POV: Cpt. Shining Armor

I sat at my desk, nursing a vicious headache, sipping a cup of ‘Pitch Black Death’ coffee, and reading reports from various stations and outposts across Equestria.

I paged absently through reports, noting nothing out of the ordinary, at least until the report from a small town called Ponyville.

I almost choked on my coffee when I read that princess Celestia abandoned her court and traveled to Ponyville to address an unusual situation, walked into the house with a potentially rogue construct, only to walk out nearly an hour later announcing that the situation had been resolved and that she would be staying in the house for the night with only a single guard.

She also instructed the guards to re-interrogate the victim of the supposedly violent construct, one Rainbow Dash, who claimed that it attacked her whilst abducting a foal, though there was no evidence of this.

I sighed, lifting my quill in my magic, and signed the report. I then wrote out an order for the guards stationed in the throne room to inform me of the princess’ return before preparing my notes for the morning briefing.

POV: Harvest Moon

I woke up to the smell of cooking hay bacon. I climbed out of bed and walked down the stairs to the kitchen.

“Ah, Harvest!” called the metallic voice of Szarekh, “good morning, we have guests.”

I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and looked around the room, identifying the ponies sitting at the table, “Good morning mister guard. Good morning Princess Celestia,” I muttered still half asleep.

Szarekh chuckled softly, and the princess tittered, “Breakfast will be ready in a little bit, why don't you get some juice and glasses for our guests, hmm?” he asked.

“M'kay,” I responded, shuffling to the fridge and using my magic to pull out the juice and set it on the table. I then reached my magical grasp out to fetch some cups from a cabinet.

Yawning heavily, I sat down at the table and poured some juice for myself.

POV: Szarekh

I watched with amusement as Harvest stumbled sleepily through kitchen, greeting our house guests, too groggy to actually think about about who they were.

I turned back to the stove top, checking that the strange grass based bacon had not burned.

I let the bacon finish cooking, putting it on a plate, before scrambling a few eggs.

Once the eggs were done, I plated up the food, and laid it out in front the ponies at the table, sitting down next to Harvest, “Well, dig in, though I may not be able to eat now, I once could, and I am sure I have not lost my touch.”

Celestia sent me an odd look, “What do you mean? You are made of a living metal, are you not?”

“Necrodermis, yes, but I was not always. Once I was flesh and blood like yourselves, but I underwent a process called biotransferrance, which made me into the Necron you see before you.”

Celestia looked disturbed, “Why? Why would you give up so much of yourself, throw away who you are and become… This?” she gestured at my body with a hoof.

I shook my head, “I gave up very little, my organic body and those of all Necrontyr were plagued by an incurable sickness that made life short and painful, to us at the time death was something to celebrate, we were free of the suffering and hardship of life. But then we discovered the C'tan, a race of beings made of energy, and they gave us the technology to perform the biotransferrance, allowing my people to become the Necron, a race of immortal, unkillable machine beings.”

The princess nodded, “The way you speak of it, it sounds like you were there. Where did you find these C'ta?, I would be interested to speak with them to learn from their technologies.”

“My people found them during our exploration of the galaxy, they were drawing energy from the stars to feed themselves. When we encountered them, they learned of a new, better energy source: life force, souls.”

I nodded along with Celestia's horrified expression.

“They did not feed on the Necrontyr at first, instead, while we were at war with a race who, in their arrogance and hypocrisy, refused to help us, they gave us new technology to defeat our foes, then fed from those we slew. We fought them for generations, but it was not a war we would win, it was the Necrontyr lashing out at the universe one last time.”

Everyone at the table looked at me with a strange mixture of horror and pity.

“Then as our enemy's victory was close at hand, they gave us a gift, the biotransferrance, a means of immortality, not even the destruction of our bodies could truly kill us, we would simply phase out, teleport to a Necron tomb or monolith, and minutes later return to battle! We were unstoppable! We went from losing the war to winning in less than a century!”

I barked a dry laugh, “But our new power, our new bodies, they came with a cost. In giving up our organic forms through the biotransferrance, we gave up our souls to the C'tan, their last feast, because when I learned of their betrayal they were hunted, and I fractured each and every one of them and trapped the shards in prisons that fed off their own power to keep them contained. They no longer exist outside of the tesseract mazes in which their shards reside.”

Celestia sighed, “I see, you said you destroyed the C'tan, were you a soldier in the Necron army?”

I shook my head, with a short laugh, “I was no soldier, I was the Silent King, ruler of all Necron.”

That surprised the table, all of them stared at me for a minute or so, before I shook them from their stupor, “Eat your food before it gets cold. I do not tolerate wasted food,” I reprimanded.

Everyone jumped, and set upon their meals in short order.

A short time later, everyone had cleaned their plates, and I had cleared them away.

“I'm afraid it's time I bid you farewell, Harvest it was a pleasure to meet you, and I hope to see you in the Canterlot magic university when you finish your schooling. Szarekh, I must thank you for your hospitality, and my compliments on your culinary skills, they certainly haven't dulled since your transformation. I hope the issue with Rainbow Dash resolves itself with little fuss.”

She smiled and bowed her head, and I did the same.

“Prince-”

“Celestia,” she interrupted, “just Celestia, please.”

I dipped my head, “Celestia then, you are welcome to come by at any time. I know how opulence can make you crave the simpler things, like a hearty meal, none of those ‘high-class’ art projects. Feel free to seek me out if you find yourself needing an understanding audio receptor.”

Author's Note

I hope I'm improving, even if only a little.

As always, let me know what you think, if there's something you want to see, or think I can do better.