The Dying Words of A World
Normally, the Mane 6 would be glad to visit the so-called, Castle Friendship. Especially today, since Twilight and Starlight had finally said their month's long tinkering looking for a way to pick up signals of any kind from across the multiverse had finally born fruit. They had announced the day before, that she had completed what she called a 'Trans-Universal Frequency Receiver.
Now the rest of the Mane 5, Spike, Princess Celestia, and Princess Luna stood outside the doors of the Throne Room concerned. From inside, they could faintly hear, some kind of voice. One that none of them knew. As the voice ended, they finally pushed open the door, expecting the worse.
Instead, they found Twilight Sparkle and Starlight Glimmer sitting in the Throne Room. A look of grief was on their face, and tears flowed down Twilight's face. In front of her was what they assumed was the radio. It didn't look like much. A square piece of metal, with a bunch of dials and knobs on it.
Princess Celestia finally broke the silence. "Twilight What is wrong?"
Twilight finally noticed them. But there was no joy in her eyes as she did. "Hello, every-pony. Well, I have good news and, bad news. It works. We can now receive any transmissions, from anywhere in the multiverse. It took much longer than we had hoped it would, but we can."
"And the bad news?" Applejack asked, afraid to know now what it might be.
Starlight sighed. " We did a test run. Just to see what we could pick up. If anything really. And... This is what we found." Turning a dial, this is what they heard.
'This is Ventanus, Captain, 4th. I am making an emergency broadcast on the global vox-cast setting. The surface of Calth is no longer a safe environment. The local star is suffering a flare trauma, and will shortly irradiate Calth to human lethal levels. It is no longer possible to evacuate the planet. Therefore, if you are a citizen, a member of the Imperial Army, a legionary of the XIII, or any loyal servant of the Imperium, move with all haste to the arcology or the arcology system closest to you. The arcology system may offer sufficient protection to survive this solar event. We will shelter there until further notice. Do not hesitate. Move directly to the nearest arcology. Arcology location and access information will be appended to this repeat broadcast as a code file. In the name of the Imperium, make haste. Message ends.'
"It has been repeating this for over an hour," Twilight said, as the message began again. No one knew what to say. All were trying to digest what they had heard. None of it made any sense to them. Where was this even coming from? Who was this Ventanus that spoke with such authority? Princess Celestia, though, had gained a look of horror, and grief.
Luna, noticing this, broke the silence. " Sister. Do you understand what he meant"?
"I do," Celestia nodded, "Calth's star, is dying. The solar storms will only get worse. It could be years, if ever before any rescue is possible. And that is a best-case scenario as well."
"What about these, arcology's, Captain Ventanus mentioned?" Twilight asked, hoping against hope that there was some way the population could survive. She, of everyone here, knew what being human was like the most. And while she did not know everything there was to know about them, she knew enough of what they could and could not take.
"If they are far enough underground, the survivors should be fine. Everything living on the planet's surface is now living on borrowed time. If they are not underground before the solar storms boil away Calth's atmosphere, they will not survive," Celestia replied. But something about this did not feel right to her. "But this is strange. From what you have told me of the Human World, Twilight. The population should have had more advanced warnings. If Captain Ventanus' tone was any indication..."
Twilight and Starlight shared a look. The same thing had occurred to them as well. "We picked up what sounded like the sounds of battle as well. But they were so faint that we couldn't make them any louder," Starlight said.
Twilight nodded. "I talked to Sunset earlier. None of this is happening to my friends at Canterlot High. Nor is it on any of their news channels. Something like this would make worldwide news quickly. Whatever this might mean, this is happening someplace else. Another human world that we do not know anything about."
That, if anything, made the mood even more somber. "Umm, Twilight. How long has that message been broadcasting for?" Fluttershy finally asked.
Twilight's ears folded flat. "I did some calculations. My best guess? We listened as the captain made the first announcement when we turned this on for the first time. How we even picked it up? I do not know. I did not tune it to pick this up."
If possible, the mood sunk even further, as ears fell all around. Rarity looked on the verge of fainting. "Isn't there something we can do?" Rainbow asked. "I hate not being able to do something like this!"
"No," Celestia said, fighting back tears. "Even if we knew precisely where Calth is, not even an alicorn would physically survive solar storms of such magnitude irradiating the planet for the length of time it would take to evacuate the entire planet That is on top of convincing them that we mean them no harm and that we are trying to help. And even if we could do so, Equestria would face challenges of its own trying to accommodate them all, and in new bodies as well. All we can do is hope that all who heard this broadcast, have now fled underground. It is their only hope."
No one said anything after that. For the first time in a long time, Celestia hated her inability to do anything to help those in need. Even though she knew nothing of him, she hoped that Captain Ventanus had survived. Though it had been brief, she could feel the commanding tone and presence he must have.
Luna felt she would be dealing with many a nightmare in the coming days. Her own included. This was no way for anyone to die, though she knew nothing of those who were going through this.
Even as Captain Ventanus's message began again, everyone present had tears running down their faces, their minds on a distant world, even now, in its death throws.
Author's Note
So this is a story fragment from a very long time ago. Revised and expanded from the original draft. It was really just a silly idea I had one day, and I decided to put it down. I think I had just finished the Horus Heresy novels Know No Fear and Mark of Calth, not long before.
To a lesser extent, so did all the novels set in Ultramar, besides these two: Macragge's Honour, Betrayer, The Unremembered Empire, Deathfire, Pharos, Angels of Caliban, and Ruinstorm. Plus a few short stories as well.
Honour to the Dead, and Censure from Legacies of Betrayal. The Laurel of Defiance, and A Safe and Shadowed Place from War Without End. Inheritor, Stratagem, The Long Night, Sins of the Father, The Herald of Sanguinius, and Red-Marked from Eye of Terra. The Purge from The Silent War, The Sinew of War from Scions of the Emperor.
Rules of Engagement from Age of Darkness, The Unburdened and The Honoured from Betrayal at Calth, The Dark Between the Stars from Burden of Loyalty. Spear of Ultramar, Illyrium, and Hubris of Monarchia are free-floating short stories.
