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What I Am

by Knight Breeze

Chapter 32: Chapter XXXII

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Chapter XXXII

Servaal slowly tapped the console in front of him, his eye ridge furrowed in concentration. “Let me see the code again, Aliz,” he said to the computer.

“Very well, Decedent,” Aliz said, before displaying the encoded message that the traitor Ilisk had sent before his death. Servaal slowly ran through it for the hundredth time, trying to glean some order from the random encoding, to break with a living mind what the ship's computer could not.

It was difficult, if not downright impossible, though. The message had been thoroughly encoded, and had passed through several machines before The Purpose had picked up on the transmission. This meant that they didn't even have an emotional imprint to 'cheat' with, and were forced to decode the message the old fashioned way.

Without the cypher, though, this was next to impossible.

Nevertheless, Servaal would not be dissuaded by something as trivial as 'impossible'. He saw it as a challenge, and since the scientific expedition had been cancelled, he had very little else to occupy his time and talents. True, code-breaking wasn't exactly his forte, but there wasn't anyone else on board that was even remotely competent.

The message had already been passed along to the quzin homeworld as well, so it wasn't like he was the only one working on it. If he were being completely honest, no one expected him to succeed, and it was more than likely that someone else would beat him to it. However, if he managed to decode it, honor and glory beyond measure would be his, and for a no-name soulsmith like him, that was an exceptionally huge matter.

"The krin number system uses base-sixteen, but it's entirely possible that they encoded using a different base. Begin running all known krin encryptions that use different bases, and see if that changes anything."

"I already ran that one before, Decendent," Aliz gently reminded him. "It was one of the first we tried."

"Oh, yeah… well-" Servaal began to say, but stopped when the intercom in front of him began to blink. Servaal quickly pressed the button, hoping that whatever it was was minor. "Servaal at your disposal."

His heart nearly leaped into his throat when, instead of the archmage of the expedition, it was the ship's second voice, Jedon. "Soulsmith, you are ordered to gather the tools of your trade, including your forge, and report to the Priestess's ready room in an hour. You will be briefed when you arrive."

Where once there had been nothing but a somewhat bored soulsmith and his equipment, there was now a flurry of activity as the now flustered member of the Arcanum rushed to answer the call of the ship's void knight. He quickly stuffed his tools, his personal tablet, and randomly a few half-eaten pieces of food and a few blank pieces of paper into the pack, before fixing the forge to the whole thing and slinging the heavy load onto his back. The forge in question looked like an oblong box with a number of knobs and buttons on one side, as well as a single door on the end. It was an older model, but it had been passed down through Servaal's family for at least seven generations.

And in Servaal's line of work, an ancient piece of equipment like that was more of a boon than a hindrance.

"Aliz, save my current project. I will return to it later," Servaal said before he slithered out of the room.

"Very well, Decedent. Be safe on your journeys," the computer said before it powered down the soulsmith's computer and shut off the lights. "Return safe…"

Servaal didn't hear him, though. He was too lost in thought, and was already several meters down the corridor when Aliz spoke, muttering to himself about what he possibly could have done to attract the priestess's ire. It took him about thirty minutes to reach his destination, and it had taken him fifteen to gather his gear, which meant he arrived at the priestess's office with time to spare. Servaal liked to be early; he liked the time to prepare mentally for whatever meeting or job he had to do.

Unfortunately for him, the priestess was also there, standing outside her office, impatiently flipping her tail from side to side as she waited for him.

"Uh…" Servaal said intelligently the moment he caught sight of the void knight. He was a little too slow on the uptake, however, as the priestess had spotted him as well, and was quickly slithering towards him.

“Good, you’re here. How quickly can you forge an artificial soul?” Priestess Akitesh asked, skipping any formalities that their differing ranks and castes would usually necessitate.

Servaal tried to gather his thoughts, but found it quite impossible, as his very being seemed to be pierced by the priestess’s strikingly clear grey eyes. “Uh… I… I could not, I do not have the necessary shards aboard this ship. There might be a few aboard The Bastion due to their recent struggle, but-”

Before Servaal could finish his protest, he was cut off by a single, cutting gesture from the priestess. “That is not what I asked you. I asked how long it would take for you to forge a new, artificial soul.”

“I-If I had the necessary shards, I could do it in a matter of days. One day, if I hurried,” Servaal stammered out. “But I must impress upon you that without those shards, I cannot do what you ask. Surely whatever you need an artificial soul for, could you not use Aliz?”

“We will need Aliz aboard our ship, and what we require the soul for is down on the planet,” Akitesh explained. “However, you could do it by the end of the day?”

“Certainly not. I said it would take a full day, and the day is already half-way gone,” Servaal said, not liking where this conversation was going. “I could have it finished by tomorrow morning, but I would need to work during the night…”

“Then the rest of your day, and night, has been planned. Come, we have work to do,” Akitesh said, before nodding once. “Jedon, link up with the beacon we left with the natives. Alert them of our arrival, and teleport us to the surface the moment they allow us access."

Servaal could feel his neurons fry as he tried to make sense of what the priestess had just said. "Wait, natives? Surface? Ma'am, forgive me for my insolence, but what precisely am I being pulled into? I'm just a soulsmith. What could possibly be so important that it requires an artificial soul now?"

"The preservation of all of our lives, Mage Servaal," Akitesh said simply, right before the world around them disappeared in a flash of white light.

* * *

One would think being cut off from experience would be absolutely torturous. No sensation, no vision, no hearing. Everything an empty void, with nothing but the half-remembered memories of hatred and vengeance to keep one company, and normally, that assumption would be correct. However, for the remains of the fragmented souls stored within the arcanite rods, it was actually an extremely peaceful experience.

Certainly a whole lot more pleasant than trying to pilot a small robotic cat with only part of a soul, and the borrowed knowledge of your host. Every movement, every attempt to speak, to feel, was like the jagged edges of two open wounds being scraped against each other. Compared to that, the void was a soothing release from experience, and wasn’t nearly as lonely as such an existence would first appear.

The only company that these fragmented, tortured souls had was the siren whispers echoing through the void. They were just out of hearing, barely perceived; but what they whispered was sweet relief, of an existence free of toil and suffering, of loved ones long gone, reunited at last, for an eternity of joy beyond the woes of the material world. The call was enticing, too, and each of the fragments could feel the temptation to slip away, to follow that call, and leave this world forever.

They did not, however. It would have been so easy, too; to leave, and never look back. To cross into the hereafter, and let go of the rage, the pain, and the horror.

But that was precisely the reason why those fragmented souls persisted. Vengeance is a powerful motivator, and unbeknownst to those fragmented souls, almost all soul shards remain on the wrong side of the veil for vengeance’s sake. They seethed against those that had turned them into monsters, screamed into the void for retribution, and would continue on, unheard and uncared for, if not for the one that had survived. He was the reason they did not slip into the veil. He was their vengeance made flesh, and if it meant helping him achieve that goal, they were willing to undergo any pain or horror, if only for a chance to drag their tormentors into hell with them.

And so, as these six sets of fragmented souls continued to seethe in a state meant to sooth, they were quite surprised when their souls were touched by an unknown entity. It spoke to them in a way that transcended language and intelligence, seeking for information that all six, without ever talking to each other, agreed as one to not share. It seemed to withdraw for a moment, and each one huddled inside the arcanite rods they called home, hoping that Alex would return, and repel this invader.

Then it returned, more insistent this time. It spoke of understanding for their desire of vengeance. It spoke of sorrow for the lives lost. Most importantly, it said that Alex was a friend, and that it was here to help them help him.

They were more suspicious at that, but those notions that this creature meant them harm was quickly washed away when she appeared. She was the first friendly voice that they and Alex had heard since the one survivor had crawled from the wreckage. Alex trusted her implicitly, and because of this, they also trusted her. She said that the new entity was here to grant their wish. To forge them into a tool, a weapon, that could finally bring justice to those that sorely deserved it.

She said it might hurt, as if pain were a problem to these tortured souls. She told them that they would lose their individuality, as if they had been capable of independent thought since their death. She warned them that the change would be permanent, and that it might be some time before they could finally answer the sweet, clarion call of the veil.

In the end, it really wasn’t a hard decision to make.

* * *

Servaal let out a sigh of relief as he set down his hammer. It was a lot of material to work, and the soul fragments inside had not been the most pleasant to work with, but it was finally finished.

The quzin sat down on one of the short, equine-made chairs, and took a few seconds to admire his handiwork. It wasn't the most beautiful piece he had ever made, at this point resembling nothing more than an oblong hunk of metal, which if one were being polite, could have been called a blade in the making. It was still covered in the black scale of the forge, as it hadn't even touched a grind wheel yet, and it had no bevels to speak of.

That was okay, though. Soulstone was a horrible material to make a blade out of, for as tough as the material was, it didn't keep an edge well, and was too rigid to serve as a sword for long. A knife might have been a better choice for the material, but that wasn't the point. The appearance of such a piece was purely aesthetic, as the real purpose of its construction was to forge together the soul shards within into something that was far more useful than a blade ever could be. The bladed aspect was merely a vanity thing for the soul within. Had Servaal just forge welded the whole thing together into a bar, that, in theory, would have been enough. The problem with that theory was that the soul was a fickle thing to work with, and more times than not a freshly-forged soul would reject its new container, simply because it was unhappy with how that container looked.

Luckily, this soul had not been as finicky. It had been fairly resolute in its demand to be a weapon of some kind, but it didn't seem to care if it was cleaned up, or even made functional. It had grasped the fact that they were short on time, and had chosen itself to forgo the beautification process that would usually make such an effort take a LOT longer to complete.

It had, however, forced a promise out of Servaal that, once the danger had passed, he would finish his work, a promise that Servaal readily agreed to.

"Second Voice Jedon, are you there?" Servaal asked as he activated his comlink.

"I apologize, noble soulsmith, but the second voice is unavailable," an unfamiliar female voice answered. "This is Steward Corval. What is your situation?"

Servaal took in a deep breath, before slowly letting it out. "The... priestess told me to alert her the moment I had finished my work, regardless of her state when it is finished. I understand if it is too late to wake her from her sleep cycle, but-"

"No, you are correct. She'll be overjoyed when she hears of this. Please wait; I will wake her now," the steward said, her voice sounding excited.

Servaal waited patiently as he stared at the piece. It might have been unfinished, but even in this state the rough metal had a strange beauty that nothing else could match. It spoke of things that could be, but weren't, a potential not quite realized, but still visible through the imperfections.

Servaal was so lost in his own thoughts that he nearly jumped out of his skin when Priestess Akitesh appeared next to him in a flash of light. She had a disheveled appearance, as if she had slept in her uniform, but Servaal wisely chose to ignore her appearance in favor of reaching out, taking the piece, and presenting it to her. "It is finished, my priestess."

Akitesh looked at the rough hunk of metal, her bloodshot eyes not pleased with what she saw. "Are you sure? I thought that such a work would look… more finished."

"As much as both of us would have liked that to happen, it isn’t necessary for the artificial soul to function,” Servaal said, inclining his head slightly. “That being said, Edmond has extracted from me my word that, once the danger is past, I will refine his container.”

“Edmond?” Akitesh asked curiously as she took up the rough, unfinished sword. It still felt warm in her hands, its surface rough and uneven despite it’s metallic composition.

“It was the name he chose for himself,” Servaal said with a deep bow. “I know not its meaning, only that it comes from one of the cultures of his home planet. He is ready for duty, my priestess, and quite anxious to begin.”

“Thank you, Servaal. You may return to the ship. I will deliver Edmond to the rulers of this nation. I only hope we were able to finish in time…”

Servaal nodded once more, before activating his comlink and notifying the ship of his desire to depart. Before the world disappeared in a flash of light, though, he couldn’t help but notice the look of hope on his priestess’s beautiful face.

I only hope that you may keep smiling like that…

* * *

“My princess! The snake alien has returned!”

Princess Luna looked up from the paperwork she had been signing. It was the dead of night, the sun wasn’t scheduled to rise for another five hours, and the only ones up were the princess herself, as well as her Night Sentinels. Having anyone come to see her was a joy, though knowing it was one of the aliens in orbit tainted it somewhat with worry and fear. “Show her in,” Princess Luna said as she sat up and put down her quill.

Sergeant Fair Weather bowed to his princess, before pushing the door further open, revealing the alien on the other side. She looked like she had been awoken during her sleep, which was understandable, as it was the middle of the night. In her lower arms she gripped what appeared to be an unfinished, unsharpened blade, its blackened, crusty surface an ugly sight to behold.

“What is that?” Princess Luna asked, hoping that the alien had her translation magic working.

She did, and her first answer was to give the Princess of the Night a tired smile. “It not look much. Not… finished, but done. Work. Is human soul, many forged one. Ready when you ready, ready to start.”

Luna stood up, excitement breaking through the mask she wore. “Are you sure? It’s ready!?”

“Am certain. Where Alexander? He disappeared. Need tell, show friends become, show new soul,” Akitesh asked, her expression remaining one of hopeful enthusiasm, which only served to make Luna’s heart plummet.

The truth was, they didn’t know what had happened to Alex. The wayward human had walked through the portal, with his disappearance immediately followed by the sounds of something small and fast impacting Shining Armor’s shield.

They had expected that, as it was the reason for the shield in the first place. What they hadn’t expected was an hour to pass with no word. This was followed by another, then the whole rest of the day, and no sign of the lone survivor.

No one wanted to say that their friend had met his untimely end and that help wasn’t coming; but with no evidence to the contrary, the defense of a world to plan, and no desire to enter a world without magic and get shot, the assembled diplomats had to unfortunately leave the mirror alone for the time being. There was still a pair of guards on watch in the mirror room, as were the Elements of Harmony, but until they received word to the contrary, they had to assume the worst.

However, Luna had been a statesmare for centuries, her experience overshadowed by none but her sister, and knew how to best avoid giving more information than was necessary. On top of that, a small part of her still held out hope that Alex was coming back, and wasn’t too keen on counting out the human just yet. “He is currently busy on something special that should turn the tides,” she said as she stood from her desk. She then walked to the door, before gesturing once towards the open entryway. “For now, let’s take the soul, and put it into the omniscope. The device has been completed for quite some time, all that was needed was a way to control it.”

If Akitesh suspected anything amiss with Alex, she did not show it. Instead, she merely nodded, and followed Luna out of the room. It was a fairly long walk from Luna’s study to the wing that held the omniscope, and during this time, Luna couldn’t help but feel her hopes rise with each step. She finally had a way to ensure her people’s safety, and while it really was a stopgap measure at best, she had a feeling that there would be few who were willing to take a star to the face in order to assault this world.

Before they knew it, they had reached their destination, and without much ceremony, Princess Luna pushed open the door to where the omniscope was being kept. “Here it is: the Omniscope. The last great work of one of the greatest minds Equestria has ever seen.”

The device in question hardly looked the part for something to carry that kind of lofty title. It looked more like a mishmash of wires, tubes, and random objects. There were metal dishes pointed towards the sky, globes of pure crystal which seemed to glow with an inner light, and in the center there was a stone basin with a pool of the clearest liquid ever created, with a carving of an alicorn overlooking it.

The most important part, though, was the small metallic frame near the bottom. The frame formed an oblong box, inside which could be seen the metal plates that Alex had created, along with the socket that used to house the golem cores that Alex had also made. “Insert the soul there,” Luna said, gesturing with a hoof towards the socket. “If it works as intended, the action should activate the Omniscope, and with it, allow us the chance to defend ourselves.”

Akitesh nodded once, before quickly slithering forward and inserting the tang of the blade into the indicated socket. The tang fit like a glove, though the blade itself stuck out awkwardly, and only served to further make the whole device look like somepony had piled a large assortment of junk in the center of the room.

Princess Luna briefly worried that the extra weight of the blade might break the socket and the plate it was attached to, but that worry was quickly banished when the unfinished sword began to glow a deep, beautiful gold color. Runes all over the omniscope began to glow as well, and soon, a low, ominous hum began to fill the entire room.

Then, a voice began speaking. The voice sounded metallic, but at the same time, it also sounded warm, like a father who had just seen his children enter a room. The language it used wasn’t Equestrian, but rather English, a language that Luna was only passingly familiar with, and a barrier that she knew she should have seen coming.

Fortunately for her, and her planet as a whole, it seemed like one of her scientists had foreseen this exact problem, because after a few seconds of the device babbling in English, it suddenly switched to Equestrian. “Start up translating… active. Greeting Princess Luna, Good see, Good know. Am Wealthy Protector, good see with own eyes. How are you being today?”

Before Luna could answer, one of the glowing globes began to glow brighter as a face suddenly flickered into existence within the depths of the crystal. It was a human face, though since Luna’s only experience with humans was with Alex, she had no way of telling if this was how humans were supposed to look. The face had a long, almost hooked nose, and big bushy eyebrows, though it had no hair on the top of its head. Instead, it wore a large, bushy beard, and all over its exposed skin she could see a maze of glowing, golden symbols.

Princess Luna briefly inclined her head towards the crystal, silently thanking her scientists for having the forethought to put a translation rune into the Omniscope. “I am quite well. Thank you, noble Wealthy Protector. Do you remember what your task was?”

“Do remember. Look in sky, look for enemy. Many thing here, much look, much see, give moment to get used to sensations. Please hold. Please wait.” Wealthy Protector’s face took on a troubled look, as if he were busy with a particularly difficult puzzle.

Akitesh leaned over towards Luna, a question in her eyes. “What he say? Translation through translation very bad.”

“He said he needed time to get used to the Omniscope,” Luna said quietly, not wanting to disturb Wealthy Protector from his task.

After a few seconds, Wealthy Protector’s eyes suddenly went very wide, and another one of the globes began to glow brighter. “Princess Luna! Danger! We need act now! Look!”

The globe began to swirl, before it slowly resolved itself into something that Luna could recognize. In the center, she could see Canterlot castle, its ivory towers gleaming faintly in the moonlight. This view quickly pulled back, giving Luna a sense of vertigo, until she recognized a beautiful green and blue sphere suspended in the darkness of space. This view pulled back even further, until she could see the moon as well, and while she might have had intimate knowledge of that particular celestial body, this was the first time she had ever seen her moon in such a way.

There were other objects in orbit around her planet as well. One looked like some kind of arrowhead, its whole body covered in a number of glowing runes, while another looked like some kind of metallic bird of prey, with its forward sweeping wings and beak-like nose. The third object looked… broken. It was clearly some kind of wreck, as most of the metal showing was all jagged edges and shredded metal. It was hard to get a feel of the size of the things, due to the scale on display, but if Luna had to guess, she would have said that each of the ships were around the size of Canterlot Castle, but smaller than Canterlot City.

“That my ship, The Purpose, and that friendly krin ship, The Bastion,” Akitesh clarified as she pointed towards each one. “Third is wreck of The Aurora. Still not know much about destruction.”

Princess Luna had heard about what had happened, but seeing it now made her blood run cold. “I am not an expert in the workings or designs of your vessels, but she truly looks destroyed…” she said sadly. Luna then turned back towards Wealthy Protector, a frown on her face. “Wealthy Protector, those are our allies. They aren’t here to hurt us.”

“Was worried, but thought that be case. Not real concern. This real concern,” Wealthy Protector said as the view started to pull back even further.

Now they could see the sun, with the planet Equuis only a tiny speck in the infinite cosmos. It was truly a humbling sight, one that she would have to worry about later as the view seemed to swing around, and close in on a seemingly empty patch of space. Luna looked at the view for a few seconds, before shaking her head sadly. “I’m sorry, Wealthy Protector, but we cannot see anything.”

“That because they hidden, and I forgot change view to hidden mode,” Wealthy Protector said, right before the image in the crystal began to warp and shift. After a few seconds of this, a large number of vessels resolved themselves. There were at least forty of the strange ships, most of them bearing a design similar to The Bastion, though there were a few exceptions. Some were much larger and more oblong in design, while others were smaller and sleeker looking. They did not appear to be arranged in any sort of discernible order, and were quickly moving away from each other, spreading out in a way that would make them harder to destroy at once should a celestial body strike them.

They were all still moving in the general direction of the princess’s home, though, which in and of itself filled Luna with a silent dread. This was only further compounded when Luna noticed how close they were to her world.

“Sergeant!” Luna shouted at the top of her lungs. “Go awaken my sister, alert the guard, and assemble our forces, we’re being attacked now!

The sergeant at the door took off like a bolt from a crossbow, not even taking the time to salute. Princess Luna then turned towards the snake alien, intent on relating what had happened, only to find her quickly muttering into a device in her own tongue. “I sorry, Luna, but must leave. They here now, now begins defense. I pray for all safety, will do our part, must leave now.”

“Then go. We will try not to hit you, but be aware that our aim might not be the best,” Princess Luna replied with a bow. “Go now, and know that your willingness to stand with us is appreciated.”

Akitesh responded with a short bow of her own before she disappeared in a flash of white light. Satisfied that she at least had allies in this new theater of war, Princess Luna turned back towards the crystal, and cleared her throat. “Wealthy Protector, can you show me the predicted paths of the sun and moon?”

“Knowing paths…? Oh, orbits. Yes, show now,” Wealthy Protector said, before two white circles appeared, showing Princess Luna exactly what she wanted to know.

She had to curse, then, when she noticed that the fleet was already too far in to make the sun much more than a nuisance. “Well, they’re already past the first hurdle, then,” Luna muttered to herself. “May the spirits smile on us this day, for I am sure that we will need it…”

Author's Notes:

Well, here we are! came a little sooner than I think some of you thought it would. I honestly went through at least four reworks for this chapter, each one from a different character's perspective, and for a different direction of narrative, until I finally settled on this, and how I wanted this to continue. I have a firm idea of how I want the following battle to go, so expect chapters to come a lot quicker now.

As for work, I've got a sorta part time job working as a caregiver now, but I'm still looking for work. If you want to help me, feel free to tell others about my book! The more I can sell that sucker, the more I'll be able to turn this into a career, and the more chapters I'll be able to make here. Since, you know, Fimfiction is my proving ground, and always will be.

=> What I've Become! <=

If you wanted to support me in a more immediate fashion though, and because I've recieved a number of pms and comments about it, my Patreon is up again. You can head over there if you'd like to support me directly.

=>My patreon!<=

Of course, it's just a pipe dream ATM for me to turn this into a career, but that's what all success stories have in common. Someone had a dream, an idea, an inspiration, whatever you want to call it. Yeah, a lot of dreams fail, but some succeed, and I'm willing to take the risk to fail.

Well, see you next time, guys!

Edit: Completely forgot, someone made a TV tropes page for my story!

TV tropes: Humanity Within.

At the moment, it's just a stub. I'd add to it myself, except I have very little experience editing TV tropes pages, and I'm somewhat busy writing the actual stories to spend time on this. I'm under the impression that anyone can add to it, so if you feel so inclined, please, have at it!

Next Chapter: Chapter XXXIII Estimated time remaining: 5 Hours, 48 Minutes
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