Chapters "I still think this is a bad idea."
"Oh come on, what is the worst that could possibly happen?"
"We get turned into souless metal constructs by hungering deiti- Oh wait THAT ALREADY HAPPENED!"
"You give one race of reality warpers physical forms and suddenly no one trusts you with anything. I'm going through with this, do you know how long it took for me to get all these shards?"
"Where did you even get these these shards from?"
"Mars mostly. A few were floating around in the outer rims too"
"I repeat, I think this is a bad idea."
"Once again, what's the worst that could possibly happen?"
Princess Celestia walked down the wide and awe-inspiring Equestrian National Museum located in the great capital of Everfree. The grand structure had been built two centuries ago on the thousand and fiftieth year of the Celestial Era to promote public interest in Equestria's history. Each and every possible space within the building's ivory walls had something to show, panoramas of important events, weapons from lost ages sheltered in glass cases, a copy of the Parliamentary constitution. murals and statues... Of famous heroes.
This never gets easier , she thought as she looked at the statue before her. There immortalised in stone were two Unicorns, two Earth Ponies and two Pegasi grouped together. The plaque at its base was simple:
"In memory of the Elements of Harmony, heroes of the Second Celestial Era."
She let out a sigh and for a brief moment let her face crease into a saddened frown before quickly putting her mask of unflappable benevolence back on. "Come along now everypony, there's still much left to see!" She made her way down the hall a group of twenty foals in tow oohing and ahhing at the many exhibits on display, of that group one filly stopped and looked at a hall branching away from there with many elaborate setups.
To the side of the entrance was a statue of a mare, sitting upon a throne looking down at her, almost through her with a content smile upon her face, to the other side was pony with a similar build, but her look was colder, uncaring as if she would keep you around as long as you were useful then cast you out with the rest of the trash. Inside the hall were a series of paintings, artifacts and dioramas of several battles, cities being built, and images showing the transition of these cities to becoming more industrialised sectors. She drank it all in every detail of each and every display moving from one to the next to see what she could find. Then she stopped at the end of the hall. There on the great wall was a map stretching from the west coast of the Griffon Kingdoms to the Kirin lands in the east, there between them were the borders of hundreds of kingdoms and city states bearing names like New Griffonstone to the west, The Swarmlands to the east, Dome near the centre cutting into a great river, these were all dwarfed by three larger lands each larger than Equestria, bearing the names The Tsaran Theocracy , The Hooviet Union and one nation simply named N.S.S.G . The filly looked down at the frame holding the map and read out the words embossed on its surface.
"The...Petty Imperiums?"
"Say, aren't ya supposed to be with the group?" The filly gasped and spun around trying to run away only to bump into a minotaur. "Now now, no need to get all frightened now, I won't hurt ya. Strange that a filly would be interested in all this though."
The filly turned looked up to face him. "Um..Actually I'm not really sure where I am, what is all this?"
"This." the grey minotaur said with a wave of his hand "Is the eventful and tragically short history of the Grand Imperium, the whole thing was built by Empress Jennifer Tsara back'in the days b’fore the Second Celestial Era during her Great Crusade." The filly looked around the hall and back at the map, amazed that so much had happened only two lifetimes ago.
"Wh-What happened?"
He turned around and pointed to a pair of statues "First Empress went mad, almost lost her daughter to the Changelings and tried to wipe them out, or at least that’s what Equestria says, can’t really blame her, but after she tried ta blow Equestria to kingdom come durin’ the War she hadda be sealed away." He then nodded to the second statue "Her daughter was no better, plunged the whole world into another war near the end of her reign, tried to blow up Equestria too." Despite the rather morose topic at hand he still chuckled "Grandpa Stone Wall always said if she'd had a kid they'da tried to blow up Equestria too. Gramps always thought it was genetic or something." He looked down to see the beginnings of a frown on the filly's face. "Hey now, don't be so glum, the Imperium was a great place before that, the Tsaras were all about progress, ammonia production, assembly lines, power stations, most of the tech we use was thought up by people in the Imperium." He reached down and hoisted the little filly onto his back. "I'll show you around the halls." he went into a light run showing her every last exhibit he could find on the Imperium before placing her down at the front gates of the museum an hour later.
The filly thanked him for showing her around and promised she'd try to visit again next week, she made her way out the museum then stopped.
"Um, mister..."
"Stone Wall, Stone Wall Junior."
"Mr Wall, are the Tsara's gonna break out like all those other times?"
"Break out?" Stone Wall broke out into a fitful laughter "Empress Jenny's locked up tighter than um...Tighter than a... Shoot don't think I got's any isms for something like this, gotta make sure to fix that. Anyways, she couldn't break herself out even if she tried, someone would have to break her out and really, who in the right mind would break out a Tsara?"
"Vessel?"
"Check."
"Summoning structure?"
"In place sir."
"Throne?"
"Green across the board."
"Shards?"
"Gonna have to wait till those agents can get their hooves on them."
"Very well then. Gentlecolts, let’s summon us a Tsara!"
Before the grey ageing stallion was what to some outside their land would be a familiar sight, a throne standing at ten feet from base to top, the soft hum of arcane technology filled the air as energy flowed through the web of cables, tubes and amplification runes all linked up to the centerpiece of the display. Seated on the throne hands grasping onto the armrests was an black female human shape clad in ornate black steel armor of the highest craftsmanship highlighted with lines of white. Upon each shoulder plate the imperial eagle was present, the knee length greaves and shoulder length gauntlets had upon them human skulls shaped from steel placed on their surface. The twelve foot colossus towered over them all the very materials of its 'flesh' echoing strange cries that flooded the room and itched at the back of the minds of the workers that made their way around the great sanctum.
But despite how much effort had been clearly placed into the creation her head was completely blank, merely a shimmering, seemingly living blank space where hair and a face would be. but these details were unimportant to the group of scientists and engineers that swarmed around the great work of engineering.
"So Dawnstar, are you absolutely sure that this will work?" The stallion turned to face his... Benefactor, a red coated white maned and tailed earth pony of medium build, she wore light steel armor bearing the Imperial Seal of a burning blade pointed downwards marking her as a member of the Tsaran Hunters. The mare turned to face him in no small part insulted by what he had implied.
"Director, do you really think I'd put my life on the line by abandoning my order, sink my life's savings into a mountain base worth enough money to inflate a small Zebrafrican economy and help you build this entire damn organisation if I didn't think this would work?" the stallion gave grumbles of denial and looked back to the work at hand. "Good, now then–" She turned to the technician that the Director had been speaking to "are the pods in place?" the technician nodded "Well then everyone, let's summon a Tsara!"
"I already said that!"
"Who's funding this project?" Another grumbled reply "I thought so."
Dawnstar watched the technicians leave the room as the last steps of the plan began.
"Ma'am aren't you going to head to the bridge with the Director?"
"No, though I think you should." The air crackled and hummed, the room flooding with sickly green light as chaotic energies flowed from the pods and into the golden throne and into the frame seated upon it. After five tense minutes the entire process wound down with a fading screech, for a brief moment she thought that she had failed. She had failed her order, she had failed her nation and she had failed her goddess in this hopeless and obscenely expensive venture.
Then the room filled with screams, they were quiet at first. But then they got louder.
And louder.
And louder.
The air bent and twisted and split tearing a great maw of a hole. Dawnstar's view of what lied beyond was brief but it was enough for her to know what lay there. It was place that was close yet so far away forming and eroding away at itself in places unknown as vile creatures of thought and power tore apart at the legions of others to the sound of eldritch war-horns who’s sound echoed throughout the darkness as the creatures chanted in praise of their eldritch patron. Then from the dark madness something… Bright was seen, it hung suspended from great chains releasing great pained groans as they were pulled and by their captive echoing along with the dark hymns of the creatures that surrounded it.
Then the world seemed to go still, for the chains had broken.
The captive raced across the alien expanse towards her burning through the legions with its blinding light as it raced across the tear into the Materium.
Silence reigned again in the sanctum, only ever briefly broken by the heavy panting of the Hunter's breathing. The sanctum door slid open and guards ran in to see to Dawnstar's well being. The whole group stopped when they heard another, slightly metallic voice.
"Urgh... Stupid biotransference, stupid headaches, stupid Materium..."
Where once there had been a blank space was now white glowing hair and white voids where the eyes should have been on the flat surface, other than these minor details however the face of the summoned being was almost completely blank as it had been before.
"Well Dawnstar," said the Director, "seems your plan worked, we have a Tsara in our base."
"Heh, w-was there any doubt about it?" she replied as she struggled back to her hooves. "Well... *Ahem* I think I should explain things to the Empress, you all just go back to whatever else you have to do." She shooed them all out as quickly as possible then sealed the door. "Is that the last of them?" The silence was the only answer the received. She looked back at her achievement. She was here. She was here, the person who since she was a little girl had revered had returned! "Yesyesyesyesyes! "
"*Ahem*" Dawnstar stopped her honestly adorable little dance at the sound of the Tsara's voice.
"Oh, um... Sorry my liege." She said kneeling before her goddess. "I hope that the body we gave you is too your liking my spir"
"Please, call me Tsara… My subjects called me that."
"Now your gra- I mean Lady Tsara, I'm sure you must have a lot of questions and I've been assigned to fill you in on recent events."
"Chosen?" If Tsara had eyebrows they would have been raised. "Seemed to me like you gave yourself the position."
"You... Saw that?"
"Of course I did because I'm the mother-fucking Empress, I can know these kinds of things."
Dawnstar simply stared in quiet disbelief. "The Divine didn't describe you as being so... Crass."
"And I bet she said that I 'descended to this putrid world from on high upon a bridge of light' too?" Dawnstar tried her absolute best to avoid eye contact, which was difficult to do when the other person lacks pupils. "...Okay then that raises a lot of questions which I will probably be pretty mad about but for now settle down." Dawnstar did as she requested. "Now here's how it really happened. Like many stories involving sealed evils it began with a place called Ponyville... Oh wait I do have one complaint about my body!"
"What is it? I will have it fixed immediately!"
"I'm paralysed." Dawnstar's eyes twitched and spasmed with barely content rage looking for some way out. "That can wait though, anyway where was I? Oh yes it all began in Ponyville... "
Ponyville, Equestria a quaint little town home to only a few thousand ponies at most despite being near the Capital. Source of the world's greatest cider and bordered on one of the single most hostile ecosystems located on the planet as well as getting front row seats to the end of the world as they had known it... Twice. Yes, Ponyville was most definitely Equestria's weirdness magnet seeing monster attacks on an almost weekly basis. But today that was not happening, no monster attacks, no sealed evils returning and no general anarchy being cause by the local librarian.
After all it wasn't even Monday yet.
On a gravel path three little fillies were making their way to discussing what they might learn today but more importantly what hair-brained scheme they would cook up this time in their quest to find their talents.
"Cutie Mark Crusader Space Explorers?" Scootaloo suggested. Sweetie Belle ever the voice of reason reminded her that they weren't allowed near explosives or anything flammable ever since the Hearth's Warming Incident.
"'Kay then, how 'bout Cutie Mark Crusader Prospectors?"
"But how where are we supposed to find gold anyway?" Sweetie Belle replied.
"Well then what d'ya recommend then? Or are you just gonna keep–"
BOOM!
A wave of air and dust pushed them to the ground as... Something fell into the Everfree Forest, the tell tale signs of the beginnings of a small and likely to be short-lived forest fire were there for all to see.
Applebloom pulled herself to her hooves, wondering what could have possibly caused that blast. She quickly concluded it was most likely a meteor or something. Then she remembered something she'd learn't while reading. Meteors can contain large amounts of gold . Then she had an idea, a dangerous idea, a dangerous and profitable idea, a dangerous, profitable idea that would affect people two hundred and fifty years from now.
"Girls, you thinkin' what I'm thinkin'?" The group looked at each other with a conspiratorial gaze.
"CUTIE MARK CRUSADER SPACE PROSPECTORS YAY!"
Meanwhile in the Everfree something was spurring itself back into the waking world. A cube, barely the size of a fist was embedded in the centre of submerged partly in a black liquid metal that shimmered in the light of the small fires around it and the small arches of green lightning bounding across its surface. There in a secluded part of the ever free someone was hard at work.
"Okay Tsara lets try this again." she muttered to herself as she tried to mold the metal into something resembling a functioning body. This time however it was actually working, the body she'd made was a blank human shape, but other than that lacked any noticeable features. Once it was in a functional state then she get to more important things. Like starting a cult! Welll... Once she could think of what the cult would be for.
"Hi!"
"Ah!" The meager attempt at a body collapsed back into a puddle, before reforming itself into something more recognisable as human.
"Hi, I'm Sweetie Belle and these are my friends, Scootaloo and Applebloom. What's your name?" She didn't reply, her eyes were too focused on the great glowing aura of inhuman and inequine cuteness burning a hole through her blank eyes. So borderline painful was the aura before her that all she could do was stare for two minutes. "Uh.. Hello? Are you okay?" she said waving hoof in the strange creature's face.
Think girl, think! They'll probably run if you say your name is Tsara! They'll think I'm the Outsider or something she thought to herself. I just have to think of a fake name like Twinkleshine or Starseeker, they'll think those are normal.
"My name's Jenny." she said.
What the fuck brain?
"Jenny? That's a funny name." The group giggled softly. "So what are you doing out here? The Everfree's very dangerous!"
'Jenny' crossed her arms over her chest. "Then why are you here?" They tried their best to avoid eye contact.
"Uh... Ya see... Oh no we're gonna be late for school!" Applebloom exclaimed with false horror as she grabbed her friends and ran off. "Bye Jenny, we'll come visit later!"
So I'm on a planet of sentient ponies... At least there aren't any Demonettes she thought with a small shudder going through her spineless form. Once again left alone she turned her focus to the small cube that had arrived with her.
"Now what are you hiding in there little box?"
Endless walls and rooms lined with unknown devices all with the same sickly green colour associated with the Necron Dynasties. Lining these walls was technology beyond what any other one race had ever developed for it did not depend upon the energies of the Empyrean in any measure.
Jenny looked at the great expanses of the vast pocket dimension the Necrons had built and only one thought entered her mind:
"Technology! Technology everywhere! Also this would make a nice house, but all this technology!" She let out a childish squee of excitement, checking everything she could find and seeing what it did, a task made much easier as everything had been labeled. She ran from one part of the Tesseract to another memorising the locations of as many interesting devices as she could, after all you never know when you might need to phase through solid objects or throw around the power of a dying sun at something. Then watch as they bow before you!\ No that didn't sound right... Possibly . With only her thoughts as company she realised something.
It was very quiet, not just in the sense that there was no sound in what she had claimed as her new home, that was a given. What was odd was how she didn't feel... Anything in the Warp, Empyrean, Immaterium whatever you wished to call it, all that she knew was that it was quiet almost... Calm.
On that note she began to think more about her situation, why was she here? When she woke up she hadn't seen anyone that could have possibly summoned her, if the fillies (or at least that's what she would call them until told otherwise) were anything to go off of the planet may not even have psykers. Which as an added bonus meant one less thing to worry about for her. Why were there ponies of all things? Had Tzeentch been involved somehow? And why was the warp so calm?
She felt a soft thudding noise in the back of the head like a child tapping the fish tank even when the sign clearly stated not to.
"Jenny! Come on, I know you're in there! I want you to meet Rarity." said Sweetie Belle as she continued to poke the cube.
"Sweetie, you've been doing this for the last two minutes. Are you sure you didn't imagine this... Jenny was it?" Rarity looked at the cube that Sweetie Belle had her to. It was small and showed signs of being well crafted. She took a moment to look at her surroundings. "And how pray tell were you even in the Everfree?"
"Well... Uh... Well we were going to school-" Before she could finish her explanation the cube rose from the ground as the familiar black metal flowed out of it to form a humanoid shape. This one was, in Jenny's opinion, a very good attempt. It still lacked a lot of detail, and legs which in their place was a pillar of liquid metal supporting her smooth frame, the addition she liked the most however were the glowing white eyes she had added onto the surface of her face.
"Sweetie Belle, I would very much appreciate it if you stopped tapping the Tesseract," she folded her arms "its annoying." She then turned to face the frozen white unicorn standing next to Sweetie Belle. "Oh, you must be Rarity, I'm Jennifer, but you can call me Jenny!" She waited for a response, any response other than frozen mortal terror. Great I think I broke her.
"Sweetie Belle?" Rarity squeaked out in a mixture of fear and nonchalant tone. "Could you be a dear and run back to Ponyville and get the girls?" Sweetie attempted to voice her doubts and was met with a louder repeat of her request. With any chance of discussion gone Sweetie Belle ran off back home. Rarity, once assured that Sweetie Belle had left she charged up her horn and getting into a battle-stance, large stones surrounding her also began to glow, the stones rose, the stones spun, and the stones were chucked by Rarity one at a time at the, from her perspective dangerous creature.
"What are yo- WOAH! Can you please stop- AGH! Okay I'm giving you once last chance to- GAK! Enough! " After having had to dodge three more of Rarity's attempts at dispensing high mineral defeat upon her she finally struck back, one sweep of her hand and the first stone was split in half, a wave of her other hand and it crumbled to dust before shattering the third and last stone by clasping it between her hands. With the rocks destroyed Jenny stretched out a limb of metal to enclose Rarity covering everything except her head. She leaned in close enough that they met eye to eye, close enough to hear Rarity's panicked breathing and rapid heartbeats. "Are you quite done?" she asked calmly even as her hair was violently whipping around in an ethereal breeze.
Rarity looked her in the eyes unable to even tremble in fear, her response was short: "Please be gentle..."
Jenny immediately calmed down as she backed up ever so slightly. "What? Gentle with what?"
"Well... I'm the damsel in distress."
"Uh huh."
"And you're the hideous beast..."
"I take offense to that, but I follow."
"So... Aren't you going to ravish me?"
Jenny stood there for a moment, processing what she had just been asked, not exhibiting any emotion whatsoever she turned around and went back into the crater.
"Where are you going? You can't just leave a lady like this!"
"Yes, I very much can!" Jenny replied from within the crater. "Now I'm just gonna stay here for now and re-evaluate my life choices."
"What, am I not good enough for you?"
"I am not gracing that with a response!"
Meanwhile not far from what may have been one of the most awkward moments ever to occur near the town border, The Elements of Harmony, sans Rarity along with Spike were racing to perform what they thought would be a rescue mission.
Oh no, this is bad, if we don't get there fast enough who knows what that thing might do to her! Twilight thought as she raced at the front of the group blasting any stray branches and fallen trunks that had the poor luck to be in the path of the most magically powerful unicorn on the planet. With every second she got more panicked, imagining increasingly horrible fates that may have fallen upon one of her few friends. It might have devoured her, or torn her apart, or... No it was too horrible for her to even imagine, it might have done something involving casadias !
Twilight Sparkle had issues.
She could have spent all day trying her hardest to imagine the countless perils that may face Rarity if not for the conversation not that far from where Sweetie Belle said she had left her.
"Do you think I'm unsightly then?" As she moved forward to investigate she heard another, completely unfamiliar voice respond.
"No, I think its just off putting that someone is angry at me for not sexually assaulting her! "
"Well when you put it that way it does seem... Odd." Rarity replied with an awkward giggle. The situation diffused and an understanding established the two reintroduced themselves to each other, and promising to never bring up the last ten minutes ever again, an empty promise as five ponies and a dragon had been privy to the end of their discussion.
With no sign of anything else happening Twilight dashed into the clearing ready to confront whatever creature awaited her. As she burst through the foliage she ground to a halt. Her heart raced, her mind froze and her breath ceased. What she saw was a tall black creature but what she felt , that was something else. It was a light subtle presence for like a dim bulb in the sunlight it was almost impossible for most ponies to detect. But despite it all it was clear to her that Jenny was something else, something alien and other. She could not tell simply by looking at her what her nature was but it was clear to her that she was not from her world.
Jenny took a quick look at the mare frozen in place in front of her. She snapped her fingers in front of her trying to get any sort of reaction from her to no success. She picked her up and shook her a little, once again to no success. She tustled her mane and wove it into a tangled mess.
“Shit, I think I broke her.” She waved a hand in front of Twilight’s face once again trying to get any response. “Hello? Alien entity with potentially world changing knowledge here, pretty big find…” She immediately regretted saying that as an eager spark appeared in Twilight’s eyes followed by her teleporting to the ground with scrolls and quills in her magical grasp and a string of questions each following the other as soon as they were said. Jenny quickly calmed her down with a semi-truthful reason to deny answering at that time, those reasons being:
One, she was lost and confused and needed time to get acclimatised.
And two, she couldn’t conceivably describe upwards of ten millenia of history in such a short span of time.
With her eagerness calmed for the time being, Jenny took a moment to introduce herself and explained to the best of her ability why Rarity was currently encased in metal and the subsequent argument they’d had much to Rarity’s embarrassment. With the current issue resolved and Jenny being assured that they would not try to harm her again she stopped to take a proper look at the creatures in front of her.
Two of them had wings with one of them in flight, two had horns and as she’d seen were capable of some form of sorcery, the smallest of them was round, purple and pudy which she deduced was a child. The last two lacked any trait that the other ponies had, a birth defect maybe? She reached out and lifted Twilight from the ground again and took a closer look at her, all of her body was coated in a thin layer of fur, her shape indicated a spinal column, she clearly had herbivorous teeth but that did not rule out the possibility of opportunistic carnivorous tendencies.
I can probably copy it.
Jenny focused, dragging excess metal back into herself, shaping what was left into an equine shape, beneath its surface metal shaped into bones and fibrous muscles, pale yellow followed by black and grey fibres formed along the metals surface forming her coat and mane respectively, two rows of white flat teeth formed in the black shapes mouth followed by a layer of skin over what little black could be seen. After two short minutes there before the group was a normal looking pale yellow mare with a mess of black and grey hair for a mane.
“Okay,” she said doing some test stretches and looking over herself, “ready to go, uh… Twilight?” She waved a hoof in Twilight’s face only to find her frozen in horror...Again.
“Shit, I broke her again.”
“Really?” Dawnstar said with in the flattest possible tone.
“Oh, I’m so sorry that my story wasn’t to your liking, would you like me to add a segment where I induct them into my cult and dethrone Celestia?”
“No, it’s just...” Dawnstar waved her hoof in a ‘I’m having trouble describing this’ motion “I really expected you to be...Different is all.”
“Well that’s what being stuck in the warp for… How long was I gone?”
“A hundred and fifty years as of today.” Dawnsta replied.
“Look at me, breaking the thousand year trend. Anyways, being stuck in the darkest pit of Hell with only daemons for company can change you. A lot”
“Um...Tsara, what was it like, being imprisoned that is?”
“Oh it wasn’t so bad, I learnt to make my own fun...”
“Nine hundred thousand bottles of beer on the wall, nine hundred thousand bottle of- Wait, are those Tyranids? Oh Tyranids!” Tsara called out into the webway. “There are some yummy Eldar over there just waiting for you to eat them!” She said as she pointed out towards the craftworld. “Come and get it!”
“Yeah, making my own fun.” Tsara said with a wistful tone. “Messing with Khornish daemons was always enjoyable, but there’s nothing quite like watching those sick bastards getting what’s coming to them.” Tsara took a moment to laugh, Dawnstar confused and in no little part scared decided to laugh along with her. “Anyways, so that’s how I ended up in Equestria, now onto the present .” Tsara’s tone shifted to one that was much more serious as she looked down at Dawnstar. “How bad are things in the Imperium?”
“You might want to sit down for this.” she looked back at Tsara. “No pun intended.”
Author's Note
Nothing quite like hitting that submit button knowing that you are now at the internet's mercy...
“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?”
“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?”
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.”
Jenny had been having a good day, and the reason for it was simple.
She had achieved what some would call a self-improvement loop, it had begun with a crude set pincers made using excess metal, with some basic manipulators now in her possession she built a new pair, a pair with a wider range of movement and a greater number of fingers, then she made a new set, and a new set, and a new set recycling the old hands the moment they their replacements were completed, and now, after many hours designing and building in her own little world they were done. The final set.
Their beauty was only surpassed by their simplicity and their simplicity, their simplicity surpassed in turn by their elegance, to anyone else they would look like a mere pair of knee length steel horseshoes each composed of short overlapping plates, but as she slid one on she let out a childish squee as a faint white light emanated from the joints as from the shoe’s sides five curved and pointed metal pieces floated off arranging themselves into four fingers and a thumb.
One gentle flick of her wrist and the old horseshoe flung off her other hoof and arched into her waiting hand and with a swift swing the old device fell into a waiting pool of metal. She slid on the other then reached out for the design and with pencil in hand enscribed in a corner:
Model Success .
Her work complete she looked to the rest of her work desk, tools and drawing implements sat there in an orderly fashion, flanked on either side by books borrowed from the local library on pony anatomy. Her eyes drifted to the series of designs placed on the adjacent walls, each one vastly more complex than what she had been working on.
Maybe I should start working on that… Nah I’ve worked enough today I mean it is… Noon! How long have I been in here she bounced out of her tesseract home and into the boutique.
“Rarity! Come and see what I- Rarity? Sweetie Belle?” the silence of the room was the only reply, the house was empty, devoid of anyone but herself and the mannequins, then she noticed, there on the table next to the tesseract was a small folded piece of paper. Picking it up, taking a moment to savour the fact she had functioning hands and reading the cursive text
Sorry Jenny, I had to leave for something important. Please meet me at Sugar Cube Corner. Love, Rarity
Then the letter exploded perforating the room with her smoldering remai- No, the letter released a great burst of confetti spraying coloured paper everywhere.
“God damnit Pinkie. ”
It took ten minutes to clear up the mess, and an additional four to remove any remaining paper that had chosen to nest within her mane before she stepped out into town. The sky hung above in its usual baby blue shade, the soothing rays of the sun from above telling her that it was in fact noon and that in time night would soon descend upon the small town, with the soft twittering of the birds as her only company Jenny made her way down the road humming softly to herself as she drew ever closer to her destination.
It was a nice feeling, simply moving from one point to the next, no hurry, no rush, just the destination and plenty of time to think, her stay on this world had been nice. That was an odd word, nice. Not the kind of thing that would enter your mind in the Imperium, unless you lived on a Paradise World, or were part of the Astartes, or even payed patronage to Nurgle, a particularly developed Feudal World could even be described as nice, now that she thought about it there were probably quite a few people from back home who could genuinely say that their lives ranged from tolerable to pleasurable despite the horrors that lay at the fraying edges of the shattered Imperium, but really, they were the minority falling under the rule of the better emperors.
If she had continued to think about it she wouldn’t have noticed one interesting thing, the town was very quite, much too quiet for a town of this size at midday. Where were the vendors selling their wares? Where were the customers wishing to accrue said wares? And why was there so much noise coming from Sugar Cube Corner?
She walked closer to the door as the sound suddenly died out completely. She reached out and grabbed the doorknob, taking great satisfaction as the door turned in her hoof. She stepped into the darkened room…
“Surprise!”
The curtains flung open flooding the room with light to reveal a group of mostly complete strangers and what few friends she had.
“Whats going on?” Jenny asked panning from table to table and pony to pony, unfamiliar faces and familiar food everywhere.
Next thing she knew she was hanging on for dear life from a beam at the sound of a certain pink pony.
“Jenny, please come down dear.” Rarity said.
“No no, I think I’ll be fine up here.” Jenny replied.
“Oh come on Jenny! You’ll miss the party! Ooo! Nice hands.” she heard from her side. What, but this is the- How? . Once again she made her way back to the ground in the fastest way possible, straight down.
“I’m okay,” she said as she rose back to her hooves. “So...What’s all this?”
“Your ‘welcome to Ponyville party’ of course!” Pinkie said as she dropped from the ceiling. “Haven’t you ever been to a party?”
“Pinkie,” she replied as flatly as physically possible, “I am as of today bordering on four weeks old, and I’ve been keeping to myself for most of it, so… No, I haven’t” this was met with a great and terrible gasp from the pink mare.
“Never been to a party! Never been to a party! How can you have never been to a party!”
“Very easily Pinkie.” Jenny replied just as flatly as before.
“Someone will have to fix that!”
“Please don’t,” she practically pleaded.
“And I’ll be the one to fix it!”
“Oh dear Emperor please just kill me now!” Jenny yelled as Pinkie ran from place to place, Jenny in tow, to introduce her to every single pony in the building. Lyra, Bon Bon, Octavia, Vinyl Scratch, everyone that she could find. Then she reached the final two of the guests.
“And these are-,” she was about to continue when she noticed she was gone. “Uh, Jenny?” she panned left and right
Bright little eyes looked up at Jenny with innocent curiosity and glee. The soft gurgling the only sound they made.
“Hello,” she said softly, trying not to scare them “aren’t you just the most precious things I’ve ever seen. Hey, look at what I can do!” her fingers floated out and began spinning in circles around her hooves, “Wooby wooby woo!” she squealed to the foals’ delight. “Ahhh, he likes my hair… Now he’s eating my hair,” she said with growing concern, “nothing to worry abou- And now I’m floating, panic time! Rarity help!”
“I cannot believe I had to save you from a foal, Jenny,” Rarity giggled.
“Do you know how much I weigh? She’ll be moving the sun by the time she leaves school!”
The party had long since ended, the moon hung high above as the shops closed for the night, and in the middle of it all Jenny and Rarity made their way back home where sleep, and new projects, awaited them both.
“But honestly dear did you have to react so… Badly.”
“If you had been in my situation you would have acted the same.” she replied.
“Oh I don’t think so dear.” Jenny for a moment paused, then thought, and finally inched ever closer to Rarity as a smile crossed her face. “Um, Jenny, what are you doing?” Then with a heave she was lifted off the ground. “Jennifer, you put me down this instant!”
“Oh no, you said you would react quote-on-quote ‘not as badly’ so I think you’ll be fine,” she replied with a chuckle, she took one swift step after the other, each time just escaping falling on her face, “huh, you’re heavier than I expected.”
Rarity let out a series of confused and in no small part offended sputtering sound in response.
“Are you implying that I am fat?”
“Not really the word I would use, you’re not fat, you’re… Squishy. Like a marshmallow.” Rarity didn’t see it as an improvement. “Anyways, we should get home.”
“Could you at least put me down?”
“Let me think...No.” and with that they made their merry way home with Rarity laughing and screaming all the way.
A mere three minutes later and they were at the boutique’s door, “”Here we are Carousel Boutique, home to one Rarity Belle, soon to ascend to godhood as Princess of Fashion!” she said as she put Rarity down at last. “Oh don’t give me that look, you’re smiling, you enjoyed it.”
“I admit to nothing.” Rarity replied as she unlocked the door and made her way in.
“Oh and Rarity, thanks. Today was great.”
”Well I’m glad you had fun today dear.”
With quick ‘good-nights’ the two went their separate ways, one to sleep and the other onto her next project.
In the little dimension she called her own, Jenny looked from design to design until she found what she was looking for.
With design in hoof she dashed across the shelves in search of the first thing she needed.
A power sword.
Every member of the Imperial Army, from the Imperial Guard to the Space Marines, the power sword was a weapon of great value if not rarity. To most it seemed a simple blade, but to those who knew, who knew of its capacity for destruction, its pale and radiant light was capable of slicing through armour and bone as easily as a sword would cut through skin. All of this had been made possible through knowledge of the universe now long since lost by the Imperium of Man and the fragments that now lay in its place.
In the Imperium such a weapon would not be considered special, but in Equestria it would be seen as the single most dangerous weapon to ever grace their world.
And with the improvements she had planned for it...
They’re going to tell stories about you she thought to herself as she began to work.
Atop Canterhorn Mountain Canterlot’s ruins remained, Equestria had not been given the boon of the once great city collapsing to the ground below to be forgotten, instead it stood on in its dark and shadowed state as a grim reminder.
Nightmare Moon, Discord, Tirek had indeed been monsters who each would have brought an end to the world if they had not been stopped, but they were mere names in the history books, ink written upon dead trees.
But every day as the people of Everfree woke up they would awake beneath the shadow of their once grand capital, gazing upon the cracked crumbling walls, the ash-blotted and teetering towers, the dark waters, stained with ash and dust as it tumbled from the city above. One merely had to look out their window to be reminded of the fiery wrath of the Tsaras, and the destruction they had once rained upon them.
None were reminded as much as Celestia for she alone knew what lay within. If one were to visit that shadowed place you find a once opulent palace, within that palace you would find a great room, cleared of bones dust and ash as much as one could in such a place. In this roone one would find a throne, warped by heat and fire where once two resided,one for each sister, but that time had long since passed.
If one were to stand closer they would see a door, a pathway down into the heart of the mountain with neither torch nor crystal to guide one’s way down below, only the faint light of a single lantern revealing the path ahead. But even with this one would surely become lost.
Her steps were those of one who had walked this path many times before, mechanically and without thought each hoof, one of after the other fell to the same place they had every other time she had come here.
With each step she would make her way closer to her destination, with each step she felt that familiar presence as the faint smell of incense entered her nostrils. Slowly she reached the heart of the mountain and looked at the door before her.
It was a simple thing large and well maintained, the only thing upon its surface being a sigil. A great eagle, its wings stretched out and its talons grasping a black sun wreathed in golden flame, the sigil of House Tsara. Below it was written in gold a simple phrase that even now made her uneasy:
From the Embers We Rise
As she took another step forward the door opened flooding the path behind her with light. The space behind the door was cut from the rock itself, the steps, the murals, the pillars that held up the heavily decorated ceiling, all of it was made of the same dark crystal, but the room did not betray the true size of the structure, to either side of her Celestia could see doors leading to dorms, shrines and kitchens for the ponies, griffons and other creatures that had chosen to dedicate their life to maintaining the room ahead.
The door was the same as the one behind her, large and well maintained and bore the sigil of House Tsara, but there was one thing different, instead of the imperial moto it had something else written in its place:
The chain shall be broken and with its breaking the flame shall be lit
But the flame shall be weak and sputtering, the flame shall seek a source
And the flame shall burn bright, a beacon to bring down death from the moon
And bind us all in its strings
The flame shall rise and scorch the skies as this world aside it is sweeping
As she walked forward the unicorns to either side opened the door as if by some silent command. The room beyond was dimly lit, only the flickering fires at each corner giving light, each one maintained by a pony wearing the same black sun pendant and robes that the others wore.
Upon each wall was a carving, etched from the same dark stone as the rest of the temple. To the left was an image of Luna, each star in her mane carved with expert precision even as her mane seemed to melt into the stone around her, she was bedecked in armour standing tall over the screaming masses as she rained fire from the heavens.
To the right was Pandora Tsara clothed in the imperial garb, her eyes filled with a cold malice like none Celestia had seen before, behind her great cities, one of them Canterlot, were consumed by fire as she stood facing away with the imperial crown crushed beneath her hoof.
Last was the carving of Jennifer Tsara upon the furthest wall, she stood with her wings spread out in triumph her mane fanning out under the force of stormy wind as a halo of light shone behind her. The beauty of the image however was detracted from by the hundreds of ships and they unfortunate crew burning upon the surface of the sea.
If one took time to take in the details of each wall they would see they had something in common, not the fire and death though that was something they shared. In each mural the same sword appeared, Luna held it up to the sky, Pandora had pierced it into the scorched earth and Tsara held its hilt between her fingered hooves, a sword which this very temple had been built to contain or rather to appease it. It was embedded into a stone pedestal, the pattern of circles and lines on the flat of its dark blade giving off the same white glow as the flame gleaming in the wing shaped cross guards.
Some had called it the Tsaran Blade, others the Reaper of Souls but Celestia, Luna, and the Tsaras had only ever known it by one name…
“Ragnarok.”
“Celestia.”
Her host was a mare, seemingly only thirty years of age with soft blue eyes and a well-groomed black mane and tail, the former supporting a crown with a ruby at its centre and point likes a flame surrounding it. She was dressed in the traditional black robe of a Tsaran Priest with a dark red undershirt visible through the open collar.
“I do hope you can forgive my suspicion but, why are you here? You never just visit.” Celestia pulled a scroll from under her wing and unrolled it in front of her host’s face:
The chain has been broken. The flame will soon be lit.
“This was the last message I obtained from an agent in the Theocracy,” Celestia explained, “soon afterwards he was found and executed.” Her request was simple, an explanation of how he could have known about a phrase known only to a reclusive cult of twenty hidden in a mountain. Ragnorok at first replied only with a soft chuckle.
“Oh, I remember him, Elusive was his name I think.” She rubbed a hoof against he chin in thought. “He was a nice enough person, I used to talk to him in his dreams, telling him about Tsara, her hopes, her ambitions, her history and the mark she left on it.” an almost nostalgic look crossed her face, “I even shared the prophecy upon the door with him, shame he had to die, but he was spying on the Theocracy and spying is heresy after all.”
“But why would he send this message?" Celestia pressed closer.
“I had told him once that I could talk to you, he probably thought that I could tell you more about the prophecy as if I would be so inclined, it would not be in my best interest to tell you.” She turned around and looked at her vessel pierced into the pedestal, “Suffice to say the first step is done and you won’t know what it is till it stares you down. With how little you know he could have found out about the Theocracy’s Clerics.”
This caught Celestia’s attention, “What are these Clerics?”
“Oh, they are a fascinating bunch, do you know of the Hunters?” for the briefest of moments Celestia was not in the temple but instead looking in horror upon scorched earth, covered from east to west with burnt and bloodied corpses surrounding a flag waving in the breeze, a blood red flag bearing a downwards burning sword.
The flag of a what would one day be called the Tsaran Theocracy.
Celestia was quickly drawn back to the present by an impatient cough from her host, she nodded dumbly, in reply. “As I was saying, the Hunters are psykers, specifically pyromancers, they draw power from the warp to wield fire as a weapon and in some cases summon Tsaran daemons. Clerics on the other hand are sorcerers, fanatical beyond description they draw power from Tsara herself giving them power comparable to Pandora, summoning hordes of daemons from the warp with their blood or channeling great firestorms with their ceremonial lanterns, they function as the second highest authority of the Theocracy answering only to the Divine herself, but they are so absorbed in prayer and teaching the Hunters over the last hundred years that they are rarely seen, but they have been more active in recent years as tension builds ever greater. Fascinating all around but ultimately irrelevant to Elusive’s message.”
“Then why tell me all this?”
“Simple really, I want to make sure you understand.” she took a menacing step forward, “Your enemies have been building their strength for years, no matter what you do, now matter how hard you try to appease them, the Petty Imperiums will not just let bygones be bygones. ” she took another step closer. “There will be blood Celestia, how much of it will be your little ponies’ depends on you.”
Celestia would not be cowed so easily however. She took an even greater step forward and flared out her wings.
“And what do you expect me to do? Unleash you upon this world again?”
“Yes!” Ragnorak screamed, “The Elements are gone! Your army is a joke told by Prench recruits to feel better about themselves! You’ve seen what I can do with a suitable wielder,” she pointed to the mural on the left “Luna slew Discord, she burnt all nine million square kilometres of Draconia then contained what she unleashed behind the Black Gate.”
“All at the expense of losing her soul!” the room was beginning to get warmer as Celestia poured out her anger, “Cities burnt to the ground, slaves and their masters cut down, the very earth itself wiped clean of life by fire all to slay a draconequus racked with grief.” She was no longer yelling, her voice was that of a soft burning fury to match the inferno of colour that was her mane. “You alone are responsible for the death of millions, and you have the audacity to look upon the one pony to show you mercy, to give you a home where you cared for and loved? I should have thrown you into the ocean where you belong.”
The last response she had expected was Ragnarok laughing, even less that what she said next
“After all this time… After all these years, you still think I made her do that?” her rage was doused, her mane losing its fiery energy as what she was told sunk in. “I am a weapon, a tool, I cannot be blamed for how I am used. Celestia, Luna was ill, did you really think that you could just wash away a millennium of resentment? That she would not hate herself for what she did? The Longest Night, The Tantibus, even if I wasn’t there this would have happened eventually, and eventually you would have had to lock her away… Or put her down.”
Slowly she walked away, her image fading as she walked closer to the pedestal. “When the time comes for the next Great War what will you do?” she turned around and looked at her with a mixture of contempt and pity “What is right, or what is best ?”
Author's Note
The flag of the Tsaran Theocracy, a silhouette of a burning down-turned sword upon a red background symbolises the violent and bloody history of the nation's founding. Both the background and the the burning sword represent the Second Great Crusade also known as the Secession War where ponies of Roamanum battled for the Theocracy's independence as well as being a symbol of national pride it also incorporates symbolism of the Tsaran Faith in which the burning sword is the symbol of a just cause and has long been the emblem of the Tsaran Hunters.
West of where the Blue Road met the ocean the HUS Serene made its slow melancholy journey south. From his seat on the bridge First Officer Ivan looked over his charge.
By no means was the vessel of poor make, in fact the vessel was in excellent condition,its bore the grey seen only on a newly repainted craft, its hull resonated with the purr of well maintained engine, the turrets panned from side to side with near absolute silence as the ship practically glided across the waves, truly this was a ship worthy of open sea, and engine of war that was destined to be part of the first Hooviet invasion fleet, and what was it used for?
Prisoner transport.
The buck tried his best not to throw his cup at the nearest window, the Serene 700 tonnes of destructive capability and the Council decided to use it for prisoner transport . He was trained in warfare, when the time came that the Hooviet Union reclaimed East Roamanum from the Tsaran Theocracy he would be there, supporting and escorting the great feats of Hooviet engineering that was their navy as their aerial counterparts rained fire and death down upon their enemies. Not. Prisoner. Transport.
Not to even mention that the Serene was a frigate, a frigate altered for troop transport but a frigate none the less. It was supposed to be hunting submarines, escorting destroyers patrolling open water, not this.
Yes, the cargo was sensitive, yes the cargo needed to be as heavily guarded as possible and yes Germane wanted these particular deer as soon as possible but that did not explain why they would send something so heavily armed into allied waters, what could the Council have possibly expected to happen? There was nothing out here that could possibly pose a threat to them.
Soon enough one of the technicians asked for his attention, a nearby ship had just shown up on radar, something of several times the size to the Serene and probably just as heavily armed, drifting under the power of the sea alone. It wasn’t giving out any standard means of identification, no radio chatter, no emblem or banner, nothing. Until proven otherwise Ivan was under protocol to treat it as hostile. He gave the order to establish contact.
“Attention unidentified vessel, this is the the HUS Serene , you are travelling through waters in the possession of the Hooviet Union, please respond and state your business.” No response. “I repeat, this is the HUS Serene , please state your purpose immediately.” Still no response.
They continued to drift closer to the ship, with each second seeing more and more wrong with it. The freighter looked as if it hadn’t seen maintenance since the Secession War, the rudders were in tatters, the paint was faded in the few areas it hadn’t been completely burned away, and Ivan swore that he saw a hole where half of the bridge should have been. From the looks of it, and the smoke trailing off it and the large haulage crates floating in the water, the ship must have been attacked recently.
The technician again spoke into the microphone, “Attention unidentified vessel, you have twelve seconds to respond or we will open fi-” he was rewarded for his efforts with a crackle of static.
“Help…”
“Unidentified vessel, please clarify your situation.”
“Help…”
“Unidentified vessel, what attacked you?”
The transmission crackled an petered out for a moment before crackling back to life.
“Hu-Hu-Hunt-” The transmission cut out, followed by the bridge of the freighter bursting into a radiant star of fire and twisted metal falling like hail into the ocean. Immediately and without delay Ivan rushed to the nearest free microphone and accessed the loudspeakers.
“Attention all security personnel, you are required on the deck to prepare for immediate boarding!”
“But sir-”
“Their job is to guard the cargo, who or whatever is on that ship poses a threat to the cargo, they will, board that ship, they will find and deal with whatever they find and we will all continue on this absolutely banal task!” His rant complete, Ivan turned away and returned to his seat to catch his breath.
Silent.
That was the only word that could properly describe the ship.
Silent.
The bridge was burning, rubble was falling into the sea, and ropes snapped under the strain of their loads shifting towards the sea.
All this and the ship was still silent .
Past a certain distance weather administration all but ceased, and the many clouds capitalised on this, collecting into a great shifting mass blocking out any and all of the peaceful glow of the moon.
The elk guards moved slowly and with caution, with only their gun mounted flashlights to protect them from the clutching shadows.
With each step they took, every room they searched it became clearer and clearer that whatever had caused this was anything other than normal.
Gashes as thick as their barrels marked the walls, pillars of smoke rose in great snaking columns rising up to the skies with an almost panicked energy and bullet holes scattered throughout told the story of a ship whose crew met a sudden and violent end. Or at least that is what they had assumed. Pirates had never been spotted in the area, they prefered the coasts of Zebrafrica, New Griffonstone had never had the highest opinion of the Union and they did have the weaponry to do something like this. But they wouldn’t just attack a Germane freighter for no reason , especially not in this political climate. As more and more time passed more and more questions piled up, and on top of the list was the question that left them ill at ease.
Where were the bodies?
They weren’t in the water, there wasn’t any sign of a pyre of any kind, no blood marking the wall where bullets must have met flesh. There wasn’t even one in the bridge where they were certain they would at least find whoever had sent the message or at least, what was left of him.
Again they wondered:
Where were the bodies?
They soon found out.
Gone, all of them were gone.
No one was even sure what happened, they just vanished from tracking, one by one.
Why did they have to move these damn prisoners? How could they possibly be worth the danger?
Ivan smashed his hoof against the table.
“Sir. They’re. Gone.” This had been going on for the last ten minutes, Ivan would not be known as the buck who sent his entire security detail to their deaths, even if it meant sending the crew on board to find them.
“What could they possibly want?” he asked himself as he slowly drooped his head into his hooves, this was too much, this wasn’t what they signed up for, he had come for glory, for the good of the nation. Not this. “Is it the prisoners? Is that what they want? Well to hell with the prisoners! They can have them!”
“Oh, how sweet of you.” the air around them shimmered, parting to reveal a group of ponies, some garbed in armour with guns pointed their way, others wore black robes with red around their edges with pendants around their necks and fires dancing around their hooves. But most attention grabbing of all was their sigil. A burning blade. “Sadly, our orders are to kill you, I hope that isn’t too much of a bother.” Melody lined up her rifle, “It’s just the way things are.”
The crew didn’t stand a chance.
Author's Note
"To hunt the beast, the heretic and the enemies of our nation, to strike down all who would oppose the holy word of Tsara, that is the purpose of our order.
Not the longest of updates but the only way I can make this longer would be tacking on parts of chapter 5.
