Chapter 07 - Untrustworthy

PV-01
Communication array’s plazza

Twilight had guessed the conflict before she could even sense it. The rumours of war had managed to reach even the deepest part of the archive. Her vox discussion with the other Spacemares was only for confirmation purpose. She had no doubt about what was happening. She had given short and simple directives to the spacemares, eluding their questions on her whereabouts. She had no time to spare discussing her own mission.

Twilight ran in the increasingly ruined streets of Ponyville, trying to reach the communication tower before the enemy – the children of the Moon as they called themselves – destroy it. She ran, totally oblivious of the enemy fire. The battle was almost an afterthought, something she did mechanically as she progressed. Her staff flew around her, akin to a golden bird of prey hovering above the fight, killing anyone venturing too close to its master.

Twilight ran and her enemies died, their scream adding to the chorus of war. But she didn’t care. Her attention was wholly elsewhere. Messages, coming from the different skirmish fronts and command hubs, were erupting without pause, complemented by the occasional input from Spike and the endless data stream of her retinal display. Each second added new information or modified the importance or content of previous data. Still, the equustode filtered and analysed them, with the ease born of experience and mental conditioning.

Cultist incursions and sabotages; pockets of resistance from one side or the other; fronts and fallback lines; movements of troops; stalemates, victories or defeats; suborbital assaults and cannon fires; ammunitions, vehicles, transport…

She let the flow pass through her. Her attention was entirely focused on one fact. The communication array was still operational. She had to access it before the enemy sabotaged it too. She had to warn the...

“Equustode?”

Instinctively, Twilight pointed her bladed staff in the direction of the voice, ready to strike… then she relaxed. She had not sensed Pinkamena coming next to her. “Yes?”

“The way’s open,” she said, her voice lacking her natural enthusiasm. “Do I really have to wait here?”

“Yes. Make sure the area is clear. Do not let anyone inside.”

“What about the others?”

Twilight only thought about it for a second. “They can deal with this without me.”

Had she paid attention, Twilight would have seen the reluctance in the warmare’s body language. But she wasn’t paying attention. She barely registered Pinkie’s salute as she passed her. She barely noticed the communication runes flashing on her retinal display. This planet, this seemingly insignificant planet was under attack by insurrectionists, cultists and traitors while the stars above were swallowed by a rift in space. This was not a coincidence. This could not be. The Warmistress was coming back here and now, and she needed to alert the Throne as soon a possible.

☀☀☀

A sentiment of perplexity was plaguing Rarity’s mind. And this was affecting her work, adding lag and imperfection that she needed to correct as she went. Yet, she let the thought process go its way. Inspiration and illumination always came to her while she worked, and today, despite the unique urgency of the situation, was no exception. She was on the verge of a breakthrough and one minute and twenty-seven seconds delay out of several hours of works were well within the authorised margin of error. All in all, an acceptable trade-off.

So Rarity pondered, while her artificial limbs soothed the machine spirit of a shield generator. Data streamed in her head, drawing a mental map of the situation, which ultimately left her frustrated and unsatisfied. Something was not quite not right with this assault. The enemy cruelly lacked cohesion or objectives, and yet, they had efficiently disabled several key parts of the defence, most of them pivotal to preventing orbital assault and planetary invasion. This attack was irrational and inelegant, and in any other situation, Rarity would have left it at that, putting it on the chaotic nature of the insurrectionists. But this did not fit with the presence of the spacemares in orbit nor the stellar event above. There was something. Something ominous. Something bad. There was a missing piece somewhere, and she had a hunch that some details she had overlooked were the key to understanding it.

The details. Everything resides in the details.

A flurry of binary code signalled her that her servitors were done with their part of the maintenance. The power station would be working in a matter of minutes. By impulse more than need, Rarity checked the next sites in need of her touch.

This made the cogs in her mind click.

“Omneighssiah...”

The word slipped through her muzzle with the strength of a curse. Pieces fell into place. Questions she had not even thought about arose, leading to more elements of an answer. Frantically, she checked the records of the attacks and sabotages and the maintenance records of the previous years.

The missing piece revealed its ugly frame as Rarity dug deeper and deeper into it. Soon she arrived at the end of the information available to her, but she kept looking, bipping and buzzing demands... For a few seconds, information filled the room in the form of vocalised machine language. Then it stopped, almost as soon as it started. When it ended, Rarity had the answers she so dearly wished. And she did not like them.

Who would make such a contraption? Why?

Rarity didn’t inquire further. Time was of the essence.

☀☀☀

“Applejack,” Rarity had asked, “I need you to find Fluttershy and bring her to the rendezvous point as soon as possible.”

How hard can it be to find a giant, armoured, rampaging sarcophagus? Applejack had thought at that moment.

As she ran into the street, Applejack found herself re-evaluating her statement. Following Fluttershy’s trail had been either predictably easy or infuriatingly frustrating, with no middle ground. Fluttershy would go straight toward a group of enemies crush them and then go to the next... It would, and should, have been easy... save for her power jumps above the crumbled walls of the town. Applejack was forced to guess her general direction and follow it, often having to get back on her tracks.

The terrain was also a problem. On top of slowing her, the maze of walls and the narrow, turning streets made her armament poorly suited to the situation, forcing her to use close combat weaponry. Her combat knife and her power hooves were soaked with the blood of the heretics she’d encountered, while her heavy bolter and munition belt hung tightly on her back, unused.

“T’is eldeer hunt all over again...”

☀☀☀

The orbital defences were down. Despite their best efforts, they could not have stopped the endless waves of foes that had submerged them. The rest had been a matter of time. Now the fight was on the streets... For a time she’d try to repel them, but they were everywhere.

Where were her sisters in battle? They had to be close... They needed to regroup and organise. Where were her sisters? They were probably as busy fighting as she was. She looked at the crushed foes at her hooves. She didn’t like to fight alone. Spacemares should not stay alone. Where were her sisters?

“Fluttershy?”

“Sister!” she called, without facing the newcomer. “Where are the others? The griffons are coming. We need to regroup.”

There was no answer.

“Sister?”

Fluttershy slowly turned toward the voice. The movement was ugly and mechanical. Her whole body felt ugly and mechanical… It felt wrong and unfamiliar yet intimate, like a graft starting to integrate. She stepped clunkily toward the spacemare. Why did her body feel so wrong? Another step. The paved road shattered under her weight, revealing the earth under. Why did she feel so weak, yet so strong? She looked at the warmare, her senses not quite her own. She tried to blink but failed. The feeling of otherness grew bigger as she watched her sister. Who was she? Her armour was wrong. The colours were not those of the daughters of Cadance, neither was her insignia. Did other legions join them in this battle? Fluttershy tried to wipe the sweat and blood from her face. Her hoof hit her head with a heavy “clung”.

Confusion.

“Fluttershy...” said the spacemare with hints of concern.

That voice... she knew it. She could almost remember her name.

“Come back, Fluttershy...” the voice asked. “We need you.”

Fluttershy watched her intensely. She was still wondering why her sister would wear the Imperial Hooves colours and armoury. She tried to extend her hoof to reach her... then hit the glass of her amniotic chamber.

Reality struck her like nutrient fluids on a dying corpse.

“Applejack,” she uttered, breaking free of her reverie.

“You okay, sister?”

The vox buzzed a moment, but no words came out. Applejack said nothing.

“I am,” Fluttershy finally answered.

“We need your help.”

“What... do you need me for?” the dreadnought asked.

“We need to go to the communication tower, as soon as possible. Rarity thinks something’s happening there.”

Applejack looked around her with an annoyed expression. Fluttershy had led her quite far from the rendezvous point. Reaching it quickly by conventional roads would be a pain. Fluttershy saw the frustration in her sister.

“I know a shortcut,” she said softly. “Follow me. If you don’t mind.”

“Lead the way,” Applejack answered with a smile.

The dreadnought slowly shifted toward the communication array, facing the walls of a building.

“Stay close.”

Fluttershy braced herself; her massive servos and mechanisms ground into position, then locked. Applejack took place behind the immobile hulk of adamantium, ready for what was coming next.

My sisters count on me...

Fluttershy started moving. The stone of the pavement exploded under the pressure, sending debris flying all around. Her speed almost took Applejack by surprise, not so much because of the dreadnought’s actual speed, but because it had come with no transition. The behemoth had been immobile, and the next moment was charging forward.

The building faced the charge with the resistance of dense air. The hulking body tore through it without even slowing. No. It was gaining speed, reaching a pace close to that of a running spacemare, not slowed nor phased by it in the slightest. The second wall had the same lack of effect.

And so did all those between their position and their target.

☀☀☀

Rainbow Dash fell like a bomb.

The noise of her engines had been replaced by howling winds. Despite the height, she could still see her objective, almost a mile below her. She kept falling, faster and faster, her superequine body facing the increasing wind pressure with ease. Her armour wasn’t even needed to compensate for such a little fall, so she shut the system up so she could enjoy the experience to the fullest.

She was a few hundred metres above her target now. She was close enough to hear the raging noise of the battlefield, the screams of the fighters, the percussions of the guns, the deep baritone of the explosions, the rumble the vehicles, the whistling counterpoint of the lasfire... In this fleeting moment, war was a symphony played by instruments made to kill.

Gravity kept her in its grip. She soon reached her terminal velocity. Her wings, folded on her back, only gave the slightest, subtlest touches to keep her on track. The battlefield under her become narrower and narrower as she closed to her destination. She could distinctly see the traitor’s group closing in on the guards, ready to ambush them. None seemed to have noticed her. Death was silently coming to them, in the form of a falling blue and black meteor of bio-engineered flesh and retribution wrapped into deadly machinery and armour.

Rainbow Dash chose her victim. A bulging earth pony wearing chaos signs on his fur. His body language and the attitude of the other cultists pointed him as the leader of this pack. Rainbow Dash was less than one hundred metres above when one of the ponies noticed her. Incredulity, shock and terror flashed into her eyes as they realised their incoming death. In the less than two seconds it took the spacemare to reach them, Rainbow Dash pivoted and reactivated her jetpack, just long enough to make the landing bearable by her armoured body. The brutal deceleration hit her, sending even more adrenaline and stimulant into her bloodstream.

Aw yeah!

The pegasus impacted the stallion, utterly pulverising him. The resulting shock wave and the flames from the engines sent everypony flying around.

It would have taken a long time to shake off the confusion created by the light, noise and fumes of the engine. Even more so, to get past the physical trauma of having being sent violently into a collision course with the ground or a wall. For a few of them, there was she additional burden of having seen their leader being crushed to a bloody pulp by a falling killing machine. Unfortunately for them, Rainbow Dash was not a very patient nor a forgiving pony.

They were promptly executed.

“Purge all traitors,” she muttered.

“According to my last estimates,” the voice of Rarity announced on her now unmuted vox, “you are 0.00595901117% closer to your goal. Do you want me to calculate the time needed to accomplish this? And the number of times I will have to repair your apparatus from your reckless and nonconforming use of it?”

“No thanks, Rarity,” she grumbled back.

The unicorn had often complained about how often Rainbow Dash would have to come back for maintenance and how much stress she was putting on her “apathingy”. Even in the middle of a war, she would complain about this...

Gee, maybe we should let Rarity loose among the enemy and let her sermon them to death.

She looked around her. The platoon of soldiers kept going. One of them recognised her and made a quick salute. She returned it. Her focus snapped back to Rarity. “What I’d want is our defence at full power so we can wipe them out. How’s it going?”

“Good,” Rarity answered. “However, I have bad news.”

“How bad?”

“Bad enough for me to ask you to ignore safety protocols.”

Okay, that’s pretty serious, she thought with concern. “What do I do?” she asked.

“I want you to go to these coordinates as fast as possible.”

The set of digit prompted on her retinal display. The position indicated was far. Very far. “Huh... That’s at the other side of town,” pointed the rainbow-maned spacemare.

“All the more reason for you to go there as fast as possible,” Rarity replied. “I’ll brief you promptly. Now please go.”

“Okay, I’m going.”

The vox crackled and shut down, leaving Rainbow once again alone with the cacophony of the battlefield.

“What the heck is happening?” she muttered as she took off.

☀☀☀

Pinkie Pie was bored.

Despite her best effort to find something to enjoy about the situation, she was still deeply bored. She’d tried to play hide and kill with her foes, but it had rapidly proven pointless. The rebels were just bad at it. They would constantly try to kill her instead of hiding, ruining all the fun of the chase. Now all the enemies in the area were dead or too far away. Pinkie Pie had tried to find a positive spin to her situation, but despite her best efforts, she was still bored. The ponies around her were rather content of their situation, much to her dismay.

“Well Duh! Obviously, guardsponies would be glad to guard something,” she rambled to herself. “I’m not made for this! I’m so bored! Guarding a place is boring!”

“Why, by the Empress, would YOU do something like that?” ask the dumbfounded voice of Rarity in her vox.

“I know right?” the pink warmare answered, utterly unphased by Rarity’s unannounced interruption. “I mean why would I, Pinkamena Diane Pie, expert in sabotage and harassment, guard someplace without moving? Because it was an order, Rarity... A direct order even! I can’t go and disobey a direct order because I don’t like it... except if there’s obviously something wrong with it. In that case, I guess I would have to disobey because the Empress goes first.”

“Hum, darling?”

“But then again, maybe they’d know something I don’t. Like that equustode. I’m pretty sure she’s hiding something from us, but I don’t know what it is, or else she wouldn’t be hiding it from me, she would just think she would be hiding things from me, while in fact, I would know it all, and then I would know if I should obey or not. Like when you know there’s an ambush and you counter it by showing up ultra-prepared.”

“Speaking of ambush...”

“So that’s why I’m guarding the communication tower. Because I don’t know if the equustode is hiding a good secret, like the activation code of the Empress armoury, or if she’s hiding a bad secret like she could totally be a spy. Not that I think she’s a spy. Or maybe she is a spy. A pretty good one.”

“Are you finished?” calmly asked the Techmare.

“I am,” Pinkie Pie answered, nodding her head heavily.

“Pinkie, you’re at the central communication array is that right?”

“Yepper.”

“Are you with the equustode?” Rarity asked, increasingly worried.

“She went inside to deliver an important message. Or so she told me.”

“How long has she been inside?” the techmare enquired.

“Twenty-three minutes,” she answered instantly. “Why?”

“Oh, Omneighssiah... Pinkie, it’s a trap. You have to warn her! Now!”

“But my orders...”

“Are not going to be very relevant is she dies anyway, darling. Besides, isn’t the tower itself inside your assigned perimeter?”

“You mean I can move from my spot and actually do something?”

“Absolutely.”

“Rarity?”

“Yes?”

“Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

☀☀☀

The staccato of bolter fire echoed into the room.

The chorus of death had started as soon as Twilight had reached the main console of the communication array. Without any warning, a squad of ten spacemares and a cohort of ponies in rags had appeared, weapons primed at them. Twilight’s training immediately took over and with a thought, she erected a barrier made of scraps, furniture and rubles before the first notes of the deadly song. It had continued without pause ever since.

“You know, this situation seems to happen a lot since we’ve arrived.” Spike deadpanned while reloading his pistol.

“Not now, Spike,” Twilight groaned as she killed yet another child of the Moon. However, whether she wanted to admit it or not, her serf was right. And this further fueled her exasperation.

The bolters shouted again. The fortune barricade shook. Pieces of rockcrete and metal rattled on the floor.

“I’m just saying maybe there’s something we’re doing wrong.”

Bigger and bigger chunks of the makeshift wall fell. It was just a question of time before the cover became as effective as a sheet of paper.

“Not. Now. Spike.”

The monitor didn’t insist any further. Whether it was because he was busy firing at their assailants or because of the order didn’t matter to Twilight. She needed to think and had little time to do so. They needed a way to complete their mission and get out of here. There were at least thirty-seven ponies, give or take five. But they were a minor threat, an inconvenience at best. The true problem was the spacemares.

It had taken her a few seconds to recognise the colour scheme of their armours – deep blue, with black shoulder pads – and the sigils they proudly bore – bat’s wings above a new moon. They were Luna’s Bats. Though their presence was a surprise and a bad one at that, they were ultimately a small, isolated chapter. That would indicate a full fleshed invasion, or worse, was in preparation. In that regard, they were lucky.

Another bolter shot made the crumbling wall shatter a little more.

Twilight took a deep, calming breath.

First. Assessing the situation.

Getting out of cover was too risky right now. But she did not need to. Her weapon was more than enough. A thought wiped the blood out of the blade of her staff, restoring its lustre. Using the weapon as mirror, Twilight reconstructed the scene. The enemy formed an arc, slowly closing on their position. The non-augmented ponies were in the front, serving as flesh shield to already armoured warmares. They were patient, advancing slowly and steadily. Whoever their leader might be, she had given them good instructions. None of them seemed to be a unicorn or psychically active, however, which explained why their approach was so blunt and unsurprising. This gave Twilight an advantage. A slight one.

Second. Devise a plan of action.

Twilight did her best with the little time she had. She needed to get out of cover before it became an inescapable trap. There were three exits. One was not only too far but behind the enemy. The second, on her right, was the closest, but totally out of sight. The perfect set-up for yet another trap. The last, on the left, was visible and accessible, but it was a twenty-metre run completely exposed. They’d need a distraction to reach it.

Third. Act.

“Spike. When you see the opportunity, run toward the exit on the left. Find another way to send a message to the Empress.”

There was the slightest hesitation in Spike’s voice. “Sure, but I don’t think those ponies will agree to let me take that kind of opportunity.”

“I will give an opening for you. Be ready.”

The wall shook again. It would not last another round of bolter fusillade. It was already fortunate it had not collapsed at the first few shots. But she still didn’t move. She waited. Next, to her, Spike readied himself for what was to come.

In the distance, a bolter fired the last clip of its magazine.

And then, Twilight struck.

The Bats and their minions were wary of an attack. They would have been fools not to. They knew that a cornered beast was at its deadliest. They knew and they were prepared. Or so they thought. Their efforts, while commendable, was inadequate for one simple reason. They were too unimaginative, too slow, too weak… In other words, they were not good enough.

Twilight’s attack came from behind them, where cohesion collapsed into hindrance. The spacemare she had chosen had not reloaded her weapon yet. The renegade still managed to react. There was no lag, no wait in her movements. It had been practised and repeated thousands and thousands of time before. It was fast and smooth. She dropped her bolter and caught her chainsword in one fluid motion. It only took her an instant to do so. A single, fleeting instant. It was still an instant too many.

A golden blade pierced her hearts and lungs before she could even activate her weapon. Her body attempted futilely to fight the mortal wound as the spacemare tried to raise her blade. Twilight fixed the renegade in the eye, through the optics of her night blue, skull-like helmet. The blade sliced its way out. Blood bubbled out of the Bat’s mouth grill as her body went limp.

The Bat squad reacted quickly, moving in perfect unity to face the threat, like a finely tuned machinery. As one, they fired on the equustode, caring little for their fallen comrade. With a thought, Twilight placed the body between her and the incoming bolter fire. A volley of explosive rounds came crashing upon the carcass, tearing it to shred, leaving only a husk of bones… and no trace of the equustode. There was a purple flash and two ponies died. Then another and even more dead. Twilight hit and ran, teleporting in and out of the fight, reaping ponies at an incredible pace. Soon a dozen ponies and three of their augmented counterparts laid dead on the ground. And those who still live showed the mark of the equustode’s passage.

Everyone in the room waited anxiously the next flash, trying to catch the golden warmare, without any hint of success. Twilight, on the other side, was untouchable and untouched. The unicorn was an ethereal blade in the midst of the enemy.

She was also running on fumes. Teleportation was akin to drag her own body with her magic while in apnea. Constantly fighting while doing so was pushing even her physiology to its limits. However, she had no other options available. She had to buy Spike as much time as possible.

She teleported again, aiming at one of the already injured Bats. She aimed at her leg, in a vicious feint. Despite the urgency of the situation, the spacemare didn’t bite and deflected the blow. Weapons were aimed at Twilight once again, but she had already ghosted away.

A feeling of frustration grew inside her. Her attacks were slowly proving less and less effective. She needed to break the pace. Twilight steeled herself as more magic surged into the horn. Faster than ever before, she flashed all around the room, in a dizzying display. A few ponies tried to catch her only wasting more bullets in the air. Then, suddenly, the mare disappeared. There was a pause. All looked around, searching for the foe that had been harassing them so far... But the equustode was nowhere to be found...

I don’t see Spike anymore, she noted, with relief. Good. Time to finish this.

A warning scream resonated in the room. One of the few remaining cultists pointed in the air. Seven heavy guns went up, searching. Once again, they were too slow. Atop of her staff, blade pointed toward the ground, Twilight fell, right on her target. Magic pulled her body even faster toward the ground, aiding gravity, ming the impact way deadlier. There was a very satisfying “crack“, as the blade pierced the plate. The spacemare’s body immediately stopped moving, her spine severed by the impact.

Twilight smiled. She was now in the middle of the fray, with almost no spacemares around her. Just as intended. Her horn lit up again. But this time, there was no flash of light. Instead, four bolters rose from the ground. To her great satisfaction, she heard a deep warmare voice utter two delightful words.

“Oh, shit...”

The bolters fired in perfect harmony. The shots were loosely aimed, but there was no need to aim in this configuration. The explosive rounds carved grossly into the colony of traitors. The squad took cover while firing at her, mostly hitting the last cultists still alive. Twilight started to run, getting in the thick of the crowd, her blade barely moved, due to the strain of using so many weapons at once, but it was enough to get rid of any cultist daring enough to get close.

Another spacemare, and five more ponies laid dead or dying when the ammunition count of the last bolter finally reached zero.

Magic gathered in her horn again, the complex, yet familiar, patterns of the teleportation spell burning into her mind, shortening the distance between her and her target. She felt her body losing consistency while she was getting dragged toward her destination... then a shock on her flank grounded her into the world. The spell disappeared and the magic fizzled into the air, lost and useless.

Twilight reacted immediately. Her hind hoof struck the stallion right in the barrel, sending him flying. Another pony tried to come at her, a blunt weapon in his mouth. A lasgun came to life, enveloped in purple magic. A few well-aimed shots later, he laid dead on the ground.

Twilight tried to teleport again, but another blow disturbed her concentration. Now caught in the middle of the fray, Twilight struggled to use her long weapon and gather enough time to get out. She got rid of the ponies, and tried again, only to be pinned into place by a bolter shell. The projectile detonated, cracking her armour on the side.

The impact caught her off-guard and almost made her lose hooving. She braced herself for more shot. They never came. The weapon had spewed its last round. She tried to get to cover, but three spacemares circled her, pressuring her. In a normal situation, the fight would have been perfectly acceptable for Twilight. Hard, but acceptable nonetheless. But she was tired and outnumbered. This fight, she had no guarantee to win.

Twilight needed time and space and her foes were determined not to let her get any of those. She needed something, anything, to shift the balance of the fight long enough to give her an opportunity.

And she got just that.

There were five detonations.

The first two were short and soft, followed by coughs and surprised screams. Not wearing her helmet, she sensed the aggressive smell of tear gas filling the air. Her superior organs filtered it out before it could affect her.

The following explosions were more conventional. Hard and loud. Those were followed by a different kind screams, filled with pain.

Twilight got the second she needed. With a roar, she charged forward, into the thick of the cloud. There she started to gather her magic again. As she selected a destination, a voice echoed in her vox.

“Up!” the voice commanded.

Twilight train of thought stopped. The voice resonated loud and clear in her mind. This time the magic flew without a hitch. Twilight found herself airborne once again. Under her, the traitors and cultists were struggling to keep their cohesion inside the grey cloud of smoke. Still, Twilight could feel several guns of all sort and size pointed in her general direction. She braced for impact.

It came in an unexpected fashion. Rainbow-propelled and fast.

“Gotcha!” Rainbow Dash shouted. Twilight need not see her face to know she was grinning.

Both mares got on the ground swiftly. Rainbow immediately flew back into the fray, but Twilight took a second to analyse the situation. Between now and the moment the grenades detonated, the flow of the fight had been entirely reversed. Disoriented by the smokes, the ponies now deterred their mistresses, fumbling and coughing. The spacemares should have fared way better, but something seemed to interfere with their retinal displays and sensors, forcing them to rely solely on hearing. But this was only the tip of the iceberg. Somehow, without being heard or seen, a dreadnought and a devastator spacemare had joined the fray.

“How...?” Twilight thought aloud.

“Well duh!” said a familiar voice beside her. “I’m the best ambush planer on this planet!” A shot punctuated her declaration.

“But how?”

“Easy peasy! One smoke grenade, one PPG grenade, that’s for Pinkie Pie Glitter, by the way, three frak grenades, one remote detonator, and a little game of Red Light, Green Light not to draw any attention!” she quickly enumerated while aiming for another shot. “Oh! And my cloaking device helps a lot too!” she said pointing her cloak.

The unicorn was at loss for words. Pinkie shot and another pony hit the ground.

“Okaydokilokay-quustode! Let’s clean this place up!”

Twilight slowly nodded and got to that. There was still death to deliver.

☽☾

PV-01 orbit
Luna’s Bats battle barge, Somnum Exterreri

Night Terror watched the scene with apparent detachment.

The glowing rift into space showed her several facets of the fight at the same time. Like a broken mirror would show several, slightly different reflections. It had started with ten different angles. Ten shards of reality embedded in one. One for each of the spacemares forming the fifth Claw of the Luna’s Bats: The Sleepless. Now, only five remained and one of them was getting dimmer by the second.

The fifth Claw was retreating. Calmly. Night Terror ought to be proud. They had always been a good squad. Crimson Hooves had always been a reliable sergeant. She already knew replacing her would be a difficult task.

If only she could have sent reinforcement... But those damn imperial dogs had shut the signal. The warmare mentally shoved the thought aside. There was nothing to do about it now. Now she needed to get ready for the Warmistress return.

“Is there any way to listen to what is said?” the spacemare asked, her gaze still fixated on the fight.

“The short answer is no,” the psyker smugly answered. The spacemare didn’t react. He had somehow hoped to raise her curiosity but once again, his “Champion” didn’t rise to the bait. He brushed aside his frustration. “I won’t bore you with the details, Champion,” he added, “but hearing could be hazardous.”

“Limitations to your powers, Sorcerer?” she asked calmly.

The psyker smirked. He would not answer to her banter. “I am afraid so. The Resurgence proves to be quite the hindrance to my powers… Though... there is something more preoccupying than that isn’t it?”

“An equustode.” She nodded reluctantly.

“It is proof that the Elements are nearby.”

Another Bat died. Only four remained.

“Are you asking me, Sorcerer?” she inquired, small hints of anger oozing in her words.

“I already told you the Elements null my powers. If the oracles are true, this is how they work and why they exist in the first place. If I could find them that way, the psychic pets of the Night Legion could have done so too.”

An expression of contempt passed on the face of the Champion. She had no greater hatred nor disdain for any other group of spacemare. The former Daughters of Luna had forsaken their mother, their Warmistress for her megalomaniac daughter Abbadon. This betrayal was one she would never condone.

Another spacemare died. Night Terror’s control slipped again as she gritted her teeth. Sensing her discomfort, the Sorcerer kept talking, trying to push what he perceived as an advantage.

“Still... an equustode. Alone it would already have been a threat to your mares but now...”

“I do not want to discuss it, Sorcerer.”

The Sorcerer felt it. Licks of anger poisoning the air, like the remains of perfume in an empty room. It was faint, but for the spacemare’s control to slip enough to let him perceive it... it was quite something. The psyker enjoyed the feeling, almost feeding off of it. He hardly contained his grin. He really wanted to see the façade slip. He waited. Soon another spacemare died, charred into nothingness. Casually he continued.

“I was told once that failure is never an option. I wonder if maybe I could...”

The words died in his throat, crushed by an oversized hoof. He had not even seen her move... even with his powers, he had not even sensed her move! A moment she was next to him, the next he was hanging at the end of her hoof. He instinctively reached for the limb, struggling, scratching. Suddenly remembering that his life was also in the balance.

“Cha... champ...”

The words eluded him. Air eluded him. The spacemare watched him squirm at the end of her hoof with complete and utter lack of passion. In that instant, the Sorcerer wondered if he had not overestimated his importance.

Another spacemare died. Only one remained. Slowly, Night Terror flexed her arm, bringing the stallion’s face a few inches from hers.

“Do not ever try to bait me into soiling my mares with your taint,” she hissed. “Never again.”

As suddenly as he had left the ground, the Sorcerer found himself back on it. He wheezed and coughed. Night Terror didn’t even spare another glance at him. She watched as the last warmare died, a golden blade slicing through armour and flesh. The vision blurred and disappeared at this point, the source of its power now extinguished. She stared a few seconds into the empty space then left, leaving the Sorcerer panting weakly on the ground.

☀☀☀

The fight ended quickly. Without the advantage of number and surprise, the Luna’s Bats quickly found themselves overwhelmed. With the help of Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkamena Diane Pie and Rainbow Dash, this had been more akin to a meticulous work of extermination than a fair fight.

“You okay, Equustode?” Applejack asked Twilight.

“How did you know I needed help?” she answered while cleaning her blade.

“Well, Rarity warned us about a trap and told us to go as fast as possible here.” Applejack shrugged. “So here we are.”

“You’re welcome by the way,” added Rainbow Dash, hovering above the battleground.

“Thank you for your help,” Twilight conceded. She looked around and saw no sign of the unicorn. “Speaking of her, where’s Rarity?”

“I’m here, darling,” the techmare replied, entering the room. Everypony looked at her with different degree of surprise, going from Rainbow Dash’s amused smirk to the gleeful smile of Pinkie Pie with a side of Applejack raised an eyebrow.

“What a timely arrival...” mocked the cyan pegasus.

“A lady should know when to make her entrance,” she said playing with her mane. “Furthermore, I was not idle while you fought. I made sure the signal was permanently shut off.” Rarity spared a glance at the carnage. “And it’s not like you needed me after all.”

“A signal?” Twilight asked. “What do you mean?”

“Someone has trafficked the array in such a way that it would send a signal serving as a teleportation lock,” she explained. “I admit it is my fault for not seeing it sooner, but for my defence, they have been at it for years. They were very careful. It seems they were expecting someone to actually send a message to Canterlot rather than rely on the automated alert.”

Twilight pondered on this. So that was how they had managed to take her by surprise. This, however, rose even more questions. How and why were they expecting her, for instance. There was something to dig here. They wanted to stop her from sending the message and were ready to go to great length to do so. Hopefully, Spike had had more chance...

“Wait, when did you suppress the signal?”

“Four minutes and twenty-seven seconds ago to be precise,” the white unicorn answered.

Around the time Spike left the room so...

“I need to go check on my serf,” she excused herself.

“I’m here my Lady,” Spike answered from across the room.

She turned toward him, hiding her relief. “Are you okay, Monitor?”

“Yes, my Lady, but we may have a problem.”

Of course we have, she thought bitterly. “What it is?”

“The message won’t get through,” he explained. “I guess whatever that thing in the sky is, it messes with our communications. I suppose we should consider ourselves lucky it doesn’t affect the voxes either.”

Twilight thought about it. “Could a power surge help us get us through?”

“I... I suppose it could. Lady Rarity would know better than me but I guess it could work.”

All eyes turned toward the techmare. She slowly nodded. “It could work. It would ask a lot of energy to be effective within acceptable margins, however. More energy than our generators could deliver in our current, forgive the pun, situation. I would also like to point out that such a use of the array could severely deteriorate it.”

“Wait, what do you mean?” asked Rainbow Dash.

“She means that we should have to divert the energy from somewhere and that we would be cut off after that,” Applejack explained.

“Okay... from where do we take this energy exactly?” pressed the pegasus.

“It would take a tremendous amount of power to get through,” estimated the techmare. “We’d have to shut down entire systems. All across town.”

“What about the peripheral defences and the outer sector?” proposed Twilight.

All eyes turned toward the equustode.

“What about the civilians that are still here?” enquired Fluttershy.

“It would take time to evacuate them, but my ponies and I can definitely pull it off,” Rainbow Dash said with assurance. “We just need a good flight pattern and...”

“No,” Twilight interrupted. “I need you protecting the array. They clearly want to stop me from sending the message. We must warn the Throne and gather information.” She turned toward Applejack. “I’ll also need some ponies to take several documents in the archives. Fifty of them should suffice.” She pointed at Fluttershy. “I’d like you to escort them too.” She turned toward Rarity. “I’d also need you to make the preparations for the message as soon as possible.” She designed Pinkie with her hoof. “I’ll need to defend the place once again. I count on you.”

Without another word, she turned toward Spike, ready to make her next move. She stopped as she noticed that no pony nor dragon was moving.

“Was there something unclear with my orders?”

“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash answered, anger evident in her voice. “What the fuck was that?”

“Orders from your superior officer. Will you comply or do I have to demote you?”

Rainbow Dash was obviously about to retort something that was likely not words of compliance. Rarity intervened just in time, dendrites softly took place on the pegasus’s shoulder and torso, silently begging her to calm down and stay silent.

“Now, now, darling. Let’s not be hasty. You have to admit that your orders are a little unconventional are they not?” the white unicorn interceded.

“Unconventional my plot!” the assault mare burst out. “The enemy’s at our doors and she wants to dig into archives! ‘Gather information’ and whatnot! that’s not how you win a war! That’s not how we defend a world!”

“This is how I’ll win this one,” Twilight stated with authority. “This is a war you win by gathering intel and preparing for –” She hesitated. Some part of her wished to partake the information she had. The other wanted to keep them for her as long as possible. The latter won. “– what’s coming next.”

Rainbow was about to retort, but the mechanical whirring of Fluttershy’s coffin cut her short. “What about the civilians trapped in the town centre and in the mines?” she asked softly, repeating her previous concern.

“They’ll have to wait. Fortunately, most of them are not in the main routes to the barracks so the enemy will likely ignore them.”

“You know I could totally sneak them out?” the pink earth pony tried. “That would be easy peasy...”

“We’ll see if the need arise. Right now, I want you here.”

The pink warmare said nothing. Neither did Fluttershy, but the metallic forehoof clapping on the ground and the way the scout was playing with her cloak were explicit signs of their discontent.

“Okay. Maybe I’m too stupid to understand,” Rainbow said, taking a deep breath. “What’s the big plan? Why are you doing that?”

“I’m tired of repeating myself. We need intel on the enemy before we decide further action.”

“Does it matter? They’re enemies. We destroy them! Simple as that!” Rainbow yelled.

“No, it is not that simple!” Twilight answered in kind, finally losing her temper.

“And why is that, Equustode?” said Applejack, finally speaking.

Twilight hesitated again. The now familiar battle raged in her mind, with the same victor. “You have your orders. Now obey.”

The golden clad unicorn shut off the discussion by turning back to Spike and preparing for her own battle. The spacemares hesitantly started to leave. All save for one. Twilight chose to ignore the hoofsteps calmly approaching and kept inspecting her gears, hoping that her indifference would this time prove more effective than useless bickering.

It was not.

“Again, were my orders unclear?” she asked, still keeping her back turned to the spacemare.

“Very clear. But there’s another matter that needs to be addressed,” answered Applejack.

“I do not think so,” the unicorn answered, still turning her back.

A hoof placed itself on her shoulder and forced her to turn. Twilight opened her muzzle to shout, but another hoof hit her in the face before she could.

Silence fell on the room. Twilight instinctively put her hoof on her face, because of the shock rather than pain.

Immediately, Spike rose his gun, aiming at the aggressor, waiting for his mistress’s order. To her surprise, he was not alone. Rainbow stood beside Applejack, her blade aimed at the Imperial Hooves’ throat. The other spacemares did not move, visibly more conflicted about what had happened than their rainbow-maned sister. Applejack didn’t falter. She stared at her with all the disapproval she could muster. She apparently had a lot of it.

“You’re untrustworthy, Equustode,” she simply stated.

No. This was more than a statement. It was a judgement. Twilight stared back at Applejack. There was enough fury in her eyes to set her aflame, but the spacemare seemed unphased. Their glares crossed, fury meeting disappointment.

“I’ve seen the previous agents sent to check on us,” she continued. “They’ve been sent on this backwater planet to deal with lone spacemares, and I doubt they liked it. But guess what? It did not matter. Every one of ‘em was a prized agent of the Empress, may they be regular ponies, tech adepts, spacemares or equustodes. And they acted like it. They were diligent and efficient, they were reliable. They judged every pony on this planet by their work and made the best use of our respective skills. Some were harsh on us... buck, they all were! But they were fair. Their simple presence made us better. The Empress asked them to check on it and by her Glorious Mane, they did! They were examples to follow.

“You, on the other hoof, are a shame to the name of equustode. You could have dealt with the situation a billion ways better. You just had to call Pinkie outside for help as soon as the assailant teleported in for crying out loud! You could have had Rarity to send the message from the bunker and never gotten into the trap in the first place! You could have asked me or Rainbow for help to clear the place! You could have coordinated our efforts! YOU COULD HAVE VOXED US FOR GOODNESS SAKE!” Applejack gaze became harder, colder. “Instead of that you hid from us and put us all in danger. Imagine the damage this squad could have done if we had not stopped them! You are nothing like the other agents of the Empress. You are secretive and uncaring. You are untrustworthy.”

The judgement fell and with it silence on the room.

“Equustode?” Rainbow Dash asked reluctantly after a couple of seconds.

Twilight had still not said a word. She wanted to say that she did not care for their trust. Dismiss Applejack’s berating. But nothing came.

She was right. She was painfully right. From the moment she had been on this planet... no from the moment she had been sent in this mission, she had been full of doubts and utterly unreliable. She truly was untrustworthy, and despite her reassurance that she wouldn’t do the same mistake again... she had. Repeatedly.

She truly had been untrustworthy.

“Leave her,” she said slowly. “She’s right.”

Spike and Rainbow Dash obeyed, the former reluctantly, the latter diligently. There was an awkward pause that even Pinkie Pie didn’t dare to break. The equustode breathed slowly and looked at everypony, seemingly seeing them for the first time.

“Ignore my previous orders. Prepare plans for the defences how you see fit. I’ll meet you in the barrack in thirty minutes for a strategic meeting. Gather any pony relevant to the situation.”

The mares nodded.

“Oh, I almost forgot. Sergent Applejack?” she called.

“Yeah?”

“Thank you for your honesty.”

The spacemare smiled and left the room after her sisters. “Think nothing of it... Equustode Twilight.”

☀☀☀

Equustode and serf were alone once again.

“Are you okay, Twilight?”

“She’s right. Isn’t she?”.

Spike didn’t answer.

“Since my first step on this planet, I’ve made more mistakes than in my entire life. That’s decades worth of mistakes, all concentrated in less than a planetary day.”

“You’re too hard on yourself,” he tried.

“Am I? Don’t tell me ’Pain Keeper’ was that hard to spot. Nor were the ponies that attacked us in the streets.”

“Well...”

“I could have caught up with Pinkamena ten times, but I didn’t because I could not focus on the task at end. I didn't even react when she revealed to me there was a cultist cell on this planet...” Twilight breathed deeply, her “You know... I thought I somehow failed the Empress and that’s my punishment for my errors.”

“That’s what I mean when I say you’re too hard on yourself.”

“What do you mean?”

“The Empress trusts you. She doesn’t need to punish you because you are one of her most prized soldiers. How many ponies can claim to have a personal connexion to her? This assignment has never been about punishing you. It’s about sending a mare she trusts on a special mission. Her loyal equustode, Twilight Sparkle. You’ve not failed her. You were right! The Warmistress is back! And she sent you here exactly for that reason!”

Twilight scoffed. “I made poor use of that trust didn’t I?”

“Yeah maybe,” he said with a smile, “but ‘trust is never given…”

“Trust is earned through your deeds”, she finished. These words, these ten simple words had been spoken by the Empress. It had been a lesson from the Mistress of ponykind from Her to Twilight. A lesson she had forgotten in her arrogance. She had forgotten and thus failed. But she could still do it. That was the whole point. She could still earn it back. She would earn it back. She would prove worthy of their trust... She would prove worthy of Empress’ trust.

And there was only one way to do it. Through action.

Her resolve slowly built up, dissipating the mist of doubt fogging her thoughts. Things started to make sense. Things were simple. She had a planet to protect against a powerful foe. This was her mission. And there was no other option than victory.

☀☀☀

PV-01
DP-Batallion barracks, strategium

The strategium was unusually crowded. The room had, after all, been thought with ten or so regular ponies in mind, not half a squad worth of spacemares and a dreadnought. Despite Fluttershy’s best efforts to make herself as small as possible, the non-horsestarte ponies had a hard time to fit in the little place left. Yet regardless of the pressure, both mental and physical, everypony remained calm and composed.

Twilight took a moment to study the ponies around her. For the time being, they would be her allies, her instruments, her weapons, her data stream and her voice to the several loyalist forces in presence on this planet.

There were the spacemares of course. Reliable and of superlative skills, even given the standards of their legions. But they weren’t the only one in charge nor the only one with with remarkable skills. Many of the non-augmented had not only proved their worth in previous battles, but had also managed to prove themselves to the Spacemare – a feat few ponies could pretend to.

One of them, leaning against a wall next to Rainbow Dash, was a rather small earth pony with ivory-white fur and a blazing orange mane. A large scar barred his face, starting shallow above the eye and deep around the corner of his muzzle. Colonel Ivory Meteor, she remembered from her files. First earth pony to reach the top echelons, despite the lack of wings. The stallion blinked at her as soon as he noticed the attention he was getting, which prompted Twilight to continue her expectation.

Applejack had come with more than a dozen ponies – whom Twilight knew very well now – however, two of them stood out of the rest. The first one was an old mare whose body looked as feeble as her gaze was sharp. Her pale green fur was riddled with marks or rejuvenating surgery and battle scars. She wore her white mane in a tight bun that gave her face an even sterner look. At her side stood her exact opposite. The stallion was a giant of a pony, almost as big as a horstarte. He stood at the ready, a few hooves behind the mare. His attitude seemed relaxed at first glance, but his weight was constantly shifting between his hooves, depending on the relative position of Applejack and his companion. His red fur was devoid of any battle mark (and Twilight knew for a fact that it was not due to his lack of presence on the front) and his short, blond, messy mane flow loosely on his scalp, just short enough not to hinder his vision.

Rarity and Pinkie Pie had come alone. In a sense. The techmare was accompanied by several robotic minions, more automates than ponies anymore, and the infiltrator was conversing with a strange servo-skull made with the remains of some reptilian creature..

Fluttershy was the only one truly alone.

All and all, counting the servitors and the servo-skull floating above the ground, the meeting counted twenty souls.

Twilight cleared her throat, silencing the room instantly. All eyes were instantly on her. For the first time since her arrival, Twilight could feel the pressure of responsibility. For the first time, her mind was clear and focused on the task she’d been assigned to. For the first time… she was a part of Ponyville.

Twilight watched them intensely and told them everything.