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Silver Scroll approached her master's quarters. She knew that Inquisitor Gillihone Icehorn was a tolerant pony but this, this she had seen heretics executed for. By the Shining Light of The Twin Sisters! She had seen the faithful tortured and destroyed for it. She knew full well that telling the truth might just be the end of her. What was she to do? If I tell him, I can die at peace with myself. If I lie to him, I couldn't. The Tenant of Honesty came to mind as she lifted a cyber-hoof to press into the door.

“If you cannot tell the truth it is better you say nothing at all. But y'all shouldn't hide things from your friends. Sooner or later it will come out, I'm tellin' ya that much. So just be honest for Pete's sake.”

The ancient words of Applejack herself. Part of her that was kept by the Ministry of Harmony and not expunged from the records utterly. The traitorous mares may have fallen to chaos but many of their teachings, ways of life, and the legendary accomplishments as champions of Celestia and Luna became forsaken to the Elements of Harmony, had been kept.

Silver Scroll pressed her hoof forward. I have to tell him, there is no choice if I am to remain faithful. It is better to live in shame of honesty than honor a lie. She rapped against the door four times. There was a long wait from each of the heavy stubbornanium clangs that echoed through the hallway. After the fourth clang, Silver Scroll stood there un-moving. She could feel a twitch in her cyber-body preventing her from shaking at the hooves as her nerves felt fried for the first time in a century.

“Master Icehorn, it is time to wake and we must speak,” the lump in the mare's thought was audible to anyone within earshot. Silver Scroll realized her voice was still pure, non-robotic. She couldn't figure out why but the feeling brought a tear to her still biological eyes.

The great doors to chamber creaked and whined as the telekinetic veil started to pull the opening ajar. The room inside was dimly lit by candles scattered unevenly around the room. Who lit them and positioned them was not present. The ashen gray unicorn was a shadow moving through the gloom, approaching Silver Scroll slowly in full ceremonial shoes that clanged harder than the cyber-mare's metallic limbs. It was clear from Icehorn's eyes that became visible in the hallway light; he had gotten little if any sleep since departing the librarium. His head lifted just slightly when he saw his companion standing there. He looked at his assistant and companion, his eyes were concerned and full of worry. She has never disturbed me before I made ready.

Exhaustion vanished and replaced with guarded concern as his attention fully fell upon the mare and his features hardened almost completely. The .54 Flank Buster was sliding from its holster and the only softness upon the inquisitor was a single tear in his eye that rolled over his cheek.

“Silver Scroll, your voice, explain it to me?” he watched the mare carefully, giving a scant two breathes before looking to see if the scribe would flinch or retreat before continuing on. “Our augurs detected unusual energy readings after I went to sleep last night.” He paused once more and took a few more steps forward, now completely out of his quarters and into the hallway. The hand cannon floating in air closer and closer to the adept librarium. “The readings were coming from the Librarium. Tell me why?” With each word his composure got stiffer and ice blue eyes became harder. The room grew a colder and the friendship between them seemed to matter less as the tension between their gazes twisted tighter.

Silver Scroll's robotic voice returned, as the feeling of her vocal cords vibrating as metal on metal resumed, much to her relief. “I do. And following the Tenant of Honesty, we have had something happen that I must speak to you about. As much as it may damn myself to the final pasture.” Even with the cybernetic enhancements returning to work, one could pick out the cracking and nervousness in the voice.

Icehorn looked at her with the full authority of his station. No longer were those eyes one of a friend but one of a judge, jury, and executioner waiting to render a verdict. Silver Scroll slowly and deliberately took her time to explain the experience from the previous evening to her master. She took her time, spelling it out. Gillihone didn't ask any questions, the volcanic ash colored unicorn stared on; each word rang out like a hammer striking a anvil that might break from the blows of his heavy stare. If Silver Scroll had been anypony else, even a dragon of the Adeptus Mechanicus Scalinos, he would have pulled the trigger and ordered the body incinerated.

When Silver Scroll had finished relaying her encounter with the Rubineigh, the silence stretched out for eons before Icehorn hung his head low to the floor. “I should shoot you right now,” there was a click of the hammer as the flank buster was safed from firing. “But the High Inquisition will want to hear this. Our greatest enemies are on the move and they appear desperate. We need to understand why.” Gillihone turned on his hoof and started to pack back and forth before Silver Scroll. He worked out his thoughts aloud while ceremonial gold hoof shoes echoed between each wood. “You appear to be a focus point for it. I will save my questions for later. I want to see what they think first.”

He walked past her and cast his secondary side arm, a hold out pistol onto the floor in front of Silver Scroll. It only held one shot and only a precision shot would be lethal to any target with something of that caliber. This was made for self applied mercy of Luna. “I see no reason to execute you, yet. But if you feel like you can't live with yourself; then there it is, end it now before you fall to the arms of heresy.” He left Silver Scroll in silence other than his hooves moving away with more and more distance pangs upon the metal. The thoughts and deeds of the cyber-mare weighing more than a ocean of steel.

Silver Scroll collapsed to her knees. Her head bowed low as she could not look at him. She had been weak, and in her weakness she may compromised her very being. Her closest friend, her master and commander wouldn't even look at her now.

After letting a single tear drop, the cyber-pony picked up the hold out pistol and placed it into her crimson barding robes. She took the formal piece of clothing and cast it over her back. If it came to falling to Discord and The Warp or staying in the Arms of Harmony, she would stay; through death.

The mare looked back and trotted slowly to catch up to her master. She slowed at her pace even more than normal and brought the visor over her eyes to start preparing the findings to present to the High Inquisitor.

“Why is she not in chains!? Icehorn, you know better than this; why is she not been turned to ashes and cast to the void where heretical ideas like this belong?” The first High Inquisitor's words sundered Silver Scroll's soul like a bolter round through the heart. The chamber was up in arms calling for death, torture, and interrogation. The commands echoed around her and filled the chamber with a fanatical hatred. Even a chalice was thrown and bounced off of Silver Scroll's armored plated forehead. She winced and took a step back as the gold cup clattered to the floor and the contents spilled out over her hooves.

The cyber-mare raised a hoof to defend shield her face and staggered back. There was no where for her to go though, she was the center of attention within the precise central location of the room. Silver Scroll braced herself for the worst and closed her fragile eyes. Moments passed and she could hear the pangs of food, cups, even the shot of a gun that barely rose over the noise but none of those blows fell upon her. Slowly the mare opened her eyes and saw a film of ashen gray surrounded her through the air all the way to the platform, a unicorn's shield spell. The second High Inquisitor reached a black hoof from the shadow of her golden robes and slammed a gavel down.

“ORDER! Order or I shall have you all flogged!” The mare screamed out while the gavel toned off the wood over and over again, till the wooden anvil shattered under her hoof. The gavel continued to hit down, its metal rings holding the wood together for the prolonged call to order.

The massive chamber echoed as the hard wooden gavel hammered into the metal council table over and over again. They were in an amphitheater designed to hold the inquisitors and the entirety of their retinues. Scribes, enforcers, pilots, acolytes, and marines gathered in with them; nearly two thousand ponies and almost one hundred dragons. The audience was a veil of shadows, one could not see them at all save for vague shapes moving. It was meant to be that way so that Inquisitors could ask questions or drive home points without fear of reprisal for personal grudges. The three High Inquisitors were the only bright spots within the sea of shadows and darkness but were covered head to hoof in flowing golden robes, lined in white platinum trimming and black highlights. Their hooves occasionally became visible as they extended to speak while sitting upon their elevated trio of marble thrones.

Each throne was held up by a mechanism that allowed them to hover in air without sound or wind. They just stayed there, slowly falling slightly and then rising up again. Slowly the room quieted when the rabble realized their blood thirst would not be satisfied. Silver Scroll looked for the source of the barrier and found Icehorn's horn glowing just enough to call forth the shield. He looked like he could murder a hundred thousand ponies right now and his rage might not be sated. The energy field from his horn pulsed and quivered as he held back any further retaliation thrown at his assistant mare. The stallion quite honestly had never looked more heroic to her, even the deaths of heretical cultists at his hooves were nothing compared to this.

“I will remind you!” Icehorn's words punctuated the chamber's silence as he deliberately stepped from the crowd seating to join next to Silver Scroll. “We came here in good faith High Inquisitors and the recent actions of outside forces have brought this to our attention.” He passed through his own barrier to get to the cyber-mare's side but started to circle her as he spoke. “Something is on the move, rising from the depths of our worst fears.” Gillihone stopped here and rotated his head around at the silent crowd. “I believe my assistant is connected to it somehow. I have searched her quarters, the entirety of my ship, the librarium, even peered into the discordia to check. All before we came to you!” He let his voice bite into their ears and allowed their guilt to permeate their own minds rather than just use that which he could inflict upon them.

“I found no heresy. Only in her words and claimed actions.” Icehorn's glare intensified and became a challenge that none wished to answer as he looked from shadow shape to shadowy shape past their bright light shield. “Now an entire system is missing, GONE. You have seen my ship's augur records, you have seen the ashen piles of what used to be my first pilot and navigator. Goddess-Queens Celestia and Luna rest the souls of Void Walker and Metal Hide. I will miss them dearly but that doesn't change the fact we have been presented with an opportunity. And I am willing to swear by that decision.”

The third High Inquisitor, the last one and only one whom had not spoken since they arrived put a hoof down to speak. “Are you willing to swear an Oath of Love and Repentance by Cadance if you are wrong?” The quiet room with murmurs and whispers around them suddenly went dead silent at the sound of a single gavel strike against the dented metal desk.

No one dared to speak further as all eyes were now upon Icehorne. An Oath of Love and Repentance was to say you would devote your life to the Goddess's eternal service. To atone for a sin that no one dared to speak of anymore. You only risked the oath if you were absolutely certain. You could only take such an oath on behalf of another, not on your own. If your friend was found to be a heretic or to violate the terms of the court after that, your mane would be shaved, all ranks stripped, and you would be cast onto the nearest feral world to preach Harmony. It was a death sentence without a true chance to redeem yourself; no one had in over 7000 years since the first one was violated.

Silver Scroll could cut the air with a bite. She knew what such a swearing of fealty to her would mean. Without thinking she pressed a hoof against his shoulder causing his gaze to snap to her ready to strike. Icehorn was not letting up any of the hardness behind it. The shield around them fell down while a telekinetic hoof enveloped his melee weapon, an old heavy longsword from a time before the Crusaders of Unity. The blade came up and pressed against Silver Scroll's throat, hard enough that the metal there started to give into the flesh underneath.

“If I must, to make you not wish to end a potential lead, and a life devoted to Harmony, without considering what our foes might be up to...” Every single one of his words fell like a executioners axe upon their ears. He was using his voice of command channeling magic through his horn and back into his throat. He was making it clear that nothing he said he was not bound to nor could anyone 'mishear' or 'not acknowledge' the words he spoke. “Then yes, I will swear the Oath for Silver Scroll and promise that if she has fallen; I will execute her myself.” The High Inquisitors looked to each other, whispering among themselves. There was a murmur rising around the room; it grew slowly until a gravel slammed into metal bench again and this time finally the hoof of the center High Inquisitor would not be denied. The room fell silent while the sound of a gavel hammer smashed from the pummel and hoof that wielded it, echoed across the metal away from the High Inquisitors.

“Scribe! Note that as of right now; Gillihone Icehorn must swear an Oath of Love and Repentance to Silver Scroll's actions before they are allowed leave. In addition to this, they are to head to their ship and where Silver Scroll is to make contact with the entity in the presence of Icehorn and they are to discuss what precisely it suggests.” He took a moment to draw a new breath and allow the radical nature of his actions to sink in. “One of us will accompany them hidden from sight and knowledge, to witness the event and determine if Icehorn shall have to execute upon his oath or not.”

Icehorn looked at Silver Scroll and then to the High Inquisition Council. It did not matter to him or her now. Whatever this mare did he was responsible for in a way that would either spell out their salvation or their doom.