Chapter 02 - The Spacemares

PV-01
Ponyville, Administratum quarter

Twilight sighed heavily as she left the governor’s office. The administrative formalities had taken a precious amount of her time.

The planetary governor, a wheat-furred, grey-manned mare fatefully named Mayor Mare, insisted that a ceremony and a speech, broadcast to the whole planet, were in order. Twilight had stayed as civil as she could, but the tenacious mare had not taken "no" as an answer until Twilight used the full extent of the Empress-given authority.

“I hope it doesn’t go like that all along,” she sighed as she left the building, “I really want to end this...”

“Come on, my Lady!” cheered Spike. “You know how civilians are when they see warponies like you. I’m sure you’ll feel better around other soldiers.”

“I really hope you’re right...”

With a small nudge of the head, Twilight indicated her escort, a very imposing pink soldier of the local army, to lead them to their destination.

They walked in silence, occasionally broken by the awed, hushed rumours of ponies whispering in the distance when they caught a glimpse of the golden armour; Spike’s occasional questions about the town; and the monosyllabic answers of their guide.

Twilight didn’t really care, in fact, she preferred it that way; the lack of interaction let her think of ways to micromanage her stay. Spike, however, was getting increasingly frustrated by the lack of communication. “Just tell your name!” he demanded for the umpteenth time as, for the umpteenth time, the soldier pointed the roll number on his chest.

The sudden burst interrupted Twilight’s musing. She rolled her eyes as she intervened to help the dragon. “Please soldier, just humour him,” she asked calmly.

“Pain Keeper, Lady Sparkle,” the guard answered with a calm and even voice.

“See, Spike? It wasn’t that hard,” she teased.

“Easy to say for the genetically-engineered warpony with a power armour...”

“I’d thought simple sentences with basic intonation would be pretty easy for a servitor of the Empress. Did I overestimate you, Monitor?”

The remark was as mocking as it was chastising.

Spike took it as a cue to keep quiet.

“I am sorry, my Lady,” he apologised humbly.

Twilight feigned indifference. There was a tacit contract between the equustode and her servitor. She’d given him more freedom than most serfs and even allowed herself to treat him as a peer. But in exchange, they would have to play their part and he would have to remember his place whenever they were in public.

She hated that she had to remind him of his place, but it was better than the alternative... One faux-pas could become the reason for Spike’s lobotomization. Scolding him publicly was a small price to pay to keep him whole.

Twilight glanced at Pain Keeper, checking his reaction, only to catch him staring at her and Spike. He quickly turned his gaze away once he realised he’d been seen.

The reaction was not out of place, but it still piqued Twilight’s curiosity. However, before she could confront him about it, he suddenly stopped.

“We have arrived,” he said with a salute.

The planetary fortress emerged from the building-ridden horizon, like a rock appearing from a dissipating fog. Twilight stepped out of the city streets to enter a vast, empty plaza, surrounding the fortress isolating it like an island. Twilight roughly estimated that at least five hundred metres separated her from the wall. Half a kilometre with no cover and well in the range of heavy weaponry fire, or even an accurate marksman.

This was a heavily fortified island.

And it was just as imposing up close. While not as towering as the equustode’s quarters, the Planetary Defense Force garrison was very efficiently designed.

Impressive... she admitted to herself. Pretty thick walls, sharp angles to disperse the waves of besiegers, wide shooting angles for the defenders, auspices...

The list went on in Twilight’s mind. Dozens of auto-turrets every five metres guards on duty in the parapets, anti-vehicle weapons, wide metal panels to allow sorties... And that was only the outer layers. She was guessing heavy cannons, energy shields and lots more surprises inside. If the rest of the place was as heavily defended at the outside, her work would be done in a breath.

A small smile illuminated her face for the first time she’d arrive. She turned around to thank the guard. “Thank you,” she began as she realised that her guide had disappeared. “Pain Keeper?” She looked around and saw nopony. “Pain Keeper? Have you seen him, Spike?”

“No, my Lady.”

“Strange...”

It was bizarre enough that the soldier would leave. The fact that he would do so without the genetically-engineered warmare to notice added a layer of weirdness that raised a red flag in Twilight’s mind. But could she allow herself to delay her mission for a single disappearing pony? She pondered on it for a few seconds before coming to a compromise.

“Spike? Could you tell me who’s responsible for the intelligence service on this planet?”

“Sure, my Lady.”

The dragon produced a dataslate from one of his many pockets and typed on its polished surface several times, sending commands and instructions, going through the countless registries gathered by the Administratum. The device biped agreeably as he did, complying.

’Bip! Bip! Bip!’

“Just a second, my Lady.”

’Bip! Bip! Buzz!’

“What?”

He tried again.

’Bip! Bip! Buzz!’

“That’s strange...”

’Bip! Bip! Buzz! Bip! Bip! Buzz!’

“What is wrong?”

“Well…” He typed on the slate a few more times and was again rewarded by a denying buzz. “There’s an intelligence service in this planet, but there’s only one pony in it and the file is missing...”

The warmare repressed a sigh of frustration. Great. One more thing to deal with, she ranted mentally. “I’ll think about it once I have checked everypony,” she decided with a sigh after having considered her options. “Keep an eye open in case anything strange like this happens again.”

“At your orders, Lady Twilight. Is it really worth it, though?”

“A suspicious mind is a healthy mind, Spike.” She recited.

“Or is it?” he retorted with a sly grin. “Who said that? And why?”

The unicorn sent him a stern look... then rolled her eyes and allowed herself a smile. “Let’s go, Monitor, we are waited for.”

☀☀☀

Twilight strode the fortifications with an appreciative look.

Her first impression was confirmed. Whoever was in charge seemed to be keen on doing the most with whatever they had at hoof. The barracks and its defences were superbly kept. The soldiers looked ready, the defence was solid and the equipment, while old, seemed efficiently used. It wasn’t the best defensive outpost in the galaxy, but for a backwater world like this one, it was an impressive piece of work nonetheless.

“What’s the name of the mare, Spike?”

“Sergeant Applejack,” the dragon answered instantly.

“Let’s find this Applejack.”

They found her in the training ground.

As a Spacemare, she was unmistakable and her shared heritage with the equustode was obvious. Just like Twilight, her body was the result of genetic manipulations and artificial organ transplants rather than the chaos of random, naturally-occurring mutations, and her massive frame was only the beginning of it. She was a masterpiece of genecrafting and lethality inside and out. Twilight knew that underneath that massive body, there were stronger bones, denser muscles and extra organs to make her into a weapon, faster, stronger, more resistant than any pony could ever hope to be.

The similarities stopped there, however.

Horsetartes were the best the Imperium could produce with limited time and materials. They were soldiers, mass produced to answer the necessities of war. Twilight and the other equustodes were pieces of art carefully crafted from the best materials to personally guard the Empress. The process that had led to her creation was more extensive, more refined... better... She was a carefully crafted warrior, unique and perfected to her utmost potential to defend the heart of the Imperium. Both her and Applejack’s kind had their use, but there were no denying the truth.

Twilight pushed her examination further.

She was slightly taller than Twilight, bulkier too. Her long blond mane was tied in a ponytail, held by a red ribbon engraved with sacred passages, oaths and rituals Twilight could not decipher. The same kind of decorations was present on her Imperial Hooves Mark III power armour and on her yellow shoulder plate, and Twilight suspected that even more were hidden behind the myriad of honorary titles and decorations that adorned her attire. Whoever she was, she had seen her fair share of battles and she’d been somepony to count on.

She was busy inspecting the disassembled pieces of a heavy bolter that was likely her own weapon. In a burst of curiosity, Twilight started to pay close attention to the earth warpony work, critically, silently testing her skills. The inspection lasted a few minutes before Applejack expertly reassembled the weapon.

Flawless, Twilight mentally approved.

Her work finally done, the Spacemare finally acknowledged her visitors. “Salutation.” Twilight put her hoof on her chest. "I’m Equustode Twilight Sparkle. Sergeant Applejack I presume?”

“That I am,” she replied with the strong accent of the fringe worlds, imitating the gesture. “It’s an honour to meet you. The Dulce Pomum Battalion welcomes you. How can I be of service, Twilight Sparkle?”

“The Throne has chosen me to personally check on this system defences. I was told you’ve been assigned to the planetary defence forces?”

“I sure am.”

“Good. I will need a complete report on the state of the ground forces.”

“Sure,” she said as she maglocked the heavy weapon to its strap on her collar. “Follow me, Sister.”

Twilight froze. Applejack took a few steps before she noticed that she was the only one moving. She turned toward Twilight. “Is there a problem?”

Twilight bafflement grew. They were not sister. They were worlds apart in therm of ranks, skills and importance. They were not sisters, not even by the loosest definition of the word. “Just call me by my title, please,” Twilight simply said.

“As you wish, Equustode.” she said, turning back.

☀☀☀

Twilight left the officer mess with a weary sigh. This was definitely not what she had in mind when she asked for a report. The orange mare had insisted that she personally checked every officer on her command and verify their skill individually. What should have taken an hour and almost no efforts had become a full day marathon. She would never have thought possible that such a mundane task would be that time-consuming.

“Who’s next Spike?”

“Techmare Rarity of the Iron Hooves,” he answered right away. “She’s single-hoofedly taking care the automated defences and the maintenance of the armoury.” Spike paused a moment as he checked his dataslate for more information. “She’s usually in a working station under the barracks,” he added with a smile.

“Thank you, Spike,” she said gratefully.

Spike kept smiling and simply nodded.

☀☀☀

Finding Rarity’s craft room had been easy.

It was very conveniently located and extremely well organised, making it easily navigable but hardly defensible, much to the equustode’s bother. The two visitors wandered through dark, empty rooms full of broken and half-repaired equipment without saying a word. Twilight couldn’t help but notice that most of them had not been considered standard for centuries or even millennia. Proper maintenance rites for such equipment had been lost – or kept a secret by the Mechanequus, which was basically the same thing – making their presence here surprising, to say the least. Twilight didn’t dwell on the thought, for unravelling the Mechanequus political struggles and its ties to such a remote planet would likely take two lifetimes, and she hardly had a few weeks before the Resurgence – the fated return of the Warmistress.

The Techmare was, quite logically, located at the centre of the place, in a small craft room. Her attention was fully focused on her work. From the back of her strange, slim, red power armour, four servo-arms equipped with various tools and claws were frantically acting upon some cubic device Twilight could not identify. Flames and plasma flitted around the artefact, making shadows dance in the room and creating unreal colours and strange patterns on the white fur of the unicorn. Sometimes, a spark would fly above her head, revealing curled locks of a purple mane trapped by a protective helmet.

Knowing better than to interrupt an Astrotechnequus during her work, Twilight decided to wait and watch silently.

She was not the only one.

The dragon was transfixed by the spectacle. Twilight smiled at the sight. To see the talkative serf silenced that way, by a Techmare’s work nonetheless, was unexpected. It’s nice to see him show so much deference to somepony’s work, she thought.

But even she could see that there was more than respect on his look. There was something more. Something she was unable to fathom but had seen countless times in other ponies: infatuation. There was something touching about it. At times like this, she remembered that Spike was still a young dragon, with limited experience of life... and the consequences of said youth in a galaxy at war.

The smile faded, replaced by a cold and determined expression. She nudged him to catch his attention.

“True happiness stems only from Duty,” she mouthed with a reproving scowl.

The dragon made a chastened face and snapped to attention, now watching his feet and avoiding any look in the general direction of Rarity. Twilight hoped she had dealt with the problem. Or at least made it tolerable for the times to come.

They didn’t have to wait for long, all things considered, but the silence had grown uncomfortable and both Twilight and Spike were happy to have an opportunity to break it. Twilight jumped on the first chance to make her presence known, waiting for Rarity make a pause from her work.

“Salutation, Soror Astrotechnequus.” She saluted, her hoof on her chest. “I am...”

Four servos greeted her before she could finish her sentence. Twilight body tensed as the mechanised limbs came close to her, but she relaxed when she felt the tools delicately touch her armour. The Techmare turned slowly, her cybernetic enhancements still on the equustode.

“Salutation, Lady Equustode,” she answered with a surprisingly refined tone. “Would you please follow me?”

“May I enquire where to?” Twilight asked uncomfortably, still surrounded by servos.

“Well, darling,” – Twilight cocked an eyebrow at the second unusual nickname she’d earned in less than a day – “this room lack the necessary tools to ensure full maintenance of your apparatus,” Rarity replied.

“My appara-... I’m sorry but I think you are mistaken. I am not here to have my gear checked. I’ve been sent to inspect you.”

“Nonsense,” she countered. “I do not need any checkup. Your armour, however, suffers several minor malfunctions that could very well become critical if exposed to the stress of battle, I simply cannot let you go like that,” she stated.

Still surrounded by servos, and unable to find reasonable arguments against long due repairs, as minor as they could be, Twilight resigned herself to her fate.

Spike watched the scene unfold without a word, small hints of a smile on his face.

Soon, Twilight found herself in an ample meditation robe while Rarity worked in several parts of her plate at the same time. The Techmare filled the silence in extensive details of the base defence, mixed with questions about the Canterlot system and unexpected attempts of small talk.

Not willing to displease his Lady once more, Spike had chosen to wait outside. He wasn’t sure about what happened just before, but he had made a mistake somehow. Maybe he was not worthy of watching Rarity works. He must have looked upon some deep Mechanequus secret while ogling... Or maybe his newly found, and rather sudden, admiration for the Techmare had made him neglect his duty somehow?

So lost he was in his musing that he didn’t see the imposing figure slowly approaching until it was right on him. The irony wasn’t lost to him.

“Tell me your allegiance dragonling,” said a voice deeper than any mortal throat could produce.

☀☀☀

It took hours for Twilight to take back her armour. Not that the repairs were complex. The truth was that Rarity kept trying to “improve” it. Once again, the Empress-given authority had to be used to save several days of pointlessness. Yet another sigh escaped Twilight’s muzzle as she left the workshop.

“Spike?” she asked. “Next mare please.”

Silence answered her demand.

Only then did Twilight realise that Spike was missing.

She instinctively looked around for clues, her heightened senses scanning the room like an auspex. No fighting traces, she noticed. Her serf was very capable of defending himself. The chance of him being captured without leaving a trace was infinitesimal. A potential threat would have to pass Rarity’s sensors and not get caught by two warmares to even get close to him. He likely followed somepony, she conjectured. Who was the true enigma here.

She checked her surroundings, her retinal display scanning the room in detail, her other senses instantly looking for any trail of the dragon. She quickly located him. He was not far. Speaking to somepony. She instantly relaxed. The tone seemed friendly and thus not cause for concern.

As she walked toward them, she tried to determine the mysterious pony’s identity or nature in advance, wondering again who could provide her serf with a good enough reason to fail his duty, albeit temporarily. The task was surprisingly arduous. Strange distortions on their voice made it totally unintelligible once reverberated by the empty rooms and corridors, like a muted, corrupted vox broadcasting in an empty cathedral.

Twilight was close now.

He was calmly talking to a figure still hidden behind a corner. Judging by his respectful tone and the way he had to lift his head to looks at his interlocutor, Twilight deduced it was probably one of the Spacemares. Obviously, not Rarity and probably not Applejack either, judging by the difference of tone and register. This voice was way deeper than theirs and yet, incredibly soft. Its pace was slower, conveying a feeling of raw power carefully kept in check, like the rumble of a powerful stream kept behind a rockrete dam. The unicorn caught up with the dragon, eager to get another step closer to the completion of her mission, literally in this case.

To say she was surprised to see who Spike was talking to was an understatement.

She was a Dreadnought.

Twilight knew of them. Of course, she did. Their existence was an integral part of the Legios’ history. The greatest heroes of the warmares, those whose martial prowess, mental fortitude, courage and wisdom had transcended even the standards of their legions… Those incredible warmares were sometimes given a chance to fight again despite deadly wounds. Their agonising bodies, or whatever remained of it, would be maintained alive inside an amniotic jar and then encased inside imposing behemoths of metal.

Ready to serve, once again.

When the equustodes where a more active force in the conquest of the galaxy, a few of them – Primara, Senitora, Sagittaria... – had been reborn as such and kept their legends going centuries after their first “death”. Those times, however, were long gone and the elite force of the Empress became more and more of an ultimate defence asset, a last resort, an emergency measure if things came to worst. Nowadays, all of the golden warmares’ Dreadnoughts were sleeping under the palace waiting to be called to arms.

This was Twilight’s only experience of these beings – the silent, immobile silhouettes of her predecessors. The sight had filled her with awe but it was something else entirely to see one alive, moving, especially in times of peace, especially here.

It was as impressive as she was in right to expect.

The sarcophagus was bulkier than the ones she was accustomed to, wider but shorter, making it almost a metre taller than her and twice as large. Its angular form somewhat reminiscent of a pony but made way bulkier by its reinforced adamantium plates. The hind legs were very powerfully built and as big as the average pony. Twilight knew that it would permit the mare inside – or rather her remnants – to make optimal use of its agile and powerful forelegs for an extended duration, making the machine a deadly close combat foe. In addition to that, two powerful jet engines coupled with two folded adamantium wings – the warmare had probably been a pegasus once – and several decorations and honour marks were spread all around its yellow paint while a few long pink banners hung from above her head all the way down to her “flank”.

Whoever was inside was a veteran of countless wars turned into a weapon... or so Twilight reminded herself. The machine exuded an almost supernatural calm and discretion as if it might vanish if she approached it carelessly.

She made a few extra steps, getting in the view of the dragon and his towering companion.

Noticing his mistress, Spike bowed respectfully in her direction, then turned back toward the Dreadnought.

He bowed reverently and extended an open palm toward Twilight. “Lady Fluttershy, may I introduce you to my mistress Lady Twilight?”

“...” the vox buzzed shortly as the sarcophagus turned toward the unicorn and bowed slightly.

Spike dutifully kept on with the introductions.

“Lady Twilight, this is Lady Fluttershy, formerly sanguinary priestess and active member of the fourth company of the Blood Alicorns. She’s assisting the medicae of the planet with her great knowledge in term of medicine, genetics and many other things.”

Twilight hid her surprise behind a solemn nod. To think such a venerable warrior would be relegated to such a task was unusual, to say the least.

“It’s an honour,” she humbly said.

Once again, the mare inside the machine only replied with an empty vox buzz, and the same happened to all her tentatives to initiate any meaningful dialogue.

Is her equipment malfunctioning or is she refusing to talk to me? Twilight wondered, increasingly frustrated and embarrassed by the situation.

Spike was finally the one to rescue his Lady from the awkward one-sided discussion.

“If I may, my Lady,” he hinted. “I’d like to remind you that we have to prepare our report to the Throne.”

Taking her cue, Twilight nodded.

“You’re right, Spike!” she affirmed. “Thanks for reminding me.”

“Well we will leave you, Lady Fluttershy,” he said. “My lady has a lot to do, and we won’t keep you from your maintenance routine. Thank you again for your help. May the Empress be with you.”

“And with you, Monitor Spike,” she said in her deep yet soft vox-produced voice.

And, after a nod toward Twilight, she was gone.

“That was weird...” coughed Twilight.

“Yeah, a guard passed and she did the exact same thing,” the serf informed with a shrug. “I think she only talked to me because I was a dragon.” a victorious grin appeared on his face. “But on the bright side, she gave me some of the information you need!”

“Good job, Spike,” she acknowledged with a smile. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome.”

“How many mares left?”

He consulted his dataslate. “Just one,” he said after a second of hesitation.

Finding some remnant of courage in that perspective, Twilight braced herself. “Let’s go.”

☀☀☀

Twilight grumbled as she left the barracks. The day had passed faster – or rather everything had gone slower – than expected. The sun was slowly disappearing behind the horizon, the red-orange sky bleeding slowly from its fiery wound. The brightest stars started to shine, competing with the lights of Cloudsdale, the imposing high atmosphere mobile base floating above the city, and its patrolling light vessels.

In less than an hour, the street lumens would outshine them all, directing tired overworked ponies toward recreational quarters or their habitation and barely rested ponies toward their working places. This a doubt gather a most unnecessary crowd around the equustode, slowing her even more.

Hopefully the last mare will be easier to handle, Twilight thought, sceptical of the thought as soon as it popped in her head.

“Can you tell me more about the last warmare, Spike?” she asked tiredly.

“Her name’s Rainbow Dash. Sergeant Rainbow Dash of the White Scars. She’s stationed in Cloudsdale, the aerial mobile defence platform,” – something caught his attention above his mistress’s head and his voice got lower and lower as he continued until he completely stopped – “There should be shuttles to...”

The unicorn looked above her to see what distracted her monitor.

There was something above them.

Something big.

Something falling right on them.

For a second, she thought it was an animal or a spaceship but she soon realised what it was and, for a precious second, she shared Spike’s stupor. It was a pony. Falling out of the sky. Right on them. In a fraction of an instant, the enhanced sight of Twilight permitted her to encompass the whole scene in great details.

It was a pegasus. She had a unique rainbow coloured mane cut short and a cyan coat. She wore the White Scar power armour coupled massive jetpack engines on her back which make her appear very distinctly against the crimson sky.

How Twilight could have missed her, she had no clue but her mind was racing in other directions. What is happening? was her first question. Her mind created scenario after scenario after scenario to answer it. Why is this White Scar falling on me? Is she Rainbow Dash? Did she faint? Jetpack malfunction? Was it sabotage? An attack? Another question, more pressing, quickly took over. What do I do now?

She didn’t have the time to stop the fall nor to redirect the pony elsewhere. She also lacked time to raise a shield for Spike and herself...

She was out of options.

Faster than she thought possible, she kicked the dragon away – careful not to harm him in the process – and braced herself for impact.

It never came.

Instead, she felt the temperature rise and fumes reach her nostrils. The noise of raging engines filled the air for a few seconds before shutting down. The silence that rose right after was deafening. Finally, Twilight rose her head again. The blue-furred Spacemare fell on the ground just in front of her at the same time.

Twilight was at a loss for words from both anger and amazement.

“Sorry...” the pegasus said with an apologetic smile on her face. “I thought the area was clear. It’s kind of hard to change my direction once launched. Are you okay?”

“What was that all about?” she asked once she came back to her senses. “Who are you?”

“The name’s Rainbow Dash and that was my daily emergency intervention training routine,” she said proudly.

“You do that daily?” Twilight answered, baffled.

“A mare’s gotta stay sharp,” she declared proudly, bombing her torso. “‘Faith and training will kick heretic ass on the battlefield’ or something like that.”

“I think you mean ‘only faith in the Empress and your training will save you on the battlefield’,” she corrected. “Those are the words of Veteran Sergeant K–”

“Yeah! Exactly that!” the pegasus interrupted. “Who are you by the way?”

Exasperation threatened to overwhelm Twilight. She took a deep breath to regain her composure.

“I am Twilight Sparkle, equustode on a mission for the Empress,” she announced. “I have been sent to check on this planet and its defence, which means I have to refer to the Spacemares in charge, including you.” Twilight sighed. “But I guess it can wait tomorrow.”

“Why wait? I can give you whatever information you need.”

“I need extensive and precise reports,” Twilight explained with a lot of emphasis on “precise”. “And I need them before I do my own dispatch to the throne tonight. So unless you can go fetch and get them back to me in less than half an hour...”

“Exactly! Why wait?”

“You mean you have them on you?” asked Twilight, surprised.

“Hum no... but I can fetch them easily.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, they must be somewhere in Cloudsdale,” she said, pointing at the defence base high above their head. “I’ll get them in a breath.”

Reason dictated that she had a ship at the ready to make the trip. But reason, and several chapters of the Codex for good measure stated that one should not jump from unknown height only to activate their jetpack at the last second.

There was no vessel in sight, therefore the mare in front of her had just claimed that she could reach a High Atmospheric Mobile Base in less than thirty minutes by herself and then do the road back fast enough for her to have the reports. Reason dictated that it was impossible. But the reason seemed to have a hard time on this planet.

It was time to settle the score.

“Victory needs no explanation, defeat allows none,” she quoted wryly.

Rainbow Dash tensed. She wasn’t sure of the meaning behind the quote, but she could feel her word and worth were being attacked.

“What do you mean?”

“Prove it,” taunted Twilight.

The pegasus took the bait with the appetite of a shark. “Where will you be in half an hour?” she asked.

“In the town archive, but–”

“Meet you there,” she interrupted.

And with that, she was gone. The thruster came to life once again, propelling the pegasus at an astonishing speed, leaving a quite unorthodox rainbow coloured trail of fume behind her. For a fleeting second, Twilight wondered if this was supported by the Codex, but she wasn’t even sure which entry would address the problem of coloured jetpack trails.

Soon the pegasus was but a blurred figure for the simple eyes of Spike, but Twilight could still see in great details Rainbow Dash using every little trick known to pony to optimise her flight, somehow gaining more and more speed as she got higher. Still, Twilight knew that this wouldn’t be enough to get to the base. Despite her skill, the mare was simply too slow.

As an answer to the thought, the engines shut down, decapitating the twin rainbow snakes. The mare kept rising, but slower and slower, her trajectory curving slightly. Twilight did not sense any panic in Rainbow Dash’s attitude. There was more coming, she knew it… and she couldn’t help but wait expectantly for it. A few seconds passed. The White Scar was suspended into the air, floating in the instant where gravity didn’t exist anymore...

At that exact moment, a ship passed between the spacemare and her spectators… and the pegasus was gone.

It took two seconds for the unicorn to link the dots. Even then she couldn’t believe it. “Did she just...?” she asked out loud.

“What did she do?” Spike questioned with insistence. “I can’t see a thing from this far!”

“I think she just hooked herself to a moving ship...”

Spike watched the ascending vessel for a few seconds. “Amazing...” he stated matter-of-factly.

☀☀☀

Twilight stayed a moment, observing Cloudsdale. She found herself wondering if Rainbow Dash had already arrived. The inanity of the thought broke the spell. Her time was limited and whether or not the pegasus had done her job was irrelevant, moreover, the more she waited, the more likely she was to meet the populace.

It was time to move.

They progressed in silence, walking back to their starting point. The mare was lost in her thoughts and followed Spike’s guidance. She didn’t need to, but it was more convenient for her to do so. After all, the dragon had the itinerary memorised, and he was used to supervising his mistress walk in addition to his own. In fact, he had personally requested more conditioning to be able to do it more efficiently.

The meeting with the spacemares had left its mark in Twilight’s mind. Who are those mares? If I didn’t know any better I’d thought they are equustodes themselves...

And there was a certain kind of familiarity with her own sisters. Maybe it was the fact that they were from different chapters, maybe it was their ridiculous and superlative aptitude to the task they’d been assigned to. This in itself was baffling. If their files were accurate, and they all appeared to be, all of these warmares had honoured their chapter for more than a century before being sent here… and then they had diligently built the world’s defence for another hundred year, doing wonders with the mediocre material they had at hoof. This didn’t make sense…

Why would their chapter deprive themselves of such brilliant elements? Why sending them here? Wh–

“We have arrived, my Lady,” Spike informed her, cutting her reflexions short.

Twilight snapped out of her trance, reconnecting with her environment. They had indeed arrived. The military area had given place to civilian infrastructures separated by wide, curving, paved roads. The archives stood in front of her, at the other end of a vast plaza, probably to accommodate a highly hypothetical crowd of discontent ponies. It was, as always Twilight supposed, empty, save for an imposing figure in its centre. The equustode was not even surprised to see Rainbow Dash waiting for her. She was nonetheless impressed.

“Has it been half an hour already?” Twilight asked, trying to look unfazed.

“Only twenty-three minutes,” grinned the pegasus. “But I thought you were in a hurry so I made sure to be here in advance.”

Rolling her eyes, the equustode made a sign for Spike to take the dataslate the spacemare had brought.

“Thank you, Sergeant.”

“You’re welcome, Twilight Sparkle,” said the pegasus, still grinning. “See you around!”

And, in a less flamboyant way than before, she was gone, leaving two Canterlotians and two rainbow-coloured smoke trails behind her.

I’ve only been here for a day, and I am already tired with this nonsensical world, she thought. “All I want now is to report to the Empress,” Twilight said out loud.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

The voice was familiar, which should have been a relief for Twilight if not for two facts. The first was that she could not identify its owner, something that her eidetic memory was supposed to make impossible. The second thing was that it came from behind her, and the fact that somepony had managed to slip past her and get on her blind spot was definitely not a good sign.

Why, Ô Empress, why? the equustode complained mentally.

Her horn flared, ready to catch her staff or cast a spell. She prepared to turn when several things happened.

From the corner of her eyes, Twilight could see two cloaked figures, ponies, one big, one regular-sized, a few metres away. The big one was probably the one who had talked to her earlier. She could try to catch them, but there was another thing. A metallic sound, like a hollow metal ball bouncing on the ground. She knew that sound, it was the sound of danger, a signal to take cover. The sound changed to another one, high pitch and continuous, as the ball rolled the rest of its way to her hoof.

As Twilight finally lower her gaze to see the grenade hit her armoured leg with an underwhelming “ting".

Crap.