Chapter 01 - Ponyville

Immaterium,
Equustode transport ship Spes Reliquus

The Spes Reliquus slid into the Warp, safely cocooned in its Gellar field, unbothered and mostly unnoticed by the entities that inhabited it.

The ship was a small one, made for speed rather than war, in order to transport a small contingent of the gold-clad warmares through the Imperium as quickly as possible. This made it unusual in many ways. For instance, it only needed a skeleton crew of brainless servitors to travel across the interstellar void, instead of the crowds of thousands usually required.

Even when at full capacity, the Spes Reliquus gave off a feeling of emptiness. And today the feeling was exacerbated for this trip only carried two people. The first one was a dragon serf. The second, fighting in the rudimentary training room of the ship, was a ’slightly dissatisfied’ lavender equustode.

Three enhanced combat serfs were paying for the euphemism.

Twilight ducked. A combat stick passed right where her head had been an instant earlier. Her magically-wielded training staff whirled. The blunt point made a very satisfying sound as it connected with the mindless pony chin. She caught a movement on her side. Another blow came, aimed at her flank. The staff kept spinning, barely slowed. The combat mace got caught in the loop. The weapon flew away, soon followed by its user. Twilight turned to face her last opponent. Now alone to face the warmare, the serf shifted to a more defensive stance. The staff kept going, so fast it looked like a purple blur surrounding its wielder. Both fighters waited for the other to make the first move.

Twilight broke the stalemate. Her staff changed its course and flew toward her opponent’s hooves. The serf awkwardly avoided it, trying to use the opening and kick the mare in the process.

Gotcha.

In a blink, she changed her grip on the staff. In a blink, its trajectory twisted, striking the serf on the flank, hard, pinning him mercilessly to the closest wall.

The fight was over.

The warmare took a few steps back, returning to her side of the makeshift arena, her weapon hovering slowly. The combat had lasted less than a minute, just as the one before, and the one before that and the tens that had preceded them. Twilight had barely broken a sweat.

The exercise was pointless. The servitors were simply not good enough to provide a challenge to the warmare, but what else could she do?

“Again,” she demanded flatly. “Three hits this time, and raise the level to lethal.”

They stood up and took back their weapons.

They did not feel pain nor fatigue – whether or not it was fortunate was debatable – so they would comply, or at least try to do so until their bodies were utterly ruined. So up they stood, ready to serve again.

As one, they readied themselves, training sticks firmly held in their mouths; their empty glares fixed the unmoving mare, looking for openings.

As one, they slowly circled around their prey, using her blind spots to prepare their offensive. An eerie silence settled in the training room.

As one they attacked.

Twilight immediately recognised the pattern. This particular strategy’s goal was to confine her movements, slowly erode her defences and ultimately overwhelm her. She could either break the trap with overwhelming force or try to get out of it before it closed on her. She opted for the latter.

Raw magic flashed as Twilight teleported away from the sticks and flashed again when she reappeared behind one of her foes. The equustode’s staff struck both hind limbs, making him fall before he could kick her, then, using his left hind leg as a pivot, she made the staff turn to break his left foreleg. The serf fell like a puppet whose string had been cut.

One.

The two remaining serfs charged her, trying to submerge her with a vicious flurry of blows. Twilight used the reach of her staff to contain the assault, waiting for an opportunity to strike. She lured the serfs with increasingly subtle feints until one of them took the bait. Rushing into the opening she left in her guard, the stallion broke off to hit her legs, forcing his ally to change his pace. For a second the unity of her attackers was broken. That was enough for the unicorn. She quickly deflected the blow and disappeared in a flash. The feinted servitor readied himself for another attack from behind, kicking hard, in hope of touching or even stopping the elusive opponent...

Twilight Sparkle didn’t even bother to do anything. She just let herself fall on the stallion from the ceiling where she had teleported. His back made a painful sound as she landed on him. Three blows wouldn’t be needed for this one.

Two.

There was a quick movement behind the spacemare, and she barely reacted in time to avoid being hit. The remaining serf was using her last move against her. At such a close distance, her staff was of little help and as she stood on her fallen foe, she couldn’t have a good hooving, making manoeuvres delicate. Her opponent made sure of that. It was Codex tactic. She knew it by heart. Yet here she was, stick and hooves passing dangerously close, leaving her no time to concentrate on an elaborate spell such as teleportation.

The unicorn was seriously rethinking some of her recent decisions...

☀☀☀

Spike slowly progressed along the empty corridors of the ship, framed by several mindless drones, pulling behind him his Lady’s armour and weapon. His pace was careful and deliberate, not so much because of the weight he carried, several times his own, but because he was well aware of the equustode’s gear’s value, once again, several times his own.

There was no hurry either. Even considering how vague and abstract the concept of time was in the Warp, it would likely be hours before they actually reached the planet and landed on the astroport. Not to mention this wasn’t even a drill; there would be no fighting involved and his mistress’ gear would not be needed. But what duty asked of her meant that she had to be prepared at all times. And so she was, and, as always, Spike would be there to help.

This was not part of his duty as a monitor – his official role was to take care of his Mistress’s correspondence with the throne and help her to efficiently access and use the mind-boggling amount of data her frequent researches required – yet he still helped with tasks such as these because he liked to think he was more than just a message carrier, more than a servitor. He was Lady Twilight Sparkle’s number one assistant, the closest thing to a friend he’d dare to be and, since he did not have a place at her side on the battlefield, he would assist her outside of it as he could. This included carrying priceless pieces of armament or listening to her discussing “the strategic value of her assignment”, which, as far as Spike was concerned, was a fancy way of ranting.

“It was pretty okay this time,” the dragon serf said conversationally to one of the drones.

The lobotomised pony said nothing, as he was not programmed to. Spike wasn’t even sure they could understand him beside basic commands, but he didn’t mind.

“I thought she’d protest more about being sent far away from the Palace, you know? One time she’d been assigned to a mission with Flawless Mist and she complained about it for weeks... but they sent her to a small planet at the worst time and she barely speaks about it. But I guess–”

His sentence was cut short by a purple flash of light, immediately followed by a deflagration.

“Never mind,” the dragon commented with a sigh.

Without another word, he made his way toward the training ground.”

☀☀☀

“Three...” Twilight uttered between catching breaths.

The three serfs were now laying in painful looking positions, as far away from the warmare as the place permitted. Two of them would have to go under surgery to be able to serve again. The last one would probably be reallocated to more menial tasks.

A pang of guilt struck the unicorn as the frustration partially left her body. Baseless violence was one thing, that she was not proud of, but carelessness was something she could not allow herself to fall into. Three serfs, even heavily enhanced ones, were not supposed to be a challenge. Not for her.

The words of the letter came back to taunt her.

You are asked to rethink the way you spend your time, the letter had said.

But I’m right! she thought bitterly as she hit the ground with her hoof.

“Gee! Somepony’s angry...” Spike said, carefully unloading his mistress golden artificer armour on a table in a corner of the room.

Twilight didn’t answer immediately. She had been so lost in her thoughts, she had not heard him enter. “I am not angry,” she lied – though whether it was to Spike or herself was questionable.

The dragon cocked an eyebrow. “If you say so,” he answered wryly.

“Okay. I may be a little dissatisfied with our current situation.”

“Dissatisfied?” repeated the dragon with a glance to one of the combat serf.

“Okay, I’m frustrated!” she finally conceded. “This... this task, this whole situation is getting on my nerves!” Her hoof hit the metallic ground again, louder this time. “We should be preparing for the return of the Warmistress, not supervising some isolated spacemares in a forgotten sector!”

There. It was said. There was nothing else to add.

Spike had known and served Twilight for decades now. He had learned to read the subtle clues in her mannerisms to read her mood and serve her to the best of his ability. To see her express her anger and frustration that way, that she’d express it at all, was really the sign that the answer of the Empress had shaken her hard. The worst, however, was not to see his mistress’s doubt, it was the knowledge that there was nothing he could do about it.

But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t try.

“Look on the bright side, Lady Twilight! You’ll get full access to the library and the planetary archives. You will basically live there. You already have done most of your research, the rest can easily be done there.”

The warmare stayed silent a moment, lost in her thoughts. A mischievous grin was slowly forming on her face. “You know what, Spike? You’re right.”

This was a reaction he had not foreseen. “I am?”

“Absolutely! Once I have checked the defences, I will have plenty of time to verify my hypotheses and prepare for the resurgence. If I manage my time right and delegate, I can probably even dedicate my whole time to it!”

“Hum... are you sure this is the most efficient way to check the planet’s security? And what about the spacemares you were supposed to supervise?”

“If I am in charge, then I can just ask them to do their things while I do something else,” she calmly stated. “They’re grown mares and I have better things to do than chaperon a bunch of grunts.”

Spike opened his mouth, looking for words... but a sudden change in the lighting, indicating that they were about to leave the Immaterium, interrupted him. The travel had been even shorter than he’d foreseen. The dragon shook his head and let the subject die. There was no talking to her when she was in this mood and there were more important things to do now than argue about this.

“If you say so, my Lady...” he sighed. “Since we’re arriving soon, maybe I could help you don your armour?”

“I would like that very much Spike,” she answered warmly.

☀☀☀

As they left the Warp, a fully-armoured Twilight Sparkle had, at last, the opportunity to see the system for herself. It was small, one of the smallest in the sector in fact. Only two planets, PV-00 and PV-01, orbited the young, red star.

PV-00 was a bluish gas giant with nothing to offer. Its only noticeable feature was a deep green satellite, a former planetoid of the system trapped in the gravitational pull of the giant, with an orbit almost perpendicular to the rotation of its planet. Said satellite was filled with jungles and a wild and untamed fauna that had resisted colonisation so far. Those familiar with the system poetically called it “the Everfree Forest", which was better than its official name, PV-00aCS01FPoV03.

PV-01, or simply Ponyville, since no other planet was worth stealing the title, was barely more interesting at first glance. It was a small Canterlotian planet. One among billions and billions in the galaxy. It was weakly populated; barely rich enough in gems and precious minerals to justify the existence of mining excavations, and its military force was flirting with the minimum required to ensure the sector’s security.

In truth, PV-01 had one resource worth mentioning that made it valuable to the Imperium. Despite its size and the apparently weak sun, it had a tremendous capacity to produce food. The ponies of the region produced roughly a third of the food for this part of the sector, and with its close proximity to Canterlot and the indirect road toward the heart of the Imperium, it had become sort of a strategic asset.

War vessels often patrolled the area, and the Empress herself sometimes sent some of her warmares to check on its defences. However, despite all this, the system was almost forgotten. The Imperium was looking toward the other end of the galaxy, and with centuries passing, the planet and its benefits had been progressively overlooked.

Twilight knew all this. Of course she did; there were entire shelves dedicated to this system in the imperial library. But she couldn’t help feeling as though the planet was not worth her time, and seeing it up close under the weak light of a pathetic sun only made it worse.

Why am I here?

As the vessel slid its way through the thick atmosphere, the genetically-engineered mare couldn’t help but think about it. Truth to be told, she had a hard time not thinking about it. Why was she here? Did she upset the Empress by contacting her directly? This had never been a problem before, not in 264 years of service... Did she accidentally touch a sensitive subject? Were the book and its stories of heretical nature? Was she tested without her knowledge? Did her curiosity finally get the best of her? Maybe she should have sent the book directly to the Imperial Archivist to make sure she could access its content... What if it was written by Heretics to tempt the weak minded? Or worse, written by the Inquisition to test the faith of the closest guards of the Empress? Was it a test? And if so, had she failed it? She had to... this explained her situation. Or maybe she had to show how she could handle this kind of situation? Was it already too late for her, or had the struggle just begun?

If only She could give me guidance...

Author's Note

Chapter's reading by Krickis available here!