In the Celestial Year 2477, Equestria's top scientific minds made a breakthrough in mechanical transportation. The created a Gravitation Enigma Device( GeD) , a energy source so powerful that it could float Canterlot above the land for centuries to come! Before any attempt was made to lift Canterlot above the Equestrian landscape, a terrible act of violence occurred. The Changelings and Griffons attacked, they were easily defeated, but not without a price. The pegasus city of Cloudsdale had fallen to it's demise in the Everfree Forest. Many died from this disaster now referred to as The First Impact. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna ordered the scientists who created the GeD to build a city of metal the size of Canterlot and float it above what is now the Everfree Wastelands. The survivors of The First Impact stayed in a central encampment outside Ponyville, an older town that has only recently come into the clockwork age. They waited many year until the project, known as Relevitation, was completed and the new Cloudsdale was floated upon the great machine called Equestirus 1.It was the year 2678 when the project was launched and many pegasi from across the world came to Cloudsdale and made the Equestirus their home. About 200 years later, in the year 2859, war broke out. The Changelings attacked again with large machines and weapons capable of tearing down mountains. Fighting ensued for many centuries until the war ended in 3450 with Queen Chrysalis' surrender and assassination. The lands around Ponyville and Canterlot, which were once filled with the lively glow of natural beauty, are now wastelands. Vast deserts of twisted metal and and crystal sand. The only way to restore the world to it's original state is through the power of The Celestials. The Celestials are a group of 6 ponies from an old fable that has been handed down through the generations, and are said to live somewhere across Equestria and hold the power to reshape the land, bend history, and alter the very fabric of time and space. Nobody knows who, where or what they are. Many people believe that even the Celestials don't even know who they are or what power they posses.
Twilight sat her pen down. It was late and she would have to finish her report in the morning.
"Would you like me to send this to Princess Celestia?" A small purple dragon automaton said as he walked over from his place in the corner of the room. He stood barely 2 feet tall and his body was covered in a rusting purple paint and moving gears.
"Not tonight, Spike. It is late and she is probably asleep."
"Yes ma'am. Is there anything else you would like for me to do tonight, Twilight?"
"Just lock up."
"Yes ma'am." Spike walked over to the Library door and held out his arm. Instantly, a gear popped out and extended into a locking slot. The gear turned and the lock slid into place.
"Thanks Spike."
"No problem. Night Twilight." He said as he walked over to his docking station and let out the built up steam from his housing unit.
"Night." Twilight called out as she walked up to her room in the top of the tree house. She rubbed her neck as she walked into her room, pressing on the place where a golden bar code tattoo lay upon her skin. She removed her heavy leather lab coat and trotted over to her bed. The bed creaked as she flopped down on the silken sheets of her brazen bed.
She winced as her head hit the pillow. Oww...Oh shit, I forgot again! She quickly sat up and grabbed the screwdriver off of her nightstand. Pulling the false flesh back from her shoulder, she began to unscrew the clockwork mechanism that allowed her to move her prosthetic hoof. The gears squeaked to a halt and disengaged from the socket of what was once the flesh of her shoulder. As she set the metallic limb into it's place in a silver case, it reminded her of what the spoils of war can take from you. The day that the Changelings bombed Ponyville and Cloudsdale crashed into the Everfree Forest, she had been pinned under 6 tons of falling debris. She was lucky to get away with nothing more than just a severed limb and a few scars, most ponies had it a whole lot worse.
She settled back into her bed and drifted off to sleep. Her mind began to fill with the normal nightly demons that tormented her dreams....
Twilight ran through the town, dodging the falling chunks of buildings and the spitfire coming from the Changelings strange projectile weapons.
"Shit! Alpha Squadron, I need back up over here!" She screamed into her headset. She jumped over a fallen wall and sent several chunks flying through the head of her changeling enemies.
"General Sparkle, This is Bravo Squadron. Alpha Squadron has been defeated. We will send whatever resources we have to the front lines."
"Well hurry up! It's just me out here!" She screamed firing several more chunks of at the oncoming wall of enemies. She ducked from broken walls to trees, neither of which were any match against the barrage of bullets.
"We're on our way, Bravo out!" Her headset shut off just as a bullet grazed her temple.
They better get here fast! She started running back into the town, dodging bullets and magic attacks alike. She ran straight to her tree house/library.
"Spike! Get me some ammo!" Twilight screamed as she ran towards the top of the building. The small purple dragon followed closely behind holding several rolls of magic-infused projectiles. They reached Twilight's room and climbed onto the small wooden elevator that she had originally built to go to her roof top telescope, but now lead to her 'Machine'.
Twilight hopped off the elevator and into the seat of the machine, lowering her goggles as Spike loaded the first round of ammo into the machine.
"Ok, you changeling bastards. You want Sparkle, well here I am!!" She screamed out as she open fired on the wave of changelings getting ever closer to the heart of Ponyville, killing any pony who got in the way of their heartless march. Line after line began to fall as they drove themselves directly into the line of her spitfire. She was so into her blood lust that she didn't notice the airship starting to descend in a fireball towards her home.
"Twilight!" Spike called out and pointed to the crashing mass of metal and changelings that barreled directly towards her home. She barely had time to react as the twisted brass missile slammed into her home and knocked them off the top of the toppling tree. She screamed in horror as she fell towards the mangled mass of debris and dead ponies and as she landed with a sickening.....
"Twilight! Get up, there are some Royal Guards at the door for you!" Spike said pushing gently on the purple mare with his cold metal claws.
"Mnnmn, Ok. Ok. I'm up!" She sighed as she rolled out of bed and onto the floor.
"Every morning with you." Spike said as he started to hook up her hoof.
"Shut up." She winced as the clockwork reconnected with her nerves and started about their normal operation. "Thank you Spike."
"No problem. Now get downstairs. You have company." She nodded and walked down the spiral stairs and trotted sleepily to the front door.
"Hello?" She said opening the door, two Celestial Royal Guards standing on the other side along with 6 automatons who shared the same stern look as the guards.
"General Sparkle, you have been summoned by Princess Celestia and Princess Luna and are to report to Canterlot at once!" The guard in black and blue armor said in his strong emotionless voice with the same Canterlot accent almost all the guards in the Celestial Royal Guards, Unicorn Division had.
"Why? If they are trying to get me to be part of the Royal Guards again they can forget it."
"No, they said it is something of the utmost urgency." The guard in the silver and gold armor said handing her a manila packet. "Your train leaves at 6 o'clock this evening. Good day, General."
"Just call me Twilight, and give my regards to Captain Armor." God it has been way to long since I've seen him or Cadance.
"Yes ma'am." They gave their normal salute and headed back to the small airship that brought them to her doorstep. Twilight sighed. The last time she had went to Canterlot was almost 6 years ago. She barely kept in touch with Princess Celestia whenever she was asked to do her reports. No matter what they were on, Twilight kept them strictly business.
"Well, I better start packing." She sighed as she closed the door, not even stopping to look out over the town she once called her home.
Ponyville...... Just a long forgotten memory to her now. In a world that wanted to rise from the ashes of war like a phoenix, she was a shard of glass lost in time and thought....
"Twilight, you got everything." The small automatonic dragon called out from the back room.
"Yes Spike, now you be good while I am gone. I don't want to come back and find you sleeping in a fort of books on a nest of gems."
"Damn, your no fun." Spike laughed a little bit. "Just get outta here! See you later!"
"See ya." Twilight walked out the door and the scenery around her quickly changed. Ponyville, the once beautiful small town, was now nothing more than a dump of broken buildings and even less ponies. The only place that even looked like it wasn't touched was the Ponyville Train Station, but that was only because it was the one place the soldiers would rebuild after the fighting was done. It looked like a palace compared to the rest of the town. Two large brass doors adorned the grey bricked building, two permanent automaton guards standing on either side.
"Ticket please!" The guard on the left barked as she stepped closer to the door.
Twilight levitated her ticket over to the guard. The blacked hole where a normal ponies eyes should be lit up with a ruby red laser that scanned ever inch of the small metallic ticket card.
After a moment the card floated back over to the purple mare and the guard returned to her charging post. "You may enter!"
Twilight nodded and watched the large gears on the door begin to turn, squeaking from the amount of rust that has built upon them. She steeped through the entrance and was not shocked to see what was inside.
Nothing..... Not a single pony, nor a single friendly image from a time before the fighting began. She sighed and walked over to a small bench and sat, struggling to keep her large leather jacket on over her metallic shoulder socket. The ticker that hung just above the tracks read.
The 4:15 Train to Canterlot Via Railway 6.... Ponyville, Appleoosa, Dodge Junction, Manehattan Crossover........ will be arriving shortly............... The time is 4:08 p.m................. In Celestia Nomen Nos Regere.......
Twilight stared up at the red-lit plasma banner. Even the sight of Celestia's name brought back old memories, most of which caused her great pain and descended her soul further into it's melancholic and solitary state.
"Is this seat taken?" A voice called out beside her. Twilight looked up to find a brown earth pony staring down at her. His mane and tail were a dark chestnut color, a green tie hanging around his neck. His cutiemark, an hourglass, was half hidden by his long leather coat and the small satchel that hung at his side.
"Of course not." She said with a smile. "It's nice to see you again Doctor."
"Likewise, Miss Sparkle." He said sitting down beside her, removing the small fedora from his head.
"You don't have to call me Miss Sparkle or General Sparkle or anything. Twilight will work just fine."
"As you wish, Twilight." He said. "So what brings you the train station this fine evening?"
"I've been called to Canterlot on business. The princesses want to see me for some reason." She said looking over at him while she messed with the ticket in her hooves. "Are you making another delivery?"
"Yes. Just a few letters to Fillydelphia this time so nothing that will keep me away from home for more than a day or two."
"That's good." She said. "I take it Derpy is staying home this time?"
"No actually. She decided to fly to Fillydelphia this time." He sighed. "I tried to talk her out of it but she seemed so dead set on the idea."
Twilight giggled abit. "Well you know how Derpy is, she just wants to be independent and to do what she wants."
"I know, but with her eye sight gone and only that weird sonar device to help her see I have good reason to worry."
Twilight nodded her head abit. Derpy had been in Canterlot when it first got attacked. She was lucky that she wan't actually killed in the crossfire, but taking a face full of shrapnel was enough to make her lose both of her eyes. At the time the prosthetic eyes that the world has now weren't available to the general public without having most of your body replaced with robotics, so she decided to opt for just a sonar detection system and two detectors that sent the layout image to her brain. The odd thing was that the detectors were painted to look like eyes, but thanks to a mess up with the order they were painted abnormally, which would have been normal for Derpy, Twilight assumed.
Twilight was snapped back into reality by the low hum of a train horn as the large brass-covered steam engine pulled up in front of the platform. A tall stallion stepped out with a lantern hovering a few inches to his side. He cleared his throat before yelling into the large station. "ALL ABOARD.... CANTERLOT 685 BOUND FOR APPLEOOSA...DODGE JUNCTION...CROSSOVER MANEHATTAN 754 FOR MANEHATTAN....FINAL STOP CANTERLOT... ALL ABOARD!!!"
Twilight stood up and gathered her things. "Well it was nice talking to you again, Doctor."
"It was really nice getting to catch up against with you Miss Sparkle." He stood up and bowed abit. "Have a safe trip. In Celestia Nomen Nos Regere."
"I will." She smiled with a small curtsy. " In Celestia Nomen Nos Regere."
Twilight trotted over to the train and boarded the the froward passenger car. She sat down on a small seat and looked out the window before the train started to roll away. She watched Doctor Whooves waving at her before slowly fading from view.
It had been a long time since she had left Ponyville, and somewhere deep in her mind she hopped it would be the last time she would every have to leave again.
