Legate Chuckles

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” the Legate purred. The powerful zebra stood with a hoof on Goldenblood’s spine. The ghoul’s limbs were missing, but he felt only a dull discomfort from each of the broken stubs. “This world should die with a roar. Not a whimper. I’m so glad you’ve managed to give me an invigorating fight. It wouldn’t have been fitting had you all simply submitted to the inevitable.”

“So glad our battle could entertain you,” Goldenblood rasped under the crushing hoof.

“Oh, you don’t understand. It’s not the fighting I’m savoring. It’s the despair. Truly nothing is more precious than the utter abandonment of hope. I pray we’ll be able to hear the wailing all the way up here,” the Legate chuckled, then paused and asked, “Have you given up hope, Goldenblood?”

“Blackjack will stop you,” he swore.

“Oh?” The Legate sounded amused.

“Nothing has stopped her. Nothing will stop her. She cannot give up,” Goldenblood answered, and then the hoof twisted, making something in his body crack. “You should know. Your own prophecy says that she will defeat this city.”

“Yes… prophecy…” the Legate purred. “I’m honestly not sure myself if the prophecy of the Maiden of the Stars is true. Oh, it was unquestionably useful. It kept my own superstitious people aligned and allied. Earned me respect and cooperation. But is it true? A Maiden of the Stars, coming down to destroy this heart of sin? Did I predict it, or simply construct a convenient lie?”

Suddenly, the hoof on Goldenblood’s back lifted and wrapped around his neck. He hauled Goldenblood into the air, turning his face towards the east. “What do you think?” the Legate hissed into his ear.

There was the pale image of the moon, faint in the daytime sky, and next to it a brilliant blue star. At first barely visible, it gleamed as it grew brighter and brighter. “She failed,” Goldenblood whispered. “She failed to stop my creation.”

“Indeed,” the Legate laughed. “The Eater will catch it as it falls into the well we’ve carved into the earth.” He gestured to the Core. “The moonstone will be slowed by the friction and caught in our web, leaving the spirit easily digestible. Food, in all forms, comes down to the preparation.”

The blue glow grew and grew. Goldenblood watched the eager grin on the Legate’s face for several minutes. Then the zebra’s eyes narrowed in concern. “What is happening? Something is wrong! It should be slowing in the atmosphere already! Dropping into–”

The blue spot grew brighter and brighter in the sky but then streaked overhead and disappeared out of sight behind the eastern mountains. The Legate grabbed Goldenblood by the head and turned him, squeezing his skull as he demanded, “What did you do? The moonstone was supposed to embed itself!”

Goldenblood smirked as the Legate stared at him, then the sky, then at him, and then up at the sun. The Legate’s grip relaxed a little. “Oh, clever pony. The trajectory loops. I thought it’d be a straight path.”

“Of course,” Goldenblood rasped. “Trottenheimer worked out the math. I thought it was supposed to be a straight line too at first.”

“I see. So it will orbit the world, then the sun… the moon… Oh, he was a clever pony,” the Legate hissed.

“Yes. And wise as well,” Goldenblood answered. A moment later he added, “You worked all that out quite quickly, just from seeing it once? It took me an hour with charts after I was told.”

He reached up and tapped the blood-red rings that decorated his face. “My people have a special relationship with celestial bodies. Ages in the past, my tribe were oracles and prophets, though the stars are not always straightforward with their knowledge, or favors.” He stretched a hoof towards the skies. “With every pass of the sun and moon, the spirit will grow more powerful. The stone will increase velocity with each pass. Maybe poor dying Equus might lend some power, too. The kinetic and spiritual energy will build until the final trajectory will bring it…” The Legate paused, lowering his forehoof.

“Straight down. With a velocity far higher than that of a straight shot,” Goldenblood finished. Then he asked, “Is that despair you’re feeling?”

The Legate threw him aside, glaring at the spot where Tom had disappeared over the western horizon. “Finishing off this pathetic world shouldn’t be this difficult,” he muttered, his eyes narrowing. “I’m not beaten yet. I still have one last contingency.” He glanced over at Goldenblood, and his confidence returned. “After all, I couldn’t be sure that Cognitum would succeed.”

“What are you going to do?” Goldenblood asked.

“What any good leader does at times like this,” he said as he gazed back out at the Core. “Get help.” I waited for him to elaborate, but all he did was look down at the Core and smile. Was it me, or did the distant tempo of the fighting and screams increase?

Goldenblood didn’t answer for several seconds. “You won’t succeed. Somepony will stop you.”

“The last refuge of the powerless.” The Legate chuckled. “Well, perhaps. Perhaps your alicorns will rescue you. Perhaps, somehow, Horizons will fail, and my plan will be thwarted. But none of you have the capability to defeat me. And I will try again and again until the end of time. Even if I have to kill every living being with my own hooves.”

PH Chapter 75:
https://www.fimfiction.net/story/208056/76/fallout-equestria-project-horizons/chapter-75-to-the-last-part-1