War. War never changes.
The diarchy of Equestria, previously the monarchy of Equestria, stands at its height, living in an eternal golden age. Guided by divinity, and content in its prosperity, its citizens often lead their lives pleasantly, with few cataclysms beyond the magnitude of a missed lunch with compatriots. It is a nation considered by many to be the definition of peace and harmony.
Meanwhile, from the ashes of atomic hellfire, a very different sort of nation rises. The United Mojave Republic, born in the blaze of battle, rose to power not under the influence of neighboring nations, nor by the illusory hand of its mysterious longtime owner, but instead by a simple courier, driven by both a desire for vengeance and a hope for peace. The UMR, however, is far from safe; danger lurks in every shadow, and very few citizens sleep without a gun in their hand and one eye open. Nevertheless, it moves towards a peace born of strength and survival.
Two nations, one long swaddled in harmony, the other still crawling out of endless chaos, are set on a collision course with one another; although neither one realizes it, things are about to change greatly, for better and for worse. But war…
War never changes.
~/~/~/~
"KLEIN!"
Doctor Klein, head researcher of the Big Mountain facility and former human being, rotated his chassis, pointing his optical receptors to the massive screen dominating the room. "How may I be of service, sir?" he boomed, feigning some sort of innocence.
The figure depicted on the screen was not a happy one, his arms crossed. Wild black hair sat over a mismatched set of eyes that bore into the brain-in-a-jar, a human green opposite a cybernetic red. "You people have just two damn jobs up there. You give me new tech, and you fix the stuff that's broken. I'm willing to forgive the lack of the first one, but the last maintenance job I gave you left things completely nonfunctional!"
"I assure you, sir," Klein began, treading carefully, "that we kept Dr. 0 as far away from your 'Archimedes' device as possible. There should be no problem with the instrument. Perhaps it is a result of those biologically imperfect claws of yours."
In what seemed like an impossible event, the figure looked angrier. "My hands work damn fine, Klein. Besides, the piece of junk is in space; hard to mangle software coding that you beamed up there."
Doctor 0 (pronounced "zero," as he frequently insists on) floated into view. "Well, sir, if I may give input that doesn't come from a loudmouthed hypocrite-" he angled his receptors accusingly at Klein with this comment- "there should be a mild recalibration needed for the targeting device."
The human stared for a moment "English, please."
0 sighed. "Find the safety switch on the device you point with, and flick it on and off."
With a roll of his eyes, the human produced said device, a small toy-like blaster of sorts, and fiddled with the side panel. Upon a small clik, Euclid's C-Finder hummed with new life. At this, the Courier grinned, the scar along his cheek distorting as he did so.
"Excellent," he chuckled. "I'll be over shortly to discuss way to implement this little devil. I want a bigger stick to wave around, and this has the benefit of not leaving any nasty radiation."
Klein chose then to interject. "We are going to discourage traveling via the Transportalponder when you have your targeting device on your person. The new coding may cause an adverse reaction to traveling through the void between time and space."
At this, the Courier simply rolled his eyes. "I'm a big boy, Klein, and I've done far more dangerous things as nothing but favors to you. I'm going."
Before either of the doctors could interject- indeed, before any of the other doctors had a chance to say hello- the human stepped out onto his balcony, pausing as though to admire the view from his penthouse apartment. With that done, he unholstered his Transportalponder, angled it at the sky, and pulled the trigger.
At that moment, the feed to the television screen was cut short.
"…All in favor of assigning blame to Doctor 0?"
The other doctors all chimed in the affirmative, with some variation of breathy coos, obnoxious shouting, and coding.
"I hate all of you."
~/~/~/~
Princess Celestia would have given just about anything to get out of her throne room. While she loved her subjects dearly, and the Sun Court was a millennia-old tradition, any reverence she held for the court personally was lost the moment one of the aristocrats found something bothersome to complain about.
"-and quite frankly, the job they did in the hedge maze was absolutely horrendous!" Upper Crust exclaimed, gesticulating wildly. "The landscapers should refund any and all jobs they've done in the city of Canterlot and go live in Appleoosa or something, where it doesn't matter that everything is ugly!"
The Princess of the Sun composed herself, then looked to address the mare. "While I understand your concerns about keeping up appearances, I‒"
There was a deafening sound as the throne room erupted with light. Those gathered gave out cries of alarm and fright; Celestia, on the other hand, glanced upwards. She detected a sudden pulse of conjuring magic, and observed as a strange figure fell from the source of the magic.
The being landed with a resounding crash, actually seeming to fracture the marble flooring before the steps to the throne. Almost immediately, the nobleponies and assorted commoners fled the room, while the Royal Guards surrounded the alien figure.
Celestia moved from her throne, making her way towards the creature. As the guards parted for her, she saw the crumpled, bipedal form that had caused such a ruckus. It wore a sort of belt around its waist, equipped with devices unknown to the Princess; what she did recognize, however, was the knife apparently strapped to the creature's leg. Better safe than sorry, she rationalized.
"Have the creature treated and examined, and confiscate whatever it has with it. Place it in one of the nicer cells when you're done, and alert me if it awakes." The guards nodded, the unicorns working to float the large form out of the throne room.
As the guards exited the room, Celestia let out a sigh. Mysterious creatures falling from nowhere, she mused. I suppose it's been about a century or so since such a thi‒
The princess was interrupted by the burst of green fire in her peripheral vision. She turned, instinctively taking hold of the scroll with her magic and opening the letter.
Dear Princess Celestia,
I write to inform you that there has been a large disturbance in the town of Ponyville; more specifically, the area outside Ponyville. Within and along the edge of the Everfree Forest, a large clearing has apparently appeared. There are massive walls surrounding the area, and towers of what appear to be steel, brick, and glass within the boundary. Please respond at your soonest convenience, and inform us as to your plan for this situation.
Your Faithful Student,
Twilight Sparkle
Well, Celestia thought to herself, drawing up her own pen and scroll, she certainly chose something to finally write a letter about. This may prove interesting…
~/~/~/~
Rover awoke to the sounds of battle; something different than usual, however, was the fact that there was a lot more screaming than usual.
And it was in the caves.
The Diamond Dog was up and out of his makeshift bed, green eyes darting. Exiting the barracks, he spied a small group of mutts fleeing down the cavernous hallway. With a growl, he gripped one of them by the collar. "What's attacking?" he snarled. "Why do stupid mutts run?"
The mongrel's eyes were wide with terror, even visible under its helmet. "Monsters from Everfree! Kill everything near them! Can't fight!"
The larger dog growled, throwing the mutt down the path it came from. "You will fight! And you will like it! Now, where are Spot and Fido?"
"Dead," the mutt whined, picking itself up as it looked about frantically, "all dead! Monsters got everything!"
Rover was growing angrier with every new piece of information. "Get it back, then! Kill monsters and get it b-"
A roar tore through the hallway, echoing on all sides. Both Diamond Dogs froze at the noise, the mongrel far more shaken than Rover. "Found us," the mongrel whined. "Found us, want to kill us, want to eat-"
A blur tore in from the side, removing the mongrel from Rover's view. He turned, just to see a towering reptilian form bury its massive claws into the mutt's body. Its jaws tore a ragged chunk of flesh out of his throat, silencing any further cries. The monster turned to face Rover, blank eyes staring him down as it chewed on the raw flesh.
Rover backed away, cold terror flooding his veins and understanding threatening to paralyze his limbs. He found himself stopped, however, when he bumped into a large, scaly mass.
The Diamond Dog looked up, realized what horrid fate awaited him, and screamed. As with the other Dogs before him, it didn't last long.
~/~/~/~
