Prolog: A single betrayal, can derail a million sacrifices
Author's Note
strap in boys and girls, we are in the long haul for this one, as always I tried to find what I could, see any mistakes point them out, I will fix it. if you like what you read, tell me I am always looking for advice and new ideas, and if you don't like it tell me why please, i am open to anything you have to say, as long as it fallows the rules.
thanks to starlight nova for pointing me in this direction, I hope that by the end I meet whatever expectations you have for the story.
Prolog: A single betrayal, can derail a million sacrifices
Prolog: A single betrayal, derail a million sacrifices
Final Hours of the Mega-Spell Firings
History is not kind to the losers, for the fires of hatred burn away the blood of the poor, the lost, the innocent, while the dust of the dead is swept away in the winds of recorded history, it is the victorious that write the fate of the damned. This time however, She feared there would be no victor in this conflict, no pony to pick up the piece after the end, no pony to mourn for the loses, too much blood had been shed on both sides, and many children dead. She tried her best to keep from the war, her ponies didn't need such things, they didn't need the stress after getting back, they had yet to truly recover.
Her mother had used to say that to her when she was still alive, a saying that history seemed to always prove true “The deadliest Enemies of a society dwell within its borders”. She had not joined the war out of such a saying, an already weakened Empire didn't need the fires of war burning in a cracked furnace, it would only widen the stress, and they would only fracture more. Peace had to remain, but the sad truth of war is that the bullet cares not for who it kills,and the damned care not for sacrifices cost, and victories demands. If war is what fate wanted, then who is a god to stand in the way.
A mare continued to walk, pulling her mind from such thoughts, her golden horse shoes clacking against the dirty darkened crystal floors as she did so, her steps odd and out of rhythm, she was limping. Why was she limping, she looked down, a bullet hole was in her leg, blood seeping from the wound mixing with her pink coat. It almost looked pretty as it flowed down in streams and droplets, her mind went cloudy again she shook it off as best as she could, doing her best to stay focused and think. She felt no pain, yet she knew she was dying, yet she had no fear, she looked down to her other leg, in its grasp was a crystal heart. She was filled with determination once more, that was right, she had to make it, for them, she had to save them. She walked forward, careful in her steps as to not fall, it went so far now she could make it.
It was only a moment later that the mare came to a large set of doors, she stared them down, doing her best not to fall to the floor, the blood loss was getting to her. She called on her magic reaching for the door handle, in pain to rack her head. That could only mean one thing, she reached a hoof to her horn expecting to feel the swirling pointed tip, instead the hoof only met with a jagged broken base. She had lost her horn in the scuffle, tears rain down her face, she had no magic. She could mourn the loss of it later, she had to move, now. The pink mare reached her hoof again this time for the doors handle, and using her great strength pushed them open, revealing a large spiraling staircase that rained up to the top of the Empires crystal castle.
The mare took a breath, the fast way up was flight, she called on all the strength she could muster, so close now, yet the strength faded as her stomach dropped. The mare ruffled her wings on take off preparation, and single wing was all that moved. she turned to look at her sides, and her fears rang true. There on her left side sat the burned husk of what one might have called a wing, bone and skin melted to the side of her body. Her right wing was almost no better, bullet holes and singed feathers greeted her sight, she didn't even know how it was moving as it was. The young Alicorn almost broke down there, how could she get so injured and not realize it, a cough erupted from her mouth when she tried to whimper, blood flowing with it, she really was dying wasn't she.
She felt something pulse, and a fraction of strength returned to her, the crystal heart's color dimming only slightly as this happened. It was keeping her alive, the mare's resolve found her in the new found health, as little as it was. She took the first step of the staircase, then a second, then the third, each step taking more energy more energy, each time the pink Alicron was to collapse the heart gave a little more energy. What felt like an eternity later the mare had reached the top of the stairs putting her in at the top of the tallest tower. She could see her goal now.
There in the middle of the room were two crystal pillars, one hanging from the roof the other rising from the ground to meet its twin, leaving a space in the middle between the two just big enough for the crystal heart. She looked at the wires that lead it, each piling a pod in the corner of the room its occupant already inside, she couldn't risk waking him, even for a final goodbye. She limped forward slowly, the hearts glowing rapidly as it willed the dying mare to complete her final task, it was only a foot away that the heart jumped from her hooves hovering itself between the pillars light flowing from it into the rest of the room. It only took a moment for computers to recognize the great and what that meant.
The room's winds that looked out over the once shining crystal Empire were swallowed up by the blast doors that the Omega protocol were to activate, bathing the room in pitch black darkness. The only light that could be seen was the crystal's faint glow as it spun in the pillar's grasp, it was then that a hologram Cadence appeared in the room, a younger her, that still had the beauty and grace of a mare that would see tomorrow. She began to speak, her voice playing out over the PA system. “If you are hearing this and seeing this message, then omega one protocols have been activated” The dying mare tunes out herself as she practically crawled her way over to the control pod.
She couldn't wake him, but that didn't mean she couldn't see his face one last time, she pulled herself up over the glass covering looking to her husband, and then her world shattered, she looked down at his dead form, a bullet hole in the center of his head, tears rolled down her face in waves as she coursed, how much did they take from her, after all she had sacrificed how much would they take from her. She wanted nothing but to die with him, and yet now it was he would move on while she stayed, it wasn't fair, but for all the mare screamed and raged at the ponies who had did this, she was removing her beloved body from the pod, placing it carefully in the ground next to her, there was no time to bury, and even less to mourn. She planted a light kiss on his horn before climbing into the pod, closing the glass casket around her, letting it seal.
She let the computer start as she placed the helmet over her eyes, she would sacrifice herself to save them, yet as she moved through the steps that needed to be done an accent voice echoed through her head, a voice that was dark as it was commanding, a voice she never wanted to hear again. She could remember as that dark figure stood over her dead mother place the crown on his head “always remember my queen it is easy to get lost in the lies of sacrifice, to trade you life for something that is all so meaningless in the end.” he turned his eyes on Cadence “The truths of the world are found in the butyral's, where nothing of importance was lost, and everything of value is gained”
Cadence looked on through the control pods helmet a single prompt of the screen
[(WARNING)ACTIVATE(WARNING)]
[YES] [NO]
And with the click of a button, the world of the Crystal Empire ended, buried under the white of winter's snow.
Elsewhere In the Manehattan ruins, on the top floor of the ministries of magic headquarters sat a blinking terminal lost and forgotten in the firing of the meg-spells, its message lost to the world for over two hundred years.
[ CONNECTION ESTABLISHED] : RECEIVING DATA FROM CONTROL POD
[ERROR: SIMULATION DATA NOT FOUND: SEARCHING,....CONNECTION ERROR, RETREATING LAST SEND MESSAGE]
[ ACTIVATION DATA FOUND, ONE MILLION THREE HUNDRED FORTY SEVEN THOUSAND SIX HUNDRED AND EIGHTY TWO SAVED]
[DEATH COUNT RECEIVED: ERROR, DATA CORRUPTED; ATTEMPTING TO FIX PROBLEM………. ERROR, UNABLE TO READ FILE]
[SURVIVOR COUNT RECEIVED: NO SURVIVORS FOUND]
[CONTROL POD STATE RECEIVED: OCCUPANTS VITALS RECEIVED: BIODATA MATCH TO ONE PRINCE SHINING ARMOR: DEAD AT ACTIVATION]
[SECOND ACTIVATION OCCUPANT, BIODATA MATCH TO ONE PRINCESS CADENCE STATUS…… ALIVE: ALERT OCCUPANT IN NEED OF MEDICAL ATTENTION…… CONNECTION ERROR……. REROUTING SIMULATION POWER TO STASIS CHAMBER]
[PROTOCOL ONE: KEEP OCCUPANT ALIVE, pROtiCoL TwO eRroR…..]
[CONNECTION LOST: LAST COMMANDS REVIVED…. KEEP OCCUPANT ALIVE]
