“Third-Rank Legionary Ether E. L. Bloom, this council has come to the decision that you are no longer fit for duty. Furthermore, instead of simply recovering in order to go back to the front, you are going to be placed on Project Phoenix.” The booming voice sealed Ether’s fate, she felt utterly helpless. She knew the lowest ranking officer on this council, Ninth-Rank Commander Euthen, would have voted against that, being somewhat familiar with her reasons for constantly reapplying for active duty. But council decisions were final, and she knew any higher council she appealed to would simply agree with the local one. The highest ranking survivors on the ship had contacted local control, who had agreed that this was the final straw, Ether had an ability.

“We know you don’t wish to be on this project, Ether, but the simple fact of the matter is that you have an unusual skill for surviving things that you should not have been able to. Until we can find someone else with this ability, or you are able to teach it to your fellows, you will be effective immortal, and have been assigned to a training facility deep in safe space.” Tenth-Rank Admiral Terrasa expounded on what Ether could only see as her punishment. Why did she have to have an ability? She just wanted to fight the swarm.

The three councilmen watched the soldier with pity, the third spoke up, “Contrary to what you might think, we do know your story, legionary. I have to say, that I am sorry, but this is necessary. Think of all the lives that would be saved if you could teach your ability to others.”

Ether grit her teeth, people learned about her ability, but they didn’t understand. “Why would I let anyone else suffer my fate!? You may know, but you don’t understand! This ability is a curse! I’ve watched everyone I ever loved die! I’ve see my friends, the only ones I had at the time, torn limb from limb by shock troopers! This ability couldn’t be worse if it was granted to me by the Fell!” She shouted, tears streaming down her face. She was unhappy, the lower emotions were clouding her thoughts. The council was silent, before the Tenth-Rank Preator Juory disconnected, followed quickly by the admiral. Euthen muttered an apology before disconnecting himself, leaving Ether in silence.

After a few moments of getting herself under control, she resigned herself to her fate and went to collect the few personal articles she kept in her quarters. She stalked the halls, not truly angry, but perhaps the closest a citizen of the Empire ever got to it under normal circumstances. Most of the legionaries she passed gave her a respectful nod, while the general infantry waved and hollered, she had made quite the impression on them. She was easy to spot, being a bit taller than most of her fellows, though she’d rather be harder to notice at the moment. Stupid, stupid, stupid! I can’t believe I did that!....no I can. It was either jump straight into the core of the enemy ship or let them breach the nuclear forge, I couldn’t let all these men die. Why did that have to be the only option?!

Her frustration turned to the enemy she had fought, one of the Enclaves of Proto-Humans. She, as most in the Empire, was an Ur-Human, accidentally evolved from a scheme of the original Proto-Humans to avoid their total extinction. While they succeeded, this left the rest of the universe with a constantly reappearing race of hostile, barbaric, and generally rude people who tended to kill themselves with nuclear weapons nine times out of ten. The tenth time usually saw them unite against anything they perceive as alien, which included their descendants.

Ur-Humans had very few physical differences to the Proto-Humans, an extra pair of ribs, no appendix, and they were all double jointed. The real difference was in their minds. Your average Ur-Human is fairly docile, and has a limited range of emotions compared to most species. They also had a different way of remembering, their so called ‘perfect memorization’ allowed them to remember every single moment of their life with perfect clarity, but they struggled with their own thoughts, and had a hard time with concepts. Not impossible, but philosophy just goes right over their collective heads. Of course, how could such a peaceful people come to be a great and powerful Empire? The simple answer is the Swarm.

The Swarm first reared its ugly head a couple million of years ago(give or take), back when the Ur-Humans were content to live peacefully in their pre-industrial utopia. They had achieved a post-scarcity society without electricity, putting them in a fairly exclusive club unknowingly. But this weaponless dreamland would not last. One day, massive insectoid abominations clawed their way through several settlements, and left the rest of the people scrambling to make any sort of defense. Through pure luck, the humans managed to fight off the Swarm. The people worried that they’d be back, and more numerous next time, so they invented new technologies, and weapons along with them. Soon the humans advanced by leaps and bounds, and within a century and a half, they were in space, preparing for war.

Several discoveries were made, the Swarm is actually a plant that spawns attack bodies, it originated from the sister planet the humans had come from, and worst of all, the Swarm had a head start in colonizing the galaxy. They rushed to catch up, but by the time they managed to get reliable Faster Than Light transport they were too late, all life in the galaxy had been snuffed out by the Swarm, except them. It was about this point that the Empire formed properly, dedicated to expanding to stop the Swarm from exterminating all life in the universe. The military was made of brave men, women, and everything in between. All united in their desire to save to universe. At least in theory. Many seek revenge against the swarm, its quick evolutions and surprisingly effective camouflage allowing it to murder many innocent families. Many in this situation wish to prevent others from feeling their pain, and join the military to protect as many innocents as they can. Ether is one such person.

If she were a Proto-Human, she’d be absolutely livid, but her ‘highly-evolved’ brain was only capable of being a little peeved. She could understand why the council came to the decision they did, but she didn’t have to be happy about it. She passed a very obviously drunk First-Rank being told off by their squad leader, and she felt a frown tug at her face. Stupid restriction, alcoholic tendencies my ass.

She finally reached her room, a small thing, but at least she had it to herself. She remembered serving on one of the ships belonging to one of the Empire’s allies, and man had conditions been crap on it. The rooms stuffed with bunk beds, the limited rations… she suppressed a shudder. Ether rummaged around casa de la her, looking for the things that were actually hers, rather than the ripped bio-fiber suits, and dented armor plates. She nearly tripped over a heavy duty pulse rifle that had its safety off. “Maybe I do need a break.” she mumbled to herself as she flicked the safety on, and then chucked it into her bag. She took the pictures off the walls and tossed them into the garbage, she could just print out more later. She found a few sentimentals and into the bag they went! Toys of the adult variety? Quick break, ziplock baggie, into the bag! And that was just about it.

Well, she didn’t really feel much about leaving the cruiser she was on, only living here for a few months prevented her from getting truly attached to either it or any of the inhabitants. Though she was looking forward to getting a new flight handler, her current one had the most grating voice she had ever heard. With that cheerful thought in mind, she made her way to the airdock indicated on her Visor.

While the first time she got tons of compliments after doing something that would have been considered stupid had it not saved millions of lives had been nice, she had grown weary of it. Oh she kept up a soft smile, for the other’s peace of mind if nothing else. Though just before she reached the hanger, she was surprised to see the century she had been assigned to waiting for her. Or the few that had survived. The few left gave her a pat on the back, and a few thanks, before departing. Legionaries always seemed to understand her better than most, she never really knew why. I guess it would be pretentious to assume I’m the only one with problems.

She entered the hangar, only to find it was full of Falcons, and not just any Falcons, but Uber Falcons.

“Aw yeah! I’ve always wanted to fly one of these!” she managed to muster some enthusiasm for the long, boring, tedious, and uneventful flight ahead of her. She figured she could do some tricks without her handler noticing, right? They weren’t against regulations, codes, or even protocols! Of course, first she had to sit through a whole lotta boring shit, but soon she was in the final stages of takeoff, wearing a fresh set of light pilot’s armor (which she didn’t like much, the specific shape and size requirements meant it didn’t have much clearance for her breasticles) she carefully maneuvered to the launch tube, a half kilometer long apparatus to ferry her directly out of the bowels of the cruiser.

After a thankfully brief conversation with her flight handler, seriously, what kind of name was Dave? It was a dumb name, in Ether’s (un)professional opinion. Though as soon as she made it to the training base’s local, she’d probably never have to hear him again. Hopefully her new handler won’t be as nasally. Or have a big stick up their bum.

“Oh~ Fell.” she groaned as she stretched herself out in the pilot’s seat, at least as much as the armor would allow. It was going to be a few cycles before she reached the intergalactic gate system, so she might as well switch on some entertainment. “But what to watch… or listen…. Or read….” she mused to herself. After a moment, she elected to listen to some tunes from Ancient Terra, barbarians though they were, they still made some pretty good music. One of her favorite bands was ABBA, so she set it to shuffle and prepared to single along in that silly unintelligible language of theirs. Well, it wasn’t unintelligible, she had learned a few of the dialects, ‘English’, ‘German’, ‘Russian, and ‘Japanese’. She thought it was hilarious that they thought such small differences could make different languages.

So she sang, for hours, swapping to other species’ music after a while, she did like Classical and the Classicals: The Classic Classics. Though the name didn’t translate well. Nor did the lyrics, but they did sound nice in the original tongue.

Soon she got to one of her favorites, one from Ancient Terra, that people said fits her. She supposed she could see that, “~I may be dancing on my own, but I’m dancing and smiling and dreaming still.~” She didn’t really smile all that often, or like at all, though she did do some dancing and she was often alone. The dreams…. She didn’t want to think about those. “~I’m gonna face this fight alone, across the sea, I climb that hill.” Yeah she was a loner, then again, not many could blame her when statistically, she had a 100% chance of any friend she made dying. And she fought, it’s really most of everything she lived for now. “~Waiting for shooting stars to light the darkest night, making a wish to win the hardest fight.~” Shooting stars were what most species ended up calling signs of battle in orbit, planetary bombardments, drop ships, and inter ship battles all made light shows similar to a meteor shower.

She didn’t hear the buzzing of her comms, being far too wrapped up in her song. On the third buzz her music cut out, and her ears were instead filled with the grating voice of Dave.

“Third-Rank, you should know better than to listen to your music so loud, even safe space can hide the swarm in it.”

“I’m keeping an eye on the sensors, Fourth-Rank.” Ether knew regulations, and while she was toeing the line, she was still following the rules. Dave just liked to be boring. What was he calling her for anyways?

“There is a blackout on long range sensors near your route, Fifth-Rank Commander Ustin has requested you swing past it and drops some probes to scan the sector.”

“Yeah, sure, I’ll update the nav computer.” Dave didn’t stick around, flight handlers were busy people after all. Though this detour would just make the trip take an extra cycle. It would still be boring. She tugged off her helmet, letting her short rusty red hair poof out, the little bits of silver dye giving her a fairly unique look. Not many people in the Empire desired to augment their appearance. Ether only did it because ‘it looks bitchin’.

Of course, she was interested in all the gadgets and gizmos that the Uber Falcon had on it, this thing was very rarely used, with good reason. Transporting a nuclear forge was nerve wracking at the best of times, and this thing only had a couple meters of duraplate alloy between it and any attacks. Though more interestingly, Ether found a chair that had a whoopie-cushion subroutine on it, the deck speakers playing a fart noise when you sat on it. Ether wondered what the story behind that one was.

There were a few other less memorable quirks of the people who used to operate the craft, little nicks and dents, a log that showed a small crew drunk off their asses singing and dancing. The ship was practically their home, from the looks of it. They were like a big old family, the ten of them. But, if this ship had such sentimental value to them, where were they? Ether’s mood soured, as she realized they probably didn’t survive the battle. All this happiness, this comradery, all this love just gone! It reminded her of why she had joined the military in the first place, the reason she kept demanding to be allowed back on active duty despite having only just woken up in the medbay. She didn’t want anyone else to lose their family as she had.

She shook herself from her funk, it was entirely possible that the entire crew simply got reassigned. Or retired or something. Maybe they had just been injured and were sleeping it off in biostasis. As long as you made it into the pod before your brain cells died, you’d be totally fine. Ether had been through biostasis so many times she’d lost count. She went to check her Heads Up Display for her stats when she remembered she had left her helmet in the pilot’s den. She huffed, and began to head back to the cockpit. She was pretty sure she’d been through at least three thousand biostasis pods, but she wasn’t really sure what the exact number was. She could easily remember each time, but the numbers escaped her. She grabbed a simple visor with a basic Heads Up Display to keep her aware of any potential dangers, and went back to investigating the innards of the Uber Falcon.

She eventually finished exploring the craft, it was capable of holding a thousand people in a pinch, but most of the time they only crewed it with ten and moved groups of a hundred soldiers. Though a regular Falcon generally had a crew of five and could carry a squad of twenty five comfortably. Or as comfortably as a troop transport can get anyways. She settled into the pilot’s chair just in time for an alert to tell her that the anomaly was drawing close, and the scanners were still unable to tell what the fell was going on. She activated the panorama view and… what the fell?

It was like the intergalactic relay system, but… instead of seeing the stars on the other side it simply faded to black, and small asteroids were being drawn into the gaping maw. It was… she wasn’t really sure what the fell was going on. The scanners finally managed to get their little metal butts in gear and recorded every little bit of information they could on the strange anomaly. The scanners also scanned the asteroids to see if there was any pattern, but aside from one being highlighted with a ‘danger’ warning before it disappeared into the black, nothing came up. She decided to call it in, despite not wanting to talk to-

“What do you need Third-Rank?” that bore. She swore that he was part Proto-Human.

“Listen, you should take a look at this, scanners are getting it, but I can’t figure out what the fell this thing is.”

“...” Dave was silent as he reviewed the footage, “What did you do to the camera?”

“Hey this is all legit! I haven’t done anything to the equipment and furthermore I’m tired of you always-” suddenly there was a massive tremor and the ship veered off course, the pulse engines low hum became a desperate whine as they tried to push the ship back to its course, but they couldn’t overcome the faint glow that surrounded the craft.

Ether’s instincts went into overdrive. Threat? Unknown. Solution? Fighting not possible. Escape. She dashed for the closest pod and yanked open the door, but as she entered the small chamber, the Falcon passed the threshold of the anomaly.

Ether had been shot, stabbed, sliced, diced, dipped in acid, had acid sprayed over her, been partly disemboweled, and tortured many, many times. What she felt right now was worse than any pain she’d even been conscious for. She felt colors burning her insides, her entire dermal layer was being pinched all at once and tugged in strange, unnatural directions. Every bone in her body felt like putty and her muscles felt like they were being put through a taffy machine. Her fingers felt like she had left them in a vat of acid overnight and her organs squished and stretched in ways they were never meant to.

She screamed, and the escape pod sealed itself, the stupid pseudo-intellect controlling it determining that it should launch. It spiralled away from the ship, which continued trying to find its old path, and failed miserably as it drifted down to the planet below…

Deep in the Everfree, a power watched the world with some twisted bastardization of satisfaction. It had molded the world to be perfect in almost every way, the great powers were locked away, pacified, or maintaining the status quo. But it knew it had to expand, that itch its late creators had put into it continued to grow. It noticed the blue power beginning another show of force turned entertainment. Then one of the creators came through the hole. The power reacted swiftly, the magic interfering with the metal box’s internal systems. A huge amount of power, of similar scale to the Everfree Power’s own, was nearly released into the upper atmosphere. To combat this it needed to shunt the power somewhere safe, somewhere stable. It took the creator who was pulled in with the power and remade it, wiping the mind clear and molding the body into that of a pony’s, it was content to leave most of the unique parts of the creator in the pony, it needed something special about it. Though the power would need a powerful pony, only an alicorn would do, but you can’t just make an alicorn willy nilly, it needs to be the alicorn of something, and the power found a role to fill. Now that it was able to store energy, the power moved the unintelligent lesser power into its body, saving the world from nuclear winter. But the power wasn’t quite done yet, the newly minted pony would need an anchor, something that would allow it to mesh into Equestrian society without going insane. It took a false string of fate, to fool the magic that controlled destiny, and tied it to the new pony. It searched for a likely candidate, and found one. A little filly, her family was in shambles, her mother and aunt caring for her best they could. It tied off the other end, and the natural strings of fate took over, faint fibers tying the new pony to many old ones. Had the power been able, it would have smiled. Soon, even the creators would see what it could do.

“Hey everypony, the show is starting!” Sweetie Belle called out. The ponies of Ponyville gathered to watch the centennial meteor shower. They were awed by the spectacle, and watched with rapt attention, but none noticed the lone meteor that seemed to slow down before continuing towards the ground at a caring pace.

Thrust into the great unknown and without greater artificial intelligences telling it what to do, the basic controlling AI of the transport craft did all it could do;

>>Uber Falcon common self check

>>Systems check: All green, missing (1)escape craft

>>Error: Power lost to Nuclear Forge

>>No pilot found; entering lockdown.

>>Landing on unknown planet surface; activating distress beacon

And so it silently settled into the Everfree, waiting for orders that would never come.

But meanwhile the escape pod faced a more complicated dilemma,

>>Life support extension program analysis complete.

>>Unable to contact Nexus Network

>>Unable to contact Local Comms Network

>>Unable to contact Logistics Emergency Network

>>Attempting ping [any communications system]…….timed out [3 universal cycles]

>>Medical facilities needed

>>Attempting to locate….

>>WARNING: (10) universal cycles [1.16 local cycles] with no contact, greatest survival option; land on planet.

>>Entering atmosphere….

The pod began to descend towards the ground, its computer working overtime to maximize its charge’s chances of survival.

>>Locating probable medical facilities….

>>Healthcare symbol identified near landing zone; proceeding to target nearby clearing..

What was formerly a peaceful night, except for those who lived in a certain library, was ruined by a large cylinder falling from the sky. Many of the ponies who were nearby fled in terror. However the hospital staff hesitantly came out to see if anypony had been injured by the object. When they came closer to it a hissing filled the air before the cylinder opened, revealing a shocking sight.

“Oh sweet Celestia!”

“Is that a filly!?”

“Somepony get her to the trauma ward immediately!”

Ether sat at the table with her meal, as her old friend munched on a raw caspa, some weird fruit they grew by the billions in her system. She glanced out one of the satellite’s observation screens towards the planet, wondering what her family was up to.

“So have you considered my offer yet?” The man asked between bites of the purple fruit.

“I have, but I don’t think I’ll join the Empire’s military for a while yet, I want to stay with my family, watch the rest of my siblings grow up, ya know?”

“It’s understandable, but we really need more soldiers for this sector, the swarm is only getting more aggressive. You know how hard it can be to root them out.” He tossed the caspa’s husk over his shoulder, bouncing it off a guard’s head and into a trash collector. “And I do have to offer, since you’ve just turned eighteen. They let you take a vacation if someone joins because of you.” he joked, there was no such deal, you were free to leave whenever, permanently, or just for a break.

“I know… but I don’t think it’s the life for me. At least, not yet.” She eyed the food on her plate warily, she wondered if she could get away with just tossing it and getting a flavor strip instead.

“It isn’t for everyone, but remember, you could be keeping your family safe.” He pressed on.

“Look, maybe after my little sisters and brother grow up, but family is too important to me right now,” she said sternly.

“Okay, okay.” He holds up his hands in surrender, “I won’t pressure you anymore, I hope you and your family do well. How’s your older sister doing by the way?”

“Oh she’s been waffling on whether or not to settle down and become a ‘housewife’ or whatever it is the Proto’s call ‘em, I keep telling her that she doesn’t need to do that, but I guess she places a lot of value on her heritage.”

“Oh they’re a strange bunch all right, I’m still surprised your mother tried to make it work with one, it takes a braver person than I to try.”

“Yeah, I just wish I could teach that scumbag a lesson for breaking her heart. If they let me know where he was I’d-”

Ether is cut off by a loud alarm ringing through the station.

“ATTENTION ALL PERSONNEL, WE HAVE INCOMING SWARM SIGNATURES! THIS IS NOT A DRILL. REPEAT, THIS IS NOT A DRILL. ALL COMBAT PERSONNEL TO COMBAT STATIONS, 3 MINUTES UNTIL CONTACT.”

“Oh no, no! Please let them be okay!!” Ether jumped up and tried to run to her shuttle, but is stopped by the guards.

“Miss, it’s not safe for you to leave the station! Please go to one of the safe rooms!”

“Like there’s a chance that even the Fell could keep me away from my family!” She says as she struggles in the guard’s grip.

“Miss, you’ll only make it harder for the ground troops to protect them if you leave now, please go to one of the safe rooms.” The guard tells her, firmly guiding her towards a safe room. Ether slumps in defeat, and glumly watches a screen in the saferoom with other panicky civilians. She chokes back a sob as she see the swarm make landfall, and slowly begin to spread across the planet’s surface.

“No…” she sobbed.

Nurse Redheart had rushed into the room when she heard the heart monitor start picking up speed, only to find the filly dreaming or rather, having a nightmare. But there wasn’t really anything she could do about it, so she had done some checks to make sure the foal was healthy and not about to die at random, and once she was done the BPM had gone back to normal. It was pretty obvious that she had been having a nightmare. After casting one last worried glance to the sleeping filly, she made her way back to the staff room. She began to pour herself some coffee, and went to sit at one of the unoccupied tables, not many were in this early in the morning, since the amount of ponies who stayed overnight was laughably small. It was mostly the town’s children going in and out with little cuts, scrapes, and bruises. Though she prefered it to having to desperately care for many patients. Healthy ponies were better than the alternative.

She went to take a drink from her cup, when one of the heart monitors called out a flatline. She dropped the cup as she ran to the room she had just left, only to find the filly inside poking the sensor pad curiously. She was mumbling to herself, but Redheart couldn’t understand a word of it.

As soon as she entered the room, the filly’s attention snapped to her, and her face rapidly went through several emotions. Redheart had been about to chastise the filly for taking off the sensors, but the first emotion she showed gave her pause.

It was fear. What could make a filly be so afraid of her? The rest of the emotions were harder to place, but she soon settled on a neutral expression.

“Eellee, ...Fren pelus tuli?” the filly spoke hesitantly. When Redheart showed no signs of comprehension, the foal sighed and spoke again. “Beelu! Grasa famu?” the cycle repeated a few times, Redheart was too stunned to say anything, and the filly grew more and more irate. “Uttu imper desa un langasa!”

Redheart finally managed to stutter out “W-what?”

Upon hearing the nurse speak, the foal adopted a thoughtful expression, before speaking. “Hello! Who are you?” she had a faint, unplaceable accent.

“My name is Nurse Redheart, and what’s your name?”

“Tre-Laka Eb-” she pauses before resuming in equish, “My name is Ether E. L. Bloom.” she glanced at the heart monitor’s sensors she had in her hoof, “What are these things?”

“Those are the sensors for the magickcardiogram.” Redheart walked to the bed and took them from… she said her name was Ethereal? “You shouldn’t take those off, if you do we’ll have to restrain you.”

There was a sharp intake of breath at the word ‘restrain’. “Right I won’t touch them! I’m sorry! Mekka don supulu!”

Redheart glanced at Ethereal, who seemed to be shaking a little, “It’ll be fine as long as you don’t mess with them again. And if you behave yourself I might be able to sneak you some extra jello from the cafeteria.” Ethereal’s eyes lit up at the word ‘jello’ but she fought desperately to keep her enthusiasm for the snack to show. She failed. Then she looked a bit frustrated. Redheart honestly had no idea what was going through her head at that moment.

At about this point, an awkward silence might have formed, had Twilight Sparkle not burst into the room. Redheart saw she was looking very frazzled, muttering something about ‘magic kindergarten’.

“Nurse! Is she awake?!”

“Yes Twilight, but she’s only just woken up so she may not be up to visitors just yet.”

“But it’s imperative that I help her! She’s a princess!” Twilight insisted.

“Why don’t we ask her what she thinks.” Redheart compromised. They both looked towards Ethereal, who was eyeing Twilight critically.

“I think you need to increase security around the mental ward.” she said flatly. Redheart suppressed the urge to laugh, and three more hairs came out of place in Twilight’s mane. Twilight then seemed to compose herself a little bit before pulling a book out of her saddlebags.

“Look, princess, I can cast a spell to regrow all your fur, and your feathers. That would be good right?!” She showed the spellbook to Ethereal, who skimmed the page before nodding cautiously.

“Exin sel- Excuse me. Yes, that does sound good. But what does that entail-” she was cut off by Twilight’s magic picking her up, and the spell taking hold. “Hey now, I wanted to ask-” she was cut off again as she started squirming in Twilight’s magical grip. “Opsuni! Opsuni oset ofas otemular! That itches like a mother of intercourse!”

The spell took no longer to complete than it did for Ethereal to haphazardly swear in two languages, or at least, that was Redheart's assumption.

Ethereal was fuming, there was practically steam coming out of her ears, “You absolute-! You don’t do things to people without their explicit consent!”

“But you said-” Twilight’s ears had folded back, no expecting the reaction.

“I expressed an interest in the procedure but I didn’t agree! I wanted to know what the side effects where and what it would entail, you just assumed I would be fine with it! Even though I don’t mind the itching that much, simply assuming that I would agree is irresponsible!” she wasn’t just fuming, she was absolutely livid, but before she could continue ripping Twilight a new one, Redheart decided to step in.

“Ethereal, go easy on Twilight, she’s just a bit over eager. I’m sure she won’t make the same mistake again, right?” Twilight nodded quickly.

Ethereal huffed, “Fine, I know her type, and I’ll let it slide this time.” she glanced down at her new coat, “at least I’ll be warmer now.” her eyes flicked up to her mane. “Why does my hair look so stupid.”

Ethereal’s reaction to her mane confused the two older ponies, after all, many fillies would have squealed in delight at having a sparkly mane like hers. It was a pale blue, with lots of sparkles in it, while her coat and feathers were a dark forest green. She didn’t have her cutie mark yet either.

“Seriously it’s like someone dumped a bucket of glitter on it.” she batted at the mess of mane that was hanging over her eyes, nearly totally concealing her horn. Her wings were twitching slightly, as were her legs. Actually, when Redheart looked closer, every one of Ethereal’s joints were moving, even if they were only doing it a little. It wasn’t like shivering, it looked more intentional. However, all motion ceased when a look of realization flashed across her face. “What did you say about ‘princess’?”

Twilight swallowed nervously, “Well, as an alicorn, you’re a princess of Equestria.”

“No I’m not.” Ethereal replied as she frowned

“What? Yes you are!”

Ethereal’s frown deepened, “No, I’m not. I’m not even a citizen of whatever backwater state you have going on here.”

Twilight’s mane frayed a little more, “Backwater?!” Ethereal clammed up, but Twilight wasn’t done yet, “I’ll have you know that Equestria is the most powerful nation on Equus! Anypony could tell you that! And our other princesses move the sun and the moon, how could anything else even compare?”

Ethereal bit her lip, but looked like she really wanted to reply. Redheart decided to step in though, “Twilight, why don’t you let Ethereal get some rest, she did fall out of the sky just a couple days ago.”

Twilight looked like she had walking in on her parents’ happy time, “I’m so sorry princess I just couldn’t bear to have-” was as far as she got before Redheart shoved her hoof into her mouth and dragged her out of the room.

Ether thought of herself as a normal Ur-human, she was not quick to annoy, angry, sadden, or what have you. Which made the most recent encounter with ‘Frazzled Purple’ all the more concerning. Why had she given away so many hints to her extra-terrestrial status? If they knew about the entire planet’s species and nations, she’d be in some hot water. Not to mention she’d broken a regulation. Not bent, or kinda sorta pushed at, but actually full on gone against a regulation. She’d even been thinking about it. She broke it willfully, and with full knowledge, which scared her, she shouldn’t be able to break rules like that. And she was worried about being scared, things aren’t scary unless they can physically kill you. Right?

Man what was she going to do? Technically, she wouldn’t be punished, rules were just there to keep you safe after all, Ur-humans never needed to be told to be nice to each other. It wasn’t really that bad, to the rest of the Empire at least, that she had broken a rule. But the fact she was able to disregard a rule was what was worrying her. She didn’t see a reason for it, she had just be feeling so-

Feeling what exactly? It was an emotion she hadn’t felt before. It didn’t feel the same when she remembered it. Like it was… less?

“What in the name of the Fey Mother is happening to me? What did that bio-molding do to me?!”

She had been… sort of angry but not. She had been angry a few times in her life, but this was so… stupid to get upset over. She just didn’t know! She articulated her feelings with an exasperated groan. It lasted forty-five seconds, a bit long for her tastes, but she was really not happy, and prematurely ending a sigh was just rude. At least among the Lecorix, one of which had been Ether’s friend for a while, before being exploded, along with the rest of her loved ones.

Now she felt a weird kind of sad. Not quite like when she lost everyone, nor when she first came to the space station they lived at, when she had been at risk of… she had been in a real bad way. But holy fey, all these new emotions were just so fucking confusing. All these dammed emotions. Eventually, she elected to put the emotions on the backburner, so she could decide how to proceed with the camo protocols.

“In the event that you are able to pass as one of the natives, you are to stay hidden and unassuming, and to minimize your impact on the local flow of events.” she quoted in her native tongue. None of the natives seemed to know Empire Standard, so they wouldn’t know what she was thinking about. Though thinking out loud was an unfortunate side effect of her species’ inability to easily remember their own thoughts, while being able to recall the physical events of their life with perfect clarity. “So I assume I’m a child, since both of those natives were larger than I am, whoever bio-molded me has an unknown endgame, so I should be cautious. The natives seemed to have adapted my name into one that fits with their naming scheme, so I should call myself ~Ethereal Bloom~ in order to prevent any unfortunate slip ups. I am ~Ethereal Bloom~.” strangely, the words left a bad taste in her mouth, but it passed before she could ponder it. “I still need more information, my ‘limb calibration’ exercises have shown that all my new limbs are seamlessly integrated with my neuromap, so the psycho-manipulative abilities the horned native possessed should be available to me as well.”

She wondered how to use her horn to do things, she assumed it was the responsible appendage, since it lit up when it put her through that Fey forsaken itching. She focused on her horn, but it remained inert. Which… frustrated her? Was this what proper frustration felt like? Man she did not envy Inter-Species Physcology Experts, those poor bastards gained a similar range of emotions to most species on completion of their training. Wait, if she was even able to feel envy, she wouldn’t be able to envy ISPEs, since you’d need to be able to feel emotions like they do in order to envy-

She had a headache. Ur-humans did not get headaches!

“Am I even still myself? If I’ve been changed not only in body, but also in mind into this… pony. Am I still Third-Rank Ether of the Legion? Is she dead and I am a facsimile with her emotions? Who would take someone and rewire their head like that?!” she was going crazy! There was just too much to think about and these new emotions kept drawing her attention and she-

She felt surprisingly tired.

Alone.

Arm hurts. Can’t hear battle net. Comms? Arm doesn’t hurt anymore.

Light headed, blood loss or head injury?

Dark.

Not light headed, why did she think she had been?

Ether was barely conscious, but she realized she should turn on the distress beacon, then she could rest again. Her arm reached out to where the button should be but it hit something smooth.

She opened her eyes to get a better grip on what was going on. She saw a medibay, she was in a biostasis pod. Oh they must have just finished patching her up. Surprising amounts of clarity flooded into her, and the glass cover to the biostasis unit opened as a medic came over.

“Are you ok Fifth-Rank?” he asked.

“I’m just a Fourth-Rank.” she replied.

“Ah, you were promoted to Fifth-Rank Long Range Specialist after the battle, you’re also eligible to join the Legion or the Storms now.” he explained, though he looked decidedly uncomfortable.

“I bet you’re an ISPE, you look all emotional.”

“Well, you were… one of twenty survivors of the attack on Mechaliz Station, n-none of the civilians made it.”

It took a moment for the news to sink in, “You mean my friends-”

“I’m so, so, sorry.”

Ether couldn’t form any words after that, she began sobbing into the medic’s shoulder, she was absolutely devastated. She had finally started to open up, to reconnect with people, and what happened?! The same thing that always happened! They died because she couldn’t help herself.

Never again.

Never. Again.

Author's Notes:

I'm sort of head cannoning Ether's voice as the singer from the song.