Molten Metal, it runs like blood, and tears.
Date:June 15, 3053
Time: 1300 galactic
Location: Periphery
System: Borgans Rift, Magistracy of Canopus.
A thundering boom of violence echoed across the otherwise empty desert plains. The explosions of long-range missiles across the upper chest of the aging Warhammer battlemech caused the seventy-ton giant to rock back, taking a step back to steady itself. The yellow-and-orange painted armor marred by pockmarks and black scorching. The left arm had a tear through the shoulder, the gleaming of endo steel internal structure and black bundles of myomer muscle that powered the machine’s arms shined through, as well as a little bit of grey-green coolant that leaked from a ruptured heatsink line that helped keep the awe inspiring firepower of the mech running.
Inside the cockpit, the large, bulky neurohelmet sat on the head of the pilot, allowing the syncing of the pilot’s own center of balance and minor control commands that helped the battlemech function and stay upright. Sweat gleamed off the bare shoulders and thighs of the warrior, slender gloved hands stroking the firing stud which sent bright teal lightning from the pair of Donal Particle Projection Cannons from the arms at the target that had just ruined the new paint job on her mech.
“Damn it you Liao bastards! I just got the paint redone too!”
The voice was a rough hiss but full of focus; the voice of a woman who’d seen far too much battle in a relatively young life… well, apparently young anyway. The PPCs scored a strong hit on the enemy Catapult Battlemech, a squat, birdlike machine with two large long-range missile launchers on it’s shoulders for armament, paired with four medium lasers, the mech could pack a punch at range, but was no slouch up close either.
She nudged the throttle forward, driving the Warhammer into a lumbering forward run. The heavy-class Battlemech was far from the most elegant thing on the battlefield of the 31st Century, but it was hers. The impact from her prior shots had shaken the pilot of the Catapult, causing the enemy to step back as well, trying to reposition. It was all the woman needed.
“Gotcha.”
The firing stud was pulled again on the joystick in her right hand, and heat radiated up through the cockpit as the double heatsinks struggled with the heat of two PPCs firing together, causing her breath to rasp in her throat, and mouth to dry. The coolant vest over her chest sent a cooling sensation over her torso as the life support system pumped cool liquid through it, keeping her core temperature within manageable levels.
The shots hit home yet again, one PPC scoring into the torso of the opposing Battlemech, the second shot scoring into the already ravaged right side torso, the energized particles of energy lashing out to cut ammo feeds from the Catapult, though the harnessed lightning lit off one of the missiles in the ammo feed, the chain reaction caused the Catapult to shudder like a breakdancer, before a gout of flame and explosions gutted the machine’s fusion reactor. The puff of smoke from the cockpit of the enemy mech the only sign that the pilot had ejected.
Communications crackled in her ear as command came through.
“Phoenix, this is Command. We read zero hostiles in the combat zone, repeat zero hostiles.”
“Command this is Phoenix. Copy that; let’s get salvage out here to pick up what’s left, seems we need a pickup for some of our pilots, I know Generosity went down pretty hard.”
Another voice came over the line.
“Screw you Phoenix, you know my LRMs saved your ass at least once.”
A laugh from the Warhammer pilot as she removed the neurohelmet, teal eyes looking out through the transparisteel in front of her cockpit, long gold and red locks flowing over her shoulders despite the heat, they were somewhat frazzled, but otherwise looked good. Though a long, thin scar ran along her cheek, the visage of Sunset Shimmer, ex-unicorn and prior student of Princess Celestia, sat in her cockpit, sighing after the battle as she wiped some sweat from her face with a rag.
“Yeah yeah, give it up, Generosity, you’ll get your cut after repair costs.”
She sighed and slumped back in her command couch, reaching out with slender fingers to toggle the waypoint back to base, she throttled up, and worked her way back to the HQ, the rumbling in her stomach telling her it was time for lunch.
“Phoenix to Command, returning to base.”
“My name is Sunset Shimmer. No, it’s not my callsign, even though it sounds like one in this universe; my callsign is Phoenix and Sunset Shimmer is my real name. I’m not from here, well, not exactly, hell I’m not even from this time. Last I remember it was the year 2013, or 2000 AL in the Equestrian calendar, I think, time seems fuzzy between Human Earth - excuse me, Terra, and Equestria.”
The video shook slightly as she shifted the holo-recorder for a better view of herself.
“As you can see I have a bit of a...nonstandard hair color, and skintone. I assure you, these are natural.”
The view of the woman, wearing a purple tank top, and a pair of military issue dog tags around her neck cleared up, her skintone was an almost light yellow, and her hair fiery reds and yellows.
“I’m not even from this universe, or the one I came from prior to this one, but one which houses a race of equine creatures, we called ourselves ponies. We were divided into four races: earth ponies, kinda like normal horses; unicorns, yes, like in the fairytales; pegasi, much like those in old Terra fairytales; and alicorns, which shared all three races traits, might as well be gods.”
She shifts again, a peak of the room can be seen, mostly bare, with a few small pictures and images, most notably, a sunburst design that looked similar to a yin-yang. It was notable in a few places around the room, as well as on her shirt and dogtags.
“As crazy as it sounds, to me, this place, is even crazier, if you’d asked me five years ago if I’d have been piloting a fifteen-meter-tall engine of destruction in battles to protect a small galactic nation. I’d have thought you’d been reading too many science fiction novels, a year prior to that, I’d have made fun of you and likely destroyed any reputation you ever had. Thankfully that me died before I ended up here.”
She sighs and runs a hand through her hair.
“So, why am I telling you this? Because people know I’m not the typical Inner Spheroid, they know I’m not from around here, and despite my adroitness at piloting battlemechs, I’m still a stranger to this universe. That doesn’t mean I haven’t found a place mind you, but, well… we’re all a bit weird out here in the Magestry… hell the primary export from this place is porn, if you could believe it.”
She chuckles and shakes her head, fiery locks spreading behind her as she looks to the camera with a rather sad expression.
“So, why am I here? Easy: magic malfunction… The portal to get back to Equestria malfunctioned when I tried to go through, I don’t know if it was due to latent magical buildup, or if it was something on the Equestrian side of the mirror, but, well, let’s just say, that trip wasn’t fun.”
Fingers caressed the scar on her cheek, her eyes having a bit of a distant look as she thought.
“Been here five years now, today marking that fifth year in fact… By Celestia, it’s really been that long, hasn’t it.”
She pauses a moment, the faintest glimmer of tears unshed glistening in her eyes.
“Anyway to make a long story short, I got picked up by a patrol out in the badlands, thankfully they were MoC troops, brought me back here, and this has been my home ever since. I can’t repay them easily for their kindness, so, I fight with them… rose through the ranks to the level of commander, and now, now I lead a company of twelve battlemechs in a rather small mercenary group. We only have two companies, but, for what it’s worth, we do pretty well out here… even if out here is a struggle.”
Shutting off the recorder she sighed, laying back on the cot she slept on and closing her eyes. The battle replaying through her head. She’d lost three mechs that last battle, and another six had been heavily damaged. House Liao was trying to expand its borders to get at House Marik, wanting to use MoC-controlled territory to circle around them, and hit them from galactic south. Their incursions had been getting more and more common; thankfully, the salvage was decent.
A knock at the door of her room caused her to sit up, the red headed visage of Joanna “Generosity” Hughes poking through with a grin.
“Sup, Top, you look like crap.”
Sunset flipped the bird, an ancient insult here, but one still recognized as Joanna laughed it off with a wave.
“You doing okay?”
Sunset sighed and nodded, looking to the taller woman. Sunset herself had filled out quite a bit in her five years here, but she was whipcord thin, the subtle sign of muscles of a warrior just beneath her skin.
“Yeah, I’m fine, Jo. Just thinking about the past, and about the battle.”
Joanna shook her head, giving the younger woman a look that said to knock it off.
“Look don’t beat yourself up over it, hell if it wasn’t for your skills, you wouldn’t have those double heat sinks in your ride. Shit’s hard to come by out here, and you’ve done damn good by the unit these past three years. With those clans invading way up north, most of the fighting’s out that way, all we gotta do is protect the MoC and her interests.”
Sunset chuckled at that; on the plus side, most places, House Marik included, didn’t want to screw with the MoC, the more they had to spend on war, the less they could pump out their primary export. Sunset had to admit, though, of all the places she’d studied, the MoC was the best place to call home, with some of the best human rights in the entirety of the innersphere or periphery states.
“Yeah I know. Listen: what do you say we get some grub? I’m starving and frankly, I could use something to take my mind off this shit.”
Didn’t take long for the two to find the mess hall, or for Sunset to get the meal she so desired, but something felt off. Sunset’s eyes gazed around the room to fall on a rather odd-looking purple hued girl, one that she hadn’t seen for years. That shock of lighter purple she’d never forget.
Squeezing her eyes shut, she opened them to see nothing, an empty table and her friend and fellow soldier across from here.
“You feelin okay, Shims?”
Sunset just shook her head, taking a bite of the regulation food before answering her friend. “Just exhausted, Jo. I’ll be fine after some rack time.” But that sounded like an excuse, because something just didn’t sit right with Sunset as she said that… something was on the horizon, and she wasn’t sure but it felt like the winds of change, just like those days just before she walked through the portal, and into the 31st century.
Date:2005 After Luna
Location:Ponyville,Equestria
Time:0800hrs local
The sun was already shining bright as Princess Twilight Sparkle sat yet again in front of the giant table that functioned as her main hall in the Castle of Friendship. Books strewn across the table, many open to various passages. Most of the books were ancient relics from Equestria’s past, and most of them, had belonged at one time to the grand mage of Equestria, Star Swirl the Bearded.
The sounds of frustration could be easily heard from the princess as she worked and worked. She had succeeded in only briefly glancing upon what appeared to be the visage of her old friend, Sunset Shimmer. The former unicorn had been about to return to Equestria after Canterlot High’s Graduation ceremony; however she’d vanished without a trace. The mirror on the Equestria side of the portal had shattered in her attempt, and Twilight had worked tirelessly to put things back together. However, it wasn’t entirely working, and Twilight’s own divination spells had only yielded a brief look at the former teenager’s location before bounding her back to reality, and one hell of a headache.
“ARGH! Star Swirl's notes give me absolutely nothing to go on anymore!”
The yawning visage of Spike, carrying a large mug of coffee in his claws however, was a welcome sight for the princess as he offered up the ambrosia of long study.
“It’s been five years Twilight… Don’t you think it’s time to give it up?”
Twilight’s feathered wings visibly ruffled at that, she gave him a glare that softened after he shrunk back. “Spike, if you vanished without a trace, even after years, wouldn’t you want me to still look for you?” she asked, firmly though not unkindly.
The young dragon, finally having grown a bit, nodded. “I guess so, I mean, at least it would be nice to know somepony was looking for me.”
Twilight nodded and drank more of the bittersweet drink from the mug. “Exactly, and Sunset’s a friend despite what was a very rocky start. I can’t just abandon her, Spike, and, if what I saw in my divination was true, she looks like she’s been to Tartarus and back.”
Spike winced at that. His mind rushing through the things she may have been through.
“Do, you think she’s okay?”
Twilight gave a nod.
“Physically, at least. I didn’t see much, she seemed to be having a meal with...I guess, a friend. It wasn’t really clear, and I couldn’t exactly hear much, but she did look my way, and she looked haunted.”
Twilight’s hoof moved to a book, it held Princess Celestia’s cutie mark, but she gently caressed over the front of it. The book had one time been a link to Sunset Shimmer, a way for the two to communicate, but it had been long silent despite Twilight’s attempts to contact the prior mage through it.
“I just hope, she can last a bit longer Spike. I’m close, I just know it.”
Her gaze fell on the repaired mirror, its surface almost shimmering with magic, a result of the empowering stones she’d attached. Hopefully this would power the mirror properly to reopen the portal to Sunset, or at least to human Canterlot, where she might get some much needed answers.
Date:June 2018
Location: Canterlot,California, Earth [alt]
Six girls sat around a table, each of them heads bowed, each held a cup containing a rather strong amount of alcoholic cider. A seventh cup sat at an empty seat as the girls reached out, taking the cups and downing the contents. Each and every one looking at the empty seat.
“It’s been five years girls, and we haven’t heard or seen anything from her.”
The purple-haired scientist sighed as she toyed a finger along the rim of the cup she’d just drank from Twilight Sparkle sighed and shook her head.
“I know she wouldn’t just leave us like that, she wouldn’t…”
Tears welled up as five of the others moved to comfort their friend.
“Yeah well, I think she just ditched us because she could.”
Eyes fell on the short cropped rainbow hair of one Rainbow Dash. The girl shrugged.
“If she was gonna tell us, she’d have told us, she...she’d have told us right?”
The normally strong athletic visage of the military woman was wavering as she sat back, tears unshed, but shining in her eyes.
“Ah don’t think she had the chance, last we’d heard she was going to visit Princess Twilight, then...nothin’, not even from Equestria.”
“Do you think she’s okay? I mean, it’s been five years, and without a single word.” The shy voice had a bit more strength than normal, but Fluttershy still hid behind long chiffon pink hair.
Another pink haired girl, who’s normally frizzy curls were almost straight today, shook her head. “No, no she’s not okay, but she’s alive, I just know it.”
The others looked at her quizzically and she gave a half-hearted smile, her hand finding her heart. “I know, in here that she’s alive, girls, I just know it… But wherever she is, she’s not safe...or happy.”
Author's Note
Updated version of Chapter 1 with some minor changes and just some edits to help it flow a bit better.
Thank you again Shinzakura!
