Chapter 05 - End of opening

PV-01
Planetary archives

Twilight stood defiantly, a heap of corpses at her hooves.

She rolled a body over with a push of her hoof to see the bullet wound. One hit, one kill just like all the others. This one had been the first, the cannoneer. She remembered the scene perfectly. The detonation that had filled the room, the troubling absence of pain, the gaping wound in his chest, the reloading sound… Then everything became blurry as she started to kill again. She had no time to waste wondering what was happening because... well...the room needed purification.

By that point, the fight had become a one-sided butchery. Her new ally had shot down any pony daring enough to get close to the heavy weapon while Twilight's blade cleaved into the herd of frightened lost souls. The screams of heretics had filled the room a few minutes more until the only audible sound came from Twilight's chantings.

Now that the situation was calm again, Twilight was left with a plethora of unanswered questions. A few things were sure about the mysterious sniper. For a start, they were expertly trained and they hated these cultists as much as she did. This didn’t leave many possibilities. The Inquisition was one. Another spacemare was another, though none of the warmares Twilight had met fit the profile. In any case, even though she didn’t know all the details about the mare’s identity, she had a reasonable idea.

No, the more perplexing question was not “who?” but “why?”. No matter how Twilight turned the question in her head, none of the scenarios she imagined made sense. No need to think about that now, she thought tiredly, massaging her temple. I will get the answer soon enough.

The equustode watched the pony at her hooves. Determining the trajectory of the bullet was not easy, but she had quite a few bodies to work with. She worked fast and efficiently. Soon she had a basic idea of where to look. That was enough.

Twilight left the room, letting the darkness claim its territory once again.

☀☀☀

Facing a spacemare was a terrifying prospect. Spike had been in equustodes’ care long enough to know the full extent of their capacities. Yet, here he was, with a handicap to boot.

I bet Twilight’d have some Codex line or a quote for me, he mused. Something like ’If your life is given in the service of the Empress, your death shall not be in vain’. The dragon frowned at the thought. He’d be glad to die in service of his Lady and the Empress, but he was in no hurry either. Dying here served no purpose at all. Think, monitor! You got this!

He was up. That was an improvement. His whole body was screaming in pain, but pain he knew. He was still weakened, but the shackled-at-the-bottom-of-the-sea feeling was fading by the second, washed away by his blood stream. He should be able to walk. His vision was still troubled and his eyes hard to keep open, but the room didn’t offer much to look at anyway.

Okay. Best get out of here before she notices that I’m up again.

He had no sooner formulated the thought that the spacemare turned toward him. He lacked the strength to facepalm but he depicted it vividly in his mind. The serf’s heartbeats echoed in is fins. His muscles twitched, full of adrenaline, ready to fight but unable to... The spacemare was on him before he could react. She was on him before he could even see her move. There was a blur. Then he was between her hooves, being crushed by her unnatural strength.

“Did you see it? Did ya? Did ya?” she asked, shaking him for emphasis.

“Huh?” he tried.

“The fight! It. Was. Amazing! Your mistress was killing them like they were not even there! And then the psyker appeared and your mistress attacked them!”

“Wha-”

“The psyker was shifting in and out of reality so your mistress got really pissed and then she caught them just as they left out of wherever they were hiding and she punched them so hard even I felt it!”

“Wai-”

“Then she grabbed them and asked them where you were. I can say she was pretty pissed because I could hear her from here, and I can tell you we’re pretty damn far. That’s when the psyker used some sort of spell to chain her, and a cultist tried to shoot her with a big cannon.”

“Wh-”

“I’m sure she would have dodged it, but I didn’t want to take the chance so I killed him. She was very surprised but she kept fighting and since she knew I was there I told myself ‘oh what the fuck! I might as well help her!’ and then I shot anyone that tried to bother her while she fought. IT. WAS. AMAZING!”

Sensing a pause in the unending flow of words, Spike took his chance. “Wait... Did you say you helped Lady Twilight?”

“Well duh! What did you expect? That I shot her? Don’t be silly, Spike!”

“You know my name?”

“Of course I do! You told it to me yourself!”

“Wha- who are you?”

A malicious grin appeared on the mare’s face. Without a word, she put her hoof on her chest, tapping it, as if to show him something. It took him a second to click.

“No way...”

The grin became a huge smile. She opened her mouth to say more but immediately closed it. Something had caught her attention. “Oh! She’s coming! This is gonna be so exciting! Say, are you feeling better?”

He flexed his arms, testing his muscle reactivity. The pain and numbness were still present but nothing a good rest wouldn’t shake. “I guess I’m okay...”

“Good! Wouldn’t want to greet your mistress with you all poisoney and tired would we?”

“I guess not...”

“Here take this,” she said while shoving her weapon in his arm. Surprise, poison-induced fatigue and the simple fact that the weapon was twice as big as him almost made him fall.

“Why are you giving me–?” he asked, dumbfounded.

“Well duh! Your mistress is coming and I wouldn’t want her to think I’m her enemy!”

Yeah… You wouldn’t want that.

☀☀☀

The hoofsteps echoed in the air. The pace was slow and deliberate. The equustode wanted her arrival to be known. There was not a sound in response, but she knew she was on the right track. Ballistic was not her primary interest but, as with almost all academic fields of study, she excelled at it. And as most of the time, she was right. The room was small, hard to see from afar but offering a wonderful vantage point, permitting well-adjusted shots from above the shelves.

Nice... I wonder how much time it took to prepare all this.

The equustode came inside, her weapon cocooned in her magic aura. The time for answers was long due.

The room was bigger than she expected – the relative order made it look spacious, despite the presence of two genetically-enhanced mares and a dragon inside. There was plenty of space for weapons and various gears while permitting it to be easily defended. Twilight guessed there was another entrance, hidden somewhere to permit a swift retreat. This place was well organised. Twilight saw all this and more. But this was all taking place in her subconscious. Right now two things monopolised her attention, competing for her brain power and emotions.

The first stood at her right side in the form of Spike, a sniper rifle too big for him to use in his arms. The dragon seemed fine at first glance, but his Lady knew better. He was doing a good job of hiding it, but he was exhausted. He was stiff and uncomfortable, his legs and arms were quivering at the effort of carrying the gun. His eyes were slightly out of focus and his scales were discoloured at some places. Twilight could list twenty poisons that would do that to him. Fortunately, none of them were lethal nor permanently incapacitating. They looked at each other with a relief they both tried to hide.

“Monitor,” she said.

“Lady Twilight Sparkle,” he answered.

“Are you okay?” she asked, trying to hide her concern.

“Tough as a dragon, my Lady,” he said with a smile, which was code for “I’m weakened but I’ll survive and I can still do my duty”.

The hint of a smile appeared on her muzzle. Good boy.

It faded as soon as she turned toward the other presence in the room, her frustration overwriting any other emotion.

The pink mare was sat a few meters in the distance, her position relaxed and unthreatening. Her now familiar black cloak was open, revealing a light power armour of the same colour, save for two white shoulder plates, and no weapons. It didn’t really appease Twilight. Even sheathed, a sword was still a sword and a spacemare was still a killing machine. And just as she had suspected, the pink earth warpony was beyond any doubt a spacemare.

But it was not the attitude nor the whole situation that was the most unsettling thing for the equustode. She was prepared for that.

She wished she could have said the same about her identity. Despite the change of mane style and of attire... The size, posture and colour scheme was hard to mistake.

“You have my thanks for your timely intervention,” she ventured, trying to open the dialogue. The spacemare beamed and nodded. “I assume Pain Keeper is not your real name?”

“You’re correct~,” the earth pony sang. “You can call me that if you want. But my true name’s Pinkamena Diane Pie. Or ‘Pinkie’ for short. Easier to say on the battlefield.”

Twilight’s eyebrow twitched. “I’ve had a very long and frustrating day, Pinkamena,” she said as calmly as possible. “I give you a minute to tell me who you are and what this is all about.”

Spike tried to warn her mistress of the mistake she was making, but the spacemare beat him to it. The pink mare smile got broader. She took a deep breath and did exactly what was asked of her.

“It all started when I discovered those cultists. I started spying on them. Took me weeks infiltrating them. So I was busy learning about them and sabotaging their organisation, then I learned about your arrival and your inspection today!”

“Huh?”

“So I thought to myself, ‘Pinkie… the equustode will want to see your work! You have to show her what you’re doing here!’ So I prepared everything so you could see how hard I work to keep the planet safe. Then I came toward you but you were all pensive and you said out loud ‘All I want now is to report to the Empress’,” she quoted in a perfect Twilight’s imitation, ” and I was like ‘I wouldn’t do that if I were you.’ ”

“It was you...”

Pinkamena ignored Twilight’s intervention. “Which is true! I wouldn’t have been able to show you my work so if I were you I would have given myself a chance! But as I was about to pick you up and make you come for an ambush on the cultists I lured into the archives, one pony sent a grenade at your hoof.”

“Wait...”

“And then you got all flashy and teleporty and you got away with it and it was awesome, but while you were gone, the pegasus, did I mention it was a pegasus? Anyway, he drugged your monitor and tried to kill him, or maybe just capture him for interrogation which is worse since they’d have killed him after anyway.”

“Wha–”

“So I had no choice but to intervene since you were all flashing and flying with a grenade. So I killed him and took your monitor with me so you’d follow me. And it worked! Except when you attacked me... That part was kinda scary. But I survived so it’s okay. I guess I should have taken time to explain everything to you but I think I got a little carried away... Anyway, you found the cultists, we killed them and now you’re here and I’m sorry I took your frie– monitor without asking.”

She ended her tirade with a wide smile. Twilight merely blinked. Her brain struggling to process the flow of words. The story of the spacemare made sense, at least the substance of it, but she still had some doubts. “Let’s suppose I believe you. Why are you not on the list of spacemares I have to check on?”

“Well duh! I am on it! You just didn’t check on the right places! What kind of intelligence pony would I be if my name was in the official, easy to access list!”

Twilight nodded slowly, forced to admit there was some method to the madness. “Can I access those files then?”.

The earth pony beamed. “Of course! Filename: Pinkamena Diane Pie. Access code: 16-1-18-20-25 8-1-18-4. Oh! And don’t let the ’file not found’ fool you,” she whispered with an accomplice wink. “It’s just to make sure nopony goes prying in there.”

“Got that Spike?” Twilight asked, doing her best to ignore the pink mare antic.

“On it.”

It took a few seconds for Spike to access the files and find the answers they looked for.

“Pinkamena Diane Pie, Intelligence pony. Specialised in information gathering, infiltration, exfiltration, assassination, troop support, sabotage, trapping, tracking and tailing. In service for eighty-seven years in Ponyville. There’s even her old chapter record. Very impressive by the way. I see nothing out of place Lady Twilight.”

The unicorn nodded once again.

“Well. I guess you showed me what you’re capable of. Keep up the good work. Now I’m going back to my quarter if you don’t mind.”

“Oh, sure! Here, let me guide you!”

Twilight hesitated a moment before agreeing. The mare was not the sanest she’d met, but she appeared to be loyal. That was enough. For now. “Lead the way, Pinkamena Diane Pie.”

“Okidoki. Hey did I tell you–”

“In silence please.”

Surprisingly enough, she did exactly just that.

☀☀☀

DP Battalion barracks, training grounds

Military circles often debated on whether the Planetary Defence Forces or the orbital defence was the most important to protect the Imperium worlds. As far as Applejack was concerned, even though the ships in orbit and the pegasus vessels above her head were the first line of defence against threats, it was ultimately up to the battalion and the ponies on the ground to make sure the planet would not fall in enemies hooves, hands, claws or whatever foul appendages they might have.

Unfortunately, the regiments on her supervision were seriously lacking. Not in terms of equipment, thanks to Rarity, nor training or fighting will – she had made sure of that. The problem was simply the numbers of soldiers. It saddened her sometimes to see that even a few hundred more regulars would improve the efficiency of the whole place many times over. Unfortunately, she was to do without them and face the fact that the barracks wouldn’t be used to their full potential. The training ground, for instance, would stay deserted for hours each day, often leaving it for the spacemare alone to use it. It had perks, but she couldn’t help but wishing she could do more.

The earth warpony let the thought die and shifted her attention back to the sphere in her hooves. After a few minutes of increasingly frantic “bip”s and “click”s, the sphere let out a low whine a few times and went silent.

Applejack sighed deeply, admitting her defeat. “Next time, I’ll ask Rarity to use her magic to set up this thingy. This looks way simpler when she does it...” She let the device fall on the floor, next to the dismantled pieces of her weapon. “I guess I’ll go with something else tonight.”

In truth, it was not the complexity of the device that caused problems to the mare.

Somepony was watching her. It had just been a gut feeling at first, something she could have dismissed on the visit of the equustode or the guardsponies around her. But even now that she was alone, she could still feel the skin-crawling touch of pony glares on her back... And something in her guts told her it was not the usual admiring attention she occasionally got from new bloods. Those were usually bad at hiding and prone to (rather poorly) hushed praises on her marksmanship. The silent treatment she was receiving was unnerving.

Applejack sighed.

“Listen, partner,” she articulated to her presumed stalker. “I dunno what you want but I give you ten seconds to get out of here before I make you.”

Five seconds passed without any change.

“Half time.”

Four more seconds passed.

“I warned you.”

At those words, four ponies left their hiding places. They all wore cloaks and bore their best nonchalant faces. Two of them were of the Battalion. She knew them, Chrome Cloud and Lightning Gust. Twin pegasi, promising but rather discrete, assigned to patrols and scouting. The others were not soldiers. Probably miners, Applejack thought.

Had somepony came just at that moment, it would have looked like a bunch of fillies caught stealing from the cookie jar. But Applejack knew better. The obscurity and the ample clothes could not conceal the weapons underneath. The cold wind of the night could not hide the familiar smell of fear and adrenaline, nor could its soft whistling damper their loud heartbeats. They were here for bad reasons, and for the spacemare, it was written all over them like a bad poker face.

“I give y’all one chance to explain. You better say the truth.”

Her words worked as intended: Their nervousness went up a notch. They definitely weren’t here with good intentions. The ponies glanced at each other, silently daring one of their comrades to talk. Finally one of the pegasi tried. “I don’t know what you mean. We–”

“I warned you...” interrupted Applejack, shaking her head.

Her twin hearts pumped a massive dose of chemicals in her enhanced physiology, as almost a ton of muscles and armour charged. The earth ponies struggled with their clothes, trying to reach the weapon beneath them. They failed. They were dead soon after. The twins fared better. They jumped out of the way of the spacemare, getting rid of the cloak and taking off in one go. The earth warpony sneered.

My training used against me... That’s irony for you.

Applejack assessed the situation. They’d come prepared. That was obvious. Flying targets were always a pain in the flank to deal with, even with her heavy bolter, and right now, she couldn’t even count on it. She’d have to do with two defensive grenades and a combat knife. They, on the other hoof, had come with crude plasma pistols. It was time to get creative.

The pegasi knew they had an advantage and they pressed it. Shifting in the air above the mare, they made plasma rain not unlike the paleo weather-control patrols of Canterlot. The spacemare avoided the shots. It helped that the weapons were of poor craftsmanship. And that the twins were simply lousy shots while airborne. Applejack was biding her time – a few more shots – preparing for her counter-attack.

The opportunity came as she expected, in the form of a sudden hiss followed by a cry of pain. There was a pause in the attack. It lasted four seconds. One of the pegasi let go of her overheated weapon, and the other slowed to check on his sister. Four seconds. Instants for a pony in a fight. Hours for a horsetarte.

The first grenade hit the brother in the face. Shrapnel tore it to shreds, killing him right away. The second one detonated next to the other pegasus’ left wing. The deflagration and shards of metal blasted the limb off, forcing her on the ground.

Applejack walked over to her, neither hurried nor slow. Her calm glaze faced the hate-filled one of the crippled foe.

“You made three mistakes here, partner. One, plasma weapons tend to overheat.” She kicked the fallen plasma pistol nonchalantly and walked closer to the pegasus. “Two, y’all should have trained more. I spotted you immediately, there was no cohesion between you and your aim was awful.” She talked matter-of-factly, not concerned by the fact she was lecturing an enemy. She watched Chrome Cloud. The mare had been a promising element once, now she lay at her hooves, dying and filled with hatred. How long had she kept this façade? How long had she lied to her? To the Battalion?

Too long.

She lifted her hoof above her foe’s head “And three, you should have chosen a better prey.”

The hoof fell with a sickening sound.

“Always an uninspired idea to pick on apex predators,” a familiar voice commented from behind her. “Isn’t it, dear?”

“Better us... than somepony else...” added a vox.

Applejack turned calmly around to face the newcomers. It took her a glance to see they had to face the same... annoyance. Blood soiled the yellow platings of Fluttershy’s forelegs. Same as her. As for Rarity, her servo-arms were now equipped with weapons instead of crafting tools. This in itself was a bad sign.

“LadyRarity, Lady Fluttershy,” she greeted, acknowledging the spacemare and dreadnought.

“Very nice shots Applejack, I must say,” the techmare praised. “I feared that you’d require our help, but as always your skill is superlative.”

“You’re too kind. It was stupid of me to be unarmed. Plus I wouldn’t have minded the help.”

“And sabotage such a skilful display? Nonsense, dear.”

The vox spat static for a few seconds before Fluttershy talked. “We... didn’t want to interrupt your fight.”

“Don’t fret over it. We all fight for the Empress. My fights are yours. Yours are mine.”

“Well said, darling,” commented Rarity, passing a hoof through her mane. “Now do you have any idea of what is happening?”

“Not a fucking clue. I was hoping you’d know.”

“...” buzzed the vox.

“I have no idea either. I was mid-maintenance with Fluttershy when a bunch of ruffians barged in my atelier.”

“Ouch...”

A feral smile appeared on Rarity’s face. “Indeed.”

“...” the vox buzzed again.

“These attacks don’t bode well. There’s something fishy ‘bout them.”

“You don’t say. Attacking the three of us? Looks like someone is trying to sabotage the planetary defences to me.”

“Sisters...”

Both spacemares turned back to the sarcophagus. “I am sorry, Fluttershy,” Rarity said with a short bow. “Did you want to say something?”

“Can’t you smell it?”

“What?” both mares answered as they sniffed the air.

“There’s smoke rising from the town.”

Silence grew thick as the faintest smell of ashes and burned material finally registered. It was barely noticeable. It meshed with the scent of fresh blood, gunpowder and ozone. It was barely noticeable, but it still triggered their conditioning. There knew it well, there was no other like it.

This was the smell of war.

“That cannot be good,” Rarity noted with gravity.

“Nope. Not good at all.”

☀☀☀

Cloudsdale aerial defence base

“I will not repeat myself anymore, who are you working for?”

The voice thundered into the air, making the walls shudder.

It was easy to forget that Rainbow Dash was a spacemare. She was always cheerful and so close to the ponies around her that they just forgot her upbringing. Seeing her angry, a mangled pegasus at the end of her hoof, was a brutal reminder of who, of what she was.

They were fifty, all the chain of command, crowded around her in a small balcony, barely wide enough to contain them all. Still, here they stood, witnessing the scene unfolding before their eyes without a word.

“Wanna play tough? Guess what?”

She let the wingless pegasus at the end of her hoof go.

“The ground’s tougher.”

She didn’t even bother watching the fall. Her attention was already on the next pony. The stallion was whimpering pathetically on the ground. He was desperately looking at the soldiers around him, trying to find some help from the mortals. He found none. Only contempt and anger. Yet this was preferable than to face the spacemare’s glare.

“Look at me,” she demanded.

The calm in her voice was somehow scarier than her recent outbursts. The earth pony, a young recruit by the name of Hazy Armour, desperately fought his cowardice and turned his head toward the mare but refused to look into the purple eyes fixing her chest instead.

“LOOK AT ME TRAITOR!”

The pony obediently lifted his eyes. He regretted it instantly. What he saw was disappointment out of any proportion and the death it had brought on him. If only he had not listened to the twins... If only he had come to her... Regrets filled him. It was too late. If only he had come to her.

“Who are you working for. Tell. Me.”

“I don’t know!” the words left his mouth on their own. “I swear! Chrome Cloud and Steel Wind came to me! They said they worked for the betterment of the Imperium! That the Moon was coming back to bring order and justice into the galaxy! They told me I could make a difference! I didn’t know I would have to do that! That’s all I know! I swear!”

“Is that all you know?”

“That’s all I know I swear! That’s all I know... I swear that’s all I know...”

“Good.” She extended a hoof toward the crowd. “Soldier, your weapon,” she asked to nopony in particular. Somepony instantly filled the waiting hoof. The barrel was put on the pony’s temple. “No traitor.”

Without a hint of hesitation, she pressed the trigger. The detonation resonated in the room, deafening at such a distance but dwarfed by the spacemare’s words. There were few rules under Dash. “No traitor” was the first. The silence grew thick. It took a running mare barging into the open space to break the stillness. She was out of breath and her mane was a mess. By the look of it, she had gone through half of Cloudsdale to reach the spacemare.

“Rain– Lady Rainbow Dash, I’m sorry to bother you...” she started, between two heavy breaths.

“I’m not in the mood... spit it!” the spacemare barked.

“We have a problem...”

“Spit it!”

“The planet is under attack,” the messenger gulped.

“What?”

“The Dusk Squadron signalled an attack,” she summarised. “Several ships are unresponsive, and the Dusk of Hope was boarded by an unknown assailant. We don’t know how many more ships are affected. We suspect an eldeer attack, but we’re waiting for confirmation.” The pony hesitated a moment then added: “We also received signals indicating that a ship is coming into the system. A big ship… Hostile.”

The rainbow-maned pegasus frowned. Then regained her calm.

“Okay soldiers, listen up. I want this whole planet on alert and I want to know exactly what we face as soon as possible.” She turned toward her communicator. “You! I want you to contact my sisters. Tell them I need to see them as soon as possible.”

“Sir! Yes, sir!” the pony answered, already opening the communication link.

“Remind me to never get on your bad side, Dash,” a sarcastic, familiar voice muttered.

There was only one pony who dared be that familiar with her: Ivory Meteor. It was a privilege he had gained through constant efforts. Despite the handicap of being an earth pony, he had defied all the odds, he had climbed the echelons faster than anypony in Rainbow Dash’s knowledge. He had bested every pegasus in Cloudsdale, save for the warmare herself and, by doing so, earned his place as her second and her friendship.

He was also the only pony daring enough to try to flirt with her. “Also, if you could tell me how to get on your bedside…”

“Colonel, you’re in charge while I’m gone. Do not disappoint me.”

She had ignored the attempt and still sounded angry, but Ivory knew that excitement would quickly take over the spacemare’s mind. He also had the absolute conviction that she couldn’t stay mad at him. “I wouldn’t dream of it, Dash,” he answered with a smile.

“I know what you dream of and it’s not pretty,” she joked, almost despite herself.

“Except when I dream of you,” he countered.

This time, it worked. Her signature, confident smile was back again on her face and the tension in the room went down to a more acceptable level. “Try not to be too lame, Ivory,” she said as she jumped off the platform.

“I wouldn’t dream of it.”

Author's Note

"The universe has many horrors yet to throw at us. This is not the end of our struggle. This is just the beginning of our crusade to save Ponykind. Be faithful! Be strong! Be vigilant!"
– The Empress