Emperor Bigpip has been relaxing in his royal fortress on planet Acrab, instead of his castle on Equus. Calm as usual he was that day, until reading a slightly concerning message from his highest military officer, writing to him that he wanted to meet with Emperor Bigpip in person and should be already on the way to the royal fortress.
Bigpip wondered why, "was the current small war going a lot worse then expected?" he thought while his husband Harmonious Percussion, a loyal unicorn with green coat and purple mane, has brought him fruit juice.
Bigpip waited for the military officer to arrive, getting the usual administrative work done in the mean time. While going through mail send by his citizens, Harmonious Percussion lead the military officer to Bigpip. It was a white pegasus with many small visible scars and grey mane/tail.
"Good day Grey Flower, what bring you to my Acrab fortress at this time. When it is raining as scheduled?" Bigpip asked.
"Good day my emperor. I wanted to speak to you, there have been reports of strange creatures and more importantly cultists on the edge of our influence here on Acrab." Grey Flower answered.
"What makes this of such concern to you, considering the current defensive war? How is that going? I was kept in the dark along with the media about the details."
"Two tiny yet well equiped factions declared war on us, both only having one major base. So we deployed our soldiers by trains. However almost immidiatly a bigger faction joined them. We lost over 300 gootraxians. They hed some losess and some territory was lost. Ponies on the streets close the fighting are protesting. We should cut our losess and send a diplomat to negotiate a truce. Then we can pull soldiers from elsewhere and retake it later, if the people approve of it." Grey Flower explained, somewhat tense. Bigpip sighed, agreeing with Grey Flower allowing her to continue
"However i still believe the mysterious happenings reported, mentioned are worth investigating. Since there was a case of cloaked figures driving a young pony crazy with what was described as hate speech. I think this is a PR opportunity for you to look more like a hero to young ponies and kirins. If you investigate personaly."
Bigpip pondered Grey Flower's words "I suppose that is true, considering that we now have a client state. Which provides us with a tribute of silver. Being able buy lot of stuff from wandering caravans, making my task easier. I will go through with it but i will need my husband and somepony else that is skilled, in order to set up a research outpost."
"Excelent choice my emperor. I can arrange transport trucks to carry your supplies for this mission. Plan things out a little more as you want. Then call me when you are ready to carry out the investigation." Grey Flower said with a smile.
"I think you can leave now Grey Flower, you should get back to leading gootraxian soldiers, you would not want to dissapoint me by having more unnecesary casualties, would you?"
"Ofcourse not my emperor but i have other things to do in the city. So if you would excuse me-"
"Sure thing, goodbye." Bigpip interrupted Grey Flower, letting him trot out of the fortress. Slightly angry about the bad news, brought by the one second in charge of the military.
With Grey Flower outside, Bigpip turned to Harmonious Percussion. "Looks like it's going to be like the first time we met."
"Or the time we got stranded on an island togather."
"That too... Togather building wooden shacks for shelter. Me researching while you did other thing"
"Doesn't sound so romantic when you mention it now."
Bigpip let out a small laugh. "Put up a settler contract for a skilled worker on the correct government site for me. We are going to need somepony to help us out. While waiting a day for somepony to apply for the job, the two of them went along with the rest of the day as normal."
Two days after that Bigpip with Harmonious Percussion and a third hired pony; have decided to travel by an airship. Because they have decided to travel a lot further west then originaly thought. Where military trucks would be out of operational range.
The travel by airship went smoothly, nobody was foolish enough to attempt to ambush a slightly armed airship traveling from the east.
Making a rought landing, everypony unloaded building supplies, emergency packaged meals and lot of silver. Along with three firearms.
They said goodbye to the airship captain who told them, they will check on them with few extra supplies every 30 Acrab days.
"You know my emperor, it might come across as cowardly to leave Anocratic empire during a defensive war?" said an earth pony hire. Who's name was Red Leaf.
"Perhaps but times have changed, i am not expected to lead from the front anymore. Besides, if we discover something useful here, it will be a PR boost for me." responded Bigpip.
"The reason you choose to land is the omminous monolith over there right? I haven't seen a structure quite like this one before." Harmonious Percussion chimed in.
"Indeed, it gives me a bad feeling. There seems to be something engraved on it. I will investigate later. First we need a temporaly base of operation set up. So Red, go sow some crops. Your earth pony powers will be useful for this. Me with Harmonious Percussion will gather unloaded resources to construct buildings. While there may only be 3 of us. I think it would make sence for me to be the settlement's leader and Harmonious Percussion being assigned as our moral guide." Bigpip explained with determination in his voice.
They all got to work, hauling wood to construct many walls. So that they have shelter with sufficient space. It was many empty rooms, seperated from one another as an anti fire measure. Ofcourse for this measure to fully work, concrete was poured between the empty wooden rooms, preventing flamable vegetation from growing there permanently.
The weather was cloudy, so they did not get their coats sweaty, constructing while Red Leaf was using his earth pony magic to make the soil more suitable for growing crops.
Taking an unconfortable rest they continued working, putting togather two beds, one big one for Harmonious Percussion and Bigpip to share and one normal sized bed for Red Leaf. Bigpip didn't like that they would sleep in floorless bedroom as he got used to the slight luxury that foreigners expected him to live in, since he is an emperor of Anocratic empire.
Putting up roofs over the rooms involved cutting trees and securely placing them on the walls with branches removed.
They continued the construction of their shelter. Creating a makeshift kitchen anf walk in freezer, using needed electronic components that were unloded from the airship. Then they continued working on the dining room and recreation room. All without flooring.
The construction continued for 30 more days, when the same supply airship came back with potatoes before departing again. Bigpip meanwhile studied the mysterious monolith, discovering that it is a portal of sorts. Connecting their reality to another hidden dimension. He will need to research further to know for sure where it actualy leads to.
On the way back inside the stone walls of the base, in the morning. He was greeted by Red leaf. Who was bringing inside a new pony, wearing gilded armor. "Excuse me, who is this?" Bigpip asked suprised.
"Somepony crashlanded here, i am bringing them in for Harmonious Pecussion to tend their wounds."
"I see, i want to talk to them a little when they recover, i need to get some research done. Being able to put togather transport pods would be useful, along with figuring out the monolith." Bigpip replied, shutting himself inside a study room with a makeshift, slow computer.
When he came out, their seem to be weird dust falling from the clouds. He peaked outside, through embrasures. Animal and human corpses were begining to rise again. Bigpip and Harmonious Percussion took their magical lazer SMGs that they brought with them on this expedition. Shooting them bunch of time did the trick. However they were stronger then it inicialy seemed and broke through the wall.
When everypony was finsihed shooting, they returned back to work. However the corpses that got inside, rose up for a second time when nopony was expecting it. Ambushing the now walking capable newcomer, who's armor was split between Bigpip and Harmonious Percussion. So they only he only hed a knife between his teeth to defend himself.
Everypony came outside, hearing the struggle. Shooting the animated skeletons. Red Leaf was badly injured. With Harmonious Percussion being downed. Red Leaf would crawl to his bedroom, leaving a trail of blood. While Bigpip retreated to the workshop, managing to fight off the remaining skeletons.
With that nightmare over, everypony's wounds were tended and the mauled newcomer was buried in a sarcophagus outside.
Bigpip with his husband would focus on improving their skills after this. With Bigpip learning how to conjure an explosion and his husband learned how to inspire ponies.
One day later, a teal unicorn mare has joined the expedition. Who introduced herself as Early Midnight Chat. A nuclear engineer, pretty, pessimistic, psychopatch. With one useful spell, enchanting quality of items.
Few days later, a party was held for everypony to socialized outside. "Whoa, did you see that!" exclaimed Midnight, pointing at the sky with her hoof.
"Saw what now? What are you talking about?" asked Red Leaf
"It looked like a big meteorite landed nearby, maybe we should check it out?" Midnight continued
"Hmm, i suppose i could take a look. It probably has landed far away though." Harmonious Percussion said with an annoyed tone. However as he went outside, he saw a grouped of masked humans aproaching. So he retreated back to the base.
"Guys, guys! i think these are the humans we heared the rumors about! Let's grab our weapons and confront them." they all nodded, trotting to confront them. The group of humans was spread out, they were all chanting hateful words and started to charge at the squad of ponies, when they realized the ponies were armed. Resulting in a easy victory for the ponies as they shot the humans faster then they could swing their weapons.
Bigpip wanted to take one of them alive for questioning but none of them survived. Afterwards, the ground collapsed beneath them while they were outside. Causing them to fall underground, where it was a really badly stinking cavern. Overrun by cancerous fleshbeasts. The four of them hed to shoot the individual mosnters, along with burning their way through walls of flesh. Eventualy finding a huge living amalgamation.
Bigpip hed to use his learned explosion spell on it more then once. It took a beating and to everypony's horror, more fleshbeasts crawled out of it's body.
Bigpip casted the last explosion spell before making a run for it, despite their heavy injuries. The death of the giant monster has caused the whole cavern to become unstable, Midnight collapsed on the way out but was saved by Red Leaf.
When they got to their base, Harmonious Percussion would Treat Red Leaf and Bigpip but Midnight ended up bleeding out. Harmonious Percussion managed to close his wounds with medicine while almost fainting. They all took a rest. While doing so a human arrived in the early morning, wearing black clothing with spikes on it. He managed to get inside the base and took a heavily damaged hellcat rifle. Walking out of the storage he met a suprised pony.
"Who are you and why take our rifle?" Bigpip damanded to know with a calm tone.
"Oh sorry, i assumed this place was abandoned. I am a former pirate in need of a home. Since i got exiled. I can use my experience to proctect you if you allow me to stay." the stranger responded.
"Well alright but don't cause trouble, human. You better not make any attempts to betray us. Unlike you. We have armor." Bigpip warned
"Understood, what is that black sphere in front of your base if you don't mind me asking?"
"A black sphere? we didn't put a black sphere in front of our base. Let me see..." Bigpip walked past the stranger in black and found the strange black sphere with stripes. Curious, he rolls it inside the base for study. Where he found that it is an unstable murder machine that can be suppressed, at least for the time being.
Bigpip would study it, along with other smaller mosters they managed to capture previously.
While Harmonious Percussion finaly traveled to the meteor he spotted landing earlier. When Harmonious Percussion arrived, he examined it. It contained blue crystals. Placing a hoof against it. He could sence that the crystals were hightly charged with magical energy. Wasting no time, he used his mining experience to extract all the crystals and take them with him. On the way back, he ran out of food. Since it was a mild winter but he found a tiny outpost close to his base. So he shot the single person inside. Feeling pity for them, he ended up taking their pemmican and rice, so he would have enought to get back and have extra for the rest.
Few days after Harmonious Percussion's arrival. Three mysterious obelisks have appeared near the base, forming a triangle.
As with all the really weird things happening on the west side of the continent. Bigpip way send first to check what was up. Starting with the obelisk that was west of their base.
The obelisk was releasing a small amount of magical energy into it's surroundings. Studying it, Bigpip could feel the magic coming from it getting stronger.
Then he blinked and after opening his eyes again, he saw the obelisk wasn't there anymore. Looking around himself, he saw that he was inside a grey room. With a couple of doors. With a slight panic, he started forcing them open. It was just more grey rooms. However one of the rooms hed a sculpture surounded by corpses. The air in all of the rooms smelled the same and didn't seem to move.
Walking past the sculpture, a puff of dust came out the sculpture, the dust animating the corpses.
Bigpip retreated to a doorway and fought the animated corpses. With mininal injuries. Moving to the next grey room. He found an etching pointing to a specific direction.
He made his way through many more rooms, until finding a circular room with an identical monument at the center. He tapped on it with his hoof. He was then teleported back, shortly after. Shaking his head, he hed a meal and rested.
The next day, he gathered everypony to the obelisk positioned east of the base. Keeping their distance, Bigpip ordered everypony to shoot at it. Afterwards, Bigpip stood next to it, to check if their weapons damaged it. It definitely did but as Bigpip inspected it up close.
He could feel sharp pain inside his stomach. Running away from it, everypony shot the obelisk again. Causing it flash violently before seemingly exploding into nothingness. Few fleshmonsters appeared but they did not pose a threat. With that, everypony returned to work.
Finaly, when Bigpip got ready. He went to inspect the third obelisk. Which looked a lot more normal then the other two. It hed a black bottom, with a red gradient tip. It was wet to touch but left no residue. Once Bigpip touched the obelisk. There was a pop of displaced air as a pink coated pony appeared. The hair and tail having same style and color as Bigpip. Along with the same eye color.
"Who are you?" asked Bigpip, taking a step back. Not breaking eye contact.
The pony looked a little dazzed. After a little silence the pink stallion aswered "I'm Bigpip, nice to meet you... Bigpip?"
"Umm... This is strange. I'm the real Bigpip. You don't even have the same coat and cutie mark!" Exclaimed the real Bigpip.
"No, i'm the real one! I am starting to remember everything!" ptotested the pink pony, spreading his wings.
"OK... So you have the same memories as me? You know what, let me take you to our base." the original Bigpip responded, placing his wing on the pink pony. Leading him inside, led to other ponies giving them confused looks.
"Love, who is this?" Harmonious Percussion asked, being on his way to haul some metal.
"Let's call him Pink Bigpip. He appears to have the same memories as me. I think we should let him do his thing and stay here." Bigpip told his husband, who did not have an issue with the pink clone staying. However after few days, the clone mysteriously dissapeared, leaving no clues.
This was disapointing for everypony in the base. However they hed a bigger issue. As the ground started to slightly shake. Bigpip just finished putting togather the last peice of excellent marine armor when that happened. Bigpip gave the armor piece to Red Leaf.
Harmonious Percussion was send by the thers to investigate.
What he has found suprised him. There was a pulsating mass of rapidly growing living amalgamation of flesh. He trotted back to the base scared a little. Alerting everypony they headed outside to cut through the living cancerous growth.
While they were cutting their way through it. Fleshmonsters would occasionaly jump out of the larger flesh mass. Thankfuly, the pony armor was enough to block most attacks of monsters that weren't burned in time.
Eventualy Bigpip found a way to destroy the central part of it. Causing it to explode while bleeding. The surrounding tentacle like walls of flesh slowly collapsed as it exploded.
What it left behind was a black sphere, made out of metal triagle plates. Red Leaf would roll the sphere inside it's own continment room, just in case. The room in question was carved inside a granite hill.
A couple of days later, Bigpip went to check on the obelisk, which created a clone of him recently. It seemed to have remained uchanged. However he could see that the monolith close to it, was begining to emit a strange noise and light up. While the sky began to unnaturaly darken.
As was the protocol at this point. He went to alert the others. While telling everypony, inside the walls of the base. They could hear hostile screeches outside while there were two bright flashes of light. When Bigpip was about to open the door, leading the group. A group of monsters revealed themselfs, among them were a black insect like figure with glowing yellow eyes.
They were thankful that that Bigpip stopped before opening the door. Instead he ordered the group shoot the monsters. Unfortunuatly the mosters weren't completely dumb and started breaking throught the door and walls. They managed to defeat them with light injuries. Afterwards they have put on body cameras to record whatever would happen afterwards.
Running towards where the lights flashed earlier, they found two weird structures, each defended by a spiky metalic creature. Among several other monsters who decided to turn up, while Bigpip was figuring out what to do. When Bigpip figured out what to do with the structures, they activated, glowing red.
Few hours afterwards, three more of the structures appeared and they knew what to do. However it got too dark to see anything that wasn't emiting light. They would throught the darkness. Feeling something in the dark chipping away at their armor, Bigpip casted an explosion spell, setting foilage on fire. Allowing them to see the monsters chasing them. Allowing them to shoot shoot the monsters.
Repeating their steps, they found themselfs severely injured but still standing, thanks to Bigpip's pain blocking spell.
With the final strange structure activate, the dreaded monolith close to it. It started to shoot out bolts of lightning and red glowing stripes formed.
"What is going on?" asked Harmonious Percussion, facing Bigpip
"I-i am not sure but it's doing something, let's have a closer look." They did so, with Red Leaf collapsing on the ground as the pain blocking spell wore off. Slumping against the monolith.
More monsters appeared, getting in melee, Bigpip would try his best to impale them with his sharp horn.
Finaly, after several long minutes of fighting. A circular portal appeared above the glowing monolith. With a gulp Bigpip nervously said "I'm going in, try to not get killed please. I hope i won't be gone for long." His armor hindered his ability to fly, so he climbed the monolith and jumped inside.
He fell with a wet thud. Slowly opening his eyes, he could see he was in a cavern. A metal cavern where the floor was oily with few spikes sticking out. The walls were fully made up of metal spikes. There were several pillars of sorts pointing towards a fascinating sphere that looked like a dark ocean with many small pollutants inside it.
"We meet again..." Said a whisper, it wasn't coming from any specific direction. Instead, he could feel it coming from deep inside his mind. "Came to make a second deal?" the voice continued.
"No... It's you again. I hoped you stopped existing... Yet here you are talking to you." Bigpip responded. His pupils dilate and starts feeling a little unwell.
"From your perspective i have stopped existing, however. A connection was made to your world, so i could manifest some influence into the world of you pathetic mortals." The voice said followed by a maniacal laughter which cause Bigpip to fall on the wet floor beneath him. "Now mortal, i have a proposal for you. You can embrace my void from the note in front of you. Rejecting your humanity beyond just your physical body-"
"No!" Bigpip tried to interupt the manacing voice. He looked to the pillars, which seemed to be linked to the sphere in the middle, providing it with energy. Bigpip still hed his weapon, thinking about his next move. He tried to move the weapon like a boomerang between the pillars to disrupt their linked flow of energy to the central sphere.
After doing so, resulted in a bright light and the voice inside his head started to screem at him very loudly. Unable to see and think, he seemigly vanished from existance.
Back on the monolith site. Everypony could see the darkness covering the sky dissipating. Any moving monster in the distance has fallen to the ground dead.
"Umm, the portal has closed and Bigpip isn't here, is he stuck... where ever he went to?" Harmonious Percussion said deeply worried while closing all Red Leaf's wounds.
Then with a pop of displaced air, Bigpip has appeared, falling on the ground with a thud. He got up, blinking bunch of time and check if he has all his limbs attached. "I think i'm alive!" Bigpip exlaimed, being embraced by Harmonious Percussion. "Careful love, you almost poked me with your horn. Oh the body cameras" Bigpip realized, checking if he had the other side of the portal recorded. Taking off his camera, it was almost completely out of charge but it seemed to have the footage captured in during the battle and the other side of the portal.
"It looks like this mess is over but we will still need to wait for the supply airship to turn up again..." They then went to repair holes inside the base, caused by monsters, during the activation of the strange structures. After waiting many days without any monster attacks, they would take some loot with them, alongside the black fleshmass core for futher research.
Returning to the royal fortress by the airship to continue with their lives.Emperor Bigpip has been relaxing in his royal fortress on planet Acrab, instead of his castle on Equus. Calm as usual he was that day until reading a slightly concerning message from his highest military officer, writing to him that he wanted to meet with Emperor Bigpip in person and should be already on the way to the royal fortress.
Returning to the royal fortress by the airship to continue with their lives.
