The Chronicles Of Jenny

“With the departure of Empress Pandora the Imperium’s Ministers decided to instate an elected Prime Minister (elected by them of course) as the head of the Imperium.” Dawnstar said. For the last twelve minutes or so she had been outlining the first fifty years that had followed Tsara’s banishment which had included the numerous mistakes made by her successor which had left Tsara a furious mess for five minutes and Dawnstar cowering behind a pillar for her own safety.

“Tell me, how did that go?”

“It could have gone well, but after the Second Great War ended Equestria’s allies took parts of the Imperium and its allies as payment, western Germane to Prance, East Romanum to Saddle Arabia etcetera. With these lands gone and lacking a Tsara the Imperium quickly fell apart and split along its many political and cultural boundaries leading to an economic depression, most nations recovered, except for… Dome.” Dawnstar shivered at the mere mention of… That place

“No! Stop, I’ve been disappointed enough for today.” Tsara yelled, “We can talk about history… Later.” she sighed. Apparently things had gone much worse that she had expected, after Pandora took the throne she had done the one thing she had designed the government to avoid, she took over all parts of the Imperium’s governance and expected it to turn out well. The Imperium was in pieces, and she was stuck in a chair. Well doesn’t that sound familiar she thought to herself. Breaking off from that train of thought she looked at Dawnstar, her reverent tone, her tendency to go off on lectorial tangents, her borderline astounding knowledge of history, she definitely seemed familiar.

“With the windigos dispelled and tribal relations improved the three pony tribes united to form The Equestrian Republic. Jenny are you even listening?”

Jenny looked up from the book in front of her to meet Twilight’s gaze. It had been seven days since she had arrived in Equestria. After introducing herself to the ruling monarchs, a meeting which everyone knew would be interesting when she introduced herself as ‘an eldritch deity from another dimension’ and giving a very general outline of the nature of the Warp but then dodging any and all questions about any family that she might have had.

Rarity suggested, no insisted that Jenny stayed with her. Luckily for the both of them Jenny could reside in the Tesseract instead of them sharing a bed, and considering recent events Jenny would have been… Hesitant to consider it, to put it lightly.

Now, she was in the Ponyville’s local library having made the terrible mistake of inquiring about Equestria’s history leading to a… Surprising short lecture, if the clock was correct then it had only been at most an hour or so had passed since Twilight had started her lecture.

“Wait, that’s it?”
Twilight tilted her head and gave her a confused look, “Well… Yes that’s really all we know. The Great Migration actually lasted up to five years and lead to the establishment of many of Equestria’s northern cities, but most records about them were lost after the Age of Chaos.”

“Okay, you had my attention. But now,” she moved her books out of the way, “you have my interest.”

Twilight with renewed vigor told her of the reign of Discord, Spirit of Disharmony who had single handedly plunged Equestria and the world into an chaotic age of unknown length. She further elaborated upon the many historical records as well as technological and magical innovations that had been lost during that time, only ending with his defeat and imprisonment by the Royal Sisters in the zeroth year of the Celestial Era or 0 CE when they ascended to the Equestrian throne marking the beginning of the standard world calendar. She then went on further to point out that this had been a point of confusion recently as the Celestial Era had also become the name for the period of Luna’s banishment when Celestia was the sole ruling monarch, since then CE had been changed to represent Common Era instead.

“Huh,” Jenny muttered as she placed the books back onto the shelf, “sounds a lot like the Dark Ages, no more like the Age of Strife. Or maybe something else, both? Hmmm...”

“Care to enlighten me Jenny?”

An excited, and somewhat concerning sparkle appeared in Jenny’s eyes as she quickly sat Twilight down and drew a crude but sufficiently detailed map of Europe.

“Well Twilight, to understand the Age of Strife, I’ll have to teach you about a place called The Human Confederation.”

“Hey girls, has anypony seen Twilight ‘round?”

“Now dear, we haven’t.” Rarity stopped and looked at her group of friends. “Now that you bring that up, has anyone seen Jennifer?” Everyone present replied with a no, all except Spike who explained that she had gone off to speak to the very pony they were looking for, the day before and was probably still there, a suggestion which would have been preposterous if any other pony but Twilight had been involved, and considering that the topic was history it was likely that Jenny never had a chance to leave.

“So we have to save Jennifer?”

“Yep.” Spike replied.

“From Twilight?”

“Sounds ‘bout right.” Applejack said.

“Well, we should get going then.”

A group agreement and a two minute trot later the group were at the library door. Spike took a cautious step forward and reached out for the door handle, only for the door itself to swing open smacking him a good four metres away.

“Ooo… Sorry Spike.” Jenny said.

“Jenny, don’t leave!” Twilight yelled after her, literal towers of notes visible behind her, “We only reached the beginning of the Iron Men Rebellion! You didn’t even tell me about the Age of Strife!”

“Twilight, its-” she looked up at the sun,”noon! I’ve had to spend upwards of ten hours just explaining the history of the Roman Empire!” she yelled as she helped Spike back to his feet. “Now that this whole… Thing is done, I’m going to go do...Do… Gah! Something other than this.” With her rant complete she stomped her way back to the Boutique for some much wanted, but not actually needed rest.

But sleep would have to wait as the soft click of the opening door told her that someone had followed her into the house.

“Jennifer, you seemed awfully upset about having to stay with Twilight.”

“It’s not that, actually yes it was because of that but only a little. It’s just-” she flailed her hooves in frustration, “it’s an interesting but sore topic for me and I’d rather not talk about it. Suffice to say it reminds me of my family and that’s all I’m saying about the matter.” Jenny made her way upstairs as Rarity asked her what she planned to do now that she wasn’t being figuratively being held captive by Twilight. Her response was simple, she was going to build herself a crude pair of hands then use those to build a better pair justifying it as good construction practice.

For a bit of added challenge she decided that she would collect raw materials from her surroundings. With a quick goodbye and a promise to be back by sun-down Jenny made her way south in search of metals.

Just over five hours later the soft chiming of the bell told Rarity that Jenny had made it back on time. At a casual pace she placed her work down and made her way down the stairs and welcomed by the sight of Jenny caked in mud and dragging behind her a bag full to almost bursting.

“Oh hi Rarity!” Jenny said as she let go of the bag with a soft ‘clink’. “I’ve just learnt something important today, not only are there are no metal deposits in this area at any reasonable depth, I don’t even know if I have the tools to refine it!” she said with a manic giggle, “and the best part has to be when I was ambushed by those weird dog things you told me about!”

“Diamond Dogs? They didn’t hurt you did they?” Rarity asked with concern.

“What would give you that-” she looked herself over, “oh, yeah that was from digging, one of them ran off saying he was starting a new life in Manehatten or something like that. So yeah overall complete waste of time, but I did get these.” with a jerk the bags opening fell to the ground causing gems to roll out of it onto the floor casting its bountiful shades of colour across their faces as Rarity’s eyes widened with surprise. “Not exactly what I was looking for but I thought you could find some use for them.”

“Jennifer this is… This is too much, how can I ever repay you?”

“Make sure to save some for Spike, little drake works way too hard for someone his age.” She chuckled softly at the amazed unicorn. “Oh, and you could start calling me Jenny, lot less formal not like I’m royalty or anything.”

“Alright Jeni- I mean Jenny.” Rarity said with a small smile.

“There we go,” Jenny said as she lightly poked the tip of Rarity’s nose, “Try hard enough and maybe I will ravish you.”

Just outside their field of view Sweetie Belle listened to the flustered squeaking of her sister and the laughter of her new house guest fill the air. She quickly and quietly made her way back to her room, and began to plan.

Later that same day at Sweet Apple Acres amidst the many bountiful trees in the orchard the Cutie Mark Crusaders were in the middle of an impromptu meeting, what the meeting was about was unknown, the plan, also unknown, the end goal, yet to be revealed by the one who had gathered them, Sweetie Belle.

“Girls, do you know what day it is?” she asked the assembled group.

“Uh… Monday?” Scootaloo replied no small part confused.

“Not just any Monday,” Sweetie Belle corrected. “This is Monday is the Monday two weeks before Hearts and Hooves Day!”

“Wait, that’s what this’ all about?” Applebloom asked with annoyance. “Are we just here to get Button Mash ta notice you?”

“N-No!” Sweetie Belle yelled in the most unconvincing manner possible, her face taking on a bright red shade. “This is about Rarity, she doesn’t have a special somepony and we have to fix that.”

Scootaloo rolled her eyes dismissively at her concern, “So she’s spending Hearts and Hooves Day alone, how bad is that?”

“Rarity takes the next week off to burn off the calories from the emergency icecream reserves.” that got their attention. With everyone now agreed to the plan Sweetie Belle through much effort dragged a thick book in front of her that she had borrowed from Twilight that very morning and had in fact inspired the idea. According to the lengthy text the holiday had begun because of a love potion made by a prince many centuries ago, and by sheer convenience, luck and editor’s oversight the book the very next page contained a list of ingredients and instructions to make the potion themselves!

Two hours later they had collected everything that they needed, it had required disturbing Rainbow’s nap, subverting the subpar security of Ponyville’s weather team and causing Scootaloo minor discomfort, but they had it all: a tuft of cloud, a rainbow’s bright glow and the feather of a pegasus to stir it. With the ingredients collected and mixed they poured the bubbling pink concoction into two waiting flasks.

From her grand throne Jenny chuckled softly to herself reflecting quietly on the past, sadly her brief stint down Memory Lane was interrupted by Dawnstar’s voice “Jennifer? Your Majesty?”

“Yes?”

Dawnstar moved to the side to reveal the Director to her, with the two introduced she explained the purpose of their organisation, they were known as The Circle of Horsa, named after the very same group Tsara had formed all those decades ago. They were comprised of citizens from the many Petty Imperiums from the Hooviet Union to New Griffonstone they had collaborated for years to facilitate the return of their beloved empress and bring back the golden age of the Grand Imperium.

But before that could be done they would first need to bring her majesty to her peak once more, and to that required the acquisition of what had become known as the Tsaran Shards, fragments of her old body that had survived her banishment and fabled to hold unimaginable power, power which up until now had been impossible to detect unless something… Spectacular were done with it, and such a thing had not happened since the Second Great War.

The task of attaining these Shards had been given to two agents who like Dawnstar were also Hunters from the Theocracy and were already in the Hooviet Union following reports from the Circle’s agents of a device using what seemed to be a Shard.

Dawnstar assured her that despite her reservations they were qualified for the job.

The sky was clear over Stalliongrad with not a single cloud drifting upon the chilled night .breeze allowing every ray of light to descend from Celestia’s moon to the ground below illuminating the streets showing upon the walls many posters spreading one common message in a thousand ways: The government would protect them; The government wanted what was best for them; The government would crush all those that opposed the Union no matter the cost; The government would rule, now and forever.

These messages for now went unseen as the streets were empty, as was to be expected at such a late hour leaving the area deathly quiet all except for the sound of four pair of hooves clopping against the floor and the soft jingling sound of a cart in motion being moved. Down the cart rolled and within it was one solitary passenger, his midnight blue coat stained with angry red bruises and his paler blue mane a dishevelled mess covering his bruised eye. He took a quick moment to look at the police ponies to make sure their attention was elsewhere. hearing the quiet complaints of his captors of having to work at such a late hour he reached into his tail and pulled out a talisman easily small enough to fit in his ear.

The communications talisman, one of the many inventions brought about by the Tsaras’ involvement had provided a means of near instant audible communication for over a century., though mainly used in radios and communication towers due to their size but, they had seen recent use in the military as small ear mounted receivers for covert operations though it had not been given enough time to gain popularity yet.

He placed the talisman softly into his ear and then tapped it again to activate it.

“Melody are you there?” he whispered hoping the guards wouldn’t hear him.

The whispered voice of a young mare entered his ear from the device, ”Yes I am, thanks for that distraction by the way dear, for a pony named Silent Night you can be quite loud.”

He snorted in response, “Yes, like I haven’t heard that one before.” He turned around making sure the deer had not noticed anything. “So, seen anything of note?”
Melody from her vantage point pivoted her rifle on its stand, scoping out the target. A short distance away from her little space was a hanger, blocky and utilitarian in design with light shining out through the sparse windows lining its edge. Thanks to Silent’s little ‘distraction’ the security staff had all but fled in search of their assailant leaving a solitary guard to stand at his post at the small door leading into the hanger’s side. She rose up from the scope. batting away a few stray white and lilac hairs from her eyes and sighed. She would have prefered to have taken her time, find a broken window or a loose panel and sneak her way in, less likely to get her found but time wasn’t on her side, Silent had been captured and soon the guards would be back to her posts and she’d never find out what in Tartarus the Hooviets were doing with a Shard.

Placing the rifle onto her back to crouched down and with a burst of force the unicorn mare leapt into the air covering a lot of ground before landing on the ground with a muffled thump near the lone deer. Activating a cloaking talisman she snuck a few metres to the left finding a steps up a platform. Slowly and softly she crept forward until the guard was once again in sight.

What to do with you she thought to herself. She could strangle him, no that would take too long. Shoot him? That would mean she’d be left alone for a while, no even with a silenced pistol the guards might hear it.

She looked closer at the deer and noticed a minor but useful detail. His throat was completely unprotected. Stab him? Yes, that might work but it would also leave signs of a struggle.

“The zealots been captured, we’ll be back in five minutes”

With time quickly slipping away she leapt at him, gagging him with her armoured hoof and forcing a small knife into his windpipe with her magic.

“Shhh,” she whispered over his panicked gagging, “you’ve been working too much dear, time to rest.” as the life faded from his eyes she eyed the card hanging off his neck by a thread, she picked it up and threw everything else into a bush out of sight. She examined the card, it had a small glyph placed upon it, looking up at the gemstone placed above the door she concluded that it was the passcard in a quick test proved Melody right as the door swung open.

“Silent, I’ve acquired access to the hangar but I need another distraction.”

“Roger that,” the sound of two deers yelling and gunshots soon buzzed in her ear, “Done.”

“Silent, you’re a saint, I’ll see what I can find. I’ll meet you at the Blue Road.”

She began searching, looking for anything of use and anything of use she did find. On a desk she found a series of schematics for what could only be described as the mother of all weapons placed upon the mother of all tanks, such a vehicle if constructed would dwarf even the HMS Dawnbreaker, yet for all its complexity it lacked any means to reload it, only a series of cables for channeling what had to be and absolutely massive amount of energy.

Energy from a Shard.

This was all she needed, returning with this alone would have made the mission a success but then she noticed a letter as she placed the schematics in her saddlebags.

Gear Wheel, we’re friends aren’t we? Brothers in arms in pursuit of a common goal, that being the betterment of the Union and its security. Now the task I have given you is not simple, I am aware of this, but I would expect someone of your expertise to have brought in results sooner, you’ve been given two years to do this Gear Wheel, two years and the world has not been looking kindly upon the Union since then which is why we need this project to be complete soon.

I know you said you need another year to complete design but we do not have the time, we are sending the energy source your way, should be there in a month, and we expect you to begin construction of a prototype immediately this is not up for discussion, the Union must fulfill its side of the deal if the pact is to be signed and we reclaim what is ours.

Simply do as I ask and the Union will be safe, you and your family will be safe and you will be hailed as a hero with all the benefits it affords.

But if you fail us...

Do not fail us.

Signed, Military Chancellor Iron Hoof.

She looked back at the date on the letter, 12th September 1150 one month ago. Exactly. Her mission had just become much more important, though it was never said exactly it was clear that a Shard had been brought to this very building, and she had to have it.

Quickly she made her way further into the building, she had to get the Shard away from them before the weapon could be completed, and for what? What did they need this weapon for? What was this pact Iron Hoof had spoken about? Reclaim what was theirs? She had some ideas about what that meant and none of them were good.

Then she heard it, a soft whispering song calling to her, as if trying to lull her into a tranquil sleep. Worse, she heard the sound of others heading its call, the soft clinking sound of armour in motion and the mulled dripping sound of spilled fluids. Melody turned to face a wall as she packed away the last of her finds and noticed something she had missed in the excitement.

There in the corner only five or so metres away curled up in a corner was the body of a deer, or rather the remains of a deer were curled up in a corner, the floor around it slick with the blood that had long since stopped flowing out of its gaping wounds.

HERETICS the walls screamed in red letters.

Then as if only to add to the atmosphere the lights flickered, then began to fail.

Grand, she thought to herself. Just grand

Meanwhile further north Silent Night was having the time of his life. Three guards were dead and the rest were searching for him in a different part of the city after he left a little… Surprise, an explosive surprise, namely plastic explosives. With the chase having come to an end he headed for the rendezvous point along the Blue Road, a river that lead south towards the sea, passed by the town and would quickly get them to the Theocracy once they found their contact.

“Melody, I’m at the rendezvous point, made sure I wasn’t followed. How are things on your end?”

His communication talisman buzzed as Melody responded. “Oh things are just grand over here, I’m doing just- Oh could you not?” the sound of multiple gunshots rang out.

Silent raised a solitary eyebrow, “You’re sure things are fine over there? Sounds like you’re having a lot of fun over there.”

“Oh no no no,” Melody she said with no small amount of annoyance, “no problem at all dear, just a small murderous cult worshipping a Shard-” a shrill, ethereal shriek rang out, “amendment, an angry Shard that the Hooviets got the hooves on. I’ll just use a tesseract to contain it and meet you in… Ten minutes, twenty if they figure out that one can not pierce armour with sporks, now if you could just be a dear and tell our contact, that would be lovely. Thanks” the transmission ended leaving Silent to find their means out safely.

Ten minutes he was sitting on the deck of a small fishing trawler with the contact waiting for her to arrive.

“Really put myself out there doing this,” the stallion said as he watched the water drift by, “care to tell me ‘bout where we’re headed, The Theocracy was it?”

Silent broke his eyes away from the lights of the city as her turned to face him, “The Tsaran Theocracy,” he corrected, “but yeah, most call it The Theocracy since it’s the only one.” Silent plucked a small rock from the river side and inspected it, turning it over in his hooves, “The place is the centre of the Tsaran Faith,” he explained, “The capital used to be until...” he trailed off looking for the words, “you know, after the Imperium splintered the Hooviet Union and Germane took land surrounding the capital for themselves, held it for a short time too, that is till the Second Crusade. The Divine lead an army through what used to be East and West Roamanum with some help from the Unseen Empire and claimed it as the kingdom of the Tsaran Faith, The Tsaran Theocracy.

“Celestia wasn’t happy one bit about it, things had, have been… Tense between the Tsarans and Equestria and with the new kingdom still sore about the banishment of their empress and being former Hooviet and Germaneic land war seemed inevitable,” with a soft flick of his horn “but the war never came, doesn’t mean the Union, Germane and the Theocracy don’t try to set fire to each other with strong glares” he chuckled softly at the thought.

The informant asked one last question, had he ever met the Divine? No, Silent Night had not but he had seen her once, he had been only a colt back then, running in the street as foals were inclined to do, the sun had been suspended high into the heavens shining light upon the entire town. Truly it had been one of his happiest days, living life without a worry only in search of more entertainment.

Then he saw her, the radiant crown rested softly upon her head, the way the burning shades of orange that made up her mane flowed as she looked down at the awestruck colt before her, and the sun’s light shone just right, gleaming off her ivory coat nearly blinding him with her angelic glory.

For that brief moment he had felt as if he had stared into the eyes of a god, he felt her soft but overwhelming comforting aura as his eyes met hers, the jolt of life as she gently patted his head, and the great sense of loss as she continued on her way with her precession. Then, as he saw them walk by he knew what he wanted to do, he would become a Hunter, no the greatest Hunter in the Theocracy and maybe, just maybe the Divine would look at him again.

“Sounds like someone has a crush.” the contact laughed as Silent let out frantic and sputtered denials. The laughter cut out as the soft thump of hooves on wood was heard. There, smeared in blood was Melody with a smile on her face and a tesseract in her magical grasp.

With a look of mock ignorance she tilted her head. “Hm? Is there something on my face?”

The contact looked at the stains she had left behind.

“I knew I should’ve had the boards re-varnished.”

Ruined.

Everything was ruined.

Ironhoof had been given a simple job. An important job. Get the shard to Gear Wheel, have the prototype finished in time, show it to the commissioners, get the pact signed, easy as pie.

But no, there had to be complications, always complications, the researchers were dead, the weapon was an unsalvageable pile of scrap and every last chart, design schematic and sticky note was gone.

But worst of all… The Shard, the fragment of a fallen god, the very embodiment of rarity had been taken from him just as he had sent it. The others had warned him about this, that he should have let them bring the weapon to him when it was done, add the power source only when the tests had been complete, but that hadn’t been an option, she had been getting impatient, she wanted the weapon done and she wanted it now, the stress had only been made worse by his superiors breathing down his neck making what they called ‘progress checks’ every other day. He’d had no choice, he’d never had a choice.

Slowly, his antlers practically shaking he lifted his head to the text on the walls.

HERETICS

“She will not be pleased,” he silently whimpered to himself, “not pleased at all.”