Planetside 2: The Path We Walk

by Xzeron2000

Chapters

1: Revelations
2: The Battle
3: The First and Last Thing
4: The Greatest Day
5: If I Had a Dream...
6: Curse or Gift?
7: Two Different Dances

1: Revelations

CHAPTER-1: Revelations

The Vanu have known the location of Earth since the early days of human settlement on Auraxis. But, in the words of Vanu; the Vanu Sovereignty’s namesake,

“This is but the first step. The stars are not closed to those who choose the Path, contrary to what many may say.”

“High Priestess, the researchers have found the Ultimate Artifact. They are in the process of extracting its data now.” A Vanu Acolyte; one of the most powerful members of the Vanu Sovereignty, second only to the High Priestess, kneeled in front of his leader.

“Good. The war? How long will we be able to fend off intruders?” The High Priestess’ eyes bored into the Acolyte’s, as if she were searching his very soul. She might well have, as the Acolytes were neurally linked to the High Priestess.

“Not for long, but I have faith that if we attempt a peace treaty with the New Conglomerate on the premise of having Earth’s coordinates, we may be able to gain their assistance so that we can gather as much information as we see fit. That is, if you’d be willing, High Priestess.” The Acolyte did not waver under his leader’s gaze.

“I believe that would be in order, my Acolyte. To walk the Path, we must sometimes stoop to others’ levels. The deception will do quite nicely, I think. It will also boost our morale, along with the New Conglomerate’s. Maybe we have a chance at this, Acolyte,” The Matriarch of the Vanu shifted her gaze to the Original Artifact, the one found by Connery in the shattered remains of Pluto. A beautifully crafted alien figure, suspended in an antigravity well that illuminated its sharp edges and soft curves with a gentle, teal glow. “Maybe we have a chance at finding them.”

A guardspony, golden ceremonial armor flashing in the light that came through the stained glass windows of the throne room, threw open said room’s doors.

“Your highness! Something’s happened in the crystal empire! I can’t explain it but-“ The guardspony paused to catch his breath.

“Collect yourself, and try to explain to me as best you can. I need to know something about the situation before I send somepony to investigate,” Princess Celestia’s face adopted a worried look as she observed the disgruntled guard below her, who was now gathering his composure. This same guard then took off his helmet, and bowed before his ruler. She motioned for him to stand.

“Your highness, the researchers at the crystal empire have found something, and it’s… it’s sucked them through, your highness. Whatever it was, it cannot be good.” The guardspony said, a slight twinge of fear in his voice.

“I will make sure my top mages are notified. I am sure that we can easily solve the situation.

“I’m sure we can easily solve this situation! P-please, I-I” The Vanu scientist never got to finish his plea as a Terran chainblade thrust itself into his skull. The person wielding the chainblade, however, was not your average Terran. He was a field marshal, and he’d led the assault on the Vanu dig, but ended up coming out empty handed. The Vanu had emptied the databanks, and taken all loose data storage with them. Needless to say, this enraged the commanding officer of the raid.

Wiping his chainblade off on his sleeve, and sheathing it, the heavily armored commander cursed under his breath.

“Goddamn Vanu cowards. Should’ve known there wasn’t going to be anything of use when they started retreating.” The rest was an unintelligible mumble. Something tapped him on the left shoulder. He turned, and was dead before he hit the ground.

“And that,” a smooth, feminine voice said, coming from seemingly nowhere. “Is how we do that.”

“So, I was wondering when you’d like to hand over the coordinates to Earth, since your buddy here seems adamant towards the fact that you have them.” A man, in a business suit sat at the end of a long table. All around him, armed guards wearing New Conglomerate uniforms stood poised for action.

In between him and the High Priestess of the Vanu were several other men in business suits, all wearing expensive ties of varying colors. The High Priestess was not concerned about her surroundings, though; she had two Acolytes, one on her left and one on her right that could defend her if need be. Both were in two of the most advanced combat suits made by the Vanu.

“As I have told you, we cannot risk open data transfer. We must transport the data here the ‘Old Fashioned Way’, as your people would put it. There is a column of vehicles heading towards Tawrich Tech Plant. They will arrive very shortly, but you must prepare your defenses. The Terran Republic is close behind, with mostly armor and some air support units at their disposal. As long as we can get the data onto air transport once the column reaches Tawrich, we should have the data here in a few hours. If not, then, I’m afraid you’ll have to retrieve it from the Terrans.” The High Priestess said, a twinge of sadness creeping into her voice as she finished off her statement. She had to keep him ignorant, and she had to keep him from realizing the fact that open data transfer through Vanu networks, and with Vanu encoding could not be compromised easily, especially by the Terrans.

“I sent an infiltrator unit to fact check your sources. I have something you may want to see, High Priestess.” The suited man at the head of the table reclined, and tapped something into his chair. A holographic screen flared into existence behind him, and he turned his chair to face it.

The screen depicted two men, standing in a room full of destroyed computers. One was in armor that shone a deep crimson, with a symbol of what looked like an upside down sword surrounded by a red background. The Terran towered over a Vanu scientist, who was in a white lab coat, and had glasses on his aged face.

“P-please, I-I” the Vanu scientist pleaded with the imposing Terran that stood over him. His efforts were rewarded with a cruel knife that whirred and spat gore everywhere as the scientist dropped, dead. His head had a gaping hole in it, and blood oozed out onto the floor. The frame began moving at this point, and the gathered heads of state could see a shimmer reach out, and touch the Terran officer on his shoulder, lightly. The Terran whirled around, and received a bullet to the face.

“And that,” a smooth, feminine voice said. “Is how we do that.” The voice concluded. The frame then shifted once again, and went through a series of corridors, to what looked like an observation room. Control panels and holographic screens lined the back wall, while the right side of the room was dominated by a large reinforced window. When the frame moved further into the room, it took particular intrest in the interfaces at the back of the room. Hands reached into the frame, and manipulated controls. When the hands were satisfied, they disappeared from the frame. The frame then moved over towards the observation window.

“And this is what they didn’t want us to see,” the same smooth, feminine voice from earlier said, as the frame panned around the window. The heads of state could see faintly illuminated glyphs adorning a large alien structure that sat in a gigantic pit. There were objects suspended in antigravity fields in a half-circle formation around a depression in the center. Suddenly, the suspended objects glowed brightly, and curved structures folded from the floor, glowing brightly with a bright blue aura.

“What the fuck? I hope you guys are getting this, this is just… woah. I’m going to go check this out, hold on.” The frame went black for a few seconds, and then restarted. A time/date stamp appeared briefly at the bottom left hand corner, and the same alien construct, purple metal and all, appeared upon the screen once more. This time, the curved protrusions held a black void. It seemed to suck in all the surrounding light, its depth infinite. The objects around its back had stopped glowing. The frame moved then moved quickly about the room, as a large crashing noise could be heard, accompanied with heavy footsteps and shouting.

“Find the bitch that killed the field marshal! I want him dead!” A male voice came through the cacophony of heavy thuds and footsteps.

“Oh shit! Oh shit shit shit shit shit!” panic rose in her voice said as the frame flashed about the room, apparently looking for a quick escape route. It settled on the void in the center of the room. “Guess this is it. Hope you guys have fun with your lives. Geronimo!” The holographic screen went black, and blinked into nonexistence.

“She was one of the best infiltrators we have. And now she’s gone. You better have a good goddamn explanation for this, or I’m gonna leave you to the Terrans, Priestess.” The man at the end of the table opposite from the High Priestess spat.

“I honestly do not know, Richard. Wherever she is, if she is in the Void, or another planet, I cannot tell you. All I can tell you is that she is most probably dead.”

Author's Note

First chapter, first story, first fanfic ever. Hope you like it!

2: The Battle

CHAPTER-2: The Battle

A great man once said: “This is all we have. And I’ll be damned if we’re going to hand it over to those fascist Terrans, or those Vanu fanatics. We’ve got our freedom, and I intend to hold onto it, even if it’s the last thing I’ll ever do.”

Tawrich Tech Plant was ready for the Terrans. Engineers scrambled as soon as they had received word of the Terrans’ impending arrival, and pilots had already scouted the enemy formations. It seemed that the enemy favored heavy armor; tank units made up the bulk of their columns, which included a few mechanized units. Almost all of their vehicles were the best the Terrans could offer. Most carried high-level upgrades that would allow them to stand up to the toughest of any factions’ defenses.

The NC personnel knew this, and were prepared. Their best heavy assault units, coupled with engineer units to keep turrets and tanks running bolstered their defenses. They had some of the best Reaver pilots in the NC to provide close air support for the defenders, and make preemptive strikes on the enemy columns.

In part, the Terrans’ choice of units assisted the NC. Tanks were slow, especially with upgraded armor. Their choice not to diversify their units gave the NC the upper hand as far as materiel distribution was concerned. The NC didn’t have to worry much about infantry, or air support, for that matter. All they had to do was focus on having anti-vehicle capabilities.

Many squad leaders were prepping their men, giving speeches, or allowing their men to write letters to their families when the first Vanu Sovereignty Sunderer came over the ridge. It was covered in dust, the wheels caked with dried mud. The soldiers could see a few marks made by bullets on the composite armor plates that covered its side. This would be the first of many, and the troops immediately put down whatever they were doing, and grabbed their weapons, and prepared for the Terrans’ assault force. In the distance, at Tawrich, eight Galaxy transports could be seen, three on the landing pads offered by the facility, and the rest circling, waiting to pick up their precious Vanu cargo.

A few soldiers flicked off the Vanu as they drove by, shouting “Fucking spandex assholes! You killed my brother!” or something to that affect.

Much to their credit, the squad leaders of said soldiers tried to calm them down. One such case ended in a fight, and left two NC soldiers rolling around on the ground, punching each other in various places. Most just tightened their grips, and hunkered down.

After the grim procession of Sunderers had ended, the troops could hear a slight growling noise that cut through the otherwise silent environment. The Terrans were close at hand. Just as the first Terran tanks rounded the top of the hill, the imposing canyon walls extending far above them, they fired blindly at the Galaxies, one of which had already left, taking its precious cargo towards the New Conglomerate warpgate. The defenders, in turn, fired less blindly. The lead tanks, after taking a lot of punishment, withdrew. Then, the rest of the column lined up in neat lines of four tanks, and popped over the ridge periodically to take a shot at the defenders. This strategy, while not too effective, did do some damage, but the NC engineers quickly compensated for it. Wave after wave, the Terrans threw themselves at the New Conglomerate defenders. When waves became sparser, a few of the scouts that had been deployed earlier along the ridges reported that the Terran tanks were breaking off to retrieve some ammo. The Reaver pilots took their chance, and descended upon damaged and ammunition-starved tanks as they went to retrieve resources. Gradually, between the defenses, and the ever present air force, the Terrans’ assault was beaten back. But, they would not go without a fight. Some scouts reported that there were several Terran galaxies heading to flank Tawrich, and possibly take out the force field generator protecting the NC tanks, along with air superiority Mosquitos, and some heavily upgraded Liberators to take out ground targets from above. The NC Reaver pilots were quickly overwhelmed, and found themselves without the proper armament to deal with the enemy aircraft. A few Mosquitos went down, but when one went down, it always seemed like there were two to take its place. The tide was turning, and the NC knew it. Even as the last NC Galaxy left Tawrich, the Terrans had left their defenses smoldering, charred and broken corpses littering the ground. The few lucky enough not to be blown up would be reconstituted by the NC’s respawn network, while the rest were permanently dead.

Tawrich soon fell to the Terrans, needless to say. The destroyed tanks and planes had been reconstituted once the Terrans gained control of Tawrich. The Terrans then invaded the surrounding areas, grabbing as much resources and land as they could, all the while the NC were conducting a fighting retreat. The Terran war machine was barreling down on the Indar New Conglomerate warpgate, and most knew it was only a matter of time before the Terrans gained control of it. The Vanu, however, withdrew most all of its forces from the continent, content to let the New Conglomerate take the brunt of the Terrans’ beating.

Since the meeting, the High Priestess had agreed with the New Conglomerate leadership that it was best to let the Terrans take Indar, so as to be able to bolster the defenses of the other two continents, Esamir and Amerish. Amerish was chosen as the site for construction of the New Hope; a spaceship that would be able to traverse wormhole space without being damaged by radiation, unexpected event horizon collapse, or some other unforeseen complication.

The coming months were to be harrowing for both the New Conglomerate and the Vanu Sovereignty. Not only would the New Hope be complete, but the Vanu would be able to turn to the stars, and the New Conglomerate could have its freedom after being returned to Earth. Little did the New Conglomerate know, it was not going to Earth at all. The Vanu had planned to venture forth to a potentially life-bearing planet that resembled Earth, but in reality was very, very far away from it. The alien archives that the Sovereignty had recovered suggested that there had been a developing sentient species, which was very similar to Earth’s ‘miniature horse’ or, as the common people would refer to it, ‘pony’.

The planet’s designation in the alien archives was “LB-043”, but the Vanu had come to call it New Eden.

3: The First and Last Thing

CHAPTER-3: The First and Last Thing

“A friend of mine once said, ‘you’ve got to be stealthy sometimes, but sometimes,’ He waved his C-4 detonator in my face, ‘You’ve got to live a little.’”

The infiltrator came to consciousness with a start. She put her hands under her, and pushed herself up into a crouching position, then quickly realized that her choice to transfer to such a position was not wise. She clutched her forehead, and pain wracked her body. Slowly, the pain faded, and she stood. What she saw didn’t quite surprise her; as she saw the same alien device she had jumped through, glowing objects and all. It was a copy, she suspected, and she walked over to it, and quickly snatched one of the objects from its antigravity suspension. The object glowed brightly in her gloved hand, and then faded to a dull teal, with glowing glyphs etched along the sides of it. The object was shaped like an X, and had four different glyphs etched onto the flat ends of the X. She decided to stow it in one of her breast ammo pockets, should she need it later.

The infiltrator’s keen eye swept across the rest of the room, which was illuminated in a soft, teal light that emanated from the alien object she stood upon, and poles that had glowing crystals affixed to their tops. When she stepped back out onto the floor, she felt said floor, taking off one of her gloves to do so. It felt smooth, and when she knocked on it, she heard a thudding sound. The floor was solid, nothing hollow as would be expected in a space station or a spacefaring vessel. Good. At least she knew she was stranded on a planet, where things may or may not be familiar. Right now, nothing looked familiar. So, she made up her mind. She was going to escape this alien prison, even if it was the last thing she did.

After hours of walking down the same corridor, she came to a nexus, where three hallways branched off. One was blocked off by what looked like crystals; their cruel, black points gave a warning to all those who would try to pass them. The infiltrator simply shrugged, and marked the place on her map, which her suit’s sensors were putting together as she walked the corridors. What she was more interested in were the stairs that spiraled up into an infinite helix, carved out of pure crystal. She could see a faint light coming from the top of the winding staircase, and she decided to take it up. Before she did, she used the range finder on her sniper rifle’s scope to judge the distance from floor level to the top of the staircase. It read a little less than 100 meters. She chalked it off as a substitute for her early morning PT routine, which had been replaced by a Galaxy ride to the Vanu facility on Indar, and began climbing.

Halfway through her climb, she paused to catch her breath, and eat a small ration bar that she had taken with her on the mission. She took the whole thing in her mouth at once, chewed, and swallowed. After her impromptu meal, the infiltrator relegated herself back to the stairs.

For about 10 more minutes, she climbed the monotonous steps until she reached the top, panting slightly. When she looked up, she saw not an opening, but a large cover with a large glowing glyph on it. She sighed, and brought out the spare C-4 she kept with her at all times. After all, you never knew when you’d need to blow something up. Luckily, she had two other charges with her, so she could blow other things open if she needed to. After placing the charge, and working it into the surface of the glowing glyph, she pulled out her remote detonator, and retreated down the stairs so that she was on the opposite side of where she placed the C-4. She then detonated it.

The explosion was accompanied with something like the sound of glass breaking, and the infiltrator watched as a section of the door peeled away, and cracks formed on what had not been shaved off by the explosive. Then, it, too gave way, and tumbled to the floor below, sounding like so many pieces of broken glass as they impacted said floor. Satisfied, the infiltrator steeled herself, and climbed back up the stairs. There was a small ledge, and she jumped, and pulled herself up and over it. She didn’t take time to admire the scenery, as she plopped down and sprawled out on the new floor. She couldn’t help but admire her handiwork. After all those hours, climbing stairs and walking through corridors and something thought it could stop her? Well, it didn’t. The hole in the floor was a testament to that.

She regained her composure, and pulled herself into a standing position. She surveyed her surroundings. There, on a crystalline throne, surrounded by two guards of the apparently the same species, stood a regal figure. It was pink, wore a golden tiara with two purple jewels on its head, had a horn on that same head, had wings on its back, and a depiction of a heart-shaped diamond with golden embellishments below it on its flank. The infiltrator was at a loss for words, and her mouth struggled to shut itself, despite her training. The creature’s hair was short in most places, except where it extended into a long, purple, pink and yellow cream colored, carefully tended tale and mane.

The creature, in fact, looked just about as surprised as the infiltrator. Its mouth was closed, although the infiltrator could tell from its large eyes and expressive face that it was every bit as surprised as she was to see this sudden intruder on her court. The infiltrator immediately regained her composure, and reached for her sidearm when the guards advanced on her, spears brandished menacingly. The creatures were short, but that didn’t make them any less threatening. She took aim, and tightened her grip on the gun in her hands. The creature on the throne was absolutely terrified now, its eyes wide, pupils dilated.

“Come any closer, and my pistol’s going up your ass.” The Infiltrator said, as she reformed her firing stance. The guards’ faces turned from menacing to fearful in a millisecond. They backed away, and one of them spoke, its voice startling the infiltrator. She kept her composure, though, even as it spoke.

“It-it speaks!” the guard said.

“Yeah, I do, and if you don’t back off now, my gun will be speaking for me. I’ll be the first and last of my kind you’ll ever see.” The infiltrator, now going for intimidation, stood up straight, and held the pistol in a one-handed grip. She scowled beneath the mask she wore, and inched closer to the guard.

The guard’s composure finally broke, and he backed up back to his place next to the pink creature, the other one quickly following suit.

Still brandishing her pistol, the infiltrator smiled like a predator on the hunt.

“Say, got any water?”

Author's Note

If it was kinda boring, I apologize. You can expect more action later on in the story, for sure.

4: The Greatest Day

CHAPTER-4: The Greatest Day

“At the time, I had thought I’d previously had it all wrong. The Vanu weren’t going to lie to us, they were our saviors. They’d found Earth, after all. After the hype calmed down, and I showed the Priestess that video I mentioned, my opinions changed. We were going back where we started; to war with the Vanu. I would be damned to hell if I let that happen.”-Chairman Richard Hawley, New Conglomerate Commander in Chief

“So, Priestess, where exactly WILL we be going, hmm? Some wonderland where aliens live? A barren planet? And what do you think will happen when we get there? Because I know, and it won’t be pretty. When those people find out that the product of all their time, their labor, their very soul was all a lie? That we tricked them into thinking we were going home, just so we could get away from some guys who, I might add, are supposed to be the legitimate government? They’ll revolt. They’ll take over that ship, and beat Earth’s real coordinates out of you, whether you like it or not. That’s why this can’t include civilians. Military, and nothing else, or the deal’s off.” Chairman Richard Hawley’s eyes narrowed and he scowled at the High Priestess, who was seated at the table opposite him.

The meeting table had seen much use in the past few hours, but most of the delegation from the NC had left to attend to other things that needed doing, leaving the High Priestess and Chairman Richard Hawley to duke it out over whatever issues they saw necessary to discuss.

As soon as the Chairman’s compatriots had left, the High Priestess told him the truth. It was a gamble, but a gamble she was willing to take. She knew Hawley couldn’t stand up to the Terrans for long, and getting off Auraxis would hopefully give both the Vanu and the New Conglomerate a chance to start anew among the stars; peacefully.

The Priestess knew that Hawley would need time to debate with himself about what action he was to take; these decisions were not made instantly, without any thought. She had confidence, however, that he would see the wisdom in her words, and submit to most of her ideas.

After fighting a person for the length of time she had been fighting him, she was very informed on the decisions Hawley made, and knew a lot about his personality from those decisions.

This, however, was unprecedented. She had requested that several of her top civilian scientists, as well as some of the NC’s accompany the ship’s crew to New Eden. The Chairman had flatly refused, and went on a rant that had just now ended about how he’d “not be able to control what they do when they get back” and how “the civilians will riot in the streets”.

The Sovereignty expected the very most from its citizens. They were to be loyal and devout followers of the High Priestess, and they would take their lives if the Priestess so much as lifted a finger. The Priestess had to remind herself that this was not the Sovereignty by any means; the people in the New Conglomerate controlled the government, and kept its leaders in power only if the decisions their leaders made satisfied them. Only with the emergency powers granted to the Chairman in this time of war and strife kept him from being voted back in, or out of office.

In the end, the Priestess conceded.

“Very well. To ensure your population’s behavior remains in check, we shall not allow any civilians on that ship.” Hawley visibly relaxed, some of the tension leaving his body language after the Priestess conceded to his idea.

“Oh, thank god. I was beginning to think you were going to fight me… I guess nowadays we don’t have time for fighting, do we?” Hawley chuckled, and sat back in his chair.

“Sometimes, one must compromise, Richard.” The Priestess’ face softened, and she put her hands in her lap.

“So, how’s your son doing? Last I heard, he got promoted to Acolyte.” Hawley said, and the Priestess’ expression darkened.

“How do you know about Jacob? I have never revealed his existence to… Oh.” She looked to the Acolyte on her left, and smiled. “I apologize for being rude, dearest son, but, what were you thinking when you told him about yourself?” The smile faded, leaving a wizened mother’s look on the Priestess’ face.

“It was in the interest of the Vanu, mother. I told him as the negotiations were initialized. I figured the Chairman needed a little insight on how we think before he dealt with us.” The Acolyte, Jacob, smiled at his mother, almost mockingly.
Said mother gave Richard Hawley a venomous stare.

“If you so much as lay a finger on him, none of your precious freedom fighters will be able to protect you from my fury, Richard.” She spat, to which the Chairman of the NC didn't reply. He just put his hands on the back of his head, and his shoe-covered feet on the table, and smiled for all he was worth. Which was a lot.

The pink creature seemed to be at a loss for words. The infiltrator’s unexpected question had caught it off guard. The guards gave each other comical looks that said “Are you serious?”, and the pink creature just stood there, apparently at a loss for what to do as well.

The infiltrator suddenly heard lots of clopping sounds, and she whirled around to face five more guards, spears all pointed at her menacingly.

“Oh, come on. You don’t think I’m going to let you guys catch me that easy, do you?” The infiltrator then activated her cloaking mechanism, but the pink creature acted faster. The infiltrator yelped in surprise as she was enveloped in a blue field, and could not move, no matter how much she strained to get away.

“Shining, honey I need you in here!” The pink creature spoke, and the infiltrator’s mouth thrust itself open, her eyes widening under her mask once again. This was the second time she’d been surprised today, and she’d never been the type of person to be easily surprised.

Another creature, decked out in what looked like an officer’s uniform, reminiscent of the Terran Republic’s crimson and black, except the black had been replaced by white. The officer had a blue mane, white coat and had a shield with a pink star on it, accompanied three blue stars across the top on its flank. She had only been captured like this once before, and it chilled her to think about the experience.

The creature’s horn started glowing, and she could feel herself floating through the air, drawing closer to the officer. She writhed and kicked as hard as she could, and felt the control over her hands come free for a millisecond. In that millisecond, she pulled the trigger on her sidearm.

She was dropped to the floor, and she activated her camouflage once again. She quickly stood, and stepped up behind the guard officer, pulling out her mag-cutter knife, quickly slipping it around to the front of the officer’s neck, her other hand holding her pistol to his head for good measure. She de-cloaked, and the officer jumped as it suddenly realized what was happening. Luckily for him, the infiltrator wanted some answers. And, for those, she needed a bargaining chip.

“I want answers, now! First things first, where the fuck am I?” She tightened her grip on her pistol, and applied more pressure with her knife. The hostage creature’s breathing quickened, and she could practically feel the fear radiating off of it. When the pink creature, now confirmed to be a female by the tone of voice, stepped forward, the infiltrator stepped back and dug her knife in further. She could feel a little dribble of blood running down her thumb as she did so, and she mentally chastised herself. She couldn't kill her bargaining chip, could she?

“Alright, alright! I’ll tell you anything you want! P-please,” The female was on the verge of tears. “D-don’t hurt him! Y-you’re in the C-crystal E-e-empire,” It sobbed a bit. “Please don’t hurt Shining! Please! I’m begging you!” It resorted to crying after finishing its statement. The guards looked stunned, and, as far as the infiltrator could tell, green as grass. They looked like they knew what to do, but hadn't had any actual experience in a situation like this. So, she took advantage of it.

“I’ll give you anything you want, just… let me go back to my wife,” The officer in her grasp made a small hiccuping noise, and a little blood oozed out of the wound her knife had created. By the voice, she could tell that it was a male; and the use of the word “wife” confirmed her suspicion.

“Anything? How about a way home, huh? Or, better yet, a way to Earth, since this is clearly not it.” The infiltrator said menacingly.

“A-anything, just please!” the pink female sobbed. Her words, and the male creature’s had seemed sincere enough. The infiltrator had been in this kind of situation many times, and she could tell when someone was lying.
She weighed her options. Drop the officer and run, drop him and fight, or drop him and capitulate to the guards. She couldn’t very well drop and run, because she knew that the pink female would probably just restrain her again. If she dropped him and fought, she’d need to waste valuable ammo, undoubtedly call even more guards than there were on the scene, and eventually get arrested anyway. So, all she could do, she decided, was drop her captive, and surrender.

Author's Note

A little bit of action, some family problems, and a cliffhanger!

5: If I Had a Dream...

CHAPTER-5: If I Had a Dream…

“I’m sure that if I’d have a dream, it would be about finding Earth. I can’t wait to get off this godforsaken rock.”- Unknown Terran Republic Marine

The infiltrator carefully retracted her knife from around the hostage’s throat, sheathed it, and holstered her pistol, backing away from the officer, who almost immediately breathed a sigh of relief.

The pink creature, seeing the infiltrator’s choice, dashed to her husband and immediately crushed him in a loving hug. The infiltrator felt remorse for her actions after seeing this, but she kept her expression neutral; not that anything could see her expression beneath her mask, though.

“Halt, and lay all your weapons down!” a voice called from behind the infiltrator, and she could feel a spear poking into a kink in her back’s armor. She complied, taking her pistol out of its holster, and her knife out of its sheath. She mentally chastised herself for not doing this earlier; she should’ve been expecting to receive that kind of prompt.

“Why did you do this?” The pink creature looked up at the infiltrator, and a tear came to its-her, the infiltrator realized, eye. If she was going to be around these creatures, she had to think about them more personally than just potential targets, like a soldier. It would be the only way to get on good terms with the creatures.

After dropping her weapons, the guards prodded her with their spears. The infiltrator ignored it, and reached for her healing nanite projector. The tool was normally used by medics, but she carried one, along with a nano repair tool just in case she got into a sticky situation, and someone got hurt or a vehicle was damaged. A small screen flipped out of the side, indicating how much power was left in the fusion batteries that powered the tool. It was full; she’d not had a chance to use it in a while, thank god.

When the guards in front of her raised their spears menacingly, she held up her hand in a “talk to the hand” gesture, and they backed off a bit, puzzled and miffed.

When she had the nanite projector on the desired setting, she gripped it in her hand loosely, her finger on the trigger.

“Look, I’m sorry. If it’ll make it up to you, this is a medical nanite projector. The nanites will work to patch him up, good as new. Should even give him a bit of adrenaline.” The infiltrator explained, and the pink creature hesitated before nodding her consent. The guards surrounding her watched with interest as she pointed the nanite projector at the downed officer, and pulled the trigger.

The guards tensed, and a green beam of nanites suspended in an antigravity field extended to the officer, and immediately a noticeable green glow could be seen around the area of his injury.

The officer’s eyes widened, and he immediately stood, and rubbed his newly healed cut.

“If you’dve been plugged into the reanimation matrix, I could’ve killed you and you and you would’ve been fine. Heh, I’ve only died twice in the field. Stellar record, for someone in my line of work.” The infiltrator said off-handedly, like this kind of thing happened to her every day. To some extent, it did.

“I can guess what that line of work is,” the male creature said, his voice sounding like he’d taken a severe a hit to his ego. “I guess I should imprison you for what you did.” His voice gained a little bit more confidence as he finished his statement, and he stood straighter to emphasize it.

“Not like it wouldn’t be my last time. Although, be warned, I’m dangerous.” She said slyly, and under her mask, she smirked a bit.

“What are you? You show such compassion, yet such a… detached personality…” The pink creature trailed off, looking at the infiltrator with a certain awe on her face that the infiltrator was all too familiar with. All the little kids she’d saved from burning, shelled-out buildings. All the soldiers she’d revived from the brink of death, just… It was almost too much for the infiltrator to keep pent up. She felt a tear be absorbed by her mask as it rolled down from her eye.

“I’ve seen too much, I guess. Too much, at least, to stop caring.” The infiltrator then holstered her healing nanite projector, and steeled herself.

“As for what I am… I’m a human. An Auraxian, to be precise. Our home world, Earth, was lost to us when our ships got sent to the Auraxis system via an alien portal. The portal closed violently, and damaged our ships. We got lucky to find Auraxis… but Auraxis wasn’t lucky to have us. Long story short, we’ve been at war with each other for as long as I can remember. Things were getting better just as I left, but…” The infiltrator trailed off, and she sighed.
The creatures’ guards had regained their composure, along with their officer. The officer’s wife just gazed upon the infiltrator, not sure what to make of what she’d just said.
The guard captain sighed, and repositioned himself.

“We were sent here to guard an alien device that opened a portal close in description to the one you mentioned, until somepony could be sent here that could make sense of it. It sucked through five of our best scientists, and we’d like to know where they went. If you could help us, I think we could shorten your punishment… But that’d be up to the princesses. So, it’s up to you. Off to the dungeon, or try to help us.” The officer puffed himself up, trying to look more intimidating. The infiltrator almost laughed out loud; for the height difference between the two didn’t help in emphasizing the fact that, dangerous as he may be, the officer wasn’t scary in the infiltrator’s eyes.

“I’ll help you. I can’t promise much, but I can say,” The infiltrator reached for her breast ammo pocket, and pulled out the alien X-shaped object. “That this’ll probably help. Take me to this device you mentioned, and I’ll see what I can do.”
The guard captain nodded his assent, and the guards formed up around the infiltrator, escorting her away.

“No, Cadence, we don’t know what this creature has planned. You should stay here, just in case anything goes wrong. Be ready to send a letter to the princesses at any moment.” The guard captain whispered into his wife’s ear. The infiltrator could hear it because of her suit’s augmented sound receptors, and her keen ear. Then, the guard captain made his way through the guards escorting the infiltrator and took the lead. One of the guards prompted the infiltrator to start moving with a poke of his spear, and the infiltrator obliged. They walked down gilded halls made of crystal that shined brightly in the morning sunlight. The infiltrator must’ve lost track of time, either that, or time ran differently here.

When the group reached their objective, the infiltrator was not surprised to see another alien object with two curved projections coming from its base, and ending at a sharp tip just above the center of the object. There were four objects similar in design to the one the infiltrator had suspended in antigravity fields. There was a fifth antigravity field, which was empty. The infiltrator took her X-shaped alien device, and pushed her way through the guards and past their officer, rounding the portal, and coming to a stop next to the empty antigravity field. The guards watched warily as she extended her hand, and placed the object in the empty antigravity field. The object glowed momentarily, and then a sound cut through the relative quiet of the room. A high-pitched whining, which it seemed to emanate from the alien device in front of the infiltrator and the guards.

The device sputtered, and died. The lights faded, and all the objects dropped from their antigravity holding, and the whining stopped. A screen then jumped into existence in front of the infiltrator. It had alien writing, and what looked like two buttons, one red, and one green.

Training and experience had taught the infiltrator a thing or two about this kind of situation: Don’t press the red button. Ever.

So, she reached a tentative hand out, and, to her surprise, found a smooth, warm surface. The holographic screen in front of her then shut down as soon as she had pressed the green button. The alien object then flared back to life, and a blinding light began to form in the center of the two curving protrusions in its center. The infiltrator shielded her eyes, and, just as quickly as it had begun, it was over. The alien machine released a huge burst of light, and she could hear sickening noises; like flesh being melted by Vanu plasma weapons.

When she opened her eyes, and tentatively peered at her now-altered environment, she noticed that there was a hole melted in the vaulted crystal ceiling above her, and she could see a spark of teal light, getting ever smaller, in the center. Melted crystal dripped down from the newly formed opening, and she could see that it was beginning to solidify into stalactites and puddles of melted crystal on the ground.

“You have found my gift to you, little one. Use it wisely.” A deep, resonating bass sounded within the infiltrator’s mind. She shook her head lightly, as if to throw it from her brain, and out where she could see the thing that spoke. Yet, she could not.

Continued observation of the environment yielded the view of a few guards, cowering in fright, and an overawed horned officer creature in front of her. His eyes.

She focused on the officer’s eyes, and, in them, she could see his soul.

He was a proud, if a bit egotistical stallion. The word "stallion" inserted itself into her head, like it was natural. The infiltrator tried to stop peering into the stallion’s head, but she couldn’t break her gaze. His life flashed through her very eyes, and she saw all his achievements, his sister, who happened to be named Twilight Sparkle. His wife, Cadence, in all her glory. She felt his emotions concerning each subject as her newfound ability conducted itself about Shining Armor’s mind.

Had she just learned the stallion’s name? In fact, she had, and she’d used it. This was no more than a passing thought though, as she was quickly thrust back into herself.
The stallion stood there, at a loss for words.

“A new home… thank you.” The infiltrator said, her mouth having its way with itself. She then succumbed to the inky blackness of unconsciousness.

6: Curse or Gift?

CHAPTER-6: Curse or Gift?

“When they said, ‘sir, I think we’ve arrived!’ I was overjoyed. When they said ‘sir, there’re anthropomorphic ponies down there!’ I sent them to get a psych eval.” –Captain of the New Hope

When the infiltrator awoke, she was not in a dark, dank prison cell; much to her surprise. She was, in fact, in a hospital bed. All her armor had been stripped, and she was surprised that the ponies had been bold enough to remove the neural interface connector from the back of her head, without fear that she may be injured.

The room smelled of antiseptic, and it was much like the old historical fiction texts she read when she wasn’t on duty described it. A pungent, piercing odor permeated everything. She was alone in her room, which apparently had a bathroom. Of course, there were all kinds of medical instruments surrounding her, and when she examined herself closer, she seemed to have an IV drip in her left arm, and she had some kind of heart monitor clamped on her right index finger. When she looked around, there were four stools directly across from her, stacked neatly, two to a stack. Light came in through a shuttered window at her left, and there was a light fixture above her head, mounted on the wall. She noticed a clopping sound coming from the hallway, and it sounded like there were a few nurses outside the door, talking. She didn’t have her enhanced hearing without her suit, but she could make out a few words the nurses were saying.

The door opened, and she repositioned herself so that she was sitting with her legs crossed on the bed, rather than laying on it.

When the nurses entered, they gasped, and the infiltrator smiled a bit at their surprise.

“Call the princesses, since she’s awake. Oh, and get some food and her… tools.” One nurse, who appeared to be in charge, whispered to another behind her.

Two of the initial three mares walked into the infiltrator’s room, and began busily checking instruments, and changing an almost empty IV bag. When one nurse, who had a red cross on her flank, blue eyes, cream yellow coat, and red mane, finished checking the medical instruments, she turned to the infiltrator.

“A nurse will be bringing your things and a meal in in a bit, miss 9904117.” She said, and the infiltrator smiled and shook her head lightly.

“That’s my Identification Number, not my name. My name’s Clarissa. Clarissa Hawley.” The infiltrator said; a bit of amusement creeping into her voice.

“Oh, uh, sorry, Clarissa. All we could find on your uniform was that number, and… we didn’t want to judge, so…” The mare trailed off, looking nervous.

“It’s alright.” Clarissa said in a calm voice, trying as best she could to calm the nurse before she bolted out of the room. Clarissa couldn’t blame the nurse; she’d be scared if someone with unknown weapons walked in and almost murdered what had to be some high ranking officials. While thinking about those officials, her thoughts turned to her adopted father. She wondered what he was doing right now; she knew he must be grieving, but… she didn’t want him to kill himself trying to find her. Although there was nothing she could do, Clarissa couldn’t help but feel a little remorse at her actions. If she’d just stayed behind, and let the Terrans kill her, maybe her father would have some closure.

As the nurses left, Clarissa pondered other such philosophical ideas, and came to a conclusion.

She’d never be able to get over what she’d done during her career; that much she knew already. So, she had to move on. That process included developing attachments, possibly a family, and settling down. When thinking about a family, though, she almost cried. It was quite possible that she wouldn’t get to see any members of her race, forever.

After several hours of deep thought and munching on a salad, she began to notice something odd. An tingling sensation built up in her right hand; a warm tingling feeling much like when an appendage “goes to sleep”; but she could feel her arm just fine, and it was more like a soft ebb and flow than a bunch of needles poking at her arm. She noticed a slight blue glow surrounding her hand, and she immediately resisted the urge to scream.

She rubbed and patted her arm like it was on fire, and her eyes widened as the aura grew from a slight blue glow to a deeper, rich blue. It seemed that her emotions were fueling the aura, so Clarissa tried to calm herself via meditation. The glow had calmed down, but was still noticeable when she heard a rough knocking on the door to her room.

“Come in!” Clarissa immediately responded, and repositioned herself from her meditation pose into a more comfortable one. She glanced over at her things, which consisted of the semi-powered armor, her nano repair tool, medical nanite projector, datapad and helmet. Her weapons were missing from their holsters, in exception to her sniper rifle, which she hadn’t used yet. She turned to the door, which was opening slowly. She could hear several lowered voices outside, but she could not see anything besides a purple hoof, which was gripping the door handle. When the talking ceased, the door opened fully.

There, in front of Clarissa, stood the creature whose palace she’d blown a hole in, Cadence, was her name, and Shining Armor, the stallion who she’d come close to killing, and whose wound she’d healed, along with two other creatures. Their beauty was unfathomable; both their manes flowed in an unseen wind. One, the shorter of the two, had what looked like stars trapped in her ethereal mane, while the taller had a plethora of colors in hers. The taller one was pure white, while the shorter was purple, and they both had wings and a horn, like Cadence. The stools at the back of the room were enveloped suddenly in light, and as the tallest of the three sisters-

Her thoughts cut off right there. She’d noticed that thoughts had been inserting themselves into her head ever since the events at the alien portal; no doubt inserted into her mind via Shining Armor. She then turned her thoughts back to her observations.

The tallest pony wore a golden tiara and chest piece, both with purple gems set into them. She had a golden sun emblazoned on her flank. ‘Celestia’ was who Shining Armor’s memories referred to her as.

The purple one, whose name was Luna, had a black splotch on her flank, with a white crescent moon on it, and she had decorative armor as well, which consisted of a tiara and a chestplate of something that shone like obsidian, and the chestplate had a white crescent moon emblazoned upon its front.

There were two guards outside the door, one of which Clarissa could see, and the other just around the door, so that Clarissa could see part of his leg.

“We detect a magical energy source somewhere. ‘Tia, do you think it could be her?” The purple one, Luna, said in a proud, royal, voice as she pointed a hoof at Clarissa.

“It’s possible.” The tallest one said, as the ponies enveloped stools in magic, and set them down. They all took their seats at the same time, as if it were carefully choreographed. Clarissa struggled not to giggle.

“It’s probably her, and, judging from what she already did to me, I would suspect she’s going to try something.” Shining Armor gave Clarissa a look that could destroy a lesser being’s soul.

“If this is what you’re talking about, then… yeah I guess I am the source of this ‘magic’.” Clarissa said, holding up out her right arm for all to see. The aura was glowing brighter now, fueled by Clarissa’s lack of control, and the slight emotions she felt running through her head.

At this, Shining Armor growled, and got off his stool suddenly.

As a reflex, Clarissa hopped up out of her bed, taking the IV out of her arm, and grabbing her .50 cal. RAMS sniper in one fluid motion, pointing the business end at Shining Armor, and settling into a comfortable shooting position. The others tensed, but they didn’t seem to know what was going on. Shining Armor and Cadence, however, did.

Cadence leaped between the two soldiers, and she gave an apologetic look to Clarissa.

“Honey, I know you’re still frazzled after what she… did to you, but, please. She didn’t mean it.” Cadence looked at her husband hopefully.

Clarissa was still in her shooting stance, and she had a clear shot at Shining Armor’s flank due to her height. She was about 5’ 5”, but she was still taller than the ponies, which, on average, stood a little over three feet tall; with exceptions.

Two examples of those exceptions were in the room; Celestia was markedly taller than any pony Clarissa had seen so far, and Luna was slightly taller than the average.

Clarissa relaxed her grip on her sniper rifle, and stepped out of her shooting stance, not wanting to shoot Cadence, but also having confidence that the situation had been defused. She placed her rifle on the bed, and picked the front part of her chestplate, and pressed it onto her undersuit, which the ponies had been kind enough to leave on. The chestplate whirred, and she checked to make sure it was on securely. She then reached for the combination shield generator/power module back of her chestplate, and pressed it on. It whirred as well, and she heard a distinct clunk of metal on metal as the armor pieces locked into place.

As she was putting her armor on, the ponies watched in silence. Shining Armor shot an angry gaze, Celestia a watchful eye, Luna an authoritative look, and Cadence seemed happy that she still had her life.

When Clarissa was finished applying the armor, she attached her tools to her belt, and put her rifle on her back. She opted to leave her facemask and helmet off for the moment. She sat down on the foot of her bed, resting her hands in her lap.

“What did I do to him, besides holding him hostage?” Clarissa asked sincerely, a little concern in her voice. She’d never held this kind of concern for enemies in the past, but she really didn’t consider Shining an enemy; more like a victim of circumstance.

“You scanned his mind, and peered at his memories. Nothing was remained untouched by your prying mind, and you took everything that came within your ethereal sight. Captain Armor has nightmares every night about it, from what Cadence tells us. We try to assist him as best we can, but such a traumatic experience cannot be fully righted, even by the Princess of the Night.” The darker Alicorn, Luna said. Clarissa felt a stab of remorse, which, surprisingly, didn’t go away. The use of the word “Alicorn” deepened it; it was yet another memory taken from the mind of Shining Armor.

“Mind rape, then,” Clarissa gazed off towards the window for a moment, and then quickly turned to Shining Armor. “I… I didn’t know what I was doing, I just felt this sudden power, and a voice, and then...” Clarissa trailed off. She thought for a moment while Armor and she stared at each other. “The voice said that I’d ‘found its gift for me’, and that I should use it wisely. Then, I just looked into his eyes… and there was no going back.” She felt a tear well up in her eyes. Normally, she wouldn’t even have this kind of reaction to one of her own memories. Once she realized that she was feeling Shining Armor’s emotions concerning his memories, and not just receiving his memories, she sobered up, and it was easy to simply block the emotions as they came. She still felt a bit remorseful, because, well, that was more her emotion than Armor’s.

“This voice… was it female?” Luna asked, giving a worried glance to Celestia, who returned it with a look of sorrow.

“No, actually… It was a deep bass. I felt like it struck a chord in my head or something when it spoke, it was just…” Clarissa trailed off.

“This is troubling. Could it be Discord?” Celestia said as she turned to the other three ponies, and Luna put a hoof to her chin in thought.

Clarissa remembered what Discord was, or, rather Shining Armor did, but when she sized Discord’s actions up to those of the Terrans, with their public executions, the Vanu with their experiments on people, and just the general depravity and violence of war… Discord was like nothing. True, he was powerful, but he didn’t murder anyone. He didn’t turn people into… not-people. He had more respect for life; it seemed, than the humans.

“We doubt that Discord hath access to such alien artifacts or that they would grant him access to their abilities. If Discord had activated the artifact, and he ended up like our scientists did, perhaps it would not be such a bad thing.” Luna grinned at the thought, and she looked to her larger sister for input.

“I think our guest may have some insight as to what may have been going on.” Celestia said, looking pointedly at Clarissa.

“Uh, last thing I knew, I was on Auraxis, on a black op. Some Terrans came beating down the door, and my only viable escape option was a portal device which looked similar to the thing you found. It was made of the same material, had the same objects in antigravity fields around behind it. Although, the X-shaped one on yours was missing… I wonder if that has anything to do with it? Maybe putting in the object triggered some latent trap or something, I don’t know. Whatever it was, it gave me this,” Clarissa held up her right arm, which was glowing softly due to the aura that surrounded it. “And I’m not certain whether this is a curse, or a gift.”

“It’s magic. Don’t you have magic on… Auraxis was it?” Cadence asked, truly puzzled.

“No, but we have tech that can do some pretty amazing stuff. This… magic. What can I do with it, besides… y’know.” Clarissa stopped before she said “mind rape”, or something to that affect.

“You can do many things with it, other than, as you so eloquently put it ‘mind rape’ ponies. You must already be quite powerful if you could conduct that kind of spell on Captain Armor without killing yourself. Combat magic like that is very advanced, and Shining has been trained to defend against it. I was surprised when Cadence told me that he was still awake. I thought you would’ve tried to cap off your assault with a sleep spell, but, no. This is why I suspect that you weren’t doing it willfully, and also why I didn’t char you to a crisp as soon as I heard you’d violated my most prized Royal Guard captain’s mind.” Celestia sighed as she finished.

Conversation continued for hours, and was mostly about Auraxis and human history in general. During the extended history lesson, some of the ponies were shocked to learn of the technology at the humans’ disposal, the exploits of Clarissa, and the mysterious alien artifacts that so intrigued the Vanu.

Celestia couldn’t help but wonder: What else is out there?

7: Two Different Dances

CHAPTER-7: Two Different Dances

“It’s confusing, finding out who’s the enemy. Only until someone shoots at you do you really know, and I think I’ve found the bullet.” –Chairman Richard Hawley

“Ma’am, I can assure you that the New Hope is being constructed as fast as we can do it. The whole NC’s behind it and your scientist’ support has been extremely helpful while dealing with that FTL drive, but we can’t push production any further.” Project Manager Axton Briggs said finally.

The High Priestess sighed, and closed her eyes for a second, rubbing her forehead as if she had a headache. Which she did, and it was solely the fault of the man before her. She’d been trying to convince Briggs to allow Vanu work teams to come in and assist in production, but he’d only scoffed at her when she suggested that her, quote “goddamn spandex assholes” could “go to hell for all he cared” and that “the scientists were enough”.

The High Priestess resisted the urge to have the man shot on the spot. Such insults thrown at the Chairman would not be acceptable, but, apparently shouting them at the leader of the Vanu was perfectly acceptable.

The High Priestess had long since tired of the New Conglomerate’s attitude towards the Vanu, and she could not get Chairman Hawley to do anything about it. Yes, he may have mandated the integration of Vanu scientists into the work crews, but he felt that the use of any more Vanu faculties would, quote “piss the people off”. So, the High Priestess dealt with it as best she could.

“Very well. I suppose I cannot convince you, so I shall leave you to your work.” The High Priestess said, exasperated. These fools had no respect.

“The New Conglomerate is slowing us down, mother. We must attempt something to change that, and I don’t think anyone aside from Hawley is open to any new ideas.” The High Priestess’ son had become very insistent that it was not Hawley, but his advisors that pushed him to make decisions, and that Hawley himself was, indeed, very open to these ideas. He couldn’t do it without his advisors’ support, or his approval rating would surely bottom out.

The High Priestess didn’t care for his approval rating, though, but she ended up agreeing with her son on many of the points he’d made. So, she’d been parading around the New Conglomerate, dealing with fools and imbeciles the whole way in an attempt to convince Chairman Hawley to accept more of her assistance.

So far, she’d found that there were some among his advisors that had doubts on what some of the others thought, and saw great opportunity in having the Vanu work more closely with the New Conglomerate to build the New Hope. Hopefully, there were enough.

Otherwise, their death would not be quick and painless. The Terrans would make sure of that.

The few weeks after Clarissa’s arrival had been uneventful. Right now, she was polishing her armor, which hadn’t been taken care of properly since her arrival. It calmed her to do such a normal thing, and it gave her time to think about what her next move would be. Tonight, her existence would be made public at the Grand Galloping Gala, much to her chagrin.

After being discharged from the hospital, Clarissa had been put under house arrest, or, as the princesses referred to it “close supervision.” She understood why they’d done it, but she had a slight twinge of anger every time she saw the guards whose eyes followed her wherever she went.

In all honesty, the ponies had been quite the gracious hosts to an alien that had pointed a weapon at some of their top people on more than one occasion to allow her to live in a major city. For that, she was less than grateful. She’d expected a definite enemy to emerge sometime, and being on her ass not fighting anything really grated on her nerves in a way she’d never contemplated it would.

As for being “displayed” at the Gala, Clarissa couldn’t be more repulsed. If it was anything that angered her more, it was attention. The whole point of being an infiltrator was to move unnoticed, kill anything that got in the way silently, and complete a set objective. There were a plethora of things that could go wrong, but they could usually be solved by a knife or a well-placed projectile. In this situation, though, she couldn’t simply solve her problems by killing. She had to sweet-talk her way around an official function, which was not her strong suit in the slightest. Sure, she was able to deal with a panicked nurse, and, after a time, some senior officials. She could only hope for the best.

Clarissa also wasn’t sure how the ponies would react to a human in full armor milling around in a crowd full of snooty upper class patrons. Her best option, she decided, was to pick a corner, and observe. If anything, she could glean something about the ponies from some of the gossip and such that was inherent to such up-tight events.

Shining Armor’s memories had faded over the last few weeks, leaving her only snippets of important facts she’d want to know about the ponies. Any intel that could be gathered would be valuable; so she’d recorded any information that she thought would be useful in the near future.

A knock on her door interrupted her thoughts. Sighing, she gave stopped what she was doing, and treaded towards the door.

Gripping the handle, she opened the door.

There stood a smiling Princess Celestia, along with two guards that gave Clarissa a death glare. She ignored the guards, and drilled into Celestia’s eyes with her own.

“I have something for you, Clarissa.” Celestia’s horn ignited, and a brilliant sapphire dress floated its way into Clarissa’s field of vision. It was rather simple, and lacked some of the embellishments she’d seen on some of the Canterlot nobility.

Nodding her approval, she reached for the dress.

It promptly floated out of range.

“Something wrong?” Clarissa asked. Her expression darkened, and she retracted her hand.

“No, but I would like to talk to you while you put this on.” Celestia said, returning Clarissa’s sudden hostility through her eyes, her mouth curling into a smile.

“Mmh. Come on in, Princess.” Clarissa stepped out of Celestia’s way as she said this, and the pony in question walked past her. Shutting the door, the two headed for Clarissa’s living room.

Finally, the dress was passed into Clarissa’s possession. She sighed, and began changing into the dress while Celestia found a comfortable spot on Clarissa’s couch.

“No sarcastic remarks? No lewd jokes? I’m beginning to lose faith in you, Clarissa.” Celestia blinked lazily, and shifted into a more comfortable position on the couch.

“Honestly, Princess, I don’t want to do this. For all the parties my father took me to, I never for the life of me could figure out how to ride the political surfboard,” Clarissa paused to slip the dress over her shoulders. “I can deal with publicity. I’ve gotten my fair share of hero’s welcomes, and press conferences, the like. But my father was always there for me.” She tried to grip the zipper at the back of the dress, but she couldn’t quite do it. So, Princess Celestia got off the couch and zipped it up for her.

“Do continue, Clarissa.” Celestia said, stepping back to observe the dress as it now looked upon the woman in question.

“I just… I feel helpless when I need to actually talk to somebody, er, somepony, I mean. I don’t have much in the way of tact when it comes to conversation. You of all people should know that, Celestia. You’re the only one who’s come and had a meaningful conversation with me… well; maybe that Cadence chick counts, but… I feel as if I’ve been abrasive at best.” Clarissa turned to face Celestia, the rich blue dress she wore twirling in concert.

Celestia sighed. “I suppose you have been. But it’s quite a refreshing experience compared to all the drivel I get to listen to all day. Coming in here at the end of my day has become… something I almost can’t live without,” Celestia paused, looking into Clarissa’s small eyes. “Almost like seeing my sister bring the night.” She whispered, looking down at the floor and smiling slightly.

Clarissa’s gaze hardened, and she stared into Celestia’s comparatively gigantic orbs.

“With all due respect ma’am, I can’t mess this up.” Clarissa’s eyes drilled into Celestia’s.

“Yes, I suppose you can’t.” Celestia simply sighed, and stepped up to Clarissa, putting a golden-booted forehoof on the infiltrator’s shoulder.

“I have faith that you won’t.”

“How long did I give you eggheads to get that portal running? Two days? And now it’s been more than two WEEKS. I want some results, and I want them soon.” The Terran field marshal berated the “eggheads” that stood before him with his best drill sergeant’s voice.

One of them, not fazed by the marshal’s stiff manner, spoke confidently.

“And I told you over two weeks ago that we’d need more than two days, sir. We don’t-“ The field marshal cut the scientist off, chokeslamming said scientist into the floor.

“I DON’T care what you DON’T have, I WANT RESULTS!” The field marshal leaned in closer to the scientist, and continued his rant. “NOW! Do you understand me, you little shithead?” The venom in his voice made the scientist cringe with every word.

The scientist nodded vigorously, and the marshal released his grip. By the time the scientist had gotten on his feet, the field marshal was already halfway down the hallway.

He needed to have another “chat” with the prisoners.

Clarissa currently stood backstage, awaiting her cue to reveal herself to the audience of nobleponies and the Elements of Harmony. She stood stock still, and took up a parade-ground stance, as she did every time her father put her on display at one of his political meets.

To an observer, she looked ridiculous. The dress she wore certainly didn’t match the pose she was in, and the obvious tension in her muscles screamed “I don’t want to be here right now” to most any onlooker.

After a few minutes of waiting, the time came. When one of the attendants pulled back the curtains, she hurried to Celestia’s side, not caring about the fact that she looked like a buffoon on the way.

Most of the crowd held back their laughter, but a few snickers could be heard throughout the hall.

The Princess shut them up with an authoritative stare.

By now, Clarissa had realized how nervous she looked, and attempted to go into “the zone”; a term her squad mates had made up when they saw how she focused before sniping an important target. It worked to calm her nerves a bit, and she could feel some of the tension fading; but most of it remained.

All the while, Celestia spoke to the crowd.

“As I had told you, tonight will be different from the other Grand Galloping Galas we’ve had. Not only will I be introducing Clarissa; there is a new theme this year.” Celestia scanned the crowd, giving piercing looks to those who looked like they may be snickering at the human standing next to her.¬ “In light of the last Gala, I have decided to invite performers from around the world for your enjoyment tonight.” Gesturing grandly to backstage, Celestia smiled warmly as five zebra drummers emerged from behind the curtains. Setting up their instruments, and adjusting their tribal garb, they readied their hooves over their instruments.

“This group is but the first of many that will be performing tonight, which includes the ever-popular DJ PON3, the Stalliongrad Symphony Quartet, among others. If any of you have questions for the performers, they will be in the crowd shortly after they perform.” Celestia concluded, stepping off the stage with Clarissa.

A few seconds later, the zebrican band began playing. Their polyrhythmic beats echoed through the grand hall, and set the stage for ponies to converse, dance, and eat food from the generous helpings on snack tables scattered around the room.

As Clarissa and Celestia passed through the curtains, Clarissa fumed silently.

“Now, there’s no need to be so tense, Clarissa. Nopony will hurt you here.” Celestia gestured with her left hoof while the right ensconced itself on Clarissa’s shoulder.

“Hey princess, I-“ A voice began, abruptly cutting off when Clarissa’s head snapped in the direction of the intruder. Her eyes burned with the last embers of her fading anger and embarrassment.

Smiling warmly, Celestia nudged Clarissa towards the intruder.

“Hello, I, um, I’m Twilight Sparkle. Princess Twilight Sparkle, now, I guess.” Smiling sheepishly, the purple alicorn extended a hoof in Clarissa’s direction.

Nodding slightly, Clarissa tentatively shook the proffered hoof.

“See, I can tell this will be the start of a great relationship.” Celestia whispered in Clarissa’s ear, taking her hoof off said human’s shoulder.

“So, uh, can you tell me a bit about yourself?”

Author's Note

Well, I haven't updated this story in FOREVER, so I decided it was time I did. Now, before you burn me at the stake, hear me out-

Or you could just burn me at the stake. Actually, that would be the better idea.