on various projects.

A drone, newborn or not, accessed the hive mind for information on how to survive. Only a Queen's private memories are inaccessible, but general knowledge of something could be shared. And that meant that while they were not all brilliant scientists, they had bits and pieces to go off of to develop new things by giving a new view of an existing theory.

"We would require nearly every hive on this planet to complete this base within a decade." Myxine said in a low voice as she looked at Patina. "Mind you, that is if the ponies and griffons don’t bother us at all."

"Not really." Patina moved forward with Ambrosia still holding tightly onto her barrel. "In order to reduce the number of workers, I'm trying to develop a fabrication unit that would turn existing mass or energy into a form we want with everything already built. So theoretically, I could finish the base in half that time if I finish this project." Patina sighed briefly before rubbing her forehead gingerly. "The only issue is the-"

"Necessary power. To have a machine pull that off, you're going to need ridiculous amounts of energy that you just don't have right now." Myxine finished and looked at the incomplete generator housing that was being built in the distance. "But that was without the needed workers and materials. You have our support now, Patina."

Both Calliphora and Ambrosia nodded in agreement and Patina could only nod in happiness. Perhaps, there was a chance that the Changelings could be united under a common cause.

Author's Note

Updated.

Slightly more unsure of how artificial love is created, but i'll expand on that later.

Going to keep updating!

Of Progress and The Beginning (Rewritten)

Dozens of thick wires, as thick as a Changeling's foreleg, were attached to a rectangular device that had a 'cover' sticking up with various emitters within. Myxine, wearing a pair of tinted protection goggles, watched a computer screen with various power nodes and charts that were slowly steadying itself and finally nodded to one of Patina's drones assisting on this project. The drone merely pressed a series of buttons and the various spotlights of the testing area flickered for a moment before a steady hum of energy being transferred could be heard.

With a bright corona of energy, a pulse of pinkish violet energy erupted from the opening of the fusion engine behind meters of metal, concrete, and glass. The bright glow began to sear the confines of the testing chamber, but Myxine focused intensely on the screen before her. With no loss of energy from the engine within, Myxine nodded to another drone who pressed a single red button.

Various electrodes alongside magical crystals descended from the ceiling slowly as arcs of raw fusion energy were being directed into the pony-sized crystals they had mined from the underground fortress. The crystals began to hum with untold energies as fusion energy was rapidly absorbed into the crystal.

"Readings stable!" Myxine ignored the drone that yelled that out. While unsure if she was capable of the same things... the 'humans' were capable of, she had wanted to have something to jingle over their heads. And if this succeeded...

As the smoke steadily cleared away, Myxine couldn't help but to grin in an excited manner. It had been awhile since she had grinned in pure excitement, hadn't she?

Who said she couldn’t create a fusion of magic and technological reactor that outstripped even the Colossus DropsShip’s own fusion reactor?

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Ambrosia glared at the computer in front of her with a hint of annoyance. Even with the knowledge of how to use them, she realized quickly that she had no proficiency with technology. All she had found out in the last hour was how to turn it on and off... By jabbing several of the large buttons with her hooves. And while it did turn itself on, she had yet to figure out Patina’s equine friendly Operating System. Using her magic to move the 'mouse', she moved it over a random 'software' and clicked on it as the handy set of instructions from one of her drones who had written to her after he had volunteered to work in the command centre of the underground base as a logistical support staff.

As the program started up without much problems as the instructions said, quickly frowned when she realized it was the wrong program before noticing a whole bunch of random buttons. Noticing a bright red circle, Ambrosia clicked on it and noticed time moving alongside what appeared to be pulses of something.

"I’m going to have him come and teach me instead of writing things out" She blinked in confusion as the pulses increased in size when she had spoken. "What is that?" Pressing the red button again, she blinked when it stopped moving and that there was another button that was on in the form of a sideways triangle. Wondering what it did, she pressed it with the mouse and was startled by her own voice being played with the exact words she had just spoken.

"So it records like those large black discs the ponies use!" If it could record other sounds and voices, she could record everything she sang or said! "That is so cool!"

A drone wearing a bright orange engineer outfit yawned as it walked into an elevator and it's ears twitched as it heard something from within the Queen-exclusive floor. It was the sound of singing and various instruments playing. A pause and the same sound played. It's tired posture visibly changed as it began to walk out from doing maintenance on the air-conditioning on the building.

That tune was rather catchy though.

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Muffled sounds of snap-hiss came from a massive warehouse a distance away from the apartment complex that the current four combined hives lived in. Dozens of Changelings, wearing the combat harness that armored their legs, barrel, and head along with their horns; firing the smaller of the weapons on them while another group fired bright crimson streaks of energy from the rectangular device with their extended barrels with both their aim being linked to where the Changeling was looking.

"Switch!" Patina shouted over the din and the ones firing the mounted needler rifle switched their current weapons for the beam by a swift mental command using the modified neurohelmets while ones firing the infantry laser rifles switched to the needler rifles.

Neurohelmets were an unique piece of technology that she had taken full advantage of. Brainwave to machine interfaces that was modified and outfitted as infantry helmets, seeing as 'magic' also worked directly linked with the brain, and allowed for nigh instant mechanical communication between brain and machine without jabbing machines into the brain. So theoretically, a unicorn might be able to use it, even other types of ponies with modification; but the machine itself worked only with Changelings as was DNA locked.

Patina's smile was getting larger by the moment as targets at 500 meters were being obliterated with ease and the needler rifles quite literally never jammed. As some of the weapons clicked from being out of munitions, another armored Changeling from the back ran forward with its own unique harness. Instead of the weapons, this Changeling mounted a single metal box filled with blocks of polymer-composite along with a pair of three-fingered mechanical arms. The arms moved swiftly as it lifted the loading cover while another grabbed a block of white reinforced plastic from the box and inserted the block into the weapon. It tapped the shooting Changeling on the back twice to resume fire and fell back quickly to the rear

All of this reloading in less than four seconds.

Their military still required more training, more equipment, and vehicles; but for now, she could finally be proud to call herself a Changeling. She would make sure that it was Quality that mattered, not Quantity.

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Calliphora adjusted the light on her personal desk while she admired the numerous devices that were in her own room. Myxine and Patina had preferred to be in the research and development, Ambrosia... had wanted to do what she does best; so it had fallen to her to take the reins of their 'organization' as best as her quirky self could. A computer on her desk, printer that was on the side of the room, a telephone like device also on her desk, and so much more. She adjusted the dark olive colored uniform with a patch that Patina had, but with a crimson color instead of the yellow hue that she wore as a symbol of leadership. With every other Changeling drone wearing olive green with blue arrows and golden bars to denote their rank, the Queens were wearing similar silver ‘crosses’ with black half-spheres in the center. Hers, however, also had an outer black circle that placed her as the ‘General of the Armies’.

Pressing various items on the computer, she had to appreciate how much easier things had become with the 'advent' of computers. Instant messages from one end of the base to another without talking, ability to calculate nearly anything given, and a much more organized method of things that could be done with the machine.

But if there was one thing that leadership brought on was paperwork. While it was a small pile as of now, she knew that if more hives joined, the stack would grow larger and she rather dreaded that as it appeared she was being placed in charge of their military. But that was the gift of being the leader of the third largest hive, so who was she to complain?

Opening the first file with her magic, her good mood immediately shattered as she read the report from one of her drones still located in Equestria. Slamming her head on her desk, she pressed the button to the intercom to call all of the queens together to the meeting room below her office.

It seemed as if their 'Queen of All Queens' was going to do something incredibly stupid.

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"Only Chrysalis could think of such an idiotic plan and hope that it would work." Myxine muttered within one of their newly constructed Barouche hover military transports sitting alongside the other three queens along with three guards; two with the weapons mount and the one other with the reloading mount.

"Not hope, she 'thinks' it will work." Patina growled frustratedly as she sat in the driver's seat, driving the hover vehicle nimbly through the woods. "Doesn't she realize that if she fails, all of the wrong attention would be on us?"

"Even I think impersonating royalty is stupid." Ambrosia made her annoyance known as she stomped her left hoof on the wooden crate they had brought with them.

"That I agree. And the adopted niece of Princess Celestia is the target." Calliphora's scowl was downright frightening seeing as she had her second set of eyelid over her eyes. "No matter what happens, we would be hunted by the Royal Guards and the Princesses in the long run. We will lose in the end."

"That's why we brought some firepower, proof that we could live without love from ponies, and even brought this truck to prove that we can do better than our dear 'Queen of All Queens' Chrysalis." Patina stated as she slowed the vehicle down. "We're here."

The four clothed Queens alongside eight armored Changelings from within the massive 24.5 ton cargo hull with a single large tarp covering something in the middle stepped off the rear of the military hover transport while hovering the wooden crate behind them using magic. Approaching the hidden entrance, a Changeling from Chrysalis' hive landed in front of them after jumping down from a nearby tree and hissed.

"You are late! Queen Chrysalis is-" The drone couldn't finish as a dart shot into his side, knocking him out quickly.

"Is going to have to wait." Patina said as she nodded to one of her Spec Op drones holding a large rifle and moved the hidden wooden door open. The three major queens and one minor queen made their way into the hall with the air of silent fury.

"-And with the capture of both Princesses of Equestria, we will have the solution to our food problems!" Chrysalis shouted from within as a rather loud cheer erupted from the other gathered queens.

"Does that idiotic bitch want to get us isolated and exterminated?" Patina audibly growled as she unpinned a flashbang grenade and threw it into the room just as the twelve Changelings outside the room possessing customized visors over their eyes performed takedown moves just as the non-lethal grenade erupted into a bright flash of light, followed by agonized screams about their eyes.

"That light... Patina!" Chrysalis hissed as she attempted to rub her eyes with her hooves to clear the white spots out of her vision. "Whe-" A cold metal hoof went smoothly around her neck and felt immense pressure as whoever had a hoof around her began to squeeze.

"Listen to me carefully, Chrysalis. I respected you for partially bringing the Changelings together. I respected you for settling the most idiotic of arguments between hives. But this is a suicidal run that would bring the worst down upon us." Chrysalis' muzzle looked to an angry Patina who had her held in a choke hold. "Listen to me, my fellow Queens! What happens after the two Princesses are imprisoned? The ponies still outnumber us five to one, they quite literally have the magic on their side, and then 'captured' Princesses... Do you really think we, shape-shifters who specialize in deception, can hold two several thousand year old beings for long?" Immediately, the other queens looked uneasy at hearing that. Myxine, whom had been sitting on her place on the stone table as if nothing had happened after walking up after the white flash of light, decided to give her own thoughts of the situation.

"And even if we do somehow win, how would we be able to produce love efficiently? By draining them dry using Chrysalis' methods? How long would that even feed us? By my best estimation, we would essentially turn all of the ponies into emotionless husks within a decade. Then where do we get more love? The battle-crazy Griffons?" She paused for a moment. "Now that I mention it, isn't the Griffon Kingdom allied with the ponies? If we do indeed take over Equestria, the Griffons would be 'honor-bound' to attack us on sight. With how we are currently, we wouldn't even last a year against the Griffons."

"Not to mention that 'love' from forced extraction tastes horrible!" Ambrosia declared as she crossed her forelegs over her chest who had been sitting amongst the minor queens unnoticed until now. "And would we really extract love from captured ponies? They'd only feel fear, pain, and other negative emotions that are bad for us! Do you want that? I don't!"

"Err..." Patina looked at a stunned looking Miasma, who had been watching them silently ever since recovering.

"What?" Ambrosia asked when Miasma looked at a slowly choking Chrysalis and back at Patina.

"So... you found her." Miasma stated as she looked between the three somewhat seated 'major' queens.

"Of course, we did. And just in case you want to ask us about Patina, we'll tell you later." Calliphora smiled mysteriously as she motioned for the wooden crate that had been delivered to the front of the stone hall. "Patina, would you be a dear and free Chrysalis? We still need her."

Grumbling audibly, she released Chrysalis and snarled as she crushed a rock under her artificial limb. "We're not finished."

Chrysalis was about to shout for her guards, but froze at the sight of the eight armored Changelings that were sitting facing her with strange devices pointed at her. While she didn't know what they were, her survival instincts were screaming at her to avoid being hit by them. Merely nodding with a hateful glare, she watched Patina alongside the other queens who were now focused on the missing 'minor' Queen.

"Ehem!" Patina cleared her throat and adopted a unique tone of voice that sounded rather confident unlike her last presentation. "Remember how I was forcibly made to present my project last I was here? Artificial love, created by a fusion of science and magic to alleviate our problems with consumable love. One year has passed and I have more results to share.” Flicking her artificial hoof outwards, three mechanical fingers popped out with a click and she cackled inwards as she observed the shocked and surprised faces of some of the queens. Without any preamble, she pried the wooden crate’s top off with utter ease filled with several bottles of glowing pink liquid and filled with what appeared to be sandwiches, that when seen in low light seemed to have a slight pinkish glow to them. “As you can see, the bottles are filled with diluted love; nothing more than the concentrated love mixed with water in one to five ratio.” She twisted the top of one bottle open and drank it openly. She tossed the remaining bottle into the gathered queens as they caught them quickly with their own magic while she had two of her armed changelings pass out the sandwiches. “The sandwiches are also made using the diluted love as a replacement for water. The bread, lettuce, the sauce, and the soy-based patty are all made with crops from using diluted love as the watering replacement.”

A minor queen who had been given a sandwich looked at it warily, but quickly closed her eyes and bit down . Her eyes shot open and looked surprised at the relatively simple looking sandwich and back at a grinning Patina.

"It-It is love. I-I feel so much better now!" Now all of their attention was on Patina. She was grinning proudly and then proceeded to motion over one of her armed drones.

"And now, my drone.” She nodded to the armored Changeling and smiled as the drone quickly moved to a low, yet alert position to activate the two weapons mounted on the mechanical arms. “As you can see, they are armored with a synthetic muscle-based armor that allows nearly no restriction in movement alongside being light. They are protected against the most common offensive spells and weapons while being able to lose nearly no speed. For the weapons mounted on the mechanical arms are two weapons of amazing armor-piercing ability and suppression.” She turned back to the enraptured crowd all listening intently. “ I also have vehicles and machines capable of taking on the militaries of any nation with ease.”

"But alas... I do not have enough drones to produce enough components to support all of Equestria's hives. Even with Queen Myxine, Queen Ambrosia, and Queen Calliphora assisting me; we have yet to reach one hundred percent production capability of my machines." She appeared sad at that thought and hid a smile as several of the other minor queens looked interested at that bit.

"H-how much can one hundred percent percent produce in a day?" A meek Changeling Queen in the back asked as she quickly lowered her hoof when Patina looked at her with a smile.

"Full one hundred percent, theoretically, would produce 'Artificial Love' to a scale that would be considered infinite and construct more machines for our protection!" Patina said with her artificial fingers held in a fist. “Imagine it. Being able to stand against the mighty armies of the Griffons as equals! Being able to freely research magic in relative peace to surpass the ponies! Being able to challenge the Zebras’ numerical superiority with the sheer might of machines! We as Changelings can become a unified species capable of surpassing them all and even strive to explore the stars!” She finished her declaration with a stomp from her artificial hoof, cracking the stone underneath.

“A-are you going to lead us then?” The same Queen asked and Patina merely shook her head.

“I am an engineer and a Kommandant-General, that denotes me as an officer of the armed for- No.” She stood proudly as she could while displaying her uniform. “OUR armed forces. But I am not the General of the Armies.” She motioned over to a calm Calliphora who sat demurely as she drank elegantly from the plastic bottle filled with diluted love.

“Indeed. Push all of the boring tasks of command onto one of the eldest Queens in existence.” Calliphora joked as she didn’t move from where she was. “I feel as though Patina explained everything rather well, but allow me to add on something.” She turned her head to the rapt crowd and smiled softly. “Come with us to the Chaotic South. Come with us so that we may build a Commonwealth amongst the Hives. Come so that we may grasp our fates freely and without fear of being trapped. Come and see what we could become when united completely.”

“For we are the Umbra Commonwealth and I am it's Archon.”

In the background, Chrysalis could only stare in disbelief as she could feel her authority being taken away harshly and in the most cruel manner possible.

Right in front of her.

Author's Note

Rewritten! I'll do one more before I go to bed. Then I'll do more tomorrow.

Heh... Featured again? That's a good feeling.

Welp, I will be modifying some of the other OC Changeling hives for the rewrites and also...

Expect a far more bloodier encounter with Equestrian Royal Guard this time around. Cause without a BS anti-magic field, its going to be autocannon, missiles, lasers, and PPCs going everywhere.

LET'S GO!!!!!

Contact and Ideas (Rewrite)

The four allied Queens looked on at the various shocked and surprised looking Queens that had just recently made their way to the underground fortress tired and hungry, but also safe. They had certainly not expected over half of the hives to join them, but from how their drones looked starved... It was just pure luck that Patina had had revealed her progress at that moment. Other hives, having long found respect within Chrysalis, had hesitantly refused their offer and had decided to stand with Chrysalis. Some hives, including Miasma had decided to sit in the sidelines to do the thing they do best.

Whoever won, they would join them. A cheap tactic, but a valid and smart one.

"Eins! Have the others lead them to their new living quarters and explain the rules to them. And please specify how we will operate from now on. Also explain the three strike rule, understood?" Calliphora ordered one of Patina's drones, the 'cyborg' Senior Sergeant Major, and the drone smiled before saluting her and moving off to lead the newly arrived drones to their living area while the queens would be debriefed by Myxine at the Command center.

"Radar and cameras picked up large movement at the southern border of Equestria." Patina said in an offhand manner as she watched the new queens look awed at the massive underground installation from within a modified Savannah Master Hover Scout tank designed to be a ‘bus’ that went from facility to facility.

"Chrysalis?" Myxine inquired as she stifled a yawn from waking up thirty minutes ago and shook her head to stave off sleep.

"Surprisingly no. It's the ponies." Patina scoffed as she handed the other queens a manila folder. "Around ten detachments of fifty ponies each with three large troop transport airships."

"And you are not worried?" Calliphora looked at the brains behind this base.

"Let them come, I have naval grade weapons topside that can take apart the Griffon Bombard ships." Patina frowned at the memory. “Those airships are armored to the point where AC/2 (Autocannon) can only scratch them and require at least an AC/5 to damage them effectively.”

"So defensive weapons wise..." Calliphora looked at a smugly grinning Patina.

"Unless they somehow miraculously create battlemechs and armored cavalry in massive numbers, it would be like trying to steal gold from literally under an awake dragon's head." A modified hover ‘bus’ stopped in front of the command center and the driver saluted them as the drone held onto the wheel with his hooves. They all returned the salute as they left the transport. "But of course, all available troops will be out alongside our new tracked vehicles, or rather two Sekhmet Assault Vehicles and one Von Luckner Heavy Tank, so we are essentially prepared to drive off a force five times the current detected size."

"And these... 'tanks' are?" Myxine asked as she walked into the command center followed by the four arrivals while Patina followed behind them. "Aren't you coming inside, Ambrosia? Calliphora?" Patina asked as she poked her head through the open door.

"I have to go 'welcome' the newly arrived drones and lay down the laws of this place. Also, Patina? Don't forget that they also need to..." Patina merely nodded and saw a half-asleep Ambrosia.

"Ambrosia..." The three queens shook their heads at the half-asleep queen and was caught by three of her drones who had quite literally popped out of nowhere as she began to fall to her side. As their queen snored, clearly asleep, they smiled sheepishly before moving towards her bedroom. "She's Ambrosia, alright." Myxine shook her head with a smile before allowing the blast doors to close behind her.

"The Sekhmet Assault Vehicle is a 65 ton heavy tracked vehicle primarily focused on defense with nearly fourteen tons of armor and powered by a fusion engine you designed, Myxine." Patina informed her fellow queen as they sat in the control center of the overall command structure. “That engine powers the two large pulse lasers, two Short-Ranged Missiles (SRM)-6, and followed by a pair of armor piercing gauss rifles.”

"Sounds like overkill." Myxine hummed as she watched the frames of various tanks being built. "You know, ever since you finished that fabricator, most of our production capabilities are most likely beyond any nation on Equis combined."

"Of course! With the ability to fabricate anything mechanical in origin with nothing more than any solid material is genius if I do so say myself." Patina 'glowed' as she puffed out her chest. “Especially that Von Luckner Heavy Tank that I modified to run off the M-Fusion Engine. With an AC/20, two SRM/6, one SRM/4, one LRM/10 (Long-Ranged Missile), followed by a machine gun paired with a flamer? I would like to see the ‘Elements of Harmony’ to try and ‘purify’ that 75 ton beast!” Patina quickly deflated before looking sadly at her artificial limb.

"What do you think?" Patina glanced at the cameras showing topside sighing, not willing to acknowledge Myxine’s question.

"While I wish it wasn't so, one of the Changeling hives is..." Myxine nodded as she looked back at the living quarters of the base.

"But none of those that came are them. It's one of the other hives that arrived earlier." Myxine stated as she observed a satellite view of the approaching Equestrian airships while Patina observed the three tanks topside that had her armored drones on stand-by.

"We'll figure it out later after we deal with the ponies. Perhaps we should take prisoners?" At a silent nod, Patina began to form a plan of action in her head.

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"Should you really be here, Captain Armor?" An armored unicorn asked as he watched the 'chaotic' south outside from within the airships. "You just got married to Princess Cadenza."

"It'll be fine. We just have to force the Changelings to give up their holdings in the south." Shining Armor, newly made Prince and still Captain of the Royal Guard. "And if we get lucky and capture this machine of theirs, we could have the Changelings work for us instead."

"What? I thought that-" Shining Armor shook his head.

"No. The princess hasn't informed me of anything else, but she doesn't want anything to potentially threaten Equestria. I mean, they couldn't be that strong so it should be pretty routine." His subordinate nodded as he looked out of the ship and at the midday sun. "What's the worst that could happen?"

What followed next was thoroughly a surprise. The left-most airship’s magical shields lit up as a pulsating blue lasers slammed harshly against the shields and was followed by the sound of a ‘whirr-fwoosh’, which simply shattered the shields and going through the enchanted armor as if it had been made of paper. The stricken airship was assaulted by the pulses of blue lasers that burned its way straight through the armor and that was when they heard something in the distance.

"What happened to our shields?!" Shining Armor shouted as he felt his own airship turn around. "Why aren't our own cannons firing?!"

"We don’t know where they are to shoot, Prince Armor! Not to mention that blue light show seemed to melt their way through the shield!" The pilot of the massive airship hissed as she turned the ship around. "Something is clearly out-ranging us, so we must fall back for now! We don't have a choice and frankly you are a Prince!"

"No, Damn it! We have to assist the other ship! Turn us bac-" Shining Armor was thrown off the floor as their ship suddenly lurched to the right once before moving forward once again. "Damn it, who in Celestia's name is firing on us!" That was when he saw ten smoke-trailing objects slam into the left airship that simply detonated and seemingly splitting the airship into four pieces of scrap wood and armor. Another explosion threw the newly made Prince to the side, knocking him out as his head impacted a wall rather harshly.

The ‘command’ airship turned around rapidly as the other airship’s shield and armor melted away from a massive blue bolt of ionized particles. As massive arcs of what appeared to be lightning arced across the hull, the magical engines sputtered before dying entirely. The airship simply crashed into the ground burning as their reactive magical shells and weapons detonated within as they were rendered unstable by the ionized weapon.

As the last ponies' airship 'limped' away, dozens of armored Changelings rushed to save any ponies within the crashed airships. As the night became bright from the fires that licked at the crashed Equestrian airships, a duo of drones pulled out several surviving ponies before the entire ruined ship collapsed on itself as the fires raged throughout the ruined airship. At least there were some survivors.

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Patina looked at the half-dozen surviving ponies that were all rendered comatose from the N-PPC strike. All of their injuries were treated and had also been given a full medical to make sure they would not die anytime soon. They were not cruel like Chrysalis, but who would have thought that the PPC had the capability of rendering pony-based magic unstable?.

"I did not expect the Naval PPC to be so destructive." Myxine commented from within a Savannah Master watching drones salvage what they could from the Equestrian Airship.

"Maybe. But it did the trick, didn't it? We have a lot less prisoners to deal with." Patina sounded doubtful but paused before looking curiously at their sandwiches and diluted love in a glass. "You know... I know that this sustains us like food, but I wonder what would happen if a pony ate it? Not the water seeing as its bright glowing pink, but every other produce that is grown with love."

"I wonder..." Myxine mused as she took a bite out of her sandwich. "Perhaps one of the more magical of the Queens would know?"

"I'll go ask around. Would you..." Myxine waved her off as she observed the ruined magical aerial drive that allowed the Equestrian airship to fly. While Patina was more of an engineer, Myxine's quicker grasp in science gave her an advantage in developing new theories and tests to produce the final product. "Thanks. If you need something, just call me later as a favor~"

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Hours later, Patina sat with another minor queen; whom had been living in a unicorn-filled town, learning from them via deception at a park table with the other queen eating a generous bowl of salad.

"So Magica, the love we harvest is like a..." Patina was seriously confused now. How could love she made and the harvested version had one thing in common.

"An addictive aphrodisiac? Yes." Magica was a rather small queen, a few inches smaller than Patina. Her short mane and tail were colored bright red while her ruby red eyes looked around the park where other queens were eating, chatting with their drones, and/or simply enjoying the location. Her horn was shaped much like a unicorn's horn with three 'voids' that went from the base, mid, and near the top of her horn. Her back were colored a dull red color and the wraps around her barrel were various shades of red. "I've experimented before and the 'love' we produce directly influences the pony's brain. It quite literally sends a mare into artificial heat and a stallion to become crazed to rut something. The effects differs amongst individual ponies, but the average time of effect seemed to last around six hours."

"And the addictive part?" Magica smiled as she ate another mouthful of salad, enjoying the wonderful flavors.

"After the first dose of around most likely around half a cup, they would act normal and would seek resistance to consume the next dose. But after a couple of doses, the pony, be they a unicorn, earth, or pegasi; think they cannot love without it due to the slight void they described to me after a dozen doses. The strange part is that they do not develop a solid 'resistance' to it." Patina closed her eyes thinking on how to use this on the prisoners, and opened her eyes.

"I sense a but coming on..." Magica nodded as she sipped on a cup of diluted love mixed with tea leaves.

"Yes, there is actually one problem with this though. Whomever had been feeding them the love would become the object of their ‘love'. And no matter how much we disguised ourselves, the addicted pony would find the one that had been feeding without fail and literally try to became their 'beloved' by any means necessary..." Magica looked saddened at the last part.

"Happened to you?" Patina didn't miss the longing look in the Queen's face.

"I... I had tested it on a unicorn mare who had called me a monster when she was captured, but to have her call me 'Her love' a few weeks later felt wrong. Then..." Patina stopped her with a raised hoof and merely nodded. She could 'see' what had happened and merely smiled.

"Even if our extracted 'love' is an addictive drug to the ponies, the love she saw was not from the depraved mind of a lust-driven pony. Ponies are xenophobic at base and when we break that, they would love all." Patina said as she smiled wider at the startled queen. "You'll know why I said this tomorrow, Magica. I merely hope that you realize that our kind cannot be victorious against anything divided. Only when we are united, can we stand at the top and go beyond."

"Yes... I just hope magic has a place here." She looked ruefully at the various vehicles moving without the assistance of magic. "My hive has the highest known magic amongst Changelings and this..."

"Of course magic has a place here." Patina deadpanned as she looked around her. "We’ve managed to develop a magical version of the power generators I used before and I know Myxine could use a hoof in develop more magic-oriented gear." She looked at Magica and smiled brightly. "You know what, why don't we meet up tomorrow to test what kinds of spells could be repurposed to work alongside our technology?"

Magica nodded eagerly as she watched the glint in Patina's eyes. While Calliphora was the leader of this Umbra Commonwealth, she could tell that Patina was the true mind behind this operation. Looking at her salad as Patina walked away with an excited look in her eyes, she hoped that this peace would continue, no matter how small that hope was.

She could see it in the distance, and it was coming. War was inevitable and it would be fought on a scale never seen before.

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"Two entire airships!" Princess Luna shouted at the injured Shining Armor in sheer disbelief. Said Prince was being consoled by his wife, Princess Mi Amore Cadenza, or rather Cadence. "How could some backwater Changelings have such destructive magic?"

"I don't know Princess. I also received a report on what hit us so hard that our shields were rendered useless." He looked frustrated as he looked outside of the infirmary window.

"And?" Luna was already frustrated. She had sent along fifty of her best and now she had lost them far too quickly.

"Nothing. There was nothing wrong with any of the magic that made up both. Whatever was hitting us was beyond our scale of power and range." Cadence could only watch as the two premiere military commanders in the Equestrian military tried to think on why their vaunted magic had failed so easily.

"We've already confirmed that the hives had split into three factions... We have constant monitoring on the other two, but the hives that migrated to the south are utterly blank!" Luna's magic flared violently as she teleported out of the infirmary and into her own room.

"JUST WHAT THE BUCK IS GOING ON!"

Author's Note

Alright, last rewrite for the day.

I'll work on more tomorrow unless something comes up.

Thanks for reading and don't forget to leave feedback!

The Prelude to a New Era (Rewriten)

"I really didn't know the PPC could be used like that..." Patina admitted as she watched the PPC pulse outwards in a sphere to destabilize stolen Equestrian magical equipment to the point where it didn’t explode, but merely failed its function entirely.

"I only got the inspiration from the assault months ago” Myxine nodded sagely as she motioned over to the modified PPC. “While a direct shot would ‘kill’ Equestrian magic, a spherical pulse like that would only cause the magic to fail.” As the weapon itself was folded back into its cannon form, as the ‘pulse mode’ had extended the various components that ionized the air outwards, Patina noticed and realized to her horror what was going on.

"That's not a prototype is it." Patina deadpanned as Myxine coughed into her left hoof with a slight blush on her face.

"No, not really." While a normal PPC was already hard to modify, but modifications of this level would require magical components and a ridiculous amount of testing that would get it to this level of effectiveness. “I did have to use quite the amount of our modified magic crystals and at least… a dozen… PPC…” Patina yanked over a data pad held by one of the drones (one of Magica’s, she noticed) and her eyes narrowed for a moment before mumbling something under her breath.

"Er, what? I thought I just heard you say something?" Myxine's ears were flattened against her head at hoping what she had just barely heard was not true. Myxine opened her mouth to say something, but Patina's angry ranting was something one could not stop easily.

"HOW DID YOU RUIN A DOZEN PPC’S JUST IN TESTING?! ALL THOSE EXPLOSIONS WE HEARD WERE FROM YOU, WASN'T IT?!"

Magica, who was about to enter the testing warehouse to discuss magical integration with Patina, stood frozen by the door with her wide eyes as various other rather vulgar words were spoken loudly as the door slammed open. Patina, who was about to storm out, barely noticed Magica and brought herself back down to the ground from anger-based high and the pleasant smile Patina put on didn't seem to go too well with her violently twitching eyes.

"Ah, Magica! Just the queen I was looking for!" Patina swung her artificial foreleg over the smaller queen's back and began to urge her away from the slightly smoking warehouse. "I believe we were going to discuss magic?" Magica could only nod dumbly at the question and followed after the older queen. "Then let's go to a more private location then, hmm?"

As Patina dragged Magica away, Myxine could be seen exiting the hangar with various drones from different hives covered in soot.

"Who knew wood burned so well?" A drone idly commented as she fainted from shock.

Coughing out a puff of black smoke from her mouth, Myxine could barely hide her smile under her soot covered body. She did say that she was going to work on bettering the Changeling military and she did deliver. Oh, Patina might be angry about the sheer waste of resources, but hey... At least she recycled her failures..

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Chrysalis couldn't believe her luck as she finally secured a massive weapons depot from the accursed Griffons. Oh, it had taken her the better part of three months to infiltrate and lull the garrison into lowering their guard enough for her and her 'Empire' of various other Changeling Queens that had sworn loyalty to her after that... Calliphora seized nearly sixty percent of the hives.

Damn whores.

As she saw the Griffon corpses being hauled off to be burned in a pile outside of the garrison, she levitated the new griffon rifles and admired the handiwork. While Equestria relied mostly on magic to arm themselves, the Griffons had developed their weapons with the rather heavy, but powerful autoguns. That included various cannons that were stored along with their two-part ammunition. Alongside were other queens watching in delight as the crates of weapons were being loaded onto four hijacked Endurance-Class Light Cruiser class airships that appeared to be covered in more metal than the wood that made up their inside. Some of the drones were also repainting the 'Royal Griffon' flag off the sides and painting Chrysalis' personal design of a unique shape with bug-like wings going out the sides.

"Our spies have located the traitors in the south, My Queen." A drone wearing a Griffon’s padding under their metal armor reported as he levitated a scroll to Chrysalis while bowing. They couldn’t exactly use the Griffon’s metal armor as their were far too large and heavy. "A group of ponies had attempted to attack them months ago, but..."

"But?" Chrysalis had already begun to read the scroll with narrowed eyes.

"Out of hundred fifty Guards that were dispatched, only fifty returned with one of three of their airships made it back to their Canterlot Port." Chrysalis merely tore the scroll with her magic and grinned maliciously.

"It doesn't matter whether a hundred of them died fighting. Many of those traitors would have perished alongside them in combat." She faced her 'officers' and shouted out loud. "No one betrays me and gets away with it! Follow your Queen of All Queens and let's crush those incompetent fools for their crimes!"

The jubilant cheers excited Chrysalis and merely added fuel to her ego and to her leadership. Those fools were weakened by the ponies, so she was surely ensured an easy victory.

And victory over the traitors would be sweet!

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Miasma yawned as she lazed about in her own hive currently under Manehatten chewing on what had used to be an half-eaten apple thrown down into the sewers. To her and her hive, it was a normal day. Other queens who had not declared a side had also simply declared neutrality and decided to go on with their lives until a victor could be decided amongst Calliphora's Umbra Commonwealth and Chrysalis' 'Empire'. Oh, she knew for sure that from what she had seen in Patina's hideouts in the south were of any indication, the Commonwealth was going to wipe the floor with Chrysalis' corpse along with all those that followed her.

As she saw a drone levitating a small crate of artificial love bought from the Commonwealth, she halted the drone and cleared her throat with a nervous air about her. She had merely heard about how Patina treated her drones and it made her curious.

"I just have to request something from you, darling..." The drone swallowed its dry throat as Miasma stared into its eyes. "C-can you call me... Mother?"

The drone couldn't do much but to blink at how its queen was acting. The stuttering was incredibly new for its headstrong queen and not to mention that she sounded far too serious for it to be a mere joke. So coming to a proper conclusion, the drone reacted accordingly.

"Who are you and what have you done with our queen!"

The following squeals of pain easily provided proof that she was indeed Miasma.

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The entire military council chamber of Equestria sat within a grand circular room filled with maps, charts, and various other objects that signified the council's importance. But due to the sheer amount of time not being used, the room was filled with dust, cobwebs, and other clutter that had piled from being used as a storeroom until now.

"Outdated. Outdated. Outdated..." Princess Luna muttered as she looked through the various objects that hung on the walls with disdain clearly etched onto her muzzle.

"Well, the war room has not been used since..." A Night Guard lifted a chart with her leathery wings and coughed in the most faked manner possible. "Since five hundred years ago. It has been turned into a storeroom since then..."

Luna grumbled audibly as she cast a spell to literally remove the dust from all surfaces, removed all aged documents to be sorted by the librarians, and ultimately preparing the room to be used as a proper war room. The next few hours were spent putting up modern maps, gathering all reports on the Changeling movement and what they knew about the race of shapeshifters.

"Is this all? Some of these are twenty years old!" Luna was seriously doubting the peace that her sister had maintained through diplomacy. Well, it was nice to have peace, but to cut the military budget to this point where all she could do was buy several dozen unenchanted armor and an equal amount of low quality spears. The safety of 'her little ponies' seemed far too focused on individual threats that appeared occasionally to be 'defeated' by Celestia's student and her five friends that were the Elements of Harmony. And against these larger threats, Equestria was supposed to have her legions! But that legendary army that had struck fear into the hearts of every species in Equis in the past was reduced to nothing more than a couple hundred improperly trained guards that only utilized basic combat spells, some combat training, and more used as a parading military than a practical one. But that was something that could be fixed by creating new policies and training, followed by a budget increase.

What really upset her was the sheer technological gap developing between the ponies and the Griffons. And if the loss of two airships was not by magic when they had been sent against the Changelings that moved to the South, she could easily deduce that the Changelings also developed their own avenue of technology that nearly outpaced their own by decades if not...

"Have we yet to acquire any of the Griffon's weaponry?" And to Luna's absolute dismay, the Captain of the Night Guard shook her head.

"WHY ME?"

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With the sheer amount of work on Calliphora's desk, she wished she could just have her drones work on them instead.

That was a thought...

But at least every folder was color coated for different issues. Green for agriculture, pink for any 'love' related issues, blue for security issues, and much more. But what caught her attention was the single thin black folder that was on the bottom of a rather large stack of folders. Pulling the folder out with her magic, she immediately breathed in deep and read the single sheet report within the black folder.

There was a war brewing in the future, and she would make sure that they would be ready.

Author's Note

New day, new rewrites!

LET'S GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

End of an Era (Rewritten)

"WHAT!" Myxine's indignant voice echoed from an meeting room under Calliphora's office. Around the large rectangular table sat the four 'founding queens' along with Magica and one other queen that had shown exceptional skills in piloting all kinds of vehicles, including which included battlemechs with great efficiency.

The other queen was slightly taller than Calliphora and stood rather high up the 'minor' ladder with her known selflessness before Patina had come in with her technology. She had a lanky figure, looking to be rather on the thin side. She possessed a rather smooth dark blue mane and tail that were styled with pins that neatly held her mane in a bun while her tail was let loose. Both of her eyes were colored differently with a single green on her left and a bright shade of yellow on her right. Gemini of the Gemini Hive looked rather 'innocent' with her straight horn with a single 'void' at the middle. However, she was known to use ‘controversial’, as considered by the ponies, methods to save imprisoned Changelings and could be certified insanity ward patient when in combat. But it was her devout mind to do whatever to save/protect/assist her kind that made her an very important asset alongside her rather sizable hive.

"Like we said, the modified PPC is far too high maintenance and modifications using magic crystals make it difficult to produce even with our current fabrication machine. So all I am suggesting is that we use non-modified designs until we can improve our current fabricators." Myxine looked angrily at Patina, who at least looked sheepish.

"I've tried to run your blueprint through the fabrication and the machine broke down every time it tried to create the compartments that were to take the magical crystals. And don't say we can hoof-make those. It's far too complicated to be hoof made en masse and while I want quality for days, we need quantity to build up our forces for now. So please work with me for now." Patina pleaded with the more science-oriented queen.

"So..." Myxine breathed in deeply and sighed. "Until we can improve our production facilities, we will have to use standard designs?"

"Not really." Patina levitated five thick folders and placed it in front of each queen that was in the meeting room. "These are my updated designs that are going to be mass-produced alongside starting the omni-tech series."

"Omni-tech?" Magica asked as she and her fellow queens looked through the folders that were now being passed out by Eins.

"Indeed. You must have noticed that modifying a battlemechs’ loadout can take several days. But what I am suggesting is the development of what is called ‘omnipods’ that are compartmentalized ‘pods’ that hold pre-configured arrays of weapons that can be switched out in hours depending on the combat situation." She lowered the lights of the room and turned on a projector in the center of the room. A slide of various vehicles and battlemechs alongside said ‘pods’ immediately caught the attention of all the queens.

"It's rather..." Ambrosia started, but was held off by a smiling Patina who bore a large smile on her muzzle.

"Complicated. However, despite looking complicated; the benefits outweigh the cons." Seeing Myxine look interested, Patina grinned in a more excited manner. "And with the help of Magica, we’ve managed to create modified SRM, MRM (Medium Ranged Missiles), and LRMs to take elemental qualities." At this, Magica blushed before nodding thanks to Patina. "So, I would like to commission our Chief of Science to develop a type of missiles that incorporate the PPC-pulse for use with new development of new LRM launcher systems.”

Myxine's grin didn't even fade as the meeting ended. If there was one thing she preferred, it was to have the largest of technological gaps in technology against every other race.

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Even as the sun set beyond the horizon, Gemini didn't budge from her well hidden tower above ground disguised as a large tree. She had personally volunteered her hive to be lookouts topside in well hidden wooden towers built into or onto trees. It was not that she hated the other queens and their hives underground. It was not that she did not trust the advanced systems that protected the underground fortress.

It was because she valued her kind that she was willing to throw the safety of being underground and watch for any threats that approached their new home. In fact, she could have joined up with the self-proclaimed Queen of All Queens, but she could 'read' the situation where the Changeling race could advance into a more advantageous future. And while her hive was the fifth largest hive, she had always somehow won every skirmish, battle, and brawls she had been in. She, instead, loved the sheer amount of devices that gave her and her hive more methods to defend her kind from any and all threats. She was also one of the first to adapt to 'modern' combat formations put out by Patina and allowed to develop ‘non-suicidal’ formations and doctrines. With how their new organization was still being hashed out by numerous meetings amongst the Archon and her staff, she preferred to be on guard in case of an attack. It didn't matter what type of attack it would be, she would defend against everything with all she had; including throwing her life away (even if she had been told not to) for survival of the Changeling race if necessary.

Seeing a silent red blip in her helm that was placed on the floor, she gently lifted the helm and placed it over her head. The cooling component of the helmet and the armored vest she wore that was a welcome feeling against the humidity of the jungle. Feeling the armor's weapons come to life as mental commands were translated into machine code, she focused on the relatively simple Heads-Up Display (HUD) and on the blinking red light. Having her commander model helmet directly linked to the underground base's sensors, she had the luxury of 'seeing' enemies before they ever got near.

"Confirm alert. I have four large signatures and dozens of smaller ones. Confirm alert." Gemini was never one to panic over anything. The radio in her ear crackled once and she heard one of her drones report.

"Confirmed. We can see four fifty meter long airships and six smaller flying ships around them." A slight pause before the drone continued to speak. "Their patterns match that of the Griffon Empire, but..."

Gemini could make an educated guess as to who would be on those ships. If their physical pattern matched that of the Griffon Empire, but it was somehow not them...

"We see Chrysalis' personal emblem painted over the Griffons' own."

Gemini was silent as she imagined this very scenario as it was far too likely to happen. To fight other Changelings... Shaking her head, her eyes focused slowly, but surely as her mind mentally went over several options she had.

"Oh well... I guess sacrifices can be made..." Clicking her tongue in a series of patterns, her own uniquely formed formations began to move in the night with well-practiced ease.

A single Sekhmet Assault Vehicle loaded with its absurd arsenal were followed by twelve standard armored Changelings (a combination laser and needler rifles) followed by four reloading armored Changelings (who were armed with a single laser rifle as well). This was supplanted by a single Urbanmech painted in jungle colors armed with a single AC/10 and a small laser. It was a slow mech compared to many others, but when the rest were undergoing maintenance; the Urbanmech was the only one available to her for now. While the battlemech stayed hidden thanks to its small size, the tank and infantry moved slowly forward with all lights off and relying on night vision and motion sensors in case there were infiltrators on the ground. The pilot, one of Patina’s drones, signaled Gemini using in-helm lights that she was ready.

Gemini rather liked all of those new weapons. They were so... beautiful and it brought tears to her eyes... figuratively. And seeing as this was going to be a first for her to observe how these new weapons worked...

"Gemini! Do not fire until fired upon!" A voice, Calliphora’s to be exact, spoke through the radio. "If they are other Changelings, we can at least convince those allied to Chrysalis to defect. But in order to do that, we have to show them that they are at our mercy. So make sure your troops do not fire until they fire at you. We'll first engage with the turrets then you can do what you want." Gemini only responded affirmative, but highly doubted many would defect. But if they did... She was not going to judge them. They had merely trusted the wrong leader and had made stupid choices.

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Chrysalis couldn't exactly believe what she was seeing. One moment there was only darkness in the general location of Calliphora's traitorous organization and then there was a brief flash of powerful artificial lights that emerged from the ground revealing what was various assortment of weapons pointed at her ‘fleet’. All aimed at her ships, Chrysalis' own mind blanked out for a moment at the sight of such well-prepared defenses aimed in their general direction. And in that moment she had frozen in shock, a shrill sound of speakers activating alerted them that Calliphora was hidden somewhere seeing as they could only hear her voice.

"To all other Changelings that follow Chrysalis from either fear, respect, and/or some other reason! This is Archon Calliphora of the Umbra Commonwealth giving you one last choice. I offer you freedom from hiding and living with barely anything to show for it. I offer you a life where we no longer have to be afraid of being found and driven out. I offer you security with technology far more advanced than what the ponies or any other species outside possess by decades if not centuries ahead of then all! All we ask is your surrender and we will accept you without any questions asked. Please... We do not wish to attack one of our own."

The instant the message ended, Chrysalis snarled into her own loud speaker mounted on her ship.

"Hah! I don't fear your toys, Calliphora! I bet they are nothing but magical illusions!" Chrysalis declared, but froze at what she could see in the sparse gaps of light that was thrown into the shadows. Smaller metal turrets sporting four thin barrels were aimed right at them along with what appeared to be large metal carriages fitted with guns. "Strike! We shall strike the first blow!"

No sign of acknowledgement followed her orders. Looking behind her with a steadily increasing knot in her stomach, she saw no one but her drones looking out the open doors that lead out of the bridge and into the outside. Swiftly moving to the glass port that showed the bow of the massive airship, she could literally see the queens that had followed her moving down to the ground with utmost speed. Growling, she howled in fury as she immediately grabbed the nearest drone with her hooves and barked out orders.

"Kill them all! I will not tolerate traitors! They dare betray me after I show them mercy? ME?! I, who rivals those damned Princesses in power and stature?!" As she ranted , she noticed in the corner of her eyes, several of the smaller ships immediately blew up from what appeared to be streaks of blue lightning shredding them apart after they had fired their under-slung cannons. "I am no fool! I am a Queen of All Queens and I demand YOUR SURRENDER!"

Another screech of the loudspeakers came from the ground, making Chrysalis snarl.

"Chrysalis. you have no support aside from your own hive. I just saw you fire on other Changelings as they fled their ships. Stop. We can forge a future together-" The announcement was cut off by the sound of large caliber cannons mounted on the broadside and portside firing at the ground. "So be it."

The following 'battle', if it could be called that, was nothing more than a massacre. The 'heavy' rounds of the airships hit nothing as the ground-mounted lights were turned off. But for the defenders on the ground, the use of NVG and thermal imaging was more than enough to direct a withering barrage of lasers, ballistics, and PPC attacks indiscriminately. Some bolts of energy penetrated the heavy armor of the airships and exploded the black powder within the ammunition stores within the ship, and most ballistic rounds blew apart armor and wood alike with ease. The armored Changelings of the Commonwealth engaged Chrysalis' drones that were chasing the other hives that had escaped to the ground from the airships with no hesitation. The heavy autoguns’ recoil was far too much for the drones to handle effectively and they certainly weren’t trained to fire them effectively as the Griffons would have. Several drones that had barely escaped Chrysalis' ‘enforcers’ were injured or killed from the resulting crossfire between the Commonwealth and Chrysalis’ own. That was when the Urbanmech stepped out of its hiding place to aim the large autocannon upwards and fired a single large round. Shattering the armor with absurd ease, the high explosive shell detonated within the engine room. Driven by the sheer force of the impact, the airship tilted heavily to the side before exploding brilliantly in a ball of fire as the fuel detonated by the three additional AC/10 rounds destroying the entire ship with ease.

But that was not what ended the battle.

A single strange turret sporting a large cannon rotated eerily as it tracked Chrysalis' own claimed airship as one could hear the shells being loaded within. Chrysalis could be seen screaming orders from the bridge and her drones scrambling to fulfill her commands unaware of the cannon tracking them. As a spotter was targeting the airship, there was a brief pause as time seemed to slow down. Already, Chrysalis' drones on the ground were dead or dying from numerous wounds, the other three battleships were torn to scrap from intense defensive fire. Commonwealth’s infantry were still on high alert despite not losing anyone thanks to proper IFF displayed on their visors and the sheer incompetence shown by Chrysalis’ hive. Then with the sound of thunder, the Naval Autocannon/20 fired, throwing any nearby unsecured personnel to the ground from sheer force of the round being fired. The massive round, designed to tear apart DropShips and other starships, simply shattering the airship like an egg. The ensuing explosion simply disintegrated Chrysalis’ airship in its entirety.

But with the destruction of Chrysalis and most of her hive, it marked the end of Changelings living in the shadows and coming out into the daylight to be proud of being what they were.

While not known at the time, it also marked the end of the Era of Peace brought on by Princess Celestia thousand years ago.

Author's Note

Rewritten.

Urbanmech, stock configuration.

You will see this far more often.

All hail the Urbie!

Interlude (Rewritten)

A massive series of satellite dishes were built above ground began to power up just as Patina adjusted various monitors that displayed numerous layouts and a rather blank screen on the largest console. Pressing a button, the device began to make adjustments to its position while she enjoyed the early morning sky with the sun rising in the horizon.

As the dishes completed their movement, Patina grabbed a lever with her hooves and pulled down. Within moments, she could hear the satisfying hum of additional energy powering the powerful sensor array that she had been working on ever since the Love Generating Engine was past its 77% threshold. Immediately, the large screen in the center of the exposed screen exploded to life as various hardware and software started up for the first time. Three drones that had been waiting for the activation quickly jumped to man several of the consoles that displayed numerous data monitoring both ground, air, and space. With a satisfying 'blip', the large screen showed the ground on the bottom of the screen and various objects that existed directly above the massive underground base, all the way past the atmosphere of their planet.

"Nothing far too indicative on sensors " One of the drones reported as he utilized hoof-friendly touch screens to scan the void of space as best as their sensors could. “Kommandant-General, we have a residual presence of Kearny-Fuchida Drive in… Sector Delta-Fifteen.”

Patina wordlessly brought her attention to the drone’s console and narrowed her eyes at the display. Whenever an JumpShip utilized its Faster-Than Light K-F Drives, they left residual presence of energy in its place that lasted for a week or two before dissipating entirely. But to have such strong residual presence, that meant that there had been a JumpShip in orbit a couple of days ago. But the sheer amount of particles made it appear as if there were at least two to three JumpShips in orbit at one point.

“I guess I’m going to have to push that line of battlemechs through faster than planned.” If there was one thing she wanted to avoid were humans coming to the ‘rescue’ as it were to the ponies. Or the Griffons. This was going to require an… escalation of force.

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Princess Luna of the Night looked depressed at the work the 'experts' that Celestia had hired was doing. They had barely figured out how the Griffon autoguns, stolen secretly, worked and had injured themselves on more than one occasion from what she considered sheer arrogance.

Even she could tell what was what that made the weapons fire from the moment she fully 'scanned' the weapon! Constantly saying that 'magic' was better alongside throwing 'tantrums' when the weapons didn't work the way they 'thought'. Why were some of these brown-nosing ‘nobles’ even considered experts of the field of weapon development?

For her sanity and for her guards, she had fired the most recent 'experts' again and had refused Celestia's support along with her Solar Guard as even they had declared their magic far more superior against such ‘primitive’ weapons.

"Anything?" Luna asked the Night Guard Captain, Midnight Dusk, as said bat pony mare expertly pieced the autogun together with her bat-like wings, hooves, and her mouth. The mare possessed a dark blue coat, short yet curvy mane and tail colored a shade of light sea green, and a pair of light blue eyes gleaming in the dimly lit war room. Her cutie mark was that of a crescent moon with a black cloud behind the moon and she was also relatively taller than other ponies, being only inches shorter than her Princess.

"Construction of similar weapons for our own military would be simple, but the production of the smokeless powder would be much more difficult seeing as one of the ingredients is rather dangerous to produce with magic" Pushing over a set of documents, Midnight pointed at the three barrels of the powder they had managed to save from the unicorns trying to see if they exploded when magic was applied. (To which they found out rapidly that it did) "If many of those reports are true, most of the companies that can produce it would have to not use magic as it explodes when in contact with magic."

"Ugh." Luna slammed her head on the hardwood table several times lamenting her sister's era of peace. She had hoped that Equestria would be much more advanced, much more aggressive in other aspects; but without any large scale antagonizing forces, the country she and Celestia had created had stagnated. Griffons had airships of varying sizes, a relatively advanced technological base that did not rely on a drop of magic, and even had colonies in the Zebra-owned lands. Last she heard, the most recent Zebra rebellion had been put down within hours of engaging the Griffon military.

And now the mysterious and unexpected jump in Changelings’ own technology. Two of Equestria's airships had been sunk with little effort and the third was damaged enough to be hauled into dry dock to have most, if not all important components to be replaced and repaired. What really had her attention was the sheer amount of power behind the weapons that the Changelings possessed. What they considered top of the line magic shielding was torn apart in seconds and their weapons were almost jokingly out-ranged by the Changeling’s own weaponry.

"Princess... With what we have and from what we have observed, we won't be able to catch up with either the Griffons or whatever the Changelings possess without taking short-cuts." Midnight Dusk commented as she placed the unloaded rifle on the floor and walked to where the maps were. "The Griffons would never give us their best, seeing as they enjoy having something to have something over us; but the Changelings..."

"Do you truly believe they would negotiate with a species that have caused them many wrongs?" Luna, deep within her own guts, hoped that they were open to negotiations. "They fired on our airships rather quickly..."

"Perhaps it was due to them being warships? What I am recommending is a secret deal of sorts..." Luna's ears perked along with her own mind.

"Go on... Explain this 'deal' of yours." As her Captain explained what was most likely the best way to catch up technologically, Luna simply hoped that the Changelings were willing to negotiate.

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Magica looked at the sky with her eyes as she smiled at the chilly winds if the night caressed her gently. Testing various spells that her hive managed to learn over the years, she and Patina had determined that giving missiles an elemental effect would be efficient in altering the battlefield with ease, but to have the best effect; they would have to be mounted on the larger and slower Thunderbolt missiles or the Arrow IV missile artillery to change the battlefield conditions on the fly. That and finding out that the PPC had little effect on Changeling magic was strange.

While the ionizing particle cannon had the effect of causing Equestrian magic to go berserk, Changeling magic was only mildly affected as their magic seemed to be ‘wired‘ differently than what a unicorn would use. In fact, a PPC blast would only decrease the effect of Changeling magic by one factor rather than to destabilize everything. It was an interesting and great discovery as it would give them an edge in case anyone else used it against Changeling magic in the hopes of destabilizing it.

All in all, it would make Discord's reign and brief return look like a sideshow. Chaos would truly reign as nothing could be controlled by the ponies anymore. And while the development of the ‘pulse missiles’ would give them an even more absurd jump in power, Magica knew the ponies would react negatively to such a weapon.

Hearing a snort next to her, Magica turned her head to look at a snoozing Patina holding onto a datapad between her hooves. Patina's adjutant, one of her 'firstborn' as she called them, merely giggled as she gently levitated a blanket over her mother. It was also an unique experience on how Patina treated her drones. Perhaps it was due to her being raised by these... humans, but it had caused a large change in how the hives functioned now. Drones were now encouraged to call their queens 'mother' in private while calling them their appropriate rank in public.

Another interesting fact. Every queen, after the brief transfer of information with Patina, had found that they were each good at something. Myxine had become a great scientist, Ambrosia had strangely become quite efficient in managing information and had become the premiere Information specialist, Calliphora had become a rather respectable leader while being less quirky, and Gemini had, unsurprisingly, become in charge of the infantry of the Commonwealth. Patina's drones and herself acted efficiently as administrative advisors and engineers. In fact, each queen had an assistant from Patina's hive which made many things run much more smoothly and they also caused no trouble between the hives as they were incredibly polite and provided the best advice according to the situation. She, on the other hoof, had become quite attached to engineering like how Patina was, but on the front of magical integration and enchantments. In fact, seeing as she had the most magically attuned drones that could use magic on a wider scale easier than other hives allowed her to be promoted. So it was the best of situations seeing as half of Patina's drones were acting as adjutants for the other queens, some serving as battlemech instructors, and the remaining working in the engineering department had quite literally strained Patina's hive to the limit. So it had been up to her and her hive to fill the engineering department with efficient and diligent engineers.

But she truly wondered what made Patina so... unique. If you removed the technology from Patina, she would be like any other queen that existed; but what made her so unique? It was one puzzle she was willing to solve. Under all that knowledge, skills, and mind; Magica wondered what kind of gem she would find underneath it all.

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“So even ComStar has secrets so strange.” A smooth deep voice spoke in the darkened conference room inside of a 725 meter long WarShip, an Aegis Class Heavy Cruiser, as he took a sip from a glass of clear brown liquid. “To see aliens, clearly inspired by the Lyran Commonwealth, utilize our brand of technology.”

“They were certainly far more capable than some mercenary bands, but I doubt they would be able to do anything against us if we attacked them.” An elegant voice simply oozing with arrogance commented as she sat in a chair behind the larger man.

“Isn’t that how we thought before we were defeated in Tukayyid?” The man said with mirth in his tone before turning to address the woman. “We might be of superior blood, but remember that ComStar had left these ‘Changelings’ with weapons that can rival our own. If they learn to fight like the freebirth of the Inner Sphere, then we can expect new tactics and strategies that we might not have even imagined”

The woman merely shrugged before looking out into the void of space outside. “If you must know, I did manage to get a glimpse of their databases enough to see what they are going to build next as their ‘line’ units.”

“Oh? Will they be using standard Lyran doctrines?” The woman shook her head at that comment.

“Sadly, if it were so.” The woman brought up several images and vids onto the inbuilt screen showing what appeared to be a wide variety of battlemechs, tanks, infantry, and AeroSpace Fighters that were far too familiar as the man narrowed his eyes and sighed audibly.

“Then we must prevent pirate bands and mercenaries from coming near this star cluster, or they would declare that there are still surviving blakists.”

Author's Note

A jar of cookies if someone can figure out which exact faction the humans are in the end.

LET THE REWRITES CONTINUE!

So... READ AND REVIEW!!!

The Build Up (Rewritten)

It was one of those moments in history where a species showed their true fangs to the world. The griffons had always wanted to have something better than those 'peace-loving fools' that was not magic-related. That had developed into firearms, internal combustion engines, and so much more. They had thought they had everything. They even thought that in a few years, they would be able to conquer Equestria. So their military command had tried to claim the chaotic south of Equestria as their colony so that they could later move troops there and invade Equestria.

But that was when they would learn a simple yet blunt phrase said by the Changeling Myxine.

"Overly stoppable object, meet our overly immovable wall."

They had lost two entire combat fleets totaling in over twelve ships alongside over four thousand griffons lost in combat. It had been an utter disaster that had the public at the Griffon King's throat until they had released their new battlecruisers and battleships. The massive fearsome looking ships had somehow rekindled their hopes of ruling the world and put out that going against the self-proclaimed Emperor was unwise. While there was only a single battleship, the sheer firepower it carried outclassed everything in existence to their knowledge. But the sheer power behind the Changeling arsenal had them backed into an invisible corner. A corner that the top military generals were doing their best to get out of. But with them unable to study their weapons...

That was until one of their ‘Think Tanks’ developed the Warglaive and their larger Knight Titan frames. Wielding rapid-firing cannons that possessed auto-loaders and a massive arm that possessed a massive chainsaw for a blade, the Knight Titan could easily claim to be masters of ground combat. Of course, the Warglaives wielded smaller versions of Knight Titan weapons that made them excellent escorts to the slower ‘Knights’ as they were smaller and faster.

That had six months ago. Now they had established ‘Knightly Orders’ to pilot these war engines to fuel their war machine further. And with their development of their new armored tanks alongside new ‘fighter’ craft that certainly gave them an advantage over any flying foe with armor, speed, and weapons. Their tanks were fast, robust, and had enough weapons to overwhelm fortified positions while their infantry could literally either drop from the skies or move in from within the new Armored Personnel Carriers that were more relying on their speed that armor.

The only thing preventing them from attacking Equestria or even the Changelings were the need to train pilots, make ships capable of transporting these units, and come up with more resources than they had. Oh, it would take years to fully change their military to work with their new unit formations, but the Griffon Emperor had a feeling that it would be a glorious battle of superiority.

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Celestia looked at the report of one of her informants with a tired sigh. She was very well aware of the situation around her and it frankly made her frustrated. No matter what she told the Griffons and them denying the claims, she knew that the Griffons had been under heavy industrialization and had begun straying from the path she wanted them to go in. Instead, they had been rolling out their metal beasts and denied that it was theirs even as she saw one sitting in one of the Griffon forts when she had visited a month ago.

It was as if they did not care whether she raised the sun or not.

Then came the exodus of nearly every Changeling hive in Equestria to the untamable South. She cared not for the parasitic race that fed off of love, but they were an entirely and relatively free workforce she had always taken advantage of. Canterlot, Manehatten, Las Pegasus, and nearly every city in Equestria had been built by the Changelings due to the fact that it was easier to feed off of ponies thanking them. And now they were gone. All of her plans to use them as a decoy in the long run was out, and now especially after her Captain of the Royal Guard had failed to subdue them and be brought back to Equestria to live naturally as they should... And their technology. She couldn't see anything they had made with scrying. At all. It was as if even her own unique method of scrying could only see an extremely grainy image before it faded altogether due to the chaotic aspect of the South.

Everything frustrated her right now.

Then came her little sister. Her little sister was still trying her very best to protect Equestria. But the little filly didn't know how to run a country. No... Only she could rule Equestria into prosperity until the end of time. No pony had the experience she had and her sister was still far too immature right now. Trying to develop away from magic? Was the filly mad? No, only magic could reign supreme over the metal devices that were being spread around by every other government. Her little ponies could only be protected by magic and not by those vile machines and their creators. If her sister acted up from her assigned role again, it might be necessary for her to step in and take control of this situation.

Because, the eldest always knew what was best for the youngest...

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Ammunition for ballistics weaponry and LRM munitions were being produced in the hundreds to outfit the new Assault Triumph Assault DropShip. Dozens of Changelings were trained in the use of radar, weapons fire control, and then choosing the best to become the Captain of the ships. Due to the importance of the Queens, it was deemed safer for the queens to be in a fortified location while drones piloted the ships that would make up most of the Changeling military. Of course, Gemini and Patina had forced their ways to lead battlemech lances and had swore to adhere to the orders of the Captains as long as it was not an idiotic order that would result in mission failure.

Every fabrication module was in action as it produced Assault Triumph's (will call it Triumph for now) armor, internal systems, and weapons producing them at an accelerated rate with Patina, Myxine, Magica, and other Queens making sure that it was being produced as accurately to the blueprints. It would then be hauled to a large open area with a large frame set up for the assembly of the Assault DropShip. As the skeletal frame was set up, a fusion drive was installed, and the installation of the various electronics began. With hundreds of drones working on it at once without much rest needed, most of the internals were finished within days of production.

Testing of the boosters began while various other systems were being installed within and on the outside as well. Hundreds of feets of wire spanned throughout the ship as it connected from everything to the reactor and into very much more parts of the ship while being secured properly onto their respective harnesses. And after hundreds of hours of testing, the inside of the ship would be made airtight.

Within three months of testing, production, and then the Triumph was ready to take its maiden flight. Such was the efficiency of the Changeling industry. Such was the rate of production of dedicated Changeling Hives. And to go with the first DropShip of their own, they built the first series of omni-vehicles, omni-mechs, and omni-fighters.

First being the Bolla Stealth Tank. Weighing at a decent 60 yons, it was capable of a blazing 86 kilometers an hour while being capable of being hidden against all but visual observation. While it only possessed a front-facing machine gun that was fixed to its hull, the turret on top was capable of taking four different preset configurations depending on the situation presented.

Next to be developed would be the omni-fighter line that only had one of three types completed. The Shade Light Omni-fighter weighed in at 35 tons, was capable of incredible speed and armor thanks to its powerful magic-enhanced fusion engine (not XL to those people who follow lore) and ultimately gave it nearly 15.5 tons of omnipod capability.

Last were the two omni-mechs, a light and a medium battlemechs named the Malak Light followed by the Preta Medium. Both battlemechs featured smaller cockpits that fit the Changeling frame comfortably (It’s only small for humans) and both possessed five preset configurations that were designed to take on nearly anything above their weight class with ease. In fact, compared to the large, slow walkers that the Griffons fielded; the Malak was capable of a maximum running speed of 118 km/h and the Preta capable of 97 km/h.

So it was not an overestimation that the Changelings were confident of their ability to crush any action taken by either the Equestrian ponies and the Griffon Holy Imperium.

Author's Note

AND ANOTHER REWRITE!

(For those that are going to get mad about Celestia being far too 'evil', 'manipulative', and whatnot; I'm making her arrogant for ruling a peaceful nation for a thousand years. I mean, if you lived a thousand years only to get beaten by a mere 'mortal' (Chrysalis) in a match of power? If that's not arrogance or naivety developed from a thousand years of peace then yeah... Then what is?)

Don't worry about Celestia acting far too manipulative. That's going to end once the Griffons march in and the Changelings react to what she's about to pull. And I'm sorta giving Celestia a bit of a obsessive attitude, so please bear with me... She will become better later!

PLEASE READ AND REVIEW~!

For those that want to track a more in depth info on the tech base they are following...
https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Manei_Domini

The Powder Keg

Cadence sighed as she looked over her own country, the Crystal Empire. Ever since the empire had returned from its magical stasis, she had expected Sombra to return, but the evil king did not appear in any shape or form. In fact, her own guards had found Sombra's ruined body splattered against the snow and a long blade impaled through his head. Now it seemed so calm despite the harsh blizzard around the empire made seeing out difficult and the trains had long stopped due to frozen rails.

But the most difficult part was the issue with obtaining food and other vital supplies.

Due to the thousand years it had been in unexpected stasis, the empire in the past had not fully stocked its storehouses and now they were having an issue with feeding the population. Rationing had to be introduced, but that had lowered the effectiveness of the Crystal Heart (found after a quick search after King Sombra’s unexpected death) enough to let the cold set in. And seeing as how her husband, Shining Armor, was stuck in Canterlot trying to get more supplies shipped to the Crystal Empire despite the fearsome weather. But that had been a month ago and still no news from Canterlot and it was frustrating for her to watch her own little ponies suffer like this.

And right now, she wished she was more attentive during all those political lessons Celestia had given her. Next to her was a letter from the Griffon Empire demanding her immediate surrender to their ‘Emperor’. They had written that her surrender would allow them to induct the crystal ponies under the Griffon Imperium's ‘protection’, allowing the influx of necessary supplies. They had promised fair treatment to all those who surrendered, but if there was anything her aunt had drilled into her head, it was to stand tall and mighty above all else and not to show any ‘visible’ weakness whatsoever. She had yet to reply, but even with her pathetically small knowledge in military issues and whatnot, she knew for sure that the Crystal Empire would fall in hours if not a single day of fighting.

Looking back at the letter, she sighed deeply and looked out of her balcony once more out at the empire she ruled under the guidance of Celestia.

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Unknown by the ponies that lived in crystalline city, the harsh blizzards only existed due to Sombra's magic still running its course despite his death. But even against this horrid weather, six large bipedal giants moved slowly, but surely towards the city flanked by a full dozen smaller walkers. The weather stopped airships entirely and all supplies would freeze in matter of hours, but for the giants, it merely looked like they were walking without trouble. And seeing as they were covered in white fabric that covered their massive forms, they were practically invisible in this weather.

If the pony princess did not surrender, they were to storm the city and subjugate it by any means necessary. But if they did surrender... Well, let it be said that the Griffons had honor enough to ferry supplies into the lone city by using whatever means necessary.

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Celestia blinked blankly at the crystal pony that was now sitting before her, out of breath and looking uncomfortable in the warm temperature of Equestria.

"Can you reply to what you just said?" Celestia asked once again to confirm what she was hearing was a lie. At least she had hoped it was a lie.

"P-Princess Cadence had sent me to inform you that the Crystal Empire surrendered to the Griffon Imperium." The pony looked meek and afraid of the unicorn guards around her, but it seemed as if Celestia was ignoring that fact for now. "No pony was harmed and to tell you that she is fine. S-she also suggested that your majesty do nothing for now seeing as the Griffons did not harm anypony."

"Very well, guards-" The crystal pony meekly raised her foreleg before Celestia nodded at the mare.

"I-I have to return as soon as possible, so I would like it if I could leave now..." Celestia smiled as sweetly as possible and allowed her guards to escort her to the station where the train would take her as close as possible to the Crystal Empire. But as soon as the mare and the two guards had left, her mood darkened and immediately canceled the rest of her Solar Court. She had no time to deal with those arrogant nobles now.

Why would Cadence surrender so quickly? That child should know better than to bow to the Griffons! And instead of consulting her, the filly had made her own uninformed choice. What she didn't understand was how Sombra had been murdered, why the snowstorm had gotten worse and how the Griffons actually got troops into the winter wasteland despite the harsh conditions presented. Swiftly teleporting to her own quarters, she needed to plan on how to take the Empire back from those foul birds. She doubted those bloodthirsty birds had not harmed her little ponies and she knew that the Griffons had threatened the pony to come and tell her that all was okay. Taking a paper and quill, she began to draft a letter to Shining Armor. Perhaps she should throw in those new golems to combat those griffons. With the weather, the Griffons most likely only had a few dozen soldiers that controlled the empire with Cadence under lock and key, so it would be up to her guards to free the newly enslaved nation.

With the combination of her guards and their magical golems, that would no doubt break their bloodthirsty ways for a century or two.

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Patina looked at her custom painted Deva Heavy Omni-mech with excitement. Colored dark orange covering the white and with a rust red coloring over the black, the heavy battlemech wielded her favorite configuration of Heavy PPC, two Extended Range (ER) medium lasers, four medium pulse lasers, and a single ER medium with an ER small mounted to the rear of the machine. It also could ‘jump’ 120 meters using its jump-jets and fielded enough armor to take a direct shot from nearly anything. She was admiring the machine with a smile when she noticed Myxine trot over to her.

"Patina, we have problems." Myxine said in a serious voice holding a data pad in her magic. "One of our spies in the Griffon Empire told us that they just took over the Crystal Empire."

With a groan, Patina took the data pad with her magic and began to read.

"It seemed that they took advantage of Princess Cadence's problems with her 'Empire' and had easily taken them over." Myxine pulled out several photos from within her uniform and sighed. "I don't know how, but they have their own form of mechs. Can’t write those off as they are at least 30 tons in weight."

"They seem to be armed with a single large chainsaw and a cannon on its arms..." Patina immediately dropped the data pad in favor of the pictures. "Oh, looks like a machine gun next to its head and their ‘house’ on the other side. Not to mention those smaller ‘Warglaives’ fielding smaller cannons and chainsaws… And they took over the Empire with only a total of eighteen machines..."

"The Crystal Empire is known for their Crystal Heart and from what I heard, it's powered by the... crystal ponies' positive feelings. I don't particularly know how, but it does." Patina seemed to be not bothered by the information. "Patina?"

"Can't you see it?" Patina handed the photos over back to Myxine and shook her head. "If the Griffons did capture the Crystal Empire, Equestria won't sit still; or rather Celestia won't." Going over to a console, she brought up a map of Equestria. "If you can see here, the Crystal Empire lies in the Frozen North where its harsh weather blocks any 'normal' airships from entering the Empire as of now. But what is so important about the Crystal Empire? Hmm?"

"Important about the Crystal Empire?" Myxine looked confused at the thought. What could be so important about some thousand year old empire that came back?

"The Crystals!" Patina whispered out loud as she brought up several data sheets. "Equestria has always been in a steady decline of effective magic-storing crystals and from what Magica had told me, it was rumored that there was crystalline city that possessed an incredible amount of such crystals that was considered the highest qualities of at the time and was ruled by a Equestrian-Appointed leader that went mad later on."

"And if the Griffons manage to control that supply..." Myxine shot up suddenly remembering something. "And they also have that puppet ruler whose husband is the Captain of the Royal Guard."

"...Oh for the love of..." Both Patina and Myxine looked at each other and sighed in a tired manner. Dozens of thoughts passed their minds, but they were still wondering what they should do in the long run, despite knowing how the confrontation between the Imperium and Celestia would go.

Author's Note

Rewritten and moving on!

SO... PLEASE PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!!!

The Crystal Empire (Rewritten)

Shining Armor looked around the winter wasteland with immense confusion and pain as he barely dragged his bandaged left rear leg over a hill and away from the lost battlefield. His mind was muddled from a loud ringing noise in his ears and from the pain of being thrown around by explosions. As he looked over the hill with fear in his eyes, all he could do was to remember when it had all gone wrong.

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FLASHBACK~~~

Shining Armor and Celestia looked over the gathered 500 guards that looked over the Crystal Empire's capitol under a protective spell that warmed the air and hid their presence from eye-sight. Behind them were dozens of large six meter tall pony-looking stone golems with various colors of magic driving them. Armed with 'powerful' muskets designed for pony use and spears built into them as bayonets, Celestia was rather confident in their victory as they had only seen several dozen Griffons that mounted the half-built metal walls.

"Why metal? Wouldn't it be faster to build with stone and wood?" Shining Armor looked at the construction that had both ponies and griffons working on them. "And they're forcing ponies to work for them. If they touched a single hair on Cadence..."

"Do not worry, Prince-captain. We shall prove that we are not entirely defenseless." Celestia looked behind her and at the crew that manned the large metal cannons which possessed glowing crystals near the barrel glowing with magical power. With a nod, the dozen cannons roared out, throwing large bolts of magical fire at the Griffon watchtowers.

Caught off guard, the guards on the top of the tower fell along with their wooden towers as the winds prevented the griffons from flying away. Instantly, a shrill alarm sounded from within the crystalline city as the Equestrian troops began a steady march under their Princess' protective spell alongside Shining Armor's shield spell. Griffon-made bullets rapidly hit the barrier with worrying harsh impacts, but were swiftly suppressed by volley fire from the ponies’ own muzzle-loading weapons developed by several nobles.

"Ready!" A full hundred loaded muskets were aimed at the griffons holding large tower shields hurriedly evacuating crystal ponies back behind portions of completed walls. Their shield-toting soldiers were only armed with large caliber pistols and were not ready to combat volley fire effectively. "FIRE!" With a click-snap, the muskets shot out their semi-deadly payload at the defending griffons. Due to the sheer number of musket fire being fired at once, several shields were directly penetrated and thus killing its wielder by both shrapnel and fire. Then the stone golems struck the defenders.

They collapsed the remaining watchtowers that had survived the initial bombardment and had begun to charge the half-complete metal walls. Far behind them, unicorns had their horns ablaze with magic as they guided their creations right at the wall. As one, the six meter tall stone golems turned on their forelegs and shot out their rear legs with all the power they could muster.

Just as their stone hooves were about to strike the wall, an entire section of the metal wall blew outwards revealing an eight meter tall giant that was far larger than the golems wielding cannons and large chainsaw for arms. With their metallic bulk, they easily pushed aside the golems and rammed their roaring chainsaw for arms through the barrel of the golems with utter ease. Ripping out the snarling weapon sideways, it opened up a gaping hole in the golem large enough for the metal giant to fire two explosive rounds into the body of the golem.

The large giant appearing had thrown off everything. The guard ponies that were supposed to be advancing froze at the sight of their ‘powerful’ golems blown apart by six metal giants all wielding different heraldry on their armors..

Before it could turn its ferocious weaponry at the guards, Celestia had sent a powerful beam of bright yellow energy that impacted the lead giant’s right shoulder, throwing its aim off and forced its cannon to shoot into the air. With a bright flash, Celestia appeared over the giant and scythed her horn downwards aimed at its visible head, but was blocked by the massive chainsaw, which surprisingly held. Forming her magic into a giant magical blade, she was ready to bring it down against her foe; but realized far too late that she was distracted.

Far too focused on the giant in front of her, she missed a massive metal fist that slammed into her from her left. With a rather wet sounding smack, Celestia was thrown from the sky and straight down into the ground and into the cold snow. Before any of the shocked guards could do anything to their fallen Princess, the giant that had punched Celestia out of the air aimed its own cannon at the guards. Time seemed to slow as one could hear a shell being chambered within the cannon and followed by distinct click that sent the explosive shell right into the grouped up formation of Equestrian Royal Guards.

FLASHBACK END

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"Why would she act so aggressively?" Cadence asked no one in particular as she looked over several dozen documents that her griffon aide handed her. The female griffon was scrawny for her kind, but her movements hinted of immense training and experience. Having a golden brown plumage along with most of her body colored a dark brown with her golden beak giving her golden eyes ever more brighter, the female griffon shook her head.

"I cannot think why, but it is strange seeing as your messenger did report Celestia receiving the report." The Griffon, wearing a pale brown uniform over her body, looked over the action report of the most recent attack. "Two ponies are in critical condition, four Griffon soldiers are dead, twenty are wounded, and the rest merely suffered light wounds. I guess we could thank the knights for acting quickly."

"Mmm." Cadence nodded as she looked out of the city she was now governing under Griffon rule. In fact, the supplies the griffons gave her ponies were of high quality and had even brought capable doctors to treat any sick and injured ponies. Not to mention that the Griffon Emperor had let her keep her rule as long as she did not take actions against the Griffons. But really...

She didn't really see what Celestia saw in the Griffons. She had always said that the Griffons were warlike, bloodthirsty, and violent; but from what she had observed for nearly two weeks was the complete opposite. The griffons were honorable, loyal, and hid their eating habits behind doors to save the ponies the sight of their consumption of meat. If anything, they were gentle to the ponies and her. So even when she had gone out of her way to ask whether they should take actions against the griffons, the crystal ponies refused to fight the race that had essentially saved them and the empire. Not to mention that they seemed to trust the griffons more now than the unicorns that were there to guard her until the griffons came. In fact, the crystal ponies seemed to mistrust all the Equestrian ponies to a degree but trusted her seeing as she had the cutie mark of the Crystal Heart.

So she really had no problems with the Griffon occupation. That and they were willing to fortify her city with those metal walls instead of the easy-to-destroy stone walls as long as she supplied them with the high quality crystal that her empire was known for. While the Griffons did not use it for magical use, it was being used for their newest weapons and for expensive jewelry for their own nobles.

Another thing about the Griffons. They were brutally honest at times and rather horrible liars.

But if it protected her ponies in the end... She would do anything.

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Shining Armor led what remained of the guards with a damaged cart containing Celestia's regenerating body. While she was clinically dead, her regenerating body made sure that she was still alive. With barely three hundred left alive from the failed attack, they barely made it back to the station at the border and with their morale at the very bottom.

"The attack failed did it?" Shining Armor's eyes widened at the sight of Princess Luna with half a hundred of her own Lunar Guards all sitting at the station with a certain look in her eyes. "You do realize that the Griffons immediately demanded the reason for the attack on one of their protectorates."

"They seized-" Shining Armor stopped his arguments as soon as a dozen spears were leveled in his direction and Luna gazed at him coolly.

"Princess Mi Amore Cadenza surrendered peacefully in return for supplies her ponies needed and their ruler saw fit to see that she remained in power. And then you and my sister decided to attack them not knowing what was really going on." Luna shook her head and looked at the tired, injured, and mostly half-dead guards ponies. "Now we are going to have to inform hundreds of ponies that their colts and fillies died fighting for a pointless conflict. I've sent a letter of apology to the Griffon King, so hope that they do not want your head on a spike, Prince-Captain Shining Armor. Because I will let them have it."

Shining Armor could barely react to what Princess Luna just said and sat there shocked. Cadence, his Cadence had surrendered peacefully? Why? The Empire had the best of his unicorns and could have fought back! He even knew that supplies were shipped towards the Crystal Empire! Why did she surrender? Why?

He said nothing as he was forcibly hauled on to the train and followed by an irate Luna glaring at her sister's half-mangled body. Couldn't Celestia tell that magic was now falling behind? And from what she had gleaned from the reports on Griffon Technology passed to her by spies, they were leagues ahead of them in terms of improving both the military and their civilians . But she couldn't act yet. Her own prototypes showed little results and required more time to produce proper designs. If only her sister waited for a few months, they would have been able to negotiate with the Griffons on even ground.

But as of now...

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Alarms rang through the Crystal Empire as the dozen Griffon-made Warglaives and Knight Titans had their weapons armed and ready to fire at the skies. A pony had reported seeing a large flying object in the distance and was supposedly headed towards the city. But it was sure as something flew through the city at speeds that most airships wished they could fly in.

"Behind!" A Knight yelled as he swiftly turned his machine around after something landed behind his machine, but only to come face to face with a slowly rising machine that stood nearly ten meters in height and seemed to be bristling with numerous weaponry mounted all around its body. As the knight brought his chainsaw to swing, the clawed hand of the larger machine only caught the blade easily and began to apply pressure. When another Knight sought to charge the attacker, the larger mech aimed its own cannon arm to let loose a harsh bark of cannon fire that let loose four simultaneous shells that utterly blew off the mechanical arm wielding the chainsaw and then fired four more to to Knight’s groin to entirely destroy it and forcing it to the ground. All the while, the clawed hand easily crushed the Knight’s close combat weapon and pulled backwards, pulling the weapon off at the elbow and then extended a blade from said clawed arm. Without missing a beat, it drove the blade into a warglaive that had been shooting at the larger mech with its dual ‘autocannons’, easily penetrating the armor and killing the pilot within. As another Knight attempted to close the distance to swing its mechanical fist, the larger machine jumped backwards towards the unfinished wall while releasing a withering stream of green lasers that severed the cannon arm of the Knight wielding a fist. It then began to walk backwards while suppressing the Griffon mechs with its laser and cannon fire. Just as the Griffons were about to give chase, thirty objects fell from the skies, impeding their advance long enough for the imposing war machine to disappear into the blizzard.

As the recovery crew, a mix of ponies and griffons, got to salvaging the remains of the downed Knights, they noticed the immense damage caused and thought absently that this show of force was showing who was on the top of the food chain. They may have defeated the ponies, but they were almost far too easily defeated by a single unit that were armed with much more powerful weapons. While their Emperor would be angry at the news, the aide that sat next to a shell shocked Cadence merely grinned.

It was clear that the Changelings had far more advanced tech than them. Perhaps it would be wise not to stir the bee's hive, but rather offer it a larger field of flowers in return for its honey.

Author's Note

Rewritten!

Almost there...

PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!

The Rising Moon

Luna enjoyed the cooling effect from the bag of ice brought to her by a servant. It certainly staved off the brewing migraine from her meetings with Canterlot nobility to gain more support for her own research and development. It was strange that she had more support from the industrial leaders that lived in the east coast of Equestria than the nobility who should be worried far more about either a Griffon or Changeling incursion.

It was also thanks to said industrialists that she had managed to roll out the first official tank of Equestria. Well, it wasn’t anything like the Griffon’s own Malcador series of Heavy tanks that had given her a full-on migraine when a contact had sent her a brief booklet on their capabilities. So when her thestrals delivered a list of specifications, several companies eagerly took up prototyping a new vehicle for the Equestrian military.

In the end, it was a shipyard for wet vessels that came up with what her guards were testing so that it would be as troubleshooted now before it is presented to both Princesses and the Prince-Captain Shining Armor, who was ‘in charge’ of the Equestrian military. The tank, powered by a modified airship engine, was nearly nine meters in length and a width of five meters covered in high-grade reinforced steel. It’s frontal armor was nearly 100mm in thickness and the sides were armored with 90mm of solid rolled homogeneous armor (RHA). The rear was a slightly disappointing 60mm, but if someone was behind a tank, the developers argued that the battle might as well be over. And being only 1.5 meters high, it did give them far less of a silhouette, than the Griffon’s own 2.3. It also featured a large turret made with 80mm of RHA and mounting a newly developed line of magic artillery cannons and modified to be faster firing and lighter so as to not weigh the tank down further. In the front of the tank, it fitted a large large bore magic howitzer while the turret fitted a lighter newly designed armor-piercing magical cannon to provide 360 degrees of protection. All of this was reinforced by the rapid firing magical blasters that fired the simple ‘magical arrow’ spell continuously with only needing to worry about barrel overheating.

It was a compromise of magic and science to Luna. Magic was what they had in spades, so why not use it?

But the problems didn’t come from developing new weapons of war. Oh no, she really did like the newly titled Charioteer Mark One heavy tank, but what was giving her migraines were the arrogant stagnate ingrates of Canterlot Nobility. Considering that they were somehow in charge of finances, they blocked her at every turn to develop new weapons of war and pushed forth their own ‘sponsored’ ‘engines of war’. Which was nothing more than a stone golem covered in metal armor.

“Of all the problems I have to go past, why is it that my sister’s own ‘little’ ponies are denying me bettering Equestria?” Luna muttered quietly as she nursed her aching skull. “At least I got this through after bringing up the fact that the Griffons can shoot shells packed with enough explosives to easily break standard Equestrian Magical Shields that are widely distributed and rather cheap to produce as well.”

It was still stuff from nearly 100 years ago that had yet to be changed. Even when she suggested that they update their magical equipment, those arrogant idiots had argued that there was no need to change something that had not failed them yet. It was not the right mindset for the evolving world around them and it seriously hampered Luna’s ability to bring up the level of combat ability for the Equestrian military.

She sighed in a tired manner and got up from the table to go to sleep. Perhaps sleeping right now would be best.

“Nice armor, nice guns, and even nicer plans for future improvements.” A female voice spoke from her personal desk, all scattered with papers and journals that Luna had used to keep track of the progress her projects resulted in. Luna, upon hearing the voice, immediately turned on her heels to address the intruder with her horn charged with a piercing spell. “According to my calculations, you might be even able to compete with the wheeled Hunter Assault Tank.”

The Changeling that stood before her was wearing what appeared to be a skintight suit with what appeared to be dark ceramic plates of armor in key locations while a fully enclosed helmet with a blacked out visor by her hooves. She had levitated several documents while sitting over and appeared to have been reading them in earnest. Her orange mane and orange eyes simply made it easier for Luna to identify this Queen.

“Queen Patina Gear of the Ferrugo Hive.” Luna hissed as she kept her horn aimed at the ‘cause’ of her troubles. Her thestrals, or rather unicorn in the clans had managed to use her talents of ‘ghosting’ to sneak peeks into the absurd progress that the Changelings had.

“Indeed. The Hunter would be evenly matched if it was not moving and not shooting.” Patina chuckled as she turned her gaze to the Princess of the Night. “Greetings, Princess Luna. It seems my reputation precedes me. If you wish to know how I got past nearly every detection spell… Well, let’s just say that my exit is going to be even more spectacular.”

“What are you planning to do here, Changeling?” Luna narrowed her blue eyes at the Changeling. She could kill her, but who knows what plans that existed in case of her death.

“Already to the point? Mind you, I thought there was a slight chance you would offer me tea or something, but…” Patina shrugged before tossing the documents back onto Luna’s desk. “I’m here to offer you a deal, Princess.”

That struck Luna as odd. “What is this deal you are proposing?”

“In return for sharing with you the basics of my mechanical engineering know-how and a stockpile of materials for you to reverse-engineer for your use, I want you to break away from this.” Patina motioned around Luna’s room.
“What?” Luna cancelled her magic away to look bewildered at that. What was this Changeling asking of her? “Break away from what?”

“Hmm… “ Patina tapped her chin several times before seemingly happy about something. “I was confident that your ponies would adapt quickly to the changing times, but this is ridiculous; don’t you think?” Luna narrowed her eyes at the information being put out by the Queen. It was as if she knew more than most ponies that sat in said conference room. “You have to admit, you have to wonder why they are refusing a change that can make them better.”

Luna didn’t say anything, but didn’t let her guard down.

“You really should check the flow of bits much closer and investigate some of their ‘activities’. I mean, the organization that produces your magic ‘shields’ sends a payment of bits bi-annually to key members of your council; so that they can keep producing absolute shit that would shatter against a couple of shots from Griffon Tanks.” Patina produced a photo from under one of her armor plates to show several of the council members eating alongside those Luna recognized as the ones that did produce various magic gear for the Equestrian military with bags of bits being passed. “So you get a guess as to why your projects get shot down so frequently. Not to mention, the cost of making their magic shield is cheaper than a full cart of apples.”

“Wait, what?” Luna’s wide eyes kept staring at the photo while she ‘digested’ the information given to her in stunned silence. “Don’t these fools realize that the Griffons are going to invade sooner or later?”

“They don’t care. They even have high-speed airships ready to escape in case something happens here.” Patina yawned as she produced several more photos. “But unlike you older sister, I wish to make the deal so that the ponies actually have a chance of resisting those featherbrained warhawks.”

“Why? What do you wish to gain from this?” Luna growled as she glared back at the Changeling. “What do you gain from having me leave Equestria?”

“Leave? No, no, no…” Patina shook her head at the question as if it was something foolish. “Not leave. You have the support of industrial leaders that aren’t afraid to change, you have the ear of many individual ponies that could have easily industrialized Equestria if not for meddling by some fools. You even have your Thestral clans who would do anything to protect you.”

“So?” Patina flashed a fang-filled grin at Luna.

“There is an entire chain of islands far off the western coast of Equestria that are unoccupied, and still possessing untold riches underground.” Patina spoke in a low voice with a smile. “I want you to take your supporters and go form a new nation. A nation that won’t fall to such things as relying wholly on magic, but a fusion of magic and technology.”

“And why should we? If you know much, you would realize that the Charioteer will win against the Armored Golem easily. We will soon be producing them to defend against yours and the Griffons’ own shenanigans with more to follow.” Luna said while motioning over to her desk.

“Well, in case you change your mind; the islands are there and when I see you moving there, I’ll make sure you get enough supplies to start anew.” Patina chuckled once again before putting on her helmet and sealing it. “Have fun trying to prevent sabotage, Princess. And never forget that the Word of Blake hears and sees all.”

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Luna couldn’t believe it. No, she simply refused to believe it.

Somepony had clearly done something to the Charioteer as it had blown itself up upon the engine starting. She even had guards around the prototype as soon as it had arrived onto the training field to do its tests and it had been taken away from her so violently. Already, the Magi Conglomerate had signed the contract for the production of the Reinforced Golems and she had her Research and Development funding taken away.

But she should have listened to that Changeling more carefully now that she thought about it. The look in the eyes of the council members who had been in the pictures were of smug satisfaction and even Celestia, her own sister, had taken her off the military council for reasons of providing a failed product. To say that she was furious was just an understatement.

No words needed to be said. Taking pen and paper, she began to furiously write dozens of letters to those that she could say were loyal to her and motioned over her Captain of the Night Guard to deliver said letters as discreetly as possible.

What does it say when Changelings, albeit just Patina from what she knew, were willing to help and ponies that she ‘ruled’ over; would rather throw her under the cart as soon as she tried to change the status quo. She looked at the blueprint of the Charioteer Heavy Tank and snarled as her own magic flared around her briefly.

She was done with being relegated to the sidelines. She snorted as she began to magically pack everything into a single saddle bag. She should have just gone and built her own nation a thousand years ago instead of fighting Celestia, like she was about to now. If this is how Equestria treated change, she would create her own nation where the nobility would never have such control over the nation.

Luna thought silently for a few minutes before grinning slightly.

“I’ll call my own country, Novus Lunar.” She chuckled at the thought and teleported away leaving a barren room with nothing more than a single piece of paper on her desk.

This was on their heads for her breaking away.

Author's Note

Urp... Couldn't wait a week to put something out. Got so many ideas now and as I kept thinking and thinking, the best I could to give the ponies an edge would be an divided Equestria.

One focused on magic, while another would blend magic with the powers of science.

Also, I'm sorry to many fans of her, but I really don't think Celestia is a good leader or a good teacher. Her character? Meh.

But Luna? Not much shown, but I see her as somepony willing to risk her own neck to protect her little ponies. That and I like her design and character better.

And now? I'm going to go try and go bid on the forces of incoming humans to out-honor the honorable honor for honor's sake. Honor on the side, hold the honor with extra honor. AKA: decide on how much shit is coming to equally blow shit up while being goddamn badasses doing it.

Lunar Novus' Rise to Stage

“Crystal tissue? Catalyst Crystal?” Luna read the report given to her by a unicorn wearing a full-body suit covered in soot, oil, and what appeared to be remains of rocks that stuck to her mane and tail. “What are these?”

“I’m glad you asked, Princess!” The unicorn, Crystal Clara, smiled as she dragged out two boxes filled with what appeared to be formations of normal crystals; but seemed to be slightly different in very different ways. “As you can see, the left box is filled with what I call Crystal Tissue, if refined properly! This particular crystal, despite its current form, was found to be incredibly flexible and after me and my team did some tests; where we found out that it has many of what we have been needing. It is flexible, durable, and can even hold mana within longer so we initially theorized that we could use it as something for a reactor.” Within the same box, she levitated away several rope-like materials that shone just like the raw ore next to it. “We found out that it could serve as artificial muscles that act much like our own muscles in our bodies while if we were to spin it like how we make ropes…”

As a demonstration, Crystal picked up three and began to spin it much like a rope and ended with a stranded ‘rope’ made of what was supposed to be some crystals to be mined.

“As you can see, it can store mana, extend and retract like a muscle, and it’s durable enough to withstand harsh impacts!” Luna blinked as she used her own magic to levitate the stranded crystal in front of her.

“That is… certainly impressive.” She paused for a moment before frowning. “Then why haven-”

“It hasn’t been mined for that exact reason, Princess.” The unicorn answered the unspoken question and sighed. “Because it cannot store mana as much as standard refined crystal. “It's considered a useless ore that is processed into cheap jewelry.”

Luna face-hoofed at that and groaned.

“Well, on to the next crystal!” The unicorn looked excited at this far more than Luna was right now. She was still coming to terms of how… stagnate Equestria was right now. “The Catalyst Crystal! I have never seen such a crystal in my life, but this!” She physically hauled out a crystal the size of a normal pony’s head emitting a bright glow according to its color. “It's not a normal magic crystal that merely stores mana, but it can generate more by drawing it from the air! That rate of intake is absurdly slow and has low magical output, my team is confident that we can enhance both by building a reactor around this crystal to make what we are planning on calling an Ether Reactor!”

Luna blinked several times before looking at the crystal held in the unicorn’s hooves. When she went to grab it with her magic…
“Uhhh… Princess, maybe you should have noticed that I grabbed it with my hooves for a reason…?” The unicorn coughed out a cloud of smoke from her mouth just as Luna did, as both stared at the exploded crystal.

“Next time, tell me that it reacts violently to active magic.” Luna deadpanned as she hid a grin behind her annoyance. These islands were much like the chaotic south, with uncontrollable weather and other random things that had the ponies that followed her out here annoyed, but welcoming the challenge. It would make for a great lesson in adaptation, she had told them while bearing the rainstorm that they had to endure for days upon arrival. And this was barely five months after settling down and getting their mining rig set up in the locations marked rather conveniently by signs placed by 'strangers'. Luna knew who they were, but when they were so willing to assist alongside crates of non-magic involving weapons...

But with this new Catalyst Crystal, she might actually be able to do something more than merely react. Do something for her... HER little ponies.

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Crystal Heart considered herself a scientist despite having not gone to any higher education to help her family earn more bits. She possessed a soft aquamarine blue colored coat with a bob-haired mane and an equally shorter tail both colored a startling bright shade of azure blue with her eyes seemingly crafted from a hexagonal crystal colors various shades of blue. Her mother told her that their family had always descended from the Crystal ‘Empire’, but it didn’t matter to her. She had gotten her cutie mark, looking like a single rough crystal colored much like a rainbow when she had refined her first mined crystal without any help from her ‘seniors’.

But unlike in Equestria, here, in the Lunar Novus; she was free to pursue her ideas of creating far more efficient, powerful magic energies that would eventually eclipse anything those arrogant pricks with degrees can pull off. They had always looked down at her for being ‘weak’ magically and was called a brute behind closed doors because she was more than willing to enter ‘filthy’ spaces to fulfill her goals. So when she was offered to follow Princess Luna by her parents, she took it and as of right now, she was one of the most eager ponies to get to work after spending months setting up housing, mining marked sites, and doing her research & development.

“By the moon…” Another unicorn, one of thestral descent, looked awed at the silver metallic ‘heart’ the size of three ponies connected to three intake ‘pipes’ and three out-take ‘pipes’ connected to the prototype Ether Reactor. “We are producing enough magic to power a destroyer-class airship with just one of these things!”

“This is nothing more than a prototype!” Crystal yelled excitedly. “When it comes to the point where we can mass-produce these, we’ll be able to do more than airships! They are small enough to be mounted on as engines and maybe even our own walkers to rival those Griffons!”

The mad cackling of the unicorn that sounded from the labs were frightening enough for many of the other ponies began to walk away as fast as possible. It might take two to three months to get the kinks out of her design, but Crystal Clara knew that she had just made something that would make Equestrian unicorns jealous of her invention.

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Luna looked at the armorless form of the centaur-like machine before her with a bit of glee and worry. While she with her research and development committee had gone over many designs to prototype their first combat mecha, but had come to arguments on the form of the machine. Many of those that were from various schools had declared that they should only make machines in the form of ponies while others had said that the bipedal locomotion of the other factions were far more versatile and were capable of more using the implementation of hands instead of fixed weapons.

So Luna was forced to compromise between the two. The locomotion would be that of a pony while the ‘head’ would be replaced by a humanoid torso with two arms capable of holding and changing weapons on the fly. Of course, they were already designing ‘lesser’ models of machines that were either bipedal; which were to be the standard ‘infantry’ while the pony form would be used for anti-air and a heavy weapons platform as this model was the most heavily armored and sadly, the slowest for that reason. The centaur model, Tzendrinble, would be the primary ‘attacker’ of the Lunar Novus as while possessing light armor; was capable of incredible speed to maneuver around enemies in an organic manner while wielding weapons that can take advantage of their mobility would be designed. The bipedal machine, Karrdator, possessed slightly more armor than the Tzendrinble; but lacked its mobility in the favor of focusing more on a wider type of ranged weaponry and various forms of close combat. The only downside to these two models was that pilot training was harsher due to her ponies not being used to any form of bipedal movement until now. While the cockpits were designed so that the pony would be comfortable ‘lying’ on their stomach and using the controls that were designed as user-friendly as possible. Their rear legs manipulated pedals that moved the machine while their forelegs would use a series of magically-enhanced ‘pads’ that translated subtle movements to move the four-fingered hands as if they were their own with the head of the machines providing ‘sight’. The pony model, to be called Equibelli, was the most heavily armored of the trio while also being the shortest of the three. Despite its short height, it was capable of hauling nearly three to four times the cargo of the Tzendrinble; and also utilizing what would usually be labeled as siege weaponry.

Of course, designing them was easy. Implementing them?

Easier said than done. Even with Patina’s ‘support’ of a basic autocannon/2, machine gun, and what her engineers called an ‘tube’-based artillery. It simply startled her on how fast these physical based weapons fired and simply overpowered all ‘standard’ magic shields with absurd ease, or some did faster compared to the size of their rounds. To Luna and her ponies, the different types of ammunition seemed like a logistical nightmare. The small, yet fast firing machine gun rounds were easy to craft using a bit of transfiguration of metals; but it only seemed useful mostly against infantry when they had tested their own ammunition with a fixed mounted ‘bunker’. The autocannon/2, as the Changelings called it, was a marvel of automatic loading, incredible range, and reliability. It was relatively easy to make it themselves when they put their minds to it, but the ammunition for these weapons were on a different scale. In fact, her engineers had told her that creating such multi-core rounds was out of their league entirely. What they could do was to mimic such functions by using a hollow metal round with a crystal packed with spells that could perform similar actions as the ammunition provided by Patina. Then there was the tube-artillery. It was not as fast firing as Equestria’s standard magic cannons, but what they lacked in firing rate, was replaced by nearly three times the range and possessing the capability to smash aside triple-layered magical shields in two shots. It was a trade off, but one that Luna knew was important. The Changelings had outranged them in the encounter in the south so long ago, so she knew how important such fire support was.

So she pushed her engineers to create three types of long ranged support. A light artillery that can be hauled around by her infantry without the need for external assistance and focusing on armor penetration. Several variations of medium artillery that was to be used by Luna’s Tanks and those to be hauled by said tanks to be set up and behind main lines. The final form of artillery was to be mounted on their Equibelli quadrupedal mecha as mobile artillery pieces designed to outrange her enemies and others dragged by any form of vehicles to be set up and fired.

That and Luna liked the sound of drowning her enemies in a sea of thunderous barrage of magic and steel.

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“Amazing.” Luna smiled as she observed the incredible maneuvering of the Tzendrinble as the centaur-like machine galloped through an obstacle course while using a large lance to break aside stationary wooden targets with little difficulty. The machine, as it jumped across a small river, threw its lance at a target that popped up and drew a large handheld rifle made of wood and metal; and pulled back a lever as it racked a sizable round and aimed without stopping to put down five more targets moving side to side to while maintaining a decent speed as it had to slow down to fire accurately. As the fifth round fired, the machine swiftly reloaded one by one from a small pouch behind it’s back and fired at another five before coming to a slow trot, headed towards where Luna had been observing from. “If we can increase the ammunition held by the weapon and perhaps add another close-combat weapon, we might have a proper machine of war.”

“So…” Crystal Clara’s eyes were gleaming with pride and joy as Luna smiled openly at the display shown to her. It was something to be expecting one thing, but to be given something far beyond one’s expectations…

“From what I’ve seen from all three machines, I can expect many great things to happen now.” Luna nodded to herself until she noticed Crystal Clara shaking her head. “Is there a problem?”

“Princess, these ‘machines’ are to be called ‘Silhouette Knights’.”

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A pair of caterpillar treads, made of magically-reinforced steel, crushed rocks under their sheer weight as dozens of ten foot long, four feet wide and four foot high moved in sync across the newly flattened training area. As Luna and other engineers that were working on their tank designs had learned that the Griffon-made tanks lacked mobility and the ability to aim its main cannon behind itself, they had sought to improve upon their previous Charioteer design by making their own tanks fitted with reinforced turrets fitted with modified autocannons that were fitted to fire magical shells or even a newly designed shell that was designed for the extreme penetration of armor. A magically enhanced metal arrow was fitted into a shell and was given a far more concentrated magical catalyst to send it faster than ‘normal’ shells at their targets. The only problem was that they could not be fired rapidly like other shells due to their increased recoil and heat. Not to mention the fact that while the thickest armor in the front was only 100mm compared to the 200mm of the Griffons’ tanks, but what gave them an edge was their impressive output from the Ether Reactor that allowed the vehicle surpass their foes with an incredible speed of 75 kph with the added protection of enchantments that could do many things in case of emergencies.

There were other tanks designed for different purposes: one fitted with four autocannon/2’s designed to engage aerial targets using fragmentation shells that detonated near enemy aerial units, another chassis that was twice the size of the main tanks but fielding larger tube artillery designed to fire straight forwards as an anti-tank/fortress platform, and an armored personnel carrier fitted with Lunar Novus’ own machine gun. Much like the machine guns provided by Patina, Luna’s engineers had gone the path of ammunition, except for a key difference. Lunar Novus had opted for slower firing, but heavier rounds that would take down armored infantry far easier.

Overall, the military arm of the Lunar Novus was gaining much traction in its strength. All that it was missing was the number of soldiers to man such vehicles of war.

But if Luna’s informants were to be believed, there would soon be a chance for her to appear as the savior instead of a ‘renegade’ as claimed by the Unicorn Nobility after her departure years ago. Let them think what they want, but reality was about to down on them far sooner than those arrogant bastards realized.

Author's Note

Hmmm... I can see a lot of things to improve here, but putting it up as it's what I can put out before my mind burns out again.

This chapter is more of an information dump, than a proper 'story' chapter; but it will do for now.

We will now view the rebelling Griffon Princess' view during the time Lunar Novus was building up!

Quick Edit: Added some lines to show time passage...

Meddling of Monsters

She never realized it at the time, but she really should have used her head more than her instincts. Her rebellion against her father had failed so hard that when it was over, her ‘nation’ was erased off the map and barely had a hundred followers left in the end. Thankfully, those that were left had been some of her closest and loyal followers. They fled the engagement against her father, or rather was forced by her officers to flee, as they had stared down a barrel so large that one could fit a frigate-type airship into it.

When it fired… She never felt such fear from weapons that her father had a claw in developing, but when it had fired…

The shrill shriek of the charging process alongside the ear-shattering roar when it fired its deadly beam of untold heat had burned a hole into the nearby mountain while also erasing a majority of her ‘army’ which had included three Knights and eight Warglaives. Even now, two months on the run, the survivors of the failed rebellion would wake up screaming from nightmares of the weapon firing.

“Princess.” She turned her tired amber gold eyes to the voice and hid a grimace at the former Knight Titan pilot who had barely escaped the weapon firing when he had punched out just barely… All it had cost him was his left arm and leg. He was only walking on fours thanks to some prosthetics she had smuggled out of a hospital lab and had her medics install it onto the large Griffon that was nearly half as large as her. His dark brown plumage was dirty with mud, but his dark green eyes still aglow with untold will. “It is my turn to take watch.”

“Of course, Lord Greyclaw.” She muttered as she dragged her tired body to her tent, no different from her followers, but only located in the center of the camp they had briefly set up. Her head, covered in what used to be pristine desert tan colored feathers and the rest of her body covered in a dark autumn red fur with her forelegs covered in golden amber scales. As she laid down on her field pad to sleep, she could only regret acting so early despite being told to delay her attacks in both frequency and intensity. “What is done is done… There is no going back now…”

They were mostly injured, low on food, low on water, and only had enough ammunition to give everyone one reload before they would have to resort to knives and swords. Princess Anastasia Ravenwing fell asleep filled with worries about the future.

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Her amber eyes opened soon after as she noticed a change in her surroundings. Or rather, she thought she had, but woke up only to find herself in her old room in the Imperial Palace when she had been a fledgling. She looked around wearily as she attempted to reach for a hidden blade she always kept under her wing in a tight hidden harness.

Only to find nothing.

“There is no need for hostilities, young Ana.” A garbled voice that sounded neither male nor female spoke from the other end of her room just as she swiftly turned to the voice and threw the nearest thing she could grab. As the chair she threw simply vanished before disappearing before the voice, Anastasia observed the speaker with increased paranoia as it stood nearly two meters tall covered in a crimson hooded robe that was secured around its body to the point where nothing could be easily be seen with the face being shrouded in darkness with nothing but two glowing ‘eyes’ that made her uncomfortable to the skies. “Hmmm… Your father did the same thing when I entered his dreams.”

“My father?” Anastasia glared before understanding what it was saying. “What do you mean by that?”

“Did you really think you can go from simple muskets to your autoguns in a mere three years? Or did you think your father could develop the tanks, titans, and the design of your newest airships without some kind of help?” The figure spoke in a chastising manner as it began to chuckle afterwards. “No one is so… brilliant ever.”

“So you just GAVE him those things?” Anastasia’s mind immediately went back to that horrendous cannon.

“Gave? I only ‘gave’ him memories of the weapons. Their weight, power, and the memories associated with them!” The figure cackled as it raised its arms, but all she could still see was shadows. “It was his decision to implement them in the ways he saw fit.”

“T-then what was that cannon he used on h-his own daughter!” She shrieked as unwilling tears fell from her eyes as the scenery of her room was torn away to reveal said ‘cannon’.

“Oh-ho!” The creature cackled as he looked upon the massive cannon. “A Plasma Annihilator! And so well-made!”

“A Plasma what?” She hissed as she saw her own memories replay as it charged slowly.

“The core is still unstable as you can clearly see it’s overheating in various sections.” The shadow pointed out several locations of the weapon Anastasia could now see were armor plating melting at various locations. “But it is interesting. I’ve only shown him bare images of this particular engine, mind you…”

Anastasia glared at the shadowy figure before jumping straight at him with her talons outstretched, but was restrained by what appeared to be four mechanical tentacles that restrained all four of her limbs that had emerged from nowhere.

“Now, now. I was going to help you because you somehow survived events you were not supposed to.” The shadowy figure chuckled at the struggling Griffon. “When that cannon fired, it was supposed to erase you from existence; but you are still here. Can you tell me how you escaped alive?”

Anastasis glared at the shadowy figure before shaking her head. “I don’t know. I only heard something akin to a song and found myself with a few of my followers away from the field of battle.”

“A song…?” The figure shifted his head to the side seemingly thinking. “Hmph. Another one…? It doesn’t matter now anyways.”

The figure dropped the Griffon onto the ground and pulled out two strange symbols from within the robes. “You want to see your father fall, do you not? Choose one.”

Anastasia rubbed her wrists where the mechanical claws had held her in place. She glanced at the two ‘pendants’ held in shadowy hands. One was a strange strange circle split in half with a small circle on the top while the other was a simple circle that was colored gunmetal grey to the right possessing a mechanical skull while the other half was a cruel looking skull. Both symbols sent raw fear down her spine as she stared at them.

“W-what are they?” She whispered, but was ignored as the ambient sound of the cannon charging seemed to drown out all sounds.

“Choose, Anastasia Ravenwing.” The shadow said with a certain coldness that reminded her of the fierce cold of her former home. “Both offer you knowledge, but you may only choose one. And if you survive the information…”

That sent a chill down her spine as she finally got a good look at the two symbols of ‘power’.

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“Aaaaaaahhhhhhhh-----!” Anastasia screamed awake as she threw off the thin sheet to keep herself warm in her sleep and was startled out of her shock by a firm grip. Greyclaw looked worried as he had his tent beside hers and had heard her struggling in her sleep. He had rushed over only to hear her scream and wake up with wide, scared eyes.

“Calm, Anastasia…” Greyclaw said in a low voice as he embraced the nineteen-year old Princess. “Was it another nightmare?”

“N-no.” Anastasia cried into the larger Griffon’s chest as she cried and tried to catch her breath at the same time. “I-I found out how my father gained such wonderful technologies.”

“What?” The larger Griffon whispered as he looked down at the smaller Griffon. Anastasia gathered her breath and asked to gather everyone as this was not news she could hide. No, she owed it to her followers on what was going on. As she looked at the gathered Griffons, both wounded and alive, Anastasia began to explain in great detail as to what was going on. The information about the shadow giving her father the ‘idea’ of weapons via memories of the weapons was grim news as the rebel group began to realize the scale of what they were facing. And when she explained why she had woken up screaming, they also realized that she had gotten the same deal.

“So, which of the two did you take, Princess?” A young Griffon officer inquired as she adjusted the bandages that surrounded her eye. “If those memories you received were so horrible that you would wake screaming, one must ask which you took.”

“I-I….” The gathered Griffons felt apprehensive that their Princess was now stuttering. Hesitating. Things that she had never done. “Machines. An endless sea of machines all wielding weapons that far eclipses the autoguns we use. Every last soldier is grown in tanks, clones of their past selves, and were enhanced by prosthetics designed to make them into lethal killing machines. Mindless machines guided by augmented leaders, their tanks lacking armor and yet nigh impervious to fire, and their weapons... “ She took a deep breath. “Imagine a simple bullet that is far more intricate than the mechanical circuits in the Knights, but can kill anything in a single shot as it causes all of the target’s body to burn out in a blast of electrical force as it ignites their nervous system. Imagine an energy weapon not associated with magic of any kind that can fire a beam of energy that can pierce even the toughest tank armor, but also produce a pulse of energy that can fry any living or mechanical circuits to kill them indirectly. Imagine a large rifle that can shoot through and through a Malcador tank from the front. Imagine weapons that will kill its user, but the enemy would die from unseen energies that poison them in ways that treatment is impossible.”

“W-what mad beings would create such horrors?” Another Griffon muttered in shock as many looked uneasily at the tired looking Princess.

“The Mechanicum, as they are called.” Anastasia grabbed the sides of her head as the memories resurfaced. “An order of mad beings that think machines are imbued with spirits of their own and only listens to the cold logic of the machine.”

“What will you do then, Princess?” Greyclaw asked in a deep voice that brought her back into reality.

“...My father must be stopped.” She said in finality. “And I have the knowledge to level the field. If he completes that machine, nothing in this world will ever be able to stop him from flattening everything. Not even the pony princesses would give him a challenge.”

“...What do you plan to do, Princess?” A young private asked as he looked at her with bright eyes. Such a young soul…

“We build.” She said in a low voice. “We replace our numbers with augmented clones. We make weapons to combat my father. And we go silent.”

Greyclaw nodded firmly as he didn’t question his leader. As barbaric as it seemed, they would have to resort to cloning their new army and build up an army capable of absurdly incredible amounts of damage using an equally absurd technology. In the back of his mind, he hoped this would allow for a new Knight Titan to be built. One that could trump anything the Griffon Imperium could throw at them that wasn’t bigger than he was.

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Anastasia looked at her new right hand with wonder in her eyes as the mechanical talons flexed as she would her original ones. She had, at one point, doubted the true power of such modifications of the body; but seeing it now gave her a sense of familiarity. Narrowing her eyes, she idled on her new bed within the location she and her followers had taken over and had gone straight to acquire the necessary equipment to begin basic production of blueprints she drew up that would serve as basic components for larger projects.

When the first cloning tanks went up seven months ago, she had her medics trained in the installation of the numerous cybernetics that would make them durable, see in various different ‘sights’, and other prosthetics that would in the end make them harder to put down. Their ‘Skitarii’, also known as the Tech Guard by her normal troops, would be shocktroopers that had advanced gas-masks permanently integrated into their heads along with enough electronics that made them merciless and relentless troops that could not be stopped without severe losses as she had seen when they had raided an outpost at the edge of the Griffon Imperium near Equestria. None had really perished in the raid, but most of the ‘first generation’ skitarii were maimed to a lethal degree. But none stopped. She had even seen a Ranger missing an entire arm maul a Griffon soldier to death with its rifle’s butt as ‘it’ could not shoot their weapon. They were additionally augmented to return to service.

Of course, the augments barely bothered the cloned Griffons as they could fly into the air just like any Griffon as their wings were also strengthened with cybernetics to support their increased weight from their armor.

She turned to look at Greyclaw looking pleased with the new type of Knight Titan that had been fast tracked to completion. The Knight-Lancer pattern. It possessed a short range ‘lance’ that could bypass any armor with its crackling lance, but was also capable of firing short range blasts of plasma to combat any who would try to escape the advanced melee/ranged weapon. And to complement the ‘lance’ was a powerful focused ion shield that shrugged off even the powerful battle cannon of the standard Knight Titans possessed. She, at the suggestion of Greyclaw, had gotten herself trained to pilot a Knight Titan of her own. The Knight-Castigator pattern she would pilot was a nightmare for both infantry and tanks. Armed with the Castigator Bolt Weapon, it was a horrifying repeating weapon that fired self-propelled mass-reactive rounds at insane speeds to annihilate entire platoons of infantry in seconds while it wielded a Tempest Warblade capable of shearing through other Knight Titans with utter ease, nothing to say about tanks. Both were also fitted with the new ion shields that standard Griffon Knight Titans lacked as her father did not ‘see’ them.

It was an exciting time for her new organization, the Griffon Mechanicum. A counter to the Imperium she faced. An order of griffons wielding arcane machines led by the Arch Magos Anastasia. She looked at the cold metallic ceiling of her room in the underground fortress with cool determination as her war machine built up and up.

Her father could not complete his ambition. No one should have such power.

Not even her.

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“Ugh.” A distorted voice spoke from the void as it seemed to be snarling and groaning at the same time. “Damn assholes who can’t respect their betters are trying to interfere with my fun?”

The sound of shattering glass echoed in the void.

“What I do here doesn’t even mess with the wider universe.” It growled as the sound of endless machinery grinding away could be heard ever so slightly as the unknown seemingly paced around here. “But whatever. If they want to get to me and this world…”

Hundreds of Imperator Titans lined a darkly lit void as a frightening visage of fused metal and flesh with glowing amber eyes and openly smiled/snarled at seemingly nothing.

“I will NOT go silently into the night…”

Author's Note

Well, then... The ending of this chapter is so I can set up a chain of events that would interact with Gargon94's hive and OC later on.

But realize that the ending is just something that is coming sooner or later.

The delusions of a madman who has crossed the boundary of metal and flesh. Of a man who cares not for anything else but his dominance of iron might. Of a being who had become something more than he should have. Of a scorned man who could care less about the collateral damages he causes for reasons unknown.

The Prelude to War

The high pitched whine of a charging energy weapon filled the night sky as a brilliant stream of blue-white energy sliced through the first two tanks with absurd ease before the energy faded away. Just as the last vestiges of the energy faded out into the night, the two stricken tanks were hit with a nearly invisible pulse of energy that seemed to pass through the vehicles and made one of the surviving crew simply keel over dead through a hatch he had been trying to get out of. In another part of the night battlefield, a bright burst of baleful yellow energy atomised infantry and tanks alike as absurdly accurate bursts from heavy machine guns tore down any other Griffon soldiers that survived the bursts of energy. The click-clack’ing sound of four mechanical legs was followed by the sounds of machine gun fire and the howls of the Onager Dunecrawler’s energy weapons sliced through the night sky as the Griffon garrison realized too late that they were being attacked on a scale that went past any other raids that would have occured.

These walking tanks were followed by the desert tan cloaked ‘Griffons’ that were wearing full gas masks that were hooked up to their armored bodies. Nearly as one, these ‘Rangers’ raised their rifles and aimed into the night as their enhanced eyesight picked out targets hidden by the darkness of night. One internal command and they fired as one. In the distance, there were ten brief flashes of electricity as ten Griffon guards perished from having their own bodies’ potential energy turned on them. These soldiers would march forwards, aim, and shoot at seemingly random intervals into the night.

These infantry were closely tailed by three different types of robots that marched ponderously firing their deadly payload endlessly into the fortress. The smallest of the trio stood eight foot tall and wielded a pair of heavy clamps for hands and wielded attached standard bolters on said arms while possessing a larger bolt cannon mounted over its right shoulder letting loose a hail of self-propelled mass-reactive shells capable tearing infantry armor to shreds in an instant. These ‘Castellax’ battle-automata shrugged off the autogun fire with little difficulty, but some were destroyed by the heavy tank weaponry; until their larger eleven foot tall ‘cousins’ stepped forward in their heavier armor and proceeded to bring both of its arms up to punch the offending tank by using their gravitational hammers mounted onto their forearms. As the ‘hammers’ impacted the front of the tank, the armor crumpled like paper and allowed the ‘Domitar’ battle-automata to use its claws to tear the armor away and released the deadly missile payload attached into its back into the broken front of the tank. As the tank exploded spectacularly, the largest of the three, standing nearly sixteen foot tall, punched its right arm forwards at the heavy iron gates and blew it straight open with its graviton ram. Just as the guards that were behind the gate looked startled at their multi-ton gate being punched open and dropped the ammunition boxes they had been carrying to grab their autoguns, but were immediately gunned down by the twin-linked heavy bolters attached to its left arm. As the smoke began to fade, a tank that had been moving to reinforce the gate fired its main cannon at the larger machine and could only gasp as their shell impacted a invisible barrier that didn’t even budge the mechanical giant as it aimed its right shoulder mounted heavy lascannon that fired its orange beam of laser-based destruction to spear the tank from front to rear cleanly. The ‘Thanatar’ Siege-automata strode forwards while sweeping its anti-infantry left to right, slaughtering all those who stood to combat the large machine.

Even as the rest of the fortress began to fall, the Thanatar siege-automata was thrown outside the gate with a mighty sound of metal slamming into metal. Two Knights, bearing the heraldry of a rose with a blade stabbing through the middle emerged from the gates and immediately got to gunning down what troops were far away and swung their chainswords at battle-automata that engaged them.

But the difference between the Imperium Knights and the Mechanicum Knights was the availability of their ion shields. Albeit making it more complicated to produce, it served its purpose to avoid direct damage against any form of fire. It did not take long for the Neutron Laser and the Eradication Beamer to target the two and promptly dumped their weapons at the knees of the war engines. As the two Knights were sent to the ground, two of the four ‘Domitar’ Battle-automata went to the machine’s cockpit in large strides and slammed their gravity hammers onto the cockpit hatch and tore the damaged hatches off with ruthless efficiency.

As the two war engines were internally destroyed by the missiles, Anastasia held a slim sight in her claws, looking at the battlefield below. Within her mind, she could hear the various cold reports of her Skitarii within her data link that allowed her to keep track of her war cohort in its entirety. But even as she wordlessly ordered her troops to gather and loot the fortress-outpost, she could only curse the loss of seventy percent of her automata including the massive Thantar. Her two Onager Dunecrawler were intact and she had only suffered minor injuries to her Rangers, only requiring further cybernetics for their missing arms and legs.

She sighed and jumped into her Knight-Castigator with a sigh as she typed a message onto one console. A reply arrived, allowing her to smile gratefully. Lord Greyclaw’s own War Cohort had completed his own raid with only the loss of one Castellax combat-automata. Out of her hundred twelve followers from the failed rebellion, only fifty seven remained during the three years of their ‘activation’ as the Griffon Mechanicum. Many had died leading early raids and some being unable to adapt to the neural data-links causing their minds to tear themselves apart. However, this led to Anastasia; who had proclaimed herself as the Arch Magos, allowed a pair of Griffons to lead a single War Cohort of small, yet incredibly advanced soldiers and equipment. They had the firepower, but lacked the numbers like before to fully carry out assaults as they had. So each Magos leading their War Cohorts slowly inched out capturing fortresses and their resources to bring back to their underground fortress now turned into a massive factory/fortress/bunker that had been built into the mountain that overlooked the sea and the super-massive bridge built by Anastasia’s father that connected the Imperium to the vast frozen wastes of Crystal City. While she no longer thought of the ponies as cannon fodder, she had nothing but contempt for the silly idealist nation that was Equestria. When she had heard that the more aggressive Luna had gone missing and the whispers of a new pony nation began to pop up by traders they ran into both naval and aerial ports, she could take a guess who was leading such a nation.

Anastasia Ravenwing was young, but no one could doubt her power as the leader of the Mechanicum. Not when she had heard that her father had been shocked into silence in his own throne room when her attacks using weapons he remembered from memories. She remembered hearing the top secret report from a planted listening device that his titan was nearing completion, but only seemed to lack proper amounts of metals to forge the massive armor plates and the slow development of the massive reactor that was to power the machine and its weapons. She had time to stop him, but right now; she lacked the sheer firepower needed after they had turned the ‘Imperial’ Palace into a massive fortress that was nigh impenetrable. In fact, this was brought to her attention as her closest advisor; Lord Greyclaw had asked if they should contact the Changelings for their assistance in dethroning the ‘Emperor’.

Many had jumped to object, but she had stopped to ponder. While she needed the assistance of these… memories to advance her technology, she wondered how the Changelings advanced so quickly. Closing the armored hatch to her Knight Titan, Anastasia ordered her Skitarii to pull back to where the Supply Corp was waiting for their haul. Another success, and more resources to convert into automata that made up the bulk of her overall forces.

They had the advantage in technology, but her father’s forces outnumbered hers by a massive magnitude of nearly 10,000 to one. That and while she had some aerial forces before, she now only had a single armored transport ship that could only fit two War Cohorts and that was without support equipment or extra ammunition.

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“What did you say?” Anastasia’s voice was filled with disbelief as she heard the report being given to her by her informat.

“The Emperor is forming three army groups to finally attack Equestria.” The hooded informant said while drinking water from a flask. “Army Group North will hit Manehatten, Army Group Centre is striking Fillydelphia, and Army Group South is hitting Baltimare.”

“That’s nearly fourteen million troops not including tanks, Knights, artillery, and aerial assets.” Greyclaw grimaced as he tossed a bag of golden coins to the informat. “If you manage to get more information, I shall double the payment.” The informant merely nodded and disappeared quickly as he left the hotel room Anastasia had rented under a false name.

“You were supposed to lead Army Group Centre, weren’t you; Lord Greyclaw.” Anastasia said with a sense of finality. “You know what they fielded at the time and how many they could now… Tell me, what are the chances of Equestria even slowing them down?”

“Slow them down?” Greyclaw sighed as he placed his hand on his head. “Ana, when I inspected Army Group Centre nearly five years ago, they were split into four individual armies, two possessing two tank corps and two army corps, while the other two were one tank corp, one infantry corp then by reserves that also serve as primary logistics corp. ” He took out a bottle of clear alcohol from the room refrigerator and drank straight from the bottle. “Each tank corps is led by three to five Knights and nearly two to three Warglaives each knight. This is then followed by nearly one hundred and ten tanks followed by their support elements. The Army Corps is made up of nearly 30,000 troops along with their support elements. Add the new aerial battleships and battlecruisers, then they can wipe out the newly formed Equestrian Legions within hours.”

“A legion only has around six thousand at maximum, don’t they…” Anastasia closed her eyes to imagine the carnage. “How fast do you think Equestria will fall?”

The Mechanicum Knight took another long drink of the bottle and chuckled darkly. “If the Generals wish to play with their food? Twelve to eighteen months.”

“And if they don’t?” Anastasia could guess the time frame, but she wanted to hear it from a former General.

“Six to seven months for them to take over the entirety of Equestria.” She could only sigh. With such massive differences in numbers and technology, it couldn’t even be called a war. “What about their new Golems? I heard that they could shrug off cannon fire.”

“Princess. You know the answer to that.” Greyclaw laughed mirthlessly. “Those slow ponderous things can’t even perform a decent ranged attack. Our airborne infantry can engage their pegasi at extreme ranges where the pegasi use their magic-muskets that dub as a spear.” Another swig of the drink and he continued. “Their unicorns don’t have ‘standard’ magical spells that can penetrate tank armor, if you don’t count individual spells. And when they attempt their ‘Powerful’ group spells, you can bet your crowns that they’ll be dozens of the largest guns immediately firing upon them.”

“And with no proper armor, artillery, and defenses to stop my father’s forces effectively; I guess we can only trust them to cause enough trouble for us to strike deeper and deeper into the Imperium.” She sighed as she could ‘see’ out the eyes of her Rangers that were hidden amongst the nearby forest peering into the city they were in. No activity from the local garrison of the police force yet. “Do you think his machine is ready yet?”

Tossing the bottle into the trash, Greyclaw snarled at the question. “I hope it is not, but he has had nearly three years. Even if our eavesdropping is accurate, he would have the armor done by now. The reactor housing is done from what I had read, but the rest? We most likely won’t know until it is too late.”

Anastasia closed her eyes fully to rest and thought about the rapid changes in the world. Whether it was good or bad, it would involve her intricately whether she wanted it or nor. But with the impending collapse of Equestria, she had to remain focused.

A binary message pinged her mind from their headquarters and she snapped her eyes open at the message.

“Greyclaw.” Her voice was firm and filled with worry. “HQ just reported that they spotted massive movements by rail bearing no signs indicating their cargo, but scans showed hundreds of tanks and infantry.”

“Well then, that would most likely be Army Group North. Centre will probably attack Manehatten and South would attack Baltimare…” He let out a dark chuckle as he grabbed his thick jacket. “Looks like the informant was given was what grunts were told. While not surprised, this changes things.”

“How so?” Anastasia inquired as she grabbed her own jacket and bags to leave.

“That means your father is moving more troops to his palace. By moving an Army Group by land means that those airships were redirected for a reason.” The elder Griffon smiled darkly as he looked at a faded pin that was on the collar of his jacket. “Either he’s done, or he is close to completion.”

Oh. Anastasia blinked at that. That was not good.

Author's Note

Welp.

I was told about the rapid advancement of technology to be far too fast and was bad pacing.

I agree with him. It is the sort of buildup that I should have avoided. But I really didn't think that Luna would wait to build up and would accelerate her nation's military build up.

Now the Griffon Princess' build up is far more unrealistic, but you have to note that the Griffon Imperium has the capability of producing the tools of the Adeptus Mechanicus, but as I stated in this chapter; it can't challenge the wider military might of the Imperium without losing what technological might they possess. As to why the Emperor doesn't have his own energy weapons that are not on his 'project' is due to the fact that he's only seen portions of memories and grasp the 'easiest' to mass produce without needing the more rarer resources to produce seeing as he needs it for his 'project'.

But I do apologize if it seems too fast. To me, as someone who enjoys writing as a hobby, it feels like a natural thing for those desperate enough would advance their technology at an insane pace.

...Rant over. Whew.

Next arc is returning back to Patina and her division's activities. Also who can see some historical references in this chapter?

Building on the Moon

Zero gravity was a strange thing, Myxine considered as she floated aimlessly in the captain’s room aboard their Assault Triumph DropShip. She had received a report from one of Patina’s drones, who operated the communications systems, that Patina had successfully completed her mission groundside. Convincing the Princess of the Moon to leave was something the trio of queens; herself, Patina, and Magica agreed to convince the more aggressive of the pony princesses to leave Equestria and hopefully do her own thing. That and Patina had laid out what was inevitably coming.

When one thought about how humans had massive starships called WarShips that were bristling with the absurdly powerful naval-based weapons. It was something to know such powerful weapons can easily destroy a Griffon Bombard Airship, which was armored to Tartarus and back, it made one think on how much more powerful the humans were. Apparently, the ‘naval’ weapons that were built as anti-air and anti-ground defenses; it was only a fraction of the power that human variants possessed as they had long since calibrated their weapons through open warfare. They had managed to begin the construction of an orbital facility that would house their hives and have facilities to build omni-series machines of war, additional DropShips, and hopefully build their own WarShip. The key issue was building their own Kearny-Fuchida Drives according to data Patina had within multiple data-drives. Considering the data was spread across the multiple drives like puzzles, it was taking all three of the queens to piece the data into usable blueprints. They were almost done, but when Patina had been chosen to go ‘talk’ to Luna, Myxine and Magica both turned their attention briefly to the new line of fusion engines that was to be enhanced with their magic to provide a smaller, but higher output of energy to power newer model of DropShips and hopefully to their own WarShips.

To think that humans could, if they wished, could simply come into orbit of Equis; stay in orbit and bombard the planet with absurd firepower that could theoretically level mountains. But even knowing that particular option was rarely used was not something Myxine had chills going down her spine. The only way they could stand hoof to toe with the humans was to have at least one WarShip to negotiate on somewhat equal grounds.

Unless they were the clans. Then they could be issued a batchall or they could request it on their terms. Then they might be able to use them as guides to the wider universe.

But Myxine knew that was a bet on whether the wider Inner Sphere or Clans would consider them a sapient species… Despite being horse-shaped aliens to the humans. As she looked out the ‘window’ of the DropShip’s Captain’s room, she released a sigh and promptly left the room.

She had a friend to pick up.

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“That went better than it should have.” Myxine muttered as they stood in the cavernous bays of the DropShip, watching Patina guide dozens of Changelings to bring in the 800 tons of raw metals and ores to facilitate the construction of their space station. “How did you even find these?”

Patina merely chuckled as she walked over to where Myxine was holding documents that outlined what the cargo was and how much of it there was. Still clad in her skin-tight scout armor with her helmet hooked to her side by a clip, Patina’s mane was slick with sweat and stuck to her skin. But her eyes were still full of light and excitement.

“If you must know, those are from ‘secret’ warehouses owned by a particular organization. They just store the ‘excess’ of their subsidiaries in these… ‘secret’ locations.” Patina said in an off hand manner as she looked at the large array of wooden boxes filled to the brim with metals. “Who would have thought that those arrogant unicorns kept such large stockpiles away from being used to better Equestria?”

“If we do this right, it will benefit all of Equis and give us a significant foothold on the negotiating table with the humans.” Myxine closed her eyes as she passed the document to a drone wearing the foreman’s cap. “If we focus on yours, mine, and Magica’s hives; how fast can we build an orbital shipyard?”

“...” Patina’s smile faded right then and there as she shook her head. “One and a half years? That’s being very optimistic. Calliphora is doing what she is supposed to do and Ambrosia is still planning her moves. Not to mention that they have access to the ground based sensors that can see us.”

“What if we build it on the surface of the moon?” Myxine inquired suddenly as she turned her head to look at the rising moon. “If we build it into the moon, the chance of discovery is low and we could claim that we are charting the local space so we miss the meetings.”

“This is coming from the most ‘by-the-books’ Queen?” Patina’s smile returned partially as she placed a hoof under her chin. She ignored the glare being sent in her direction before standing next to the Queen of the Waters and then at the moon. “Then yes. If we work nonstop and push all our hives to the brink, we can finish in a year. We’ll burn out fabricators, some will perish from the vacuum, and we will most likely become all the more quirky in the end. But yes. We can do it.”

“Good.” Myxine sighed before her nose crinkled. “Go take a shower, Patina. You smell like a rotting fish.”

Patina only looked sheepish at the barb before finally taking a sniff under her suit. Drones that were working nearby could hear Patina dry heaving as she swiftly moved to go take a shower.

She didn’t smell like a rotting fish, but rather like a body rotting in the middle of summer.

Ugh.

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Magica narrowed her ruby red eyes as she used her magic to cut perfectly shaped hallways into the roughly mined out sections of the underground moon base. It was up to her and her hive to accurately empty out sections of the underground base so that Patina’s drones could come behind them with the components to make the hallways airtight and functional to their purposes. Building a massive base on the moon was something she would have thought as idiotic at one point, but when she thought about it, it was better than building an entire new base floating in the middle of the void.

What she found surprising was that when in space, the efficiency of magic decreased enough to be noticed. But when on the surface, magic seemed to return to its ‘normal’ values as if nothing had happened. It was a learning experience. Thankfully, magic seemed to have no problems on the moon. She had thought that the Princess of the Night would barge in on them, but for the past three months; they had no alicorn visits as of yet.

Jumping forwards without the effect of gravity had been disorienting at first, but she had gotten used to it. Well, more than used to it as she enjoyed simply jumping massive distances for no reason but that it was a new experience. That and when she was handed medical issues on being in a zero-g state for prolonged periods, she jumped into creating a spell matrix that allowed the effects of standard gravity on the base and on future ships. It was mostly complete, but allowing a spell matrix to suck on so much energy made it relatively useless on JumpShips and WarShips that required all the energy they needed. Their current workaround was to link a XL non-magical fusion engine directly to the armored container housing the crystal with what appeared to be hundreds of lines of enchantments ‘written’ there by using precise laser tools. Even then, they still had to wear the comfortable space suit to make sure they didn’t die in the void of space. The self-sealing, small thruster equipped space suit also had 48 hours of life support; so she and her drones worked twelve hour shifts just like Myxine and Patina were doing as they led their own hives into getting this massive moon-based complex ready for operation. For three months, they toiled away to clear nearly a giant empty space which would serve as the dock and shipyard for their WarShip Efforts. Nearly two kilometers in length and nearly three in width made it a harrowing work as it also had to be nearly two kilometers deep.

They had sadly lost an overall fifteen drones to accidents and other issues, but it was done swiftly by using massed explosives and cutting spells to sever any odd formations of stone. They lost one of ten fabricators as it broke down rapidly from producing nothing more than explosives and some had entered the fabricator housing to cause extreme damage to the internal components inside. While it had been repaired in time, they still focused their time to creating the storage locations, living quarters, massive hydroponics bays, and various smaller hangar bays for the construction of DropShips, Omni-mechs, Omni-vehicles, and Omni-fighters.

It was a mess of a base, but it was their base. On the moon.

She really doubted anyone could claim what they were doing was better than building a massive bunker on the moon.

As she finished connecting her hallway that would lead to the newly built mess hall, she nodded to a drone behind her who had been putting down wires and other piping behind her. The drone nodded and moved to the side allowing the queen to pass by. She knew that the mess hall was serving spicy ramen today. She couldn’t wait to get out of this suit and head to dinner as her shift just ended.

“Kommodore Magica, please report to the Command Centre. Kommodore Magica, please report to the…” The female drone’s voice was pleasant to listen to, but Magica could only cry internally. Why must her dinner be taken away? Why?

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“So you must the aliens that Demi-Precentor Jones found all those years ago.” A stern, yet firm voice spoke from the speakers as Magica entered the Command Centre slightly peeved at not being able to eat dinner first. Her foul mood, however, died down entirely when she looked at the massive video screen that would normally display the numerous video images of the cameras designed to look upwards. The ‘fabled’ human, male considering his voice, spoke to the other pair of Queens who looked strangely serene. The male had short dark brown hair and a face seemingly chiseled out of marble, while his smaller dark blue eyes studied the new queen as she had entered. “And we are all here now, Changeling?”

He was wearing a mostly blue uniform, which looked very much like a large blue overcoat, and possessed a badge of what appeared to be a fox’s head coming out of the waves. Magica quietly noted Patina’s mood was that of being incredibly worried at something.

“If you must know, orange one; Demi-Precentor Jones and her Explorer Corp fleet was called for Batchall by my predecessor and lost the challenge. We then processed much of the information that was in her archives to only discover that she had found aliens. You.” The man spoke calmly as he observed the sitting trio of ‘Queens’. “In fact, she gave you their data, their knowledge, and some examples to give you an advantage when Freeborn idiots decide to stumble into this star system.”

At their silence, he merely smiled and continued.

“She even allowed for their hidden archives to be shared. This we found out when we observed unknown DropShip activity on this planet. My, my… You are brave using the Celestial series of battlemechs, you know?” He chuckled as he motioned for several images to be put up on their side of the screen. “As you can see, it takes three jumps in the middle of nowhere to locate this place. You can even say that this star system could be a write off for many pirates and colonization attempts as it cannot be efficiently routed through with what is going on in the Inner Sphere right now. But we understand where you come from, Patina Gear. Nearly killed while young, and now look at where you are now.” He chuckled in his deep voice, seemingly in some hidden mirth that they were not following.

“So, let’s make a deal. A deal that guarantees a future amongst those that could care less about your freedom.”

Author's Note

Two guesses on the faction that just introduced themselves.

Now then one more chapter before Equestria suffers the fate of the USSR during Operation Barbarossa. 'Soviet Storm' is such an educational documentary on the Soviet side of WW2.

Damn they got their asses handed to them by the Germans in early WW2.

So, what are the ponies' chances in pulling off what the Soviets pulled off later in WW2?
Will they be able to wreck them like the Soviets, or...

Preparations for the Future

Pulses of laser fire streaked across the surface of the moon as two battlemechs maneuvered between the craters and the hills moving at speeds most tanks would never be able to fire on the move. One was taller in height and moved rapidly on its digitigrade legs while using the multi-barrel cannon on its right arm to spit out multiple rounds of heavy Ultra-AC/10 rounds at the other target while using the ‘head’-mounted snub-nose PPC to keep the enemy moving as well. From two of its Multi-Missile Launcher (MML) -5, ten missiles leapt upwards at an extreme angle and homed in on the other mech with their deadly payload. As the LRMs were shot down by rapid bursts of anti-missile laser fire, six short ranged missiles that had been fired seconds later from the Streak SRM-6 tubes impacted the heavy armor of the opposing mech as it returned fire with its own barrage of weapons. Its two UAC-5 spat out a burst of shells that just impacted the last location the first mech had just been and fifteen LRMs shot forth from its left shoulder on its deadly trail of fire where only six impacted the larger mech, stumbling it slightly. As the Seraph Heavy Omni-Mech fired its UAC-10 again, it impacted the right thigh of the Clan Thor II heavy omni-mech with such force to cause the faster mech to stumble long enough for the Seraph to stop in its track and unleashed a withering barrage of PPC, autocannon, and missile fire into the opposing mech’s torso while simply ‘tanking’ the return fire from the Clan mech long enough for the Clan mech’s torso to tear itself apart from a reactor housing breach.

As the ensuing nuclear explosion occurred on the surface of Equis’ moon, Patina sat in her cockpit drenched in sweat from nearly overheating her mech from the batchall. She knew that the ‘deal’ would not come without any repercussions. They had to win two of three trials of combat against the warriors of Clan Sea Fox and this was the last of the three matches. It had the OvKhan she had been against, and she had won thanks to the sheer firepower her mech carried. The first match, which had been Magica in her Rusalka Medium Omni-Fighter, had gone against Star Captain Renis Sutherland in his ten ton heavier Ostrogoth. In a show of experience and age, The Star Captain had out-maneuvered Magica despite her lighter and better armed fighter, thus resulting in her loss. This was followed by a battle armor showdown between Myxine in her quadrupedal Rottweiler Battle Armor against Star Commander Jack Oshika and his Black Wolf Battle Armor. Despite Myxine’s lack of proper combat experience other than simple training against virtual or even ‘live fire’ training against Patina and her insane ‘drones’ who piloted light mechs to make sure she could operate the battle armor as effectively as she could. She only won because she had gotten off an absurd shot with her mounted light gauss rifle while she had her battle armor shut down as to not show her heat signature to the clanner. She had hidden and had used her under-suit’s own battery to shoot the weapon at the searching Star Commander’s battle armor’s reactor. Many of the clanners had considered Myxine’s actions unhonourable, but refrained from commenting as the Star Commander himself had said that it was his fault for underestimating those that used weapons similar to them. And now that Patina had won her duel…

“Impressive! Impressive!” Patina could hear the ejected OvKhan’s voice. “Excellent show of mobility and force! It almost reminds me of fighting those crazy blakists again!” He laughed openly as a wheeled vehicle came to pick him up. “As you and your ‘clan’ have won the Batchall, we shall be negotiating what can be used as currency and we shall open up a trade route here. Of course, we will be informing our saKhans and our Khans of your existence now that it is confirmed; I shall put in a good word to introduce you to the wider universe slowly, but surely.”

“I thank you, OvKhan Jackson Sennet. Can I expect negotiations to begin soon to determine what can be used as currency and products?” Patina spoke calmly as she piloted her mech to the underground base’s mechbay. As she received the OvKhan’s acknowledgement, Patina sighed as things went far better than it could have gone. She wasn’t even going to care about what could have happened if she had lost this duel. “And now to hope that negotiations will go as smoothly as possible as this duel…”

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“C-bill is the most ridiculous form of currency that I’ve ever heard.” Myxine muttered as she noted the value they had accumulated after selling two fabricators, figuring out an initial exchange rate from bit to C-bill, and even purchasing a industrial-mech called the D-M3D-3 or better known as the Diomede to aid in their construction efforts on the moon. The Clan personnel were impressed with how quickly the Changelings built their ‘base’ on the moon. Thankfully, she had also bought several Inner Sphere manuals that the Clan had on their archives on tactics and doctrines of engagements. “But if that is what the larger galaxy uses, then we really have no choice to change to that.”

“Don’t know why they had a 100 ton industrial-mech, but it's going to make our construction efforts so much easier.” Magica sighed as she picked at her bowl of noodle with a fork. Being in charge of making sure everything is sound and not going to collapse or break to send many to their death to the vacuum. “Patina, how do you think they are going to introduce us to the wider universe?”

“They’ll take it to the most honorable Clan there is and then…” Patina sighed as she looked at the vid screen displaying the Clan JumpShips and WarShips moving to the next jump point. Her meal of a sandwich left untouched. “I also asked them to keep it quiet from the Inner Sphere for now.”

“Not a bad choice considering what I’ve managed to translate on what is happening in the Inner Sphere.” Myxine commented as she bit into her own sandwich with a gusto. “But I’ve got some bad news.”

“Great. What can go wrong now?” Patina groaned as she drank a cup of love-mixed strawberry smoothie.

“Calliphora wants a meeting with us three due to what is happening down on the surface.” Myxine continued as she drank a cup of water. “I’ve told her that it will take us a better part of four months due to where we are, but we are going to have to go back down.”

“Damn it.” Patina’s head thumped heavily onto the table as she tiredly looked at the flashes of light that denoted the Clan ships leaving. “At most, they’ll be back in a year, so we have some time to prepare for their arrival. If we leave half of our drones here to continue construction, we’ll have this place ready to greet our ‘partners’ when they return.”

“So, what’s going on the surface? You must have gotten some information.”

“You are not going to like what is going on…” Myxine’s ominous reply sent chills down Patina’s back.

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The meeting with every queen was a mess and a half nearly five months later. Ambrosia’s methods on sabotaging other nations were rather unneeded as they seemed to be tearing each other apart on their own or just being complacent with what they have. Some of the biggest news were of no surprise for Division Two as they had orchestrated a few of it themselves. Luna’s new country, Lunar Novus, was not a surprise; but the strange crystals they had dug up was a mild surprise as the island was frequently touched by Chaos. One thing they had chosen to act upon that information was to look for similar crystals as the territory they possessed was even more chaotic than the islands Princess Luna claimed for herself.

The other issue that even Patina did not know was the absurd amount of energy released in the capital of the Griffin Imperium. For the brief second that it had been at its peak, various sensors had put the output of the energy to be beyond what they have in stock and Calliphora had used the chance to implement a massive build up of arms to protect themselves while inquiring Patina if there was something that can be ‘trump card’. Several options were offered and discarded, but they simply settled on something that was simple in concept and application that also wouldn’t destroy and poison the land.

And another issue was the reports of an increasing amount of building troop strength at two aerial military harbors within the Griffon Imperium as well as the bridgehead where the Griffons had trains that traveled to and from the Crystal City. It only meant one thing and the Changelings were more or less going to be observing the battle that would unfold eventually.

That and there had been several attempts of thievery against them by other Changelings that they knew nothing about. Capturing them was nigh impossible due to the fact that they simply melted into the shadows. What they had taken was nothing more than some of the first needler rifles without the harness with only enough ammunition for a single skirmish against an understrength Equestrian platoon, but with a tracker built into the box and weapons. But none of the Commonwealth could have expected such an extensive society that was protected by Changelings. No contact was made, but considering the orbital images of a small community of ponies, rogue Griffons, the so-called Shadowlings, and other species was a startling discovery near the Zebra Nations. Not to mention the fact that they had apparently stolen weapons from the Griffons and were using it to defend themselves against ‘peaceful’ Griffon Imperium’s colonists was telling as to why they needed weapons, but it boggled their minds as to why they didn’t ask.

The last proposal was from Patina and her Division that they should move all of the Commonwealth to space and onto the moon where they could settle down and avoid all the chaos that was about to occur. It wasn’t outright rejected, but it had been put on the backburner due to the fact that many were simply afraid of the concept of living amongst the void.

And even as the meeting was adjourned, neither Myxine, Patina, or Magica spoke about the humans they had met months ago. That would be addressed later as decided. And as the trio of Queens returned to the moon weeks later, they immediately threw themselves to completing the to-be fortress on the moon and planning future expansions for the rest of the Commonwealth when shit really hit the fan.

But for now… They would build on their current might and send ‘hidden’ expeditions to the rest of the world to gather other Changeling hives that existed. If they could find them... Then they could find them.

And whether they liked it or not, they would be dragged into the future that their world faced.

Author's Note

Yeah, even this one feels a lot rushed.

Damn it. But I really wanted this out of the way so I can write the invasion of Equestria.

So I apologize if this chapter felt lazy or rushed. I assure you that future chapters will be slower in pace as shit really hits the fan.

Thank you for reading!

Operation Barbarossa Pt.1

Manehattan. Considered the center of ‘industrial’ achievement in Equestria, it was home to nearly two million ponies that worked hundreds of different jobs and infrastructure. It was also home to the new Fourth Legion with their aerial fleet that was tasked to defend the city that was only ‘eclipsed’ by Equestria. It produced nearly seventy percent of goods that were used all over Equestria and even exported to other nations via the Equestrian wet naval vessels.

The Fourth Legion, established two years after Princess Luna’s disappearance, were a five thousand strong formation that possessed nearly twelve Armored Golems, twenty standard Golems, and nearly twenty magical artillery cannons of various strengths. Most had just come out of the new training camp located near Las Pegasus and were rather eager to be called a Guard of Equestria. Even their equipment was ‘top of the line’. Armored with a full body padded suit that had an outer layer covered in enchanted ‘scales’ with their hooves and neck protected by golden armor pieces with helmets colored gold that were fully enclosed*. They were armed with the new blaster spears, short golden spears that could fire various elemental projectiles with just a twist of a certain part of the body of the spear. It was ‘rated’ to penetrate Griffon plate armor and even threaten their ‘cumbersome’ tanks. Even then, their foreleg hoof-guards had folding blades for close combat and each soldier carried a small shield projector that claimed to be able to withstand anything the Griffons could throw at them.

All in all, they were an untested military force with a lot of courage.

“Hey! Anything you can see?” A female unicorn called up to a guard within one of the newly constructed watchtowers near the coast to watch for anything that was coming, be it friendly or enemy.

“Nope! It's just nothing but clear skies with a bit of rain clouds mixed within them!” The male pegasus shouted back down as he put down the telescope he had been seeing through. “Isn’t the Second Air Fleet going out to clear those clouds though?”

“Yep! They’re going to leave in an hour!” The cheer in her voice was obvious.

The Second Air Fleet was equipped with the latest Aerial Ships that Equestria produced. The new airships were general in the shape of a blimp with a flat top with an extended bottom near the front that had numerous ball turrets fitted with light magical artillery cannons, while the top featured four turrets each featuring some of the largest magical artillery cannons Equestria could produce. With a turret in the front, two facing the sides and the last facing the rear; the ship essentially was protected on all sides that was supplanted by enchanted armor plates that covered all of the ship and possessing a low bridge in the middle of the turrets, with only two side doors that served as entryways onto the ship itself. The fleet consisted of two 245 meter long battleships, four 270 meter long cruisers, and over a dozen 50 meter long destroyers; so it was one of the most powerful fleets Equestria possessed excluding the largest fleet docked near Canterlot.

And the only reason they were stationed in Manehattan was because of the sheer amount of production capability the city possessed alongside its massive port that brought in goods from other nations, such as the Zebra Nations.

“When’s my replacement coming?” The pegasus shouted at the unicorn as the powerful magical aerial engines of the 2nd fleet could be heard in the distance.

“She’s on her way!” The unicorn shouted just as the first four destroyers took to the air. One of their many tasks was to have the pegasi crewman go out and clear the clouds. Rather ‘boring’ but a necessary duty to make sure the ships, both wet and aerial, moved without any impediment or having their sights blocked by foul weather.

“I wish these shifts were shorter. Nothing ever happens here.” The pegasus complained as he held up the telescope again and noticed something in the distance. “What the hay is that?”

Just as he twisted the larger lens to zoom in on the anomaly, there was the sound of a muted explosion and the pegasus realized too late that the rain clouds were not actual clouds. He barely caught sight of the highly angled front of a Griffon Battleship with what appeared to be a massive cannon mounted just underneath the bow.

“Oh buc-” A massive explosion practically disintegrated the watchtower and the large clearing behind it that had stockpiled with crates of military rations and various other military supplies. Before the female unicorn could realize what was happening, the entire area around the watchtower exploded as dozens of large shells landed with unerring accuracy. As the destroyers attempted to leave their docks as they noticed the destruction of the watchtower near them, multiple shrieks of rocket engines could be heard as they streaked from the ‘rain clouds’ and speared through three of the destroyers and blew them in half while the fourth barely managed to dodge the rocket meant for them as they had managed to push out by overcharging their engines for a brief second. The rocket however, streaked into the underground docks and smashed right into the bridge of the battleship Celestia’s Glory somehow. The explosion, while unseen, easily split the ship in half and damaged two other cruisers that were in the process of starting up.

As the sirens sounded throughout the city of Manehattan, they could see the veritable armada that made up the Griffon Army Group Centre revealed itself as smaller landing vessels began to break off from larger troop transports to create landing areas for their larger tanks and artillery. The Fourth Legion immediately jumped to action when the first shells hit, and thankfully, had enough time to armor up and arm themselves to try and repel the landing Griffons. But as they encountered the landing Griffons, they noticed several differences in the Griffons’ equipment. Their weapons, the autogun, had always been joked that it was not strong enough to penetrate the guard’s current armor. But these new slimmer and sleeker autoguns (armaggeddon pattern) fired faster and appeared to have less kick to them. But what was alarming was that some were carrying longer and larger guns (heavy stubber) and were firing them in bursts to suppress any pony that tried to pop up out of cover. Not to mention that the Griffons did not wear their traditional plate armor, but rather what appeared to be nonmetallic armor that had been shaped like their old plate armor. Their magical spears were managing to injure the advancing Griffons but the use of suppressive fire and well-practiced squad movements simply outdid the Fourth Legion ponies.

The Fourth Legion fought the invading Griffons as best as they could, and at the center of the massive city; they managed to halt the rapid advance with the use of magical artillery and their golems that had been shaped into the form of two meter tall ponies that breathed elemental projectiles from their mouths. And when the Armored Golems were thrown into the battle, it seemed like the Griffons could be beaten as none of their firearms could scratch their armor.

That was when a metal giant emerged from the ruins of a small building of what used to be a grocery store. The Imperial Knight rammed into the side of an Armored Golem with enough force to send it falling on its side and brought up its metallic fist glowing with what appeared to be electrical energies surging from it. It’s other arm featured a six-barreled weapon that was glowing from being fired recently as it was spinning up slowly while being aimed in the direction of two normal golems. The weapon mounted on the side of its head fired a rapid stream of rounds to suppress the unicorn ‘guides’ that directed the golems in battle. Without their active guidance, the golems became ‘lethargic’ and became easier targets for those troops who had moved up wielding large weapons fitted with large drum magazines. As the fist slammed into the side of the armored golem, the enchanted armor of the golem seemed to buckle under strange forces until the metal and stone underneath were pulverized entirely. As the eldritch magical light within the armored golem faded away slowly, the metal giant stood fully up to its full height revealing a rather unique heraldry that consisted of an extended Griffon’s wing with the talons clutching a hammer in the middle. The machine seemed to glare at the defending Fourth Legion and turned its massive Avenger Gatling Cannon towards the defenders as well as the top-mounted missile pods being aimed at the hastily erected barriers of the ponies, it was at this point that the regular grunts of the ‘proud’ Equestrian Armed Forces realized that they were simply fucked.

Their top-of-the-line magical shields shattered in seconds against the deafening barrage of weapons fire from both the Knight Titan and the infantry that were advancing beside the Knight, and their magical artillery bounced off the Knight TItan as if they were hitting an non-magical shield that was barely visible to the naked eye when it was being hit with magical spells designed to collapse a small house. Many of the survivors that would be allowed to retreat from the battle would suffer from nightmares of that day. Massive rounds tearing ponies in half that appeared to ignore their armor, their own weapons doing absolutely nothing against the massive metal giant, and the ferocity of the advancing Griffons shocked them to realize that they should not underestimate their enemies.

As a veritable mob of ponies fled the city on hoof alongside the broken Fourth Legion, the Griffons halted their advance in the city as they had to completely secure the location for their airships to land and drop their heavy armor. They had taken a surprising amount of casualties, but it was nothing compared to the five hundred prisoners of war from surrendered Fourth Legion guards and over a thousand ponies that had failed to escape the city in time.

At this point, one could ask where the Second fleet was in all of this. Their slightly underground bunker that served as their docks had been attacked by two Knight TItans supported by nearly two hundred Griffons wearing pitch black armor compared to the normal light grey the standard troops wore. The Griffons did not even bother capturing prisoners or even letting the dock exist when they were done with it.

The ensuing explosion would level into a crater nearly five hundred meters deep and a kilometer wide, causing nearby buildings to collapse entirely.

It was the first of many battles, but the clear difference in military strength showed.

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Unlike Manehattan, Baltimare did not have a full Legion to deter the invading Army Group South. The only fleet the city had access to was an aging fleet consisting of the older blimp-like ships fitted with new magical cannons fitted to numerous ball-turrets. Their defenders, the Second Legion, however consisted of those guards that had been in the brief and failed ‘rescue’ of the Crystal City alongside those that had been in the Royal Guard until they had been formed into the ten Legions that now were located near every major city.

Or they were supposed to.

The five thousand strong Second Legion had split their legion into half so that a half would guard Baltimare while the other defended Fillydelphia. So when the Army Group South of the Griffon Imperium blasted past the watchtowers located at the coast with their rocket artillery and began to land troops, the Second Legion was utterly smashed to the side as the reemergence of the Knight Titans smashed aside their armored golems and the Griffon-made tanks making light work of any resistance offered by the Second Legion. The invading Griffons, however, was trying out a new tactic here.

Their tanks moved rapidly out of their landing zones to begin a rapid advance towards the city of FIllydelphia that was supported by four of six Knights deployed with Army Group South and over three fifths of their infantry. The remaining troops were considered enough to take over the relatively large town of Baltimare along with two Knights. They were to meet up with another detached force from Army Group Centre headed downwards to perform an encircling action against the city of FIllydelphia, who was slow to react and evacuate.

Unlike Manehattan, Baltimare and Fillydelphia were mainly towns that operated farms and lands geared towards the growth of grains. The only importance Fillydelphia possessed was their massive storehouses filled with various fruits, vegetables, and grains that were linked with rail lines that spanned the entirety of Equestira. And it housed the remaining Second Legion and were considered the test subjects to a new tactic that had been thought up by the two generals leading both the Army Group Centre and South.

And when the two groups of Griffon troops met up three days later, they had fully encircled the city of FIllydelphia and blocked off any form of escape.

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Four days later in Canterlot, one would have a hard time seeing that their entire west coast had been invaded entirely. In fact, no one knew how bad the invasion was due to the fact that the Griffons had not advanced yet.

And in turn, causing one of the greatest mistakes one could make in war. Assumption.

“Seeing as how the Griffons had not yet pushed forwards, I think it is safe to assume that they have been contained at their bridgeheads.” Prince Blueblood, in his expensive jacket, commented lightly as he motioned over to the magical map displaying Equestria.

“But we haven’t heard anything from both the Fourth and Second Legions.” Shining Armor sighed into his hooves as he tried to stave off the incoming migraine. “Until we have absolute proof that the Griffons had been stopped, the Fifth Legion will continue preparations for deployment.”

“I believe my daughter is an officer in the Fifth Legion and she has messaged me earlier today to be excused from training because she is feeling unwell.” Another unicorn noble spoke up, and Shining Armor audibly growled.

“She is an OFFICER of the Equestrian Guard. She has joined to serve Equestria in her defense. She will not be given leave because her mane is unkempt in the field.” Why was he even dealing with this bullshit.

“I believe the Fifth Legion can survive without one officer, Shining Armor.” Celestia’s calm, soothing voice grated on an irate Shining Armor’s nerves.

“She is in charge of supplies, princess.” Fancy Pants, in armor of the Equestrian Guard, spoke up from besides the Prince-Captain while examining several reports that had been passed out earlier. “If she was to go on leave so suddenly, the Fifth Legion loses the ability to properly maintain supplies for long campaigns.”

Exaggerated, but it was something Shining Armor would use. Thank the Sun for sane Nobles, however few they were.

“Hmmm… Very well.” Celestia looked sheepish at that and coughed into her hoof. “Until we can get rep-”

She was cut off by what sounded to be arguments going on outside the doors of the War Room. There was the sound of cursing, fighting, and eventually; the door was slammed open by two ponies missing their helmets, but wrapped with numerous bandages all around their bodies. They marched in, faces contorted in anger and fury, and simply looked around the table seemingly in disgust.

“So this is where all the shitty commands are coming from.” A pegasus with a bloody turquoise coat spoke as she looked on with her single light green eye. Her left wing was set with a rough splint while she walked in on with a missing left foreleg. The bandage was bloody, but it had seemingly been ‘healed’. “I told you these assholes would do nothing but talk!”

The other pony was a large earth pony with a deep autumn red coat with dreadful talon marks that seemingly only scratched the surface of her skin as both of her deep blue eyes scanned the room with disgust. He tossed a broken spear onto the table and growled as best as he could with the bandage around his neck causing him to wince every couple seconds.

“Yeah. A bullet hit his vocal cords.” The female pegasus said in a dismissive manner as she walked up to the table and sat down on the ground. “We all got fucked in Manehattan.”

“Impossible!” Blueblood exclaimed as he turned up his nose at the ‘rude’ pegasus. “The Griffons have not advanced from Manehattan, so they must still be held up in combat by the Fourth Legion!”

“Heh, you really think that?” The pegasus laughed darkly as she pointed her only hoof at the broken spear. “Look at it closely, asshole.”

“How dare you!” Blueblood shouted as he charged a spell in his horn, but was stopped by Shining Armor pulling the spear to him with his magic. It was then that he noticed the brass staff wrapped in a fabric that seemed very familiar.

“Your ‘undefeatable’ Armored Golems were nothing more than an afternoon breeze to those metal giants! Your weapons that you claimed to be able to penetrate their armor barely scratched it!” She tossed her ruined helmet which had been initially left near the door, onto the table. “Your armor was paper to their fire! The Fourth Legion, which we are part of, is left with barely a thousand strong now!”

While she had been ranting, Shining Armor had undid the knot crusted with dried blood and had fully unfurled the ruined banner of the Fourth Legion and placed it on the central table.

“We met up with barely three hundred survivors of the Second on our way here…” The pegasus’ voice was now low and outright drained of emotions. “They told us that they had been in Fillydelphia until the Griffons that invaded Manehattan and Baltimare had both used their tanks and superior firepower to encircle the town and proceeded to crush them and the city utterly.”

“...What?” Princess Celestia’s voice was low, but one could understand why she was shocked.

Unlike her knockout from the metal fist years ago, this was her little ponies that had suffered far worse. This was her little ponies screaming their anger and pain to her. This was her ponies that were suffering because she allowed so much leeway with the nobility. This was due to her ignorance of the changing times.

Princess Celestia realized why her own sister had left with so many ponies. It had been so simple, hadn't it…?

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“That was ridiculous.” Patina muttered as she watched orbital images at the command centre besides Myxine.

“This is simply the leader being negligent in their duties preparing for war.” Myxine sighed as she looked at several images that had been taken during the battle. “But I’m even more surprised at how quick the Griffons advanced since you toyed with their Knights in Crystal City.”

“Some form of shielding that isn’t purely magical, ceramite armor, and not to mention that they possess extreme ranged rocket artillery.” Patina sighed as she brought up the images of said equipment onto the various screens in the command centre. “Their advancement is absurd at this rate. It’s even more absurd than we are!”

“Patina, dear…” Myxine sighed as she looked at her fellow queen with a sense of tired victory.

“Oh. Err…” Patina bashfully rubbed the back of her head as she remembered that they were on the moon. Coughing into her hoof, Patina quickly reorganized her thoughts and looked seriously at the images once again. “We need to increase every production quota. We are going to need at least three fully equipped Overlords to even perform blocking actions against these feather-brained fools.”

“Three?” Myxine looked surprised at Patina’s declaration. That was nearly 45 mechs in each one! “Isn’t that truly overkill?”

“There is no better kill than overkill.” Patina said confidently as she was already planning her own moves to counter this aggressive move from the Griffon Imperium.

War was here and she was going to exploit it to hell and back.

Author's Note

And the shit finally hit the fan.

Next chapter will be more character rich.

Refer to the original 'Operation Barbarossa' to see how it ends.

Planning on Reboot

Greetings after so long!

Sorry, but life did happen to me and have been busy with school.

Now then...

I am planning on rebooting this story with different progression and plot points.
As I read this story a couple times this week, I have come to the conclusion that the build up of all sides are too quick and far too sudden. Not to mention, I have come to the conclusion that ComStar of all people are not that generous. In fact, even how the Griffins acted felt... weird. Not to mention, how I wrote the unicorn "Nobility" felt like I had lobotomized them and told them to act out the most complex play in existence.

Now... I want to keep the theme of Changeling getting battletech tech, Griffins getting partial 40k tech and the ponies getting Magic & Knights tech; but I want to write it in a different manner. I want to entirely remove human interaction as I think that creates a overly complicated point that needs much more work. I mean, I can introduce them, but not until FAR FAR later.

I want to introduce these tech in a far more 'logical' manner. I want the each species learning to use and produce the technology in a far more sensible manner. Battletech doesn't exactly have fabrication machines, and I highly doubt the Griffins can make a Imperial Knight titan with Ion shields so soon. Yes, the main character here is Patina Gear; but I don't think it is sensible on her having a monopoly with tech. (Even with the tech she has, it is not likely 50+ drones can make a goddamn underground city) So I want to write it as if an Blakist Warship crashed and was dimensionally dumped into the southlands by an interested party while guiding Patina Gear's great-great grandmother to it. I can even write it so that it is Patina's mother gathering other queens and then having Patina take charge or something.

It would make far more sense, you know?

Griffins finding the remnants of battlefield that involved House Terryn Knights and their guards. Or maybe like the changelings, a crashed transport filled with tech they have never seen. Introduce it in a manner that would allow the Griffins to learn, not build stuff off of memory. (Knight Houses with some autonomy?)

Then there is the ponies.

This is the most issue filled part I have to think about. Maintained peace for a thousand years, hears how Griffins are getting more powerful, Changelings are becoming self-reliant and the Elements of Harmony can't do shit. I don't want Luna to split so soon or too late, and I don't want to write Celestia as a fool. She's lived for a thousand years, she ain't that inane. But I want them to gain the tech in a semi-natural manner as well. Maybe base them off of art I had seen long ago being definitely more magical and far more competent. Maybe integrate Break Blade elements? Reading the last chapter felt so... empty as reading such a steamroll felt so... off. It frustrated me in the end.

But yes. Luna is still going to separate from Celestia.

But I can only grovel in apology at neglecting this story for so long and disappointing so many people for not continuing this story. But I am going to begin writing the reboot starting this Friday, so stay tuned; is all I can say.

I will also appreciate ideas on how somethings can work! I am still brainstorming things...

Time Passes

It had been nearly nine months since Celestia and Shining Armor had attempted to retake the Crystal 'Empire', now renamed Crystal City by the Griffon ‘Emperor’. The Griffons had cheered openly at finally having something to hold over the ponies and their princesses. And the following days were rather disastrous for Equestria. Or rather, when a newspaper interviewed one of the surviving guardspony.

He had spoken of metal giants with powerful guns and massive swords on their sides, their weapons firing explosive death, and that one of these metal giants had 'killed' Celestia by merely punching her. Other guards were interviewed with a bit of incentives and had all spoken of similar things. And the rumor machine spread rapidly. The interviewed survivors all told of immense might and it was impossible to censor any information as it was spread at the rate of an uncontrolled wildfire. This would eventually lead to the questioning the ambassador of the Griffon Imperium in Canterlot.

The answer they had received was short and simple.

"Princess Celestia had attacked a protectorate of ours for no reason. The city had surrendered to us without resistance and we have proof that coexistence between the griffons and the ponies within Crystal City has resulted in nothing but peace. But instead of asking us, why don't you ponies ask Princess Cadence herself?"

And major newspaper agencies had even received a ride to the now famous Crystal City and had met personally with the Princess Cadence, or rather, Governess Cadence alone in a room with an Griffon aide by her side. What they heard was something rather strange and conflicting with what they had heard before.

"Well, I and the Crystal 'Empire', as it was formerly called, had no choice. We didn't have sufficient defensive capabilities and we barely had three dozen guards. Not to mention that we were undergoing a food shortage, lacked the proper materials to build homes, and not enough medicine to treat those that would suffer from trauma from being under Sombra's reign so long ago. Trust me when I say that I thought we would be enslaved, or even worse was on my mind; but all we got was nothing but help. Food, medicine, materials, raw resources, and even doctors who actually healed wounds and all without magic. And whatever Princess Celestia says about sending us all the necessary supplies before we had ever surrendered, trust me when I say that rationing is in our records. Would you like to see them?"

With the interview, evidence of all of the 'benefits' that came with the griffon occupation, and seeing the metal giants themselves in all their glory; the aftermath of the published report were less than favorable for the Equestrian Nobility. It was only due to Princess Luna who had begun an investigation on why the supplies had not gone out did the public finally realize that Celestia had yet to say a word on the issue.

And that was enough. No matter how long one has been the ruler, no matter how powerful, no matter how cleverly you disguise your words, when the seeds of doubt are sown... They will bear fruit eventually.

And four months into Luna's investigation; it once again caused a stir amongst the public. The unicorn nobility of Canterlot had diverted said resources that were supposed to go to the Crystal Empire right back into their own pockets. There were documents, witnesses, and even hard proof to crush the nobility in their entirety; but the hammer fall came from a recovered Princess Celestia.

Even against all the evidence, Celestia had firmly denied all accusations and had instead said that Cadence must have gotten her records wrongs.

As this bickering increased, two clashing factions formed within Equestria that went with the princesses. Celestia, with most of the pony population still following her out of her position and power, had the most support despite all of the evidence stacked against her and the nobility. Luna, held the support of industrialist ponies who sought to revolutionize Equestria with their magic-based technology, and all of the thestral clans.

But from within Celestia's faction, a new organization had appeared with a whisper.

It was led by Shining Armor and most of the unicorn nobility who were known to be 'dirty'. While Shining Armor was placed as the 'head' of the faction, all those within knew who was actually in charge. While this particular faction did follow Celestia and particularly in the shadows; they seemed content to lining their pockets with any method possible without letting their ‘leader’ know. He might be in charge of Equestria’s military, but the nobility really had the final say in how said military performed.

While Equestria still was united under two princesses, it was clear who was supporting whom and that an internal powder keg had been filled to the brim.

The question was... Who was going to light it?

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With the surrender of the Crystal City and its surrounding frozen wasteland, the Griffon Imperium decided to stay their claw as even their country had begun to divide as the heiress of the throne had wanted revenge of her younger brother's death by the hands of the Changelings while their Emperor wanted to expand his empire further. The arguments were both verbal, physical, and at times right in court of the Emperor.

But the Emperor was not that old, despite having a daughter old enough to gain her own followers. In fact, he was young compared to some of his generals and advisors. But what he lacked in age, he made it up with knowledge, experience, and combat prowess. It was he who began the industrial revolution for the griffons and was crowned as the most achieved king in known Griffon history. He was cautious, cunning, and planned so well that his plans nearly accounted for nearly everything.

His young daughter on the other claw was hotheaded. While having far less support than the king, she had her own group of followers that simply wanted to kill every Changeling in existence in retribution for their 'defeat' in the South and now the incident in Crystal City. She had even attempted to steal a battleship to 'avenge' their fallen comrades, but would always result in failure as the king was usually a few steps ahead of her. She was by no means a genius in combat, but her ferocity made her a dangerous opponent and a daring ace pilot for their Knight Titans. In fact, she had gained loyalty from field officers because she rarely commanded from the rear and instead fought in the front lines.

But soon after the capture of the Crystal City, it became terribly clear that there were two sides to the country. One side, with their king, who had gained control of the Crystal City without bloodshed and had begun a shaky, yet stable coexistence with the ponies that lived in the city. The other side, with their princess, had wished nothing but the enslavement of the ponies and to use them as meat shields against the Changelings.

As a result, she had been 'excused' from her post and had her military unit disbanded and melted into many of the loyalists' forces. And within four months of disbandment, over fifteen hundred griffons 'seceded' with the princess and had created a mercenary outfit that surprisingly had support of many griffons in high places. While still undergoing their official formation, the princess soon declared her and her 'army' to be the true successors of the Griffon Imperium and had begun to attack many griffon outposts.

As a civil war broke out in the Imperium, only the Emperor and his closest advisors seemed calm, if not gleeful at the situation. Something was about to happen to the Griffon Imperium and it would happen soon.

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With both major powers beginning to split at the seams, the Changelings immediately went to work swiftly and quietly. As much as the Changelings themselves wished to remain unshaken, even within the shape-shifting race there was conflict of opinion. Calliphora, Gemini, and several of the other queens had expressed their opinion that they should bunker down and quietly build up strength while the others literally ripped themselves and each other apart. Myxine, Patina, and Magica had wanted to go past what they had and build their first major structure not on the surface or within Jaburo. They had wanted to go into the vast sea of stars and build a home in space where nothing held them back. And surprisingly, Ambrosia and the rest of the queens wanted to do something rather risky, and yet, if succeeded; they could rip apart both nations by giving them an excuse to shred each other to bits and pieces.

Even though their goals were for the betterment of the Changeling race, they all had different opinions how fast they should 'develop'.

Each of the 'factions' within Umbra Commonwealth had decided to simply have a representative for each 'faction' now called Divisions. Division One was Calliphora and her supporters had decided to take control of the Terrestrial military arm of the Commonwealth; Division Two, headed by Patina alongside Myxine and supported by the more science oriented queens, had laid their claim to manufacturing and the vast array of orbit capable forces; while Division Three, being lead by Ambrosia, had deemed themselves to become the 'Shadow of the Commonwealth' by building up a force of spies and black ops. And after nearly a month of discussions and filled with angry moments, they had all decided to compromise. Ambrosia would infiltrate both nations and would spy, steal, and do whatever was necessary to divert attention away from them; the Archon would have her build up of strength utilizing standard battlemechs, tanks, and AeroSpace fighters; and Section Two would be given their chance to build within orbit as long as they returned every two weeks for their meetings and supply any new technology as they had while supporting the ground based military with their far more advanced, if not more absurdly expensive combat force that spent most of their time in space. They cooperated with each other as they agreed that they were the Umbra Commonwealth, but the fact remained that all three possessed an equal amount of power backed by their respective combat forces.

Author's Note

Last rewrite done. I will begin writing new chapters and will update as soon as possible.

PLEASE READ AND REVIEW!!

Rewrites complete!

Not a new chapter, but an update!

The rewrites are done, so please read and post comments!

Know that if you have sent me Changeling OC ideas, they will be featured in the new chapters as the first sparks of war are lit! Don't expect the Changelings to win every battle, as even a superior overconfident army can lose against an foe backed into a corner fighting for survival.

And don't worry about Celestia's behavior. She will become a better ruler as time goes on!

Also, the humans will appear sooner than later. I mean, they did get observed by rather aggressive sect of humanity and is going to 'test' the Changelings' own capabilities as they are inheriting a rather controversial line of equipment used by... you know the kind.

This Chapter will remain here as an divider from the Rewrites and New Chapters!

BTW, keep sending me new hive ideas as one cannot have too much!

I mean I am planning another story involving two more hives that I had commissioned long ago.
Desert of the Damned (Can you imagine Equestria trying to deal with Gaalsien Tech from Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak?)
https://www.deviantart.com/imperatortitan5046/art/Changelings-of-the-Desert-593889772

Synthesia: The Advent of Hope (Ar Tonelico since I absolutely LOVE that franchise. This one might be last seeing as it is... incredibly convoluted in their lore. Also, try learning Hymmnos, their exclusive song-language made for their JRPG games, as I have been two years ago. Still can't grasp it fully...)
https://www.deviantart.com/imperatortitan5046/art/Changelings-of-Songs-592740549
https://www.deviantart.com/imperatortitan5046/art/Linkage-Armor-for-Changeling-Queen-Musica-592741362