Fortress Equestriaby computerneekChaptersNightmareTrainingDiscoveryNightmareEquestria had been a peaceful nation, once. For most, it still is. But not for Agent Golden Notes. She and the Agency of which she is part have been fighting a secret war for the last several years, against a secret enemy. The only problem is, that kind of secrecy only holds for as long as they don’t lose. Like now. A few enemy troopers have managed to break past their defenses. She hadn’t been on the perimeter guard. Not even on the reserve guard. She shouldn’t have to deal with these things- she should still be participating in training missions, dealing with the less dangerous Equestrian underground, catching crooks and maintaining the nation’s extremely peaceful population. But this is an emergency. This party is the largest that’s ever broken through. At least, it had been, when it broke through. They’d managed to dodge the perimeter guard altogether. The reserve guards that had moved to stop them lay slewn on Equestrian soil. But they had failed to stop them completely. Enough of the enemies were defeated that she should be able to win in a stand-up fight against them. There’d be a good chance she’d be injured- or even lose a limb- in that battle, and a significant chance she’d lose, but she might actually win. She thinks. She has difficulty believing those numbers. But now isn’t the time to dwell on numbers. She’s the only Agent close enough to stop them short of civilization. What’s more, she’s just caught onto their trail. They’re… Oh no. Their path will take them straight through the campsite she’d been enjoying her weekend at when she received the call. The campsite where a couple from Canterlot are enjoying their weekend with their foal. It is critical, above all else, that the Enemy never acquire a foal. Their evil magics… Are terrible. She refuses to go any further than that; not only is it absolutely horrifying, but she might distract herself from the situation at hand- and be unable to stop them in time. Ahah! There’s… One of the four. The other three must be running ahead; while this reduces her chances of stopping them short of the campsite, it also improves her chances of surviving the encounter without any major injuries- and makes it virtually certain she can take them on in battle. Especially if the last three separate as well. She fights a quick battle. Her goal is to take it down; her colleagues can come clean up the body later. Though, unlike everypony on the perimeter or reserve guards, she doesn’t know where its weak points are. Not that she lets that pose a problem. It takes her several tries, but she eventually penetrates its armor. It’s an exhausting battle- but it so happens she’s practiced with shields, so just one of these thugs can’t deal quite enough damage to penetrate her defenses. Her final blasting spell shatters its breastplate and empties its chest cavity. She dodges aside and resumes her chase. She’ll be hard-pressed to stop them short of the camp- and civilians like the ones in the camp won’t be able to fight near as well as she. She’s their only hope. While she runs, she makes a quick mental check of who was at the camp. The camp administrators will probably just hide in the basement when they show up; that elderly couple from Trottingham might fight, but as long as they don’t bring attention to themselves, they should be able to hide in the surrounding woods quite easily. Her only worry, then, is that family from Canterlot. They aren’t skilled soldiers- but they’ll be clearly visible to these monsters. Their son is probably too old for these things’ magic to work on; she can’t be certain, though, as he hasn’t gotten his cutie mark yet. Their daughter, however, only just started walking last week. She’s a prime target for these thugs… But she should be the only one. So long as they hide the filly, she should be able to wipe these thugs out before they can compromise Equestrian security. “Question?” The instructor asks, picking out a raised hoof. “Yes, Sir,” the young mare in question answers. “Why is she so worried about the filly?” “The Alcari’ spell only works on the very young- and she was the only one young enough.” “Huh.” She galloped after them. She heard the screams of the campers before she reached the place herself- and accelerated her chase. They must not get the foal. By the time she reached the camp, two of the remaining monsters had fled already. The last one remained, terrorizing the locals; she attacked it from behind, discovering a weak point and stopping it in its tracks. Finally, she took off after the two fleeing Alcari, chased them down, and eliminated them as well. “Any more questions?” The instructor asks, the story finally finished. The two young stallions and one mare in attendance all shake their heads no. It’s time for him to start asking them questions about it. “Ahh. So, what’s the important part about Golden Notes’ encounter?” The mare raises her hoof again and, when the instructor finally points a hoof to her, drops hers as she speaks up. “She demonstrated the bravery and selflessness expected of any Agent in any position.” He nods. “Very good.” One of the stallions raises a hoof- and only barely waits for his turn before speaking. “What happened to the story?” The instructor sighs. “I summarized the rest of it for you restless ponies.” He issues the two stallions a glare. The two stallions look at each other. “Well…” “Fine, then,” he retorts, stomping a hoof. “You’re dismissed.” He scribbles something on a page from his desk, then hands the note to the two stallions. “Take this to the office.” He keeps up his glare until the door slams behind them, before he lets out a huff of breath. “The nerve,” he grumbles. “So many disappointing ponies come through here it’s… Well, disappointing.” He looks up at the mare remaining in the room. “Are you going to be a disappointment too, or no?” She issues a shrug. “I certainly hope not, Sir.” He responds with a sigh. “Any questions?” “Um… Yes?” He raises an eyebrow. “And?” “Didn’t the Alcari actually acquire the filly?” His other eyebrow joins the first. “You must’ve read the textbook?” She nods. “Ahh… Yes, they did. They have to get their subject back to their base to cast their spell, though, so Golden Notes still had time. I heard that Canterlot family’s colt gained his cutie mark during the battle at the camp- something related to the shield he cast. Anyways, Golden Notes spent a few seconds checking over the camp, and found the filly missing. Before she resumed her chase, she promised the parents- and the colt, apparently that was important- that she would bring the filly back. “She was never able to. The Alcari split again; she ripped the third apart faster than either of the other two. Very fast learner, she was- It was she, in this action, that discovered a weakness in their armor, vastly improving our combat effectiveness, for a time. “Anyways. She chased the last one, the one with the foal, back into Alcari territory. She faced off against not just that one survivor but a few other parties of Alcari; she was able to surprise many of them and, with her new exploit attack, came out on top in each fight. Eventually… “Eventually, I heard, she was able to get the monster carrying the foal to drop it- and the foal fled itself. She fought as hard as she could, but wasn’t able to reach the filly’s position and was forced to retreat. She returned to our territory and made her report. “Within the hour, she participated in an offensive to that same location, in an attempt to reacquire the filly. They weren’t able to get her back, and…” He blinks tears out of his eyes. “She was the only survivor,” the mare finishes. He nods. “That was only the beginning of her short career.” She gallops determinedly through the woods. It’s a familiar nightmare. A fimiliar, atypical nightmare. A true story- a true memory. It takes her less than a second to recognize where it’s started this time. She’d just left the camp, after promising that couple she’d rescue their daughter. At the camp, their son had earned his cutie mark in protecting his parents before she had gotten there. He hadn’t been fast enough- or in the right spot- to protect his sister. So she had been taken. She’s galloping through the woods. The Alcari’s trail is growing faint, but she’s faster than they. She should be able to catch up to them before they regain their own territory- and recapture the filly. Restore young Twilight Sparkle to her parents. She’s galloping through the woods. Her only worry had been that the two monsters might split up again; such could allow the one carrying the filly to regain its own territory, where it would be exponentially harder to track- or reach. Only, while nothing has happened to suggest such, she knows she’s going to run into one or the other of them in about thirty seconds. She’s had this nightmare far too many times to be surprised. It had been a complete surprise at the time. The thing had struck from behind a tree- and she’d only barely dodged in time. Her battle with this one had been shorter than with the others. She’d discovered a weakness to their armor- the joint right at the bottom of their breastplate, if struck upwards, will shatter almost effortlessly, allowing her to shove their belly armor up into their chest cavity. Once she downs this one, she takes off after the last one: The one with the filly. She had figured she’d catch up and overtake it just shy of the line, just barely inside Equestrian territory. She knows that’s not exactly what happened. She gallops through the woods. The thing is up ahead; the trail is growing stronger. As expected, the filly is slowing it down, though not by much. Heh. As she had expected at the time. Very little of it had gone according to plan, but she’d been adaptive. She still is, she likes to think- though some of the awards and ranks they’d piled onto her since, she feels she never truly earned. That armor exploit had been an accidental discovery. She gallops through the woods. She’s approaching the defensive line. When she thinks about it, that day, she had done something worth recognition. But they had later rewarded her further for smaller feats. All those extra ranks and awards are left feeling cheap after… She spots the Alcari up ahead. The one carrying the foal. Another party is surging forwards, into Equestrian territory, to protect it; however, she has that armor-buckling trick now. After this only got her a low level award for valor and bravery in the face of the enemy, and no promotions. She throws several Alcari armor plates up into their vitals, and they collapse in short order. They’ve slowed her down- but not by much. She charges after the filly-toting one, straight into enemy territory alone. During her training, one of the examples they had used was one particular stallion that had snuck into enemy territory alone, stuck to the shadows like a coward, and killed all of six hostiles. He’d been awarded a high-level award for bravery. Why hadn’t they bothered to give her any of those awards for this? Seriously, they’d finally given her that same high-level award when she led an assault into enemy territory some three years later! That had been the last assault she had ever led. Frustrated by her superior’s ignorance, she had left. She had asked to go inactive; they had agreed, with a time limit. Then an enemy incursion had begun, and she had gotten caught up in it. She wipes out the next attack wave, charging after the foal-toting Alcari. She had wiped out half the attackers herself, even before the regular guards ever got there, and faked her own defeat. She didn’t want them dragging her back. She’d already been dealing with this nightmare for three years. A third row of hostiles chokes on their own armor. All the other nightmares her mind has conjured up, she has been able to disperse with her magic. She’s followed it far into the enemy’s territory. The beast hasn’t been able to stop, for fear of her catching up; neither have its allies been able to stop her. She sees a large army of its allies up ahead. She knew she wouldn’t be able to defeat them. She knows she wasn’t. But she survived this encounter. They did not. The one carrying the filly stumbles suddenly when something on the metal ground they’re running across shifts. The filly tumbles free and runs straight away from the thing regaining its feet. It never regains its feet. She got close enough first. She choked it on its own armor. More hostiles are closing in around them. She calls out to the filly, by name. But little Twilight is too young, and does not understand her words. She does not heed her call. The Alcari manage to push her back. Their army is arriving, closing against her. More and more of her energy is forced to play into their demise. A party is closing around the filly. She calls out one last time, praying that the filly hears and turns towards her. Her only hope. At least, what she’d thought was her only hope. A circular hole had suddenly formed in the metal ground, and the filly had dropped in. She’d made her charge towards that hole. Defeated Alcari lay around her by the hundreds, even thousands. She never counted- didn’t have time. One of the beasts had dove into the hole after the filly. Or, it had tried to. The hole had closed right before it managed it, resulting in the monster’s defeat. A voice had come out of the ground around her as the Alcari pushed her back. A definitively masculine voice, speaking in clean Equestrian. “I will protect her while you get help.” Though sometimes it’s “She’s safe here, get backup.” Even once, it’s been “They cannot beat me, bring more troops.” That’s the only part of this dream that’s been fluid. She doesn’t know exactly what it said- only that it had promised they could not reach the filly. Who, presumably, is still alive someplace. Unless she’s starved to death. They hadn’t been able to reach that metal ground in any of their offensives since. They don’t know if it’s still there. They do know the Alcari never reached the filly. Not alive, at least; had they done so, Equestria would be in ruins. Whatever it had said, it had been convincing about it. She turns tail almost instantly, now fleeing for her life. She smashes any Alcari that gets in her path- and again, she’s faster than they. Escape is almost easy. Finally, she pauses at the top of a distant hill to look back. The end of the dream. A long, metal spear rises slowly out of the ground on a rapidly expanding column of black smoke. It makes it almost a hundred pony-lengths above the ground before the smoke seems to stop working and it plummets back to the ground. When it strikes, the entire area- including that entire army of Alcari- becomes an enormous fireball. She ducks behind the hill to avoid the blast, throwing up a shield to be certain. It nearly wipes her out anyways. She continues her flight back to Equestria, not looking back even once. She gallops through the woods. Tears stream from her eyes. She falls on the floor. The dream is over. She sheds a few more tears for young Twilight Sparkle. She’s been doing that every morning for longer than she can remember. Ever since it happened, probably. Her horn probes at the soundproofing on her bedroom. The anti-scrying spells. They’re all holding solid. Not that there should be anypony anywhere near close enough to hear or see, even without those spells. She has a big house. Three floors, dozens of rooms she’ll never use. Her bedroom is at its very heart. Yet she left hers with young Twilight Sparkle. Her parents had not taken the news well. The Agency had made dozens of attempts to reclaim their daughter over the following weeks, months. None had been successful. Young Twilight Sparkle had eventually been assumed dead. But every time she takes up her lyre, she feels it in the instrument. In her heart. The filly is not dead. She must be a young adult by now. Right about the same age as the young mares she’s sent in the Agency’s direction. The young mares that might follow in her hoofsteps. That might, with proper training, be the party that reclaims the missing filly. Or confirms her dead. Or wins the war. The one she sent their way last month was quite promising. On the surface, the mare is a simple candy shop owner. But deeper down, it turns out she’s an alchemist, an adventurer. She’s developed various kinds of candies. Many of her concoctions require some more exotic ingredients, from the Everfree Forest itself. She’s developed a candy that makes her enormously strong. Stronger than an earth pony- or, more accurately, than any other earth pony. She’s developed a ‘candy’ that explodes when she throws it. She’s developed a ‘candy’ that boosts her senses. She’s developed candies for almost every occasion. Even sleep deprivation. She hasn’t been able to develop a candy to stave off that nightmare. Every other nightmare, every other dream, she can chase away with a candy. Or a spell. She knows several. But not that one. So she’d sent her in the Agency’s direction. She’s fairly sure the Agency doesn’t know who referred her. Or the one before her, the pegasus with the wonderfully shy front to her powerful core. Or the one before her, the unicorn that had successfully worked battle tactics into a dress design. Or the one before that, the earth pony with a determined heart and a mean hind hoof. Or the one before her, the earth pony with the energy of a battalion and the mane to fit enough supplies to sink a ship. Or the one just yesterday, the mare with the mind of a soldier, the wings of a racer, and the ambition to drive her forward. Author's Note Oh- and if you don't see Chapter Two in time, that's because I'm not satisfied with its current state. It's almost ready, though- I might be able to finish & publish on time, but I also might not. I should be able to get it up by Thursday at the latest, but as always, no promises. This stuff relies on being "in the mood". Training“Gah!” She flinches as she feels the weapon slicing through her neck, decapitating her cleanly. Then her head lands back on and the battle is over. She rubs her neck at the line that monster had just sliced through it. She knows it’s not a real monster, or even a real neck- but it still feels real. It’s always disorienting when that happens. “Ouch. What’d I miss?” She looks around, stepping to the side as she watches the battle replay itself perfectly. She watches herself smashing these monsters- generic, generated thugs- back into the bits they’re composed of. The answer comes from the stallion that hadn’t been standing next to her a moment before. “That one was hanging from the ceiling when you came in,” he states matter-of-factly, watching with her. She scowls up at him. “You didn’t tell me there were any climbers in this one!” “I also didn’t tell you there weren’t any.” Her scowl becomes a pout. Pouting never works on him- he only finds it amusing. “Why do I never win these challenges?” He smiles at her. “Because I make them progressively more difficult. You’ll notice you almost win every single one.” Her eyebrows fly up, her pout disappearing. “Oh? How hard can you make it?” He raises his eyebrows. “A lot harder. I’ve been limiting these challenges to no more than a hundred hostiles a piece, with a pony-level intelligence guiding each one throughout. It’s just the types, action plans, and initial placing that I put my facilities into planning out. If I were to put even a single pacer on my tactical subprocessors during the simulation, you’d never beat it.” Pacer being the weakest category of monsters, consisting of eight-legged fuzzy creatures that could poke and prod… But their only weapon is really their ability to throw her from a high place, or sit on her. They’re not particularly strong, nor overly fast; they can’t even climb on the wall. She groans irritatedly. Another thing that only serves to amuse him. “How realistic are these ‘challenges’, anyways?” “Not very, honestly. They’re supposed to be challenges, after all.” “What’s a real battle look like?” He looks at her straight-faced, all trace of humor gone in a picosecond. “Death and destruction everywhere. I’ve seen more battles than you’ve lived days.” She shakes his head lightly. “Though I do have one you might be interested in.” “Huh?” Immediately, the indoor scenery the challenge had taken place in disappears, replaced by… She sees them. Enormous numbers of… things. They don’t look like any of the monsters she’s been fighting, but she gets the distinctive feeling they’re… Unfriendly. She shudders. He notices. He notices everything. “Something wrong?” he asks. “No… I don’t know.” She points a hoof. “They aren’t like anything you’ve put against me, but they just feel… bad.” He nods. “Not surprised.” She tilts her head. “Why?” He looks forwards. “Watch.” The scene suddenly starts moving. The… things- she resists labelling them monsters, these were real- seem to be charging down a hillside. There’s a few large parties of them, each about the same size as an entire ‘challenge squad’ like the ones he’s been throwing at her. There’s an even larger army off in the distance, gathering together, building up, and moving down, towards them. Between them, the ground seems to be made of metal. She looks in the direction they’re all moving. There’s one, at what looks like a dead run. It passes through one of the smaller parties, carrying- Wait! Everything freezes in response, and she blinks herself over to look at the purple thing it’s carrying. “What…?” He appears next to her. “Yes. That’s you. This recording is all I have of who you are to them.” She nods slowly, looking up into its face and snuffing out the sudden surge of fear before it can even start. “What’s it running from?” The two ponies blink back off to the side, and he points to the advancing party it had passed through. “Watch.” Everything continues. She recognizes the magic being used. It’s a fairly simple spell- but it sends them to the ground like a load of bricks. As the last one falls, the pursuing unicorn becomes visible. A single, green unicorn. Light blue and white striped mane and tail. Musical instrument printed on her flank. But she sure crushed these monsters. They both watch as she charges forwards, crushing several more waves on her way. She watches the one carrying her younger self stumble on a shifting missile launch cell hatch. Everything pauses again, as she turns to look at him. He nods, indicating the metal ground. “That is me.” She looks back forwards, and everything resumes. She watches her younger self tumble from its grasp and turn to flee. Away from the desperate unicorn. The unicorn that’s clearly trying to save her. “No! Go back to her!” The filly ignores her just as completely as it ignores the green unicorn’s calls. “Twilight! This way!” Her ears perk as her head snaps around. It’s… Just the green unicorn. The memory. She looks back down at the filly, but it hasn’t responded at all. More of the monsters die, but they’re starting to flow in en masse. She can tell they’re starting to overwhelm the green mare. She tilts her head, and everything freezes. “If…” She tilts her head the other way, considering for a second. “She could have taken on twice as many, easy.” “My estimate is that she could have taken approximately 2.31 times as many,” he states, standing next to her. “Had she spent just two more seconds considering her tactics.” He shakes his head. “Had she the same skill you have now, she could have taken the entire army without issue.” Everything resumes again. She watches the chase go on. She watches the filly continue to flee. She watches the mare grow more and more desperate. “Couldn’t they have…?” “Given the same amount of additional thought to their tactics and actually accomplished their goal with less than a quarter of the losses? Yes. Surprise does tend to engender this kind of panic.” She watches the duralloy hatch open to drop the filly inside. She watches the mare try to reach it, the hatch snap shut before one of the monst- things can get in. She hears his voice rumble up from the ground. “She is safe with me. Save yourself.” The mare immediately reverses her charge and flees. She watches as the badly deteriorated nuclear warhead is used to clear the area of… “Call them ‘The Enemy’.” The enemy. She tilts her head. “The enemy? Why?” He lowers his head. “That’s how I considered them at the time.” He sends a quick glance in her direction. “I still do.” She scowls. “What…?” “Are they really called? I don’t know. I only know they have continued to earn designation as the Enemy… but haven’t shown enough strength to warrant the use of my firepower.” She looks at the smoking crater surrounding the slightly shinier lump of alloy in the ground. “And that?” He smirks. “Was overkill.” He smiles at her, and they both blink over to the top of the hill the unicorn had fled over, everything rewinding past the blast and resuming normally. “What would have happened had she not been behind the hill- or so quick on the shield?” Her eyes widen, watching the shield in question flicker with the strain. “She would have died.” He nods. “And Ponykind couldn’t have known you survived. As it is…” He pauses, frowning. “As it is, they might know you survived. I haven’t seen any ponies since.” “Can I go?” He shakes his head. “No- you’re still vulnerable to whatever the Enemy was trying to do.” He shows her a brief shot. Four of them had gathered around an unconscious pony; she understands instantly this is close to a year beforehand. She reads the spell they’re using… Yes. Yes, while the grown pony on their table is worse than useless to them, she’s still vulnerable to that spell herself. Nevermind that all it takes is one to begin casting it… and she passes out. She nods. “I’ll train until I’m as old as he, then.” This seems to amuse him. “That stallion is estimated to be almost eighty-eight years old,” he states. “You’re only five.” Her jaw drops. “Uh…” He chuckles. “Don’t worry. As near as I can tell, immunity to their spell should set in sometime between now and adulthood.” She nods. “Then if it’s alright with you, I’ll train until I’m a grown mare and then head out.” He mirrors her nod. “Unless the ponies find us first, where that prerequisite might be voided,” he states. She nods harder. “I’m still gonna be coming back, no matter what happens.” He smiles. “Good to hear.” The two-toned light flickers. “It’s not…” “What are you trying to do?” Funny, he usually knows even before she does herself. “You know how you show me things on the network, right?” She indicates the headband with a hoof, allowing her lights to fade. He gives the impression of a nod. “I can’t exactly use the network to show somepony else something when I go- so I’m looking for alternatives.” “So, doubling up a light spell with different colors…?” “If I can make enough lights at once, small enough and with low enough intensity, I should be able to reproduce a scene with an acceptable degree of precision.” “Ahh. It might be easier to think of it less in what’s actually there and more in terms of what the intended viewer will see. You’ve seen my holoprojector, right?” She nods. “That’s what I’m trying to make.” “You do realize it’s an image, projected from above or below, onto a high-density energy field, right?” “Huh?” “Such that the right part of the image reflects off of the right part of the energy field.” Her head tilts the other way. “Huh?” He sighs. “Hop on the Net, I’ll show you there.” She nods, flicking the headband up onto her head with a levitation spell and practiced ease. Two minutes later, she’s only partially absorbed in the network, her horn glowing sternly. They don’t do this often; he’s so smart it’s almost difficult to make a mistake, and her own skill is more valuable than simply doing something. But this is something neither of them can really do alone. Well, technically, she could- but it would take weeks or months, possibly years. When they do this, combining her magical ability with his processing power, they can experiment and adjust so fast it takes them, on average, fifteen seconds to invent a new spell. This time, it takes almost ten minutes- but by the end of it, they manage to project a faithful reproduction of a major ceremony he saw in some age long gone all over the inside of his bulkheads. Nevermind that he and several others like him were present, and reproduced with faithful accuracy. Or that the entire projection fit within a circle around her, about three meters across. Funny how magic works, isn’t it? They disconnect, and she starts her meager attempts to reproduce the spell. It takes a lot of effort. She didn’t realize just how much calculation he was doing behind the scenes, even on the active spell. But she’s a unicorn. She can do it. She closes her eyes, concentrating on the spell. It takes her somewhat significantly more power this time, and she adjusts the spell in a couple of places to make it easier to use. Before long, the smell of a battlefield graces her nose. Gunsmoke and iron, mostly. She opens her eyes. Her spell collapses. But for a second, she had been standing in the battlefield between two… She’s not even sure what they were, but they had been trading blinding bolts of light and thunder, cratering each others’ massive armor. She quickly reorients herself. “Huh? Did I do it?” “Affirmative.” He sounds impressed. “You came within 99.97% accuracy to my records, as a matter of fact. I have to wonder, though, what the flank photo is for?” “Flank pho- Huh. You didn’t do that, did you?” “Nope. It appeared- identical on both sides- while you had your spell running.” She blinks at the purple star now adorning her flanks, and tries probing at it with her magic before she scowls. “Doesn’t feel any different. Maybe it’s like some kind of indicator light?” “It’d have to be quite the fancy indicator light. I can confirm you’re now completely immune to the Enemy’s spell.” She raises an eyebrow. “What would you recommend?” “Well, the longer we wait, the more skilled you will be, and the easier it will be to defeat any of the Enemy that approach you. On the contrary, the longer we wait, the greater the possibility ponykind has suffered a catastrophe- and the greater the difficulty, regardless of such, in tracing your parents.” Scowl. “That’s not a recommendation.” “It’s your choice to make, not mine.” Groan. “You know how I-” “Hate making life choices? Yes, yes I do. But sometimes you must.” “Ugh. How long do I have before…?” “Six days.” She scowls. “How about… Three days, then I go look?” “You’ll have to make sure you either find something or get back here within two days- any more, and you’ll run out of food.” She nods. “Sounds good to me!” Three days. She had expected more magic practice. Perhaps an increase in the “challenges”; anymore, he’s hard-pressed to beat her with them without granting her thousands of opponents greater-than-pony intelligence powered by his own immense facilities. Or superpowers. He’d done that a few times, too. … The one that could only be killed by a kryptonite sword was a great stress reliever. She had expected, mostly, an intensification of what she was already doing. Maybe an adjustment towards the more specific scenarios she might run into. She had not expected everything to change. The challenges, along with everything she normally did, went out the hatch. Those three days consisted of one enormous cramming session, save for sleep, and one hardcore simulation as an exam, of sorts. He taught her more than she should ever need to know about surviving on her own. Hostile territory, friendly territory, anywhere. He taught her interpersonal- or is it inter-pony-al?- communication skills beyond that she’s already developed. He taught her how to function- work, eat, survive, everything- without her magic, in case it ever fails for any reason. He taught her how to avoid the weapons fire of a lesser engine of war than he while she closed for a kill. He’d helped her invent a number of additional spells, ranging from tracking to invisibility to teleportation. He’d taught her how to fly. Nevermind that she doesn’t have wings. He’d still taught her how to fly. And not just with that self-levitation spell they worked on. She has difficulty huffing as she thinks about all this, though. She’s too excited. She did, after all, just pass his enormously difficult test. She will, after all, be heading outside soon. Not that she knows which door leads outside. There’s too many he’s never let her through- and, she knows, for good reason. She won’t be trying to teleport through any of them. No. Whenever he gets around to it, he’ll be opening the right ones for her. Funny, he usually ‘gets around to it’ before she is even ready to wait for him. The commlink implant he’d given her halfway through those three days’ training comes on. He’s been using it a lot lately- she’s still getting used to having his voice in her head. And responding in kind. “Your armor is here. Sorry it took so long.” She raises an eyebrow. “My- Ahem, my armor?” “You didn’t think I’d let you out unprotected, did you? I have fought battles where I never once took a hit. But did I ever lower my guard? No. My armor stayed in place, my battlescreens and EW stayed at full power. Even after I had fully neutralized the enemy’s ability to damage me, I kept my defenses on.” She scowls. “Please tell me it’s not going to be… Oh.” He chuckles; she’d seen it coming in the door, carried by several of his tech spiders. “Don’t worry, it’s only an insurance policy.” She inspects the armor as she receives it. His ‘insurance policy’ is about a half inch of solid duralloy armor, complete with helmet, engineered to look just like her. While she’s fully suited, any normal pony would take a quick glance at her and continue on, completely unaware. She dons the armor… and finally understands why he taught a wingless pony to fly. She might be wingless, but her armor is not. They’re tied into her nervous system, on the same ‘channels’ as the simulated wings, through what she’s pretty sure is a subset of neural link hardware. As such, while she’s wearing her armor, she’s as good as winged. Nevermind that the metallic wings, engineered to look like they’re a legitimate part of her, disappear when she folds them. She’s going to look like a regular unicorn whenever she has them folded. Finally, he hoofs her the pouch containing the last of their food, in a dense, nasty-tasting form that’s easier to carry. She loops the string around her neck, and a door opens. “Have a good journey,” he smiles. She smiles back. “Will do.” She trots out the door and up the tunnel, following his path of open doors until she comes up to a closed one… Which opens when she reaches it. She hops out the hatch, her armored hooves trodding gently on armor of the same material. The hatch closes behind her as she looks around, taking in the smells. Heh- his armor is awesome. Like an extension of herself, rather than armor. She can smell the fresh air- he does a really good reproduction of it inside- and even feel the gentle breeze on her coat. Nevermind her real coat is hidden under half an inch of alloy. None of the Enemy are nearby, but she can see the path taken by the green unicorn, so long ago. Almost eighteen and a half years, as a matter of fact- even though she’s only ten. She’d had to spend a significant amount of time in his stasis pods while he hunted up the resources necessary to make her more food. Unfortunately, he also hasn’t been able- in all this time- to recover the resources necessary to restore his motive systems to function, so he couldn’t solve the problem that way. But she’s mobile. She should be able to travel as far as she likes, so long as she can find food. She plans to bring back decent quantities of nickel and titanium. Even some gold, if she can find it. Nevermind the more significant quantity of iron she plans on hunting up. That’s the big one he’s run out of. She spreads her wings, crouching for a rapid takeoff. “I’ll be back.” She lands, invisible, just outside of town. The helpful mares in that other town back there- no clue what it was called- had mentioned someplace called ‘Canterlot’. From what she could gather, it’s supposed to be an enormous city, probably with a population in the millions… And the Canterlot Public Library is supposed to be the biggest library in the nation, housing books that other libraries could only dream of. She checks her surroundings, drops her invisibility spell, and trots out of her hiding spot, into town. Perhaps the residents of this little mountain town could point her to Canterlot? She finds a street to walk down. A nice little town, she must say- must be important to somepony. She smiles to herself. Her first encounter with a pony town had been a stroke of luck. She had, in a show of good foresight, disguised her appearance; given the number of social blunders she’d made, she’d have carried that baggage for the rest of her life. She’s still not sure what a ‘cutie mark’ is, nor why ponies kept telling her she has one. One had even asked her what it meant. But alas, the place is too fancy. She can’t find anything- and eventually departs, heading towards a smaller town down in the fields, by that forest… Strange, unfriendly-looking forest, when she takes ruthless advantage of her armor’s built-in binoculars. DiscoveryShe shakes her head as she leaves town, leaping off the edge. She’d planned to spend some time in the library before hitting the streets to inquire after her parents. However, she hadn’t even hit the library yet when some stallions in gold-colored armor had stopped her, and asked where her parents were. She’d answered honestly- that she didn’t know, and was looking for them. The two stallions- which, she suspects, are some kind of law enforcement- had then taken her into custody for no apparent reason. When asked, they only told her where they were taking her. Which was a place she didn’t want to go. She’d tried turning invisible to escape- but they were unicorns. One managed to counter her invisibility spell, the other levitated her back. They’d then stuck an annoying ring on her horn- or, her armored horn. It seems to affect her through the armor anyways- she couldn’t feel her magic, and he had called it a ‘suppression ring’. Not that it had helped them any. She’d waited until they dropped her off- some kind of orphanage, she thinks- before making her escape. She’d slipped the ring right off of the smooth outer surface of her armored horn, made herself invisible, and left through the back door. The guard- no horn, no wings, that means he’s an ‘earth pony’- had tried to catch her, but her armor had proven stronger. She’d made her escape while he was still recovering. The next guard she’d crossed paths with, on the street, had asked her the same question the first two had. This time, though, she’d come up with something fictitious. She’d claimed that her parents were waiting for her in the library. He’d pointed out she’d been going in the wrong direction. She’d admitted to being lost. He- a pegasus- had flown her to the library. He hadn’t followed her in, though, so her fiction had held. She’d studied up on everything important- basic history, what a cutie mark is, and so on. She’d left when the library closed- and made herself invisible to avoid all the guards. Now, still invisible, she’s headed for that little town by the forest up ahead. She extends her alloy wings, catching her fall and accelerating away. Hopefully, a little town like that will be a little less… Well, Guard-infested. Her armor might be designed to allow her to sleep safely in the field, or even in the air, but she already did that once. As much as doing that had helped her reach livable land- ‘Equestria’, it’s called- overnight, she’d rather not do that where somepony might actually see her. Besides, her armor isn’t the most comfortable thing to sleep in. She tilts her head slightly as she reaches cruising speed. If she does find a bed to sleep in, and sheds her armor for the night, she’ll have to guard against somepony walking in during the night. She squints through the sunset at the village. Her armor responds to her request, zooming in on it- and in a matter of moments, it’s just a forelegs’ reach away. It looks like it’s got more than a few guards, as well- but they seem to be more willing to simply follow and watch than control. Oh- and for as unfriendly as that forest looks, it’s nothing her armor can’t handle. By the time she arrives in town, most of the ponies have turned in for the night- leaving a number of guards patrolling the streets. She sheds her invisibility before entering town, and makes a beeline for what has to be Main Street. A guard stops her. “Excuse me, Miss?” he asks. Much nicer than the guards in Canterlot, she decides, as she turns to respond. “Yes?” He blinks a couple times, before giving himself a shake, taking a deep breath, and running a hoof through his two-toned blue mane. “Sorry,” he finally continues, turning away to unsuccessfully hide the blush. “I thought you looked familiar, for a second.” He takes another breath. “Sorry about that. Carry on.” “Wait!” She calls out to him, right as he turns away. He turns back, raising an eyebrow. “Yes?” She mentally prepares herself to disappear. Invisibility… and teleport, possibly. “I’m, uh, a bit new to the area- I was wondering if there was someplace to sleep?” He blinks a few more times, turning to face her more fully. “Um, I’m not sure,” he finally answers. “I’d have to ask… Here, follow me.” He leads her not to Main Street but to what looks like a Guard outpost not far from the middle of town. He even leads her inside- and acquires the attention of the desk officer. She braces herself for escape. But, as it turns out, she didn’t need to. He simply asks after someplace safe for her to sleep- and, after confirming that she doesn’t already have anyplace, gets a place. Then he leads her back outside, and out to the library. Apparently, there’s a loft in here. While normally reserved for the librarian, it seems they haven’t had a librarian in years. Oh well. She hadn’t really planned on interacting with the librarian anyways. He shows her to the door. It’s a nice tree, she decides. “And here we are,” he mutters. “Are you going to be okay overnight, or…?” She nods. “I’ll be okay,” she smiles. “Should I expect to see anypony?” He shakes his head. “Library is always empty at this hour.” “Ahh.” She nods, and starts to head in. Then, the door just swinging open, she turns back towards him. He’s also turning away, presumably to resume his patrol. “Wait- I have to ask, is there a particular reason there’s so many guards about?” He nods. “I haven’t heard the full story- nopony has- but word is we’ve been fighting a war of survival for decades… and we’re losing. By Celestia’s orders, every town and city is regularly patrolled- and if anypony heads out after dark, we make sure to follow and protect.” “So, the enemy has gotten past the line?” He nods. “Alcari,” he states. “They’re called the ‘Alcari’.” He glances quickly to the sides. “If we’re going to talk, we should probably do it inside.” She nods, and leads the way. It’s a nice little library, if she ignores the disaster waiting for her on the shelves. The books seem to be semi-randomly placed, but she can recognize the remains of its prior, alphabetical organization. He follows her in, and closes the door, before letting out a sigh. “Never know when one of them is going to jump out at you. We can’t afford to let our guard down- even for a moment- outside.” “But you can, inside?” He nods. “Usually, yes… come to think of it, they like infesting public buildings. I should probably scour the place before leaving you alone here- and make sure you lock the door when I leave.” He shudders. “I’d hate to lose somepony to something like that.” She tilts her head. “What do these… ‘Alcari’ look like?” He describes them. If she allows for all the uncertain words he’s using, it matches her observations of the Enemy that had nearly captured her as a foal. “I… I hope I never see one again,” he states, completing his long oration with a tear. She blinks. “What happened?” He looks away. “A… Long time ago. Long before anypony knew about the war. Mighta been before it even started, I’m not sure.” He takes a deep breath. “That… That was when I got my cutie mark.” His head hangs. “I was out camping with my parents… Three of the things came. I tried to protect everypony- but they broke through my first shield, and took my sister. I was able to protect everypony else with my second shield- and the ensuing cutie mark- but I couldn’t protect her. “Two of the things left with her, while the third stuck around to batter at us. During that time, a strange mare showed up. She killed it, promised she’d get my sister back, and galloped after them. “I never saw her again.” He blinks more tears out of his eyes, his voice cracking. “I don’t even remember what she looked like!” She places one hoof before the other. It’s a walk- a rock-steady walk. She’s completely invisible, covered in so many layers of spellwork even the greatest mage alive would miss her with the most powerful sensing spell known. Today is the day. She’s spent the last fifteen years preparing for this. Building her massive buffers of spellwork, the ones she activated today. She crosses the border, leaving Equestrian territory. Fifteen years of nightmares, fifteen years of determination, fifteen years of power, instantly burns any Alcari that looks her way to a crisp. Fifteen years, she has waited. Today, she attacks. She’ll reach that metal ground, find out what happened with the filly. Return home. Or die trying. That didn’t stop her from setting herself up to win. Unless the Alcari flow in as fast as they can from all parts of their land, all traveling directly to her, there simply won’t be enough of them to exhaust her spellwork until long after she’s back on Equestrian soil. And since they haven’t a clue she’s even here… She glances to the side. A brief pulse of her horn converts the ground a sizable army of Alcari are standing on into magma. She’d like to see the Agency do this. Or, even, have a clue how to do it. She designed all of these spells herself. She designed the trigger-release thaumic storage ability. She’s not just running on her thaumic reserves. She’s running on fifteen years of thaumic reserves. Nothing will stand in her way. Nothing. She walks on, retracing the steps she’s followed every night. A brief pulse of her horn unleashes the nuclear potential energy contained within one of the things’ claws over there, converting an entire army into a mushroom cloud. She will not be stopped. A pony excursion, lead by the Agency, is coming out behind her, taking advantage of her trail of destruction. She doesn’t think they know what’s causing it, but she does know they’re using it to penetrate and surround the Alcari’ lines. She leaves them behind. She walks deep into enemy territory. She reaches the top of a hill. A very important hill. There it is. The metal ground. She can see the battlements surrounding it. Carefully hidden in the terrain, to allow layer after layer of hidden soldiers just waiting for that filly to leave. They’re filled, to the brim. All watching that metal ground. That’s good. She’s still there. Or at least, the Alcari think she’s still there. She hopes she escaped. Her horn pulses. The trenches, the battlements, are now rivers of lava, completely devoid of living Alcari. She walks across them. She doesn’t sink. She doesn’t get burned. Those are events reserved for her enemies. She reaches the metal ground. Locks her gaze on the portal that had opened so long ago. Walks towards it. It slides open, exposing a solid metal interior, as she gets close. “You’re back,” a male voice observes from inside. “We were starting to wonder.” “We?” she asks, raising one eyebrow. “Yes,” the voice returns. “Twilight is alive and well. Why don’t you come in?” She shrugs, stepping down into the passage. “Where is she?” The door closes behind her. “She’s out exploring the pony nation right now, looking for her family. Don’t worry, she carries so much armor the Enemy could whale-” “Alcari.” “Excuse me?” “Alcari. That’s what they’re called.” “So, she carries so much armor the Alcari could whale away at her for weeks and never get through.” She starts relegating her spells to standby. “How is her education?” “I’ve educated her as best as I could. I do find that my kind is rather uniquely qualified for such, though I may have missed a subject or two I have no knowledge of- such as pony history.” He sighs. “Or, even, her own last name.” “Sparkle.” “Sparkle? That her last name?” She nods. “Fitting.” The last of her spells goes back to standby, and she blacks out from a sudden rush of mana.
NightmareEquestria had been a peaceful nation, once. For most, it still is. But not for Agent Golden Notes. She and the Agency of which she is part have been fighting a secret war for the last several years, against a secret enemy. The only problem is, that kind of secrecy only holds for as long as they don’t lose. Like now. A few enemy troopers have managed to break past their defenses. She hadn’t been on the perimeter guard. Not even on the reserve guard. She shouldn’t have to deal with these things- she should still be participating in training missions, dealing with the less dangerous Equestrian underground, catching crooks and maintaining the nation’s extremely peaceful population. But this is an emergency. This party is the largest that’s ever broken through. At least, it had been, when it broke through. They’d managed to dodge the perimeter guard altogether. The reserve guards that had moved to stop them lay slewn on Equestrian soil. But they had failed to stop them completely. Enough of the enemies were defeated that she should be able to win in a stand-up fight against them. There’d be a good chance she’d be injured- or even lose a limb- in that battle, and a significant chance she’d lose, but she might actually win. She thinks. She has difficulty believing those numbers. But now isn’t the time to dwell on numbers. She’s the only Agent close enough to stop them short of civilization. What’s more, she’s just caught onto their trail. They’re… Oh no. Their path will take them straight through the campsite she’d been enjoying her weekend at when she received the call. The campsite where a couple from Canterlot are enjoying their weekend with their foal. It is critical, above all else, that the Enemy never acquire a foal. Their evil magics… Are terrible. She refuses to go any further than that; not only is it absolutely horrifying, but she might distract herself from the situation at hand- and be unable to stop them in time. Ahah! There’s… One of the four. The other three must be running ahead; while this reduces her chances of stopping them short of the campsite, it also improves her chances of surviving the encounter without any major injuries- and makes it virtually certain she can take them on in battle. Especially if the last three separate as well. She fights a quick battle. Her goal is to take it down; her colleagues can come clean up the body later. Though, unlike everypony on the perimeter or reserve guards, she doesn’t know where its weak points are. Not that she lets that pose a problem. It takes her several tries, but she eventually penetrates its armor. It’s an exhausting battle- but it so happens she’s practiced with shields, so just one of these thugs can’t deal quite enough damage to penetrate her defenses. Her final blasting spell shatters its breastplate and empties its chest cavity. She dodges aside and resumes her chase. She’ll be hard-pressed to stop them short of the camp- and civilians like the ones in the camp won’t be able to fight near as well as she. She’s their only hope. While she runs, she makes a quick mental check of who was at the camp. The camp administrators will probably just hide in the basement when they show up; that elderly couple from Trottingham might fight, but as long as they don’t bring attention to themselves, they should be able to hide in the surrounding woods quite easily. Her only worry, then, is that family from Canterlot. They aren’t skilled soldiers- but they’ll be clearly visible to these monsters. Their son is probably too old for these things’ magic to work on; she can’t be certain, though, as he hasn’t gotten his cutie mark yet. Their daughter, however, only just started walking last week. She’s a prime target for these thugs… But she should be the only one. So long as they hide the filly, she should be able to wipe these thugs out before they can compromise Equestrian security. “Question?” The instructor asks, picking out a raised hoof. “Yes, Sir,” the young mare in question answers. “Why is she so worried about the filly?” “The Alcari’ spell only works on the very young- and she was the only one young enough.” “Huh.” She galloped after them. She heard the screams of the campers before she reached the place herself- and accelerated her chase. They must not get the foal. By the time she reached the camp, two of the remaining monsters had fled already. The last one remained, terrorizing the locals; she attacked it from behind, discovering a weak point and stopping it in its tracks. Finally, she took off after the two fleeing Alcari, chased them down, and eliminated them as well. “Any more questions?” The instructor asks, the story finally finished. The two young stallions and one mare in attendance all shake their heads no. It’s time for him to start asking them questions about it. “Ahh. So, what’s the important part about Golden Notes’ encounter?” The mare raises her hoof again and, when the instructor finally points a hoof to her, drops hers as she speaks up. “She demonstrated the bravery and selflessness expected of any Agent in any position.” He nods. “Very good.” One of the stallions raises a hoof- and only barely waits for his turn before speaking. “What happened to the story?” The instructor sighs. “I summarized the rest of it for you restless ponies.” He issues the two stallions a glare. The two stallions look at each other. “Well…” “Fine, then,” he retorts, stomping a hoof. “You’re dismissed.” He scribbles something on a page from his desk, then hands the note to the two stallions. “Take this to the office.” He keeps up his glare until the door slams behind them, before he lets out a huff of breath. “The nerve,” he grumbles. “So many disappointing ponies come through here it’s… Well, disappointing.” He looks up at the mare remaining in the room. “Are you going to be a disappointment too, or no?” She issues a shrug. “I certainly hope not, Sir.” He responds with a sigh. “Any questions?” “Um… Yes?” He raises an eyebrow. “And?” “Didn’t the Alcari actually acquire the filly?” His other eyebrow joins the first. “You must’ve read the textbook?” She nods. “Ahh… Yes, they did. They have to get their subject back to their base to cast their spell, though, so Golden Notes still had time. I heard that Canterlot family’s colt gained his cutie mark during the battle at the camp- something related to the shield he cast. Anyways, Golden Notes spent a few seconds checking over the camp, and found the filly missing. Before she resumed her chase, she promised the parents- and the colt, apparently that was important- that she would bring the filly back. “She was never able to. The Alcari split again; she ripped the third apart faster than either of the other two. Very fast learner, she was- It was she, in this action, that discovered a weakness in their armor, vastly improving our combat effectiveness, for a time. “Anyways. She chased the last one, the one with the foal, back into Alcari territory. She faced off against not just that one survivor but a few other parties of Alcari; she was able to surprise many of them and, with her new exploit attack, came out on top in each fight. Eventually… “Eventually, I heard, she was able to get the monster carrying the foal to drop it- and the foal fled itself. She fought as hard as she could, but wasn’t able to reach the filly’s position and was forced to retreat. She returned to our territory and made her report. “Within the hour, she participated in an offensive to that same location, in an attempt to reacquire the filly. They weren’t able to get her back, and…” He blinks tears out of his eyes. “She was the only survivor,” the mare finishes. He nods. “That was only the beginning of her short career.” She gallops determinedly through the woods. It’s a familiar nightmare. A fimiliar, atypical nightmare. A true story- a true memory. It takes her less than a second to recognize where it’s started this time. She’d just left the camp, after promising that couple she’d rescue their daughter. At the camp, their son had earned his cutie mark in protecting his parents before she had gotten there. He hadn’t been fast enough- or in the right spot- to protect his sister. So she had been taken. She’s galloping through the woods. The Alcari’s trail is growing faint, but she’s faster than they. She should be able to catch up to them before they regain their own territory- and recapture the filly. Restore young Twilight Sparkle to her parents. She’s galloping through the woods. Her only worry had been that the two monsters might split up again; such could allow the one carrying the filly to regain its own territory, where it would be exponentially harder to track- or reach. Only, while nothing has happened to suggest such, she knows she’s going to run into one or the other of them in about thirty seconds. She’s had this nightmare far too many times to be surprised. It had been a complete surprise at the time. The thing had struck from behind a tree- and she’d only barely dodged in time. Her battle with this one had been shorter than with the others. She’d discovered a weakness to their armor- the joint right at the bottom of their breastplate, if struck upwards, will shatter almost effortlessly, allowing her to shove their belly armor up into their chest cavity. Once she downs this one, she takes off after the last one: The one with the filly. She had figured she’d catch up and overtake it just shy of the line, just barely inside Equestrian territory. She knows that’s not exactly what happened. She gallops through the woods. The thing is up ahead; the trail is growing stronger. As expected, the filly is slowing it down, though not by much. Heh. As she had expected at the time. Very little of it had gone according to plan, but she’d been adaptive. She still is, she likes to think- though some of the awards and ranks they’d piled onto her since, she feels she never truly earned. That armor exploit had been an accidental discovery. She gallops through the woods. She’s approaching the defensive line. When she thinks about it, that day, she had done something worth recognition. But they had later rewarded her further for smaller feats. All those extra ranks and awards are left feeling cheap after… She spots the Alcari up ahead. The one carrying the foal. Another party is surging forwards, into Equestrian territory, to protect it; however, she has that armor-buckling trick now. After this only got her a low level award for valor and bravery in the face of the enemy, and no promotions. She throws several Alcari armor plates up into their vitals, and they collapse in short order. They’ve slowed her down- but not by much. She charges after the filly-toting one, straight into enemy territory alone. During her training, one of the examples they had used was one particular stallion that had snuck into enemy territory alone, stuck to the shadows like a coward, and killed all of six hostiles. He’d been awarded a high-level award for bravery. Why hadn’t they bothered to give her any of those awards for this? Seriously, they’d finally given her that same high-level award when she led an assault into enemy territory some three years later! That had been the last assault she had ever led. Frustrated by her superior’s ignorance, she had left. She had asked to go inactive; they had agreed, with a time limit. Then an enemy incursion had begun, and she had gotten caught up in it. She wipes out the next attack wave, charging after the foal-toting Alcari. She had wiped out half the attackers herself, even before the regular guards ever got there, and faked her own defeat. She didn’t want them dragging her back. She’d already been dealing with this nightmare for three years. A third row of hostiles chokes on their own armor. All the other nightmares her mind has conjured up, she has been able to disperse with her magic. She’s followed it far into the enemy’s territory. The beast hasn’t been able to stop, for fear of her catching up; neither have its allies been able to stop her. She sees a large army of its allies up ahead. She knew she wouldn’t be able to defeat them. She knows she wasn’t. But she survived this encounter. They did not. The one carrying the filly stumbles suddenly when something on the metal ground they’re running across shifts. The filly tumbles free and runs straight away from the thing regaining its feet. It never regains its feet. She got close enough first. She choked it on its own armor. More hostiles are closing in around them. She calls out to the filly, by name. But little Twilight is too young, and does not understand her words. She does not heed her call. The Alcari manage to push her back. Their army is arriving, closing against her. More and more of her energy is forced to play into their demise. A party is closing around the filly. She calls out one last time, praying that the filly hears and turns towards her. Her only hope. At least, what she’d thought was her only hope. A circular hole had suddenly formed in the metal ground, and the filly had dropped in. She’d made her charge towards that hole. Defeated Alcari lay around her by the hundreds, even thousands. She never counted- didn’t have time. One of the beasts had dove into the hole after the filly. Or, it had tried to. The hole had closed right before it managed it, resulting in the monster’s defeat. A voice had come out of the ground around her as the Alcari pushed her back. A definitively masculine voice, speaking in clean Equestrian. “I will protect her while you get help.” Though sometimes it’s “She’s safe here, get backup.” Even once, it’s been “They cannot beat me, bring more troops.” That’s the only part of this dream that’s been fluid. She doesn’t know exactly what it said- only that it had promised they could not reach the filly. Who, presumably, is still alive someplace. Unless she’s starved to death. They hadn’t been able to reach that metal ground in any of their offensives since. They don’t know if it’s still there. They do know the Alcari never reached the filly. Not alive, at least; had they done so, Equestria would be in ruins. Whatever it had said, it had been convincing about it. She turns tail almost instantly, now fleeing for her life. She smashes any Alcari that gets in her path- and again, she’s faster than they. Escape is almost easy. Finally, she pauses at the top of a distant hill to look back. The end of the dream. A long, metal spear rises slowly out of the ground on a rapidly expanding column of black smoke. It makes it almost a hundred pony-lengths above the ground before the smoke seems to stop working and it plummets back to the ground. When it strikes, the entire area- including that entire army of Alcari- becomes an enormous fireball. She ducks behind the hill to avoid the blast, throwing up a shield to be certain. It nearly wipes her out anyways. She continues her flight back to Equestria, not looking back even once. She gallops through the woods. Tears stream from her eyes. She falls on the floor. The dream is over. She sheds a few more tears for young Twilight Sparkle. She’s been doing that every morning for longer than she can remember. Ever since it happened, probably. Her horn probes at the soundproofing on her bedroom. The anti-scrying spells. They’re all holding solid. Not that there should be anypony anywhere near close enough to hear or see, even without those spells. She has a big house. Three floors, dozens of rooms she’ll never use. Her bedroom is at its very heart. Yet she left hers with young Twilight Sparkle. Her parents had not taken the news well. The Agency had made dozens of attempts to reclaim their daughter over the following weeks, months. None had been successful. Young Twilight Sparkle had eventually been assumed dead. But every time she takes up her lyre, she feels it in the instrument. In her heart. The filly is not dead. She must be a young adult by now. Right about the same age as the young mares she’s sent in the Agency’s direction. The young mares that might follow in her hoofsteps. That might, with proper training, be the party that reclaims the missing filly. Or confirms her dead. Or wins the war. The one she sent their way last month was quite promising. On the surface, the mare is a simple candy shop owner. But deeper down, it turns out she’s an alchemist, an adventurer. She’s developed various kinds of candies. Many of her concoctions require some more exotic ingredients, from the Everfree Forest itself. She’s developed a candy that makes her enormously strong. Stronger than an earth pony- or, more accurately, than any other earth pony. She’s developed a ‘candy’ that explodes when she throws it. She’s developed a ‘candy’ that boosts her senses. She’s developed candies for almost every occasion. Even sleep deprivation. She hasn’t been able to develop a candy to stave off that nightmare. Every other nightmare, every other dream, she can chase away with a candy. Or a spell. She knows several. But not that one. So she’d sent her in the Agency’s direction. She’s fairly sure the Agency doesn’t know who referred her. Or the one before her, the pegasus with the wonderfully shy front to her powerful core. Or the one before her, the unicorn that had successfully worked battle tactics into a dress design. Or the one before that, the earth pony with a determined heart and a mean hind hoof. Or the one before her, the earth pony with the energy of a battalion and the mane to fit enough supplies to sink a ship. Or the one just yesterday, the mare with the mind of a soldier, the wings of a racer, and the ambition to drive her forward. Author's Note Oh- and if you don't see Chapter Two in time, that's because I'm not satisfied with its current state. It's almost ready, though- I might be able to finish & publish on time, but I also might not. I should be able to get it up by Thursday at the latest, but as always, no promises. This stuff relies on being "in the mood".
Training“Gah!” She flinches as she feels the weapon slicing through her neck, decapitating her cleanly. Then her head lands back on and the battle is over. She rubs her neck at the line that monster had just sliced through it. She knows it’s not a real monster, or even a real neck- but it still feels real. It’s always disorienting when that happens. “Ouch. What’d I miss?” She looks around, stepping to the side as she watches the battle replay itself perfectly. She watches herself smashing these monsters- generic, generated thugs- back into the bits they’re composed of. The answer comes from the stallion that hadn’t been standing next to her a moment before. “That one was hanging from the ceiling when you came in,” he states matter-of-factly, watching with her. She scowls up at him. “You didn’t tell me there were any climbers in this one!” “I also didn’t tell you there weren’t any.” Her scowl becomes a pout. Pouting never works on him- he only finds it amusing. “Why do I never win these challenges?” He smiles at her. “Because I make them progressively more difficult. You’ll notice you almost win every single one.” Her eyebrows fly up, her pout disappearing. “Oh? How hard can you make it?” He raises his eyebrows. “A lot harder. I’ve been limiting these challenges to no more than a hundred hostiles a piece, with a pony-level intelligence guiding each one throughout. It’s just the types, action plans, and initial placing that I put my facilities into planning out. If I were to put even a single pacer on my tactical subprocessors during the simulation, you’d never beat it.” Pacer being the weakest category of monsters, consisting of eight-legged fuzzy creatures that could poke and prod… But their only weapon is really their ability to throw her from a high place, or sit on her. They’re not particularly strong, nor overly fast; they can’t even climb on the wall. She groans irritatedly. Another thing that only serves to amuse him. “How realistic are these ‘challenges’, anyways?” “Not very, honestly. They’re supposed to be challenges, after all.” “What’s a real battle look like?” He looks at her straight-faced, all trace of humor gone in a picosecond. “Death and destruction everywhere. I’ve seen more battles than you’ve lived days.” She shakes his head lightly. “Though I do have one you might be interested in.” “Huh?” Immediately, the indoor scenery the challenge had taken place in disappears, replaced by… She sees them. Enormous numbers of… things. They don’t look like any of the monsters she’s been fighting, but she gets the distinctive feeling they’re… Unfriendly. She shudders. He notices. He notices everything. “Something wrong?” he asks. “No… I don’t know.” She points a hoof. “They aren’t like anything you’ve put against me, but they just feel… bad.” He nods. “Not surprised.” She tilts her head. “Why?” He looks forwards. “Watch.” The scene suddenly starts moving. The… things- she resists labelling them monsters, these were real- seem to be charging down a hillside. There’s a few large parties of them, each about the same size as an entire ‘challenge squad’ like the ones he’s been throwing at her. There’s an even larger army off in the distance, gathering together, building up, and moving down, towards them. Between them, the ground seems to be made of metal. She looks in the direction they’re all moving. There’s one, at what looks like a dead run. It passes through one of the smaller parties, carrying- Wait! Everything freezes in response, and she blinks herself over to look at the purple thing it’s carrying. “What…?” He appears next to her. “Yes. That’s you. This recording is all I have of who you are to them.” She nods slowly, looking up into its face and snuffing out the sudden surge of fear before it can even start. “What’s it running from?” The two ponies blink back off to the side, and he points to the advancing party it had passed through. “Watch.” Everything continues. She recognizes the magic being used. It’s a fairly simple spell- but it sends them to the ground like a load of bricks. As the last one falls, the pursuing unicorn becomes visible. A single, green unicorn. Light blue and white striped mane and tail. Musical instrument printed on her flank. But she sure crushed these monsters. They both watch as she charges forwards, crushing several more waves on her way. She watches the one carrying her younger self stumble on a shifting missile launch cell hatch. Everything pauses again, as she turns to look at him. He nods, indicating the metal ground. “That is me.” She looks back forwards, and everything resumes. She watches her younger self tumble from its grasp and turn to flee. Away from the desperate unicorn. The unicorn that’s clearly trying to save her. “No! Go back to her!” The filly ignores her just as completely as it ignores the green unicorn’s calls. “Twilight! This way!” Her ears perk as her head snaps around. It’s… Just the green unicorn. The memory. She looks back down at the filly, but it hasn’t responded at all. More of the monsters die, but they’re starting to flow in en masse. She can tell they’re starting to overwhelm the green mare. She tilts her head, and everything freezes. “If…” She tilts her head the other way, considering for a second. “She could have taken on twice as many, easy.” “My estimate is that she could have taken approximately 2.31 times as many,” he states, standing next to her. “Had she spent just two more seconds considering her tactics.” He shakes his head. “Had she the same skill you have now, she could have taken the entire army without issue.” Everything resumes again. She watches the chase go on. She watches the filly continue to flee. She watches the mare grow more and more desperate. “Couldn’t they have…?” “Given the same amount of additional thought to their tactics and actually accomplished their goal with less than a quarter of the losses? Yes. Surprise does tend to engender this kind of panic.” She watches the duralloy hatch open to drop the filly inside. She watches the mare try to reach it, the hatch snap shut before one of the monst- things can get in. She hears his voice rumble up from the ground. “She is safe with me. Save yourself.” The mare immediately reverses her charge and flees. She watches as the badly deteriorated nuclear warhead is used to clear the area of… “Call them ‘The Enemy’.” The enemy. She tilts her head. “The enemy? Why?” He lowers his head. “That’s how I considered them at the time.” He sends a quick glance in her direction. “I still do.” She scowls. “What…?” “Are they really called? I don’t know. I only know they have continued to earn designation as the Enemy… but haven’t shown enough strength to warrant the use of my firepower.” She looks at the smoking crater surrounding the slightly shinier lump of alloy in the ground. “And that?” He smirks. “Was overkill.” He smiles at her, and they both blink over to the top of the hill the unicorn had fled over, everything rewinding past the blast and resuming normally. “What would have happened had she not been behind the hill- or so quick on the shield?” Her eyes widen, watching the shield in question flicker with the strain. “She would have died.” He nods. “And Ponykind couldn’t have known you survived. As it is…” He pauses, frowning. “As it is, they might know you survived. I haven’t seen any ponies since.” “Can I go?” He shakes his head. “No- you’re still vulnerable to whatever the Enemy was trying to do.” He shows her a brief shot. Four of them had gathered around an unconscious pony; she understands instantly this is close to a year beforehand. She reads the spell they’re using… Yes. Yes, while the grown pony on their table is worse than useless to them, she’s still vulnerable to that spell herself. Nevermind that all it takes is one to begin casting it… and she passes out. She nods. “I’ll train until I’m as old as he, then.” This seems to amuse him. “That stallion is estimated to be almost eighty-eight years old,” he states. “You’re only five.” Her jaw drops. “Uh…” He chuckles. “Don’t worry. As near as I can tell, immunity to their spell should set in sometime between now and adulthood.” She nods. “Then if it’s alright with you, I’ll train until I’m a grown mare and then head out.” He mirrors her nod. “Unless the ponies find us first, where that prerequisite might be voided,” he states. She nods harder. “I’m still gonna be coming back, no matter what happens.” He smiles. “Good to hear.” The two-toned light flickers. “It’s not…” “What are you trying to do?” Funny, he usually knows even before she does herself. “You know how you show me things on the network, right?” She indicates the headband with a hoof, allowing her lights to fade. He gives the impression of a nod. “I can’t exactly use the network to show somepony else something when I go- so I’m looking for alternatives.” “So, doubling up a light spell with different colors…?” “If I can make enough lights at once, small enough and with low enough intensity, I should be able to reproduce a scene with an acceptable degree of precision.” “Ahh. It might be easier to think of it less in what’s actually there and more in terms of what the intended viewer will see. You’ve seen my holoprojector, right?” She nods. “That’s what I’m trying to make.” “You do realize it’s an image, projected from above or below, onto a high-density energy field, right?” “Huh?” “Such that the right part of the image reflects off of the right part of the energy field.” Her head tilts the other way. “Huh?” He sighs. “Hop on the Net, I’ll show you there.” She nods, flicking the headband up onto her head with a levitation spell and practiced ease. Two minutes later, she’s only partially absorbed in the network, her horn glowing sternly. They don’t do this often; he’s so smart it’s almost difficult to make a mistake, and her own skill is more valuable than simply doing something. But this is something neither of them can really do alone. Well, technically, she could- but it would take weeks or months, possibly years. When they do this, combining her magical ability with his processing power, they can experiment and adjust so fast it takes them, on average, fifteen seconds to invent a new spell. This time, it takes almost ten minutes- but by the end of it, they manage to project a faithful reproduction of a major ceremony he saw in some age long gone all over the inside of his bulkheads. Nevermind that he and several others like him were present, and reproduced with faithful accuracy. Or that the entire projection fit within a circle around her, about three meters across. Funny how magic works, isn’t it? They disconnect, and she starts her meager attempts to reproduce the spell. It takes a lot of effort. She didn’t realize just how much calculation he was doing behind the scenes, even on the active spell. But she’s a unicorn. She can do it. She closes her eyes, concentrating on the spell. It takes her somewhat significantly more power this time, and she adjusts the spell in a couple of places to make it easier to use. Before long, the smell of a battlefield graces her nose. Gunsmoke and iron, mostly. She opens her eyes. Her spell collapses. But for a second, she had been standing in the battlefield between two… She’s not even sure what they were, but they had been trading blinding bolts of light and thunder, cratering each others’ massive armor. She quickly reorients herself. “Huh? Did I do it?” “Affirmative.” He sounds impressed. “You came within 99.97% accuracy to my records, as a matter of fact. I have to wonder, though, what the flank photo is for?” “Flank pho- Huh. You didn’t do that, did you?” “Nope. It appeared- identical on both sides- while you had your spell running.” She blinks at the purple star now adorning her flanks, and tries probing at it with her magic before she scowls. “Doesn’t feel any different. Maybe it’s like some kind of indicator light?” “It’d have to be quite the fancy indicator light. I can confirm you’re now completely immune to the Enemy’s spell.” She raises an eyebrow. “What would you recommend?” “Well, the longer we wait, the more skilled you will be, and the easier it will be to defeat any of the Enemy that approach you. On the contrary, the longer we wait, the greater the possibility ponykind has suffered a catastrophe- and the greater the difficulty, regardless of such, in tracing your parents.” Scowl. “That’s not a recommendation.” “It’s your choice to make, not mine.” Groan. “You know how I-” “Hate making life choices? Yes, yes I do. But sometimes you must.” “Ugh. How long do I have before…?” “Six days.” She scowls. “How about… Three days, then I go look?” “You’ll have to make sure you either find something or get back here within two days- any more, and you’ll run out of food.” She nods. “Sounds good to me!” Three days. She had expected more magic practice. Perhaps an increase in the “challenges”; anymore, he’s hard-pressed to beat her with them without granting her thousands of opponents greater-than-pony intelligence powered by his own immense facilities. Or superpowers. He’d done that a few times, too. … The one that could only be killed by a kryptonite sword was a great stress reliever. She had expected, mostly, an intensification of what she was already doing. Maybe an adjustment towards the more specific scenarios she might run into. She had not expected everything to change. The challenges, along with everything she normally did, went out the hatch. Those three days consisted of one enormous cramming session, save for sleep, and one hardcore simulation as an exam, of sorts. He taught her more than she should ever need to know about surviving on her own. Hostile territory, friendly territory, anywhere. He taught her interpersonal- or is it inter-pony-al?- communication skills beyond that she’s already developed. He taught her how to function- work, eat, survive, everything- without her magic, in case it ever fails for any reason. He taught her how to avoid the weapons fire of a lesser engine of war than he while she closed for a kill. He’d helped her invent a number of additional spells, ranging from tracking to invisibility to teleportation. He’d taught her how to fly. Nevermind that she doesn’t have wings. He’d still taught her how to fly. And not just with that self-levitation spell they worked on. She has difficulty huffing as she thinks about all this, though. She’s too excited. She did, after all, just pass his enormously difficult test. She will, after all, be heading outside soon. Not that she knows which door leads outside. There’s too many he’s never let her through- and, she knows, for good reason. She won’t be trying to teleport through any of them. No. Whenever he gets around to it, he’ll be opening the right ones for her. Funny, he usually ‘gets around to it’ before she is even ready to wait for him. The commlink implant he’d given her halfway through those three days’ training comes on. He’s been using it a lot lately- she’s still getting used to having his voice in her head. And responding in kind. “Your armor is here. Sorry it took so long.” She raises an eyebrow. “My- Ahem, my armor?” “You didn’t think I’d let you out unprotected, did you? I have fought battles where I never once took a hit. But did I ever lower my guard? No. My armor stayed in place, my battlescreens and EW stayed at full power. Even after I had fully neutralized the enemy’s ability to damage me, I kept my defenses on.” She scowls. “Please tell me it’s not going to be… Oh.” He chuckles; she’d seen it coming in the door, carried by several of his tech spiders. “Don’t worry, it’s only an insurance policy.” She inspects the armor as she receives it. His ‘insurance policy’ is about a half inch of solid duralloy armor, complete with helmet, engineered to look just like her. While she’s fully suited, any normal pony would take a quick glance at her and continue on, completely unaware. She dons the armor… and finally understands why he taught a wingless pony to fly. She might be wingless, but her armor is not. They’re tied into her nervous system, on the same ‘channels’ as the simulated wings, through what she’s pretty sure is a subset of neural link hardware. As such, while she’s wearing her armor, she’s as good as winged. Nevermind that the metallic wings, engineered to look like they’re a legitimate part of her, disappear when she folds them. She’s going to look like a regular unicorn whenever she has them folded. Finally, he hoofs her the pouch containing the last of their food, in a dense, nasty-tasting form that’s easier to carry. She loops the string around her neck, and a door opens. “Have a good journey,” he smiles. She smiles back. “Will do.” She trots out the door and up the tunnel, following his path of open doors until she comes up to a closed one… Which opens when she reaches it. She hops out the hatch, her armored hooves trodding gently on armor of the same material. The hatch closes behind her as she looks around, taking in the smells. Heh- his armor is awesome. Like an extension of herself, rather than armor. She can smell the fresh air- he does a really good reproduction of it inside- and even feel the gentle breeze on her coat. Nevermind her real coat is hidden under half an inch of alloy. None of the Enemy are nearby, but she can see the path taken by the green unicorn, so long ago. Almost eighteen and a half years, as a matter of fact- even though she’s only ten. She’d had to spend a significant amount of time in his stasis pods while he hunted up the resources necessary to make her more food. Unfortunately, he also hasn’t been able- in all this time- to recover the resources necessary to restore his motive systems to function, so he couldn’t solve the problem that way. But she’s mobile. She should be able to travel as far as she likes, so long as she can find food. She plans to bring back decent quantities of nickel and titanium. Even some gold, if she can find it. Nevermind the more significant quantity of iron she plans on hunting up. That’s the big one he’s run out of. She spreads her wings, crouching for a rapid takeoff. “I’ll be back.” She lands, invisible, just outside of town. The helpful mares in that other town back there- no clue what it was called- had mentioned someplace called ‘Canterlot’. From what she could gather, it’s supposed to be an enormous city, probably with a population in the millions… And the Canterlot Public Library is supposed to be the biggest library in the nation, housing books that other libraries could only dream of. She checks her surroundings, drops her invisibility spell, and trots out of her hiding spot, into town. Perhaps the residents of this little mountain town could point her to Canterlot? She finds a street to walk down. A nice little town, she must say- must be important to somepony. She smiles to herself. Her first encounter with a pony town had been a stroke of luck. She had, in a show of good foresight, disguised her appearance; given the number of social blunders she’d made, she’d have carried that baggage for the rest of her life. She’s still not sure what a ‘cutie mark’ is, nor why ponies kept telling her she has one. One had even asked her what it meant. But alas, the place is too fancy. She can’t find anything- and eventually departs, heading towards a smaller town down in the fields, by that forest… Strange, unfriendly-looking forest, when she takes ruthless advantage of her armor’s built-in binoculars.
DiscoveryShe shakes her head as she leaves town, leaping off the edge. She’d planned to spend some time in the library before hitting the streets to inquire after her parents. However, she hadn’t even hit the library yet when some stallions in gold-colored armor had stopped her, and asked where her parents were. She’d answered honestly- that she didn’t know, and was looking for them. The two stallions- which, she suspects, are some kind of law enforcement- had then taken her into custody for no apparent reason. When asked, they only told her where they were taking her. Which was a place she didn’t want to go. She’d tried turning invisible to escape- but they were unicorns. One managed to counter her invisibility spell, the other levitated her back. They’d then stuck an annoying ring on her horn- or, her armored horn. It seems to affect her through the armor anyways- she couldn’t feel her magic, and he had called it a ‘suppression ring’. Not that it had helped them any. She’d waited until they dropped her off- some kind of orphanage, she thinks- before making her escape. She’d slipped the ring right off of the smooth outer surface of her armored horn, made herself invisible, and left through the back door. The guard- no horn, no wings, that means he’s an ‘earth pony’- had tried to catch her, but her armor had proven stronger. She’d made her escape while he was still recovering. The next guard she’d crossed paths with, on the street, had asked her the same question the first two had. This time, though, she’d come up with something fictitious. She’d claimed that her parents were waiting for her in the library. He’d pointed out she’d been going in the wrong direction. She’d admitted to being lost. He- a pegasus- had flown her to the library. He hadn’t followed her in, though, so her fiction had held. She’d studied up on everything important- basic history, what a cutie mark is, and so on. She’d left when the library closed- and made herself invisible to avoid all the guards. Now, still invisible, she’s headed for that little town by the forest up ahead. She extends her alloy wings, catching her fall and accelerating away. Hopefully, a little town like that will be a little less… Well, Guard-infested. Her armor might be designed to allow her to sleep safely in the field, or even in the air, but she already did that once. As much as doing that had helped her reach livable land- ‘Equestria’, it’s called- overnight, she’d rather not do that where somepony might actually see her. Besides, her armor isn’t the most comfortable thing to sleep in. She tilts her head slightly as she reaches cruising speed. If she does find a bed to sleep in, and sheds her armor for the night, she’ll have to guard against somepony walking in during the night. She squints through the sunset at the village. Her armor responds to her request, zooming in on it- and in a matter of moments, it’s just a forelegs’ reach away. It looks like it’s got more than a few guards, as well- but they seem to be more willing to simply follow and watch than control. Oh- and for as unfriendly as that forest looks, it’s nothing her armor can’t handle. By the time she arrives in town, most of the ponies have turned in for the night- leaving a number of guards patrolling the streets. She sheds her invisibility before entering town, and makes a beeline for what has to be Main Street. A guard stops her. “Excuse me, Miss?” he asks. Much nicer than the guards in Canterlot, she decides, as she turns to respond. “Yes?” He blinks a couple times, before giving himself a shake, taking a deep breath, and running a hoof through his two-toned blue mane. “Sorry,” he finally continues, turning away to unsuccessfully hide the blush. “I thought you looked familiar, for a second.” He takes another breath. “Sorry about that. Carry on.” “Wait!” She calls out to him, right as he turns away. He turns back, raising an eyebrow. “Yes?” She mentally prepares herself to disappear. Invisibility… and teleport, possibly. “I’m, uh, a bit new to the area- I was wondering if there was someplace to sleep?” He blinks a few more times, turning to face her more fully. “Um, I’m not sure,” he finally answers. “I’d have to ask… Here, follow me.” He leads her not to Main Street but to what looks like a Guard outpost not far from the middle of town. He even leads her inside- and acquires the attention of the desk officer. She braces herself for escape. But, as it turns out, she didn’t need to. He simply asks after someplace safe for her to sleep- and, after confirming that she doesn’t already have anyplace, gets a place. Then he leads her back outside, and out to the library. Apparently, there’s a loft in here. While normally reserved for the librarian, it seems they haven’t had a librarian in years. Oh well. She hadn’t really planned on interacting with the librarian anyways. He shows her to the door. It’s a nice tree, she decides. “And here we are,” he mutters. “Are you going to be okay overnight, or…?” She nods. “I’ll be okay,” she smiles. “Should I expect to see anypony?” He shakes his head. “Library is always empty at this hour.” “Ahh.” She nods, and starts to head in. Then, the door just swinging open, she turns back towards him. He’s also turning away, presumably to resume his patrol. “Wait- I have to ask, is there a particular reason there’s so many guards about?” He nods. “I haven’t heard the full story- nopony has- but word is we’ve been fighting a war of survival for decades… and we’re losing. By Celestia’s orders, every town and city is regularly patrolled- and if anypony heads out after dark, we make sure to follow and protect.” “So, the enemy has gotten past the line?” He nods. “Alcari,” he states. “They’re called the ‘Alcari’.” He glances quickly to the sides. “If we’re going to talk, we should probably do it inside.” She nods, and leads the way. It’s a nice little library, if she ignores the disaster waiting for her on the shelves. The books seem to be semi-randomly placed, but she can recognize the remains of its prior, alphabetical organization. He follows her in, and closes the door, before letting out a sigh. “Never know when one of them is going to jump out at you. We can’t afford to let our guard down- even for a moment- outside.” “But you can, inside?” He nods. “Usually, yes… come to think of it, they like infesting public buildings. I should probably scour the place before leaving you alone here- and make sure you lock the door when I leave.” He shudders. “I’d hate to lose somepony to something like that.” She tilts her head. “What do these… ‘Alcari’ look like?” He describes them. If she allows for all the uncertain words he’s using, it matches her observations of the Enemy that had nearly captured her as a foal. “I… I hope I never see one again,” he states, completing his long oration with a tear. She blinks. “What happened?” He looks away. “A… Long time ago. Long before anypony knew about the war. Mighta been before it even started, I’m not sure.” He takes a deep breath. “That… That was when I got my cutie mark.” His head hangs. “I was out camping with my parents… Three of the things came. I tried to protect everypony- but they broke through my first shield, and took my sister. I was able to protect everypony else with my second shield- and the ensuing cutie mark- but I couldn’t protect her. “Two of the things left with her, while the third stuck around to batter at us. During that time, a strange mare showed up. She killed it, promised she’d get my sister back, and galloped after them. “I never saw her again.” He blinks more tears out of his eyes, his voice cracking. “I don’t even remember what she looked like!” She places one hoof before the other. It’s a walk- a rock-steady walk. She’s completely invisible, covered in so many layers of spellwork even the greatest mage alive would miss her with the most powerful sensing spell known. Today is the day. She’s spent the last fifteen years preparing for this. Building her massive buffers of spellwork, the ones she activated today. She crosses the border, leaving Equestrian territory. Fifteen years of nightmares, fifteen years of determination, fifteen years of power, instantly burns any Alcari that looks her way to a crisp. Fifteen years, she has waited. Today, she attacks. She’ll reach that metal ground, find out what happened with the filly. Return home. Or die trying. That didn’t stop her from setting herself up to win. Unless the Alcari flow in as fast as they can from all parts of their land, all traveling directly to her, there simply won’t be enough of them to exhaust her spellwork until long after she’s back on Equestrian soil. And since they haven’t a clue she’s even here… She glances to the side. A brief pulse of her horn converts the ground a sizable army of Alcari are standing on into magma. She’d like to see the Agency do this. Or, even, have a clue how to do it. She designed all of these spells herself. She designed the trigger-release thaumic storage ability. She’s not just running on her thaumic reserves. She’s running on fifteen years of thaumic reserves. Nothing will stand in her way. Nothing. She walks on, retracing the steps she’s followed every night. A brief pulse of her horn unleashes the nuclear potential energy contained within one of the things’ claws over there, converting an entire army into a mushroom cloud. She will not be stopped. A pony excursion, lead by the Agency, is coming out behind her, taking advantage of her trail of destruction. She doesn’t think they know what’s causing it, but she does know they’re using it to penetrate and surround the Alcari’ lines. She leaves them behind. She walks deep into enemy territory. She reaches the top of a hill. A very important hill. There it is. The metal ground. She can see the battlements surrounding it. Carefully hidden in the terrain, to allow layer after layer of hidden soldiers just waiting for that filly to leave. They’re filled, to the brim. All watching that metal ground. That’s good. She’s still there. Or at least, the Alcari think she’s still there. She hopes she escaped. Her horn pulses. The trenches, the battlements, are now rivers of lava, completely devoid of living Alcari. She walks across them. She doesn’t sink. She doesn’t get burned. Those are events reserved for her enemies. She reaches the metal ground. Locks her gaze on the portal that had opened so long ago. Walks towards it. It slides open, exposing a solid metal interior, as she gets close. “You’re back,” a male voice observes from inside. “We were starting to wonder.” “We?” she asks, raising one eyebrow. “Yes,” the voice returns. “Twilight is alive and well. Why don’t you come in?” She shrugs, stepping down into the passage. “Where is she?” The door closes behind her. “She’s out exploring the pony nation right now, looking for her family. Don’t worry, she carries so much armor the Enemy could whale-” “Alcari.” “Excuse me?” “Alcari. That’s what they’re called.” “So, she carries so much armor the Alcari could whale away at her for weeks and never get through.” She starts relegating her spells to standby. “How is her education?” “I’ve educated her as best as I could. I do find that my kind is rather uniquely qualified for such, though I may have missed a subject or two I have no knowledge of- such as pony history.” He sighs. “Or, even, her own last name.” “Sparkle.” “Sparkle? That her last name?” She nods. “Fitting.” The last of her spells goes back to standby, and she blacks out from a sudden rush of mana.
