Phoenix
Chapter 4

Twilight walked down the long hall, having been disinvited from her brother's own wedding and even fired as best mare. Weird, she knew it was. But Shining Armor's excuses for Cadance's odd behaviors just... she didn't buy them. But there wasn't much she could do now except walk... and walk. Maybe she was wrong, and if she was wrong, maybe Shining Armor and Cadance would forgive her for calling Cadance evil.

You could never truly get used to the massive size of Canterlot Castle. When she was younger and spent all her time in the Canterlot castle, she always walked through the halls to catalog old wall designs, she always managed to find new areas of the castle to walk around. New things to catalog.

The old castle was beautiful. There was no denying that. The castle loomed high over all of Equestria. A decision Twilight remembered reading was intentional, of course, for both show and tactics.

This part showed the importance of Canterlot to Equestria, being the central part of Equestria. The tactic part was that in any direction, Canterlot Mountain was protected by invasion by five hundred miles of land.

Not that any of this mattered to her anyways, she had just ruined her chances of being at her brother's wedding to her beloved baby sitter. But Twilight still knew something was wrong about Cadance, this was not the Cadance she knew and loved. And surely there is no way she changed that drastically in the short time she had been gone.

Twilight continued down the hall, trying to take her mind off her recent slip up. But something certainly seemed off about this hall. It was easily bigger than any of the other halls she had ever seen. And if she had to guess, bigger than the throne room.

She was all alone, only the clip clopping of her hooves hitting the marble floor keeping her company. She paused to look at a lone doorway. This was odd, Twilight knew that. This was the only door she had seen in this hall. She pulled herself closer to the door. There were no markings on it to identify it, and it was painted a similar color to the walls surrounding it. There was no candle illuminating its position and it was level with the wall.

Twilight was about to turn away, maybe it wasn't a good idea to mess with this door. She began to turn away, but stopped mid-step. She paused.

Should she go in? The door was hidden for a reason, but she had never specifically been forbidden by Princess Celestia to go in. The memory of her embarassment of being told off by her big brother slipping from her mind and being replaced by sheer curiosity.

She turned back around to face the door, her horn lighting up and the very oddly shaped door... was that a knob? In any case, the oddly shaped door hole compared to what she was used to started to twist. She moved into the open doorway, leaving the door open behind her as she moved deeper into the room.

She kept her horn lit up, as she mumbled to herself. She would have to come back here later with a sketch pad to catalog the wall designs. These were certainly even more odd then what she was used to. She moved closer to the wall to inspect. Was that a layer of dust that she saw?

She took a deep breath and blew, then coughed and blinked repeatedly as the dust had gotten into her nose and mouth. Not the best idea, but she could see the walls much better now. And she realized that there appeared to be buttons on them.

Very colorful buttons, some of them had strange text on them. It looked familiar, but she couldn't place where she had seen them before.

And, against her better judgement, she pushed one.

The room lit up instantly, with light clicking on, and a low but noticeable humming going on.

Twilight looked around, panicked. she quickly backed herself up against a wall. She let the glow on her horn drop.

"Oh! Why, hello there! I nearly missed you with how quiet and respectful you were coming into our room! My apologies!" A soft, but confident female voice stated.

Twilight glanced around, trying to find the source of the voice.

"Who are you! Where are you!" Twilight demanded.

"Oh! Once again, my sincerest apologies, where are my manners? I am VNZ06201925. Also known in shorthand as "Venus". I am the most advanced combat AI ever created by the Imperium of Phoenix. I am also the only proper A.I. ever created."

Twilight looked around confused.

"I'm sorry, A.I.? I'm not aware of what that means. And, nice to meet you. My name's Twilight Sparkle, student of Princess Celestia."

"Ah, of course. That's a lovely name, Twilight. A.I. Artificial Intelligence. Its proper definition denotes a personality created to mimic the growth of a sapient personality. But it is, most of the time, improperly used to denote Imitation Intelligence. The difference between Imitation Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence is that I.I.s have all their logic and knowledge programmed into them from the beginning and they have no capability to go against that programming. Whereas an A.I. is a sapient in all but body. Just like you, I too went through stages of growth. First I was an infant, with no knowledge, then I was a child just learning to take their first steps and do the equation of one plus one equals two. Then I was a teenager, believing I knew everything and was capable of more or less competing with an adult brain. Then I was an adult who leveled out. Then I met my partner and became an old woman who settled down... though, I suppose, with the things we do, you could barely considering it settling down!"

Twilight was now interested, and had completely forgotten about her brother's wedding.

"Really? So, you were created by a pony?" Twilight asked.

The disembodied voice laughed.

"Not quite! I was created by a fellow sapient, but not a pony. My creator... mother as she insists being called, is a renowned scientist in the Imperium of Phoenix."

"You keep mentioning this... "Imperium of Phoenix", but I've not ever seen that name in any history book that I've ever read. Nor have I ever seen it in any archive about the founding of Equestria. Where is it?" Twilight inquired, her research side coming out. An unknown civilization, so advanced it could create artificial intelligence? Of course Twilight would study this.

"Hmm... "Equestria"? Is that what they're calling this place now? It has been so long since I've spoken to another intelligent being. Most of my days are spent monitoring my partner. But you could say that the Imperium is... hmm... what's the best word in your language? The Imperium is... ah! The Imperium is an alien civilization."

An alien civilization! But that partner thing seemed to nag at Twilight more then the fact that she was speaking with an alien construct.

"I hope you don't mind me imposing, given your... alien status and me trespassing into your room, you've been a very gracious host. But may I ask, you continue to mention a partner, yet this room is very much empty."

Twilight looked around the lit up, dusty room. There was absolutely nothing in this room. Beyond the dust and the gray metal walls.

The disembodied female voice hummed for a second.

"Well, you've entertained my want for a conversation however short it was, and I don't think you're of any danger. Please, follow the lights on the floor and I will show you my partner."

With that, indeed, a strip of red lights lit up along the floor. They were tiny little dots, but they were bright and formed an obvious path down a formerly closed off hall.

Twilight followed the lights as she had been told. But had a nagging feeling in her heard, should she trust a self-admitted alien like this? It didn't even hesitate to inform her of its status. Surely, no reasonable alien would go about blurting out that it was an alien without some sort of ulterior motive. Did it want to eat her, or cut her open and experiment?

But the voice seemed extremely calm, and truthful. Twilight had been so buried in her own thoughts, she didn't realize there was an obstacle in her path.

Her hoof kicked something, as it rattled a little ways away.

Twilight firmly planted her hoof on the ground, as she slowly looked down. She stared down at an object. As she scanned the object to figure out what it was, her eyes widened.

She screamed and jumped up and back.

She had kicked a skeleton. It seemed to be held together with some sort of cloth, but she had kicked its... what appeared to be its hind legs. It was an odd skeleton, almost... alien...

"Oh my gods! That wasn't your partner, was it? I am so sorry!" Twilight blurted out in shock, as tears began to form in her eyes.

The disembodied voice, Venus, spoke.

"Oh! No! Don't worry! That was a soldier for the NPR. He was killed during the battle that took place on this ship! Don't cry for him, he was an asshole to begin with."

Twilight sniffled, but then giggled. How she could giggle while confronted with such an obvious sign of death, she did not know. But it definitely had something to do with Venus' uncharacteristic swear word. Or, at least uncharacteristic for Twilight's experience, combined with her soothing voice.

"Are you okay now?" Venus questioned, Twilight could hear definite concern in her voice, almost motherly.

Twilight continued walking being sure to step over the odd looking and alien skeleton.

"Yes, I must apologize for that outburst. Skeletons are not very common in my area and I thought I had desecrated your friend's corpse."

Venus laughed once more.

"No, my partner is fine. He's just through this door," Twilight watched as a large hidden door at the end of the hallway rolled up.

She crossed through the threshold of the door, and right there in the middle the relatively small room, compared to the rest of the rooms she had been in, lay a gray metal table, with something on it.

Twilight slowly sauntered up to the table, her heart beating insanely fast. Her chest tightening. Her! Being the one to make First Contact!

She reached the table and took in all that she saw.

The alien.

A strange beast lay flat on the table. on its back. Its forelegs by its side and its hindlegs pointed straight down.

The beast was mostly covered in what appeared to be metal wires meeting solid metal plate. The wires almost reminded her of muscle. With the exception of its head, it was completely covered.

Its head was another story entirely. The hide it did have appeared to be a pale flesh. Its mane was long and black. It also had facial hair reminiscent of some older stallions.

"Whoa..." Twilight breathed.

"This is my partner. I was paired with him in order to enhance his combat effectiveness. I've been by his side for some of the worst fighting he's ever been through. Something I'm very proud of." Venus explained.

"So... is he... still alive?"

"Of course. He's in a medically induced coma after he exposed himself to far too much radiation battling a parasitic species shortly after landing on this planet." Venus answered the inquiry.

Twilight began reviewing her history in her head.

"How long... How long have you all... how long ago did you all land here?"

"Mission clock began during the initial bombardment of Earth, beginning the Battle for Earth, Gregorian Calendar year of 2035. Mission clock stands at 4,997 years, 8 months, 11 days, 15 hours, 25 minutes, 30 seconds. The Battle for Earth less then twenty hours with the intervention of the Imperium."

Twilight couldn't keep her face, neutral, as it twisted in a mix of confusion, awe, terror and curiosity. This alien had been here for nearly five millennia.

A shockwave suddenly knocked Twilight from her feet, as dust was knocked off the walls.

Venus spoke.

"Massive spike of energy from unknown source, energy of unknown composition. Location of energy source located. Warning, multiple vital signatures approaching the room. General body shape matches that of ponies, but vital signatures match no known or scanned species. IFF status: Unknown, assumed hostile due to body heat, heart beat and stance. Closing in on our position, no friendly guard units detected nearby. Threat assessment: high."

A ray of green magic struck near Twilight as several creatures barreled down the hall. Twilight ducked while simultaneously scrambling behind the table containing the alien creature.

"IFF status: Confirmed hostile."

More green rays of magic slammed into the table.

"Beginning emergency reanimation procedure. Initiating smokescreen."

Smoke began to fill the room, the smoke coming from the vents as the strange pony like creatures continued to fire.

There were three of them.

Finally, after a minute of firing, they stopped. Smoke continued to fill the room. The one in the middle with the two flanking him spoke.

"Attention, Twilight Sparkle, this is 4567 speaking, I have been ordered by Queen Chrysalis to arrest you. Or kill you. Whichever one it comes to. You are outnumbered and we have more Changelings covering any exits out of this room."

4567 paused. He waited. A green glow formed at his jagged horn, as his black, insectoid body tensed up, staring into the smoke filled room.

"I will say this one more time, Miss Sparkle. Under the authority of Queen Chrysalis, I have been ordered to arrest or kill you. I have no desire to kill you, so I'd like if you came out peacefully. But I will kill you if you force me to."

4567 waited again.

"Miss Sparkle, please do not force me to go the violent route. I do not wish to kill you, but I will not risk the life of my kin to arrest you."

4567 let off the energy he had been building in his horn.

He could hear the solid connection it made, but for all he knew it could have been the table in the room.

They could see slight movement through the cloud of smoke. The two changelings flanking 4567 looked at each other nervously. They didn't doubt the Hive-Mother's plan, of course. To do so would be an unforgivable sin. But they did doubt themselves.

"Miss Sparkle, please come out slowly. Again, I have no desire to kill you. If you step out now, you will be safe fr-" 4567 was cut off as a hand reached through the smoke, firmly grasping his head, and then violently pushing it down. Crushing it.

Green blood, gore and brain splatted the two flanking changelings, as 4567's lifeless, headless body collapsed to the floor.

The left one had been hit in the face with the blood of 4567's head, as he stood in shock. As most people would be had they
just had the brains of their brother splattered on their face.

The changeling that had been to the right of 4567 immediately began firing at the unknown attacker. But his magic had no effect as a large, armored biped casually strolled out of the smoke filled room. The changeling continued firing, but a swift kick from the biped sent its head flying off its shoulders. As the left changeling finally found its senses and also began firing, in an ill fated attempt to get better results.

Apparently not in the mood to play games, the biped approached the remaining changeling, despite the magic making solid connections to its torso. Once again, the biped grabbed the changeling by its head, and with unnatural speed and strength, slammed its head into the wall.

Green blood, brains and gore once again splattered the ground and wall. As the biped let go of the mangled changeling corpse, allowing it to slowly slide down the wall. Making a sickening squelch sound as the blood gave some resistance and stick to the body.

The smoke cleared in the room, as Twilight stared in horror at the carnage caused by the biped. Changeling blood soaked the floor. The once gray metal room now looked a sickly green. As three mangled changeling corpses lay lifeless on the ground.

"Dante, could you have perhaps made the killings a bit bloodier? I don't think you left a good enough impression on our friend here." Venus asked.

Author's Notes:

Fuck the original chapter. Rewrite of a rewrite.

Again, as always, if you liked and favorited this story, please tell me why. Especially if you're reading both the original version and this version. If you disliked this story, please tell me why you disliked it. Thank you very much.