The Prologue: A world that once was

This is Equestria, a land of sunshine and rainbows; or it was about twenty years ago, before the events of the world slowly caved in around it. Before coal and oil were needed to mass produce plastics and run our trains; before someone automated carriages and tried to make contraptions that allowed pegasi to transport tens of ponies at a time across the sky. But it wasn't rampant earth pony innovation or the magical exploits of eccentric unicorns that took away this image of a place of sunshine and rainbows, it was the gem trade.

The one place in the world that had massive amounts of natural magic was Equestria, and their gems were key to powering the magical creations. Other nations envied Equestria’s vast quantities of magical gems. Trade was brokered for it all, Gems to the Southlands to the Saddle Arabians and the zebras to get their carbon-based fuels; to the east to get volcanic pumice and exotic crops from the Gryphons and dragons. Trade across the world was booming all because some team of unicorns accidently made a gem that powered engines.

Upon the election of the forty-second royal Tsar of Zebriadonia, the tariffs began to increase. Fewer gems were sent over to the Zebras from Equestria when they stopped sending over less coal. Halfway through the war it became apparent that the new Tsar would not allow mining to enter the holy regions of New Zebawai, where a majority of their resources were. Their own country was hardly making it by with the lack of coal and oil. Now the biggest oil production was in Saddle Arabia, even that was dwindling. What hit the other nations harder was the sudden decreases in gem flow, Equestria was not even close to scratching the surface on their gem deposit, even some laboratories were making synthetic quartz. No one could compete with the technological advancements from having the infinite gem piles.

One would think, ‘how could this be wrong? Bring about the end of rainbows?’ well, it might be a slight exaggeration that rainbows stopped, but no amount of rainbows could fix the issues of the world. Twenty years ago I was conceived into a world of war, the first world war. It started with a zebra prince being shot dead from a rogue gryphon assassin’s crossbow and slowly went to an inclined arms race before it shattered when the Zebras annex saddle Arabia to keep equestrian hands off oil. Within five years, crossbows went to muskets and carriages went to what was to be known as the C1 - Auto-Carriage. Now we have Terminal Computers, Solar energy and a race to weapons of mass destruction.

My name is Polaris; the daughter of a diplomat and an astrologist. When the tensions of the world were starting, a new way of government was made, each race had a representative and soon after the incident at the hoofez canal so did the ministries. Growing up in the presence of these ministries was spectacular, to see first-hoof six mares trying to help along these newborn centers of government; to be a filly and walk beside heroes, princesses, and mentors.

It all changed the day I begged my parents to let princess sparkle sit with me in our Carriage, and they switched to hers. I was so, happy to be beside the representation of all ponies of Equestria and the new ministry mare of the ministry for arcane technology. Then as we got on to mane street, the lavender carriage that was supposed to hold an alicorn princess erupted in bright flames; a blast that would only hospitalize an alicorn, but turn two unicorns to ash.

I was an orphan from that day with centuri, my older brother. He wouldn't know for another day as he was gifted, a student of one of the greatest arcane tinkers in Vanhoover. The Country mourned for them, mostly my father. He was the new ambassador to the unicorn population in the capital, the other two races of pony even respected who he was and how he had equestrian values. I blamed myself every day for what happened. My brother did too under his breath, I couldn't even look at him the same way anymore. Princess Twilight became a pseudo parent to me, guiding me and teaching me simple spells whenever I saw her.

The city that would be my home for the foreseeable future, was pleasant and slowly became a massive ministry hub. Arrival in the city showed me the construction of the second MAT hub and the already built headquarters of the ministry for environment and welfare. Even today I think back on the world and how it's changed, how high the tensions are, how much is…

*

Tears were being held back as my eyes stung. In Front of me was a leather clad adolescent dragon, a wondrous white mare around the same age as him and two camera stallions recording my testimonial. The dust in the unkept orphanage room in which I resided in danced in the sunbeams of the large plate glass window. The camera operator looked up as the director of the small video log looked to me with a heart warming smile.

“Going to be better, even if the stable program is now in use and you are watching this, I know that it will all be bright like it is for me today” It was visible how much emotion I had to hold back, my smile almost comically forced. “I am Polaris, hoping that stable 49 is warm and happy as always”

The light from the camera went off, the stallions packing up and already hoffing out gemdisk copies to the dragon and mare. Soft hoof steps trotted up to me as I let the world go numb around, not wanting to dwell back on a life once lived.

“Will you be okay Polar? I didn’t mean for the testimonials to be so; emotional.” the voice of a siren brought me back to this world, looking into the emerald eyes of the beautiful mare.

“Yes… I should be fine… Thank you Miss Belle.”

“I can already tell you're not fine” she smiled as her magic wrapped around a blanket and draped it over my shoulders “no one has ever called me miss belle, not even the Crusaders. I hope you know Polaris how valuable these testimonials from you and the rest of the blanks who will be put into stable 49 will be, you…” She paused trying to not say foals, fully knowing that in front of her was a mare almost at the age of adulthood. “Young adults are very crucial to this stables purpose.” The dragon behind her walked up and grinned, twirling on his claw the disk copy of what just transpired.

“And I Know Twilight will love to have this, though she would have preferred a memory gem, it is good to give her something even if the stable will never be used.” The slender dragon said, stretching a bit to the side.

“Spike is right dear, we all appreciate very much what you will be doing for the stable initiative. My sister and her fellow ministry mares gave the Crusader Initiative this project as a way to better cement our longevity even after the war.” With that they turned and walked out the door, leaving me in my sunken state.

The world is teetering on disaster and peace. One week I hope EBC will say how princess luna finally has gotten into talks with Zebra policy makers. But all I hear is that our gryphon allies will be stepping up their forces on the front line. That the Crusader initiative is opening more stables and that their armour line has gotten more diverse. That the Ministry of Equestrian Resolution will keep being some sort of strike operations team and not peacekeepers.

I looked about my blank room, as white as my coat and arguably the bulb above me as yellow as my mane. My shelves used to hold figurines of spikenak the barbarian or photos of the ministry mares, now it just has a photo of the last time all my family was together. Upon my foreleg sat a white pipbuck, all the orphaned blank flanks going into the special project were given one with a custom colour. Of course they decided mine should be blank and bland, fit me perfectly.

I sat up, my magic pulling a scarf over me as I looked out into the day outside. In the sky were pegasus and VTOL carriages alike. One noticeably a crusader initiative vehicle that was heading back to canterlot. The streets outside my window were full of so much, culture. Ponies, Zebras, gryphons or even buffalo could be seen in the bustling metropolis.

I grew to love this city, as did the ministries that set up shop here. It was out of the way, distant from the range of attacks but still highly populated. Vanhoover had become what some called, the sanctuary city. The ministry of equestrian culture built their fourth branch in the center of the city, across from the Arcane Technology institute that was researching shield spells.

I stepped out finally, down the halls and into the roadways of the coastal city. The wind was pleasant yet strong as my scarf blew lightly in the wind. Along the pier, there were steel clad earth ponies with large firearms, Crusaders of Steel. They slowly became the main fighting force of the Royal Equestrian Army, followed by a lightweight variant for pegasi and a fabric based one for unicorns. No matter the street festivals or the pony-zebra couples that covertly were snuggled up against the sea wall, you knew a war was at its climax.

As much as I wanted to be outside of that depressing room, my gut was twisting from anxiety. It didn't help that for the better half of my morning I was trying to give a good life story for the Stable Intivie. It almost felt wrong, pretending to be happy explaining how you killed your parents by accidently saving a princess. It… Was too much to dwell on.

I took out the wireless BlueBuck ear piece and slide it in as I tuned the pipbuck to EBC 1 for the end of jazz hour. As the soft melodies of a cello and sax quartet played, I walked along a pristine sea wall. In the luna harbour there were large freighters, a few warships being built in the dry docks and the occasional small sea monster that would pop up for a friendly chat with a fisherman before it went back to convoy guarding.

Life went on as the blissful jazz stopped, the soothing baritone voice of a trottingham accent washed over me as the DJ came back on. “And that was Octavia and the Manehatten jazz quartet playing a new single ‘Cello Mood’ now up next we have a track that will get you swinging into a groove from the songbird herself, sweetie belle, featuring the synthetic work of Vinyl Scratch, our night host. This is Equestria Broadcast one, bringing you the best that music has to offer.”

A song with a fast tempo came on as the unicorn who an hour ago was watching me try not to start crying, started to belt out a beautiful swinging song. Just more trying to convince me that Megaspells weren't being tested in neighvada or that baltimore had to enforce a curfew. I wish it was true, that tomorrow the war would end and I get a cutie mark in a peaceful resolution. Though it was easier to find a colt or mare would wanna date a blank without being a slight pedophile; I'm still single.

I sat upon the crumbled away sea wall as a large cruise ship passed by, heading off to one of the allied nations that didn't believe we were some sort of autocratic slave empire. Daily I would try and cheer myself up, thinking of finally going on one of those adventures and finding a purpose, or just somepony who would help me from being so lonely. It didn't help my brother was always in stable 49, making sure it was air tight for the fateful day. As its first overstallion it made sense even if it sometimes felt like it was for something more important than preservation.

The song came to an end with a cataclysmic decrescendo followed a high-hat’s clang. I was ready for some other brass ensemble to start up to distract me from being the happy go-getting unicorn I once was, before the transmission cut to a somewhat frantic breath.

“We have gotten first reports that” My eyes widened as air raid sirens started up across the port. The ministry tower now glowing a frost blue. “A megaspell has been detonated over Balitmare, we have lost contact with the station.” Standing, my gaze looked over to the MAT building now radiating light as it cast a shield mega spell, allowing the whole city center to be protected. Around Crowds were stammered back in confusion and whispers. Some ran to the shields edges out of sight.

“Our Manehatten office says that its MAT building was able to activate its own shield spell as one of the balefire missiles hit it, the area outside its protection is just… gone. Fillydelphia, Trottronto and now Mareappolis have all stopped communicating with our central station. Canterlot's shields have just been raised up. If it wasn't the end I would tell you I've never seen such a beautiful green in my life.”

Turning, i went slowly towards the stable at the other edge of the harbourside district, the monorail overhead skidding to a stop as the electricity was cut to the platform. Screams of mares and foals echo around the bubble of magical energy, ponies rushing down the sidewalks and some screaming at zebras, blaming them.

“We have gotten confirmation that mareappolis was…. eviscerated when trying to launch its own megaspell’s. Thirty of the sixty eight missiles bound spells launched, were detonated in the Ministry base bordering the city. We pray that atle-” It was cut short to a devastating roar in the background, followed by screaming, so much screaming. My heart sank as it rang out in my ear. “WE HAVE JUST WITNESSED A BALEFIRE BOMB BEING DROPPED ON CANTERLOT.” he was panting before his voice came back, as normal and calm it normally would be. “The shield holds steady but reports are that manehattan have sustained three more blows before its shield was… shattered. No word yet from Las Pegasus, Vanhoover or TallTale. Only Vanhoover, from what we know, has a MAT facility that could contain a protective casing to it”

Everything else, at that moment was static. Then the world stung, my eyes were soaked in a blinding light. Under the dome I could feel the reverberations of the explosion as windows broke and carriages alarms went off. The sheer force of what happened overhead knocked me off my hooves. As I got up I saw the heart of the explosion. What almost looked like screaming souls in the fires of green, a shock wave of force clearing the sky above us. A balefire bomb, a megaspell has just hit Vanhoover. It was moments before the ringing stopped in my ears.

The emerald flames danced down the sides of the shielding, descending with ferocity to the areas around. It seemed that the shield soaked up so much from the bomb but even then, the area around was bleached in light. My eyes were shut tight as the flames burned into my retinas, ears ringing with the sounds of only what could be explained as souls, thousands of souls in necronomic power. My breath trembled as I looked out at the destroyed suburbia that couldn't be enclosed with us. Half a million, half a million lived in the southern suburban area alone. How many died just then, how many across the country, how many were killed to make such a weapon.

“We just got word from Vanhoover that their shield is stable, but las pegasus has fallen. Reportedly the clouds were vapourized as AppleWood bellow became dust. A military transmission said it was a different kind of weapon, one that made magma erupted from below the fault lines… Cloudsdale is reporting that it will be segmenting the city from itself to save as much of the weather distric-” His voice faltered as whispers went over the air.

I couldn't move, even in this protective bubble, I could taste death. Was this my purpose in life, to be a nuclear target? Would I get my cutie mark right as fire ripped me apart.

“Cloudsdale has been attacked by a dirty bomb, all their clouds have become…… thunderheads, a majority of the population were fired on impact. Ponyville has reported that their stable has been sealed. The Crusader Initiative tells us that a good third of all stables have been safely sealed.” Another Cataclysmic roar was heard over the radio, the sounds of shattering were heard in the background. “As you can tell” His voice, his voice knew this would be his final broadcast. “We were hit again but this is brought upon a second mystery. The shield is pure gold now after several bright flashes in the canterlot castle.”

I was so close to the stable, I could see the steel cladded Crusader armour sets that were preventing the masses from breaking through, magical battle saddles charged. They were waiting, for me. Yet my legs wouldn't break into a run, they couldn't. Another Cataclysmic blast went overhead as another balefire hit us.

“More reports now, the crystal empire has sustained several blows from what seemed to be smaller warheads, fell radiation is filling the streets of the city.”

Something finally broke in my mind as I watched another wave of balefire wash down the shield. I started to gallop, I had too. The Stable came closer and closer into view as mothers held crying fillies; fathers demanding safety for their family from the two earth ponies who stood guard.

“Our shield is still holding in canterlot, but I have been informed that…. In the times of the end, we shall play a song” As I heard crying get cut off in the background, a beautiful choir version of the national anthem was played. The two metallic soldiers looked at me, my pipbuck, then at my flank. If it were any other day I would have had the courtesy to teleport one of them a good few hooves in the air; instead, they let me past; slowly backing up to the huge gear shaped door that housed the stable. Ponies scream at us, cursed at us, cursed at me. The voices of the dead would haunt me if I survived this, taunting why a blank-flank could get in. Honestly, I wondered that myself.

The radio turned to static, then just off completely as I stepped into the door control room of stable 49. The huge gear behind me rolled shut as the two crusaders sighed and looked at me. Attendants were smiling as a steel grated bridge extended out to us.

“I hope you were damn worth the wait blanky” muttered a stallion before he was gently hit in the arm by his comrade.

“Our orders to wait for her came from Twilight herself, this stable seems to be one of her experiments” the mare next to him said. Experiments, that word rang out in my heart. IT made me feel, unpony.

As the bridge extended out to me a familiar gold coated stallion broke my trance, a white mane swooped up into a quiff. No words had to be said as the unicorn held a hoof out to me. I pounced him, holding him tight as the tears were allowed to be shed. He was my only family, he has been for a decade, but finally, that thought was cemented in my head.

“Good to see you made it Polaris, I was starting to worry that you wandered outside of the city center.” Centuri smiled and let go of me walking over to a pegasus handing out what looked to be jumpsuits. The staff around me were so, calm. Most were unicorns in lab coats or pegasi in technician bradding. I was given one of these jumpsuits as the Crusaders behind me went off deeper in the stable.

“Centuri, what is my… reason for being so special?” I looked at him as I unbuttoned my blouse with magic, the purple scarf still around me. As the blouse was placed on the table, and then immediately thrown into a bin labeled ‘Radioactive waste’ my brother sighed heavily.

“Because Pol, dear, your old and you haven't found your talent.”

“Thanks for pointing out my shortcomings.” I scoffed at him as the blue and yellow jumpsuit, emblazoned by several references to “49”.

“It true, the reason why you’re so important is that, shortcoming. The Crusader Initiative, and twilight, wanted to study what would happen if we put blank flanked fillies and colts into the new world. IT had to be orphans so we didn't split up families but, you can't just send in children without a leader.” His gaze went back to me and he nickered. “You're the chosen leader of the blank flanks.”

“By the time it's safe to go out there I bet the majority of them would have their talents Centuri….” I dreaded the thought of being a decrepit old mare getting her cutie mark stepping outside, finding out it's 'radiation sponge’ “Unless you mean to say we will be gone of this shelter in a week?” IT was an equally as scary thought to think of being a radiation sponge and 19.

“No no, you actually won't be seeing me for another, well probably forty years or more.” He was leading me away from the door labeled ‘Atrium’ and towards a long hallway. “Well hopefully that long.”

“What are you getting at Cent… Time travel?”

“No no, why do you think we recorded those logs of all the orphans?” My eyes widened as we walked through a door titled ‘Cryo Crystallization’

“You're freezing me… you're freezing me and ten other foals?” The walls were lined with Crystal-Stasis pods, each titled and had a small video screen on it. All of them, had a young pony in it.

“Yep, be excited sis, I bet you will finally find a stallion in the future… or are you back to mares again.” My cheeks flushed red as I looked at my pompous brother, part of me wanted to be frozen so I could come out to see he was also gay. “Now when you're ready, lay against that open one in the back.”

My heart sank seeing the chamber that was going to be, my home. It was the only white one in the room, sidings were gold. Above it read ‘Polaris’ and had a little badge to symbolize I was, important. “I don’t think I am… Ready Cent. This is all too much” But before I could say more, technicians were smiling at me and waiting, my brother nuzzling my flank to push me forward.

“Relax Pol, its what we have trained you for”

“Trained? The only training I've gotten in the last three years was from a very lonely princess who was stationed in Vanhoover. All I got were defensive spells and attack spells, I feel more like a” My eyes widened as I fell back into the chamber.

“Soldier? No no, you're more like a… Pathfinder, or an explorer. Now sleep tight my little star, See you on the other side.” He shut the crystalline door as my hoof pressed to it, tears streaming from me again as I looked dead center in those silver eyes that rivaled my blue ones.

“Listen here Centuri! I will not be your plaything you relas-” I was cut short, I felt my body tense up and my breath stop. My thoughts were fleeting me as crystal formed around me. The last thing I saw was a unicorn mare nuzzle his neck, trying to comfort him; before my world was plunged into darkness.

Author's Note

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