Chapters For sixty two years a small capsule had rocketed through space. The thick layer of ice covering its smooth grey hull had been blasted away by microscopic meteorites and solar radiation for decades as it continued its century long journey to protect and deliver its charge floating within the ceramic hull of the pod.
The pods AI was a simple affair, it was mostly dedicated to navigating between the two fleets travelling though the galaxy. It had made this lonely trek through space many times navigating through solar storms and performing last minute changes in its trajectory to avoid black holes.
Around three decades ago the pod had set a course through an unimportant system on its way through this portion of space, with a nebula to one side of the system and what could very well be a black hole on the other it was the fastest way to the fleet on the far side of this galaxy.
With machine precision it twirled and lit its main engine for a long burn to slow itself down for a short and safe trip though the gravity well of whatever sun kept the system together, it did not intend to stay long enough for that information to matter and dedicated its processor to finding any hazards in its way in the next forty years, if this short-cut worked out then it would be nothing but smooth sailing the rest of the way.
The trip though the solar system should have taken three hours and the pods constant recalculation was the first sign that something was wrong, the pods systems calculated that it would only take two hours to leave the system and in a nanosecond the AI found out why, it was being pulled into a huge gravity well.
It took a nanosecond more for the pod to respond but there was hardly anything the dutiful AI could have done as the star in the system spun around the planet in a way that was simply impossible. If the AI was more advanced it might have spent time trying to figure out why the star was dancing forward in a near perfect intercept course but the Pod’s AI had no capacity to care.
In half a second the ship twisted and blasted fire brighter than any this galaxy had seen before as twenty thousand years of engineering and applied science worked to overpower the primal fury of the sun, Ice was ripped from the tiny pod and the engines redoubled its efforts from the unreasonably strong forces dragging it and its charge to doom.
The battle did not last long as the pod twisted free of the sun's pull and drifted aimlessly for a moment, a poetic mind might have said that the AI was twisted by despair of its duty, its purpose for being lost in an unfair moment of cosmic impossibility. But the AI had no means of feeling those thoughts, all it could do was protect its charge now that it lacked the power to return to the speed needed to catch up with the fleet before it left the galaxy.
With a sudden lurch the pod twisted violently and sped towards a lone blue rock spinning peacefully, the pods insufficient scanning equipment running overtime to determine all they could from the planet as the pod hurtled to its grave and, with hope, the new home of its charge, there was after all no way the fleets passing though this galaxy would ever turn back for something so minor, so replaceable, let alone find it.
She swallowed for the first time her lungs filled with synthetic amniotic fluid as the AI looked inwards, she was well developed, lean and fit especially for someone who had never opened her eyes nor been given a chance to think and feel, it was not a cruel fate, she was intended to live out her life once she reached her destination. Her mind had been given parts of knowledge, language, art, fear, instinct, science, history. It was enough to be considered a full education but it hardly seemed enough now that she was being thrown into the metaphorical crucible.
Hunting, building, surviving and a heavily reinforced desire to live the AI finally decided upon, with a million other things it decided she would need to live out her life on this unknown world and in seconds she was an expert. Her mind’s pliability and moldability would end the second she left the womb like pod but for now she soaked in knowledge in the place of experience and that was enough for the simple AI.
It turned next to her body, it seemed so frighteningly fragile to the caretaker, fear was one of its few emotions after all, and it responded as best it could. The stem cells within the pod where given a new purpose suddenly and the fluid quickly compressed to form a gel like seal around the clone condensed into millimetres as a second skin to protect its charge. It was not finished there however, Stem cells hardened into bone stronger than diamond and cartilage that would rival steel or formed biological circuitry around the gel covered body, a suit of biological armour that could challenge any of mechanical design.
In less than an hour the body was sealed into its armour, nerves wired into the suit, a mirrored visor hiding her face and the AI was finished, It stopped for a moment, it was the first time the AI had done nothing since it was made thousands of years ago, and it spent half a second checking the power reserves on the pod, before it let out an electronic sigh and died.
The pod tumbled like a puppet with its strings cut as it fell into the lonely blue and green world.
Chapter One, Alone (Edited)
Princess Cadance was ill suited to her job. That was not to say she was a poor leader, nor was she incompetent. She managed her tiny empire with all the care and love she could muster and that was quite considerable given that she was the Princess of Love.
No, she was ill suited to her weekly courts and the affairs of business and finance. she did not know how to feed or train or even how to assemble an army to be proficient in any engagement. Nor did she know much of Equestrian or Crystal law. It was then, no surprise that she relied heavily on her advisers, of their number being her lover Prince Shining Armour of course. but it would be quite a shock even to her advisers that she relied upon somepony that had no experience in any form of governmental authority.
Twilight Sparkle had proven a wellspring of advice and Cadance had more then once instituted a reform under her name that had been penned by the purple prodigy. It was to her she was speaking now though a magical mirror. A simple artefact, one that had been crafted just a few years ago by the newest Princess of Magic herself. One that had ‘saved’ Cadences life quite a few times due to the quick correspondence with her niece it allowed. Now however she almost wished she could take a hammer to it. She couldn't obviously, the mirror was too strong for Cadence to destroy without getting creative.
“The Yield of arcane potatoes is linked directly to the water, size of the plant and the ambient magic around it, you can quickly calculate that by multiplying the the water concentration by the size multiplied again by the ambient Starswirl's taken from an reading averaged over the course of three weeks. This is how your the formula should look” Princess Cadance did her best to keep her eyes open and take notes, the notes where funnily enough drawings of various ponies from around the castle in rather questionable poses. Cadance was after all, an artist at heart.
“Now comparing the arcane potatoes class four to my newer design you can clearly see that the spell lattice requires less power but that is misleading as the minor alteration of this Clover Loop alters the formula by adding the ambient Starswirl's to the water concentration and this Changes...”
It was quite a pleasant surprise when a hoof banged on her bedroom door demanding her attention and cutting the purple Alicorn off. It did not take long for Cadance to jump upon this opportunity.
“Sorry Twilight I should deal with whatever this is, we should continue this later on” The pink Princess got to her hooves and stretched as her purple counterpart nodded.
“Don’t worry about it, next time we will move onto the new lax and legal reforms I have written up for the Empire, see you later Cadance!” as the mirror disconnected the pink Princess shuddered at the thought of what her little step-sister had written. Opening the door to see one of her guards.
“Princess it’s from Equestria.” The burly mare held out a black scroll with and ornate silver clasp holding it shut, why the Princess of the Night felt the need to send scrolls worth hundreds of bits rather than cheaper and more modern letters Cadence would never know. She liked to use the new pulped paper made with a hint of pink dye for her letters, a much neater and professional looking means of communication. But then again, she mused, not even Celestia had been fond of the new paper and still racked up a hefty scroll budget.
“Thank you Jade Hoof, would you care for some tea?” The guard blinked at that, both the princesses casual use of her name and the offer, pausing for a moment as she considered the question. After a moment she nodded fully understanding where that could lead. Cadance smiled, Shining had been running an intensive survival training exercise for the past week and that would continue for a few weeks more leaving Cadence to find entertainment elsewhere.
Turning from the door and pouring two cups of tea, for herself and Jade, the Princess opened and read the letter.
Dearest Niece
I bid to you good health and cheer! It has come to my attention that an object has fallen from the sky not far from your fine home. I believe that the rock may contain some star-metal, a great boon if it does indeed carry such a bounty as it has been so long since I have struck so strong a metal to send sparks flying forth to hiss and scold and my hooves to crack and flesh to burn as I shape the powerful metal to my whim with might and magic alone! Now would be a fine time to make wargear to match your station and the station of our dear Twilight!
See to it that the metal is found and I shall be with you shortly.
-Luna
Luna was a strange one Cadance mused as she turned to Jade. She would send out a few squads later to try and find the fallen rock but for now, she smiled, she had a guest to ‘entertain’.
With a start she awoke and looked around, she was laying face down in a slush of half frozen synthetic fluid and snow. Shards of ceramic and circuitry spread out from the pod behind her, cracked open like an egg. that was quite fitting she decided.
With unsteady limbs she got to her feet stretching her limbs and taking in her surroundings, a clean white expanse surrounded her as far as she could see. Curious she leaned down to pick up a handful of snow. Crunching it together in her armoured hand and letting it fall between the dense bone claws that coated her soft flesh. She could feel the cold and bitter wind around her but it did not worry her in the slightest, her armour would protect her from anything this world could throw at her.
Looking up and around she saw high grey mountains to the north and ice flats to the south. Her innate sense of direction helping her develop a mental map of the area around her. Unsure where she was in relation to the planet both directions could lead to a more temperate climate and so she took the easy option. Turning on her heel and walking south as her armour slowly turned white and grey granting her a near perfect camouflage in the snow.
In a few steps she began a long heavy stride. Her steps quickly became a jog and then a run. She could not help but smile as her muscles burned for the first time.
Author's Note
edited on the 07/04/2016 UK datetime
Goldie was a smart pup. For one she knew how to clean water to remove parasites and other things that would kill a stupid dog, another thing she knew was what meats and gems would make her strong and happy and what ones would make her sick and weak. As a smart pup she also prided herself on her capacity to discover new things and learn quickly, so when she looked down the stolen pony telescope out into the frozen wastes and saw something sprinting towards her den she was smart enough to warn the rest of her pack rather then stare dumbly at it.
She had spotted the thing hours ago and at first thought it was some odd trick of the sun but the white blob had come closer and closer at a rather startling speed, being a smart pup Goldie knew that meant it had be sprinting very quickly for at least two or three hours without stopping or slowing. She rushed to the sentries standing watch at the entrance to the den and waved at them to get their attention.
“What is it Goldie?” the lead dog on watch was Bucket, he was big, strong and unfortunately slow in the head but good hearted and well meaning.
“A monster is running towards us!” Goldie cried out panicking only slightly, at least that is what she would tell herself. Bucket’s blinked and nodded to one of the other dogs to join him as he stepped forward holding an Iron spear the pack leader had given him some years ago.
“The rest of you wait here and protect the den, Jasper is in charge” he nodded to the young mutt, Jasper was a runt, short, skinny and clever. Rather unlike most runts Jasper had taken to fighting with an odd glee that made most dogs uncomfortable but he was smart enough to be given some responsibility in the pack.
“Goldie, show us where it is” Bucket strode forward to the top of the ice bank that hid the entrance to the den from view looking up over the icy expanse and Goldie handed him the Telescope pointing in the direction of the monster. It did not take long for Bucket to see the figure running towards them, it was a pale thing that looked almost made from bone and had no face.
It was also just scant minutes away from reaching them at the speed it was running and while it had no face Bucket had the uncomfortable feeling that it was looking right at him.
“Goldie go get the Pack Leader, quickly now” he told the young pup, she nodded and ran to find him. Bucket was the tallest and the strongest in his pack and with that in mind he stood and puffed himself up in such a way that he hoped would intimidate the Monster.
In moments the thing was close enough to be seen clearly, but what worried Bucket was that if this thing laid down in the snow and did not move, he doubt he would see it even if it was right in front of him, that meant he could see it only because he felt it did not need to hide.
Twisting its body to put one of its feet first the Monster arrested its speed and skidded sending snow up into the air as a testament to its swiftness. Without stopping, once it had slowed enough it twisted its body back and began to walk towards Bucket, the incline between them was gentle and it quickly became apparent to the dog that the Monster was a full head taller then him and much thicker set, the bone skin it had moved and flexed unnaturally and as Buckets eyes darted around inspecting it, he could not find any gaps or weaknesses he could exploit with his spear.
Its face was the worst of all, it was a pale smooth mask, no holes for a mouth or eyes or nose. With a deep breath Bucket tightened his grip on his spear, his fellow sentry was standing to his side slightly behind him and with a glance Bucket knew the dog was close to breaking and running, with a calming paw on his friend's shoulder he hoped he would calm her nerves and it seemed to do some good. Turning back to the monster he was within five spear lengths when he slammed the butt of his spear into the ground.
“HALT!” he barked and to his great shock the Monster complied stopping and turning its head slightly to regard him in silence.
“Who are you!?” Bucket demanded suddenly feeling rather cold and vulnerable.
Cadet Boot Buckle dived into the icy water and quickly found that it was too cold to even scream out in shock. Quickly flailing his limbs about in an approximation of swimming he splashed forward, far too slowly for his liking, and managed to reach the end of the neatly cut ice pool as his fellow cadets cheered him onwards. Swinging a hoof over the edge Boot pulled himself up and out of the narrow pool of water and rolled forward onto his back onto to get a kick in the ribs from Prince Shining Armour.
“GET UP CADET TWO LAPS! NOW NOW NOW!” Boot complied and got to his hooves, his legs feeling like jelly, and scampered forward running around the perimeter of the pool, he knew that running was for his own good, it would keep him warm and dry him off, but he could not help but resent the Prince somewhat.
“NEXT UP! GO!” there was a splash and then a squeal of shock as the next pony jumped into the freezing water
Running across the mostly flat expanse of snow and ice she found little of interest until a sparkle in the sunlight caught her attention, turning her head slightly to inspect the sparkle she saw it again masking a slight splash of grey and brown. Turning slowly so as to not lose speed she decided to investigate, the chances of her landing on a planet with advanced life was slim but was not outside the realm of possibility.
After an hour or so the dark spot became a figure in the snow and shortly after that the figure got to its feet and ran backwards quickly vanishing behind some sort of snow bank. After a moment, it came back with two more figures, both much bigger than the first. Getting closer she noted that the two newcomers where carrying what could only be spears.
Just moments away from them she willed her armour to enhance her vision and examined the figures. they where coated head to toe in fur and had bulky paw-like hands, they carried clean-looking, spears with beads, gems and what she assumed where fetishes hanging from them, she also noted that the spearhead was made from iron or steel.
She smiled at that, if they had any metalworking capacity setting herself up would be much easier, she was also curious how an obviously advanced tribe of some sort survived in the hostile snowy region. she doubted that there was enough wildlife to provide for them despite there spears. It did not take much longer for her to reach the base of the small hill leading up to the figures and she skidded to a near stop before walking towards them.
After a few steps the leader let out a odd sounding bark that, combined with its odd facial structure, made her immediately classify them as some sort of bipedal Canine, stopping in place to not aggravate the creatures she looked them over studying there scant woven cloth clothes, thick fur and various bits of equipment dangling from its belt on string. Mostly cups, knives pouches and gemstones, she did however also note that the bigger one had a telescope in one paw made from Glass, Steel and if she was not mistaken gold. All things she would need later but for now she needed a way to feed herself and the fastest way to do that would be to follow the example of the locals.
The lead Canine made an odd series of sounds that must have been a language and clutched its spear tighter, clearly it felt threatened. She entertained the idea of trying to communicate with it but since she had no capacity to talk or even to make any sounds given that her lungs were still full of biogel and would be until they were modified to survive in the relatively mild if still hostile atmosphere, she had no real way of doing so without some creative body language and that was if she could start to understand the language it used.
Deciding that staying here would get her nowhere and feeling the odd sensation of hunger for the first time she turned and started to jog, then sprint, away from the strange native tribe before she upset them, it would do no good to upset her new neighbours after all.
Bucket watched as the monster turned and left, he did not feel that it was running away but that it had decided he was not worth eating.
“Well done Bucket, you scared it off!” Mayhem grinned behind him.
“I hope so” he remarked before turning back to the entrance of his den spotting Goldie pulling at the pack leader’s paw dragging him outside.
“What is it, Bucket, what has our little Goldie so worked up?” the old dog asked frowning in concern.
“I am not sure. But it left, we should have more dogs on watch tonight” Bucket sighed and told his pack leader everything.
Chapter Three, First Contact
The jagged edges of the cave where hardly inviting but it was situated between the pod crash site and the Canine Tribe allowing her to transport anything she could salvage from the crash site and be within a few hours run of the surprisingly advanced locals.
Walking into the cave she found her nightvision wanting, she could barely see past the entrance, the shear lack of light deeper inside would make it imposable to fully explore the cave. Considering her situation she thought quickly for a solution to the problem and came up with a suitable, if rather flashy, way of combating the dark. The thinner parts of her bio armour split open with a wet sounding crack as a clear fluid started to drip from the neat lines, in seconds the fluid filled in the broken cartilage with a darker shade that covered the flexible portions of her armour on her arms and legs.
The dark lines then, rather slowly, began to glow in a blue bioluminescent light that allowed her eyes to adjust to the murky blackness enough to see. Walking forward she carefully examined the floor and walls looking for any sign of inhabitation, she was not sure if she intended to fight for the cave and that would mostly depend on what she found.
The walls of the cavern had a blotchy orange hue broken up by grey stone, oddly enough at irregular intervals crystals stabbed out of the rock like a twisted mockery of flowers, blooming in red, green, blue and purple mostly but some had a more exotic hue. The clear crystalline structure was a rather odd sight this close to the surface of the planet. Breaking the tip from a red crystal she ran a claw over the sharp point feeling it and frowning, they were sharp and strong and if they were this common why did the Canines from before use Iron tips to there spears?
Exploring deeper into the cave she found herself in a wide open space with a multitude of mushrooms and crystals the former glowing brightly enough to provide light to see. In the middle of the cavern was a chest deep pool with a smooth edge worn from time where pale eyeless crustaceans swam in schools each no bigger than the tip of a finger eating brightly coloured lichen that grew along the walls of the pool.
Standing up she walked around the room looking at the mineral rich walls and rather even flat floor. This place had room in abundance for her needs, she would have to clear the ground and find a fuel source for fire and, much later, power but for now this cave was more than suitable.
The cavern was a large space with a long tunnel to reach it, she took note of the driest and most level part of the chamber and decided that it would become her sleeping spot and the far side was where she would pile the mud and soil that the glowing mushrooms were growing in while she worked out if her body could adapt to the toxins then no doubt produced. Nodding happily to herself she turned and stalked out of the cave intent on going back to the crash site to recover a few useful things.
Sargent Windy Winter sat on his haunches chewing on a candy cane, his niece liked to make them and send them off to the rest of the family, given that her cutie mark was a candy cane it followed that they were rather good.
“Well, am I right in assuming that this is not what you expected?” The Scout Sergeant looked over at the young unicorn to his right, the mare was an accomplished mage, as she often reminded the ponies around her. Windy was not impressed with that kind of thing to be honest, it often meant that rather than one usefull spell and two rubbish ones that most unicorns knew mages knew three useful spells and a hundred useless ones.
“No, this is not at all what I expected, look at this hollow, how strange” The blue Robed mare was trotting around the thing looking at this and that with wide, impressed eyes.
“Huh, you say this came from the sky right?” Windy looked at the massive oval and picked up one of the shards off the floor with a hoof, it smelt odd and he had a sneaking suspicion that he had smelt something like it before.
“Yes, from space, It might have formed tens of thousands of years ago in the outer reaches of our solar system, a thin layer of compressed rock with... some kind of water on the inside that, after a long time, was pulled into our gravitational well.” The mare looked at the farrow it had dug into the slow when it crashed.
“Yeah, I am not so sure blue, I mean, don’t it look a bit like, an egg?” Swift dropped the shard and looked the thing over, one end was buried in the snow but the smooth grey shards around him just screamed eggshell.
“Don’t be ridiculous, what could possibly be big enough to need an egg this size?” The mare did however take a step back to look the thing over in a new light.
“What indeed” Swift mused as he bit down on his candy cane with a satisfying crunch.
She watched from a hill close-by as two short equines examined her pod. One of them, a grey coated equine with wings sat chewing something as the other, a pale equine with a horn and a thick blue robe climbed all over the pod.
Getting to her feet in a crouched stance she snuck forward almost dancing over the banks of snow as she approached the pair careful not to make a sound. They were clearly talking, it was a slow back and forth that was impossible for her to decipher. She moved to the edge of the farrow leading to the cracked open pod and watched them closely unsure of how to approach the situation, she needed to break open the rear compartment of the pod and recover a few components but she doubted that the equines would stay out of her way.
A crunch behind her caused her head to whip around and her body to twist catching another equine, this one without wings or a horn trying to sneak up on her, how she had missed him before eluded her. She noted in the half a second it took for her to align herself to the newcomer that he had a short spear in his hooves, but rather then brace the weapon on something or hold it in a firm grip it had it carefully in its hooves pointed at her like.
Her eyes widened as she took in the equines stance, its forehooves where holding the spear steady as it lined it up with a single eye pointed right at her chest as if it was holding a missile weapon.
With an almighty boom and a blinding flash light the spear discharged somehow and hit her with the force of a speeding train sending her flying back head over heels into the snow her ribs cracked and broken and the equine pawing blindly at a pouch on its belt.
Pushing herself to her feet without pause she could feel her ribs popping back into place as the biogel in her body repaired the damage rapidly. She darted forward ripping the spear from the equines hooves and flinging it away from them before introducing it to the heel of her armored foot sending it reeling and clutching at its broken muzzle one of its teeth falling to the red stained snow below.
A second loud boom sent up a torrent of snow into her body staggering her and she remembered the two other equines, it did make sense that they would all be equipped with the strange weapons. Rushing through the cloud of snow she saw the winged equine pressing a glowing crystal into the shaft of its spear and a black and smoking on at its hooves before it lined the weapon back up to fire at her again.
A third boom coincided with her attempt to throw off its aim by driving to the side. It worked for the most part, she could feel the air displace around whatever force was being fired in her direction sending her sprawling to the ground but she was spared any real damage. She pushed herself back up into a run as the equine expertly tapped the spear letting the spent crystal drop to the snow and pulling a new one from a rather full looking pouch at its side.
She did not intend to let him fire another shot however and threw herself forward barrelling into the equine with unnatural speed and pushing an elbow into its middle before rolling off of it with the spear in her hands as it gasped for air. The Equine that had attacked her first had recovered its spear and was pushing a new crystal into its shaft while the horned equine had just seemed to recover enough from the shock of the sudden skirmish to do something.
That something seemed to involve pointing its horn at her menacingly as it began to glow. With an underarm throw she sent the spear flying into the face of the horned equine and cleared the gap as the equine shouted out clutching its face. Pulling it into a headlock she pressed the claws of her hand into its neck and looked at its fellows to see there reactions.
Eyes wide the pair stopped, the one with wings had a nasty looking knife in its mouth and the one without wings or a horn kept its spear lifted in her direction but did not fire, It was a stalemate.
Author's Note
While I have a few ideas myself I would love to hear you all come up with a name for our intrepid heroine.
I hope you have enjoyed this chapter, be sure to leave a like if you did!
Windy bit down on the knife in his mouth, his wings flared out and his hooves evenly spaced as he stared down the faceless thing that held its deadly claws to Blues neck. His breathing was ragged and he was sure it had broken one of his ribs but given that he only felt a dull ache in his chest it might only be a fracture.
“Sentinel, drop your spear” he said though his knife to the earth pony behind him as he slowly lowered his head putting his knife on the ground while he kept his eyes on the large creature getting a good look at it.
It had a thick exoskeleton that was white and grey with dark lines running all over it, its feet ended in two pointed toes for balance and its hands had more digits than anything had any right to have, each one ending in a wicked looking talon.
Windy had stared down monsters all over Equestria. Dragons, Hydras, manticores and even a timber wolf once. He never knew how looking into the eyes of monsters could be a comfort, a way to predict its actions and feelings until now, this thing had no face.
“Sergeant are you sure that is a good idea” the colt behind him asked sniffing and slurring his words.
“Yes, put it down slowly and do not make any sudden moves.” He heard the soft crunch of the spear being put into the snow and the monster, that had been so still moved backwards. One arm wrapped around Blues neck it pulled her back with it until it was next to the broken egg. Making a fist and plunging it into the side of the pale cracked oval it dug around for something before pulling out a black boxy looking thing covered in brilliant silver webbing.
Pressing it into its side Windy was surprised when it stuck to its carapace like glue and the thing pushed its hand back into the egg recovering a pale looking silver cylinder that fit neatly into the palm of its hand, pressing it to its side it recovered three more before, with stunning speed, it pushed Blue forward and jumped up over the side of the trench dug by the egg and sprinted away.
Flaring his wings Windy pulled himself into the air ignoring his body's protests as he flew high enough to see out over the expansive wastes, he caught sight of the Faceless sprinting away and with the natural talent in trigonometry that all pegasi had he put its speed at between fifty and sixty kilometers per hour. He could shadow it with ease, it seemed its greatest asset was its capacity to go form a standstill to blinding speed at will, its running speed however was not as impressive potentially due to its bipedal stance.
Letting himself drop to the snow he looked over the two younger ponies, Stoic Sentry was clutching his face and trying his best not to cry while Blue was wiping tears from her face and shuddering from the after effects of fear and shock.
“Come here let's get a look at you” he turned to Sentry and pulled his face towards him looking it over, his lip had been torn open and he had lost a tooth, by the look of his gums he was going to lose two more before the days was out and his eyes were looking swollen. Two Black eyes, three broken teeth, a nasty scar on his lip, he would live.
“Here” Windy gave the colt his flask of brandy, he did not drink often but his sergeant had always carried a flask of the stuff for her squad and he felt the need to continue the tradition “Drink a bit of this” The colt complied taking a swig before spitting out half of it onto the ground gasping for air.
Turning away from Sentry he approached blue who was taking deep breaths and had a hoof to her neck where the Faceless had held her hostage.
“You feeling okay blue” she jumped slightly and looked at him, a cut ran from the tip of her muzzle, just under her nose, to her cheekbone, despite being shallow it was bleeding quite a bit.
“I- It's fine, I'm fine” she assured him and he nodded.
“Good, now I want you both to know that you did good” he looked between their disbelieving faces.
“Sergent, we just got your flanks handed to us” Sentry moaned his lips already swelling painfully.
“Hay, enough of that, we just survived an attack from a deadly monster, so it gave us a hell of a time but we are all alive and moving under our own power. Blue you ever been in a real fight before?” The mare shook her head. “Well now you have, and you got out of it with a scratch and a hurt ego but you got out of it. I am proud of you both, you kept your heads, in more ways than one and we will be going home soon, but we have to wait here until we are reinforced” he looked between them and smiled.
“Sentry get some ice on your muzzle, Blue let me bandage that cut then you can start a fire.”
Storming into her cave she carefully placed the rather cumbersome black box onto the ground, she needed to open it up and make sure nothing was broken but she could do that later. Flexing her body she twisted to the right, then left, feeling her ribs to make sure they had healed correctly.
She frowned and slumped down leaning against the wall of the cavern. What kind of weapons did the Equines use? It did not fire a actual projectile, just a strong, directed kinetic force in the direction it was pointed. Clenching her fists in frustration at the attack she pushed herself upright and stalked over to the box, putting it off to throw a temper tantrum would not help her in the slightest.
Twisting the simple lock on the side she watched as the reinforced box opened up revealing one of the most complex devices ever created. A computer, Long and thin it was made to be held in a single hand, a micro refinery and fabricator, not much use for tools or anything that would help her in the short term but it would allow her to construct the necessary machinery to get the Genesis device working. Finally in a neat row six crystals secured to the case of the box, four of them had genetic templates for various life support gels and chemicals but the last two had the genetic code for the entire library of life Humanity had encountered for thousands of years including humanity itself.
Shutting the box and locking it before hiding it in the loose pile of soil and upended mushrooms she laid down in the cave to rest ignoring the hunger pains as she closed her eyes on her first day alive.
A dark hoof clad in dulled silver cracked the inch thick ceramic before the Princess of the night coated a falling shard of the material in her magic. Turning it this way and that the Immortal quickly lost interest and turned to regard the scout sergeant an eyebrow raised.
“It attacked you?” Her voice was level and her eyes betrayed a disinterest in the stallion, a wish that she was elsewhere.
“It did, quick and nasty, got what it wanted and scarpered. I checked and its tracks are already gone s-”
“Thank you Sergeant that will be all, you will return to the Empire with the rest of my escorts” The Mare of the Night turned to look over the vast expanse of snow as it howled with loneliness.
“You won't be joining us your majesty?” She grinned at that.
“No, I won't” With that she stepped out into the snow, it had been a very long time since she had hunted anything worth her time after all.
Night fell on the frozen wasteland.
Her muscles burned from the strain of constant movement as she sprinted through the harsh stone labyrinth, walls closed around her and tiles on the floor fell into nothingness in an attempt to impede her but she ran on, desperate to escape.
The world was made of blacks, reds and an overpowering feeling of wrongness that pressed oppressively down upon the women. Almost tripping she pushed onwards running in blind fear. She pushed off a stone wall and ran down the endless tunnel her head snapping back and forth looking into any shadow or nook her body burning coldly as she ran from the dark thing that gave chase.
Suddenly she was in a wide room, the walls were made from pale stone blocks stacked neatly and the floor had a layer of wood and a fine red rug. Confused she stepped forward looking around for an exit to the strange room and finding nothing.
Approaching a old looking wooden desk coated in a dark varnish she looked at the messy paperwork on the desk, quills and ink bottles intermixed with old looking scrolls and documents, black patches of ink and brown circles from wet mugs stained the table.
“Where are you” A distinctly feminine voice spoke behind her. Turning on her heel she saw a shadow that shifted and changed before her eyes into the shape of an equine with wings and a horn “Where are you hiding” the equine asked hissing and rushing forwards its horn flashing brightly.
She awoke with a start pushing herself to her feet and looking around frowning as her heart settled down, slowing from its furious pace. Shaking her head she disregarded the nightmare, getting to her feet and looking around she moved to see outside her cave.
The sun was rising into the sky slowly, hidden by the heavily overcast sky a dark bank of clouds silver and grey spread endlessly across the sky. Taking a step forward she thought carefully about what she would do today, she could investigate the Canine tribe and see if she could start some rudimentary communication. She could try to find out where the equines were coming from, no doubt they had some form of settlement or an outpost of some sort to keep track of the region.
With the quality of the clothes and the variety of equipment the Equines must have some form of fabrication capacity, however they had shown a shoot first mentality the day before, and she doubted she had given the best impression.
Deciding to explore some more she set out at a sedate pace as the snow began to fall twisting and spinning in the air wondrously.
From the shadowy entrance of the cave Luna reformed her body watching with a smirk as the Faceless creature left, she sighed and turned to walk into the cave itself peering around with interest. She would have to watch this creature for a while, learn its habits, behaviour and nutritional requirements if she were to add it to her collection, her sister had still not forgiven her for the pony eating plant she had added to the public gardens after all.
Entering the root of the cave Luna found herself in a open round chamber. Lighting her horn with a thought she pressed her magic outwards looking for hoarded food or filth to determine if she would need to find meat for it. Frowning the mare turned to look at a loose pile of mushrooms and dirt piled into one corner and moved towards it her magic clearing the dirt away to reveal a smooth black box.
Lifting it before her Luna remembered that the Scout Sergeant had told her that the Creature had taken the box from the broken egg, no doubt some ancient and powerful magical artifact. Perfect, she had been meaning to give Twilight a gift, the scholarly mare would love the chance to play with something ancient, powerful and deadly.
Letting the box fall into her mane for now, Luna left the cave and set about tracking the Faceless, her wings flaring out as she tapped into her Alicorn mastery of magic. It looked like it was headed in the direction of the Empire, how interesting.
The air grew steadily warmer and the snow thinned as she explored, it was not long before, like stepping into another world. She had seen the great green disk from afar, green and brown farmland surrounded a purple settlement and the entire unnatural thing was still in ice cold territory. Sneaking within the disk she felt the warm air through the armour, the ground was green and lush, great spires of jagged crystal grew from the ground like trees and neatly ordered plots of farmland surrounded her.
Sneaking through a field of wheat, she approached a building, most probably a barn of some sort, she was unsure of the agricultural sophistication of the locals but given that the wheat was all the same type and there were neatly arranged orchards closer to the settlement led her to assume that they were fairly competent farmers, what did concern her however was the lack of smoke in the settlement, there was no fires burning and sneaking through the fields she had yet to find a single equine about the place and no sign of industrialization, she hoped dearly that they were not exiled luddites who used some form of technology to keep the region farmable.
Entering the barn she found herself overlooking a long table filled with food. Cakes, apples, breads, cheese. Evidence had been pointing to this world having some impressive convergent evolution but given that she did not know of this world's history she had no way of knowing why so many things on this planet where common on Terraformed worlds, this world could very well have been terraformed and she would have no way of knowing, not that it mattered.
Spotting a worn looking brown cloth bag she picked it up and looked inside. A book, a tin with some pink dust within it, a coil of copper wire, a short iron rod, three intricately crafted rings and a candle did not give her any real clue as to what the owner of the bag’s occupation was but the things inside might prove useful, the copper, iron and the minerals in the rings could be broken down and used to begin her work on the Genesis Device, the book would also be invaluable as a first step for her to begin communication with the locals, however that would take a long time.
Slinging the bag over her shoulder she approached the food on the table before stuffing the bread and apples into the bag without much ceremony and then looking at the cake. A quick check over her body told her that while her lungs were almost fully adapted to the mix of chemicals that made up the local atmosphere she would be unable to push herself too hard if she was to begin relying on it in any real capacity. However with a mighty rumble her belly told her to take this opportunity to eat the food now, her lungs would be adapted in a few days regardless.
With a thought her visor began to melt outwards, the material slinking out of the way to expose her gel coated face to the world around her before the gel too began to move, flowing outwards and exposing her face to the foreign environment. Her body arching and convulsing like a cat with a hairball she opened her mouth as a torrent of clear silky fluid emptied out onto the hard dirt of the barn floor,first her lungs were emptied and then her stomach of the life supporting fluids in a seemingly unending stream. Spitting the last dregs of the oxygenated and nutrition rich fluid from her mouth she gasped in the cool air panting and feeling slightly lightheaded and giddy.
With a smile she got to her feet and moved towards the table to take her first bite of food picking up a slice of the cake and bringing it towards her exposed mouth.
Sudden Spark was having a bad day. That was not to say that something bad had happened to her, she was home on leave from Celestia's School for gifted unicorns to visit her family so by all rights she should be enjoying herself. The problem was that she did not enjoy parties, she was social enough she felt, she had friends, they hung out daily back in Canterlot and even more on the weekends, she just hated crowds and music and dancing.
With a sigh she trudged through the empty fields, the entire city state was in the town square enjoying the Festival of Love, a festival that called for dancing, drinking and getting suddenly kissed to promote love and romance.
Sudden did not find the thought of ponies pulling her into a sudden and uncomfortable makeout session that she was distinctly unwilling to reciprocate fun but she had to attend the celebration because her father had asked for her to help, she hated letting him down and he could not run the food stand on his own this year due to a broken leg.
She approached the family farmstead, actually her family did not own any land besides the house and barns around the place, the fields belonged to the Princess, they just rented the fields for what was basically nothing.
When she spotted the barn she gasped and rushed inside looking around quickly, the floor had a rather large puddle of a clearish pale fluid that did not smell like much of anything and on the table where she had set out food for the festival some of it was clearly missing and some of it had been eaten, a half eaten cake, a bite had been taken out of virtually all the foods, pastries had been half eaten and then discarded like whoever had done this had lost interest.
With a huff Sudden shook her head and moved to collect food that had not been tempered with only to notice something that caused her blood to boil and her hooves to dig into the ground as she tensed furious. Someone had stolen her saddlebags.
With a shriek of rage she stormed around the table looking around for something to take her anger out upon, the logical part of her brain told her that whoever had done this was long gone by now and that there was nothing particularly valuable in the bag but the rest of her brain wanted to break something.
So with a swing of her head she sent a undirected blast of telekinetic power at a bale of hay, she was a potent unicorn and it did not shock her to see the bale break apart in a heap against the far wall. What did shock her was that something wheezed in pain and slumped down in the midst of the pile.
It was a dark brown thing that almost seemed to blend into the muddy floor and brown walls of the barn, it resembled a twisted dragon with no face, at the end of its arms it had many digits that ended in deadly looking claws and rather then scales it had a layered exoskeleton.
Without warning its face melted to reveal an actual face, it turned to its side and vomited. Sudden was conflicted at that point, and tapped into her magic, one of her specializations was biomancy, a school that among other things featured an impressive repertoire of medical spells including one to determine ailments of a sick pony or animal or in this case, monster.
Given that the monster had not attacked her or ran away and just sat against the wall blinking and groaning her thoughts went quickly from fear to concern, she was still mad however. As her eyes adjusted to the information the spell she had cast was showing her she let out a startled gasp and rushed to the no doubt deadly monsters side her horn lighting in concern.
Big game hunting was not a profession that many ponies would want but there were ponies in the world who destiny forged into proficient and deadly hunters. Ponies who did not have a cutie mark or decades of training in such hunting would not often survive long against the more dangerous creatures that necessitated such a pony in the first place but despite that fact many of the rich and powerful tried to make inroads into the profession often with disastrous results, for themselves and for the monsters they hunted.
In order to even the playing field such ponies often used dark hexes and spells that did the most cruel and horrific things to the monsters they hunted and often drove the caster insane in the process. The monster before Sudden had somehow had its innate magic ripped away, no doubt though some dark spell, and had survived, it had probably came here to scavenge food and then leave but without its magic the Arcane Microbes were busy killing it.
With a rush Sudden fed her own magic into the best and watched in fascination as its failing organs healed in seconds. only to gasp in dismay as its spirit used up the magic she had given it and the Microbes continued their work.
Gritting her teeth in determination the little mare dragged the monster onto her back and with the help of her magic dragged her into the farmhouse, she had converted the basement into her own lab a long time ago and while it was dimly lit and dusty in a way only a disused room could manage her equipment was still here and in top condition.
Grunting she pushed the delirious monster onto the slab in the middle of the room, normally she would use it as the focus of whatever she was studying but it would double as a grounding rock for the magic she had in mind.
Gripping a piece of chalk in her magic she quickly made a circle around the slab and drew five circles on the inside of the larger one, five focal points for a ritual was standard for a reason after all and dropped piles of charged mana crystals in each of the smaller circles. Again the mare fed her magic into the ill monster but this time she tapped into its, shockingly weak, spirit connecting it to the circle around it.
A ponies magic, indeed the magic of anything that lived was called a Wellspring, it was vital to life for a variety of reasons and would grow and change over the lifetime of a pony, to have one's Wellspring taken away was close to having a horn broken off or a wing shattered, but much, much worse. Thankfully the dark magic needed to strip a Wellspring had been outlawed even before Equestria had been founded and a cure for such a tragic event had been discovered so long ago that its origins where a mistery.
Sudden fed the magic of the crystals on the ground into the spirit of the monster letting it take and direct it on its own, watching in fascination as, after almost all the crystals were drained, a Wellspring formed. It was like a drop of water, small and hard to see, a slight thing that was dwarfed by her own considerable Wellspring but it was beautiful to the tired mare.
Sudden watched as the tiny Wellspring of the monster, with the aid of the charged magic in the circle made short work of the Arcane Microbes and the monster quickly fell asleep in relief. It then occurred to the student that she had performed a Wellspring summoning, something that had not been done in hundreds of years. With a squeal of excitement the little mare pulled a stack of papers from a chest of drawers and began to record everything she could about what she had just done.
With a thought she added a triangle with a door to the rune on the ground, with the circle already connected to the monsters spirit it would be unable to leave the circle until it was broken, Sudden did not want the monster to suddenly attack her as soon as it recovered after all. Soon the only sound in the room was the scratching of her quill as the little mare wrote.
Chapter Seven, Understanding
She found herself in a pained delirious state, her body unwilling to respond as she was dragged away by the equine. She should have been fine, her body contained genetically engineered bacteria and viruses that specifically targeted microbial threats to her life.
Moaning in pain she was dropped with a thud on a slab of stone as her insides burned, her microscopic defenders failing in their duty. The world spinned in place and she turned to vomit again before, with a suddenness that stole her breath, she felt well.
Her body felt lighter and the world suddenly seemed more vibrant, happier. With a shocking weakness she turned to look at the equine as a strange presence soothed her and helped to heal the damage done.
The Equine would mutter at times, grunts and whinnies and neighs, nothing she could understand of course. With an odd lurching in her belly she began to feel something, a connection to the Equ- Pony. She was a Pony.
The revelation came slowly as the little Pony scribbled and muttered under her breath, knickers became tuts and neighs became sighs or yawns. After what must have been hours the Pony turned to her and smiled warmly and wished her a good night before turning and trotting away.
Then the world was simply darkness and she was alone with her thoughts.
Twilight looked at the strange thing on the table as Luna looked on eagerly. Upon arriving at the Crystal Empire the purple mare had been whisked away into a small dark room the Princess of the moon had commandeered. In a remarkably short time she had found the opportunity to add heavy black curtains to the cold crystal chamber and fit the bed with a moon themed bedspread that would not look amiss on the bed of a filly in her Goth phase.
Not that Twilight would know anything about that of course.
“Its beeping” The esteemed Princess of the Night and Grand Commander of the Equestrian forces added, she must assume she was helpful mused Twilight the very lacking in fancy titles.
“Yes it seems to be sending out some sort of distress signal on a wavelength I can't capture” the strange black boxy cylinder currently sat next to a state of the art brass computational device slash radio and the purple pony was doing her best to work out what exactly the black box was doing.
Less than an hour before Twilight had arrived Luna had decided she was bored and had pushed, in her words “a bunch of buttons” on the black box and when it had responded with an unknown dialectic she had simply opted to push more buttons eager to see how it would respond.
Twilight had almost never been quite so angry in her life but the larger alicorn seemed immune to her lecture on what not to do with things not understood. It was rather hard to remain angry at someone that just did not fundamentally understand they were wrong.
Twilight would have a very long session moaning to her friends about Luna when she got home she resolved. Identifying all the characters located on the screen Twilight looked over the scroll containing the unknown language and tried to match it with any of the various languages and dialects she knew cross referencing with a comprehensive book on the subject.
“Can you stop it beeping?” Luna asked hopefully as Twilight resisted the urge to bang her head on the table before her.
Star Seed activated, User not recognized, No genetic match, logging out..
Rebooting system, Genetic library found, data corruption 13%.
Logging user, USER3 please enter a password now and register your account with the local administration. Password ttfw7wdYdw93hfT
USER3 please enter password again to send account to local administration for acctivation: fiaepjhgyefaj
Incorrect password, please enter password now.
Oigahehougheufofeaf.
Incorrect password, please enter password now.
IOhfuaeohgrafd
USER3 Locked, scanning, USER3 marked for unlawful access to a class1 system, scanning for authority...
Authority found, activating long range alarm.
USER3 be advised that you have been marked for the local authority, please have a nice day.
KEYBOARD LOCKED.
Shining Armour took measured steps into the darkness his eyes darting around the gloomy place in the uncertain light of his glowing horn. Drip, drip, drip. The quiet was steadily broken by some leak or spill that sounded nothing but oppressive to the Princes well trained ears.
His hooffalls felt louder than they had any right to be, a telling Clip, clop. That did nothing to calm his nerves as he trotted down into this dark place with two of his best at his flank. The cellar was large, row upon row of wine racks, bookshelves and odd looking arcane equipment, the martial prince could identify most if not by name. His sister had once had a place like this in his home in canterlot.
Nodding his head in the gloom towards the rows of wine his subordinates trotted into the cellar there eyes perked and there eyes open for any movement in the shadows. Armour had been approached by a old stallion raving about a demon in his basement and had heroically rushed to the rescue expecting a rat infestation or perhaps a drunk pony with a hangover.
The ground shaking pounding and inequine grunts of exertion had not been expected, nor did the prince expect the overwhelming darkness within the underground space.
Approaching the lab in the back of the cellar Shining looked down his horn lighting up only a small area before him, it was with a trained eye that he identified a broken containment rune. One reinforced and meant to contain the stronger demons.
Something clicked behind him. With grace that only came from years of drill and discipline the stallion turned and drew his blade with a magical flourish. With a roar the stallion looked at whatever had snuck up behind him and whatever had gotten out of that rune circle.
He came face to face with himself, reflected in a towering monsters face with the red glow of his horn casting dark shadows across its body of pale bone.
His sword clang uselessly upon its body and clattered to the floor the light from his horn going out.
Author's Note
Thanks for reading, just so you know I am writing a story to run in parallel with this one and you can find it Here .
You don't need to read one to understand the other but they are sister stories and the events in one will effect the other.
There is also a competition on that story so be sure to take a look.
The following is something I wrote to act as a supplemental piece to the universe, its not necessary to read but i want to share it anyway. Enjoy!
The Celestine Class of Light Infantry spear was developed on the first month of the four hundredth and ninth year of the reign of our Princess Celesta alone and follows the Clover method of generating a concussive force from the rapid discharge of magic along a grounding implement.
The Celestine Class utilises the same convention for magical discharge but uses an advanced matrix cast with the grounding rod within the spear to direct the discharge more accurately.
The Celestine Class can also be used to direct magical attacks besides simple kinetic blasts but such enchanted charges are restricted to special forces.and naval operations.
The Model 51 Light Infantry spear is rated to fire with fifty six percent accuracy at ranges of up to two hundred meters should the operator be given the opportunity to brace themselves and aim. The Model 51 Light Infantry spear is to be fitted with a Military grade Charge with the dimensions of 50mmx 12mmx 14mm with a double pointed Cloudsdale style cut.
The charge should weigh six kilograms each before firing and each charge can only be fired once before it must be discarded and replaced. Replacement of the charge MUST be done via hoof or mouth and unicorns are prohibited from handling the charges with magic. The use of an insufficient Charge by means of creating a lighter load for transportation is strictly prohibited and is grounds for immediate discharge.
The model 51 Light Infantry spear MUST not receive modification from its user or the holder of its discharge ticket, all Model 51 Light Infantry spears that have received modification will be replaced and the cost of replacement will be covered by the guilty party, If the modified weapon still meets operational standards the guilty party may purchase the spear at a cost no less than two hundred and twelve bits.
If the modified weapon does not meet operational standards as outlined by the present commanding officer the guilty party will suffer correctional punishment up to the seizure of one year's pay. Officers may wish to levy a more immediate punishment as is there right and may punish the guilty party as per the standards set out in the officers no7 handbook
Addendum, Cosmetic modifications that IN NO WAY impede the operational effectiveness of the weapon so long as the cosmetic modifications serve to show loyalty or to improve morale and cohesion of a regiment, any officer present can rule over the validity of a cosmetic modification.
