Mass Core 3: Thebe Paridigm

The space in the Equestria Prime system had a strange familiarity to it. It was not something Scootaloo had noticed before, or if she had, she had forgotten about it in time. Even if she had not slept for so long, it would have been many years since she had first navigated that space in one of the Academy’s tiny training vessels.

It was said that Equestria Prime had been blessed. There countless thousands of inhabited and uninhabited systems through the Equestrian galaxy, but none were so ideal for a spacefaring society as the Prime System. According to legend, long before ponies had even mastered the creation of the wheel Celestia had expelled absolutely all space debris from the system in preparation of the technological society to come. Scootaloo did not know if that was true- -it would have been tens of thousands of years ago- -but she did know that the space in the Prime System was absolutely clean. There were no asteroids, no debris fields; just smooth, easy to navigate space.

In the past, the primary difficulty had always been the traffic. Even without debris or any other anomalies, there were always countless tens of thousands of ships pouring to and from the capital of the Empire, the pony homeworld Equestria Prime. As Scootaloo’s ship approached the system, though, she found that it had become remarkably empty. In part, she assumed, this was the result of mass-jump technology. There was no need for starships to physically move long distances, not when they could simply flash across the universe at will. This was unexpected, but proved to be an advantage.

Scootaloo did not take her entire fleet in, at least not initially. Instead she took two midsized Thebe vessels to flank her own, which was heavily based on a powerful but oddly quiet zetan craft. The vessel that Scootaloo had been given was the only one of its kind in Twilight’s collection, but it was hardly suitable. From Scootaloo’s minimal knowledge of the Milk Path galaxy, she understood that the zetans were brilliant engineers that lived in almost complete isolation from the other races. As a result of this, the chassis that Twilight had built the present ship from had been far more advanced than any of the others. Unfortunately, it had also carried with it the side effect that the zetans had designed it for their own insular, strange culture.

The bridge was wide and almost completely flat, leading to an oppressive claustrophobic feeling. There flattened room was further subdivided into two levels: a lower and an upper, with the lower sitting behind the upper in such a way that it made seeing the large front viewscreen- -a screen, not a window- -impossible for the individuals with the misfortune of having to work in that trench.

There was no specific location for a commanding officer, so Scootaloo was forced to stand on the upper deck. Several control apertures had been placed on either side. Jurneu had been placed at one on Scootaloo’s extreme left, and Seven had taken one in the trench. Eight had joined her older sister, and Nine stood impatiently far to the right. Six had taken her place at Scootaloo’s side.

None of them apart from Jurneu actually knew how to use the strange alien controls. It did not matter, though, as none of them were flying it. Scootaloo was, using Inte as a go-between communicating between her own mind and the ship’s computer. That in itself was a terrifying prospect. Not because it was difficult, but rather because it should not have been nearly as easy as Scootaloo was finding that it was.

They all stood in silent, watching as they drew closer to the second planet from the dim red-orange sun that it orbited. As they did, Scootaloo wondered why it was that color. In her native era, it had been bright and white.

Scootaloo had selected their path to take them forward in the shadow of Equestria’s moon. No doubt the long-range sensors throughout the system had detected them, and though travelling in Luna’s wake would not obscure them, it would make detecting the exact nature of their ship a little more time consuming. That would give them the time they needed to get into strike range.

As they passed over the moon, Scootaloo looked down at the ruins that coated almost all of its entire surface: the now abandoned remnants of the civilization that had once thrived on its now barren and airless surface. Even after one thousand years, the massive craters where those cities had been torn apart were still visible, dotting the cities where the now extinct thestral race had once dwelled.

“What happened?” asked Six, seeing the same world that Scootaloo did.

Scootaloo replied honestly: “Celestia won.”

It took less than a minute for them to round the moon, and Jurneu and Nine covered their eyes against the light of the Equestrian sun. In the distance, they could see the curving crescent of what had once been Scootaloo’s home. It looked so small from a distance, a blue-green sphere against an infinite sea of black. It was the world where pony life had begun, and supposedly the planet where Scootaloo had been born.

More than the sight of Equestria prime met them as they came over the moon, though. A group of five Equestrian ships were waiting for them on the other side.

“They’re hailing us,” said Jurneu.

“I know,” said Scootaloo.

“If you’re going to pretend to be ‘communications officer’,” said Nine, annoyed, “I’m going to put you in a red minidress.”

“Yes please,” said Eight.

Scootaloo opened the transmission. The screen changed, projecting a direct image of the pony commander on the other side. The commander looked vastly surprised; direct visual-to-visual communication was almost never used for ship-to-ship communication in Scootaloo’s time, and that seemed to be the same case.

“You had something to say?” said Scootaloo.

“Um- -yes,” said the commander, regaining his composure and standing up from his captain’s chair. “Unidentified vessel, you have entered vital Equestrian space. We can’t identify your IFF. I’m sure this is just a misunderstanding, but as far as we can tell, you’re not authorized to be here.”

“Really?” said Scootaloo as she calmly infiltrated their central quant through the channels she had opened, using Inte to cut past their security measures and failsafe protocols. None of the ponies on the equestrian ships seemed to notice, save for one who looked at her interface with mild confusion. Even the holographic quant with its fuzzy, soft wings did not react- -because Scootaloo had already programmed it not to.

“Yes. And I’m sure you can understand that security breaches will not be tolerated so close to our beloved homeworld. Not that you are a security breach, of course. Again, I’m sure this is a misunderstanding.” He asserted that as well as he could, but Scootaloo saw his eyes drifting across the image of her bridge to the two armored alicorns and the obviously breeder unicorn on his far right.

“Why are they alicorns?” said one of his assistants, pointing out what was actually wrong with the setting.

“Ali…” the commander’s eyes became wide. “What- -who are you?!”

“My name is Scootaloo Dash,” replied Scootaloo. “And I have returned to finish what I started two hundred and seventy two years ago.”

The Equestrian commander stuttered, but addressed his quant. “Mildred, prepare the forward battery! Fire all tor- -”

Scootaloo engaged her code. The quant on the enemy ship suddenly vibrated and then exploded as the hardlight system overloaded. Where before there had been an image of a heavily made-up Pegasus, a crystal-like star of enormous but narrow holographic crystals formed, expanding and cutting into the hull of the bridge, destroying the computers and engines.

It was not just the main ship. Scootaloo’s code had infected the others as well, and their hulls were breached from within as their hardlight projectors overloaded in unison. The screen almost immediately reverted to an exterior view, and all of the enemy ships were visible. Holographic crystal had cut through their hulls and was visible on their outer surface. Several of them were too badly damaged to continue, and were desperately attempting to perform emergency landings on the moon.

“Holy shit,” said Jurneu and Nine at the same time. Six remained silent, but lost control of her wings as they extended involuntarily.

“Eight,” said Scootaloo, “send the signal. Open it.”

“Right away. This is going to be so much fun!”

At Eight’s command, the space behind Scootaloo’s ships ripped open from the far side, tearing an interdimensional hole to Vocqtus. It took a moment longer to stabilize, though; even at this distance from the Solar Exclusion Zone, Thebe was having trouble establishing a proper connection.

It did form eventually, though, and the ships poured through.

“Prepare warheads,” said Scootaloo. “Target Equestria Prime. Advance on my- -”

Suddenly, her ship was violently rocked as Inte took control of the command, wrenching it to the side so fast that Scootaloo was thrown across the bridge and into Nine.

“Inte!” cried Scootaloo. “What the hell are you doing!”

“What does it look like I’m doing? I’m taking evasive action!”

Scootaloo did not understand- -until she looked through the front screen. Outside, she saw that an Equestrian dreadnaught had just mass-jumped into the location where they had just been. It was not alone, either. An entire fleet of battleships and destroyers accompanied it.

The Thebe vessels immediately went into action, striking hard at the Equestrian forces. Many of the front guard were quickly overwhelmed, though, and several ships were immediately destroyed. Scootaloo did her best to react appropriately, and she was forced to reach out with her mind to the forces she had hoped that she would not have to use.

It was surprisingly easy. At Scootaloo’s command, hundreds of geometric fighters emerged from the rear carriers and swarmed forward. The Equestrian ships attacked them, but just as the forces of the Crystal Empire had been unable to destroy them centuries before, the Equestrians failed to stop them. The octahedrons joined the battle, plunging into the Equestrian ships and cutting through their shields and hulls.

As Nine stabilized Scootaloo, Six leapt to one of the unoccupied control interfaces. “They shouldn’t be here,” she said as she opened the system and began to scan through the files. “Not this soon!”

It only took a few seconds before she found the necessary files, and she gasped. “The communication channels- -you!” she turned sharply to Jurneu. “You piggybacked a transmission on ours!”

Jurneu smiled awkwardly. “Yeah,” he said. “I called the whole damn armada.”

“Why, Jurneu? Why would you do that?! You’ve doomed the mission!”

His smile fell and he looked into Six’s eyes. “Because I am a Spectre. And if you win? If Twilight takes back the throne? The Council loses. I did what I had to do. To ensure peac- -”

Six barely managed to dodge a beam of violet-orange light. Jurneu did not. It struck him in the chest and he instantly detonated into a plume of blood and organs that splattered violently across his corner of the ship. Six gaped in awe, and then turned to see Scootaloo, her omnitool open and still smoking. She had not even looked at the pony that she had just killed, and kept her face focused on the screen and the battle outside.

“I will not tolerate disloyalty,” she said, lowering her hoof. “I’m sorry, Eight.”

“Eh.” Eight shrugged. “I already got what I needed out of him anyway. If Bob can be an excellent single mother, I suppose I can too.”

“Six,” said Scootaloo, “did he manage to communicate Starlight’s location?”

“Hold on,” said Six, “I think…no. He was hacking your communication line to the other ship to hide it- -his bandwidth was only high enough to get out our coordinates. You cut him off before he could send the second part.”

“Then the mission still has a chance. It’s just harder on us.”

As soon as she said it, the ship began to rumble and list. Scootaloo felt her control of the engines failing, and then detected several plasma eruptions that destroyed most of engineering.

“He’s sabotaged us,” she said. “This ship is done. Eight, get your sisters to the planet.”

“I can do that,” said Eight, suddenly frightened, “but I can’t teleport you. Not with a quant crystal attached to you.”

“You don’t need to,” said Scootaloo, disengaging herself from the ship’s systems and allowing the reactors to burn uncontrollably. Her final command was to adjust the primary thrusters and to plunge the dying zetan craft directly into the bridge of the head dreadnaught. “I will meet you there.”

With her processing disengaged, Scootaloo focused her suit’s energy entirely into Inte’s crystal. The machinery she had built from the parts that Eight had provided began to vibrate and rev.

“Are we good to go, Inte?”

“All calculations indincate that size exclusion will be viable to overcome the defensive parameters. Which is computer for, eh, forty percent chance of survival.”

“Good enough.”

Scootaloo took a flying leap and engaged the mass-reactor strapped to her back. Almost immediately, space shifted around her and collapsed, pressing around her suit. The suit reacted, holding her body together as the field compressed her to a state of zero mass and out of reality.

Then, as quickly as she had gone, she erupted back into space, this time in green fields dotted with sparse trees. Canterlot stood in the far distance, silhouetted by the setting sun.

“Congratulations!” said Inte, excitedly. “You are now the smallest vehicle on record to have completed a successful mass-jump!”

“I’m not a vehicle,” said Scootaloo, opening her omnitool and transmitting her coordinates to Eight.

“Yes you are! You’re a ship. Because I ship you. With me.”

“Can we please keep this professional for the duration of the battle?”

“But not after?”

Scootaloo did not answer. She sent the coordinates, and a small explosion of light appeared bside her the alicorns appeared.

“Oof,” said Eight, stumbling slightly and being held up by Seven. “I haven’t teleported that many ponies in a long time…”

“Scootaloo,” said Six. “Did you just mass jump?”

“We can discuss what I did and did not and will do after we finish the mission,” said Scootaloo. She directed her command to the fleet overhead, ordering them to arm their warheads. Then, within seconds, the war began.

In the distance, Scootaloo saw the projectiles streaking through the skies and the fires erupt on the farthest edges of the horizon. Her sensors detected the radiation surges of the nuclear blasts.

“Did you just nuke us?” said Nine. She sounded simultaneously impressed and concerned.

“Only minimally populated areas.” Scootaloo shifted her omnitool and looked up, seeing that some of her ships had already pushed through the blockade. “Troops inbound,” she said. “Two minutes until impact.”

“Good,” said Six, projecting a shield around Scootaloo just in time to block a barrage of bullets that had come tearing through the brush toward her. In the distance, Scootaloo could see several hovering vehicles converging on their location, each loaded down with Canterlot guards and accompanied by heavily armed Pegasi. Many, many more were arriving behind them. “Because I we really could use the help.”

“Speak for yourself,” said Nine, drawing an assault rifle and shotgun from her side. “Because I’m pretty sure I’ve captured weaker cities when I was less than ten years old.”

The battle commenced. As Nine had predicted, it was hardly a challenge. It was actually somewhat surprising to Scootaloo how effective her friends were. Logically, of course, it made sense. Each of them was an alicorn, and all of them had been trained by Cerberus to be living weapons. The Canterlot guard was primarily a police force, not a standing army, and even with their advanced modern weapons and the magic of the few unicorns present, they were pushed back easily.

Seven led the force, charging forward into the fray and eliminating whatever was unfortunate enough to contact her. Nine covered her and shielded Eight, who was acting as a support unit and teleporting in ammunition, medigel, and thermal clips for her sisters as needed. Six refused to leave Scootaloo’s side and used her powerful biotic abilities primarily for defending her lover. This was critical, of course, because Scootaloo herself was not able to fight well while she was commanding her fleet.

They managed to advance the battle, moving quickly toward Canterlot, and the ponies attacking them reacted just as Twilight had predicted. More and more swarmed out from the city. Not just the Guard, but any elements of the Equestrian army that could be found. As their numbers grew, Scootaloo’s momentum began to slow until they were stuck at a stalemate.

“If this keeps up, we’re going to have to pull back!” said Six over the sound of gunfire and the screams of ponies.

“No,” said Scootaloo. “We’re not.”

There was a roar in the atmosphere as the black ships pushed through the stratosphere. Several beams shot downward from above, decimating the Guard forces and punching through several of their transport ships. The support vessels took up a position over the rear of the battlefield, providing fire support for as long as they could while they unloaded their troops.

Hundreds of Governors swarmed out of them, their transparent wings carrying them down and into the fray below. They were joined by other Thebe soldiers of every race, and the reserve forces immediately turned the battle. The guard forces were no match for them.

This also freed Scootaloo from having to command the entire fleet. She disseminated its operation to the individual commanders with the simple order to defend the planet and to do as much damage to the fleet and as they could.

“Right,” she said, turning her focus onto the battle. “Six, take pointe! I’ll cover you!”

“Right,” said Six, smiling. She spread her wings and charged into the fight, striking out at anything in her way with singularities and beams of magic.

Scootaloo advanced below her, her optics scanning the battlefield and her processing core calculating troop movements and probabilities of attack. As she engaged, she found that her HUD changed. Small insignias appeared at its bottom edge, each representing the vital signs of the members of her party and each giving her the option to command which of their powers she wanted them to use.

Several bullets struck her from the side, and Scootaloo ducked back behind a tree. The blue, segmented arc at the bottom of her vision indicated that her shields had been hit, but her red arch remained steady.

Within seconds, her shields restored themselves and Scootaloo jumped from behind the tree, targeting her omnitool at the group of ponies attacking her. A flare erupted near them, detonating behind their cover. The ponies screamed as their bodies arced with electrical energy and they collapsed, their nervous systems having been completely overloaded.

“Delilah, behind you!” said Scootaloo, lifting her hoof again and sending a beam that incinerated the wings of a Pegasus that was approaching Six. Six did turn, and fired a beam from her horn. Instead of striking the now falling, wingless Pegasus, though, she directed a beam of pink-violet energy directly behind Scootaloo. Scootaloo dropped and rolled just in time to avoid the explosion of a metal-bodied quant that had decloaked behind her.

Six dropped to the ground, and her and Scootaloo advanced together, each one covering the other. Six attacked relentlessly, both in defense of Scootaloo and with vicious disregard toward the survival of the ponies who stood in her way. Scootaloo scanned the surrounding areas, providing Six with the information she could not see with her own eyes, and provided support where she could.

Together and along with the remainder of the forces, Scootaloo’s troops were able to cut their way toward Canterlot until they finally reached the green hills outside the city. By this time, the Guard had begun to deplete, and Equestrian forces were weakening.

Although the losses in the sky above were devastating, Scootaloo held out hope- -until she heard the sound of hooves descending from the hills above. When she looked up, she realized that she her hopefulness had been misplaced.

They looked just as they had three hundred years ago, when Scootaloo herself had been the cause of the founding of their order. Their bodies were covered in heavy, expensive armor, far greater in capacity and in beauty than the simple mass-produced version that ordinary soldiers wore. Their faces were obscured, but Scootaloo knew who they were.

“Priestesses…”

The first units to charge Scootaloo’s forces were cavalry: unicorn soldiers seated on the backs of Teran horses clad in Tech armor. On their left they held long, bladed lances, and even at a distance Scootaloo could see the glimmering plaid glow characteristic of Chaos metal.

“Fuck,” swore Scootaloo, grabbing the back of Six’s armor and yanking her back. “Get out to cover!”

The cavalry slammed into Scootaloo’s troops with almost audible force and cut through them easily, impaling them with the Chaos spears or cutting them down with their guns or magic if they had it. Their lethality was only compounded by the presence of their infantry, which either charged down the hill beside the Teran horses or took positions on top of it to fire down at those below.

Seven had been the closest to cavalry when they arrived. She was fast enough to avoid the lances that came toward her, and erected several tech barriers to slow the advance of the cavalry. Unfortunately, doing so left her open. While she was fast enough to dodge the spears, she was not fast enough to dodge a harmonic bullet that slammed through her armor and into her abdomen.

“NO!” cried Six, charging forward to help her sister.

“No, I said fall back!” cried Scootaloo.

Six did not listen. Seven was badly wounded, but it was clear that she was not dead. Her various combat drones returned to her, attacking the Teran horse and spooking it, causing it to throw its unicorn rider. Seven tried to stand, but was unable to move at anything faster than a limp before Eight’s magic surrounded her, teleporting her to cover.

As she did, and just as Scootaloo felt some semblance of relief, a horse burst through the brush near Six. Scootaloo did not even hesitate to rush forward, shielding Six with her own body. The Priestess opened fire, and Scootaloo felt the bolts of magic cut through her armor and body and into Six. Six cried out in pain, but Scootaloo felt nothing but a distant ache. Ignoring it, she reached around Six and grabbed her sidearm. With one quick motion, she pulled the pistol from its holster and fired it into the Priestess’s head. It struck her horn, and there was a small biotic explosion as she fell.

Scootaloo tried to walk, but she found that her rear legs would not move. Six tried to move her, but was too injured to have any semblance of speed. The Priestesses had seemed to have sensed this weakness, and they were converging.

“Damn it,” said Scootaloo. “Well, let’s hope this works.”

She focused her attention on the location where she knew Eight and Seven were in cover, and then ignited the jet on the rear of her suit. Almost immediately, she took flight, carrying Six with her.

Almost as soon as her hooves left the ground, Scootaloo regretted having installed the flight system into her suit. She had spent almost all of her life dreaming that someday she would be able to fly, just as Rainbow Dash had before the loss of one of her wings. It had been something Scootaloo had desperately wished for, but now that she had the ability, she realized that she hated it.

Scootaloo had flown ships before, and many of them. Flying under her own power, though, was completely different. It was terrifying. Everything seemed to be moving so quickly, and the amount of control it took to keep herself moving in the correct direction was almost beyond her abilities. Had it not been for her focus on keeping Six safe, she would have vomited instantly.

The flight only lasted for a few seconds before Scootaloo dropped awkwardly behind a large rock. Eight was there, doing her best to heal Seven.

“Oh fuck,” she said. “They got Scootaloo!”

“I’m fine,” said Scootaloo as Six propped her against the cover. On her HUD, her red bar was almost fully depleated. “Just cover me for a second…”

“Scootaloo, you’re not fine!” said Six.

“Compensating,” whispered Inte into Scootaloo’s ear. The nannites in Scootaloo’s body immediately swarmed to her wounds, filling them and rebuilding the damaged tissue and organs. The red bar on Scootaloo’s HUD began to quickly restore itself, and even her armor started to heal.

“Holy crap,” said Eight as Scootaloo’s formerly paralyzed rear legs began to twitch and move. “I wish Seven could do that!”

Seven slapped her sister and angrily pointed at the still-bleeding wound in her shoulder.

“Delilah,” said Scootaloo, sitting up. “Your hurt.”

“I know,” said Six. “But you took the brunt of it.” She pointed at several charred holes in her armor. The magic had cut through it, and no doubt there were deep third degree burns hidden beneath those holes. The location of the wounds, though, was mostly in Six’s chest. The Priestess’s aim had been impeccable: if Scootaloo had not stopped the blasts, Six would have been killed.

“Your wing doesn’t look good,” said Eight.

Six looked over her shoulder. One of her wings had indeed been substantially injured, and although the bone was still intact the feathers and some of the flesh had been removed to an extent that would make any flight in the near future completely impossible.

“What the hell are they?” asked Six.

“One’s personal soldiers,” said Scootaloo. “Priestesses of Harmony.”

“Like you?”

“No, not like me,” said Scootaloo. “You can’t think of them like that. Don’t hesitate to fight them. Because if you do, they will kill you.” Scootaloo stood and took a step back.

“What are you doing?”

“Stay in cover, Delilah. I’ll handle this.”

Before Six could stop her, Scootaloo ignited her jet again. Ignoring the terror of being forced to fly, she took to the air.

“Targeting,” said Inte, already understanding what Scootaloo wanted her to do. In Scootaloo’s HUD, numerous small squares appeared, each moving through her vision until they rested around the horns of any and all Priestesses within her range.

The power of the jet dipped slightly as Scootaloo fired in every direction. The rounds flew true and in perfect, straight lines. Each hit its mark, and each Priestess that was struck fell.

Scootaloo dropped to the ground, and then redirected herself. She fired the jet again, but this time held it in a horizontal direction. She shot forward with incredible force, slamming her robotic hoof into a dismounted Priestess’s face. The pony flew backward, sprawling out on the ground and releasing her firearm. Scootaloo picked it up and opened her omnitool, hacking into the weapon’s internal quant and forcing it to submit to Inte’s will. She braced the rifle with her omnitool and held the trigger with her robotic hand. She then joined Nine at the front of the battle, forcing her way into the oncoming Priestesses and driving them back.

As she did, Scootaloo sent an order to several of her Thebean soldiers. They stopped and obeyed, activating devices on their wrists. They immediately began to scream as the systems running through their bodies activated the engineered alicorn tissue in their bone marrow. They erupted with pink-violet light, their armor beginning to disintegrate from within. Several of the Priestesses backed away in fright and confusion, only to have their bodies torn apart as the hyperbiotics charged them.

“PUSH THEM BACK!” screamed Scootaloo, unloading her stolen rifle into anything that moved. Her display seemed to rally her troops, and the reprogrammed Governors pushed forward as well, their particle beams ringing through the smoky air as they killed without any hesitation or remorse.

Then came several deafening explosions. Scootaloo initially thought that the Equestrian forces had called in an artillery strike, and she looked around expecting to see shells falling in the trees and fields around her. Instead, she saw something completely different. High in the sky overhead, several starships had just mass-jumped into the lower atmosphere.

Scootaloo froze in horror when she saw them. The Order had already been on the verge of extinction in her own time, but the symbol of a thistle adorning the side of the white ships was unmistakable.

“Questlords!” screamed Scootaloo, throwing down her rifle and grasping Nine tightly.

“Get off me!” growled Nine.

“Goddamn it Nine, fall back!”

“NO!”

“FALL BACK!”

Scootaloo ignited her jet again, and although Nine struggled to maintain her position, Scootaloo was able to drag her backward, sacrificing the hard-won ground they had just fought for. As she did, she saw the streaks of light coming down from the ships overhead and heard the sound of their projectiles striking the earth below.

When she had finally gotten Nine back to cover and released her, Nine immediately punched Scootaloo in the face.

“What the FUCKING HELL?!” she screamed. “How dare you pull me out of battle like that?! I was WINNING!”

She raised her hoof again, but Six stopped her. “I wouldn’t do that a second time, Nine,” she said.

“Don’t make me have to come after you, you damn whore!”

“Deep breaths, Nine,” said Six. “If you lose your cool…”

“...I lose the battle.” Nine took a few deep breaths and seemed to calm, if only slightly.

Scootaloo had hardly felt the blows to her face. The mask she wore was extremely durable. She was far more concerned with what her sensors were picking up in the distance.

“Now,” said Six, “Scootaloo, if you could please explain why you’re so- -”

The question was immediately answered, but not by Scootaloo. The forest to the left of the rock was immediately consumed in a devastating blast of orange energy. Everything in its path was destroyed. Trees were turned to ash, as well as any solders on either side unfortunate enough to have been unable to get to cover in time. Even the zealots were unable to withstand the force of the magic as it poured over them.

The initial wave was followed by a barrage of rockets, many of which were directed at the few assisting fighters that had remained over the battle. As the others covered their heads in instinctive response to the explosions, Scootaloo looked over the edge of the rock that they were hiding behind.

What she saw was exactly what she expected, but despite having known exactly what would be there, its presence still chilled Scootaloo to the bone. On the far edge of the battlefield, a large bipedal machine was approaching them. It did not move quickly, instead electing to take its time. Its lack of speed did not seem to bother it, though. Any force it encountered was immediately shredded by the magic emanating from the heavy machineguns that it bore.

Eight peeked her head over the rock. “Giant…giant robot!” she cried. “That’s a giant robot!” She then squealed in fright and started running. As she did, her she opened her omnitool and charged her horn. A small flash of light appeared around her as she teleported away.

“COWARD!” cried Nine. “You get back here this INSTANT!”

“No, she has the right idea,” said Scootaloo, ducking behind the rock.

“What the hell is that thing?” demanded Six.

“A Questlord mech. A goddamn Questlord mech!”

“I don’t care what it’s called,” said Nine, “how do we take it out?”

“We can’t! That’s a planet-destroying weapon! We don’t have the forces!”

“Can we fall back?” asked Six. “Have we been here long enough?”

“No,” said Inte into Scootaloo’s mind. “According to present predictions, Starlight and Twilight have not yet reached their destination.”

“No,” said Scootaloo. “We can’t. The mission can’t fail. Not after all of this. We’re not going to have a second shot. We have to fight it.”

Seven gave Scootaloo a look of pure disbelief, but Nine smiled.

“That’s what I want to hear.”

“I’m going to need everything you have,” said Scootaloo. “Target the just to the left of the central chest, that’s where the pilot is. Seven and I will do what we can, but it mostly comes down to you two.”

“Do you think two alicorns will be enough to take it down?” asked Six.

“No,” said Scootaloo. “But we have to try.”

Six took a long, deep breath. “Yes,” she said. “Yes, we have to.”

Nine punched Six in the front shoulder. “Don’t say it like that! We’re getting to fight a goddamn mech! Do you have any idea how proud mom is going to be of us?”

They stood for a moment, and without any verbal communication they all leapt into action. Six took the left, charging her horn and firing a beam from her horn. The corona of energy around it was terrifying, even to Scootaloo; she had never seen any alicorn, let alone Six, attempt to use that much power at once before.

Nine did the same, letting her rifle drop into her hooves so that she could direct all of her magic into the Questlord while at the same time opening fire with whatever kind of unorthodox ammunition she had.

The blasts initially had no effect, and instead rebounded off the mech’s shields. They did, however, attract its attention, and it began to turn toward them. It raised a hand and opened fire.

Seven, though badly wounded, lifted herself from cover and produced a tech barrier to hold back the initial force of the assault. With her second omnitool, she generated tech armor around each of her sisters, allowing them to advance forward without fear of injury.

Scootaloo looked around at the devestation of her forces, and saw that several of her Governor units had survived.

“Are you ready for this?” she said.

“I am,” said Inte. “However, the feedback from the process will be…painful.”

“Do it.”

Inte’s computational matrix suddenly seemed to rush forward into Scootaloo’s mind, pouring through the connections of her omnitool and into her own brain. Inte had not actually been correct about how it would feel. Her warning had been a profound understatement.

Still, Scootaloo took hold of the power in her mind and managed to lift her omnitool toward her soldiers, directing the unbridled quant energy and power through her own mind.

“Assuming….direct…control!”

The Governors suddenly convulsed violently, lifting off the ground as their eyes glowed with orange-violet energy. Then they erupted from within, their bodies converting as their Reaper implants overloaded every remaining prothean element of their ancient forms.

The soldiers charged the Questlord. It attacked them in response, but now they were strong enough to resist it, at least initially. This only gave Six and Nine more of a change to tear into it with their magic, although it was obvious that they were weakening. As alicorns, they were many times stronger than any unicorn, but even their biotic potential was not limitless.

The combined attack had limited success, though. The Questlord took a step back as a small explosion erupted around it. Scootaloo realized that its shields had been brought down.

At this point, Six collapsed. Nine’s magic faltered, but she kept shooting for as long as she could before her oversized thermal clip finally ejected automatically. Without Eight there to provide her with more ammunition, she was unable to reload.

“I’m out!” she cried.

Scootaloo looked to Seven, who was now barely conscious and bleeding, and at the last remaining Governor. She knew that the remainder of the fight was up to her.

She dashed up the rock and leapt off, activating Inte’s power and once again mass-jumping. The processing to land somewhere so close and so precisely was almost impossible, but with Scootaloo’s mind and Inte’s working in unison they were able to emerge from space directly behind the Questlord’s back. As it raised one of its arms to fire into Six, Scootaloo hardened her omnitool into a tech blade and stabbed through the metal near its spine. She felt the blade crunch through the now unprotected and unreinforced metal, and then into something soft and warm. She twisted it, feeling the spine of the pilot snap from the torsion.

The entire mech shuddered, and took a step forward before falling to its knees. It stayed like that for a moment, and Scootaloo drew out the blood-stained tech blade. The machine then shook one last time and fell forward onto its chest.

For a moment, the battlefield had gone silent. The only sound Scootaloo could hear was that of her own breathing. She looked across the field to see Nine helping Six back onto her feet. Their tech armor had dissipated, and both of them looked completely drained.

“We did it,” said Six, calling as loudly as she could.

“Hell yeah we did,” said Nine. “That was EPIC! I mean, when I tell mom, I…I…”

Scootaloo realized that Nine and Six were both looking past her. She did not need to turn to know what was coming over the hills behind her. She could hear their heavy metal footsteps, and her sensors had detected them since the start. Eleven more Questlord mechs were marching slowly toward them, each with their shields intact and their weapons ready for war.

The nearest of them bore the flag of a Questlord commander raised its arm, and its body ignited with orange energy, the result of a unicorn’s biotics being enhanced exponentially by half-built Core implants and the machinery that surrounded it. It targeted Scootaloo, and fired.

The air around Scootaloo and the three alicorns suddenly erupted with pink-violet light as a dome formed around them. The blast from the Questlord struck it with a deafening explosion, but the dome did break. Rather, the orange light of its magic swept over the violet like a tempest, breaking apart and being carried away as it went.

That was when Scootaloo heard the footsteps. They were heavy and loud and much closer than the other mech. She looked behind her to see that one was approaching them from the other side- -the one that was projecting the dome.

It did not look the same as the others. The initial design- -or what was left of it- -appeared far older and more ancient. Little of it remained, though; much of its body appeared to have been built with parts from an Atlas robot. On one of the few pieces that remained- -a charred shoulder pieces- -it bore the insignia of a harp.

Unlike the actual Questlord mechs, this one was transparent in the front .Through the window, Scootaloo could see Eight glaring madly at the other robots. Her horn was adorned with a golden ring, and around her neck she wore a red crystal whose toxic glow seemed to have spread to her eyes.

“Two hundred years!” she screamed, her voice booming and distorted through her armor’s loudspeakers. “TWO HUNDRED YEARS! That’s how long I’ve been waiting for this day! I’ve never had a chance to use this, but NOW I DO!”

She lowered the dome and opened fire. A significant portion of her collection, it seemed, had been installed into her personal mech. The effect was almost preposterous as rockets and bullets and beams of every type poured from her body and into her enemies.

The Qestlords seemed taken aback by her presence, and they returned fire.

“A giant robot fight,” said Nine in awe. “I think I’m going to…” A violet surge of light appeared beside her and a fully loaded bio-force gun dropped to her side. Her body shivered and her legs crossed slightly. “Yup,” she said. “I came.”

With Eight’s mech and a new shipment of weapons, the tide of the battle was turned once again. The Questlords were by no means easy to defeat, but they were driven back into the outer borders of Canterlot where their proficiency on open fields was of no benefit to them.

Meanwhile, the battle overhead was going surprisingly well. There had been heavy losses, but the arrival of the Core-based ships and Scootaloo returning to direct command while Eight covered her was enough to disable or destroy many Equestrian ships. With that battle turning, Scootaloo was able to pull some of her octahedral fighters into the battle below or to call in direct orbital strikes on the Questlords and the city at large.

The mission had started to change. Now that they had arrived in Canterlot, the goal was no longer to defeat their enemies. Instead, it was to attract more. Scootaloo’s soldiers broke their formations, spreading through the evacuated buildings to distribute as many explosive charges as they could. The Equestrian forces were fighting as though Scootaloo was attempting to take the Temple of Harmony, but that had never been Scootaloo’s goal. Her sole purpose was to produce a distraction by creating as much chaos and destruction as possible.

For a time, everything was functioning as well as Scootaloo could expect. Just by fighting, Eight was creating plenty of devastation. Nine, likewise, seemed to be having the time of her life- -apart from one unfortunate recoil incident- -with the combination of Eight’s personal arsenal and any quant-rifle she could salvage form her fallen foes. Six, meanwhile, had elected to take up a Chaos spear and found it to be quite effective, even against Questlords when she could get close enough.

With her mind focused on her command, Scootaloo was not able to participate completely in the battle. She instead elected to stand high above it in a damaged but durable tower, watching the city burn. Seven was with her. Though she was slumped over and breathing shallowly, she refused to retreat to Voqutus and leave her sisters without her. Scootaloo had accepted her decision, and remained at her side to administer medigel as needed.

Everything seemed to be going well until Inte suddenly became active. Her processing dropped precipitously, and when it increased she appeared beside Scootaloo, projecting herself as a hologram.

“What is it, Inte?” asked Scootaloo, immediately realizing that something was wrong.

“A new development that needs your immediate attention,” said Inte, hurriedly. “I have interfaced with the planetary quant network, and there is a problem.”

“What kind of problem?”

“One of the ground-based hub quants has begun to deviate from its defined behave- -” She paused, looking panicked, and then corrected herself. “There’s no time for that. From what I can tell, it has detected a weak signal of an FTL drive approaching the Solar Exclusion Zone.”

Beneath her mask, Scootaloo’s eyes grew wide. “It’s found Starlight?!”

“No, not yet,” said Inte, “but it is investigating. Several ships under its control have broken free and are approaching Starlight and Twilight’s position.”

“We have to warn them- -”

“Even if we could, there is no way to avoid being detected. Those ships need to be stopped.”

Scootaloo immediately opened all the necessary command files, trying to determine how she could position her fleet to intercept the deviant crafts before it was too late. She quickly realized that with the situation of the battle, it was not possible. The quant had moved its remaining ships to cover them, reinforcing an already substantial blockade that was boxing in Scootaloo’s fleet on one side. Even the octahedrons could not get through without heavy fighting that would prevent them from reaching their targets in time.

“Buck,” swore Scootaloo, looking at Inte, panicked. “If they get there- -”

“Starlight’s ship will be destroyed.”

“Buck buck buck- -”

“I have a proposed solution, though,” said Inte, her demeanor heavy as though she were hesitating to tell Scootaloo her suggestion.

“What? What is it?”

“I have access to the hub quant. I was unable to sway its final decision, but I managed to hack into its central power cortex.”

“Then cut it’s power!”

Inte shook her head. “Quants generate power internally. The only way to stop it is to overload it.”

“Then do that.”

“No,” said Inte. “Not until you know the cost. I could…I should hide it, but…” She paused, then looked Scootaloo in the eye. “The detonation will be substantial. That quant is constructed in an urban district across the city. That area has not yet been evacuated. If I detonate the quant, over eight thousand innocent ponies will be killed in the blast.”

“Eight…eight thousand?”

Inte lowered her eyes. “Yes.”

“I…Inte, I can’t do that. There has to be another way!”

“You can refuse to act,” said Inte. “That is the only other choice. But if you do…”

“Then the mission will fail.” Scootaloo looked out at the city. As she did, she noticed an unusual icon on her HUD, one that she had not seen before. It was located just over her vital-sign summary bar, and it resembled a small circle with a small stem on either side. The left half of the circle and its associated stem was colored deep red, and the right side was pale blue.

“Thirty seconds to intercept,” said Inte. “Scootaloo, I do not have the capacity to make this choice without your authorization. I wish I could, but you need to make the decision.”

Scootaloo looked at the small circle, and then at the sky overhead. She closed her eyes.

“Do it,” she said. “Detonate the quant.”

Inte’s hologram faded as she retracted back into Scootaloo’s central computer. “Yes, Captain,” she said.

The circle in Scootaloo’s vision changed. The red half expanded, consuming the blue until the entire icon was red. Then, beyond it, Scootaloo saw a bright and violent flash from across the city. The sound struck her a moment later, like a peal of distant thunder.

“Goddamn it,” she said, feeling tears running down her face behind her face. “You were right all along. Goddamn you, Xyuka. Why did you have to be right?” She looked up at the sky, knowing that Starlight would now be safe to complete her mission and defeat One. “It had better be worth it, Starlight.”