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The Marks of War

by DungeonMiner

Chapter 1: Chapter I

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In the nightmare future of the 41st Millennium, there is only war.

Our galaxy has transformed into a universe of constant violence, where everyday men and women walk a fine line of survival and extinction.

Aliens threaten our lives as they try to reclaim what was once theirs. Evil gods laugh as they reach for our souls, devouring them while offering promises of power in exchange for their allegiance.

Yet still, we must look to our own backs, for if those promises fall deaf on our ears, others amongst our own ranks may yet hear them.

No one is above suspicion.

No one is innocent.

The hope of mankind is dead, and sits upon of throne of gold, an idol of better days.

Now there are no better days.

Forget the power of science and technology, for so much has been forgotten, never to be relearned.

There is no peace.

Only war.

Yet this story does not begin here.

This begins in a world of peace, billions of lightyears and planes of reality away.

This story begins in the castle of a newly crowned Princess of Friendship in the magical land of Equestria.

---=][=---

It all started in a palace made of crystal that had grown in the shape of a tree.

Beaded sweat rolled off Twilight Sparkle’s brow, and her tongue stuck out in concentration.

The lavender alicorn made a quick, careful note as her eyes darted across the readings that were coming out of a nearby machine.

Twilight, ever since she had been a little filly, was always a curious one. It only took a single question to spark a fire of curiosity that burned until every single outcome was found.

This time, that question had been posed by her good friend Applejack. It had started when they all were sitting around, waiting as Twilight sorted through yet another pile of books. Applejack, the farmpony in question, found herself staring up at Twilight’s enchanted mirror.

It was innocent enough to begin with.

Now here she was, running around the heavily modified machine, checking and rechecking numerous figures and readouts as a thousand other machines cranked out page after page of test results.

It was quite an amazing artifact. Every 30 moons, a portal would open to another world, transforming whoever walked through it as it brought them. Twilight herself, in a moment of desperation brought on by a friend in need, had altered it to allow her unlimited access.

And then came the million-bit question.

“Do Y’all reckon this mirror can go other places?”

Twilight looked up from her books. “What?”

Applejack looked over at her. “Well, Ah mean, if there’s this human world, what other places are out there?”

Twilight stared at Applejack a long time after she asked that.

The thought had never occurred to her.

And now that it had, she needed an answer.

Ripping a new page of readouts away from her machine, she quickly read it, looking for the tell-tale signs of a wormhole along with the proper indicators to show that the wormhole had gone somewhere, anywhere other than the human world she was now familiar with.

Today she had fourteen negative tests, where the wormhole failed to form, and three false positives, where it had opened, but back to the same world. Still, Applejack’s hypothesis had some weight to it. With each false positive, there was enough variation to suggest that the mirror portal was in different locations in the same world.

All she needed to do was figure out which plane to move it on…

“Hiya, Twilight!” someone said behind her, causing the princess to all but jump of her skin.

Scrambling to keep her clipboard from falling to the floor, Twilight turned to see three young fillies looking up behind her.

She quickly recognized them; Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, and Scootaloo. Her three students, and her best friends’ sisters. Even if one of them wasn’t technically blood related.

“Oh, hi, girls. What are you doing here?”

“It’s Thursday,” Apple Bloom said. “It’s Twilight Time…” she explained.

“Oh,” Twilight blinked, wondering where the week had gone. “Well, uh...let’s get started!” she said, as she made her way, blinking in surprise, to her supply closet.

The three foals, however, stared up at the mirror.

When Twilight returned, a chaotic and wide array of items in her telekinetic grasp, she sighed. “I’m sorry girls, I’ve just been concentrating on this mirror lately.”

“Why? What does it do?” Sweetie Belle, the unicorn of the group asked.

“Nevermind, girls, it’s nothing to worry about.”

“Are you sure?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Yes, girls,” Twilight said, setting up various workshops. “Just leave it alone.”

She suddenly blinked, realizing she was missing something. “Oh, shoot. Hang on, Scootaloo, I forgot your scooter building kit, give me a second,” she said, before ducking out of the room.

As the princess left the room, the three little ponies turned to the mirror.

There was a beat of silence.

“So…” Scootaloo, the pegasus of the group, said. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

Sweetie Belle, the unicorn shifted nervously. “Yes, but I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“Ah’m with Sweetie Belle,” Apple Bloom said. “We shouldn’t mess with it.”

“I was just thinking that we should look at it,” Scootaloo said with a smile. “Looking at it can’t hurt. Besides, you know how Twilight is, she’s probably missed some sort of incredibly obvious thing that’s just in the way…”

The other two looked at each other.

“Well…” Sweetie began.

“Ah guess it couldn’t hurt ta look…” Bloom finished.

“Alright! Let’s check it out!” Scootaloo said, leaping off her chair and heading towards the mirror. “And hey, who knows maybe we’ll get our cutie marks in magical engineering!”

“You mean artificing?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Sure, whatever,” Scootaloo said, as they got closer to the massive machine.

The orange pegasus leapt up into the air, her wings buzzing as she hovered forward.

The others followed, gawking at the monolith of magic and machine that loomed in the room.

Apple Bloom began to walk around the mirror, staring at the gears and cogs that lined it, connecting to a thousand different apparati.

Sweetie Belle tentatively checked the front of the mirror, searching its silvery surface for some sort of sign of something amiss.

Scootaloo twisted a dial.

Apple Bloom reset a gear.

Sweetie Belle’s face scrunched in concentration as her horn began to glow with a soft green light.

They waited.

“Well that’s boring!” Scootaloo said.

“We haven’t even done anything!” Apple Bloom said.

Sweetie Belle focused harder, bringing the green glow of her horn to an even brighter strength, feeling the mirror resonate with her.

“Ya can’t just expect it to work because you pushed something! Ya hafta work with it!”

“Says who?” Scootaloo asked.

Sweetie’s face contorted as she tried to hold the magic.

And that’s when things went wrong.

Sweetie felt her magic snap, slamming back into her like a rubber band.

The resonating properties of the mirror, however, caused the magic to go wild, sending sparks and uncontrolled bursts of arcane force. A burst exploded out of the gears, sending Apple Bloom tumbling and engines whirring to life.

“What’s happening?” Bloom managed to shout before another a small twister formed above them. She looked up to see fans spinning crazily and pistons chugging at an insane speed.

“I...I don’t know, I…” Sweetie Belle stuttered as she moved back from the now chugging machines.

The three fillies began to back up.

But it was far, far too late for that.

Metal whined and rent, malforming as the mirror began to glow, first blue, then red, before changing to a bright, purple color.

And then the mirror howled.

“Girls,” Apple Bloom said. “This may have been a bad idea…”

The mirror then opened, whining, whirling, and howling as the very air began to be sucked from the room. Twilight’s notes, that had been sitting somewhat piled on the table suddenly scattered, flying to the four winds before being eaten by the vortex of the mirror.

Scootaloo’s eyes went wide as she felt herself lift of the ground. “Woah, woah! Help!” she cried as she went airborne, heading straight for the mirror.

Sweetie Belle grabbed her. “I’ve got you!” she yelled, just in time to see the alchemy set fly.

It smashed against the rim of the mirror, shattering to pieces, before being swallowed whole.

Sweetie Belle began to skid across the ground. “Apple Bloom!” she cried.

The young earth pony bounded forward, grabbing the unicorn as she went into the air.

Sweetie screamed. “Help! Somepony help!”

“Sweetie Belle!” Scootaloo cried. “Don’t you dare let me go!”

The wind whipped and howled, trying to swallow the three little fillies.

“Ah’ve got ya both!” Apple Bloom grunted, her forehooves wrapped around the others, skidding across the floor as the mirror began to suck them closer.

Her hooves slid across tile floor, offering almost no resistance as she and her friends were brought closer and closer to the edge. The earth pony quickly grabbed onto the table as they passed by, holding on for her life as the mirror angrily demanded for them.

“Help!” She cried, looking toward the door for salvation, her voices drowned out by the howl of the mirror.

Bulbs burst and belts split apart, the force shaking the mirror apart.

“Hold on!” Scootaloo yelled. “It won’t be able to keep this up much longer!”

The door opened, Apple Bloom’s face brightened as she saw Twilight Sparkle open the door, mouth agape. The scooter kit hovered beside her, caught in a telekinetic grasp.

“Help!” Apple Bloom cried, hope filling her.

Twilight blinked, before she moved to help, as though shaken awake.

And in doing so, made the worst mistake of them all.

As she moved, the scooter kit, which she had brought with her, was released from her magical grip, and it flew forward, toward the mirror, and towards Apple Bloom.

It slammed into her, and the shock caused the young filly to release her grip.

And the three went flying into the wailing maw.

Twilight leapt after them. “Girls!”

But it was far too late for that.

There was only the swirling, purple vortex that had swallowed them.

First Scootaloo.

Then Sweetie Belle.

And finally Apple Bloom.

And all the while, she could still hear the cry of worried panic.

“Girls!”

And the mirror closed shut.

---=][=---

4 723 999.M41-Meridian

The sky scraping spires of Meridian stood proud against the red, smoky sky. Massive smoke stacks belched billowing clouds of smoke, turning the sunset into a hazy, reddish mist that hung over the massive, planet-spanning city.

But all was not well.

Meridian was burning.

Flames burned along the spires, and screams echoed in the catwalk-like streets. As crowds of people flooded the walkways, trying desperately to run from whatever was chasing them, a small, purple portal opened in an emptied alleyway.

Apple Bloom cried out as she was ejected from the cold, swirling purple that had become her world.

This was followed by the cold taste of metal as she hit the walkway.

She fell, rolling as she hit the ground, screams echoing in her ears as thousands of people ran for their lives.

“Twilight?” Apple Bloom called as she stood up, hoof to her head.

As the world came into focus around her, her eyes began to scan the tall spires, the gothic arches and buttresses, and the red, hazy sky.

“This don’t look like anywhere Ah’ve been…” she said to herself, before turning around.

And there the lay the body of a creature she had never seen before.

It was long and gangly-looking, with pink, exposed skin and only a small tuft of hair on the top of its head.

But...but the body…

Massive chunks of flesh had been ripped from its chest, and blood pooled on the floor in front of her, reaching her hooves as the creature stared up at her with clouded, blue eyes.

It’s belly was split open, and...and…

Apple Bloom lost her lunch.

When she finished, she was shaking.

What...what happened to him?

Another scream hit her ears, and she looked up to the end of the alley, just in time to see another one of these figures run into her view.

She was tall, wearing a dress of some sort. Blood ran down her leg, and she seemed to be limping.

Apple Bloom, ran down to the end of the hallway, hoping maybe to get some answers.

A thunderous explosion shook the filly to stock stillness as the creature in front of her screamed in pain as chunks of her flesh were ripped from her body.

She fell to the ground, dead.

And then Apple Bloom saw the bringer of death.

A massive, hulking figure, not unlike the creatures that lay dead on his feet, but completely different.

It was far taller. Taller than even Celestia. It’s skin was like metal, green and blue, with a three headed Hydra decorating its shoulder. A massive foot, almost as big as herself slammed down into the woman, her bones audibly crunching beneath the giant.

And then its head turned to face her.

Apple Bloom stared up at the monster, whose face seemed frozen in an angry scream, and she began to feel incredibly small.

The giant hesitated a moment, staring at her for a long time, before raising a large, metal rectangle up, pointing it at her.

The sound of thunder sounded in her ears once more, and the wall next to the giant suddenly exploded in metal shrapnel.

“By Khorne!” The giant said, spinning around with incredible speed.

“For the Emperor!” A voice cried, and Apple Bloom looked down the way to see yet another giant, this one red, black, and cream. It’s own, massive weapon leveled at the green giant, its muzzle coughing bright flashes of light that roared with the sound of thunder.

“They’re cannons…” Apple Bloom suddenly realized. “They’re firing cannons at each other. He was going to fire at me!”

“Hydra Dominatus!” The green giant yelled, rolling to the side before firing his cannon with three rapid, successive shots.

Apple Bloom ran, galloping away from the massive green giant, even as large shards of metal went flying through the air. She ducked behind a large cylinder, which once may have served as a trash can. Once there, however, she found she didn’t have anywhere else to go. The green giant was between her and one end of the long walkway, while the red giant was between her and the other.

All she could do was watch.

The giants stood opposite each other, firing round after round as they circled and dodged, trying to hit the other first.

The green giant roared in pain as his head snapped around and sparks flew from its face.

And then a massive hand came up, and ripped its own face away, revealing its true head. It looked surprisingly like the face of the creature that now lay dead in the alley.

The green giant roared, throwing the ruined helmet aside, and firing another salvo at the red intruder.

The red giant rolled out of the way as the walkway was quickly riddled with massive holes.

“Die, Blood Raven!” the green one yelled, before another burst of fire slammed into the red giant’s arm.

The red giant roared, before his arm dropped uselessly, before he raised his still healthy arm, holding his cannon in one hand.

The red giant fired twice.

Both shot far too wide.

The green giant laughed, before firing at the red ones legs.

The metal of the knee joint was ripped apart, and the red giant went down.

The massive green monster stood, chuckling darkly as he he lorded over his opponent.

The red one raised his cannon once more. “Die, Traitor!”

A sudden shot from the attacker slammed into the crippled soldier’s helmet.

“I’m going to make your death slow, Blood Raven,” the green one said with a smirk.

Apple Bloom stared on at the scene, her face twisted in horror as the green monster then pulled a massive, sword-length knife from a sheath on his leg.

How...how could he do that to him? Why? Why would he want to wish that much pain?

“I...I need to do something…”

The thought scared her.

She couldn’t stop that thing...there was no way.

“But...I need to do something…”

So that’s what she did.

She stood out from her cover, took a deep breath, and yelled at the top of her lungs. “Hey! You! Ugly!”

The green monster turned to her.

And that’s when the red one made his move, dropping his cannon, his one arm grabbed his own massive knife. The blade came down with ferocity, diving into the space between the massive, metal legs, and causing the green monster to roar in pain.

The green monster growled, before throwing a powerful punch to the red’s helmet.

Reeling, red’s grip released the knife, before almost automatically grasping for his cannon.

The monster ripped it from his hand, tossing it aside, and letting it clatter loudly at Apple Bloom’s hooves.

The green monster leveled his weapon at red’s head and fired, silencing the warrior for the last time.

And that’s when the green beast turned to Apple Bloom.

She froze.

“You, little xeno,” he said reaching down for the knife in his leg, “have caused me, a lot of pain.” He ripped the blade free, coming away wet with blood. “And now, I’m going to pay you in kind.”

It seemed, for Apple Bloom, that time began to slow. As her heart began to throb in her ears, and the monster began to charge, it was as though her mind suddenly jumped to a new level of thinking.

Her mind raced, screaming at her body to move, and receiving only the slowest of responses.

And then her eyes landed on the red soldier’s cannon.

Decorated with wings, and what looked like strange skulls, the weapon almost called to her.

He was her only chance.

Her hooves reached forward, grabbing the massive, rectangular machine of death and rolled to the side, and out of the way of the charging giant.

The giant skid to a halt, but not before Apple Bloom turned and raised her weapon.

She pulled the trigger.

And the cannon roared in response, kicking out of her grasp.

Whether divine intervention, or amazing luck, the miniature rocket that launched from the muzzle flew straight and true, and hit the giant, armored creature straight between the eyes.

And then the upper half of his head exploded.

The massive body tilted, before falling forward, causing Apple Bloom to jump in the air as almost a thousand pounds of metal, flesh, and bone slammed into the walkway.

And then she was alone.

She stared forward, into the gore that she was responsible for.

Her mouth tried to form words as she stared, her fear-filled eyes welling up with tears.

It...it had been so fast...

She...she didn’t…

She was shaking, adrenalin rushing through her system.

She felt nauseous, but her empty stomach had nothing to offer.

Her mind reeled with a thousand different emotions, each trying to sort itself as her mind spun.

“It’s...It wasn’t my fault…” she muttered.

“There!” A voice called behind her, and she turned to see three more figures running towards her. Three more giants were heading for her, two completely identical to the red giant, while the third was bright blue with an open face.

Apple Bloom shot up and began to run, but not before she felt something press against her mind.

“Halt!” one of the giants said behind her, and her body froze in response.

Apple Bloom’s eyes went wide, and breathing became erratic as she tried to move her body.

The presence that pushed against her mind forced itself deeper in her skull, and her body refused to answer Bloom’s commands.

She strained and pulled, trying to get away.

“Take our Battle Brother back to the Thunderhawk,” one of the giants said behind her. “Apothecary Arrius will perform his duty there. I shall take care of the alien.”

She tried once more, throwing every ounce of her will against the invisible bonds that held her.

And then she felt a massive hand wrap around her belly, lifting her into the air.

The blue, open-faced giant held her in a single hand and stared into her eyes. “What kind of alien are you?” he asked.

The blue one then spoke aloud, seemingly to know one. “Prepare a containment unit. I have found a new alien that requires study.” Turning back to her, he said. “You shall live for now, xeno. But worry not, we shall provide you with a quick death soon enough.”

And so the giant began moving away, away from the scene of her first kill.

And as she did, she hoped that her friends were spared this new hell.

---=][=---

"Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment."—Imperial Thought of the Day


Alright! Ladies and Gentlemen, we’re back!

Now, here’s the basic—

“Wee! We’re back!”

Pinkie? I thought we agreed you wouldn’t join me in the Author’s notes anymore?

“But we can’t do that!”

Why not?

“Because how else are you going to preemptively answer questions from the readers to explain yourself whenever you make questionable decisions?”

T-thanks...Pinkie.

“Also, I’m kinda on your Avatar. You’re stuck with me!”

Ah...I...f-fine. Look, guys, I’ll get back to you, I’ve got to work things out down here before we keep going, but uh...yeah. Enjoy!

“We’ll see you next time!”

Next Chapter: Chapter II Estimated time remaining: 7 Hours, 6 Minutes
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