CHAPTER II: Silver Swords and Silver Shields.

The ship came to land. With a loud rumble and a shaking that flowed up through my hooves, the vessel landed at a massive stone and metal construct. We had passed through an atmospheric sheath, it felt strange, like all the air pressure vanished and returned for a second, and I ran to look out the window.

Outside was a swirl of blue gasses, held at bay by a magical field of green and purple magic that swirled together with the blue colours outside to create a dome of surreal colour. The city was… Strange, it looked like it was one giant building, everything was connected together with catwalks and tunnels held up by flying buttresses, this building extended vertically for as far as the eye could see, which wasn’t much given the thick layer of blue fog. Same held true for down, the air grew thicker the farther down you went, until at the end of my vision was a solid wall of blue.

Everything was made from the same dark bricks as the ship. I should really ask a Geomancer what that stuff is. There were now windows on any of the buildings save for small portholes only as big as a pony’s head. The place the ship had landed was on one of a series of platforms that extended out of the structure’s side, built similar to the gantries in the drydocks back at the Order Luna base, however… There was no bottom, instead it simply held the ship as a series of catwalks were connected to the exits.

A swarm of thestrals and pegasi were flying around the base, all were wearing heavy robes with masks and hoods. Kinda like those used by the Electromancers. Some ponies were flying out of the atmospheric sheath, returning with big lumps of gas in their hooves, hauling them to large gates inside the building.

It’s too bright… What does that mean, what is bright? It’s a word, it means that there is a large quantity of light in this area, most likely projected by a powerful light source… How did I know that? Because you were born with this information. What does born mean? It means that I was created, before, a few seconds ago, I didn’t exist. Who am I?

The room’s walls were stark white, held together with tall rounded pillars, the two segments of wall were perfectly intertwined. Swirling patterns were inlaid with gold and on one far wall, they came together to form an ornate circle with an emblem inside, a long curved sword within an ornate swirling gear.

Someone, something, is watching me. Yes, you were created by them. Why. That is for them to decide.

There were strange creatures all around, looking like part insect, part horse… With colourful iridescent chitin, and large insectoid eyes. Most wore long and heavy white robes, with coloured scarves and sashes that went along their necks and backs. Atop their heads were conical hats made from the same materials as the walls, they wore masks that covered most of their features, save for their eyes. Meanwhile, a few wore armour, made from the same sterile material, painted a dark black… The armour was a cohesive whole, seeming to shift and change with the creature’s movements, above which were more solid plates of the material, stark white… It’s… some kind of bone. Correct.These plates were bound together to form almost a weave or mail, with strange angular helmets and similar, if more heavily armoured, versions of the masks worn by the others.

One of the robe-wearers approached, “Good morning, and happy birthday.” He said in a strangely high-pitched but rough and gravelly voice.

Good morning… It means that the sun is rising, that it’s the dawn of a new planetary cycle. Planets rotate around the sun. Yes, that’s true, isn’t it, happy birthday to me. A birthday is a day of the year, a year is how long it takes for a planet to complete its rotation around the sun, when a creature was first born, and is generally celebrated each and every solar rotation. Does that mean that I was born today? Yes… It does.

“So… What’s going on.”

“Refueling, Starswirl is mostly made of gasses that can be made into fuel… The pegasi and thestrals collect clouds of gas and sort it into its different components,” A geomancer, a large unicorn mare in heavy robes with brown trim.

“Cool… Oh, and what’s the stuff all this is made from!”

“Oh that… Ferrostone. It’s part alloy and part ceramic… It’s made by melting tungsten and volcanic stone together. By mixing them together it gains a stronger resistance to magical energy weapons, like ballistas, since the volcanic stone can absorb the heat, and the metal shine can reflect some of the light.”

We were exiting the ship. The technomages gave us all clothing that they called ‘Hazmat Robes’, apparently you couldn’t breathe the air here, and the atmospheric sheath around this place was only meant to stop pressure from crushing the structure. Most of my new team were still inside, but Bastion had decided to follow me. I was a bit taller than I was last year and was almost as tall as full-grown pony, but bastion, two years younger than me, was trotting along my side, looking like a little brother.

We marched along the platform going toward the tower, overhead was a rumbling sound, and the faint shape of a castle ship descended through the mist and landed somewhere above on another docking platform. The Grand Master and our little party of squires and technomages trotted forward until we reached a gate into the tower. A massive steel portcullis that, unlike the gate leading into the Order Luna’s base in my home town, or the gate leading into the cave at school, was solid and had no holes for air to escape.

The gate opened into a small chamber with some vents and a porthole, behind which was too dark for us to see through. There was another gate ahead. The gate behind us closed, the vents hummed with magical energy, and an emerald planted above the door flashed with green light. “It’s safe to take off your hoods and faceplates now!” Announced one of the technomages.

As we did so the gate ahead opened and we peered into the tower’s centre. It looked like a massive circular library, but in place of bookshelves were brass pipes and huge metal kegs wired into all sorts of machinery. Tapestries were hung over certain doors, with words and symbols embroidered on them… Such as ‘Airlock’ or ‘Alchemical Processing III’ or ‘Holy Water Condensing’ or ‘Guard Station’. Apparently, the inside of the tower was mostly hollow, save for a few rooms that needed to be secured for various reasons… Those non-winged creatures that worked here needed to be carried to their destinations by a winged-coworker when they had free time.

There were more than worker ponies too, on a platform near ours were more ponies in hazmat robes, bearing a symbol of a black shield with a bright violet star atop it… Ponies of the ex-Order Astra. They were working out a deal with one of the worker ponies, trading what looked like wooden kegs for metal kegs with portholes covered in alchemical symbols.

The Grand Master trotted up to a pair of ponies and made a request, I couldn’t hear it over the rumble of machinery and noises of working ponies. There was a loud noise above, one of the gates, one with an airlock banner over it, squeaked and churned as it was lifted up. Out from this airlock came a mare and two armoured ponies, wearing armour similar to those I saw knights and hoofmares wearing, but completely sealed to the environment, and silver in colour with lavender surcoats. “The Order Argent!” I exclaimed.

The ponies, all three of them thestrals, descended to one of the platforms above us. “Do not be alarmed, we are here conducting a routine bi-yearly scan of this world… Everypony cease your actions unless it’s of critical importance, and line up.”

“W-What… Can they just do that? This is an important fuel depot!” I muttered to the geomancer next to me.

“This outpost isn’t officially aligned with any of the Orders, if this did belong to say, the Order Luna, then they would need to speak with the outpost’s Grand Master first.”

“But they don’t need to if it isn’t aligned with an Order.”

“The Orders have a higher standing than those non-aligned.”

“B-But, what are they doing here?”

“Searching for mutants, escaped criminals, ponies of the Kingdom of the Sun, or disguised changelings I’d assume.”

Several lines of ponies formed together, some paused to finish their jobs before lining up, but otherwise, not a single pony dared go against the order. The trio of Argent ponies fanned out and pulled small talismans from their saddlebags, gripping them in their teeth before waving them over each and every pony they passed, always the gem on the end made a dinging noise and the worker pony was allowed to return to their job.

One of the Order Astra ponies, a younger mare with a multicolored mane and tail, was trotting in place, clearly nervous. A stallion in environmentally sealed armour passed by, waving his talisman at me, ding! Then at Bastion, ding! Then the hoofmare, or hoofstalion in this case, trotted over to the geomancer besides me, getting closer to the Grand Master, he winked to the geomancer once he had been scanned, then the geomancer’s horn lit up with amber light, so dim that unless you were paying close attention, you couldn’t tell.

The talisman passed over the Grand Master, there was a slight pause, not even a second, then ding! The hoofmare continued, not noticing that the ding didn’t come from his talisman, but from the horn of the geomancer.

The Argents continued onward, before starting to scan the Order Astra ponies, ding! Ding! Ding! Then the red gemstone implanted into the talisman flashed. There was a pause, presumably a gasp or look of shock on the armoured pony, not that you could tell beneath said armour… Then a shout of, “Apprehend her!” As the armoured pony lept to try and grab the multicoloured-maned mare.

The other ponies, one still scanning the ponies on my platform, and their boss, the mare who was still sitting on the platform they entered from, descended to tackle the Astra mare. “What’s going on here, this mare is a member of my crew, you don’t have jurisdiction over the other orders!”

“This pony has been recorded engaging in acts of piracy!” Shouted the stallion who scanned her.

“That doesn’t give you the right!” Shouted the Grand Master of the Astra ship. Drawing a sword in his mouth. In response, the other Argent hoofmare drew his glaive and thrust the blade in the Astra’s direction.

The Astra’s Grand Master dodged out the way and batted the weapon aside, before lunging at the hoofmare. There was a flash of bright red light, a horrible screaming, and the smell of burned meat and seared fur. The armoured mare, and leader of the Argent band had drawn a crossbow and shot the Astra’s grand master.

“You know the law! Assaulting a member of another Order is punishable by death!” The mare said between the crossbow handle. But you were just doing the same thing! I thought, too scared to say my thoughts out loud. The Argent mare trotted up to beside the multicoloured-maned pony, who had been rolled over to her side, and was still struggling with the stallion who had a hoof firmly placed on her stomach. The Argent mare pointed her crossbow at the head of the Astra mare, who had stopped struggling to stare at the weapon. Flash.

The rest of the scanning went without incident… The workers were all scanned and cleared with no further trouble, the rhythmic ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Ding! Went on for what felt like hours, but then it stopped… The mare and two stallions flying out the way they came. For a few minutes that felt like an eternity, everypony stood perfectly still, holding our breath. But then nothing happened. Bastion looked shaken, the geomancer showed no emotion at all, the Grand Master looked… Sad… I didn’t know what to feel.

When everything went back to normal, the worker ponies leapt back to action with an almost supernatural zeal. One pair of workers in the blue-trimmed robes of electromancers dragged up a pair of large metal kegs on carts, both about the size of a pony. One had a porthole showing the inside, which showed a thick colourless liquid, and the keg felt painfully cold to the touch, both kegs were covered in alchemical symbols, one was of two circles inside a larger circle, and the other was three circles inside a larger circle with lines point off it in all directions, this second symbol was next to another symbol I had only seen once before, on the door to the castle-ship’s engine room, the symbol for magical radiation.

“What is this?” I asked the all-knowing geomancer.

“They're called ‘The Spark Gasses’ and are used as fuel for ships… I don’t actually know much about them, ask an electromancer or alchemist.”

In the cloud of emotions trying to conquer my mind, one came out above all the rest: confusion. “What was all that in the outpost, with you, and the geomancer, and the Order Astra ponies?” I asked the Grand Master.

With a sigh, he said “The Order Argent, don’t intend to be as aggressive or cruel as they seem… They are the law, they stop bad ponies, so they need that kind of behaviour in their members… An apathetic guard isn’t going to be able to arrest every criminal.”

“But what about that mare, she wasn’t doing anything wrong.”

“Are you sure about that, they said she had been involved in piracy.”

“But she wasn’t doing anything now, she wasn’t trying to rob the outpost.”

“But she could have.”

“I-I suppose, but that doesn’t change the fact that she had been killed. What about you, I saw the geomancer do something when the hoofmare was scanning you.”

“W-Well… It’s a long story,” He blushed a bit under his fur.

“No! You aren’t using that excuse on me!”

“O-Ok, I may have gotten in trouble with the Order Argent in the past.”

“Tell me.”

“Alright, you are my granddaughter, so you should know… As long as you promise to never tell another pony about it.”

“I promise.”

“No! This is serious, not some little accident or foalhood secret… I need you to swear that you will never tell another pony about this.”

“I swear…” I gave a look of grave certainty, memories of what had happened earlier… A headless mare being thrown down the tower’s main shaft, several thousand metres down. Flashed in my mind.

With a sigh, he started. “I had a friend, he was a friend of the family and a good pony, I would contact him every few months… One day I tried contacting him but got no answer, so I flew off in the direction of his hometown. When I came down I saw that over the last few days, the Order Argent had occupied the village. Apparently, there were some ponies there sheltering mutants, and as much as I wanted to help, I’d only get myself in trouble…”

“What happened.”

“The Argents were conducting tests on everypony in town, figuring out who was mutant and who wasn’t, those who were mutated were called for interrogation, some tried resisting, but were shot by the hoofmares… Apparently testing for mutation was much quicker than an interrogation, and there were several herds in cages, and among them were a few foals. I knew that those children weren't prepared for interrogation, and some would try to fight their way out, at the very least to protect their parents.”

“What did you do?”

“I couldn't save everypony, I knew that, but I could at least save a few… When the guards were distracted by a resisting prisoner, I reached the cages and managed to undo the lock, it was designed to keep the ponies in, not out, so it was really easy to work with when you weren't inside… I got a few, I don’t remember how many off the top of my head, but at least a trio of foals and a hoof-full of adults, into my ship before the Argent’s even realized they were missing, then sped away to the Rockhoof Belt… I managed to find an old cargo ship, the Belt is full of ruined and abandoned vessels, so it was my best bet to find somewhere to hide them.”

“Do you know where they are now.”

“N-No… I got the farming bays and magical life-support inside the wrecked ship running then left them… I gave one of the foals the communication signature of this ship, so she could call me if something went wrong. But she never has… But that’s not the point, the point is, don’t trust the Argents, they aren’t bad ponies, but they're… Misguided… They think what they're doing is right, but they don’t understand that mutated thestrals are just as good or bad as non-mutated thestrals.”

I nodded… “I hope somepony is trying to do something about that… If all that is true, then Luna, or perhaps one of the other orders, or some smart pony, should be doing something about it.”

The Grand Master simply shook his head. “I don’t think so, at least not right now… Someday… I’d do something if I could… But I don’t know what one pony could do.”

Author's Note

This chapter, originally I didn't want to make this, but there were a few plotholes that wouldn't have been filled in otherwise, I also took the time to show the rising political tensions between the Order Argent and the other Orders, do a bit of worldbuilding, give some motivations for our characters, and (sort of) introduce the Changelings.