Two days had passed since the...destruction, of several Equestrian cities, and the shattering of a good chunk of the southern wall built around the Empire. Some good news is the vault's worked, mostly. They had taken some massive damage in the areas they had been built in that where glassed but the very lower levels survived and the citizens within evacuated using the various subway systems connecting them to other vaults around Equestria, Ponyville wasn't hit either so their main starship command port, or whatever they called it was functional and at full capacity. At the moment I was on live television across four worlds, five counting the hidden colony.

"Citizens of the Crystal Empire, of Equis itself. The Zetans have struck Equis a terrible blow, several Equestrian cities as you no doubt know by now have been completely annihilated, only glass and ashes remain where they once stood." I took a sip of the coffee from a stainless steel mug before setting it back down and continuing. "We shall not allow this to go unpunished, we offered them peace and they decided in their arrogance to reject our offer with an act of war. Together Equis stands united, they shall learn the folly of their leaders and those who obeyed their orders. Our war machines will come screaming from across the stars, uncountable numbers will fall upon them in a wave of metal and blood unseen before within the galaxy, and united we will destroy every last one of their military structures that exist until nothing but dust remains, they will regret ever striking us or our allies, I promise you this, our Equestrian brethren shall have their revenge, swift and merciless."

I signaled to the android who cut the feed, then switched on a holoprojector to view Celestia's speech, for she was having one of her own at the moment and I said I'd listen in. Celestia looked at the viewers from the screen of televisions across Equis, across Equestria, her face stern and cold, her regalia shining in the light. "Ponies of the Kingdom of Equestria, we have sat idle for far too long. We have been struck a terrible blow by enemies from across the vast expanse of stars we are just beginning to expand into, they rejected our offers of peace and friendship, they struck us with no qualms about the lives they silenced within an instant like the flame of a candle being blown out." She flared her wings which began to glow like the embers of a fire, the sun behind her fitting perfectly into the center space of her wings. "They have not quelled our flame, we shall rise like a phoenix from the ashes and they will regret not crushing us in one swift blow! For our flames burn brighter than the star I call my own, we shall rise again and take our retribution. I ensure this to you, we will rebuild, we will improve, we will make them regret rejecting our friendship so callously, the Kingdoms and Empire's of Equis stand united with us in this endeavor, and with their help, Friendship and Unity shall help destroy our enemies from the face of this universe!" Cheers erupted from offscreen, presumably the crowed that was attending her speech live in Canterlot. Across the globe every allied kingdom or empire was saying pretty much the same, we will stand united in our fight against the Zetans, and in doing so we ensure victory.

Turning the TV off I called Pam over a secure line from my Pipboy, watching her show up on screen. "Pam, halt all progress on Project Phoenix, we're putting all current resources to Project Overlord."

Pam, while not having a face to show emotion being a modified assaultron, still could speak like a regular person and the tone of her voice suggested displeasure. "We are five days away from completing Project Phoenix Your Majesty, it would be a massive delay, I suggest allowing it to be completed while routing all other resources to Overlord."

Giving a sigh I relented, had it not been so close to completion I'd have denied her request, but seeing as I hadn't known it was that close to being finished, I allowed it. "Fine, I will allow it. Once you are done overseeing that I expect your full attention and abilities for Project Overlord, ending transmission." I hung up before she could further reply. Pressing another button General Glimmer's image appeared. "General Glimmer, I am rerouting all robotic components to the production of Androids, Assaultrons, and Heavy Mark Two sentry bots. I expect you to oversee this, we're upping production."

Starlight Glimmer saluted. "Yes Your Majesty, how much more will we be upping production of these units?" She questioned, an eyebrow raised.

"Nine Hundred Percent Glimmer. I want seventy five million within the next two weeks and I want them as fast as possible, overclock the machines, run them constantly if you need too run them until they fucking glow red hot, I'm pulling older outdated models out of storage and having them retrofitted with new systems to make them useable on the modern battlefield."

Starlight nearly choked on her drink before quickly composing herself. "At once Your Majesty." She hung up to do as asked, and I glared at a random wall, before smiling. The little green fuckers where likely having a hell of a time with the 'gifts' I had my agents leave them and flipping their shit at the loss of not one, but two motherships. One to an angry fluffy sun goddess, the other to a changeling who played mimic. Over the next few days chunks of that mothership would be split between the spacefaring powers on Equis, it was to become the capital ship of our fleets. Our worldcracker. United in one command ship our fleets would coordinate their attacks as one. My Empire was a juggernaut, I knew this. Now the slumbering giant had been awoken, industry meant for peace would turn to wartime production. There would be no rationing of foods, or metals for home use thanks to the matter replicators, but anything else would be going right into the forge of the Empire's war machines. Starships, aircraft, artillery, everything would be getting a massive boost in numbers.

The DIA changeling implants that I had sent to the Zetans homeworld picked that exact moment to walk into the throne room, and I smiled at them. "Hello, I'm glad to see you all alive and well, your mission was a success of the highest degree! The information you provided and decoded for us, and the...last goodie, you bagged. You have all earned whatever you desire, name it, so long as it's not illegal and you shall have it."

They didn't even pause for a moment, the hivemind letting them speak instantly to one another without verbally speaking. One of them spoke, the leader of the group. "We serve the Hive, there is no greater reward Your Majesty."

This surprised me, they had spent over a month in hostile alien territory, and accomplished something that would make them hero's if they where known to the public yet they refused a reward? "I cannot allow this, I'll be giving you all twenty five thousand bits to do with as you please, you've earned more but this is the minimum I'm going to force you to take." They bowed without a word and left. Now it was time to oversee a certain....darker project that I had going on beneath the Crystal Palace.

---------------------------Two Miles Below Crystal Palace, Military Medical Facility---------------------

Uktain hadn't known how much time had passed, it was hard too when you kept coming in and out of consciousness. What he did know was he was being experimented on like a common lower lifeform. He distinctly remembered waking up to seeing his chest opened at one point while medical robots of alien design poked and prodded, or whatever it was they were doing to his organs. This time was a new hell however, when he awoke this time he only had one eye, and couldn't move his body, not even able to feel himself breathe. Looking downward with his eye, the only part of him he could move he noticed something alarming. Where his body should have been was a metal shell, that's when a mirror was placed in front of him and he realized what had been done to him.

He tried to scream, but was unable to vocalize anything for he no longer had his organic voice box. His dark green brain visible in a glass dome like structure, one of his eyes jutting out of the front in some sick mockery of his old self. Tube like arms with several large metallic claws on them and two stupidly long legs all made of metal. He watched as the mirror was removed and a Human, wearing a crown walked into the room with a cruel smile. "Like it? Your organic body was a waste of resources. Now this way you can fight for the Empire and help us in our effort to exterminate as many of your military personal as possible! Best part is you can still speak once a small switch is flipped, so they can hear you as you slaughter them without mercy." He walked over and true to his word, flipped a small switch before closing the metallic chassis that now held his entire being.

Now, he did scream. "What in the name of the Council have you done to me!?" A synthetic sounding voice screeched through his new speakers.

The cruel smile widened. "I made you Better. Your species treats other sentients like lab animals, why should we not do the same to you? I distinctly remember from one audio-log where you could hear a man begging for his arms and legs back, or the husband you turned into an abomination and had kill his own wife and children while they screamed for him to stop." The smile vanished, replaced with calm coolness. "You only have your own government to blame as well as yourself for following any of their rules, or orders." The human sat upon a metal wire chair. "Your crew will be joining you soon as well! They also have the honor of fighting for the Empire, regardless of if they want too or not, don't worry you'll remain conscious during any battles, otherwise you'll be in offline mode, but you will have absolutely no control when fighting other than being forced to watch, and to scream if you choose to."

Uktain watched in absolute horror as his new arms moved without his input, large plasma blasters unfolding from the center of his new claws. The former Starship Captain could only look on in terror as blasts of plasma struck a target next to the human, no matter how hard he tried to will his new arm to aim slightly to the right and shoot him rather than the target it moved not an inch. Then his former crew where walked in, the same horrific fate befalling upon them, and he would have wept if he had the ability to do so anymore. His crew was like his family, that was inevitable when you spent time with them in a small enclosed space for months at a time, and to see his fellow crew like this made him want to sob. "I'm so sorry this happened to all of you, please forgi-." The human shut the switch off that allowed him to speak with a nasty smile on his face.

"Ah. Ah. Ah. No apologizing to them. You don't get that luxury. Now I must be off, as Royalty I have other matters to attend to, enjoy your new bodies! They'll be put to use very....very soon, and I can't wait to see your new abilities in action!" He turned around and walked into an elevator, before the doors closed the last thing Uktain saw was that evil smile before his unit was switched into sleep mode by an android. His new Nightmare only just beginning.

-----------------------------------------------------Slocum Joe's Café-------------------------

Freddy and Fred where staring wide eyed at Joe, who had a smirk on his face. "You got a fucking girlfriend? Who the hell would date trash like you?" Fred said with amazement in his voice while Freddy just sat there, mouth open wide.

Joe scowled. "I'll have you know she picked me, rather than the other way around, she just picked me up by the scruff of my neck one day and said 'this one is mine' before walking off with me in her grip!"

Freddy raised an eyebrow while Fred laughed his ass off. "How is that possible? What species is she?"

A Deathclaw walked up to the table they where at, before picking up Joe and licking the side of his face. Joe smiled. "Hey hun, meet the fellas." Jaws dropped further while Freddy's eyes rolled into the back of his head, before his forehead met the nice wooden table their drinks where on with a dull thunk.

-----------------------------------------------------Earth's Dimension--------------------------------------------

A woman on screen was seen with the CNN logo near the corner of the screen while in capital letters 'LIVE' flashed on screen. "I'm in this news helicopter over what remains of North Korea's capital Pyongyang, during Unity's attack it seems North Korea's military attempted to launch nuclear weapons once it looked like they where about to be overrun, destroying a large chunk of the country as seven nuclear warheads went off at once. the United Nations and NATO have been working around the clock for relief efforts, and Unity has been helping as well. We're all glad that their attack was a miscommunication, taking one of the Voyager Probes as a declaration of war, we're all glad that mess has been cleared up." The camera switches to the ruins of Pyongyang, buildings turned into slag, ash still rising into the air from some parts, while others burned a full two weeks later. The Television was shut off abruptly as Doctor, well former doctor, Alex shut it off with a sigh, tossing the remote back onto the couch while opening his computer and rewatching the footage from that faithful day.

A man dressed in what amounted to plate armor with wings of fire and a crown walking down the halls of the hospital, then being stopped by the kid. It played out as it always had, giving the kid a red vial to drink, then vanishing into thin air. He had managed to make a copy of the recording on a USB stick he always took to work for file transfers, he was glad he did since men in black suits came in merely an hour later and confiscated the footage.

The stuff in that little red vial had changed his entire life, he was famous as the guy who cured leukemia. He knew he didn't, but how could he tell the world otherwise? Even with the footage he'd be considered a laughing stock since CGI was so easy nowadays. He'd await the day he could meet that man in the footage again, he remembered the lab results and X-rays too. Muscle density several times over the normal limit, bones strong enough that they couldn't be broken, the truck slamming into him and doing nothing but minor damage had proved that one. And blood that glowed slightly if you turned the light off, a white glow. He made copies of everything. While what was in that red vial may have made him a very rich man, he constantly thought who that person was. He swore to himself he'd find out one day, even if it killed him.

Author's Note

Hope ya all like dis! Remember to comment and share the story, always comment I enjoy reading the comments immensely.