Twilight was in the library. Not just any library, but her library. Instead of cleaning up some mess caused by Starlight or Trixie, or teaching Starlight, or doing something along those lines, she was reading, as was supposed to be done in libraries. But again, this was no ordinary “Study session” for Twilight. She hadn’t slept for days because she thought it was so important.
The book she was reading was a rather simple book. If by simple you mean that it’s talking about magical theories it would take the age of Princess celestia to understand them. But that was normally. And Twilight was not normal.You see, this wasn’t just talking about magical theories on Equestria, but other places. How they might apply to another planet in the solar system, a different solar system, maybe even another galaxy. Not to mention universes, if they even existed.
Generally, she’d read the book in her free time. After all, she had more important things to do involving her friends. However, they hadn't had anything to do, and the book was addressed straight to her for publishing! When she got it, she immediately delved in, tuning everything else out. Her intent was to finish the book as quickly as possible so she could revise and help the author, although it didn't look like they needed any help.
The book’s overall structure was rather straightforward: First, how magic could possibly aid travel to other worlds, and what might happen were they to venture too far away from the magic field on Equis. Second, how other worlds might react to the magic they brought with them, and if they could have magic fields of their own. The third part was completely different from what she could tell. It was theories on how possible sentient beings without magic might react.
The last part interested her the most. After all, there had been plenty of theories on where or why they might find other beings, but never how they would react! They might mistake it for extremely advanced technology, something ridiculous, or see it as it truly was, the more likely. Then what they might do! Oh, they might attack, but who would do that anyways? They might befriend us, the obvious choice, or something entirely different! Just reading it filled her with theories of her own!
However, her engrossment with the book was starting to take a toll on her friends.
As Twilight was Twilight, Spike tried to stop her or try and get her to stop reading, but to no avail. Then he got her friends to try. Pinkie tried making a party in the library, Applejack asked for her help with a magical problem that was made up, Fluttershy asked her for help with her animals, etc. She had managed to evade it all so well, it was time to call in the big guns. Celestia herself.
What was Celestia’s plan? To walk in, and just order Twilight to stop and get some sleep. Simple. However, things are NEVER simple with Twilight, so she was prepared for a freakout.
Slowly, the tall white alicorn opened the double doors. The doors creaked slightly. Not loud enough that Twilight heard it, but it was still sound. As Celestia looked in, she saw Twilight engrossed not in just one book, but piles of them. Celestia sighed. This would be harder than she had originally thought.
The alicorn walked as quietly as she could until she was only a foot away from Twilight. Stifling a giggle at the feat she was about to perform, she took a long, quiet, and hard breath in. And let it all out with a yell. “Twilight Sparkle!” The shout caused something unexpected. Instead of just jumping from the volume of the yell and proximity, Twilight had begun to charge her horn!
Before she could react, there was a bright flash of lavender and Celestia remembered nothing.
“Oh no” Said a certain lavender alicorn as she stared at the sight of what had just happened. As she looked at where Celestia was just a moment ago, a feeling of dread engulfed her. She had just killed or hurt Celestia! One of the only beings who could raise the sun! The ruler of Equestria! HER MENTOR!
But looking back at that spot, Twilight noticed something. No sign of anything being there was present. No ash or soot, like from a normal beam spell. There was no burning or oxidization like from an explosion, and besides, there was no shockwave or crater. There was just nothing. Just a magical signature belonging to her.
Beginning to analyse the signature, Twilight's dread grew and grew as more and more information was fed to her. There were three spells that she had cast in the same moment, each of them dangerous enough if they were to go wrong on their own.
The first spell, an age spell, was ludicrous for her. She had brought Celestia down to the age of a two year old filly. Her mentor was a FILLY now. So much for gratitude from her when they got her back. The second was a teleportation spell that had a huge chunk of magic energy in it, and an even greater distance put into it. However, the last one scared her the most. A modification of starlight's modified time spell. Cast accidentally. On her mentor. Who was who knows where already. And it had sent her back an indeterminable amount of time.
Teleportation was a rather difficult spell. Long distance was an even harder one. But the distance she had teleported Celestia? It was unheard of. She knew almost the exact distance, as you were able to tell with most teleportation spells, but didn’t believe it. She had teleported her 30. Thousand. light years. Then she had transported her through time at the same time.
So, a filly Celestia will probably end up on some alien planet, end up getting raised by the locals, and eventually become worshiped as a god. Not like she wasn't already, but still. That was the best possible outcome. There were millions more, if not an infinite number of possibilities she still had to think about.
And almost none of them were good.
Some fifty years past, on another planet entirely
Komato trooper Iosa lay, grasping at consciousness. She didn't know how much time had passed, or why she was unconscious. All she did, was lie on the cold stone beneath her. She might have been lying there for short-turns, turns, or long-turns. She didn't care.
After lying for who knows how long, she totally regained consciousness. She shook her head slowly, ignoring the pain coming from her entire body. Thinking, she remembered what had happened to get her here. She was drafted into the army, thrown into some backwater planet to make sure the Tasen, who had committed a number of atrocities, could never escape, and then...
The alpha strike. The Tasen hadn't just tried to knock out or disable the weapons on the planet. They performed a full power alpha strike. A weapon capable of almost killing a planet, and they used it. It didn't matter that they had used it on innocents and military alike. That wasn't as bad as the other part, the fact that they had the weapon was bad. Not only had they slaughtered billions, but they had done it with stolen technology.
Iosa shook herself out of her stupor. She didn't need to think about that now. She needed help, whether or not she liked it. She stood, revealing the arching grey of her chest armor, and her green, rectangular head. As she made her way towards the nearest communications area, she felt a stabbing pain in her foot.
"Damned trooper armor and the lack of boots," she cursed, making a mental note to get promoted as soon as possible.
When she finally made her way to the ex-communications post, she saw little to no damage. 'Perhaps the communications area was shielded?' she thought to herself, hoping everything was intact.
The fact that there was no power drowned her hopes, as that meant it was pure luck that it survived. She looked around, searching for any sort of power source. After cycles of searching, she finally found a single nano-battery with enough charge to send a single call for help.
As she powered everything up, she sent the distress call, and waited.
"Well, that's no way to end a chapter! Let alone a prologue!" Discord said, interrupting the cliffhanger just to say that.
Author's Note
1 A turn is the komato's equivalent of a day. A longturn is a month, and a starturn is a year. Then there's cycles, shortcycles, and pulsecycles, which are an hour, a minute, and a second respectively.
Well... I hope I didn't do too bad? Again, I'm kinda new to this, but eh. What can you do other than practice?
A rather strange occurrence
Five years later...
Iosa “The invincible” stormed through the hall, anyone in her way moving aside. They knew better than to get in her way. Especially if she was angry and storming. This turn, she was exceptionally angry.
What caused her anger this time was rather simple: that good-for-nothing assassin Ansaksie. She had crossed plenty of lines, some of which were laws, but never punished for her actions. Whenever she crossed any lines, however, it was always near Iosa. Iosa didn't care about why or how she got away with it, she just wanted to see Ansaksie pay. Even if she went so far as to kill Ansaksie.
Today, she did one such attempt, with a duel of sorts. There were several rules in place by law already, but they were understandable. Don't kill non-participants, don't leave the specified area, and other things of similar nature. The winning rules were also rather simple; Iosa wins if she either kills or knocks out Ansaksie, and Ansaksie wins if she destroys Iosa's annihilator mech. Iosa was confident she would win. In short; She didn't.
Iosa had to admit that she was unable to hit Ansaksie, let alone see her. Assassins are supposed to be stealthy and hard to hit, but this was just ridiculous! Not to mention that weapon... The massacre. One of the most dangerous weapons in the entire KIWI, or Komato imperial weapons institute. The weapon was a prototype, and the only test that involved, it... Didn't end well.
However badly the duel ended though, it didn't matter. That weapon was supposed to be not only illegal, but completely unknown to anyone outside of Imperial Research. The fact that Ansaksie has it means that there's a LOT more she's done than simple annoyance.
And that's why she was walking through this drab, blue and purple corridor. To speak with general Tor himself, and make sure Ansaksie is removed. If it meant that Ansaksie is removed, she would gladly do it.
However, all of these thoughts in Iosa's head were halted upon hearing a berserker walk up and address her. "Sir! We've found an unknown life form aboard! Permission to eliminate?" The berserker said. Iosa thought. If it got into the ship, it would be a threat, that much was obvious. However, it would have at least triggered an alarm to notify them that there was a threat approaching.
"Permission denied. Capture and stun the creature for analysis, then notify me when finished," Iosa stated, making sure to give the orders in a clear manner.
"We... Already have the creature, sir. We were hoping you might be able to identify it," The berserker replied, unsure of whether or not they should have said anything.
Iosa sighed, and turned around to see a small white avian. However, upon inspecting it closer, it appeared more as a mammal. With wings. A rather strange mixture, especially in the way that it was shaped. A rather long snout, with a more plump head with a horn, seemingly for ramming. Past that was the neck and torso, rather small, but also large at the same time, which held the wings and some kind of... tattoo on both hips. Then there was the legs, the back set curved backwards, while the front set were curved forwards.
After that quick, but sure analysis, Iosa came to one conclusion; She had no idea what it was. "Even I do not know. Now, make sure to get to the medical bay so they can examine it and determine what it is before it wakes up," Iosa said, stating orders clearly.
"Yes sir!" the berserker said, saluting, before running off. Iosa shook her head. She didn't have the time to deal with this at the moment, as she still needed to talk to Tor.
However, fate would not let her, as less than one shortcycle1 later, an alert sounded. She sighed, looking at her nanofield's personal interface, and looking through all the alerts for the most recent one. After a few pulsecycles1 of searching, she found the alert, sent by Berserker 1392.
The message was brief, simply stating that the creature awoke and kicked the berserker in the face, allowing it to escape. It also told of the wearabouts, which were closer to her than the berserker.
Iosa sighed, "Damnit. Never send a trooper or berserker to do an annihilator's job" She raced down the hall to the general whereabouts of the creature were, but stop to see the sight before her unfold.
The creature was flying with it's wings at a speed where even a beast couldn't catch it. She frowned from inside her helmet before advancing.
Upon seeing Iosa's threatening shadow bear down upon the two, both the beast and the white creature began to back away, before leaving in a full-on sprint. Iosa simply followed the white creature while sprinting. Although, followed is a rather inaccurate word, as it was faster than she was, and she was sprinting as fast as she possibly could.
Attempting to resolve this quickly, Iosa pulled out her nanogun. All it would take is a simple stun gun shot and it would all be over. Changing it to passive, she began to take aim. Just as she pulled the trigger however, the creature turned a quick corner, causing the shot to miss.
Iosa simply growled as she attempted to catch up. After several minutes of swearing and sprinting, the creature and Iosa were both too tired to keep things up. She took her chance, finally knocking the creature unconscious. Now that she finally had victory over the pest, she sent a message to Berserker 1392, stating where she was and to bring a cage so it wouldn't escape.
After she finished that, she rested for a small time, taking as much breath in as she could. When the berserker finally arrived, she left him to perform his orders, and headed to Tor's quarters.
As she finally reached the door, she took a long breath, thinking. She had to tell Tor the most important piece of information first. As she made her decision, she said, "Permission to enter," After waiting what seemed like an eternity, the deep, gravely voice of general Tor said, "Permission granted, annihilator" She walked in.
As the door closed behind her, Iosa said one thing; "You're going to love this"
Author's Note
Well, I hope this doesn't end up being a $h1tstorm of a fic.
